 at five o'clock. Do we have any amendments to the agenda? No, not from Ion. Okay, we've got I think we've got plenty to uh plenty to do. So with that uh Grace from Central Vermont Regional Planning to update the board on permitted ways to spend ARPA coronavirus relief funds and we were hoping that David Lawrence was going to be here but I don't see him yet. And I'm sorry. He said he'll he said he will be here. Okay hopefully he'll when he comes on uh so with that Grace. Hello thanks for. Give us give us give us some good clear guidance that we can understand. So so I got a couple. Jumbo with no asking legal terms. I could do a couple different things. I have a really short PowerPoint that would take like five minutes running through the eligible uses or I could just answer your specific questions. What would be most helpful? Both. Both? Okay. I would say start with the far of the PowerPoint and then do questions and it would also be great if you could pass that PowerPoint along to Sarah so she could share it with us. Yes, all right. Let me go ahead and share my screen. Can you guys see this? Yeah. All right. So this is adapted from a VLCT PowerPoint but I just cut it down to way fewer slides. So I'm going to go over the broad four buckets of eligible ARPA funding. As you know, every municipality in Vermont has received the first half of their ARPA allocations. The second half will come next year and there are four broad buckets. I'm just going to go through them quickly and then I can answer questions. So the first category is pandemic response and that can be for public health impacts from COVID or economic impacts from COVID. But the key here is if you're thinking about a project or a purchase in this category, you need to think about what specific impact of COVID would the project or the purchase address. It's important to make that linkage. So I'm not going to go through all these examples. I'll distribute the PowerPoint later. But there's some broad eligible uses like for example, putting up a plexiglass in the town office, purchasing PPE, anything that will mitigate or prevent the spread of COVID. And then for economic impacts, it's a little broader. You can provide direct assistance to businesses or households who have been impacted by COVID. You can provide grants and loans, things like that. So that's the first category. Second is premium pay. This can also be referred to as hazard pay. And one important thing is that you may have already distributed hazard pay to staff during COVID. You can still distribute hazard pay to those staff even if they have received hazard pay before. So that's great news. This is eligible for anybody who's an essential worker, and it's pretty broad. There's a list on the right hand of the slide. So that could be in Plainfield. The Plainfield Co-op came to the select board, and they were wondering if the Plainfield Co-op employees could get hazard pay. And those are grocery store employees. So they're considering that. It's anyone who was in kind of a hazardous position, as the term says, during COVID who was interacting with the public or interacting with people who could potentially expose them to COVID. Lost revenue is the trickiest one. That's why there's a ton of text on the slide. To boil it down, the federal government assumed probably correctly that a lot of towns and cities lost revenue during COVID. That could be from not collecting as many property taxes, people not paying delinquent taxes or fees, people not going to parks and the parks and rec department didn't collect as much revenue, anything like that. So there's a huge list of potential lost revenue sources that you can go through. And basically, for this category, you would go through those sources, calculate how much revenue you had lost, assuming due to COVID. And then you can use that amount to put towards what they're calling the provision of government services. And there's a really long list on the right hand side that is what provision of government services means. But could I interrupt for one second? It's Peter. So would town employees in general be considered for hazard pay? Yeah. Okay. Road crew, office staff? Yeah, yeah. Pretty much anybody. Yeah, because it's assumed that town employees could come into contact with the general public. So. Okay. Thank you. So yeah, so for lost revenue, you think about what you lost. There's a really complicated calculator that you can work with NIMRIC on. I don't know if Middlesex uses NIMRIC. Okay, great. So they are offering their services to municipalities to kind of help them navigate this lost revenue calculator. So that'll make it much simpler if you want to do that. So you come up with that amount and then you can use that amount to kind of fill in the gaps of government services. And then the last one is water sewer and broadband. That's what you've probably been hearing a lot about. That's definitely what I'm getting those questions on from towns. It's a little tricky. So the federal government says that water and sewer projects, they have to align with two EP programs. So they're basically saying if you have a water project or sewer project that's eligible under this EPA program, it's also eligible under ARPA. So that means that towns or I need to go through those EPA programs and figure out what's eligible. But based on my current understanding and DEC is going to be coming out with more information about this, there's a really broad list of potential clean water, storm water projects that could be eligible under this category. And then sewer, wastewater treatment plants, stuff like that. So broadband, that's another one that's getting a lot of attention. You can use your ARPA funding to connect or work towards connecting unserved or underserved households. And that's people who have less than 25, 25 megabytes per second upload download. You can also provide assistance to households or businesses to provide internet access or digital literacy assistance. For example, the library could loan out laptops or something like that. What you cannot spend ARPA money on, federal match. So you're probably familiar with federal grants where you can't match federal to federal. That is also the case with ARPA. Can't put it into a pension fund and you can't use it for infrastructure that's not water sewer broadband. And rainy day funds, financial reserves and outstanding debt are not eligible. So when it comes to the internet piece, if we chose to create a program, somehow possibly income sensitive to subsidize people getting broadband, something like that would fit, right? Yeah, I think it would, because you can also under the economic impacts category, you can provide utility assistance. And I think that would also fall under that. So yeah, that sounds like it could be eligible. Okay. Okay. So last slide here, best practices. This is basically the messaging that I'm sending out to all of the municipalities in the central Vermont region. Be patient, no need to rush. You have until 2024 to obligate your money and 2026 to spend it. Review your municipal priorities and programs. Look at your town plan or other, you know, project lists that you gathered over the years and figure out what could match with ARPA. Consult your citizens. Sometimes they're forming ARPA committees. Northfield is doing a public forum that I'm attending later tonight. Sometimes they're putting out surveys online to gather input, a lot of different things. And then, you know, consider your eligible uses that I just went over and then exclude ineligible uses. And then also think about other funding sources. You're probably aware that the state has a ton of ARPA money that is coming down the pipe. Guidance on it is, you know, forthcoming, but there's a lot happening at the state level. So thinking about, you know, what could be funded with that versus what you could use your ARPA funding for is important too. And then two different resources we have, I sent out the little two-sheeter on the left to you all maybe a couple weeks ago, but this is basically just going through what I just went through, you know, how to prioritize projects. And then the table on the right is adapted from another town who basically created this matrix where you can list your project ideas and then kind of go through a methodical process of figuring out, you know, what is the need? What's the impact? Is there an access to ARPA? Is there other funding potentially available? Et cetera. And I can send out that it's just like an excel. I can send that out too if you want to adapt it. So that is it for the PowerPoint. So Grace, this is Liz. Thank you. Two questions. One about the internet. If parts of the town have more than the 25 because they're served through some service that I'm not sure if Comcast does more than 25. I really don't know because I don't have it. But if we were to do something with the CV fiber and they were to extend Broadband where there already is 25, is there something about that? Or is it only for the rural parts that don't get the 25? Yeah, so I think 25 is like the minimum they want to see. But in the rule, they also talk about 100 megabytes upload download. So I think like in the rule they say, you know, broadband projects should achieve 100, 100. If not, they should achieve 25, 25, 25. So there's definitely way over. Okay. Yeah. All right. And then another question has been the first part about making improvements to your building for like the PP, for making it like air quality. Could there be an argument that our town clerk has bad air quality and therefore we want to do improvements to the building? Yes. So there is mention of like, in the rule, there's mention of ventilation improvements in public facilities as an eligible use. And I think that the idea is that that would connect to, you know, mitigating the spread of COVID. So that is probably eligible. But anything beyond ventilation could get to you. Right. So it's not like, oh, we're going to put in new windows. Right. That probably doesn't fall into it. It would just be for, you know, fixing the ventilation or something like that, right? Right. But under the lost revenue category, there's a little workaround where there's maintenance of infrastructure is an eligible use. You know, like I was saying, if you calculate, you know, $10,000 of lost revenue, you could use that $10,000 for new windows because that would count as a provision of government services. I know it's very complicated. So do, does radon carry the COVID virus? Just kidding. We have a radar scientist potential radon problem at our at our town hall. But if we put in an improved ventilation system to mitigate the radon, but it also provided better ventilation and air quality in the office, that might, we might be able to sneak that under the wire. Yeah, I would just say when you report on the project, don't mention, you know, focus on mitigating the spread of COVID rather than radon. Got it. Thank you. Yes. So back to the windows thing, if we had to relocate people within the office to meet the required, the distancing requirement, and we had to move them into a room that did not, was not insulated with proper windows and things, then would that qualify? Yes, that is interesting. Yeah, I think that could, because I think anything to any, any, like, facility improvements you make to allow for social distancing, I think would count, could count under the mitigating the spread of, or preventing the spread of COVID. So I'm sorry, go ahead. And my last question was if we've already spent money to make the, some improvements already, can we recapture any of that money spent? That is more tricky, because you can't exactly, I don't think like putting, you know, if you spend money from the general fund and put it towards whatever improvement you can't, it's not eligible to just put my, put your ARPA money into your general fund, unless it's under the lost revenue category. Okay, thank you. So Grace, is, is there a way, if, if we come up with a, with a list of potential uses of our funds, is, is there a way to have someone, you or someone else look it over and say, yes, this all looks good or no, this isn't going to make it or, I mean, the things that are black and white are black and white. I'm, I'm not too worried about those, but some of the things we're thinking about doing might be in the, might be in the gray area. And I just don't want to go ahead with a project without at least having some reassurance that it's likely to be reimbursed. Yeah, I can definitely look at a list. Well, I should say not reimbursed. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I see David's here. Thank you, David, for, for joining us. Other questions? Board members? Yes, Mary. Your microphone's off. If we want to do Grace, could we start spending the money we have sooner rather than later? Yes, you can. One point I would make is all of the stuff I just talked about is in a draft rule. The final rule that will hopefully include more detail has not come out yet. So the messaging that I'm sending to municipalities is, since you have till 2024, it could be helpful to just wait till that final rule comes out because there might be more information or a change in information. It probably won't be a drastic change, but I think the more information you can gather before initiating a project, the more accurate your reporting and backing up documentation could be. So that's one caution I would offer. When is that final guidance going to come out? Great question. So the draft rule came out in July, or no, the public comment period for the draft rule closed in July. So hopefully any day, but not sure. Yes, Sarah. Grace, you have, you said there are no guidelines regarding state, the state funds that might be coming down or funds that might be coming through the state. Do you have any idea about along those lines, like for example, could they be used for broadband? We're hearing a lot that there's going to be additional broadband money coming through. Yeah, so what I heard today at a VLCT webinar was that the communication union's districts are going to be getting funding from the public service department for pre-construction but that's not until a few years from now, I think. So yes, communication union districts are going to be getting funding for broadband and then ANR is going to be initiating five new programs for water and wastewater projects. They haven't come out with grants for that yet, but I can send you the link to the website where they have information about it. Well, we really don't have any water or wastewater projects. So we don't really get information. That makes it simpler. So does CV, if you're, if a town like Middlesex is part of CV fiber, does that count as a communication union district? Yes, CV fiber is a cut, as they call them. Yeah. Do you have any idea how much funding the CUDs will get? I do not. I don't know if David has more information, but I don't. I don't have it at hand, no. Thanks. I have a question. Other questions for Grace? Yeah, I have a question. This is Liz. Grace, in the beginning slide, you talked about giving money to like towns people in the form of grants or loans. We did develop a, not we, the select board, but our town developed a community fund, sort of in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we had collected funds to help family members who needed money during the pandemic. And it's sort of designed that they first go to other resources in their communities that may be available like, you know, food stamps and rental assistance, all those other programs before we give them the money. But I'm wondering if we were to sort of seed some of this, say, give $10,000 of it, what kind of record keeping would we need to have to show that these people that we're giving the money to, which could be over time, right, that we're giving them this money were affected by the pandemic? Yeah, that is a great question that I don't have the answer to yet, because hopefully it's going to be in the final rule. Okay. Great. Thank you. Right now it just says, you know, residents who were negatively impacted economically or, you know, other ways. It's not super specific. But does it have like a timeframe? Like, is there like during the state of emergency? Or can it, I mean, people could be affected now, right? Because yeah, so jobs or whatever. So it can start during the beginning date is like when the emergency was declared, which I think was March something 2021. And then you would have to expend the funds by 2026. But they could say that they like in 2023, someone in the pandemic say is become an endemic. And we're all just sort of back to normal. Could they still ask for money and say that it's been affected by COVID? And we would have to prove that. Yes. Yes. I don't know how you would have to prove it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Other questions for Grace? Grace, thank you. Thank you very much. We do have David Lawrence here, who's our CV fiber board rep. And we're going to have a little discussion with him. And you might want to you're welcome to listen into this as well. David, our concern has been that we are a little bit confused about what our potential role other than just turning over money, what our potential role with CV fiber could be. And any enlightenment you could give us, uh-oh, did we lose him? No, I'm here. Oh, he's there and you moved over one block. I'm sorry. Things tend to move around in a random fashion in these meetings. You know, I guess we understand that CV fiber is looking for money. You'd like to have ARPA funds from us. I guess the big question I have and other board members may have other questions is, what's the benefit that the town of Middlesex gets if we give CV fiber a significant chunk of our ARPA money? Right. So the expectation is that the main benefit of the ARPA funds would be to mitigate the amount of lending that CV fiber or borrowing rather that CV fiber has to do in order to facilitate the project. It doesn't really change the structure of the project very much. It's just, you know, it keeps the money local instead of paying debt service to lenders. And the, there is an intention and so as a board member, I'm speaking, you know, based on my knowledge, but these are not necessarily like the completely official answers, but it's based on my understanding of the conversations that we've had so far. There is absolutely an intention that there will be a low income benefit for the service right now that's expected to come in two forms. One is to help with what we call the initial drop, the connection of a home to the service. That cost can vary significantly depending on, you know, how many feet of driveway somebody might have or so on. But there is, right now, the expectation is that the low income benefit there would be that the drop cost just would be covered. And then there's also expected to be among the service tiers. There is a basic service tier, which would be the 2525 and one minor correction there is it's megabits not megabytes because of the way network speeds are measured. But it, I guess it's not that minor because it's actually a difference in eight times the speed. But anytime you hear about Comcast or other providers talking about speed, they're talking in terms of megabits not megabytes. And so the basic tier would be expected, would be a 2525 symmetric megabit connection. And the right now some numbers that the chair of the board has thrown out again, nothing's been formalized, nothing's been settled. He's he's roughly kind of trying to target that the low income sensitivity provision would provide the basic service that essentially half the price of the regular price. So and then the faster speed tiers would be available. We're expecting the fastest speed going all the way up to one gigabit. So but but there's no, I understand that that the less service you have the less overhead you have the rates can potentially be a little lower. Right. But it isn't like if if middle sex gives you half a million dollars, our residents are going to see a 10% or 20% reduction in their rate. It's going to be over one of the things that the board is also sensitive to would be the complications of having to come up with different rate structures for different areas versus just the whole service area. And so that is a while every, I forget what exactly, but essentially the contract that is done up with every term town stands on its own and is able to have its own individual modifications, the fewer of those modifications that need to be made the better. And I'm just, I shouldn't say just me, we meaning the town are looking for some kind of direct benefit. And I would encourage you to look for that because, you know, just to say, oh, well, we don't have anything else to use it on. So we're going to give it all the CV fiber. And it's going to help out the whole community, because the overall cost is going to be less. That's great. But if we're given the money and other towns are not and they're using their money for all these other purposes we've just heard about. Well, so far, and I don't have a list in front of me of to know for sure exactly which towns have given which commitments, but I know that at least some of them have made some commitments for the Harper funds to CV fiber. But I don't have the details to share with you on that. Yeah. And I guess another question is, we believe that we are in the throws of negotiating a contract with CV fiber and our attorney has reviewed a contract and sent it back to CV fiber and we have heard nothing. Okay, I don't know where that stands, but it would be good if you could follow up on that because that's the first step in that process. No matter what we do. Right. Yeah, I have absolutely nothing to do with that end of things, but I will certainly follow. I understand. We're looking at you as our guy though. Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. I will certainly follow up with Jeremy on that that the town wants to know where we're where we stand in the process. And just really briefly on that, by the way, agreement. Yes. At least the status of the project is right now the poll inventory is nearly complete. They're about a fifth of the way through kind of the specific project planning for what all needs to be, you know, which lines are going to be running so on. I can say that based on the percentage of underserved residences, including my own that middle sex is kind of leading the pack as far as where the initial deployments are supposed to go. We have such a high percentage of people that are under that 2525 that a significant portion of the initial build out is going to be in middle sex. So is DSL 25 megabits? Most. So it varies by distance from the CEO a little bit. There are several tiers and a fair bit of the DSL even ignoring its reliability problems. But I know that a lot of the DSL that's deployed in middle sex does not reach that threshold. So it's less than 25. Yes, correct. Victor, you have a question. You're muted. I noticed I'm up here on McCullochill taking inventory of the polls. And I was just curious, how does that work? That line that goes from Consolidated's office over to the school is owned by Consolidated. How do you put your own wire up? Or you rent the polls? Right. I don't know the specific logistics there other than to say that I know that the majority of the polls are actually Washington Electric controlled. And so the team is working in partnership with Washington Electric regarding how the polls are used, which includes, among other things, it's not just adding a little wire to the poll. Apparently they have to move some of the existing wires up a level before they can put the new wire on the poll. So there's a fair bit more than just stringing a new cable along. Are they going to use that existing cable up there? Well, the fiber, of course, is its own special cable. I don't think that's what I mean. They have a fiber optics cable that runs from the... No. I think the answer, Victor, is no, because I'm on the WEC board. What CV fiber and the other CUDs are going to do is they're going to rent or lease a position that's below the electric and below the telephone. And it's going to be closer to the ground. And it's a certain amount. And so they're going to put the fiber there and it will be fiber that is owned, put up by WEC, and leased to CV fiber. Any other... Thank you very much, David. That was helpful. We may reach out to you from time to time as we go through this process. Yeah, you bet. That's why I'm here. That's why you... Yeah, if you have any enlightening information that comes from your meetings, if you would share it with Sarah so she could share it with us, that would be great. So thank you. Thank you very much for being with us tonight. And you're welcome to stay if you choose to. Thanks. Thank you again. So our next agenda item is the Highway Report. Shane Brickey to present options for a new dump truck action possible. And we have a sheet from Shane. I don't know if you can see that on my screen that Sarah predicted. So with that, Shane, you're on. Well, the roads are good. Our roads are actually in pretty good shape. So finishing Bulldoch Road right now, doing a little resurfacing on that and that job will be completely done. So other than that, unless you have any questions on the road, I'll present these trucks. The only thing just to follow up on is that between you and Victor, you've made the decision to postpone installing new culverts on Center Road until spring. Yes, we'll have to do it first thing in the spring. There's no point in discussion about that at our last meeting. Yeah, we'll just have to wait and do it first thing. Shane, you might do that one by curls, right? If you take all the black top off? Yeah, if we take the black top off up to McCullough, then there's two to be done right there. Is that why you cleared the roadway on the right hand side going for the interstate? Yeah, that needs to be, that berm needs to be taken off all the way up through there and the road needs to be ditched, but that road is so broken up there, the road actually needs to be resurfaced a little bit before they pave. So if we can take off the black top this fall and do a little bit of resurfacing we need to do, we'll be ahead of the game for spring. On to the trucks. Okay, my price for trucks. The pricing is all in front of you guys. The first two, I believe are our best options. They have the best warranties. Number two has the best warranty, 200,000 miles. And these numbers are not going to be accurate because all the pricing has gone up on trucks. So the first truck is the total price would be $7,306. The second truck would be $83,400. And then the other two trucks both went up by $2,025, but I don't think I'd recommend looking at one of those because one of them, the Western Star, which we've had all the problems with, only has a 60 month transmission and axle warranty and 84 month on engine and chassis. And with a Mac, you can only get warranty on the engine and after treatment. So that wouldn't make any sense. The first two have full bumper to bumper warranties for 84 months. I mean, personally, we like the Kenworth. The Kenworth can be here sooner. They have two slots in the second quarter open if we order right now. And so we could see this truck potentially July, August time next year. If we go with the international, it's the end of August. So you'd probably see the truck around the end of October, the end of November time next year. And the dates are getting pushed out faster and faster. So we need to make a decision sooner than later on it. The Kenworth I think is a little bit better. I mean, the month warranties are the same, but the mileage, you guys drive a lot more miles because you have to haul so far for any gravel or anything. It's another 100,000 mile on that warranty. So you'd never even worry about going to the mileage part of it. So you said the internet all would come in August and we would get it at the end of October. What did you say about the Kenworth? We could potentially see the Kenworth the July or August in our yard because that will be built in the second quarter. So April, May, or June if they built it in April, we'd see it sooner than later. But obviously we can't pay for it till after July 1st. So when we place the water, does that lock in the pricing? Yes, because they don't know if the pricing is going to keep jumping or not because the kids jump twice in the last three months on them. And another question is so, and I'm just looking at the sheet you gave us, but the international has an 18 speed transmission and the Kenworth only has a 10 speed. Yeah, the reason to go with the 18 speed with the international is if you go with the eight double L, which is a 10 speed, they only go up to 475 horse. And with your hills, you really want the horsepower and torque with these trucks because you guys do have a lot of steep hills in this town. And Jay would like to go with a 10 speed and I would or a standard transmission. If you guys are leaning towards automatic, you're looking at another $12,000 on top of it. Our current trucks are automatic, correct? Yes, they are. And the reason, and I'm just trying to remember and help me out other board members, especially you Steve, I believe the reason we went with automatic transmission was the feeling that would be less stress on the drivetrain than the manual. And I don't know whether that's valid, was valid, is valid. Who knows, but I think that's the reason that's the reason we made the decision to go with the automatic. Isn't that right Steve? Yes, I believe that was part of the reason, but I think that's a fallacy in a sense that I think the automatic transmissions can't do what the driver can do. I mean, I think the trucks are using a lot more break with the automatic transmissions. They're not shifting down. Whereas with the standard transmissions, you're shifting down. And again, you've got a lot more cost to put on this if we go to an automatic. I did want to make one other comment. If I could right now, seems how I am yapping here. And that is the difference in price. It looks like it's a little over $9,000. But I'm going to go up to the service part of the thing. We've had internationals, quite a few internationals, and we've had them up to Clark's a lot. And the time frame that they're up there, they spent a lot of time. We've never had a Kenworth, but I can speak from experience from being with EA Grand Field. We had Kenworth tractor and we had Mac dump trucks. But both of those as far as the service was absolutely excellent. If they told you that you could be in there in three days or bring it in tomorrow or whatever, that's what they did. And our truck didn't just sit there for a few weeks or whatever. So as far as I'm concerned, I would, my vote is for the Kenworth, especially for that reason. Who's the Kenworth dealer? Yeah, I used to go to Green Mountain Kenworth. They're down on the Shelburne road. Yep. Okay. Yeah, I'm based on our recent experience over the last five or six years. I agree with the manual transmission over the automatic. And I also agree with your comments about the international, the actual difference in the purchase price compared to the inconvenience of being without the truck for weeks at a time over seven or eight years is basically peanuts. I hate to say $10,000 is peanuts, but relatively speaking it is. So I agree with all of that. The other question I have is, and I believe we've had this discussion in the past also, but there's no one else we want to get a bid from on all the other equipment, which is which is actually more than the cost of the truck than just going to Tenco and taking their pricing. There's no way to leverage that or get another bid to try and get a little better price. You can, but traditionally Vikings more and you're going to travel further for service. And Tenco's been pretty good. I mean, that's up to you guys. I don't know what you've had in the past with Tenco, but my experiences with them is they do what they tell you they're going to do in a timely manner. If something happens, they call you and tell you. I don't disagree, Shane. I'm just saying we're getting another price on the truck and actually ironically the equipment is more than the cost of the truck and we're not getting an alternate bid. And I don't know any of the people at Tenco. I know we've gotten good service from them, but I don't know. It's just it's a question. I can still get a bid on that. You can still vote on the truck tonight. And I mean, this thing isn't going to be put together until next year. But we could do it the next meeting, go over the pricing. I call Viking. And yet I think the guy left his card with me and see traditionally, there's more money, but we can see. There's nothing like knowing there's a competitor looking at this to cause people to sharpen up their pencil a little bit. I don't know how other board members feel about that. That's just my thought. I get you, Peter. I think we should get another bid, but I also agree with Shane that we can