 Okay, good morning everybody. I'm Gus Selig. I'm the moderator for the town of Calis. This is an informational meeting prior to our town meeting, which will be on March 1st. Before we get into the formalities of how this meeting will operate, I'm going to turn it over to Cliff Emmons who can review with all of you how this technology that we're using on zoom works today. Cliff floor is yours. Thanks Gus. Good morning everyone. Thank you for attending. Just a brief overview of how a webinar functions differently from regular zoom meeting. Basically what you will see on your screen is the primary speaker as well as a bar along the top of your screen that shows the other panel is participating in the meeting. So who do not appear on screen are the attendees here more or less the ones who are sitting in the audience at the town hall. We are also conducting this as a hybrid meeting so we do have some people at the town hall, so they can attend in person if they want to. You will see them on the screen as well and there will be an opportunity for people to ask questions. I'll go up the slide here and I'll talk a little bit about how that all works. One of the best practices is to disable any apps you might have running in the background that will maximize your bandwidth and allow you to have a better zoom session. You will not be able to see anybody besides the panelists if there is anyone in the attendees group who is noted as a guest speaker. One of the best practices is when it's your opportunity to speak, we will bring you in as a panelist and then the other attendees will be able to see and hear you. And once you finish your presentation we will return you to the attendees tab. As far as attendees who want to ask questions there are two ways you can ask questions at the bottom of your screen you may need to hover your mouse over the lower part of the screen or tap on the bottom of your screen to see this toolbar. You'll have an option to raise your hand you just click on that Gus will see that you raised your hand in a digital manner. And we will then give you the opportunity unmute yourself. You will not see yourself on the screen but your name will appear on the screen so the attendees know who's who's speaking. I can give you an example of that right now. It looks like we have a question. Hey Stephanie, you had a question hearing you let me get out of screen share and Stephanie you may need to unmute yourself. Hi I didn't have a question I don't know why I came up. Okay. Yeah, you've had your hand raised so I will lower your hand. Okay so I don't need to click on it I need to just hover over it. Yeah, depending upon your operating system. You, you might need to click on it or you just have to hover over it to have it come up. Well I think I was hovering. Okay, so that's the way your systems functioning. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. You also have a button at the bottom of your screen. Let me pull this back up. This is labeled Q&A. If you would like to submit a question in writing, click on the Q&A icon a box opens up you can type in your question and hit send. That will allow Gus to see your submitted question. Everyone in attendance will be able to see your question as well. So someone has the same question, they can click the like button to indicate that they also have that question and that will allow Gus to prioritize which questions. Have the most interest. And we did have a question about there not being a chat function and there is no chat function today as I understand it is that correct Cliff. That's correct. Unfortunately, zoom has kind of changed some of the settings and as we were going through the practice sessions and preparing for this meeting. It would be more of a distraction to have the chat function on. So we opted for the Q&A feature, which would allow people to submit their questions. There's another question as well. Janice, we are automatically muted. And Jenna, we see you're here for the Montpelier Senior Activity Center. When that item comes up, we'll be sure to give you an opportunity to speak just raise your hand at the appropriate time, and we'll bring in so you can speak to that. Nick, if you, let me see, I don't know if you have that option. If you have a participant icon at the bottom of your screen, you'll be able to see who all is participating if you do not have that icon. You won't be able to see who all is in attendance as an attendee you'll only be able to see who's here as a panelist. But the meeting is recording everyone in attendance so when the minutes are published, you will be able to see everyone who was in attendance at the meeting. Okay, I don't see any other questions in the Q&A currently. If I miss someone, please resubmit your question. And if there's any questions, other questions regarding technology or whatnot, we also have an option for people to join us by phone. Last year, no one opted to do that everyone came in by zoom but the phone participants can use the star six to toggle between muting and unmuting themselves and they can hit star nine. To raise their hand and be recognized should they want to ask a question. If someone's participating by phone, will it show up, will their name show up in the list of attendees. What will happen is we'll see their phone number and when they joined by phone it will announce their name because they're asked to say their name and the phone records that then when they joined the session. It's announced by zoom that so and so has joined the session, and then one of the hosts myself or Barbara, Jamie, whoever would go in and change their phone number to reflect their name. Okay, yeah. On the screen is an icon of a phone with their phone number. Okay, just just for the minute so we have a clear list. And just looking at the list of attendees currently no one has joined us by phone. Okay, unless there are any other questions regarding the technology and whatnot, I am going to turn it over. I believe next Denise you wanted to say a few words. Yeah. Good morning everyone. A little bit of snow coming down to cover up all the ice. Thank you for joining us and town meeting 2022. Thank you Gus for being the moderator and here we are. All the volunteers who have made this session possible, especially to cliff our zoom guru and his amazing technology skills to get us through this and to Jamie for co hosting at the town hall. I just wanted to recognize a few people who have been serving the town and thank them for their incredible service and dedication to making our town government work. Sandra server, our treasurer and the Lincoln tax collector who is choosing to retire how dare she, but she's got a ton of stuff to do. And on some answers who has served on the cemetery Commission for 43 years. That's a long time. Wilson Hughes, who was our constable and animal control officer. I didn't think to look up how many years he's served because it's been so many I'm not sure I can count that high. Peg Bowen, who served on the DRB for 35 years. And really dedicated and committed resident to helping the town and Katie Lane Karnas, our recording secretary who does an awesome job taking our minutes is also stepping down so we're looking for someone to be our recording secretary. There's a number of other folks who are not running again Fletcher Dean from the cemetery Commission. He served for a long time as well. So anyways just a round of kudos and applause for the folks that have served the town for so long done such a great job, then dedicated and committed to making things in town government. Keep functioning. So I guess, Gus, back to you. Okay, I'm just going to quickly review the agenda. And Cliff are you. And here it is. Thank you for that. So we've done the technology overview with you. I'm not sure if you have any other select board highlights that you want to speak to Denise. Is this the time. Let me walk through the agenda for everybody and I'll turn it back over to you. We've acknowledged some people leaving service and I'll have a little bit more to say at the end of the meeting. We will have an opportunity to ask questions about the town report. We'll hear from Janet Ansel and then we'll walk through the articles. And then we'll hand them because we're not having a town meeting, but to see if there are questions about any of them. And I know that we have at least one of our fire chiefs in attendance if you want to ask questions these Montpelier fire department. And under other business, we've heard from at least one or one of the candidates for select board and we, if we were having a town meeting we wouldn't hear from folks. We don't have any candidates for them, but we will provide any of the candidates who are running for office a moment to introduce themselves and talk about why they want to serve the town and any other business that anybody wants to bring up. Before we go to the select board highlights, we did all receive a town report from our new town clerk, Jeremy Weiss. So Jeremy, did you want to just take a moment to introduce yourself. I appreciate that. I just wanted to say welcome to everyone who took time out of your morning to come on this beautiful snowy day. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Jeremy Weiss. I'm the new town clerk. I was elected in a special election in June. It's a privilege and an honor to serve all of you. And I'm very happy to be here with you all. Thank you, everyone has gotten at least two of your ballots, as well as the town report just hot off the presses. I do want to single out Barbara Butler, your assistant town clerk and assistant town treasurer. I'm absolutely indispensable in getting this report to you all on time and under budget. And I understand we have a lot of ground to cover so with without further ado, I'll just send it back to you guys. Okay. And, and I know she's already been acknowledged in the town report but I just wanted to extend my thanks to Judith Fitzgerald who's in attendance today and thank you for the acknowledgement. In the town report and getting ready for these meetings as town moderators she was just always a tremendous help and support to me. So with that I'm going to turn it back to Denise to just go over a few highlights for the select board for the year. Yeah. Just a couple of highlights. Continuing challenges related to coven have had us doing hybrid meetings this year. We're working with CV fiber to bring high speed internet to the underserved callous residents. And we're going to be looking at opportunities for use of the ARPA funds. And as is across the state and across the United States. Recruitment for employees is a challenge. So, those are some of the issues that we've been dealing with that are probably some of the bigger issues. The minutes are available on the website. So feel free to peruse the minutes and see what your select board has been up to. Okay. All right. So with that, I'm just going to ask if there are any questions about anything in the town report from any of the boards or commissions. So if you want to use the raise hand function or put something in the Q&A. This is the time to do that. And the other time you can do that is if there's an article. So if you have a question for the Seminary Commission will be voting on their budget and you can ask a question then as well. So it's not your last opportunity to ask questions. And I'm not seeing anything in either the Q&A or among the, I see no raised hands among the attendees. So with that, I think we're going to turn it over to Janet Ansel to give us a report as our state representative. So, Janet, the floor is yours. Okay, there you go, Janet. You got it unmuted now. Thank you. You may want to turn your camera on. Yes. Let's see if I can toggle that for you