 mute people with the ability to unmute yourselves. I'll start a video. If you've got a video, please feel free to put it up. We'd like to see who you are, who we are. So tonight is Monday, October 19th, 2020. More time to select board and we're meeting tonight. Zoom. And if we have, well, pardon me, we do have a change, a change to the agenda at 645. Shane was going to be in for animal control and he is unable to make it tonight. So Callie, if you could put him on the agenda for the I already set it up with him for the second at seven o'clock, that would be good. Thank you. Otherwise, now we're going to move right into public comments. So there's a few people here in the line. I don't recognize. There was a Mr. Italiano, he was the first guest or someone I didn't recognize. So I can unmute yourself. Are you here for public comments, sir? Anthony. I don't see him anymore. MRVP. Okay. All right. So why don't, Emily Wood, are you here for public comment? No, I'm not here for public comment. I am a library trustee sitting in. Okay. Thank you for coming to the meeting tonight. And Stefan, how about you? Just listening in. How was your day out on the roads? It was a lucky day. We were expecting some rain and we didn't get it till after we left for the day. All right. All right. So then will, if there's anyone, if there's anyone not certainly that wants to speak to her in public comment, come off mute and you certainly have the floor. All right, Neil, you're all set right now. I guess so. Yeah, I think so, Tom. Is our Kristen and or Lisa on? I think Lisa, I think I saw her get on and I know Kristen plans on or at least on the agenda. So I think there is Lisa and so as long as we at least have one person and she's here, we can go ahead and fact Lisa, do you know if Kristen's gonna be joining? I believe she is. Yeah, she texted me so I think she's planning on 615. Okay, so we'll wait and go to the agenda at 615 with that. Until then, why don't we go ahead and just skip down? So we're not sitting here in silence and we have a few minutes. So I'd like to talk about the truck, old business. And I've got information on the two trucks that we were looking at. So we had the freight liner from New Hampshire freight liner and we had the international from Clark's. And they came out very, very close. There was a difference of $3,932. So the quote from international was quote from a Western Star was 135, 579. And the international was 144,059. There was a difference of 39, 32 and I may have given you one of the incorrect numbers, but I know the difference is $3,932, the international being more expensive. Talking with the guys and they had an opportunity to try to drive and demo both trucks. They prefer the international and we do have an international in the fleet currently. And so I think I, in fact, I will recommend that we look at the truck from Clark's or not look at it, but by that one, if the voters approve, but looking for input from everyone on the line or the board members on the line. I'd say if the guys like the international best, that's the one we should go with. Yeah. And if it was, the question comes and the freight line, I think is a good truck. One of the things that really bothered me most with the guys talking about the freight liner is they said it had lack of power for them. And the mountains and the hills that they're plowing up. Otherwise, some of the other stuff that they didn't like from stereo and to some of the placements of things, I could kind of get over, but the power is something that they can. And also, I guess Rodney did talk about the seat and it would be his truck. So, but I think 4,000 we can probably say, all right, we'll do that for the guys. Gets much more than that. I would say we'd have to, if it was, we'd have to go a different direction. Ray, what's your thought? Yeah, no, I think the international makes a good truck. When you were reading the prices, Tom, you said freight liner, but then you said western star. I don't know. I'm sorry, yeah. The reason I, I'm sorry, Ray, the reason I said western star is the freight liner deal and also deals in western star in the top, his. Oh, okay. And I read it, it says western star. So that's, I meant freight liner. So yeah, so the top two international freight line and as you say, there's significant, the difference is I think something we can live with in, you know, in the national, if they build a better truck, I think we should go with it. Yeah. And we have, nice thing about it is, you know, sometimes they do swap out parts within the garage if something's down. So, you know, I think it's nice to keep it in the same, same manufacturer if we can. And I think this last one, I mean, we've gone away from international for a good reason, I think, and then came back with a new truck engine or whatever they did to it. And it seems to be working out well. So, I will go ahead. If someone wanted to make a motion to accept the proposal from Clark's Truck Center, I would, or I'm sorry, Callie, I didn't ask you what were your thoughts on that. I guess it kind of in dawn as well. Are there any other? I think the international is going to be fine. Now, is this the original truck that we were looking at or a different one? It is. Because I know there was potentially an issue with the first one. So I just wanted to make sure this one was going to be ready in time. That's the only hiccup possibly right there, Callie. And thank you for bringing that up. It is not the original truck that was sold, probably a few weeks, Rodney was called. But they, so what's happening is international has or Clark's has about 15 trucks that are at the body shop to get the bodies on in New York. And they're starting to put them on, they started this week. So they figured it would probably be between the end of October to mid-November before the truck would be available. I don't think that's too big a deal. No, no, that should be good. And I think, and he was, you know, worst case scenario with that. So I think, you know, I think we can make it work there. The one thing, it will be a different color. It will not be red. And there's four different colors to choose from. And, you know, quite frankly, I think a couple of years ago, Martin talked about potentially, you know, choosing different, a different color. And you know, I like it, actually each guy has their own or we have separate colors and it's easier for people to identify them if there's an issue. It's the blue truck or the red truck or the, you know, the white truck. So, and I've never, you know, I've seen a lot of different color trucks than red, plows, snow. So I know it works. Just with Rodney doing this side of the road, we also have Berlin and Berlin runs blue. So if you're looking for a difference in who's actually coming up on this side, then... That's a good, I thank you, Kelly, because blue was a choice. And then there's gray, you know, metallic gray, metallic green and some other color that, you know, I forgot what they called in that, you know, something awkward, something or whatever. But, you know, once, you know, the guys or one guy, Rodney can take a look and, you know, get it approved by us. But that will be