 everybody to the select board meeting town of Rochester July 25th 2022 it is now 6 15 we're calling the meeting to order this meeting has been warned in three places correct yes and on our website and notification has been emailed to all interested parties so I believe we have a legal legal meeting going on and the next thing that we're going to do is look at prior meeting minutes and we have we go back to July 5th where we had a select board meeting minutes this was a special meeting and it was in consideration of the tax anticipation note from maskoma bank um I have read all of the minutes I moved that I moved that we accept the minutes I second the movement all in favor I we move on to our next meeting we've been busy July 7th 2022 we had an emergency select board meeting to this this one was to approve the the tax rate um it was discussed we discussed abating delinquent taxes for five dollars and under eliminating small credits two dollars and under and we voted to waive the late filing penalty for HS 122 forms um I found nothing exceptional or mistaken about it so I moved that we accept these minutes I second that all in favor right I moving along to July 11th this was a regular select board meeting um called to order driveway permit white river alliance park use application a discussion about port-a-potties and library updates as well as a message from the energy coordinator I have read and found no mistakes in the select board meetings I move that we accept these meetings minutes I second that all in favor right okay that takes care of past business there's one there is one more noted on the agenda that we do not have those minutes uh in front of us yet they're still being compiled so on the agenda it says special select board meeting July 13th that was the one that was down at the high school um we are still compiling those minutes and then we will probably approve them at our next meeting so we will move that one forward under new business stray animal holding contract from a homeward bound this is an annual contract that um we contract with homeward bound to uh house animals that are strange strays for whatever reason not with their owners um we do have an animal control officer who would work in conjunction with homeward bound so I move that we continue to have that relationship I just wanted to say that um in the past three years we have not used their um services and um it was brought to my attention that it's 450 for the application or for the for the option one and it's for option two it's six hundred dollars and no charge for stray dogs or no limit as the number of stray dogs the town may bring to homeward bound I think we should table this and look at this at another meeting the the fee to take a stray over is an additional on top of the $75 that's for the fee for this dog to stay for the first three days our first three dogs I mean excuse me do we have any input from Jeff Brown I'd like to I wasn't here when all of this happened and Kristen um it's not here this evening to talk about it so I would rather well we'll table this until our next meeting and maybe we can get Jeff's opinion as well no action taken again under new business uh we are going to open bids for an underground tank removal here at this town office building this was uh put out to bids and I am going to sit back and recuse myself while Frank opens the bids we will not make a decision tonight because I'm recusing myself this will also get tabled until we have three select board members we have a forum anyway so we received three bids um the first one was from Harvey's plumbing and electric and excavating LLC and that was for $1,501 we received a bid from excavate for the sum of $1,315 and we received the bid from precision welding and maintenance for $1,525 so they're all in the ballpark um we'll have to look them over and then make a decision excuse me Frank the the last one $1,500 and what excuse me I'm sorry 25 15 25 I'm sorry I didn't quite get that thing that's quite all right so we'll we'll have to do this when we've got at least two of us here to make a decision okay under any new business Mason is there something that you'd like to discuss I was here uh to hear the letter being read it's coming new business um let's go through them let's go through all the departments and then put it in the public comments section and go from there because it's we received it that way kind of really wasn't any we don't have anything so it'll be it right um do we have Joan with us you're muted I saw her face earlier in the in the boxes across the top but now it just says my name that's Marcel are you looking for me yes sorry the volume is really low on my computer for some reason and I can't turn it up so I'm sorry I didn't realize who were who were looking for me well we can hear you loud and clear so okay do you have any information for us this week um I don't okay last thing I was doing with Frank on the sidewalk and the contract has the fully signed contract has been sent to Weaver so um we're good to go on that and uh then I managed the the tank removal bid process as well so just basically it's an end so I've working on lately who had to Jones report um we have uh Jones given us a last day date and it is uh correct me if I'm wrong Joan but I think it's August 26 is that correct I think that's right it's the last Friday of August last Friday of August yep so we're uh have we're going to be posting an administrative