remotely, Janet. That'd be great. This is, I'm not used to the system. Do me a favor, Janet, please click on the raise hand icon. Okay. You should see an option to become a panelist now. Hopefully that appeared on your screen. There. And there we are. Which it gets me to my, my, the first thing I wanted to say was to thank you. Denise and Cliff and us in particular for making this work as well as it does. I know how hard it is because we've been doing just about everything remotely for a couple of years now. And I just wanted to, to everyone for giving me a chance to speak for a few minutes at town meeting. We're, we are back in the state house after two years on zoom and then from the screens, we are back in the state house, basically full time. And we're working there the other day, the building is beginning to look at the way it used to look, although everybody has mass on. And we continue to make all our proceedings everything that goes on and committee and everything that goes on on the floor is also live streamed and is available on YouTube so there is probably way more information about what we're doing than anybody could but, but it hit that one of the things that pandemic has done is sort of opened up our processes and I think taken us to some kinds of technology that I think in the long run will be very good for transparency and for participation on the part of the public. I'm going to just mention a couple of things that I think are of local interest and one thing that's of statewide interest that I'm working on. And as always, I'm happy to answer questions as time permits but I'll let a moderator decide how much time he wants to devote to that. The first item is the redistricting, which is of very local interest as well as statewide interest. As of yesterday, the House Government Operations Committee have put together a, a final proposal, which leaves callous with Marshfield and playing field. There was conversation about shifting callous to a different district, basically with Worcester and Woodbury and a piece of East Montpelier that I don't believe is going to happen and it doesn't it has something to do with our communities but a lot of it has to do with the impacts and the rest of the state if you make that kind of a switch, because it's like a domino game where you move one little piece and a lot of pieces elsewhere need to move. So as far as I know callous is going to stay with Marshfield and playing field. The other local issue that I think is still being developed is how we're going to what we're going to end up doing on the yield and property tax rates as people may have heard there is a significant amount of money on the bottom line and the commission fund is close to $100 million that's kind of unheard of. There are a couple reasons for that one of them is that revenues generally are pretty are actually very good, especially when you consider what we've been through economically reason they're good is that we've gotten so much federal money. And not just to the state and local government entities but also a lot of money that just went into people's wallets or pockets or checkbooks or wherever that goes. And the sales tax revenues are very high and that actually takes a lot of pressure off the property tax. We're just beginning in my committee to look at what's going to happen to that money on the bottom line there are a lot of people with a lot of interest in it. I think it's safe to say that, if, if it goes back to there's it will only be a portion of it and probably a small portion of it so with the other ideas that people have been looking at have to do with transitioning to a special education law to putting money aside for school construction money going to tech centers there's that it's all education related. But it's, it's probably an opportunity to do some kind of investment. So that's a that is a lot of work that we're spending time on. We're also spending time on the question about whether we change the way students are weighted and the cost equity formula and I won't go into all that but if anybody has questions about it. I'm very happy to talk with you about it and see if I can explain sort of what the options are and what we're looking at. The last thing I want to talk about because I'm so excited about it is the legislation I've been working on on the child tax credit this isn't local, but it will have a lot of local benefits if it passes. We actually got it through the house this would be $100 per child per month, age six and under up to an income of 200,000 per household. It's fairly expensive to do it. But what we've seen terrific benefits from the federal child tax credit and so some of us decided we wanted to try to do that at the state level so it is past the house it's in the Senate. And frankly, I think it's one of the best investments we can make to invest in kids and and families so that's, that's what I happen is you always I'm happy to answer questions if people have them. I understand that I've heard a lot on the news about the school tax refund stuff I mean what are you, is this looking to be something that goes back to individuals or is it going back by town to reduce the overall school but I mean to. What are you looking at. I made a proposal to do a rebate to individual taxpayers which I don't think our committee is very enthusiastic about it would cost it's complicated to administer something like that. There are a lot of reasons why, why I think we would shy away from pursuing that if we, if some part of that 100 million goes back to property taxpayers it'll go back the way we usually do it which is through property tax rates. So it just goes to reduce it goes to increase the yield which means in the formula that we have that property tax rates would go down. The tax rates are going to go down in most districts, anyway, because of the increase in the sales tax revenue and the Education Fund, and the fact that incomes have gone up. So there's less money going out and income sensitivity so there, there are reasons why rates are going to go down. You know, every, every town has its own unique circumstances and every individual has his or her own unique circumstances so what's average is not going to be can't assume it's going to apply in your individual circumstance so what we tend to look at other averages. Okay, I see Rick has his hand up so floors yours. Yeah, Janet, thank you for coming. I question I have and it's just about the increased revenues and then spending that's going to go with that. I mean I take it just the you guys are the legislature's being taking care on this not since we've had this kind of artificial surge and funding related to COVID. We are in it, you know, we want to be careful not to put that into programs that we cannot sustain I tell you investing this largely in in first infrastructure type pieces that are more one off that let us solidify and fortify or is are we building programs in there that we then are going to have to pick up as revenue streams that externally drop off. Great question and something we think about a lot. There's always this discussion about one time expenditures and one time revenue and going expenditures and ongoing revenue. And I think the decisions committee is very vigilant about making sure that we don't build demand that we can't that we can accommodate. That said, the forecast that we, you know, we do a revenue forecast every January, and the forecast is is still fairly positive and even after we have state revenues and federal revenues but of state revenues and even after we did the forecast in January we had an increase in that month of $23 million over what the forecast was so we rebased it January 12 and January 30 we got information that we were already bringing in 23 million additional so we're being cautious one of the things that we're doing is we're investing a fair amount of money in a proposal to pay off to basically pre fund some of our retirement benefits so that which has a very significant long term benefit so there are a lot of things like that going on that that hopefully will position us so that when the economy sags again because it will that will be better able to handle it. Thank you. Okay, I don't see any other hands raised and Jamie, although I don't see your hand raised is there anybody at the hall who wants to ask a question. Before we move on in the agenda. Not this time. Okay, I believe Denise has another question. I'm sorry Denise I didn't see your hand go ahead. You're muted. I guess panelists can't put things in the Q amp a. But I just had a call from Ty Roland, who has to, he was on as an attendee he has to step out for a few minutes, but he's going to call back on his cell phone so if we see that come in. He's calling in on his cell phone to answer any questions about the MFD. Okay. Okay, well, Janet, thank you very much for representing us so well and for joining us this morning and giving us an update of what's going on and those things that affect our community so much. Thank you. Thank you, Janet. Articles one and two real really are election items. Article three is asks whether the voters will approve a highway and general fund expenditures of a million 480,000 473 dollars, of which a little over 1.1 million would be raised by taxes and 316,000 by non tax revenues. So, is there anybody who has a question about that article. Okay, I'm not seeing anything in the Q amp a, and I'm not seeing any hands raised at this moment. Unless somebody tells me I missed one week. Okay, Cliff, do you want to move on to article four and show everybody that question, which is about the cemetery commission. Yes, give me a minute to pull that up. My systems sluggish this morning, or maybe it's just me. Well, there we go. Okay, there we go. Okay, so article four is on the operation of the cemetery commissions and I guess I would ask whether Fletcher or Juanita are with us and want to say a word or two about cemetery commissions work. Juanita, if you'd like to speak, please raise your hand. Letters in the house. Okay. In the witness chair. Okay, here I am. You can see in the town report, if everybody has one, there's a summary of our activities and plans for the next year and the number that we're asking the voters to contribute for the cemetery maintenance this year is considerably less than it was in the previous years because of the trustees advising us that we are now able to withdraw some money from the endowment fund because we reached a goal of $200,000, which has been increasing gradually over the years. So that $9,000, I think it's $400,000 is helping to save the taxpayer some money. And there's also, if you looked on the expenses, where did I put that? On page 65, there's also a, no, no, yeah, there's an extra, well I guess it doesn't show up in there, but in the contractor's budget, he requested an extra $2,500 for a fuel supplement because gas spiked this year and of course they use a lot of gasoline and that caught everybody off guard. So that'll be reviewed on an annual basis in November when the cemetery commission plans its budget for the next fiscal year. So that's why that inched up a little bit over the 49,400 that we had in previous years, but as I said, that's something that'll be reviewed on an annual basis depending on how gasoline is doing. And I'm happy to entertain any questions. Okay, no one has put anything in the Q&A. I'm looking for a hand to get raised and we'll just take a few seconds in case somebody wants to raise their hand and the technology is awkward. But not seeing any. I think we will move on. And article five is our favorite article as a community that Kellogg Hubbard library at least favorite for having passionate debate. And I know that Craig. Wine is with us. I'm not sure if Carolyn is also with us, but I know you want to speak to this article. So, Craig, I think the floor would be yours. Give me a sec to bring Craig in. Okay Craig we can hear you now prompt you to if you would like to be seen as well as heard accept the opportunity to become a panelist please. Craig you are muted sir so we are not hearing you. There. How's that. We can hear you now. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Gus. I would say that it's our favorite article because it's our favorite library to support. Of course, nothing has been the same again this year, although I would say that our staff and our directors have really again risen to the challenge. Almost 600 library card holders in the town of Callis and the staff had to close the library for some time, but really stepped up home delivery and delivery to other offsite places. There were still hundreds of programs that were held shifted on to zoom and almost 10,000 attendees between adults and kids. They shifted story times to outdoor locations, both on the library lawn and around the various towns that support the library. So, I will note that the library report is on page 95 of the town report. There's a lot of detail there. And, and I think Carolyn is with us she was planning to be today. We're going to go into another sheet that explains various programs and and town support. The main difference between this year and the last four is that we are needing to ask for an increase this year. We have been level funded for the last four years, hearing Callis and the other supporting towns but of course, staff please go up health care benefits go up as everybody knows exists we are a 501 C3 nonprofit. But again, our co directors and the entire staff have really risen to the challenge and honestly, it's because they love the library as much as people in the towns do. I'm happy to also take questions. I see Carolyn is there now on the bottom of my screen. And so maybe I'll turn it over to Carolyn, who could maybe mention a few things that I've either forgotten or don't know. I think she has an infographic that she might like to share. So Cliff, I don't know if we need to do anything special to have her be able to do that. I have the opportunity to share screen. Yeah, I've turned on share screen for you so you can pull up your graphic when you're ready. Sure. Whoops, I think I just clicked raise hand instead there we go. So I just have a quick year in review infographic here and Craig shared most of it so this just talks about and this is available I'm happy to get this in electronic form or print form to anybody that would like a copy. Most of this goes over some of the same information that was in our report that's in your annual report. But just we saw very strong circulation or circulation of library materials is pretty much what it was pre pandemic. Our reference question service has skyrocketed because there are so many more people who aren't coming into the library but they're calling us and they're emailing us and they're reaching out to ask to ask questions and with so many things changing and services changing a lot of really kind of general reference questions that we've been getting over the past year from the from the very simple to the like to the very meaty. We did still have a really strong roster of programs and a really strong roster of attendees. Kind of silver linings of the pandemic for us has been that we are able to record most of our programming because it's on zoom. And all of that you'll find you may have to dig a little bit on our website but if you go to adult programs or you go to click on the children's programs and scroll down you're going to find videos of all of our lecture series and all of our most recent programs and so we've had a lot of people who have taken the opportunity to go back and watch some of those that aren't able to attend live or where weather would have prevented them from coming into the library physically so that's been that's been really nice. You know we're still seeing the library so I should I wanted to note quickly that the library has been fully open. Since April of last year, where we still get people who call us up and they don't understand that that that we're open for browsing we're back to our regular hours we have been for a very long time. The only changes you're going to see when you come into the library these days other than these programmatic zoom changes. We still have masking required. It's still part of a citywide mandate in in Montpelier, and our meeting room occupancy levels are down a little bit we're capping those at at 25 people right now and will probably look to change that as we move into the spring assuming that conditions improve, but we are fully open we love seeing people we're seeing the library used again as a warming space we're seeing used again as a public bathroom. We're seeing people come in for child visitation we're seeing people from the local from school system coming into to actually provide special services to provide physical therapy to preschool students and occupational therapy to preschool students and so we're getting really moving back into that space where we're this really active community hub and where the, like the free public space that people come into and use for a variety of reasons we've seen lots and lots of remote work happening at the library because of our high speed internet connection. Lots of folks coming in from remote from from our outlying towns to sit in a quiet space and to and to and to work or to do zoom meetings. So, yeah, so we're still having a really strong year and this spring our biggest project that we're embarking upon is strategic planning we're going to do our first strategic plan and a number of years. And we're going to be reaching out to some folks individually but there's going to be an opportunity for feedback from everybody so coming into the spring anyone that wants to provide input for what kinds of services the library offers or or or the way that we're funded or staffed or somebody we're going to get into some of the nitty gritty of this and we're really going to be looking for feedback because we want to make sure that the library reflects all of our member communities and serves all of our member communities as much as we possibly can. And then I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody might have. Okay, and I see a question from Mark Mahaly. I just want to congratulate you for the way you've handled the whole code thing. I think it was great that you waived fines. I think that was really good. And I just want to thank you for creating at least when the weather was good a drop off and pick up on the porch of the East callous general store. And that kind of thing I think in the future will really make a difference. So I hope I totally support this. I understand the increase I mean we had a year with more than 5% inflation and level funding just is not very easy at this point. So thank you and I support, I support this article. Thank you so much I appreciate that. Mark, I'm glad you brought up the fines being waived that was a big deal. And, and we've talked about it over the years this is my ninth year as a trustee of the library. In fact, my ninth and final year, because we have term limits. So, later this year, we will be looking for a candidate to take over my slot on the board of trustees, but you know it. I've talked about it for a long time. It was a large chunk of our budget. And yet, because other monies became available. COVID monies basically. It was a good time for us to take the step and I'd say we've had 100% approval of such a policy really makes library services much more equitable for everyone. When we've yeah when we've had questions about fines have had a few people that are like well how are you ever going to get your books back and. And so it's a good opportunity to explain that we still have, we still do bill people if they keep books overdue for more than 30 days so we have mechanisms put in place we still send out overdue notices. And generally people are very good about about bringing library materials back anyway. And it is an equity issue what a $5 a $5 max fine for one person doesn't have the same impact as a $5 max fine for another person or for a parent who's checking out 25 items because they've got a young kid at home and they blast through picture books for example. They cannot really quickly. I have four questions. So, Rick, you're next and then Denise you're on deck. I wanted to echo what Mark said, Carolyn and Craig I mean you I fully support that budget. I'm really impressed with such an in person in, you know, face to face institution has really blended right through this real time of hardship and continue to really provide a great service to the community. And that really underlines the value of this and Craig, thank you for your service and dig your coming to the end of your time you've been great on the board and you've been a great voice in the community for the Kellogg Hubbard. And we can find somebody to continue in that good tradition. So, thank you. Thank you. It's you know it's really been a joy. It's something I believe strongly and at the time I was first asked I hesitated but a lot of good people. There's really a lot of good people on the board, and we continue to find new great people in the various communities. I just took on a new member in the town of Worcester, because the member there turned off at the end of the year. And now we have maybe four people in their early 30s on the board so we're, we're really hoping to increase our demographic diversity on the board as new openings come up. I tell you the quality of the board and the staff are reflected in the quality of the institution. Yeah, that it speaks. It says worlds about it. So thank you. Yeah, thanks. Okay, Denise. I just wanted to thank Craig for his service on the Kellogg Hubbard library board and thank the staff. I think COVID really made the library shine in the services that were available and the outreach. And you guys are very, very creative in what you did to make services available with all the new zoom capabilities and helping with kids. It's just, it's done a phenomenal job and I just want to thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, I don't see any other hands raised and I don't see anything in the Q&A. So, Craig and Carolyn, thank you for being with us and Craig, thanks for your service. We will move on to article six, which asks for $28,444 for 28 different organizations. In some years we've had a committee review this I don't know that we've had such a committee this year. Denise has there been a committee this year. No, there was not a committee this year. And is this about the same amount as last year? Um, I'd have to look I think it's a little higher but I don't have off the top of my head. What that amount is Sandra or Barbara do you know. Yes, I can answer that. This is Barbara. It is down $1,566 from last year. And I can tell you that the new organizations that requested this year were the callous historical society, the community harvest of central Vermont. Our house of central Vermont and the Vermont rural fire protection. They have previously been in the town budget. And this year they submitted funding this way a funding request this way. There were some increases and decreases in funding request central Vermont home health and hospice that increased their request this year by $550. Good Samaritan Haven increased their request by 1000. People's health and wellness decreased their request by 500. And the Woodbury callous food shelf also decreased by $416. The big difference was that friends of the callous town hall had requested $3,000 last year, but given that