vote on the truck tonight. Yeah. Yep. Hi, Greg. Do you want something or during that? Just it on the trades. Will the trades be guaranteed if we lock it in? No, none of them. Then no one will guarantee it until they see the truck again next year. Right. So the potential could be it could change. We wouldn't necessarily get the city. Yeah, they all kind of went low, hoping that they still give us that price next year. And they said it potentially maybe if the market on the trucks is outstanding, we might get more because the price of news going up. And if the demand's there, we might get more, but they can't guarantee we will. Are you saying Shane that the trade is with the plow kit too? And, and all that. Yeah. Yeah. That's why the price it is. Okay. And just another quick question, the warranty. What does that typically cover? Everything. The top two trucks cover everything. Covers the truck chassis and the after treatment is all your new D F exhaust fluid system that covers all of that. So as the sort of expectation, I mean, like what would the expectation be on a yearly basis that you might have to put into repairs or something that don't fall into work here? Is that not a possibility? Only if you change something on your own and put something that wasn't originally on the truck, which you shouldn't do. I mean, if something happens to it, it's under warranty, you'd send it back. So what do we pay for with all our truck repairs, trucks that don't have warranties or something or that are past their warranty? Is that why they're warranties? Yes. And the little freight liner only had a two year warranty on it. So that truck has no warranty at all. And I think Charles is out of warranty now too. He might have some luck on the chassis, but. So the only other thing I would say, Liz, is I believe what they consider where parts are excluded from the warranty, like brake parts, tires, all that kind of stuff, similar to a car warranty. So what about the add-on? Who warrants those? Or does anybody, you know, the body, the sander and controls, plow equipment, hydraulic, all the stuff that's TENCO, you gave us a bid from TENCO, is there a warrant? Yeah, I think they warranty it. Let me see if you, they're warranty for so long, probably not long, if anything, it's probably only a year. But I can call and find out because it's not on the sheet he gave me, but typically they warranty stuff for so long, but a lot of parts that go on those trucks are wear parts. So it's hard to warranty the wear parts. But the other thing to the other thing to ask him, Shane, just because we have had some issues with some of that equipment, non-wear parts, we've had hydraulic pumps fail and, you know, other things like that, hydraulic motors and sanders. And if there's any kind of, just, just clarify the warranty situation, if there's any extended warranty available. And he's so lost. Absolutely. Hey, Shane, Paul Sermonar here. I just had a quick question. I know Kenworth, when I was still at the town, was a little bit new to the game. I'm assuming that their chassis and motor configuration is all compatible with our municipal needs at this point. They've kind of delved into that. And I'm assuming that's all compatible and would meet our needs, correct? Yes. Awesome. Okay. Any other questions? So I think the concept is that we're going to vote tonight on the truck and wait to hear back from Shane about the equipment, if that works for everybody. So assuming that's the case and nobody has anything else to say, is somebody willing to make a motion? I'll make a motion that we have Shane give Shane the authority to talk with Kenworth and order that truck. Okay. Is there a second? I second. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Here we go. Spending money is always fun. We did it so goddamn fast. May I ask a quick question of clarification just before we let Shane go? When you're talking about the Kenworth being $83,400, the difference is just in the initial price. The initial price has gone up, right? That's what changed, not the warranty, not the trade-in. Yes. Okay. So whatever the delta is between $76,000 and $83,400, that was an increase of the $126,000, right? Yes. So it's $7,000 more. Was that right? Yeah. Yes. So it would be $13,500 as opposed to $126,000. Okay. Thank you. I do have one other quick question. I think you should note that you're approving the full price of the truck and not the net price less the trade-in because we don't know what the trade-in is going to be. So I wouldn't know the net price in the minute because we only know the real price. Right. I was going to write the motion to give Shane the authority to, because when Shane calls tomorrow, it might be more than $133,000. Is that possible? No. He thought it would be good for a week or two. Okay. So I'm just going to say authority to buy the truck at $133,500. The other stuff I'll just put in the body of the discussion. Yep. Okay. That's why I asked. Yeah. So Shane, I do have one other question. Victor, you might have some thoughts on this. And I know we've talked about this in the past. I presume the best we believe the best deal we're going to get is trading in the truck, not trying to sell it ourselves. I would assume unless, I mean, you got time to do it, but we could advertise it. But then again, you're following, someone's going to have to wait for it. So I don't know. I mean, generally they take pictures and they get a buyer ahead of time. So there are sites you can advertise them on. I don't know. I'm just trying to save every penny I can save. And I know just like with cars, when you trade in a truck, they're going to make $7,000 or $8,000 when they turn around and sell that truck, maybe more. Right. And rather have us have that money than them have it. But I realize there's a little work involved in doing that. But it's a lot easier with the internet today to do that than it was a few years ago. So it's just something to think about. Maybe we should address it this spring or something. Yeah. I mean, just give it some thought. And I'd be curious to know what you think. And I would certainly tell them it's our intention to trade it in, but we're not guaranteeing we're going to trade it out. Okay. Does that make sense to everyone? Yeah. That's fine. Randy has a question. Okay, Randy. Yeah. Sarah just referred to the $133.5. And I just want to ask the question. You guys are proving the price of the truck and the warranty. So the additional $9,900 in addition to the $133.5. So it should be the total of $143.4. That's what I was going to write. I was going to say $130. That's why I asked if the fluctuation was in the price, not anything else. Okay. I just wanted to make sure it's clear. In the minutes, I'm going to say the motion is to authorize Shane to put it in order for $133,500 for the truck plus a warranty of $9,900. I'm not even going to deal with the trade in. Right. So can Shane stay on if we're going to talk about hiring people too? Because I don't know where Victor is, but I thought that was kind of on the agenda too, isn't it? Well, it's an executive session, Mary. But the answer is yes. Considering that we're running out of time, we've only got seven minutes, we've got all these people waiting here. Is it possible to move the executive session down after we deal with the board of health and the fire department? Can Shane come back? Where'd Shane go? Right here. He wasn't planning on it. He's in his office. He wants to go home. Right. I think we should just go ahead. I'm hoping the executive session's going to be pretty short. I hate to have him have to wait around. Yeah, it shouldn't be that long. All right. Well, then we have to take a lot of people, put them in the waiting room. Okay. So first of all, let's have a motion to go into executive session. That's permitted under VSA 313A1A. I'll make that motion. Second. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. And also, you have to specify who can attend the executive session. I know. So the executive section should include Victor, Shane, and Darinda in addition to the select board. And Sarah. Okay. Okay. All in favor of the motion. Please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We're in executive session. So don't say anything because I gotta put people out. I gotta put people in the waiting room. Just wait one second. I just want to tell people, for instance, Randy, if you want to come back, Rob, you're over there. David, she'll put you in the waiting room. And as soon as we finish up with the executive session, she'll bring it back in. If you're still there. How does that go, Sarah? Who runs that meeting? Do I run that meeting? I think you just run it like a regular select board meeting. Just say, because it's where the select board is acting as the board of health. So I don't think you need to have a special board. It's not like the board of civil authority. Okay. Okay. So, Rob, hello. Thank you for being here tonight. So we are now convening the town board of health meeting. And we're addressing concerns raised by George Longnecker at the October 5th select board meeting RE sanitary issues at the state owned park at the bottom of Shady rail and the rights fill boat launch. And we're interested in hearing from you on that subject. Okay. Before that, could I just ask a couple of quick things? Sure. Since I'm relatively new on the job, just wondering, is there any kind of routine board of health meeting for updates and so forth? Or just on a Zed and as needed basis? As needed. I think in my memory, and I've been around quite a while, I think this is the first time we've ever convened a board of health. I could be wrong about that. Okay. This is an unusual, this is an unusual circumstance, as I said. So this is a very healthy town, then. That's what you're saying. Well, I'd like to think so, yes. And I guess the other question and issue is that really, we have no authority over the state of Vermont. It's like, you know, so right, you know, do we do we write them a pleasant letter and say this is a concern and a problem and we hope you'll deal with it? I'm interested in what your thoughts are. Hi, George. Hi, Peter. Okay. All right. Well, I first heard about this from a game warden who had been concerned about it for a while and actually done some cleanup and talked with Sarah and got some more background on it. But apparently it's been of some concern for years. Various town members have reported being upset about stuff they saw around the boat launch area. But as you mentioned, it's state controlled and not really anything the town can do about it. I actually went down, well, I went with George several weeks ago, and then I went down again this morning, I thought I'd see how things looked after Columbus Day. And when it was less busy. So there is a fair amount of scattered around. It's easier to see now that the weeds are dying off because that's where a lot of the trash is. There was one area with maybe, I don't know, 30, 40 beer cans. There was, I didn't find any, you know, needle