 Good evening everybody So we're gonna we're gonna begin the meeting and the first order of business is the Presentation of the colors and so I would ask the Williston Boy Scout troops 692 to present the colors Please join me in the pledge of allegiance And that's the scouts to please post the colors Thank you very much So the first item on the agenda is To recognize those who had passed away who are in the in memoriam section of the town report. It's on page one So in memoriam Nelson Lefebvre Donald boss Martha Burroughs and Linda. I'm sorry and Leonard Mercia If we could remember their dedication and Work for the town next the dedication of the town report the annual report dedication This year's annual report is dedicated to by the Williston select board to Jeff fears in appreciation For his many years of service to the community as an elected and appointed official Jeff fears served as a member of the Williston select board from 1998 to 2023 Throughout his remarkable quarter century tenure Jeff was a thoughtful steward of the public good He demonstrated a profound level of care and compassion for the community the town staff and the representatives and the Residents he represented Serving on a select board is a role of dedication and genuine appreciation for a community It comes with its peaks and valleys and a fair share of difficult decisions and positions to take Jeff Consistently provided a pragmatic and analytical voice for the select board during hundreds of public policy decisions that he made and was engaged in Over the course of his service He served the community well and epitomized professionalism in public service in Williston Jeff if you could stand up Thank you Jeff Next if I could introduce the members of the select board Terry mccague the far Right Mike Isham seated next to him Jean Jensen Granted Agostino is the vice chair. She's absent today because of illness and didn't want to risk infecting all of us. So Anyway, we appreciate her Dedication in in her absence. My name is Ted Kenny. I'm the chair of the select board and This is pretty much almost the conclusion of my official role in town meeting So the next thing I would do is call for a motion to elect a town moderator Mr. McCullough Is there a second Mr. McGuire are there any other nominations Hearing no other nominations all those in favor of mr. McKague as moderator say aye All those opposed say nay the eyes have it. So I'll turn it over to Terry mccague There's a terrible So welcome to town meeting 2024. It's been it's my privilege to serve as your moderator tonight the official warning you'll find on page 13 of the indoor report And the town manager town meeting is going to be dealing with articles one through four Although we've already taken care of item number one and they're first on the agenda and after Adjournment, there will be a presentation of articles five six and seven Which are the the budget and the two bond issues with opportunities for questions and comments And that will be followed by a presentation of the Williston the school district budget Or they say I'm shame pain shame plain Valley district budget with opportunities again for questions and comments We do have in at the end of each of the rows microphones for you to use if you can't get to the microphones there will be a person with a mobile microphone to Help you and help us hear you So it's important for us to hear you. So please do use a microphone Please if you are waiting for a microphone, please raise your hand. Otherwise come to them to the microphones So we'll start with the article number two and after I read the What the warning says I'll need a motion and a second to adopt it So article two is shall the voters authorize that current taxes be paid to the town treasurer and three equal Installments with due dates of August 15th November 15th and February 15th as authorized by 332 VSA Section 48 71 is there a motion to adopt is there a second Time clerk got those names So is there any discussion on the the article as read? Yes, do we possess any authority to change the number of payments from three to four in light of this Potentially staggering tax rate increase coming this year mostly from the schools, but still paid to the town It's going to be more difficult than ever to budget for this. Do we have potentially that authority? So a motion to amend is a new is would be in order. Yes, I Move that we amend to collect taxes on four dates this year not three Need to specify the dates for the fall. Yeah, exactly August now showing August 15 November 15 and February 15 I'm going to withdraw this because I'm not prepared to suggest dates I was looking to know if the town could do it But I plant with all of you the thought that I heard a half an hour ago that the tax rate increased for the schools Could run actually as high as 26% and we need to think about our ability to pay this and how to budget it Thank you. I Would I would ask that we consider this for future years the rate is getting very dear Thank you Any other comments or questions regarding the event the Article number two Seeing none all those in favor of adopting article 2 say aye The opposed say nay So we have adopted article 2 Article 3 is Shall the voters of the town of Wilson accept the reports of town officials as presented in the town report You'll find those on pages 39 through 84 Is there a motion to be made? There's your second. There's your discussion on the motion any questions or or comments regarding this Seeing none all those in favor of adopting the article number three say aye Any opposed say nay That leads us to article number four and that's to transact any other any business to be brought before said meeting There's any other business that people wish to discuss before we move to adjourn. I see no hands raised. I Would accept a motion to adjourn the town Meeting the