secondary to making sure that everyone else is comfortable with the purchase. Don, what do you think? Come off, Newt, Don, we can hear you better. Anyhow, okay, here I am. Sorry about that. That's all right. I'll throw my vote in for green. I like the idea of a green truck. But all I was going to really ask was maybe I missed it when you were first launched into this was what, there was a whole thing about the trade in. Are they going to take this truck as a trade or what happened? Yes, they are. Oh, okay. They're giving us $44,547 for the truck. And does that compare pretty well to the other deal we were getting or right in the ballpark or something? Yeah, let me just make sure that thing was right. They came up with another rough. But we are getting a trade. Yeah, it is the $44,547.85 is what we're getting on the trade. Yeah, okay. All right. So now after getting everyone's input, thank you. May I get a motion to accept a proposal, please? I'll make the motion that we accept the proposal from Clark's Truck Center for the International. Thanks. Second. All right, thank you. Any further discussion on the issue? If none, all in favor vote aye. Aye. Aye. All right, and none opposed. Thank you, everyone. All right, so now we must be into, let me make sure to see if there's any one way. Yeah, so Kristen and Laura, I believe are waiting to be let in. Yeah, yeah. I don't know why it's not just admitting and letting them all in, but anyways. All right, let me just put this away. So we have Kristen and Lisa on the call or the meeting tonight. Thank you, ladies, for joining us. So if you want to go ahead, you guys can have the floor and let us know what's going on there. I think there was a meeting the other night. I didn't see. I did read the meeting notes that were posted. Thank you, Kristen, for doing that. I wish you had those. So Kristen or Lisa, however you guys want to do it, go ahead. You want to go ahead, Kristen? Sure. So I think that Lisa had sent you the agenda. Everybody can hear me OK? Just want to make sure. Yes, good. There had been a motion that I believe it was to start thinking about merging, doing talks through COVID. And I believe it was correct me if I'm wrong, Lisa, the merging either for the 22, 23 school year or later. Is that right? The original motion that didn't pass? Yeah, right. And then so that didn't pass. And then there was another motion to try to kind of decouple the conversation about merging the kids and what work needed to be done at the high school from the pre-K through 12 configuration plan. That motion failed as well. So the more motion that did get moved forward. Kristen, we can't hear you. For a sec, you're out. I can step in until that works again if you want. OK. Yeah, so the motion that ended up passing last week basically said that we're going to move forward with the implementation of the middle school merger, meaning just the seventh and eighth, all seventh and eighth years to cross the book for the school year 22, 23. So it would not be for this upcoming fall, but it would be for moving forward for the following school year. So that's not huge news. That's kind of continues us on the track that we've been going on, but it kind of re-inferms and a little bit more of an updated and official way that we're moving forward. And that's the track that the timeline that it seems to be most reasonable to move at. And like I've said before, I think that the school board is really viewing this kind of the whole pre-K through 12 plan now as breaking it into parts. So the middle school merger, specifically the seventh and eighth merger, certainly has the most support across the community. How much support that is, I'm not really sure. But they think that it's going to move easier to break it into parts and move that first. And then I think that the other parts will follow, in my opinion. There was talk about bond work as well, because there were several board members that brought up the issue of there's no funding in place to move those kids, accommodate them, and do work at the high school. So that was also brought up as an issue. I think that's going to be looked at as well in the next coming meetings. So you've seen at least it sounds like you think and you're probably correct that all right, once we get to seventh, eighth move now, we're going to bring over the kids from Moortown or some or enclosed based in. Do you have a sense of a timeline on that, or is that a correct statement? And that's something you think we're headed down the road for? I have no reason to believe that as the board stands now, that's not the majority opinion that those should be the next steps after this merger. Of course, the board configuration will change over the years. I think that's coming down the pipeline, certainly not going to be next year or the year after. Well, I say that right now, it's looking like it's not going to be next year or the year after that can easily change and we've seen it happen before. And so I think, yes, I agree with the statement you made and I don't know about the timeline. I think that right now, they did not include that in the motion for 22, 23. They didn't preclude it either. So it could hop back in there. Isn't 22, 23, isn't that the last year for our superintendent? It will actually be the first year of the new superintendent. First for a new superintendent. OK. Because I think it was a two-year agreement you guys made with her. So yeah, sure. The planning for it will happen while she's still the acting superintendent but the implementation with the new superintendent. And so that could change things too. We don't really know how that will change things. What's your recommendation as a town or as the leaders of our town here? How should we proceed? I mean, I think we all agree that more town elementary is a vital piece of our community and that needs to be preserved. I'm not sure how I feel about the 7th and 8th. Again, you start pulling parts and it's easy to grab other things. So yeah, I guess looking for a little direction or guidance from you folks and then we'll certainly talk to the community as well. But what's the feeling that we should really be proactively looking at options to move out of the union or is that something that needs to certainly be on the burner but nothing to really jump on right now? I'll start and then Kristen, if you want to jump in, feel free. In my opinion, I think that in the ideal world we would be exploring that now. And the reason I think that is because I think it is going to be a long process and there's going to be things that we haven't thought of yet that we'll need to explore more. And I think the more it can kind of be in the forefront of more towners' minds and kind of them aware of what's going on, the better it's going to be for us when we do need to act. And I'm not saying that I definitely think that we should withdraw or not. I just think that- Let's get the facts so we know all right what costs might be, what's- Let's figure out the pros and cons so that when it's decision time we're not trying to figure it all out at the same time as we're trying to make a decision. Kind of a scramble. I think that's something I spoke