syringes. There was one area of human waste deposit. Three old tires, a variety of other trash, but again, most of it wouldn't be visible when I think the weeds and stuff have grown up, but it'd be nice to have it cleaned up. And then I know that George has been asking about getting a port-a-potty there in a Ched-E-Rill, which I guess has the same state-owned problem, which I think would be a good idea. And the problem is, I guess, convincing someone in the very appropriate state agency to do anything about that. I have tried contacting some folks there. I spoke with someone at the central office of Forest Parks and Recreation. In Montpelier. He seemed familiar with the situation. He said there's been some ongoing discussion with one of the other agencies, which I can't find. I wrote down here. But apparently, DEC does not have personnel to take care of the lands for which they are responsible. And there's been ongoing discussion with Forest Parks and Recreation to use their people to do that, but it sounds like nothing has come of that as yet. So he sounded sympathetic and did email my concerns, the fact that I contacted him, and my concerns to folks in the Barrie District Office of Forest Parks and Recreation. And that's about where it sits. So I'm planning to do, if I don't hear from them, I will do some follow-up in the next few days to try to get the discussion going again. And I don't know all about how the state bureaucracies work, but perhaps if they keep hearing about this a lot, somebody will do something. But I don't think the town has any jurisdiction to do anything about it ourselves. Other than keep bugging them to get somebody to do something. The discussion in our last board meeting was, I think your approach is a good approach, but maybe following up with a letter to the appropriate person, whether it's the commissioner, or I don't know who it is, just to give them something in writing. And obviously, we can't threaten them and say, we're going to put a chain across their road or do anything like that. We just need to say, we're concerned about the health of our residents and also other citizens who are using those parks. I find it hard to believe that they're not going to do something at Shady Rail. There's always been a latrine there, and I guess the old one is now non-functional. So if they don't put something in there, they're asking for it. Yeah, I stopped by there today. Yeah, it's not in great shape. Although the work they've done there is great with the granite steps and replanting and so forth. So it should be a very, very pleasant place to go next summer. I hope so. They've spent a boatload of our money or somebody's money to do that. They were looking for us to do that initially. I'm glad it turned out that they did it. So I guess the direction to Rob would be to get back with these people, be persistent, and when appropriate, follow up with a letter. Does that make sense to everyone? Yeah, you're good with that, George. You're muted, George. Yeah, I think that would be fine with the Conservation Commission. No, push them to get action by next summer when these areas become active again. Well, we don't want to use next summer as the deadline right off the bat. I believe they, isn't it true that they put a porta potty at the hiking trail up hunger? They did. At the parking lot? I mean, that's another place where we had a problem and they took that step. So it'd be good to remind them of that, Rob. Okay. Is that land controlled by the DEC also? It's forest parks and recreation. Yeah, the answer is yes, Rob. Yeah. Anything else, anybody on this issue? Thank you very much, Rob, for doing all this. I've got one more question, sure. Somewhat related. Up at the beach, which Middlesex is involved in managing, is there water quality testing during the summer? Probably not. I'd be surprised if there wasn't, but I don't know the answer. Okay. We can ask Jane Dudley. Jane Dudley would know. Yeah. She's our representative. Jane Dudley is our representative, Rob, on the right. Okay. Anybody have phone number or email or something? I can get it for you, Rob. Yep, I'll get it for you. You send me that? Okay, I'll ask her. Anyhow, my manual says that the Health Officer should work with the select boards to assure that public swimming areas are being tested on a weekly basis. Wow. That's the standard from the health department, so I will check with Jane. Okay. That's all I got. Thank you very much. Thank you for helping us with this. We appreciate it very much. My pleasure. Hopefully, we won't make you too busy or take up too much of your talk. It has not been bad so far. Okay, thank you. I had a nice walk out there this morning. There you go. There you go. Thank you. With that, I'm going to adjourn the town Board of Health meeting, and we are back at our select board meeting, and we are ready to welcome the Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department. As part of our meeting with them, we need to appoint a representative from the Town Emergency Services to serve as a voting representative on the newly formed Regional Emergency Management Committee per Act 52. And Town Emergency Coordinator Peg Schwartz is attending the meeting for that reason. So with that, Jeff and Eric, good evening. How are you? Welcome. So I'll go over my notes, and I'll email these to Sarah tomorrow. We're up to a total of 50 calls for the year. We've had 10 calls over the last month. Two of those were mutual aid outs. We've had a max number of members responding eight men, two for an average of five. Engine one was out three times. Engine six out once. Tanker one out three times. And rescue, the rescue was out two times. As far as our calls, we had two false alarms at Red Hen on the 23rd. After the second one, the alarm company was called and found a defective sensor and replaced that. We had a woodland fire, which was basically an unpermitted burn. We had a mutual aid to more town, but it was Waterbury's coverage area. So Waterbury called us for tanker support. Then we had a smoke near the barn on Shady Rail. And we responded to that and it ended up being a control burn, but it was kind of fishy. So I went and talked to BSP and they went and investigated the possibility. There might be a meth operation going on. I have not gotten any word back from them on that. Where is that, Jeff? The barn on Shady Rail? The old barn with the falling down silo? Is that the one across from John Puglio? No. Way farther down. Across from Myron Dorfman. Oh, okay. Interesting. There was a guy had his truck backed up to the building and would not let our member who had drove by and saw the smoke wouldn't let her go in and look what's going on inside and a couple hoses going from the truck inside. So we thought it best to have BSP check it out because that's not our billy work. Are they going to? They did that day. They went up. And did they find anything? They have not contacted you back with anything. If they found anything. Then we had a vehicle on route two that had been involved in an accident in Montpelier that ended up blowing the rest of his antifreeze and ended up getting canceled. And then we had a tree on the road, on the center road, just at the top of the hill, the paved portion. As far as training, we went to Bulldox. They donated a car for us to cut up and we practiced opening the doors and peeling back the roof. We got to use power tools and hydraulic tools. So it was a good training and a great opportunity that Bulldox affords us occasionally to give us a vehicle for us to cut up and then for them to finish recycling it. As far as repairs go, we got the chainsaw back. That's operating. Rescue one had to go in for new batteries and the heating line that goes to run the heat in the back compartment blew a leak. So we took it over to Bootsies and they basically capped the line because quite frankly that vehicle isn't much longer for life. And purchases, we purchased a new wood saw for our K-12 saw and a metal saw, a K-12 saw, think of a chainsaw, but with a circular saw instead of a chain. We had to get some radio and pager parts and we received the donation from the American Legion Montpelier for $100 towards a new multi-gas meter. It's pretty much our summary of what's going on in the last month. A lot going on. We're busy. And any update on membership? We don't have, well there's an application that's pending. We've got to look at that one and see what we're going to do. But other than that, there aren't any other new applications in the hopper. And for those of you who don't know that they are doing a vaccination clinic at the mall and if you have the Pfizer vaccine and it's been six months, you can get your booster shot. And I'm one of the people administering vaccinations on occasional days. They're using EMS folks from Waterbury, Mad River, Berrytown, Montpelier, Middlesex. So. Do you have to have an appointment or can you just walk in? You can just walk in as long as you have some copy of your shot record, either the actual paper copy or on your phone. And it's been six months. And it's a Pfizer. Right now, they don't have any Moderna for boosters yet. Even though that was given approval last week and that they just said for 65, my guess is that probably this week sometime they're going to say they're going to suspend with age groups all together and say anybody can get it. But for right now, it's Pfizer and you can just walk in. And really if you come in like after 830 and before three, there probably will be zero waiting. That's a question. Yes, Sarah. Do you count from the day of the first shot or from the day of the last shot? Six months. The six months is from the last shot. Last shot. So you can pass that around to people that you know, because I tried to look on the website, both just general Google and on the Vermont health site, and I could not find it anywhere. So pass that around to people from eight to six every Monday through Friday and then from I think it's eight to five on Saturday and Sunday. They have the billboards going. They do, but you can't sit at home and easily find it when you Google it. I'll put it on the website. Okay. Maybe we maybe, Sarah, it'd be a good idea if you wouldn't mind to put it out on front porch form also. Well, okay. I would Jeff, that seems like more like since you're giving the vaccines. Okay. I can put it out. Okay. That's fine. I just, I agree. The more, the more we can get the word out the better. However, we do it. Yeah. We did have some middle sex residents there today. Jeff and Eric, what did you guys think of that article in the Times Argus about the Berlin Volunteer Fire Department sort of having the same discussions that we're having? What were your thoughts on that? I didn't see it. Oh, well, you must Google it. Well, I guess I will have to. It was about sort of also looking into, I think, a municipality versus regular how they're also having trouble recruiting and just sort of about the future of the Berlin Fire Department. This was how long ago, Peter? Sarah? A couple of