motion made is there a second Motion to adjourn is not debatable. So all those in favor of the motion to adjourn say aye Opposed say nay as I think a famous person who said Once upon a time my job is done here. So good evening everyone. My name is Eric Wells and I'm your town manager here in Williston I'll be doing a public information hearing on the other articles But before we do that to accompany our town report I've got a brief presentation just a look back at the year that was here So it's my pleasure to share a look back at the past year our annual report covers July 1st to June 30th 2023 I'll be sharing some updates that occurred also leading up to our last town meeting day as we look back at our last year here in Williston So I'd be remiss if I didn't open with a historic flooding event from last summer This photo I'm sharing is a drone view taken by our police department looking at the flooded Winooski River from Essex back in early July of last year We saw some damage from this storm and other storm events in Williston And we even had to open a temporary shelter here in the Wilson Central School for a time last July But it was nowhere near the devastation that other communities In our state saw and are still dealing with in their recovery We had another rain event in late July that brought damage to a number of our gravel roads in town in rural Williston So what we're looking at here is butternut road and thanks to our Department of Public Works for its hard work in getting all roads repaired and reopened So the before is on the left and the much better after is on the right So thanks for all the hard work that was done. This was a FEMA eligible project to that the town will be getting reimbursement for in the coming months There's a new town plan being drafted by our planning Commission right now It's playing the future vision of Williston The select board will start reviewing a transmitted draft letter this year a draft rather later this year as a new plan Must be adopted by August of 2025 There were community outreach events held with a series of pop-ups and community events last summer and fall Here are a few images of those community round tables that occurred You can visit the website Wilson 2050.com to continue to stay engaged with this project and share your feedback and monitor this important project as it moves forward So it was another busy year for our Public Works Department in addition to dealing with these unpredictable storm events that that came through This photo's on the screen should replace some of a culvert on Harvest Lane our highway department was able to replace It was a large undertaking by our skilled sat staff that they were able to do this in-house And this is our brand-new second sidewalk plow We purchased about a year ago using American Rescue Plan Act funds approved by the select board Just over a year ago We'd have the staff and the equipment with the second plow to plow all sidewalks and paths after a snow event in Williston I know this winter. We haven't had a lot of snow to plow, but we'll see the next few weeks have to bring looking at Ubers It was an active year for our Wilson police department The department fielded over 7,500 calls for service in calendar year 2023 We also moved our dispatch center to a co-location with the town of Essex police department Wilson and Essex dispatchers now work side by side This provides the ability for more capacity during high-call volume call periods This stabilized Wilson's operations for dispatch as state police were not able to continue providing free overnight and weekend coverage As they had for many years in Williston We also completed a police services analysis report last fall This report recommends increasing staffing capacity in the years to come and building out a new outreach unit in our department Select Board has tasked me with drafting a five-year implementation plan to deliver to the board for its review later this year The few photos on the screen are law enforcement engaged in the annual torch run We have chief Foley and officers Miller and Hamlin receiving a community donation Then a photo of one of our cruisers with some in scenic Williston at one point last year Our fire department also had an active year We increased our shift size from four to seven with a minimum staffing of now five personnel with the addition of the nine new career department staff The department fielded over 2300 calls for service in calendar year 2023 a 13 increase over the prior year About 20 of the time we see overlapping calls for service The addition of our career staff raises our minimum level on shift It's been critical in meeting these service needs that are forthcoming Images on the screen. I share today our responses by the department with our different apparatus and an image from our annual 9 11 Remembrance held at the station So you may remember last year we kicked off the wilson community spaces project here at town meeting We launched a survey for feedback on future spaces of the library I'm looking at a possible community recreation facility Our project steering committee held interviews with community members and built a community written survey as a result of those Interviews that has conducted last spring and summer Our design architect consultant black river design has consulted assisted throughout as we work on this project The steering committee delivered its recommendation from the report to pursue two possible projects The first is a renovation and addition to the existing dorthing alley memorial library And the second is to explore a possible community recreation center in our growth center in taff corners The next steps for this project will be using arpa funds for design work for the library project And analyzing possible sites to pursue for the community recreation center project And work on these