to, I don't know if you were on last week or last meeting with Neil Nussbaum. He was looking to petition to get a vote going. And at this point, we just need a lot more information. And I think maybe that's something Neil can help us with too if he wants to participate. But yeah, I think we should definitely everything. And someone had some questions. I think you had sent an email and maybe it was Kristen talking about those questions. But I think maybe we should get a committee together or there's probably enough things formed already. But and maybe you can help with that, right? Where should we work or who should we work with or should we form something on our own to gather that information? Yeah, I definitely agree with Lisa. Whether or not to withdraw it from the district, I'm not really sure, but I don't think it hurts to actually see what that entails, what the costs are. So when you do go to the more town people, you can have a better idea of what that means. Because I think if you were to go now, they'd be like, well, you know, have a bunch of questions. So I think that information definitely needs to be found out and that way you have all of it at once. So I do agree with Lisa. I'd also, does anyone have a pulse on kind of if this is happening at other town levels? Like I would imagine that Feaston's having this discussion too, but I don't know if that's true. Yeah, I have not heard much recently, you know, six weeks ago, actually the Feaston Warren, you know, I heard that rumor, they were looking into different options, but I haven't heard anything. Is anyone else that's connected to these things heard anything else? What about you? You're soon to reach. Yeah, I haven't actually, I mean, I heard that rumor as well, but I haven't gotten anything suggesting that petitions have been drawn up where people are going to the select. Well, maybe I'll just have Sasha check with the other boards and just to see if there's been any discussions around school issues and if there is just see what resources they may be looking at, but and then I know there's been some very active people in town as well, so that might be, you know, some people that we can draw in. So yeah, I think that's what we should do is probably get some people together. Pardon me? Well, Laura Schauer had her hand up. Oh, she did. There she is, I can see her right there. I did, I didn't wanna interrupt though. Oh, you're good, Laura, I'm babbling along. Go ahead, what do you have? No, no, it's fine. So I was just gonna say, I always have way too much to say, but I think the seven, eight move is concerning. It's pulling all of our Valley kids out of town, sending them to Duxbury. And I heard Lisa say that seems to have the most support. I don't know if I would agree. I think the school board thinks there's a lot of support. I think that parents of those kids in both sides of the district, at least the way it's planned right now with no additional money and no more room there. I personally find it ridiculous, but you guys know that. But I would say that, like you said, Tom, it just, it sort of starts the domino. Like, okay, we're gonna move these kids and now five, six over in the Valley is ripe to be moved. I also am very concerned that the more town five, six is gonna be brought up in budget season. That they're gonna try to do this again. They're gonna try to get our kids over there in the form of we need to save money. It's COVID, so they have a really good excuse now. Our budget's not gonna pass, people can't afford it. We need to cut wherever we can. So even though it's not in the quote unquote pre-K to 12 plan, I would not be shocked to see it come up this year in budget. So just, you know, I guess be on the lookout for that. And I agree that starting the conversation about leaving should happen sooner rather than later. So, Laura, have you heard of any other towns exploring that? So only a little bit in Fauston and that's just talk among parents. I haven't heard anything official, but I do know that there are people there that are open to it. I think Warren might be the same, although I'll just say this, I was thinking about it. You know, if we withdraw, we're responsible for the debt that the district absorbed when we merged and that puts Warren on the hook for what $2 million was there. So I don't know how realistic that is, but one of the, I did get some feedback from a woman whose name escapes me, who's been working on this statewide, who said that absolutely, if it could be more than one town, the better. So. I wanted to clarify that when I said has the most support, I meant the most out of the three components of the pre-K through 12 plan, not that the majority. No, I know, I know, I know what you badly said. No criticism. There's a, all right. Well, I think I'll need to take some thought with this as far as how to put something together, but if anyone has any ideas of people who would like to run this committee, email me or Sasha, certainly the board as well. I'd like one or two persons on that or we can, a couple of us can switch back and forth. But yeah, anyone with some ideas on how to form this or who to form it with so we can maximum brainpower together to really look at this, because this is something that's, it's not going to be easy or a simple task, but if it's done well, we should be able to prevail with, even if it's forcing the board to look at things a little closer knowing that we are doing this activity. Go ahead, yeah. So I just wanted to say thank you to Kristen and Lisa. For coming tonight and just kind of acknowledging what a big deal it is for them to be coming and speaking so openly with you folks about their feelings about this. There's a lot of, for lack of a better word, peer pressure that's placed on the members of this board really to kind of, I think in particular, to kind of put the squeeze on the representatives from Moretown and Faist and it's really, it's very courageous of them to be here, so thank you, thank you both. And I do, I have plenty of thoughts about this at this point. I guess what I, it would, like I said, I'm not sure what's happening with Warren and Faisten, but I, in thinking about this, I think the best case scenario as to what might end up coming out of all this would be, so before the consolidation, we had six boards and the supervisory union, and now we have the one district, one board. And I think, I think what might work well would be for Waterbury and Duxbury to go back to having their board for the Valley to have a consolidated board with the four Valley towns and then to have a high school board. And then the Valley's district would come up, I think a pre-K through eight as opposed to a pre-K through six, which is what it was before. So that would cut it down from the six boards before to three. And I think that would be something that would make things much more workable in the end. That obviously would involve coordination on part of the other towns, but that just in thinking about this, since we last spoke, I think in my mind, that's kind of a best case scenario for an outcome. So thank you all. Thanks Neil, and Neil, you're certainly spot on with your comments about both Lisa and Kristen. Thank you for having the courage to speak out and say what you feel and really report back. Certainly there is a lot of pressure. I've seen some of the emails that have been sent to you folks from other board members and things that are really not called for. But again, thanks for your time and your service to the community. We all appreciate it. Thanks for having us. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so I'll be looking forward to getting some names and Neil, I'll keep you involved or get you involved, Neil, so that you can participate in this with your energy and expertise. Every day, thanks, Tom. All right, so we're gonna move ahead on to the agenda. At 6.30, we had the energy plan with Dara and Jay. And I think they're both on, or at least I saw Dara and... Hello, yes, it's just me. I think I saw Jonathan as well. Yes, he is right there. Oh, great. So yeah, you got the plan. Yes. So I just wanted to give you a little update on where things stand. We went through the whole planning commission process of developing the enhanced energy plan as an appendix to the town plan. And that included a public hearing that the planning commission organized. And the second step to adoption will be the select board to review the plan and have a public hearing and formally adopt the amended plan. So at this point, there's a little confusion about what the regional planning commission requires of us. When we started this, we thought that by doing an appendix for our enhanced energy plan, we will have to do any changes to our town plan. Since then, I heard something about Waitsfield, who's also working on an enhanced energy plan, finding out that in fact, they had to do some forest integrity updates to their town plan. So I inquired of the RPC. Oh, this is my kitty. Whether that was also true for Moortown. And I got an email back from the RPC that sounded like it said, yes, you need to do some edits to your town plan, not many, but a few around forest integrity in order to meet the new requirements for plans. So Jonathan isn't sure about it and Karen's confused. So we still don't have consensus yet on whether that's required of us or not. So at some point, I imagine this week, we'll know for sure whether that step has to be taken. At which point, I think it would mean that the, in the event that the Planning Commission does have to make edits, we would have to probably do a second public hearing that they host and then you guys could get away with just doing one. And that would cover both the plan and the appendix. But I'm not, you know, I'm not positive about that yet. We're still putting heads together about what is required of us in terms of the full plan. But I thought we could just kind of talk about some of things that are in the plan, some of the activities and pathways that are in the plan that we might want to just get started on regardless of how long it takes to actually formally adopt it. And also whether you do have anything that you noted in the plan in the draft that you would like to change or add to. This would be a good time to talk about it. So yeah, have you guys had any opportunity to look at particularly the Pathways section starting on page 11? There are specific municipal actions that are detailed here as well as other ones that involve the planning commission more and some that are more just on the energy committee in terms of outreach and education type actions. One thing I was there are certainly quite a few. What would be the top like two or three that you would want to start engaging on as soon as possible? Yeah, that's a good question. I was thinking I was going to propose that this fall we start a kind of an assessment of how our town buildings are doing in terms of their energy usage so that we can kind of collect some historical data, maybe five years of it. And then as we make changes going forward they'll have some context for it. It can also help us identify any priorities that we might want to move forward on and things that we might want to identify funding needs for. So the first thing I wanted to ask you guys was would you in order to get the data from Efficiency Vermont on electricity and fuel usage in town buildings, we would need some sort of authorizing letter from the select board permission from the town to have Efficiency Vermont share that data and they would want to have the account numbers provided for the utilities. But Dara, on something like that if you just send us a letter of what you want, we can fill in the blanks. That's great, I'll do that. Okay, so then I thought, so that could be a good project for the fall. We get this data. We also look back at the 2009 and it was done back when Jay was the energy coordinator and Jonathan was on the committee. So we could kind of look back at what was audited and some of the things that may have been completed already. And so then we thought what we might do is reconvene with you in January and have an update on what we found and whether we think we should do another audit of buildings based on what we see in the data. So we thought that would be a good place to start and then we'd also like to contribute a report for the town report from the energy committee that could describe our work on the energy plan, any progress we've made with that in terms of adoption and then kind of rough out some goals for the year in a short piece for the town report. So yeah, those were the things I thought kind of would make sense to start with. They're pretty easy. I've already got the town enrolled in the button up program and you might have noticed some posting on Front Porch Forum, sharing all the various resources. There's quite a lot for homeowners on the weatherization front, but the energy plan is more comprehensive than just buildings. It's also transportation. So on the transportation front, there is an action proposed in the draft plan for assessing town vehicle miles traveled. So I don't know if that's something that you as a select board would want to track like how or have a way to track town vehicle fuel usage or have any goals around that in terms of. Yeah, no, I think that's good. And I think there's things in places the guys are always reporting the fuel to a vehicle and such, but there's probably not a lot. So I think we probably have the raw data that you may need. It just needs to be plugged into something. You know, a formula to spit out what we're looking for because I know what we put into each truck and I know how many miles they drive. So. Right. Okay, well, maybe I'll include that in this draft that I send you on the building front. Just some thoughts about the transportation related metrics that we could start getting some data for. And you know, that's the kind of stuff as we get this data that we can we can share in future reports. We were thinking we would have, you know a meeting with you once a year go through where are we today and how things changed over time. And there's also a new data report that the Regional Planning Commission is going to be putting together with town level data. So we can include that to share at those meetings. And then kind of, you know, think about things that we would like to do or pursue in terms of funding for the town. So maybe those are some things we can start to talk about on a January meeting. I can reach out to Sasha about getting on an agenda. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the few things or the couple of things that you are going to embark on this fall is not a lot of false coming and going very quickly. You know, it's good, it's a good start. But circling back, as soon as you know if you need to have two hearings or just one, if you can coordinate and I know because we want to make sure we don't miss the getting in the town report and getting on for the town meeting. So, you know, we need to make sure we've got our meeting. You have your meeting and we have ours. So as soon as you know, let Sasha know so we can have our public hearing. So again, we have that timeline so there's nothing missed as far as those issues. That sounds good. Jonathan, I don't know, did you want to add anything about, okay, so we will get to the bottom of it and be in touch about that. Can I bring up one, can I bring up one quick thing? Oh, sure. Tom? Yeah, of course. So I'm looking at the report. I don't really know what page I'm on but the part about transit. Yep. Just wanted to alert you or at some point coming up where we're going to have Green Mountain Transit is coming to a meeting or they're going to be on a Zoom meeting to talk to us. So when we find out, I'm not sure when that date is but maybe when they're on, you guys, you could join the meeting as well to hear as they're coming on to see how communities can use, utilize the service more. And certainly what you're saying in the report is important for us all to think about alternative transmutation, so. Yes, I would be happy to join that meeting. Great. Remember to invite me or send me the date. We can do that. Yep, there's four other people who help us remember. I know, we all need help. No, I for sure remember. Great. Great. Well, thanks. Yeah, that's, so Sasha, this week, if you can look at that and give us an update when that person can get here. And also the other person I know I think we were waiting on or need to get back to is the lieutenant from the state police as far as people visiting the meetings here. So a lot of topic there, but while I remembered that. But thank you guys for coming in. Dara, Jonathan, Dara for your input. If there's anything going forward that you need from us now and, you know, the public forums let us know. We'll do. All right, thank you all. All right, thanks a lot. Thanks for your work on that. You're welcome. Thanks for all of your good work. How have you been hanging in there during this zoom? Yeah, well, I think it's I think everyone's getting a little bit more comfortable with it. You know, we're I think because, you know, so many things are happening now and in this platform, you know, you're either going to figure it out or you get left behind. But so if you make it out all right, everyone else, you know, we're getting by. Keep it. I spend delightful to see all the improvements in town. The village looks awesome. The bridge, the sidewalks. Yeah, it really is. It's I can't wait. Hopefully next year we can have a more fest and celebrate all the the nice things that have happened in the last year or so. Is the parking lot ever going to get paved? Is that part of any of this improvement stuff going on? Yeah, there's some stuff going on now, Jonathan. Probably John could fill you in on that. We'll eventually take care of that parking lot. OK. Yeah, right now there is there's no plans for that. I believe there will be paving by the town office. Ray might remember that. But in terms of the rest of it. Last I know it was we were looking at Stamat. Just wonder. All right. OK, all right. So is there anything else or anything for the energy plan, folks, Dara or Jonathan? All right. So we'll go ahead a little bit again. Thanks, folks. All right. Bye bye. All right. So as I mentioned earlier, the agenda is changing as a chain could not make it tonight. He'll be here on the second. So let's go ahead and move on to reports. So Sasha, you have any reports or communications for us? And Mike Woods sent an email just before the meeting started on arrows and emissions. I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at it. I did not. I don't think anyone probably did. It was I saw it come in, but I just didn't have an opportunity. So yeah, you want to put it on the agenda for the next meeting. Yeah, please, if you would. OK. Yep. And. Geraldine gave me a contract for the next sidewalk and the board just needs to approve it. I think Ray has is going to sign it for her. So we just need to have board approval on stand to contract. All right. And again, that's just for the planning. The next side of the next sidewalk is not quite the next sidewalk, but planning of the next sidewalk. Yes. And then Steve Robbins sent me an email just before I left today asking about meeting in the town hall. And I told him that it's in the works, but he's concerned that the next meeting they're going to have will probably need to be inside or just go back to virtual. So yeah. And we and maybe they're going to go virtual. They have to just stay virtual until, you know, we can get a chance to sort out how we're going to do meetings, which is after the election. Right. OK. I think that's how we know how we've left it right now. Yeah. Yep. I think it's after the 1st of January. Yeah. So we left it. And my next thing was Jerry Kassel's called and he's got something going on in the village this weekend. He would like to be able to borrow eight tables from the town hall. Well, Sasha, can you say it again? Jerry Kassel's. That thing that he's got going on this weekend. He would like the tables for it. And he wants to use those from the town hall. Yes. So and this is not a town sanctioned event. I know that originally that had been put out there that it was part of the one of the committees. And what I think is happening is something that Jerry's doing and then wants to donate the money to this such committee, which is fine. We really appreciate that. But I just want to say it's not a town sanctioned event. Um, now what was that? I'm sorry, Tom, to what committee I didn't get. What is he donating it to? It is the what's the LSM. It's our local service needs committee. Yep. And so that was and I saw that out on. Local service needs committee. That's Cheryl in Michelle. I think Sasha might be on this as well or not. And, you know, they're the ones that are reaching out when those other third parties can, as far as people that need assistance. You know, and they might send someone to to us of the board to under our Charles Davis fund or they may recommend, I know, last year Michelle and her family. Did some work for someone in town. They, you know, you know, finished up some building and in actually donated lumber. So that's what that is. And so I think that's probably a reason behind his wanting to donate to that committee. So, you know, if the tables aren't being used, I don't have a problem with it. But they would have to be some kind of transfer and also some kind of way to make sure that they were sanitized