weeks ago? A couple of weeks ago. I didn't see it. One thing with Berlin, the way that they work is their budget is not part of the town budget. It's a whole different thing on their town meeting. So it doesn't fall under the town budget currently. Right. It was very interesting to me and surprising to me that apparently they only have 15 members at this point in time. Yeah, because they used to have a lot. They used to have 25 or a lot more than that. There used to be a waiting list to get on their department. Right. Wow. So they've got troubles and I forget who the other fire department was, but there was another article about another volunteer fire department with the same kind of same kind of issue. So anyway, we're not alone in this. Where do they get funding, Jeff, if they don't get money from the town? Well, it still comes from the town, but it's not in the town budget like ours is. There is a separate article that's voted on. So they go and discuss with the town what their budget is going to be, but it's say line item or article six or seven or eight that's specifically voted on as the fire department. Gotcha. So it's kind of like the, well, and I can't say the school boards because that's Australian ballot. So it is discussed at town meeting, but it's an article separate from the town's budget. Yeah. But it is, it is, my understanding is it's basically the same situation we have where the fire department's an independent entity, but all of their funding or virtually all of their funding comes from the town. Randy, just put it in the chat article, you guys, and you can, I think you can read a free one. So guys, if you wanted to look at that article, you can click it. I mean, it just, it just shows to me that, you know, as we've suspected, this is not just a, this is not just a middle sex issue or a middle sex problem. So, you know, again, I'd like to, I'd like to thank you for the new spirit of cooperation and communication. And, you know, however this, however this goes forward, I think we're working together in a much better way than we have at Thompson in the past. And I appreciate it very much. And I think other board members do as well. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I appreciate it as well. And so do I. And I also, when we had our inspection from Larry Smith, he told me about the grants that the... Can't hear you, Jeff. When we had our inspection of the station from Vermont's League of Cities and Towns, Larry Smith told me about grants that they do. They run from the 1st of January to the 31st of October. So we won't get in for this year, but in January we'll have our ducks in a row to try to get a grant that will help towards half the price of bunker gear. So we're gonna, I'm gonna jump on that and see what we can, see what we can do and make the potential of part of our budget submission, which we're gonna have a meeting the next week or two before we come to you guys next month. But we may look at trying to do that earlier rather than later considering these grants are out there from the League of Cities and Towns. So you might as well, if they've got it, and it's a yearly thing, might as well try to get it. Great. Yep. Any other questions, sports members? Yep. Don't forget the emergency services representative, because there's only one group of emergency services people here besides Margaret, who's already on the EMD as that on this, and that's over there, the fire department. So I want to talk, I want to talk to Doug about doing that. He finishes drive, he's out working tonight, but he finishes up this month. So I think he should be the one on that considering he he lived just across the line and I feel you're more convenient for him to go to that. I think we have a deadline. This was just recently created. And I think the deadline, I think the deadline has to be by the end of October. Yeah, he'll be here later tonight. He couldn't make it here. Are you saying he's retiring? As a propane truck driver, he's not retiring from the fire department. So he'll be around more. So what you're saying is you would like to, what you would like to, if he agrees as a point, him as another member, is that right? Yeah, that's right. I will give him the option. I won't nominate him. So, so Peggy is already on. Peggy, are you already on? Sorry, I couldn't quite hear. Are you a member of? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, she is. She's automatically a member because she's our emergency management coordinator. Okay, got it. But we want, we want to have a voting representative and that's where Jeff would like it to be on the fire chief. Correct? Correct. Okay. Okay. Well, have a chat with him and get back to us, Jeff. That would be great. Well, or get back to Sarah. I, you know, I, there's a concern here and that is that Jeff is not a member of the, he's not a, he's not a town resident. He's not on the voting list. I mean, he's not a, he lives in Montpelier. You mean Doug? I mean, Doug. So it has to be somebody who's in the town? Who's what? Let's see. I'm just just checking. Well, it just says a representative of the local emergency services community to be appointed by your executive or legislative branch. So don't have to be a resident. You're supposed to be done by October 29th. And this is the last meeting in October. Sarah, I mean, could we nominate him subject to his approval so that we have it done if he says yes. And if he doesn't, then we'll scramble around to do it by the 29th. I, you know, I don't know. It just seems like we have to just send them an email by the 29th saying who it is. And then you're, the board's just not meeting before the 29th. So this is the last meeting. I like, I like, I like Mary's idea. I mean, the other alternative is to have one of our 15 minute special meetings, but I would prefer not to do that. What do you, what do you think, what's your guess, Jeff, as to whether he'll be willing to do it or not? I think he will, but Eric has said, if he won't, if Doug won't, then he'll step up and do it. So we have a backup plan. If Doug says no, but I think a motion will appoint Doug. And if Doug refuses to serve, we'll appoint Eric and we can do it in one motion and we don't have to have another meeting. That makes it easier. That's fine with us. Yep. I'll second that. Okay. At the motion? You made the motion, Mary. It's been, it's been moved and seconded that Doug be appointed as, as assuming that he's willing to do it. If he is unwilling to do it for any reason, Eric will be our person. Thank you, Eric. And Phil, you seconded that? I did. All in favor of the motion? Any opposed? Good job. Thank you. Hey, Eric. Thank you, Eric, and thank you, Doug, in your, in your absence. We all have time to do every day, believe me. I understand. Chris will be happy. I found someone else to do it. We didn't even, we wanted to do it. Okay. Thank you very much, guys. And we'll look forward to our meeting next month. Okay. So that's good. Yep. Bye. Good night. Thank you. Okay. Treasurer's report, preliminary discussion of town employee compensation, other financial updates, action possible. Dorenda. Sarah must have thrown that in there because I didn't. I think certainly that it's important that we have this employee compensation discussion sooner than later with everything that's going on. However, that is not a 15 minute conversation. I think there's, you've got to get into benefits and the whole everything. So I don't know if you want to set aside a special meeting for that or just, you know, make a longer time frame for to discuss it. But I think it's definitely more than a 15 minute conversation. Me too. I think we should have that as a special meeting and not one of our regularly scheduled slight board meetings. And I think we need to do it sooner than later. Yeah. I agree. This is a budget. Well, so, so here's the, here's the issue. And I've been thinking a lot about this. You know, I think we potentially, and I say potentially, need to consider some kind of interim adjustment. However, we can afford it in our, in our budget with the promise of further consideration through the, through the budget process. But I hate to, I hate to say to people, budget process, budget process, budget process, because as we know, that's nine months away from now. And that takes effect. That's a long time to wait. I agree with you, Peter, but next, go ahead. I think you're saying something different here. It's not like, when we're talking about this, I'm talking about the budget that will go forward for 2023. And not what we're going to do in the interim. That's two different things, but I think it's part of the same conversation. Because I think you have to look like at what you're going to do going forward, but how is that going to impact what you're doing now? Absolutely. Absolutely. And then, you know, if, if, if the answer is, there's no way we can do anything now, then we have to live with the decisions we've made. But I just, I just wanted to be part of the discussion, but it definitely is a separate issue. Absolutely. I am, I am not looking for even thinking about doing a major restructuring of the whole way we do compensation. I'm just talking about trying to make things a little more equitable in the short term and then deal with a bigger longer term picture through the, through the budget process. But I agree with, I agree with Steve. I think we need to have, have at least one special meeting and we may need to have more than one. This is really, really important and it has major financial consequences for our town. We are in the budget discussions right now. I mean, we've got, you know, November and December to put this budget together. No, you are in budget discussion. Yeah. Well, we're, we're, we're not to the extent we haven't started, but yes, we're in it. Well, and that's my next part of it is we need to come up with an aggressive schedule. You know, to get this all in there. So what are we, what, what are we thinking about that, Sarah? Have you thought about that as well? Yeah, of course I've thought of it. I've already, you know, I've, you can lead, you can lead committees to, to, to emails and tell them to, you know, get their act together, but they, they're not going to do it. I mean, so the number one priority, they get two high priorities. One is the three, actually, we've got the road crew, we've got the fire department, and you've got the office, the office and all the other was, you know, the conservation commission, the planning commission, those are pretty minor. And I think those guys will probably, you know, I think the planning commission is meeting tomorrow and hopefully they will be ready to present soon. The question is, if you want to be efficient about this, I would not advise bringing in the conservation commission and the, and the planning commission to pitch. I think that they should just submit an email or a letter so that we can move things along because it wastes time and you've got big, big issues, unless you disagree with that. No, I don't, I don't