projects will be ongoing over the next year Some news from our library There are over 45 000 visitors to the library and our bookmobile dotty this past year up 21 from the year before Our circulation is nearly 127 000 items and it ranks fourth among vermont libraries Our program attendance was first overall in the state Because some photos i'm sharing from the trunk or treat last halloween sponsored by the rotary club A raptor program on the town green and our popular read to a dog program It's also a busy year for our recreation department. There are over 2,600 total registrations for programs and the department has offered over 260 activity options I'm sharing pictures of our new rec zone space that we opened last year with over 2000 square feet of space off harvore slain It offers a variety of community active and passive recreation programs One thing that we're now offering is a table tennis program starting up that here's been pretty popular in chatting with our director Todd we have a number of donated uh table tennis tables that are being used as as part of that program If you haven't been yet i encourage you to stop by and engage in a program or if you have ideas You have some you have some talents and skills you want to help share with our community in our rec zone to contact our recreation department Looking at our parks the master plan for the build out of the allenbrook park was updated and work is currently underway With an engineer to plan the phasing to create the new park There's a number of park improvements and replacements also occurred in the past year Pictured is the disc golf course that had a new sign and warm up area added at our village community park right near here And we also resurfaced and changed to a basketball court hard surface at at rosignal park, which is pictured You may remember this from last year at town meeting Was approved to use unspent bond proceeds from the construction of the public works facility to purchase solar panels on the roof We closed on that purchase last october and now own these solar panels We also have put our new ambulance rescue one in service after it was delivered last june The town approved the financing of this ambulance with a bond vote last town meeting day. It's been a great addition to our fleet Then we like to share every year Some staff milestones. I really want to thank our dedicated and hardworking town staff They're what make it happen every day to deliver town services to williston Few milestones. I want to recognize this evening Completing five years of service in the last year police chief patrick t foley senior firefighter eric martins senior firefighter kyle tillinghouse 10 years of service assistant town clerk jen munson our circulation librarian christina mcsalis 15 years of service planning director mac belanjay an it and reference librarian campaign 30 years of service police sergeant bark chamberlain And then completing 36 years of service and we recognized her retirement last year was our long time assistant library director debbie rillerer I also want to thank and recognize our dozens of town volunteers They're critical to our local government and they spent hundreds of hours meeting and in service here to williston If you'd indulge me in the brief round of applause to recognize the staff So finally that's the past but i want to talk about the future here The eclipse is coming up on monday april 8th. I can't see any of you because i'm wearing my official eclipse glasses now These are available in the lobby for everyone. Thanks to the state of vermont So the total solar eclipse is coming on monday april 8th At 6 28 in the afternoon the moon will block out the sun completely for three and a half minutes And a partial eclipse will occur in the hour leading up to and completely After the total eclipse So this is a big deal a total solar eclipse last occurred in our corner of the world in the year 1932 and another one won't happen again until the year 2106 so i think this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will be occurring here So this is a you know a technical name of this the path of totality So learning more about this the last couple of months not everyone's going to be able to see this eclipse It's going to follow this path over a certain time period that day So you can see it's going to come here to our area At that three three 26 p.m So we have as i mentioned a number of these glasses we have them in the lobby We'll have them at the library at the town offices all around i think We want everyone to be safe with this there's directions a qr code to scan with safety information And also i want to mention this is likely to draw a lot of people to our region of the world So in addition to the eclipse glasses that we won't have available for everyone in town who would like a pair We've been on calls and the state is predicting anywhere between 25 000 and upwards of 200 000 people Coming to this area within the path of totality and verbant to To view this event So i just want to share be prepared that day for and the day is leading up to it for heavy traffic in the area The interstate major routes of travels and parking lots may be jammed up with folks as they as they come to see the eclipse Um our town staffs preparing for emergency services capacity that day And we'll be hosting an event at the library and our parks are available for viewing And given it's a uh an outdoors event that the weather will likely affect some of the eclipse tourism I know last fall out all hotels north of mont pilier have been booked up since last fall for this weekend So we're expecting a lot of people to come to the region. So just be prepared be safe And enjoy and have fun That's my um Kind of look at the last year looking ahead here. So i'll uh, i'll move into our public information hearing But if there's any questions