the town hall has still not been able to be opened. They did not submit a request this year. So again the total is down by $1,566 from last year. And Jamie, I see there's a hand raised at the town hall. Barbara has mentioned that Vermont rural fire protection is is a listed organization they're not on the list. I don't know if that was an error. Certainly we cannot amend from the floor come town meeting where we're set up this year so just wanted to point that out. Maybe the select board can look at funding them alternatively. The amount is not too high out of our budget. Isn't that the one that used to be in our budget that was like $100. I don't recall. The question was $100. And it was the one that we had some conversation about where did they belong. What ended up happening was they ended up being back in the budget again. Oh, they're in our budget the select board budget you're saying. I'm confused. Yeah. Okay, that's okay. It seems to be the answer. I see that I see that Jenna has her hand raised. So, Cliff, if we can. Have her speak that would be great. Hi, good morning. I'm Jenna Claren with Montpelier senior activity center and I was, I was actually going to suggest that if Rick Winston is, is on the zoom. He's the first as a registered voter. He's a member of the advisory council of the senior activity center is is Rick available. And whether or not he is like, I will also share a few remarks. I don't see him now he was here earlier. Yeah, he's there. I am here. Okay, there you are Rick. Hey, okay. Everybody hear me. We can. Okay. I'm sorry for the speaker so much about the seeing, but the hearing will be fine. I've been connected with the MSAC for, for many years. As an instructor, taking a few classes myself. But just in the last year I've joined the advisory board, which includes a programming committee. We have seen how this organization like the catalog Hubbard has dealt with just some incredible obstacles over COVID and has come through even stronger. We were sad to see go but Sarah Lipton is doing a great job as the director of the senior center. So I am a real believer in this organization and present. The number I have is likely that there are somewhere between 1560 college residents that the senior center has served and hopefully that will increase in the last year as we get out a bit more. The request of the senior center $4900 is level funded. So and it is going to support affordable programs and services for older central monitors. And this is out of a total fiscal year 23 budget of $675,000. I'm happy to answer any questions and have Jan is here. She can help me if there's something I can answer. And nobody has posted anything in the Q&A. And I'm looking to see if anybody among the attendees has raised their hands and nobody has. So, and I don't see any of the panelists with a hand raised. So, thanks to both of you for your service to the community and dedication to the senior center. And I think we can move beyond article six. Take care. Seven through 11 are all our articles that are required in order to, as I understand it, extend property tax exemption for the institutions you see listed. In those articles from the Maple Corner Community Center to the East Calus Recreation Association, which is where the post offices, the Aldrich Memorial Association, the Adamant Community Club, and the Adamant Co-op. Does anybody have a concern or question they want to raise about any of those articles? And again, I'm not seeing any hands raised or anything in the Q&A. So, articles 12 through 14 speak to how we collect taxes in town. Actually, that goes on through articles all the way through articles, article 18, and how we analyze the link when taxes and so on and so forth. Are there questions about any of these articles or comments? I am not seeing any hands raised. Bill Powell has his hand raised. Go ahead, Bill. If you go ahead and unmute yourself, we'll be able to hear you. Well, thank you, Cliff. Can you hear me? Yes. So my question is just about 18. And, you know, failing my elderly memory. I don't recall seeing this before. Is this a regular item or is this the first time we've seen this proposal, this article, the statutory requirement, I guess. I'm going to defer this question to Jane, to Jeremy. Yep. Thanks for the question. 18 has not appeared before on any warning. This article has been on the books for a while. Basically, what this does is memorialize what the practice is in callus currently, which we, which is we are not doing personal business property. And so the, this article is just basically putting, you know, what, what the practice is in callus, what the practice has been. And just having having a vote and memorializing that so it's clear moving forward what the, what the practice is here in callus. And Jeremy, didn't you do some research and found out how many years back this goes. Well, the law goes back quite some time. But in essence, the issue arose in callus. We were looking at some exemption for cable and the question kind of arose around their pain their pain school taxes why isn't there taxes being paid on the municipal side. And so what we sort of discovered is that you can't, if you tax one you have to tax all of the other instances of business personal property. And so it's becomes a much bigger issue in terms of not only inventorying. Inventorying all the, all the business property in town and then taxing that is a pretty heavy lift for a fairly small amount of taxes that would be raised in revenue. But the law goes back, I think to the 70s or 80s. Okay, and I do see a hand raised from Marianne Miller so Marianne floors yours. Marianne, if you unmute yourself, we will be able to hear you. Okay, I think that's a mistake does I didn't mean to raise a hand. Okay. It's like there's a raised hand at the town hall. Yeah. And that question to Jeremy would, if this article were to pass it would have had the resulting effective exempting from taxation, both school taxation and town taxation, or are the voters voting on just the town. It's not clear to me. And if, if it's going to have the broader effect. of being taxation for personal property school for the purposes of assembling the school budget was the. I mean this, this, I don't know where this I understand this came was made aware was brought to the select board's attention and it kind of came fast, but I just don't know what the effect is on our school tax. Because that would result in a reduction of the income they've grown accustomed to. So, that's my question. Thanks for the question. No, we can't exempt school taxes from anything in town. So it wouldn't have any effect on the schools. The, the Comcast cable that is on the books actually they do pay the school taxes. And in terms of the other question and turn, john. The other question becomes moot because I was, you know, interested in if it did have an impact on the school, whether the school be able to collect this taxes as well. If they were part of the larger conversation, but apparently this has no effect on that so. Thanks, Jeremy. Okay, in the Q and a, there are two questions, or one question one comment Janice Olson says we want to be friendly to future businesses. And Craig line asks, what exactly is business personal property. Jeremy, can you tell us what business personal property might be. As my understanding as opposed to inventory which is something that you have on your shelf that you're selling business personal property are all of the other things that your business uses whether it's your excavators for your excavation equipment or your excavators for your, you know, tea business. There's a lot of little pieces and in terms of what would get taxed if callous decided to tax business personal property. So that's kind of the distinction and so cable and business personal property are together. And then there's like the inventory piece callous did vote to exempt inventory. And so actually, we voted callous voted in 1982 to exempt inventory. So this we're sort of just kind of catching up in terms of looking at the, the cable and the business personal property side. Okay, any, Janice your hand is still up. Did you want to say anything more than your comment in the Q&A. You can mute yourself, Janice. You'll be able to be heard. Okay, I unmuted myself and I just wanted to bring out Jeremy explained it quite well. The Listers certainly had a big discussion on, we just don't want to have to be the people that go and ask we've got furniture makers who have personal business property. We want to go around and find out all of that information and then keep it on the books in the Lister assessment system. And we just didn't, we didn't feel we wanted to do that we also part of in planning and everything else we want to in this town. We're open to new businesses that occur in our houses and in the area and so by not taxing personal business personal property. I think we're being more open to having business in our homes and maybe greater employment in the area so those were all considerations when we went ahead with this. We also discussed this with our town attorney, and it was kind of an interesting because it's an age old statute that this goes back to. So that's a little bit of the background information how this came about. Denise, did you want to speak to this issue your hand is up. I wanted to ask a question when this issue is done. I have a question about technology here. Okay, I am me open the Q amp a Craig line says thank you for the answer, I believe. I'm not seeing any other questions or hands right out Paul where has a hand up. Right and that's what I want to speak about. It's a technology question I have Ty roll and has called me twice now from his cell phone. He was trying to call into the meeting, but he doesn't have any information on how to call into the meeting with was there a number. The call. Yes. Okay somebody did phone in. I don't know if it was Ty, but apparently it is not ties number is 7938532. 7938532. Well, I, there was somebody called in and I assumed it was tie so I changed the name from the number to ties name but I don't think the phone participant is tie apparently. It won't let me take it back to their original phone number. Let me try this. There's someone who is participating in the meeting by phone. I believe if you press star nine or star six you'll be able to unmute yourself and we can hear you would you please identify yourself. Hey Cliff I put it in the, in the chat this is chance pay it I called in as well because my internet's a little shaky. Okay so I got a fire chief I just got the wrong name so chance I'm going to go ahead and rename you. And we will call on you when the article comes up that you're going to want to speak to. Thank you. And in the meantime, Cliff, can you give a phone number for Ty Roland to call into. Yeah, I'm going to have to look that up and I will give that to you Denise. Stand by please. Got to do some housekeeping here. Okay, so while we're waiting for all that to happen. I think we're done with those articles having to do with taxation. Articles 19 through 21 are for the East Montpelier fire department. And we'll wait for Ty to get connected but articles 2223 and 24 all relate to the Woodbury fire department and since we have chance on the line. Why don't we let him be in a position to be to be heard at this moment. So articles article 22 seek $17,850 for the truck replacement fund article 2335,370 dollars for the operation of the fire department and article 2431,000 dollars for a capital replacement fund. So chance the floor is yours to speak to these articles. Okay, thank you very much and thank you to all the folks and cows. Let me come here and talk to you guys. Just go right down the list. Most of these