assistant position and we're going to advertise it in a few papers and plus put it on our website hopefully we get some interest soon and shortly so we'll be we'll be putting that out right off and there's a little bit of time left to beg and yeah hello hi Frank hey Patty hey it's Robert I I want to make certain that that uh new discussions or other discussions I will be included with a concern okay yes I wait during the public that's on our agenda during the public comments thank you not under discussion whoa whoa excuse me Frank is there in public comments and not under the discussion it's just under public comments we're going to save it till the end so we can get through our meeting that's all we're trying to well this will be a very important part of your meeting well it's coming on the end Robert so hold your horses I don't own horses thank you just hold them anyway Joan are you still there yes I am hi so um sorry to see you move on I hope you're moving on to a happy place and if you decide that you don't want to move on you're still a chance to say you can stand well thank you for that I appreciate it the door is still open okay we're going to miss you anyway good to know appreciate your efforts all right let's move on to see do we have anyone from the library on zoom we do not and we do not have anyone here a library discussion you should ask who who is calling from 767-4998 that that is Robert Frank okay thank you okay so he's in there twice for some reason okay um so we have no report from the library this evening um so we're going to move on to the highway department which we do not have any report from the highway they are continuing to do roadside mowing and um the typical summer maintenance road grading miss and that so we uh we wish them safe travels as they travel up and down the sides of our road uh utilities operator Terry what how do you think good everything's good that's good to hear we like that um both water and sewer yeah all right hey patty it's robert yes sir hey i just wanted to i met with some of the town uh road crew the other day and complimented them on the great work they've done on brook street and they're doing a fabulous job the guy that did all the uh brush hogging another fabulous job though i thought that's important to share for those guys because they work hard well they do appreciate hearing compliments because they don't just don't get enough of that thank you let's move on to jeff get part are you out there jeff jeff is our energy coordinator yes i'm not here um i am uh i hope to have it you today but it will be later this week i'm working on an analysis of cost and performance for insulating the garage town garage wall between the conditioned and unconditioned space um looking at that from the standpoint of what minimum code requires and also from the standpoint of building physics and moisture movement across the wall whatever we do we want to do it upright and we want to do it to last so i'm working on pricing estimates you know obviously you have to put it out to bid but to get a sense as to how we want to scope out the work we really have to go through the various materials and their prices and coverages to end as well as performance to put in front of you a reasonable group of choices do you anticipate this to be a project that could take place this year can can it be done uh during the fall winter season um i would that it could i think we all know that the number of contractors that we have remaining in the workloads in front of them um saying when something can happen um especially small things sometimes difficult well let's see where that leads us hopefully we can get it done sooner than later perfect anything else um no i don't think so okay thank you so much okay we're gonna move into old business we have um again we're going to move the treasurer's report and the master financial policy one more meeting down the road um again we'd like to have all three of us present for the discussion on both these items so if uh if we can move this into the month of august we promise i think we promise we can get that done right so we're just not trying to kick the can too far down the road but we do want to have input from all three of us and it is getting time to get these things done okay so have we gotten to the point of the letter yep i'm saying anybody else have anything else to add i have a letter that was forwarded to us with a request to be read at tonight's meeting um it does come from senator allison clarkson it is dated april 6 2022 and it actually has a title to it so bear with me as i read all of this the title is how rochester was moved from windsor district to adison district and i hope everyone can hear me well the decision to move rochester from the windsor district was the last piece in the senate's complicated redistricting puzzle it made me very sad i had fought to keep rochester in windsor district during the entire process and was profoundly disappointed when the chair of the legislative reapportionment board raised the constitutional issue which swayed the senate reapportionment committee to move rochester into the adison district and brain tree into the washington district first let me fill you in on a bit of what led up to this decision by the srac senate reapportionment committee every 10 years the results of the national census requires each state to review the impact of any population change on their electoral districts