before they came back in. Right. Does everyone think that's possible or what's everyone's thoughts? That's exactly what I was going to say, Tommy. They're not being used, but how we're going to take care or who's going to take care of that part of it. So section of the tables when they're done. And that's something I guess I guess my ask would be, you know, if if if a couple of us, you know, they come up with a or a plan that we, you know, a couple of us think that's adequate. And I'll speak with Corey at the library. Make sure she's comfortable with it. And Cheryl and she seems to be watching this stuff closely as all of us are and should be. Because I like to be able to have the use of the tables, but I just want to make sure that it's not contaminating people or building. Is there what's everyone? Is everyone feel that's OK? Or is it or are people more in the fun of just I just don't want to be used. Not the table basement. So it must be, you know, could feel easy just to get them out of the basement of that back door. Yeah, I think out the back door past the the post office setup. And if there's and if there was one person doing it and then they sprayed them down with. You know, some fact, and before they brought them back in, I think would probably OK. But I'll look into it if that's all right. Yeah, I would be fine with them doing that. As long as they were down before they came back in, I think that would be fine. Yeah, same with me. All right. So Sasha, you can communicate that and talk with with Jerry and see what type of plan. And then if you could check with me, let Corey just check with me and then we'll check with Corey and Cheryl in as well. OK. You were talking about the Charles O'Devis fund. Is there a motion for that? Yeah, I'll get to that in the old business later. OK, and I wanted to see if there was time that anybody could stop in and sign some warrants this week. Just want to throw it out there. They're stacking up again. All right, I can make it in one morning. If everyone could take a time to try to stop in, I Sasha would appreciate that. Yes, thank you. And the minutes from the last meeting get approved for September 21st. So I just remind that. That's what I have. Thank you. Yes, thank you. John, what you got for us? OK, the financial review committee met and we talk quite a bit about the truck, actually, and they're fine. They're fine with the committee's fine with doing a financing through the bank. And the one thing that they brought up is that. Because of COVID, there's no way of. Talking to the public before they vote and it's probably going to be quite a surprise when they turn that ballot over and they see that item. So, you know, we should probably have something on Front Porch Forum about that. Absolutely, I agree with you, John. I was going to bring that up because I have already had a couple calls on that. And the people were fine with it, but they just. As you mentioned, hadn't heard anything about it. You know, I know we've talked about it in the meetings, but it's, you know, they don't get hadn't been talked about anywhere else. So, yeah, why don't we I'll put something out. I'll have Sasha put something out on Front Page Forum, Front Porch Forum. The next day or so. So everyone's aware of what it is, especially now that we know what we're getting. I thought about doing it earlier, but I think this is an appropriate time. People, you know, they're opening the ballots and wondering what that is. OK, that's that's good. And we also talked about the about a capital budget and. That's that was kind of because of COVID put on a back burner and so on. So there's renewed energy there. Bob Holden is kind of spearheading that and with Charlene's help. And so they'll work on that and we'll probably take a look at that come January. Good. And the other item I had was that phone call that the Charlene received. Tom, it was she forwarded it to both you and me, that guy from Bristol. And all our withdrawal from the union. I didn't call him. I don't know if you you did or not. Which one was it again, Tom? It was it was somebody from Bristol. They weren't on a school board or anything. But they were very curious about how we were handling any withdrawal. Oh, OK. The Bristol, yeah. No, I did not. But something that actually want to do that, that would be. That would be good. OK, I can do that. Yeah, if you don't mind. That was one other thing I had. I was thinking about where I had another call from some from Middlebury, but it's something different. Anything else, John? No, that's it. How about you, Ray? I have nothing to report. And Kelly, I had a fantastic chat with Neil on Tuesday. I had called him because I had some questions for him about pulling out of the school district. And we had a really good conversation about timelines. And though there isn't a timeline to kind of. There's not a set date where if it's past this time, you can't. Pull out. But one thing to think about in this process is that. Everything has to be finalized by July 1st. If we were going to do that. So if things changed in January. We just have to think about that timeline of things needing to be finalized by. It's either June 30th or July 1st. But but it was a very informative conversation. Good. So we do well to make sure we get our ducks in a row. So we if we need to make a decision, sounds like it could be something that happens fairly quickly. Well, it does and it doesn't because you kind of have to wait for the state to approve things, right, which can be sticky. Absolutely. But all right, well, that's good. I'm glad. Thanks for taking the time to call him and getting informed. Anything else, Kelly? Nope, that was it. All right, Don, how about you down there in the left? Joe, I have a question for John at your financing, your financial committee meeting. Did you guys get to talk about anything about? You know, thoughts in the future about tax payments? No, we did not talk about that. OK, because that we talked about it, that that was going to you guys might look into that at some point. And then so my other question is should not to John, but to to the board, do we want to have any thoughts or is there any idea about Halloween in the village and what's going to happen? I mean, I know some other towns have been talking about it. And it's been in, you know, communities are thinking about it. I just didn't know that we play any role in that. Or should we be thinking about it or trying to help her? Well, I think I would support. And it's usually the school. There's a school committee that usually put on if I'm correct. I'm not opposed to to it. If there's activities going on or some type of trick or treating, you know, I have seen some things, you know, where there's been recommendations on how to do it successfully. So I don't know what what has been happening as far as. You know, organization. Yeah, does anyone have kids that that's been talked about or anyone have any idea? I've just seen a couple of things and but other than that. No, I haven't seen anything for more time, but it usually gets quite a crowd. So I'm sure some people are thinking about it. Yeah, I think typically there's there's I'm not going to