articles have been in there for several years you've seen them all before the 1750. That is the truck replacement fund which is how we used to fund all of our trucks those are the two remaining trucks that still have the long. We're not paying off with those we have three payments left on the engine four and four payments left on the rescue to and then that 17850 as discussed a few years ago would actually go away. Do you want me to just discuss all of them because or do you want me to pause and see if anybody has any questions each individual article. Why don't you give us the grand overview and then we'll, if people have questions about any one of them they can ask and we'll be able to answer them. Okay, thank you very much. I have nothing in the Q and a right now and there's no hands raised so why don't you keep going chance. Sure thing we'll do thank you sir. So, as far as let's see the article. Article 23 is the department appropriations that we did see a minor increase in we tried to level fund throughout the pandemic as much as we possibly could but unfortunately the cost of things has just surged as everybody is fully aware. The cost up to try to make sure we could pay all the bills and article 24 is the capital replacement fund which is $31,000 that we are now using to fund SCBA which is the self contained breathing apparatus and the trucks in the future. We brought that forward a few years ago, need and $31,000 reach town to be able to buy trucks instead of having to continue alone, money and pay all the interest so the first purchase we did with that was, as we as we discussed the year came around was to replace our second 20 year old engine or our 20 year old rescue truck and combining it into one truck which we did do. So many of you have seen the new engine one roaming around town. If you ever have a chance to stop in the states we'd be more than happy to walk you through all the trucks and show you what they do and how they work. And that's about all I got. Okay. I'm not seeing. Well, Denise's hand is raised. Is that from before do you have a question, Denise. I just want to clarify clarification. Thank you chance and would very volunteer fire department for your service. We very much appreciate everything you do. So I just want to be clear so article 22 which says 17850. You said that's going to go away. And you're looking to have this capital replacement fund for future purchases is that amount likely to go up. To take to take place of the 17850 what are your thoughts. No, the 17850 is what we actually pay for the loans on the two trucks that we have the $31,000 that we get for the capital replacement fund was intended to actually take place of that so that we could actually start buying trucks. Excuse me outright versus doing loans and paying all the interest on them. Obviously with, you know, prices of inflation, I can't remain $31,000 forever. So our intent was to look at it every four or five years and see if it needed to be adjusted, you know, due to inflation but now the 17850 is going to be a cost savings once we eliminate those two loans. And when will that be the engine for has three years left on it, and rescue to has four years left. So in 2027, if you're still on the select board you'll be not having to deal with that as a budget item. Exactly. See there's something to look forward to. All right, thank you chance. Rick you, Rick you have a hand up. Yeah, I just chance I just want to ask it again it's on that cat your capital replacement firm. So you've actually got that to a state now where that will be able to carry that truck. You know, replacement loads or, or is that still being built to that. The reason I asked that is that, if we are, we're, we have that, you know, 17,000 going into, you know, into loan payments right now. If the fund is not at a place where it actually has the carrying capacity at this time. It makes sense to roll that forward beyond its payment to build that capital fund to where it's self sustaining, you know, where we, and then we roll back to whatever that annual replacement number is for that fund to keep to keep it functional. Beyond that I also wanted to say thank you, you know to the volunteer for the fire department efforts so you guys are great every year we really appreciate the service I know how much hard work, all of you put in to the kids and you're always here to talk about this and the town appreciates that. So thank you Rick for the recognition. Quite frankly, I'm a firefighter and a marine so I try to keep the map as simple as possible. I'm hoping that when that 1750 goes away, you know, completely in four years that will be done with that and we'll be able to sustain operations moving forward. Before when we first talked about the capital replacement our plan was to reduce the fleet by one truck which we were able to do we bought a rescue pumper so I believe, moving forward, we're going to be doing okay. You know, obviously with the price increases and the way things are going, who can really predict out for five years but I'm hoping that 1750 will be done and just completely done and we'll be able to move forward just the capital replacement fund but like I said, we'll have to wait and see what the market has in store for us. Thank you chance that's great news that's let us let us know if that needs more leveling up, let us know and we will get that to a stable place to better off the town's art. Yes, sir. Okay, I do not see any other hands raised. Q&A from Tim we lock. Regarding articles 19 to 24 Tim asks with the influx of government funds are any funds available for fire ambulance service through this avenue. If so, or any of the organizations pursuing this possibility. Also an article 20 or payment of 30 k per quarter. Where does the balance reside. I interest earning account. Before we go there, do we have a way to get tie in. Yeah, I'm going to share on the screen, the information you will see a number I would recommend he call the New York number. He will need to enter the meeting ID number as well as the passcode. So let me put that up on the screen so you can make note of that. Towards the bottom. The New York number which is 9292056099. Once he calls that number he'll be prompted to enter the meeting ID, which is 82481416493. Then he will be prompted to enter the passcode, which is 754728. Okay, so I'm calling tie right now I'm going to go on you. Okay, why don't we take that down and article 25 is about providing $20,000 to replace fencing in the Robinson and Old West church cemeteries so I don't know if Fletcher or Juanita want to speak to that FYI folks. Okay, so he's internet went off so he's trying to boot or she's trying to boot back on here. So, bear with us in the top with the town hall screen. And also, Gus, another question has come in regarding fire department funding. Okay. Yes, so Craig line says I'm also very supportive of both fire departments. And I believe the answer to that is East Montpelier also helps to pay for those services. Other communities are available to us if you had a bad enough fire. I think as a member of the mutual aid system. So if Worcester comes over, Marshfield or Plainfield come to town as backup or for additional water or manpower. We don't pay for that. So do we want to talk about the cemetery article while we're waiting for tie. Yeah. Just so folks know I've given tie the information and you should be calling in at any moment. But maybe going on to the cemetery article is a good idea. Gus, John, very bad. I need to answer something. Go ahead, John. To kind of better fill out your response, Gus. East Montpelier fire department also as an ambulance service. You'll see that in article 20. That we fund that our share of that. So that's, yeah, that's, yes, that serves a mutual aid function as well. But there are other participating towns. With regard to direct funding of the ambulance service. And my understanding is an entire role and if he's finally on can fill us out better, but it's Plainfield and Marshfield are also contributors. And I guess at some level members of the ambulance service efforts. Four towns that I know of, and I know there was talk about cabinet. I don't know if that where that ended up. I is not on yet. Okay. Chance, was there anything further you wanted to say about the questions that were asked or we covered it. I think I think you covered it for the most part. The only question I had with Craig's question was. It was regarding Woodbury to other towns besides Woodbury and Calis help pay for equipment and services. Nobody else for the Woodbury fire department besides Woodbury and Calis pay for our services. Okay. And to Tim we locks question regarding the availability of federal funds are. That's come into Vermont. Are there any available to. To support the work you're doing and the equipment you're purchasing. Well, that's, that's a great question. And that varies from year year. Some years they actually offer. Sometimes they do offer equipment. A few years back they were specifically offering grants for quints, which we can't own a coin because we don't have the building. So it's really a year to year basis and you have to look and see what's, what's being made available by the different grant for or individual agencies that are pushing out. The most recent money that came out that can actually help to support your fire department. Is there is some funding mechanisms within ARPA. Other than that, there's nothing available at this point in time. Hopefully that answers Tim's question. Okay. So I think we now have tie on the phone. Can you are we connected tie. Yes. Okay. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. As you know, we have free article articles on our warning, which you're, you are free to speak to the first article 19 asks us to appropriate $62,837 for the operation of the East Montpelier fire department. The second provides for us to pay $121,000. $121,083 for the ambulance service. And the third asks the select board to borrow an amount not to exceed $66,667 for a term not to exceed five years for the purchase of a fire engine. So the floor is yours. Can I just say. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to thank the East Montpelier fire department and ambulance for their service. We really appreciate everything that you do. And that's it. We're good. You're good to go. So, yeah, so this year's fire and ambulance budgets. We're able to stay close to level funding, except for some additional monies that have been put in over the last couple years with this year being the third year from the town of East Montpelier and call us to increase the level of staffing to cover ambulance. We are running pretty much full time with the ambulance personnel 24 seven at this point in coverage for their current call volume this year is we're up over 100% from where we were last year at the same time on ambulance and fire calls. So it's been extremely busy start to this year. So we're doing our best to your raise funds where we can and the revenues that come in from the ambulance then help to offset parts go into the budget expenses parts go into staffing and then the majority of it is going to pay for capital expenditures or this kind of leads into that third article of asking to replace our 1994 E1 engine which is going on almost 28 years old at this point. The truck is served as well, but it's time to replace the truck, and we're asking for a split article where we've asked the towns of callus and East Montpelier for $200,000 towards the truck. And the East Montpelier fire department will pay the remaining approximately $225,000 plus equipment needed out of our capital fund to purchase that truck. So again, you know there's not a lot of grants I think Woodbury was speaking just as I got into there is not a lot of grants directly available that we can apply for that specifically pay for those types of trucks and everything. I don't know if there's questions I can answer those specifically or if there's more information that you guys are looking for. I apologize for any background noise I am flowing snow right now. Okay. There are no questions in the Q&A. Rick has a hand up so Rick the floor is yours. Hi, I just wanted to thank you, Jack, what Denise said, both fire departments you guys go above and beyond. And we really appreciate it and I know the cost and difficulty with the ambulance service. And really, with staffing full time staffing for you know, pretty much 24 seven is very difficult to manage. And we really appreciate the, the, you know, chewing the absorbing a lot of the cost of that replacement engine through your capital fund. And that's been good planning on your part and I really support the budget so thank you. Thank you and I want to echo back to support we do appreciate the support of the town. And the support of the members, you know, from Woodbury call us all those people up there who are taking their time. It is a big endeavor to provide emergency services not just locally but nationwide and the majority of it is managed through volunteer organizations primarily. So the support to the town mean a lot to both agencies and our ability to effectively provide emergency services to the town. So we do thank you guys as well. Okay, I am not seeing any more hands raised. And I'm not seeing any questions in the chat. So, Ty, thank you for joining us and I think you can get back to your snow plowing activity. Okay, very good. Thank you everybody. Have a good day. Okay. Okay, so we are to article 25 which is asked for $20,000 to replace fencing in the Robinson and Old West church cemeteries and there's a question from Nick M one. Has there any been any discussion about the possibility of not having fencing at all around the Robbins and cemetery walking there recently. I was struck by the beauty of the granite posts that currently define the perimeter. Historically true and zero maintenance I know the cemetery commission and others have put a lot of time and thought into the question of fencing. And since I haven't participated. I'm not up to speed on this. Thanks. So, is there somebody who would like to speak to this article is Fletcher still with us. Fletcher to Nazi. Am I on. Yes. Okay, good. Hello everyone. And before I take on this issue I neglected to thank john Samanskas for his leadership on the cemetery commission for so many years and he's stepping down. So we will be having two openings and his announcement of his retirement came after the ballot went to print. So there is a one opening which is mine that two people are running for. So it looks like we will probably have to appoint another person to be on the board to replace john at our next meeting. So, thank you john. I would like to just address the fences around Old West Church and Robinson Cemetery since they're both in the historic district. We we've developed a policy a few years back of replacing all the cemetery fences in town with granite posts and chain. Because there's once you get past the initial expense, there is no more maintenance and what we found over the years is that the ravages of time and weather really take a toll on those old fashioned wooden fences. And they wrought the they need every five years they need to be either the boards either need to be replaced or scraped and primed and painted. And then every 10 years you can you can predict that they need to be replaced completely. So there's quite an expense with that that never goes away and only increases the expense, you know, as time goes on, we have to spend more money on everything. So and also it's we're living in different times than when the neighborhood used to take care of the cemetery. Now it's very hard to get volunteers to come out for work days. And so we just decided that this would make more sense. It's a traditional traditional appearance and very, very distinctive looking and respectful looking. And there are cemeteries in town, Janes up on Max Gray Road and Short Cemetery and then Ainsworth on Upper Road. So you can you can see how nice those those fences look. So our our hope was to be able to do that with the Old West Church. And a couple of years ago, two and a half years ago about, we submitted a formal proposal with photographs and plans mapped out as to how we would like to replace that fence because of the deterioration and submitted it to the, I think it was the DAB, and we never got an official response back to our proposal. So it just the the boards and the fences continue to deteriorate. But they met with us in the fall at one of our meetings and this past fall. And we had already taken the the fences down at Robinson because they were really. They look like an eyesore. So we just took it down with the intention of replacing those with chain as well. So we were notified by the folks on that committee or design review board to not do any further work on Robinson and they asked us to replace the boards with the original design because they told us that was those are the rules in the historic district. So they said they have to be using the exact same materials that were used in the original construction. So because of the huge cost of that and the uncertainty as to how it would be paid for, we decided to make this a separate issue for the town to decide if that's the direction that they would like to go in. And if that happens, then of course, there will be the ongoing maintenance every five to 10 years on these fences. But in order to preserve the historic accuracy, that's what we were told we would need to do. So we thought we'd leave it up to the town to decide if that's the direction we'd like to go or will there have to be another source of funding. I think that sums it up. Thank you, Fletcher, both for your service in this and other capacities and for that explanation. And Sharon's got a hand up and then there's, John's got a hand up at the town hall. And I think Juanita also has a hand up so Sharon, you're up first. Thank you, Gus, and thank you, Fletcher. Maybe I lost the details in the thread of the information you were providing, Fletcher, but when you said at the end to go back to the historic integrity, I thought I heard earlier that it was the granite posts that were historically accurate. And then by the end it was sounding like it was the ongoing maintenance wooden solution that's historically accurate according to the design and review board. So I'm wondering if you could just clarify where I lost the thread of the facts. Well, some of the fencing in the cemeteries has been with granite posts and wooden boards. Sometimes there have been some wooden posts that were in places where there were not granite posts and those were really susceptible to rotting around the base of them as we all know with our own fences. So to achieve a uniform dignified appearance, you really want to make sure that all, if you are going to go with the granite posts and chain you just want to make sure that they're all granite posts. So some of them in Robinson Cemetery are, I think the majority might have been granite posts and some of them would have to be some of the wooden ones I guess would have to be taken out. I'm not quite sure, but I think that's, that's the way it works. Okay. John, did you want to speak next. Yes. This is mostly a point of clarification. Fletcher, you had mentioned that. You had mentioned that the DAB design advisory board approach cemetery commission this past fall. And that they made clear that the standard for whatever maintenance at least of the cemetery involves replacing materials with the same materials. I don't know about the boards but I'm hoping there's enough leeway that the compromise can be rendered that this is even a compromise all that the cemetery commission could put pressure treated boards that are then painted and they would last somewhat longer and of course, would post that granite posts, whether or not it goes with chain or with the granite posts would replace those would post that are rock firm. So that's, that's mostly a question is pressure treated allowed if as long as it's painted in, in the final finish it because it looks the same. That's my question. And I would not be able to answer that. I think Juanita is next and then Stephanie Kaplan's on deck. Okay Juanita we should be able to hear you know. Okay, I'm here I couldn't figure out how to unmute before I've been here the whole time. I just wanted to, to add to what Fletcher it said that that we met with the DAB, and they requested that we keep with the wood. And we can discuss with them whether or not we could use granite posts instead of wooden posts. I don't think that came up in our discussion. And I would also like to thank john and Fletcher for the years that they put in on the cemetery commission. That's it for me. Thank you. Okay Stephanie. If you unmute yourself, we should be able to hear you now. Okay, can you hear me now. Yes, yes. I have a comment and a couple of questions. My first comment is, is that I'm a member of the development review board. And so I am somewhat familiar. I hope pretty familiar with the zoning regulations. And the way I read the zoning regulations, they say specifically that the design advisory board is advisory to the development review board, and does not seem to have any independent authority to require anything, except in situations where the development review board, something does not need development review board approval, but according to the zoning regulations. They say that the DRB the development review board shall review all landscape alterations including fences and walls. So the way I read this is that the disk, this question of whether of what kind of fencing should be replaced or put in at the cemeteries should have gone to the development review board with the advice of the design advisory board. So, that's the first thing I wanted to say that I think this is jurisdictionally not in the right place. The second thing is I have some questions since we can't amend the articles. Then I had some questions about what the $20,000 is supposed to cover and what the plan is for the, the future maintenance as Fletcher described it. Fletcher, do you want to respond to that to those questions. I can't say I have the answers to that either. I don't understand very well the workings of the regulatory boards but they did tell us that there might be an opportunity for some, some supplemental funding, perhaps from other grants or. The, the Old West Church Association has money for it for their cemetery where they would be able to kick it in. But we wanted to put out the $20,000 it was a conservative estimate given to us by our contractor and sexton to, you know, to cover the cost of this initial replacement of the fences. So about 10 grand for each cemetery. But if, if it's not approved, then we'll have to go to a new plan with the coordination of the cemetery commission and the design review board or design advisory board and put our heads together as to how it will be paid for and constructed and designed. Okay, and we have a comment in the Q&A from Craig line and Craig writes I believe that for any such project in the historic district to comply with open meeting law. There needs to be a warning of a DAB hearing testimony taken. And now it is comments and disappeared from so I can't continue to read them. But I think it was focused on the procedures. That should take place to comply with the open meeting law. If you click on the answered tab and scroll to the bottom, you'll be able to see his question