our vermont constitution requires that our state's population must be fairly distributed to afford equality of representation covet delayed the national census returns and as a result the redistricting process has been condensed each state manages its own work vermont's process begins with the legislation legislative apportionment committee the lab it is a non-legislative group with a chair appointed by the supreme court chief justice and a committee of seven which is politically balanced it is charged with taking the first stab at this work the lab met this summer and fall and it produced two reports a majority and minority report for both the house and the senate to consider in the house the government operations committee after feedback from the boards of civil authority reviews the lab proposals and after much work proposes a new redistricting map to the house for approval in the senate the lab report comes straight to the senate reapportionment committee a group of seven balanced by party and region you can find all the lab reports and maps on the legislative website here's the link to our sr ac website maps are under the reports and resources tab https colon that forward slash forward slash legislature dot vermont dot gov forward slash committee forward slash detail forward slash 2022 forward slash three seven one the senate reapportionment committee on which i served was entrusted with the task task of incorporating the 2020 census data into our senate districts so that they equally equally reflect the changes in population while the population in vermont grew from 625,741 in 2010 to 643,077 in 2020 most of that growth was in the northwest of the state in chitenden franklin and grand isle counties the increase in vermont's population requires that each house member represent about 4,300 and each senator about 21,500 the southern four counties bennington ruttland windham and windsor lost population but the most significant loss has been in the northeast kingdom with the support of our constitution and historic precedent the sr ac decided to adhere to the following standards we agree that senate districts be based on one county boundaries to substantial equality minimal percentage deviations three the avoidance of splitting towns and counties four respecting community connections common interests and geography and five creating a reasonably shaped district compact and continuous territories and reset a deviation total of no more than 15 percent anything much higher courts a constitutional challenge our challenge was several fold all of the southern counties lost population not as much as the northeast kingdom but some and when you start to move towns into other counties slash districts it has impact on many other districts adison county had lost population and needed more orange county had gained too much population for one person and needed fewer towns the bennington district needed population they got london berry and ruttland needed population they got mount holly windsor district got pitsfield and thetford to help our population loss sr ac had decided to move brain tree into the adison district to help increase their population but there is no road from adison to brain tree which which the lab chair felt could be caused for a constitutional challenge which is why at the very last minute rochester was moved into the adison district and brain tree went to the washington district this decision was very frustrating i had argued long and hard to keep counties out as a whole as possible so this decision was really tough i am sorry it ended up this way we need to do all we can to grow windsor county's population for the 2030 census by about 7000 people to be kept as a whole as a county and to be equitably represented by three senators if you have further questions please be in touch i can be reached by email a clarkson at le g dot state dot vt dot us or by phone at 802 457 4627 can i comment on that letter patty uh that is the statement that was sent from allison clarkson and now we would take any comments or questions okay so today i sent a email to you and julie with the uh verbiage that allison clarkson shared with me as of this morning unfortunately everything you just were very patiently and read very clearly um did you do you know where that letter was submitted to back in april yes i do not i do not believe i know that well it's in the email that i sent you this morning and allison allison sent that letter to the democratic party of rochester obviously she did not share it with the town clerk julie was caught blindsided as of 10 days two weeks ago sadly julie wasn't even aware of what happened uh kevin darty he admitted to me by telephone that he was blindsided and wasn't warranted now kevin's the chair of the board of civil authority allison clarkson did not share this with the town or it's obvious he didn't share with the town of rochester because we the town's people wouldn't be confused and julie would be able to project what allison shared so this is a democratic uh let me just make it real clear this is a dereliction of duty from the senators uh the former senators uh micormick and clarkson the first thing they should have done is sent a registered letter to the town to the board of civil authority of pittsfield and rochester to make certain that they received the letter that you just read and so that the select board the board of civil authority of rochester could communicate