on anything, I just presented happy to happy to take them now as well okay So i'll move on to now our public information hearing Well, we'll look at the remaining articles that will be voted on by australian ballot tomorrow The first is article five with the town budget So i'm getting started here a couple budget themes that were prevalent throughout this budget development By the by myself the town manager on the select board It's working to maintain our current service delivery level Employee recruitment and retention and we're still seeing the effect of inflation So the start out what is our town budget? The budget is our spending plan It includes services to be provided the cost to provide those services and revenue to pay for services in order to balance the budget The budget's the best revenue and spending model with information we have available And we're working right now to predict what this will look like a year and a half away as this budget goes through the end of june of 2025 To deliver municipal services the town proposes a balanced budget that the voters consider at town meeting each year This process really starts in august and september as each department head prepares its draft budgets both on an operating and capital level And then they're submitted to the town manager's office for review Finally culminating with a manager's budget that's transmitted in november The select board then holds a series of public meetings in december and january to arrive at a final version of the budget That's worn for town meeting that brings us where we are today So by the numbers this is a 15.35 million dollar general fund budget to provide services to wilson This includes everything from police the fire ems public works recreation library town administration and everything in between This is about a 9.84 increase from our current general fund budget The objective in developing the budget was twofold The term the cost to continue to provide the same level of municipal services that are provided today in each department Inclusive of staffing costs and operating costs and then identify possible enhancements to add at that point In the manager's draft budget transmitted last winter It included a breakout of the cost to maintain the current level of services and possible service enhancements to consider 8.84 percent of this proposed increase represents the cost to maintain our current level of services delivered And one percent of the increase represents service enhancements to the budget So what's the story behind this budget? This budget focuses on the primary objective of sustaining our municipal services amid the cost pressures we're seeing 90 percent of the increase of the expense increase proposed is maintaining this current service level Providing services to the community is made possible by our dedicated town staff We're working to attract and retain staff in the current employment environment And it's we've faced a number of challenges over the past couple of years As many of you are probably aware, there's a 2 unemployment rate in the state of vermont and about 1.7 unemployment rate in shittin county Municipalities like wilson are competed for the same limited pool of staff along with the private and nonprofit sectors For example, it's been very challenging the last couple of years to hire new police officers A trend we see throughout vermont and nationally It can take upwards of 18 months from the date of hire of a new officer To get them trained at our police academy and then on the road on their own We had four officers leave our department last spring and we're still down two positions and another just start at the police academy We're currently facing some similar challenges with the fire department staff As these positions are in high demand among communities for critical fire ems services This budget contains cost of living and merit increases for staff The town has two collective bargaining agreements with unionized personnel and our police and fire departments The town entered into a memorandum of understanding with the police union in spring 2023 To adjust its wage scale in order to stay competitive in shittin county. We're seeing this impact the fy 25 budget For our fire union contract negotiations are ongoing right now and in general the town works to maintain a competitive contract with similar departments We've seen union contracts throughout sectors being affected by the the economy in recent years In general, it's a very expensive endeavor to provide 20 hour 24 hour police coverage and career fire ems staffing This is a pressure many vermont communities are now feeling It's a critical public service that wilson provides The expense for these services in the budget is reflected in cost for wages benefits training equipment among other operational expenses Two-thirds of this overall budget increase proposed is tied to public safety costs Another component of our budget is our health insurance costs that we see continuing to rise The town changed its plan to soften the increase. We moved from the blue cross blue shield gold plan to the silver plan at the start of this calendar year This made our increase in health insurance costs about $120,000 instead of $250,000 if we had stayed with the current with the former plan now The town pays over one and a half million dollars in employee health insurance costs annually The town also benefits health insurance on a per benefits eligible employees basis In this proposed fy 25 budget that costs is $20,000 per benefits eligible employee. That's up about $1,500 From last year due to the cost the increased cost in health insurance We're seeing inflation cooling nationally, but it's also affecting professional and contracted services materials and supplies We're seeing professional services and insurance up $115,000 in this budget This