say hundreds, but there's a lot of kids there and in parents alike. So, you know, nothing that I know much about. Right. Is the fire department getting well to that last year? So last year, we did, you know, open up our fire department to, you know, warm drinks and candy and, you know, had the doors closed because it was raining so that people could come in and get dry. As of this year, I wasn't really planning for anything because I don't know how to implement it in a in a safe manner. I'm open to the idea. I just don't know how to implement it safely. Right. All right. So, yeah, let's I guess on this point, you know, maybe I don't want to proactive starting something, but if something was in the plans or the town, either the school people were planning something and needed a small donation for candy or something like that, it's something I think we could probably do. Let's wait to see if we hear from them or someone can reach out to them as well. But again, not something I've really thought much about. I just didn't know if, you know, only just because of all the stuff about social distancing and mask. And I suppose if a household doesn't want to participate, that's in the village, they just won't have their lights on or something. I don't know. Yeah. No, I think, you know, it's nothing I'm going to outlaw or no. I mean, I'm not saying. And I'm not saying you are, but like you said, I think if people don't want to participate, they'll shut their lights down. And, you know, I hope there's something that can be safe out there that kids can can do. I mean, people talking about, you know, having, yeah, you know, go on YouTube or whatever it is, there's many creative ways to give away candy between tubes, using as hides and all sorts of things. So, yeah, OK. Certainly not against anything, but have not heard anything. All right, I just didn't know if we were that's yeah, that's all I had. I'm good. All right. Well, thank you, John. What did I have? I had things we talked about. I didn't have a call from someone in Millbury on the end of last week. I think it was Thursday or Friday, probably Friday. They had just got a stone ship from being behind one of the dumb trucks on the understate spoke with the driver of the truck and his tarp was down. So at that point, it's just these are road hazards and we don't we don't submit those to insurance, nor do we pay them. So just a reminder if people are, you know, falling too close, you know, watch things can fall off these trucks. They're, you know, they're in pits and things. The guys, I think do a good job of trying to do a walk around. I reminded them to do a walk around once they're loaded or have unloaded. But as long as their tarp is down, we're not liable. And certainly in this instance, it didn't sound like it was something that we should be liable for. Other than that, I think. All set, we have some. Exactly a session business that we need to go into tonight. As well, I'd like to do that at the end of after new business. But other than that, I think. We're going to have a couple of things for old business. But until then. Yes, that's it. I'm sorry, I'm just reading the note that came in. But I guess the only thing we have here left at this point is to look at the minutes and if I could get a motion on the minutes for nine twenty one and five. I actually had some corrections to talk about. OK. And I don't know, Sasha, you got my email about it. Correct. Yes, I did. OK. Under new business where it says the second paragraph says race spoke with Dean Moulton about his property pins. The town will probably end up relocating them. I believe that we should say replacing them. They won't be relocated. So, yeah, yeah, right. And and then the executive session. The wording, it's I think it's it was two separate executive sessions. So they didn't be lumped together because the reasons were different. OK. So the first one would be that after making a specific finding that premature general public knowledge would clearly place the public body or a person involved at a substantial disadvantage, Tom made the motion to move Tom made the motion to go into executive session and so on. And then the time wasn't there as well. It was Tom moved and race. John, I have those. Yeah. And the times I have right in front of me was seven thirty two. And then we went back into the second one at seven thirty three. OK. So then once you move out of that executive session, then Tom would make a second motion to go into executive session. And this one did not fall under that number one on the statutes. It's number three, the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee, so on and so forth. OK. And oh, I'm sorry. The most Tom moved to go into executive. I'm sorry. The first one where you were dealing with the substantial disadvantage, you would make the time would make the motion to discuss the Charles L. Davis fund. It doesn't really fall under anything in one. But, you know, it's definitely definitely is would fall under that. They don't specifically list something like that, but it would fall under that. So that's that's the second one. Would be. I don't agree with the appointment or employment or evaluation and so on, spelled out. And I think that's that's it. That would be the second executive session. OK. This is for the last meeting, right, John? Correct. OK. Sasha, there was no action taken after either of those executive sessions. OK, thank you. And then when Tom made the motion to come out of the executive session, it was just for that. I believe adjournment came after that. Yes. That's all the changes I have. Thank you, John. OK, so I'll make the motion to prove those minutes with those changes. OK. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor vote aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, John. OK. And all right. So let's go ahead and move on. I hate to be technical. All right. That was ten five. Yeah, I'm just dead. What about nine twenty one? John, are there any changes on nine twenty one? Not that I have. So we accept the minutes of September 21st as written. Second. Any further discussion on that? All in favor vote aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Sasha, for keeping us in line. Thank you. That's why you're here. All right. I'm just trying to find. Oh, I can't find it. All right. So let's go ahead and, you know, one other thing I did want to report out is yesterday morning around five thirty. I got a call from the road department or it was going to the road department on an accident on Stevens Brook Road. And they took out the guard rails between on Stevens Brook Road right right after Bad Hennessey or right before Bad Hennessey Road. So Rodney went up, put some barrels up and he called Lafayette this morning and Lafayette's coming in as soon as possible to to install some used guard rail in that area. There's water exposed so there's nothing that can wait on. I looked at it as well. I think it's probably around 60 or 50. So, you know, they'll get that in by mid November. We're also pursuing the driver of the car to get reimbursed for that. That stuff. Sasha's called the state police or as I guess step on, I actually got some information