disagree with that at all. I guess, I get, I mean, as I always say, you know, the big money's all in the roads and then, second is down and third is the fire department. So, Vic, do you, how quickly can you guys be ready to present your budget? Are you there, Vic? I don't know. Here he comes. November 2nd, isn't it, Sarah? That's where I had you, yeah. Who's going to argue with the town of Quirk? That's a big road day because that's the day you guys are going to go visit the road at four o'clock. Then you're going to have a public hearing on the road and then we're going to talk about the road stuff. So, that has a nice theme to it. Road night. So, what board is going to go visit the road? Right. Correct. Okay. By state statute. Can I say something about that? Someone had reached out to me who uses that road and was wondering if we could consider before we, if we do end up downgrading it to a trail that we actually do a little maintenance on it to make it sort of passable by even foot. I mean, you'll see it when you, when you go there, but that's something to consider like, is that a possibility that we do any kind of service on it? That should be part of the public hearing. Okay. So, November 2nd is the road crew. Now, do you want to have a special meeting between November 2nd and whatever meeting we're talking about on the second meeting of November? This is going to be fun. For the compensation. Yeah. Yeah. That's what the night. Yep. That would be the 16th. No. Yeah. 16th would be our second meeting. Right. So that's what we're talking about. We do have a special meeting on the 9th to talk about compensation. Yeah. Well, that's what you're suggesting. I'm asking if you, I'm just writing a schedule. That's what I suggest. Yeah. Maybe I have another meeting after that. I don't know how. Yes. See how far we can. And then on the 16th, you're going to have, I would suggest doing the office of the town, if that's what you want to render. Yeah, whatever. I mean. Okay. Yeah. And then we're getting into a holiday, I think. Yeah. That's the problem. When is the holidays? Well, that the following week is the week of Thanksgiving. So that's a really sucky week. Yeah, that's a bad one. And the week after that, I'm not going to be here because I'm going to be on a book tour. Okay. All right. Nice. You're going to be on a what that grade of a book tour, but the point is that you can run the meeting without me, I'm sure. In fact, you can talk about my comments. Let's take it a little bit one step at a time. But I think that sounds like a good plan. Let's see how it goes. I just have a hard time thinking that in a couple of hours, we're going to solve this compensation thing. I think it's going to take more time than that. I mean, do people really hate that Tuesday of Thanksgiving? I mean, are people traveling? If they're not, then we do it doom. There's no reason why we let's let's just see what happens on the ninth first. Right. Okay. So you definitely have a special meeting on the ninth. And then you'll have, you know, that's that's a lot. And we don't have that much going on the 16 so far knock on wood. You still have to consider dole and road, but you've got some time to to deal with that. And we probably want to get that cleaned up before Shane for you before, you know, winter comes. I think I'm sure Shane would like that packed away. Yeah. So where are we when we meet at Dolan Road? Where exactly are we meeting? I would suggest meeting at the corner of Tangletown and Dolan Road. That's the shortest entrance because you're going to I have a really good map that I that's downstairs that I've been mailing out. And I'll mail it to you. You can see where we, you know, you walk in a hundred and ninety five feet. And then it's then you're going bring your mud boots. Good idea, though. Good idea. And then are we going to go back to our houses and do Zoom for our meeting? Or are we going to go to the to the office? Whatever you want to the office. Okay, so then we're going home. Yes, it's up to you. What you what you want to do? I am that's it's work in that business of of Zoom, where it's again in person is something I was going to discuss under other business. So we'll talk about it when we get there. But for right now, it's a Zoom meeting. So once we change it. Good. Anything else, Dorinda? No, that was it. So Cheryl starts when? Hopefully Monday is what I'm planning on. Yep. You said the 27th. Is that Monday? No, that's Wednesday. That's the following. That's Wednesday. Oh, she said the 20. Okay. So not to Wednesday, I guess. Okay. Well, it's coming right up. Thank goodness. And do we still have our current bookkeeper around? Or is she? She is there. I'm doing the work now. Because I felt it was important that I had to learn it because we didn't know who was doing it. So I'm actually doing all the bookkeeping. She is there answering questions. And she's also putting together a user manual, which is something that probably should have been done a while back. More or less a procedure manual that can be referenced in the future. So she's working on that, but I've done the payables and payroll for the last two entries. Hopefully that's going to be coming. Thank you for that, I hope. Yes. Okay. Some of it. I mean, it's going to be, it's expensive right now because you're going to, when Cheryl comes on is going to essentially be three of us there because I don't want Amy's leaving the first week of November. And I don't want her training Cheryl. So, so I'm going to be there to train. Terinda, it is what it is. We can't worry about that being expensive. We have to do what we need to do. Yep. I agree with that. And we're very lucky that she agreed to do it. I'm not going to let you fall on your face. Thank you. We appreciate it. Should we, should we put a gold star on your far header way to laughter? Maybe a nice little tattoo. No, thank you, Terinda. Thank you. Thank you, Terinda, where we really are sincerely grateful for what you're doing. Believe me. Yes. No problem. Okay. So we are catching up, believe it or not. Approval of the minutes of October 5th select board meeting action likely is their emotion. I'll make it. Okay. Moved by Steve. Seconded by? Mary. Okay. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Discussion of RB Technology contract to provide IT services to the town. Action unlikely. This, I guess, is you, Sarah. I do have a little bit of an update. I did have some back and forth with Ruben as I promised I would, but I'll let you go first. You know, I understand that they had email problems that last week, which is why we, they didn't respond to three days of me writing them through their ticket system. So, I mean, I think that, I think I understand that and probably this doesn't need to be, this doesn't need to be addressed right now. If they did not respond, then I definitely would wanted to talk to you guys about this, but since they did respond and they did share the password and the user credentials with Avenue, I feel a lot better. It wasn't the same situation that we had with the NEMRIC where they refused to share the credentials. Okay, good. I did have, when I called Ruben after I spoke to you, I think it was, I can't remember if it was Thursday or Friday. I think it was Thursday. And he and I was talking to him on his cell phone on the evening, but he went into the ticket system and said, you know, something's out of whack here because I don't see anything on the ticket system. I said, well, that can't be right because I have in my email, the email chain where Sarah was trying to reach out. So he promised me he would look into that right away. And he called me right back the next day and said they were horrified to discover that their email system had somehow disconnected itself from their ticket system. And it wasn't just us. They were ignoring a lot of their customers for a few days there. So, you know, he couldn't have been more apologetic and nicer about it. I did remind him that we were supposed to meet with him periodically. And I said, you know, it was partly our fault because we hadn't reached out to him, but I promised him we would be reaching out with him and asking him to attend a meeting just to talk about how things are going. As I review the budget report tonight, once again, we seem to be creeping into the over budget range on computer maintenance. And you know, it's been a while since we met with him. So I think it's important that we do that. Lot only knows in the next two or three meetings here where we're going to find time to do that. But if you, Sarah, would just make a note of that and see if we can fit him in wherever we, wherever we can for a discussion. Okay. I think the problem is, is we get billed like they came in to help set up the new system that Sarah got for recording. And because it wasn't set up completely and correctly, they ended up having to come back to do work on it. And we're billed again for it, even though they sat at the office for two days. And that's where we're incurring all these bills. It's like we're paying for their lack of doing the job right the first time. But weren't they just in the standby mode in case there was a problem? No, then that was part of the issue. The issue was that I had asked them to be in standby mode and they said, they sent somebody over who showed up and just sat there. I mean, I think he transferred some files, but that wasn't a big deal. I could have transferred the files. But anyway, he sat there for two days. And at the end, he was supposed to, after Avenue was done doing what it had to do, he kind of kicked into action and connected Avenue into our system or was supposed to, but then he didn't. For example, this computer still doesn't print where I think it's supposed to to the other printer. It wasn't allowing for to go past a firewall or something for backups to Avenue. This is also kind of Avenue's fault as well. But they were there together for two days. They should have coordinated it. Obviously, the advantage of the system is that it backs up to a remote server so that everybody's land records are destroyed by a fire. And so those are the things like they had to spend the following week correcting with them. And that's, you know, that's supposedly why they were there was supposed to be seamless. And the reason why I asked RB to have someone on standby is that I'd gone through this five years before and we'd run into the exact same problems. And, you know, Holland had to come in and spend a whole day, you know, catching up. So anyway, it just, it's a good thing to it's a good thing to talk about when we have, when we have Ruben in the room, I've had a lot of anyway, we don't need to talk about it anymore tonight, but certainly past time to have a meeting with him. So let's make sure we do that sooner rather than rather than later. Everybody's favorite subject preliminary review of current town highway ordinance and changes that might have to be made. No action. You sent us. I didn't. So I was having emails this afternoon and I