includes things like our assessment from green mountain transit Our dispatch contract with the town of shelburn for fire information technology and legal services costs We're also seeing increases to fuel property insurance utilities and supplies And we see the cost of capital equipment continuing to rise as well things like police cruisers and dump trucks So to look at the service enhancements the select board has has included in this budget And these are two positions starting partway through the year The first is adding an 18th sworn police officer position effective january 1st of next year This would allow the apartment the department rather to fill this position by moving an officer into the role This was the top priority identified in a 2023 police services analysis report by consultant jim baker The addition of a detective capacity will direct staff resources for ongoing investigation services This budget proposal also adds a director of human resources effective in october of next of this year This was identified as a top priority as well in audit of our hr systems that we brought in a consultant to look at This adds an hr professional to support our staff of over 100 employees And currently our hr duties in town are split between four staff members who each carry other duties as well The budget cost for these two budget enhancements is about $140,000 So this graphic shows a breakdown of by different budget object where our general fund is how it's broken out Wages and benefits make up the majority of the town's operating expenses Other areas you can see our capital items debt service contracted services and and maintenance Another way to look at it is expenses by department about 65 of the town's operating budgets to deliver police fire Ems and public work services to the community And just to highlight an accounting change we've formed a buildings and grounds division within public works in this budget Before all expenses for buildings and grounds are broken out into different various departments This budget now pulls them into a new division in the budget within the public works department It contributes to what you see as a higher public works department increase overall for those existing expenses removed in from other departments This buildings and grounds division has three full-time employees in the budget to exist today The other positions created by combining an existing part time position And existing seasonal parks position to arrive at a third position. That's overall cost neutral in the budget So that's the expense side. So next i'll talk about the revenue side how this budget is balanced How services are paid for they come in another of ways for our town revenue User fees state and federal grants host town fees our local options tax property taxes and reserve funds Then visually our property tax is just about over half of our revenue Our local option tax about a quarter then user fees and other revenue make up the rest of the overall revenue picture So looking at impact on property taxes All other revenue sources are analyzed before seeing what remains to balance the budget with property taxes In estimated tax rates provided that that i'll share But it won't be until the grand list is finalized in the spring that a final tax rate is set by the select board In late june before tax bills are sent out in july The projected tax rate increase in this budget is just under four cents per $100 of assessed property value That has a municipal tax rate of about 37.3760 cents or just over 37 and a half cents per $100 of assessed value This is about a $40 increase per $100,000 of property value The median wilson home is assessed at $300,000 So that would be about a $120 increase for the year or about $10 per month looking at the median home benchmark And this is reminders to the tax rate rate for the town of wilson for municipal services The education tax is separate, but all taxes appear on the same bill as the town's the entity to collect all taxes Then just a visual here looking at our tax rate compared to our other nearby towns in our county Our local option tax offsets the tax rate by about 19 cents per $100 of value Wilson remains near the bottom of municipal tax rates in the county right now and with this projected increase The amount of services the town provides with this tax rate is significant in comparison to our peer communities And I'll share a few words on our grand list The grand list is the measure of all property values in town It's the basis for determining the tax rate along with the amount of amount of money to raise by taxes We're anticipating a flat grand list for next year There's two major factors involved here Vermont gas systems has a depreciation factor not previously applied by its staff to his infrastructure We're looking at about a six million dollar decrease in our grand list value according to our town assessor It's also possible. We see commercial properties appeal their assessments given the current market conditions As we see in our growth center, especially new growth is occurring in wilson But given these given these other factors the conservative route to take was to project a flat grand list as new growth May be canceled out by this by these other market factors The effect of a flat grand list is about a quarter cent on the town's tax rate So I'll next go over our couple of bond articles. Then we'll be able to open up for questions here So we have there's two bond articles on the warning. The first is a project on our town hall parking lot Article six This is asking for bonded debt capacity up to 700 thousand dollars for this project The select board is also committed up to 200 thousand dollars of ARPA funds for this project The town has also recently applied for a grant assistance to the state downtown transportation fund for 200 thousand dollars for