and I got Rodney sent me, you know, a picture of the license plate and such. So I don't think it'll be too hard to hunt them down. Hopefully no one got hurt. But looking at it, it was it was a pretty good action. A major accident. All right, so old business for old business, the person I'd like to do is make a motion. To use the Charles of Davis fund. To aid a more town couple in their, their struggles, I guess. I guess that's the best way to put that. It's what we talked about in executive session the other, the other night. I just would like to a motion to make that. I guess legal. If you will. Thanks, John. Any further discussion. Okay, all in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi. And Ray, it will thumbs up from you from if you're going to be on mute. Very good. Thank you. So she will let them know and. Take care of that bill that they had provided us. So we're lucky that that we have that option. And so certainly if anyone knows a couple in more town that is suffering. I think it's a good idea. I think that meets that requirements, make sure they come to the board. Is there any other old business? Yeah, I just wanted to. Ask Ray a couple of things actually. What did you think about the wide shoulder on the west side of 100 being the village? I like it. I was hoping. Okay. I was hoping actually it would be a little wider. I mean, it's basically kind of like the width of the sidewalk. And so that was there. I think that's, that's probably as best as we're going to get. I was. Actually, I thought it was wider than what I was expecting. Another great to me. Okay. And any word from. Okay. Any word from pike on. Now that the weather's a little colder, they. Yeah. I haven't heard anything back from them at all. You know, they're not. You know, that's a separate contract. And I think we have told them that they need to go out there so we can close out our contract. But. I think they'll get there when they get there. But I can, I would talk to the pike again tomorrow. See if they. At least it was a date. I'll do that. I will. I'll reach out to them tomorrow. Okay, great. And, you know, and I think. Well, I just wanted to comment, John, on the, the. The walkway now in the village. I think when they went through, they pulled out what was. And I think you said it, what was there of the. Existing sidewalk. And if they were to do any more than it would start getting into. You know, people's property, where's the property line? And what are we taking? So. You know, where's the, the right away? So I think. We couldn't really do much more without. Maybe perhaps going down places we didn't want to go. But it. I think it's wide enough to get people. You know, an opportunity to walk down that side of the road without tripping. They certainly need to, you know, mind where they're going so they don't wander into the road, but certainly better than what we have. And looking forward to that next sidewalk going there. Exactly. Oh, go ahead, Don. I just have one question on the sidewalk. And maybe this is something from last year. And I just never really grasped what. Was happening, but what doctors brook that bridge. Is the side, that's how it's going to stay until that bridge gets repaired someday or what happens there. No, that's how it's going to stay until that bridge is repaired. Okay. Just so you get a little background. They initially came with a proposal to put in a. There were a couple different and they were very expensive bridges, pedestrian bridges, you know, upwards of 75,000 for just the bridge itself to set across doctors brook. Things that were silly and then they were going to set something on beside the existing bridge and common sense prevailed and decided that they would do it when they put a new bridge in. I guess the only question is how long it's going to take them before they put that in bridging. And I think we all think it's sooner than later, but I think they may have other thoughts on that. Right. Okay. I figure that was it. Thank you. Yep. And then another question for it for you, Tom, I know I keep bringing this up, but did you speak with Cheryl about the. I did. No, I didn't. I spoke with him with the fact that I asked her to look into it. I did not hear back. Okay. I will follow up with her tomorrow. On that. Okay. But no, thanks. But it is something I have been thinking about or wanting to get finished up. That's all I have. All right. Okay. All right. Anyone else any old business? One of the other things from down below, we have the, the CAI. Tools. We had the presentation. I really like that. Should we have. Him come back and give a quick presentation to. The listeners and such so we can. You know, perhaps put that in the budget for this year. I think it's a great opportunity to go in and, you know, look at their, their land parcels online and. You know, do a number of different things, but something I thought that would be beneficial that Cheryl and was. Thought would help as far as. You know, people coming in the office and serving people a little bit better that way. Seeing no opposition or hearing no opposition to it. I'll have them reschedule. I'll have them come back and give us a quick brief. Overview with the. With the list or so they can, you know, voice any concerns they might have with it. Because it would probably affect them more than most people. The budgets. I'd like to see. I think you've sent things out. But if we could get budgets back so that our second meeting and. You know, November, we could start reviewing those. That gives people a month to put their budgets and. Together and I don't think that's too hard to do. Second meeting in November. Yeah. So if they, and if we could get them. You know, like that Thursday or before. So you could, we could review them or. You know, I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. And then again, the transportation. That Don was talking about earlier. Just if you can follow up with. Them to see when they might. Be in and also. I have her on an agenda. I think it's November. Okay. I'll get back to you guys with that. Yep. I'm sure you put Dara on that invite as well. So she's aware of that. Yep. And also. Lieutenant from the state police as well. And follow up with them and see what he can. Can join us. Okay. All right. Is there any new business? No. All right. We'll see none or hearing none. I don't have anything. So what I'd like to do at this time is. Move into executive session. And this was, would be. It was reason number three. It was the employee. John, could you read that again? Of course. There we go. Okay. So that's the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee. Okay. Provided that the public body shall make a final decision to hire or appoint a public officer or employee in an open meeting and shall explain the reasons for its final decision during the open meeting. So if I second that. Okay. Any further discussion? I'll, I'll. Favorite boat. I. Okay. Thank you for attending the meeting tonight. Sasha, I'll get you some times that we come out. And if there's any action. Otherwise. Good night, everyone. You can click off. We'll click the off. But otherwise. Have a good night. Thanks everyone.