mean, email problems this afternoon that had nothing to do with RB tech. I think it was just something with the ether. And I had sent you guys a highway ordinance before, and that is not what you should read, although that highway ordinance needs to be trashed because it's it's crazy. And we just, we shouldn't have it on the books. And then I sent you the speed regulations and the speed regulations. As far as I can tell from my research, we're last updated in 1999 and they're missing a whole bunch of roads. For example, there are no speed regulations for any bear swamp road, not east south or north. I don't know how we've even gotten signs up there. We probably don't. Do you guys have those those speeds? Do you have the speed regulations ordinance that you passed in 1999? Well, Vic knows the answer of whether there's anything posted. I've driven up those roads. I can't recall ever. I don't get, I can't recall ever seeing any speed signs on those. I don't think they have any speed signs. So am I wrong? Am I wrong that if there is no, because I'm I'm seeing all these 35s, 35s, 35s, I thought, and this is probably the old days, that if it wasn't posted, the default speed was 35. You know, that's kind of in my memory too. That's what I thought. Correct. I think, I mean, I'm not aware that that's ever changed, but maybe it has. But the bottom line is we need to, regardless of that, we need to find out, I don't know who who the speed ordinance person is, whether it's the League of Cities and Towns or whoever it is, and find out exactly what we need to do and update that. Well, I have the answer to that. And I, there's also this setting speed limits guide for Vermont Towns published by the League that the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission refers to. You have to do an engineering study, but it doesn't have to be a really comprehensive engineering study. We did that initially. Well, Carol hasn't been done on any of the bear spawners. Okay. So I think that maybe is the answer. We only did the study on the roads that are listed. And the default, maybe the default is that it's 50 miles an hour if you don't have it. I don't think so. I think it was higher than 35. I think it is 50. I agree. I think it's 50 also. Let's agree. Let's agree. We need to update this and work on it. And we're not going to do it tonight. But obviously it's a mess. And the issue of not being able to enforce our speed ordinance or whatever we call it, speed regulation is bad. We're wasting our time on what the state police said that they couldn't enforce anything. The big problem is Shady Reel Road, a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour from the intersection of West Hill. Well, Shady Reel doesn't intersect with West Hill, at least maybe. So that right there, if you've gotten a court, you just say, well, this doesn't mean anything. Even these intersections are wrong. Yeah. And that's what the officer that came in said. And he gave me how it should be, but until you get into the discussion. I guess my question for you guys, since you have so much going on with budget stuff, would you like to just put this off until 2022? There's not that much going on in February. And I don't think people are, if we have a lag in February before town meeting provided that we can actually have an in-person town meeting again, that's something you guys are going to have to address soon as we wait for the legislature to come through with some guidelines. And also if we could listen to the school district, it seems like maybe we just put this off until February of 2022. Does that sound right to you? So let me just let me ask you a question, though. So I'm reading through this and I understand we may have the default issue on the roads we don't list here, but on the roads we list, if they're not properly posted or the territory that it pertains to is not properly listed, can't we amend that and fix that before we? I think you've got to go, you don't need the engineering study, but what you have to do is go through all the ordinance, you know, warnings, that's the same type of thing. It's as you can read the adoption history in the back, it's got multiple steps, just like discontinuing or upgrading roads and there has to be a public hearing and there has to be a warning and so, I mean, it's a process. Yeah, I guess what we need to do is put it off till over budget time. I mean, maybe when we get the budget done and our other pre-town meeting stuff, we can deal with it a little sooner rather than later, but I agree. I think we've got a lot on our plate right now. But definitely this should be handled before spring, so. Yeah. And we can just, we can just stop, stop sanding the roads so that'll solve the speed problem. They'll all be in the ditch. Well, that's the other thing, no one's going to be speeding that in the winter. Okay, any correspondence? Not really. We do have to, you do have to keep, I just want to just bring your attention to the fact that you do have these big issues like town meeting, but how you're going to hold town meeting again, that's going to be something we have to decide before December, before too long. Right. When do we have to decide it? Well, definitely by the end of the year. Well, yeah, it should be by mid-December anyway. So, getting back to our, getting back to our select board meetings, I've been thinking a lot about Zoom versus Import in-person select board meetings. And my concern isn't so much the select board and the town staff and Dorenda, but if we go back to in-person meetings, that means we can have all kinds of random people showing up and attending our meetings, and that makes me very uncomfortable. So, you know, I'd like to propose that for the time being, we say we are going to be doing this Zoom business through the end of the year. We can always change that if something radically changes. But the last couple of weeks have been the worst COVID time that Vermont's had yet. So, unless anybody feels differently, I'm going to suggest that we agree that our current decision is that until the end of the year, we're going to continue Zoom. So, I agree. Yep, let's do it. Still, they're kind of hybrid. So, what you're saying is you're saying you're still going to keep Town Hall open. I'm still going to be here. Anybody can still walk in the streets. You're not exclusively Zooming and meeting. Well, what we have to do under the current regulations, but I mean, we haven't had anybody, anybody walk into the Town Hall, but yes, I realize they could if they weren't. Sarah, are you down there by yourself in the dark with the door open so anyone could walk in? Yeah, absolutely. I have the front door, I have the front door open. Yeah, I have the open sign there. I know it makes me a little nervous for you. Well, it's a friendly town. It's a friendly town and we don't have a town gun, so I don't think we plan on buying one. Maybe a can of mace. I wouldn't be the worst idea. No, no, I don't think. Hey, when I start locking my house door, we'll worry about that. Do you guys want to make a motion on that or do you want to, I guess it's not warned or, but do you want to? No, I'm just suggesting we, I mean, it's an open item. It can be changed at any time, but I'm suggesting that in our minds, we think that we're going to be Zooming through the end of the year. I don't think we need a motion. Does anybody else want a motion? No, I don't think so. Actually, I just wanted to tell you that yes, under correspondence, Amy sent me an email announcing that she has resigned from being a Lister as effective November 5th. Okay. So do you want to accept her resignation under correspondence? Yep. Do you want a motion? Sure. We don't have a motion to accept the resignation, do we? It seems like you do, but all right. Can't hurt. Can't hurt. Make the motion less. I was just turning my lights back on. I thought you were engaged in prayer there for a minute. So we accept the resignation from Amy and to thank her for her service to the town. I'll second. All in favor? Please. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Uh, just to remind everybody, we have our little parties at next Thursday, our little party for our retiring road crew member. Yeah. Let me look at my calendar. I volunteered to get the cake. That's correct. Did I volunteer to get the cake or that it's next Thursday or both? Both. Both. Okay. Well, I'm just looking at my calendar. Victor said he was bringing the beer. Yes. Goodbye party for Bruce at four o'clock at the town shed and we'll bring a cake. And I think he said it was 10 years. Is that right? I wanted to maybe put down the number of years in the service, but I'll look back at the email that Shane said. Yeah. It's 10 years. It is 10 in November. Okay. And did we want to invite, does he have a wife or anything like that? Claudia. Yeah. Is that something we want to invite? I can find Claudia. Okay. Is this a surprise? No more. No. No. It's probably not. Is that it? No. It's just... I have a question for Sarah. Uh-oh. Could you find Bill May? I was going to give you some history on that. I got a call yesterday from this woman. I don't know what her last name was, but her first name was Betty and she called me and said, I need to find Bill May. I usually park at his garage down at the dam, and I can't reach him. And I said, well, I can't give out telephone numbers. And she said, I know that. And I said, okay. She said, what I want you to do is call Bill and tell him to call me because I need to put my car in his garage. So I said, well, hold on for a second. Let me just go online and see if I can find the number. And she had hung up. So... Well, there's a $50 charge for personal service. I put this on Facebook. And then I also tagged my friend Rick, the dirty mayor, Rick Singari. He and I, we grew up in the same town in Pennsylvania. So we know each other. Oh, yeah. So I said, Rick, can you possibly squeeze this in somewhere between the LaMoyle Valley ads on WDEV tomorrow? And he said, sure. And I got a text from Rick. It's something like 7.43 in the morning or 8 o'clock saying, Vic from Middlesex says, Bill May's number is... I'm telling you, you got to love WDEV. Yeah. Well, it's a good old service-friendly office. Sarah, thank you. And just for the record... It's it for the night unless anybody has anything else. Oh, wait. Vic's got something to say. Oh, okay. Just for the record, the number I gave to contact for that woman, Betty, to contact, Bill May, was email B-cards because he called me at 6.45 and said what the number was. You live in a wonderful community. Don't ever doubt that. Somebody probably be calling up tomorrow trying to find out where the crack house is. Yeah. I'm allowed to give out the numbers with those. Did enough people sign the orders? Yeah. Yes, thank you. Yes, thank you. Does Vince Haluzzi still own that house? Sarah? No. No. Okay, guys. So are you adjourning? Good night. Hey, you adjourned right on the time of the agenda. Nice. Better sign off now before we run late. Bye, everybody. Bye. Bye.