this project This project's scope is to improve the parking lot by adding additional parking upwards of 40 spaces to support capacity in our village overall It will improve the drainage and lighting For our staff and for public safety a number of slips have occurred in the parking lot over the years It's very dark in the parking lot as well without adequate lighting for anyone who's been there, especially on those dark winter evenings This this would also lay electric conduit for electric vehicle charging For public stations and for the future electrification of our town fleet vehicles including including our police cruisers Looking to do this while our parking lot is is under construction Would enable us to save it from doing it later. We wouldn't want to have to rip up the parking lot now to then lay the conduit again in the future A couple of visuals to go along with this article On the left here kind of shows the limits of the project You would see it expand in the back here. We see parking around here likely and we See you can see in the engineering plans. We'd have lighting throughout here in the parking lot and then there's a visual from earlier this winter when we had some snow and You familiar with the area that we have this heaving that's occurred for years in the middle This project would fix that it would help with the water that ponds pools and freezes right there in the parking lot So those are those are the primary reasons to for this project being proposed It's it's been an item in our capital plan for for a number of years Then finally article seven is looking to put a fire suppression system installed in the old brick church This is asking for authority to borrow up to four hundred thousand dollars for this project You may recall in the year 2007 a fire nearly destroyed the old brick church after a lightning strike It wasn't if it wasn't by the quick action of our wilson fire department We may have lost the building that day And six then a long time goal has been to install a fire suppression system a sprinkler system to the building This project include would include a new water line that we need to go to the building and the technical work to install a system in a historic building Then the visual back to 2007 this was the cover of the observer back on june 2nd photo by pogo senior Showing our department putting out the fire and saving the building after that lightning strike We've had discussion pick up about using this building more as we move out of the pandemic And this has been a step along a step discussed for a long time and in our capital plan to put this system within that building Finally it's our schedule for town meeting. You're here tonight Monday march 4th for the town meeting and public information hearing The polls will be open tomorrow for voting by australian ballot from 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. At the armory Remember to vote that's our town comfort dog duke reminding everybody photo a couple of years ago And I will now open it up for any questions on any of this information And if you if you wouldn't mind coming to speak to one of the microphones here Or we can also bring a microphone to you if that would be easier Parking lot bond No, I need to just turn the microphone on Can you hear me? There we go. All right. Thank you. So on the parking lot deal That's seven hundred thousand dollars for 64 hundred square feet That works out to over a hundred dollars a square foot Typical prices for an asphalt parking lot are 20 dollars a square foot Other than paying for a storm water permit. What's causing this $80 variation? Sure, but appreciate the question and just to clarify the project is cost is estimated at 900 thousand dollars We would have we have 200 thousand allocated and the other 700 it would be the bonding authority Yeah, but what we're seeing driving the price and throughout the construction industry right now Is escalating costs, but the the electrical conduit component of this project is is really driving up the cost as well And looking to include that as part of the scope oops These are it's a reality right now of of the of construction costs You know we we have the engineer's estimate on the project We'd be happy to share the plan some more details with you if you'd like Yeah, this would be chart. This would be the conduit would be used to charge electric vehicles Ultimately, I can say it's our engineers estimated happy to look at it in further detail with you Yep, chair with a project like this. Would you Be putting it out for a bid so people would bid on the project. Yep. Yep. It would be competitively bid Other questions from folks. Hope. Thank you for the presentation A few questions one Given what we're experiencing with the school budget as well Excuse me. Are there any areas that you can see that can be deferred a year or Anything else that could be decreased even to save a half a percent to a percent I realize the majority of the increases in salaries and benefits Some of those are also from additional Staff so that's my first question Sure. No, certainly. This is something the select board took a took a hard look at throughout the budget deliberations process Um These positions are also budgeted to start midway through the year. That was the way The board felt they were important to include but not to include for the full year to help look at those costs that we're experiencing as well So that builds in an increase for next year automatically as well Because of those a second half of that there would be proportional costs They are about a third of fourth of the year for the hr director and about another half year for the detective position Thank you. Second is I don't know what control you have as a town or impact you have But in terms of the number of empty commercial spaces Is that uh anything that you can impact