again. Or his comment. Okay. Okay, I'll take it from the top I believe Craig writes I believe that for any such project. In the historic district to comply with the open meeting law there needs to be a warning of a DAB hearing testimony taken a recommendation made to the DRB. Then again a warrant hearing of the DRB, which body would then issue a decision about the project. So that's Craig's view of the procedure that should take place. Is there any further discussion of this item or any comments anybody wants to make? I'm not seeing any other hands raised at this moment. And as Stephanie indicated, because we're not having a town meeting where this is all Australian ballot, your choice will be to vote yes or no on this article. Yes, there are two hands raised in the attendees Rose Pellchuck and Juanita Nunn. Great. Okay, Rose. And then Juanita. Okay, Rose, if you unmute yourself, we should be able to hear you now. I agree with what Craig line just wrote for his comments. I think there's a procedural issue here and I would be in favor of. The proper procedure gone through with the recommendations from the DAB going to the DRB with worn public hearings. Thank you. Thank you Rose Juanita you're up next. My question was about the procedures. No, wait a minute we just lost her hold on. Okay Juanita sorry we lost you there for a minute you should be able to be heard now. My question was also about the procedures and I just wondering if Stephanie could speak to the procedures and what the next step for the cemetery commission would be. Let me pull Stephanie in Stephanie if you unmute we should be able to hear you now. My understanding, well Craig is right. There should be a warrant hearing for this for the design advisory board. If they're going to be discussing the fencing for the cemeteries, and then there would be a hearing scheduled at the development review board, and then the design advisory board would make its the development review board. There would be public hearings as Craig suggested for both of these. And I just also just wanted to, if anybody's interested, provide the sections of the zoning regulations that state that the development review board shall review all the landscape alterations in the historic including fences and walls and this is section 5.5 d a of the zoning regulations in case anybody wants to go back and check. I hope that answers your question. Okay, do we have. I'm not seeing anything further in the q amp a. And I'm not seeing anything further. In the way of raised hands. So I think we have discussed this as much as we can today. Article 26 says, shall the town of callous inform and provide notice to its residents when sources of radiation such as but not limited to that generated by cell towers transmitters Wi Fi towers. Transmitters and 5g 5g antennas are being proposed for licensing and installation within the town limits. And John, I think you wanted to speak to this article. So this initiative is something I brought to our select board. And it involves the town providing notice whenever radio transmission devices. Are proposed within our town borders. Just FYI that there are multiple to processes that can be followed for the smaller size devices that would, for instance be associated with what's being rolled out now 5g technology, which is being rolled out. Nationally, the idea being that folks would, for instance, autonomous vehicles that folks might come and dear own could be regulated their operation to be regulated not by a driver but by these micro cell transmitters that would be on every phone poll or every other that's a for instance, but they're being rolled out now. For instance in Burlington and other made the larger population areas in Vermont are not yet operable, but the antennas are going in as we speak. And because of their size and their location or locate located on existing polls below a 50 foot height. And then our process generally through the active 50 process and not the public utility commission process by choice of the developer AT&T or Verizon. There's a whole being that it's, it's a rush process it's a, they call streamline process. And there's no notice to the folks that residents in town, other than there's notice provided to the town government to the town clerk's office Jeremy's and by virtue of that, our select board. And there's also notice required to the landowner upon which the poll the devices being mounted to who owns the land that the poll is located on where the devices to be located. If the landowner has a house on the other side of their 100 acres, and the poll is located directly across the road in maple corner say from someone's house, do not be given notice under state law, and the town is under no provide such notice so that the idea this article which is advisory in nature by the way, is to prompt your select board to provide notice to you all through for a that probably would be best suited in this day and age maybe front porch forum, maybe in addition some other ways but at least front porch forum I'd expect town website. I just would know when these projects are being proposed in our town and in their neighborhood and even across our next to their home so that's the idea this article it's it's this article is not unique to call us it's hardwick has a similarly warned article and other towns around the state are doing so as well. It's a public right to know initiative. It's simply that. Okay, I'm looking for raised hands or questions in the q amp a. And I am not seeing anything in the q amp a. And I'm not seeing anything in the way of a raised hand. I'm sorry. Thank you. Go ahead, Denise. Okay question for john john when they provide notice to or lack there of what kind of a notice do they supply to whoever's poll it is is it. You know, a utility poll like whack or gmp. How does that work. So, Calis, I think it's pretty much all whack except for root 14. I'm not mistaken. Well we have hardwick electric to. Oh, that's right. Are you part of Calis Denise. No, not really. You're in another snow bell. Yeah. I expect that the poll owners are part of that are engaged in the process, you know, any activity that happens on their polls is with their knowledge. They don't have much say as to whether it can happen or not. There's a whole discussion of what we don't need to get into here but they would have noticed and it would be written notice provided as part of the process to the town office. And the neighbors to the poll, do not get notice. And this is article is is an effort to see that everybody's informed, whether they love it, or agnostic to it or hate it, they'll get noticed, or at least have the opportunity to speak to it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, John, before you go away. Just another question. And that is this you know when in in that, when people are then made aware of this is there actually an appeal process. I mean I can see circumstances kind of knowing the inverse square rule for power drop off if you ever close proximity to a transmitter, depending on how, or receive you know what how much power is involved. There are three places where that can be of issue you want to look in to, you know, so, you know, do they have a, you know, if they are if they're aware of it are they able to actually appeal. Yeah, that's a good question because the way the way it works is, and this is why the developers choose act the active 50 process option over the Public Utility Commission process option. If they could have chosen the public utility option. There would be rights of process that are that are specific and adjoiners would have have rights of process available to them and they could challenge it and cause hearings to happen at the Public Utility Commission. Unfortunately, the way to 48 and maybe Janet Ancel can explain us further to us, I think she was involved in this law development. Unfortunately, but the active 50 process, which is what these developers of these microcells. In almost every case I think every case choose, they choose it not because they love the public and they want to engage the public and they're here for us. They choose it because, in my best estimate, because it's zero public process, and they can thunder nose at us, but your illustrious legislature thought this was in our interest so the way it works in is the developer picks the active 50 option but act 250 does not have jurisdiction on telecommunication devices where their height would be a height of 50 feet or less. So these are mounted on poles that are 38 feet 40 feet, someone from Bill Powell could probably tell me exactly, but it's in that range. The device mounted to them would necessarily be less than 50 feet height. Therefore, the 250 process option, which is what they apply for and notify for provides the public no option, no right of process. It's at very least it's informational and we could then, you know, speak to our legislative representatives our house and Senate representatives and make them aware of our feelings in this regard, ie that we have no rights of process. It's an unfortunate. This is just kind of a best effort to get the word out because the law does not provide for that it's a scam, frankly, I'm going to be pretty blunt about it pretty, I'm pretty upset about it, as you might expect. Thank you. So, I just want to note two things one that were almost at two hours which can for some of us is a long time for a zoom meeting there's a few items to cover under other business. But we can continue to discuss this if people want Janet does write in that as I and says as I understand that there are obstacles in federal law and limits that Congress has put on state review. And clearly the question john's putting in front of the community is just one of notice to all of us not. I think it's a different question of should Vermont change its, its laws to provide more access to any citizen to the process involved here which is an important question as well. There are other. Let's see, Stephanie Kaplan writes thank you guys and everyone for having the meeting the meeting how many people have been on zoom and at the town hall. The height of the, we've had 11 panelists and I think I saw 33 attendees at its height. Although maybe some people came and went so maybe we had 40 attendees by zoom at some point. And john can you tell us how many people have been at the town hall today. Yeah, as you are already aware, Fletcher Dean is here. We, the two candidates for this slide board seat that's coming open are here to speak. So let's not forget them. And work is here video recording us and Jamie and I are here in town hall. And a great again thank you to Cliff and to everybody who worked hard to arrange this. I do think our numbers are down substantially from last year and I know at least a few of us would love to be able to meet in person but appreciate this as an alternative that has kept us all safe. Thank you so much. A correction or three candidates, I'm running from my own seat, but there are two challenges. Okay, I'm glad we have many candidates and so as we get to other business which is what we're up to. So if I think you had a slide that just went to voting procedures that perhaps we want to put up. Yeah, give me a minute I need to switch gears and I'll pull that slide up for everyone. And here's information on how to vote and cast your ballots. Barbara, would you like to walk us through. So we really encourage mail in voting. Hopefully everybody has received your ballots in the mail. You can mail them we recommend strongly that if you're going to mail your ballots in you mail them by this coming Monday, the 21st, which will allow seven days for the post office to get them delivered as you all know we're experiencing mail delays, and we