in a correct and positive democratic way to the people that are asking questions so all all i think it's great alice allison clarkson put this letter together but guess what he didn't communicate it on a bipartisan program so that everyone was of but let me just make this clear we just talked about roads we talked about painting a basement this is a serious 30 to 20 this 40 year political hydraulic event and it is important there's one thing that i'm concerned about as a as a an american citizen is the concern and the respect for votes this is a serious issue and i'm asking martha slater to quote me in this coming thursday's paper as the senators of the former senators of rochester are in dereliction of duty for not making this clear and i feel badly for julie june said well robert i haven't seen the ballot yet well why why was that letter not shared with the entire bipartisan democrat communist republican independent i mean why wasn't the town clerk of and dune the chair of the select board and kevin darty privy to that letter i mean this this listen i i warned the town of rochester over a year and a half ago julie attested to it that the 220 census will affect rochester and what's going to happen and you know i thought at the beginning when i realized this information had this situation had occurred i thought wow that's the best thing that could ever happen to rochester they're included in addison county and then i find out that the town of rochester doesn't even know what happened i mean i mean this is despicable and you know the other thing is this has to go in the minutes be put into the vault for historical research so people know that as of this election cycle right now oh by the way i don't know whether anyone has a calendar in front but the primary elections are 22 days away and we're in this scenario the people of your town don't know what is happening so i don't know who's in charge of the election day the board of civil authority and how you're going to have so many people saying wait a second i'm voting for a senator from addison county ruth hardy is totally delinquent i i met with her personally she actually wrote a note specifically to meet with the town clerk of rochester that was over a week ago i don't believe that meeting ever happened so our new senator is held should be held with their election of duty so i wouldn't vote for her i mean you've got it she's out canvassing for announcing she's the new senator while the town clerk of rochester doesn't even know that the senators have been removed so you know allison carcin and dick mccormick do the woe thing i'm so sorry dick mccormick saying i i'd love rochester i'd love the voters well it's like a relationship dick's been the senator for this town for 30 some odd years if he really loved it he would have had a phone call or a letter or said hey guys everyone get together and let's talk about the the hydraulic dynamics which includes education funding uh school resource resourcing hello that's a big question it is about banking robert can you stick to the topic here let's not drag this out the what's been done there's no hey robert this is our meeting not yours and we're giving you a chance to speak no no frank frank you're wrong we're done satisfied minutes too well i hope that's recorded you've had your five minutes and that's good you didn't alert me that i was being timed okay you're not um the we met with ruth at our 713 meeting so all three of the select board and the town clerk met ruth hardy just a couple weeks ago um julie was on a vacation so if that meeting uh was slated to have taken place uh in the past week um it it would have been moved forward so i i think that all of that is still pending and um we're we're not passing any judgment on anyone prior or in the future we just hope to get good representation wherever we end up well that's not very democratic this is a serious issue that people need to know about okay excuse us mason's raising his hand thank you uh i became aware of the situation uh in in the process of firing with the state of ramon as an independent candidate or at its encounter at in this process uh discovering that the communications hadn't happened very well in town and what you know what are the rules here is it would be expected that within 24 hours after a committee has done this that a town is notified what what parameters do we have a situation where they made this decision in april so that's the question i have for the select board is what are your expectations for being notified in a pretty serious situation here uh related to voting etc i think tonight is pretty clear that we are still within the winzer county conditional system that this is only affecting the voting situation of the senate but the senate and the house uh you know what are the effects is i think need to be expressed to the voters but thank you very much and i hope to represent uh uh ron chester and run it out as a county there you go good luck thank you does anyone else have any comments on this letter or the subject sadly there's some leaders of town that um aren't present tonight they're just voters okay well thank you i guess we will close the discussion on that anything further nope i'm upset with that good to go it is so noted into our meeting and at this point in time i believe we have taken care of our business i move we adjourn the meeting i second the motion all in favor all right hi thank you so much everyone