would. It makes us sad when we get ballots that come in after Election Day. So we recommend that you mail them by this Monday the 21st. You make Barbara isn't Monday a holiday. Oh, good point. Good point. I hadn't thought about that it's not a holiday for the town office staff. But thank you, Denise. So if you could get them to the post office on Monday or then we'll say Tuesday on the latest. Thank you. Or you can drop them off at the town office. There is a secured drop box outside the enclosed mudroom. It's available 24 seven. After hours and on weekends, it's a secure box and throughout the weekend I go late in the afternoon every day and I take them out and put them in the vault until Monday. So your ballots are secure. Also, there's in person voting on Tuesday, March 1 at the callous elementary school. The polls are open 7am to 7pm. You can either pre vote your ballots and just drop them off to us that day, or you can come in and stand there and mark your ballots and vote that day. Okay. Cliff, are there any other slides we should cover. Don't let me double check for you. Switch over to that screen. Oh yes, there was one more important one to share. Thank you all. Thank you. I just want to really thank Cliff for all his work pulling this all together he's our computer extraordinaire. Thanks, Cliff. Thank you, Cliff. You're most welcome but I do have to say here that success is a team sport, and there were a lot of members of this team that helped pull this together so thank you to all for your assistance. Okay. So just before we go to hearing a bit from each of the candidates. I just wanted to close by saying on behalf of the town a big thank you. Thank you to John Samanskis for 43 years, and especially to Peg Bowen, who's my neighbor who I've seen drive by my house every day that I think I've been in Calis, whether I lived in the village or now on the hill for her 35 years at the I've worked with Peg on the transfer of Memorial Hall over to the North Calis Memorial Hall Association, and we're anxiously awaiting bids for the second one. I know Peg's I don't think is with us right now, but there are a couple of gifts that will be coming her way that will include a photo of the town hall and paperweight that's going to be engraved with a thanks for her dedication to the community. Over to the North Calis Memorial Hall Association and we're anxiously awaiting bids for the second phase of the rehab there and that wouldn't have been possible without her dedication to to the women's relief core over many, many years. And that I think unless somebody has some other business, we did say that we would hear from the candidates for the select board. I don't know if you've drawn straws terms of the order in which you'll go. I, but unless you have I'll just call on you in some order doesn't look like. I think we're in an awkward alphabetical order. So I think Ms. Gulling would go first than Mr. Fitch and Mr. Ray Ban. Okay, so today it looks like we have some good candidates here. Thank you for all your efforts with the zoom meeting process for town meeting information meeting today. If you haven't mailed your ballot in yet and you can still vote by mail by Monday or Tuesday. That would be great. And thank you for your consideration. My name is Tina Golan and I am running for the select board to your term. My background is as follows. I've been here in Calis most of my life. I've been helping people obtain housing in central Vermont for the last 19 years. I bought my house here in Calis 21 years ago on the same road I grew up on. I graduated from Keynes State College with a degree in journalism and environmental sciences thinking I was going to save the world. I want to preserve the values and the charm of this town, while allowing for smart and sensible growth, but while not transforming it completely. It is possible. And it is important to be careful with the future of our great town. Include the following. And I really would like to encourage for the new generations in their families housing that is sustainable. I would also like to provide broadband or CV fiber or whatever the town people would like available at their house and want or need it they should have it provided especially in East Calis I know there's a dead zone over here at the town hall. Working with homeowners is my third slate issue I would call it is working with homeowners in the town to understand and utilize the energy bill, the act 178 initiative with the state to help homeowners in Calis update and upgrade their electric and electric services. There are numerous incentives right now available at the state level and the local level from the utility companies to help you improve your heating systems. The pumps or wood pellet stoves and upgrade your electric panels for possible electric vehicles in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration today and Tina Golan, you can vote for me for that select word to your. Thank you. Mr. Fitch. Thanks Tina. Unfortunate that we're both all three of us are running for the same term. I guess so. Yeah, my name's Jonathan Fitch and I grew up not far from here on Apple Hill went to Calis elementary and you 32 and ventured off to Georgia. I'm a part design. I've been working in various places on the East Coast sense that just got back from Central New York. I was there for 10 years as an industrial designer, working on a wide variety of projects and trying to come up with creative solutions. I'm still kind of struggling with with how to contribute these days in a way that I feel like leads us in a better direction. I'm kind of hoping looking to help this town out could also potentially be a growth opportunity for myself because I think there's still a lot I need to learn. And as it relates to this town, I'm kind of kind of confused as to what its town vision is. I know I've read the the read the page blurb and that that kind of tracks and sounds lofty but I don't think it always measures up with with some of the decisions we seem to be making. And I feel like one of the things we all struggle with these days is communication. I think even just today we've kind of witnessed a lot of challenges with how do we, how do we communicate what we're trying to achieve even. I'm a little confused with the, the cell service, like I know cell service here and in Calis is pretty poor. And, and I'm curious if we're trying to put up roadblocks to keep it that way. Yeah, so I more just have a lot of questions and, and actually in turn, if anybody has any questions for me, I'd be more than happy to answer. Otherwise, go out and vote and hope to run into you later. Thank you. Thank you. Ray Bant or is yours. We're still out there. John Ray Ben I'm, I am the incumbent for the position that is, is being contested. And I want to first say I'm really happy that there are folks stepping up and running for the seat, whether they're against me it's not no matter I think it's wonderful. And as an incumbent, I feel like I have an advantage so I don't want to speak too much because of that advantage I don't think that's right. But regardless just to speak generally, since I've been on the select board I've been a strong voice and have not stepped away but stepped up to challenges and at times I've pretty much either been strongly supported or made folks upset, many of the same folks who support me both have been upset with some of the decisions I've made, because some of them have been pretty strident I think, and, but in the end, I've always done it with the town's best interests in mind. And I will continue to operate that way. In terms of just, I just want to speak to telecommunications there there was an email that was sent around by a number of folks regarding the need to get our fiber optic system rolled out that CD fiber, which is a municipal membership organization of it that's going to be will be rolling out fiber to premises fiber optic cable, so we all can enjoy better communications without the need for transmitters and actually fiber optic is superior to any other technology. So we are supportive of that your select board is looking at the ARPA funds right now and trying to figure out how to best allocate those funds to be in with an eye towards fairness. I'd be premature to say that we've made a decision in regard in terms of what percentage of those funds are going to be allocated to each authority on our shortlist, but I will say that fiber optic is at the very top. The town itself is in dire need of high speed internet to improve and allow for full functionality of our town office and this town hall frankly, to refit your clerk made it us ever so aware that Sandra further our treasurer that their limitations to what they can do, and the office struggles in terms of managing data, and being able for them to do their work effectively so your town is fully behind you know what else can I say I don't want to monopolize this spot here today so but I want to thank you for your support all these years. Okay, is there any other business anybody would like to bring up today. Either by raising your hand or putting something in the Q amp a. Okay, well, thank you everybody who's participated today and Oh, excuse me. Thank you. I think that's Gus calling on me. This is Sharon when I'm a member of the current select board I want to thank. I want to thank john and Tina and Jonathan for running for select board. Those of you who know me well know that I am where I perhaps get strident is is around the point that our small town governments run on volunteers. We're not a nonprofit organization or a board we are the government of callous and the sustainability of our values of small towns in Vermont relies on people stepping forward and volunteering. So select board is part of that thank you very much. Jonathan, john and Tina for volunteering to serve your town as as part of the government to make it run and and and by extension everybody else that we've heard from today from the commission to Craig as part of the library board and others who it would be a long list, but thank you very much for your service it's really important small town governments cannot run without volunteers and we really need you to do what you're doing. Thank you. Okay, Denise now wants to. Yeah, I wanted to, I wanted to end by saying, thank you to everyone who's running for office. It's great to see so many people. Thank you so much for coming forward. And I want to take the time to reiterate what Sharon said that we really need folks to serve on the various different boards committees commissions and other various roles. So, you know, if you're interested, we would really appreciate your putting your name forward with what you might be interested in doing and see if we can come up with a match. We have openings on planning commission conservation commission. And where else we have openings. But, you know, it's very rewarding to serve your local community. So I would encourage anyone who has an interest to do so, and just thank all the current volunteers for everything that they do to keep the town running. Okay, anyone else. Just scrolling down looking for somebody to raise their hand or post something in the q amp a. If not, everybody have a great day thank you for participating today and thanks to everyone for making this information meeting possible and we are adjourned. Nice job guys thank you. You're welcome. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye everybody. Good job. Yay team. That was good. Thanks. Cliff again thanks for making this so easy for all of us. You're welcome Gus. Thank you for all you do. You do. Always do a great job keeping us going. Okay. Take care and John. You really did a great job making the sound work better out of the town hall. Take care.