as a town because that would then increase our revenue correct our tax revenue Yeah, it would it would tie back to um If there's a question of an appeal for the assessment for some of these vacant commercial spaces I I do know I check in with um property managers and the real estate folks for those vacant spaces I anticipate I I know there's been interest in them It's typically not something the town's taken an active role in but we certainly would if it was vacant for for a longer stretch of time Look to see what we may be able to do to help. Thank you and most important. What are you doing to get sunshine on a police? Doing the best I can Thank you Yeah, uh, my name is chris gaffigan and I'm very supportive of the police department the fire department, but I'm trying to figure out Why are we spending money on ev charging stations? Do we have Police cruisers now that have ev charging? They need it. Sure. No good question The town is is going to be moving there in future years. We don't currently have electric vehicles in our fleet We are building a plan to add them as the technology supports it So in looking to address this parking lot projects, um, we're Also, the town's energy plan, um Has these goals and it as well to look to electrify our fleet To look to reduce carbon emissions So we see an opportunity now as we need to improve our parking lot due to these Drainage issues and lighting issues that we could also look to kind of future Proof it to have this put in for this longer term town goal that will be pursuing Years to come so is it are those charging stations just for public safety or is it for anyone who wants to use it? Yep The intent would be to have public available charging stations in the town hall parking lot So we would end up paying for people charging their cars They would it would be putting the infrastructure in but people would have to spend their own money for the charging there Okay, we and then the cost of an electric cruiser For future still expensive Yeah, I don't have a good number on that right now I know in consulting with our police department. We're monitoring the technology nationally You know, we certainly we want to move that direction, but we want to make sure operationally It's the right time to do it. Do we know they'll work in vermont with climate and you know cold weather Those are all things you want to make sure before it's horrible in the winter And you know if one of our cruisers has to block somebody and gets hit catches fire pretty hard to put it out Yep more costs for our fire department. Those are all things we'll be looking at closely before we make that move Okay, another question on uh hr director. So you said we have four people who are doing it now Why do we need how much should you pay the consultant to tell us that you needed an hr director? Yep, this this report looked at a number of our factors here and how would you our hr systems? Um, we thought was a good opportunity We never really had someone look under the hood about what our capacity looked like and what we're able to do today um You know, we handle it now. Who are the four people? Are they like coordinators of hr? Are they department-wide? Yep, they all they all work in our central administration are currently our director of finance also holds the hr director title That's that's likely a one and a half person job There's a lot of a lot to carry with that role and we also have Myself and staff in the manager's office and staff in the finance office So it's spread a lot of many different places. We look at our our peer municipalities Have someone who's professional trained in this role for the workforce that we have That's what we land on that recommendation. You anticipate that growing So you have four people who are doing it now you get the director You anticipate further growth Well, let's clarify the intent would be to remove that responsibility from the four people where it's spread out to Because they all have other primary tasks to look at and with the nature of hr It's something where you need to drop everything and and work to support the employee or work through the issue when it occurs So by adding this position it professionalizes that it brings that support and development for all our staff And it also builds more capacity with our town administration who is Working through those right now. So do you assist with that currently like you're part of the hr team? Yep. I am All right. Thank you. Thank you Hi, I have a question about the um additional police staff Do we how do we anticipate that that would help the retail theft issue that we have in wilson? Sure. Good question. So in looking at this and Could you if you haven't had an opportunity to read uh jim baker's report? It looks at this future vision and looking at our co-production of public safety is part of it So looking at um retail theft, which we've experienced quite a bit in town in recent years We currently when our police officers take a call for retail theft the officer that responds to that call is responsible for working the case through We have officers who work typically 12 hour shifts three or four days in a row They may pick up a number of retail theft infractions while they're on shift They're off for a number of days as well By having a detective position it allows us to look at investigations on a whole To keep these cases moving to look at trends and connections to ultimately Find ways to resolve these um most efficiently So does that mean that we're gonna see more um Oh, what do you call it like people get arrested for these things and not just and not just Kind of pants left. I mean do we anticipate that that will help reduce or eliminate some of this? Retail theft we're gonna we keep experiencing sure So I think there's a lot of um a lot of members of the team there to look at that You know, we have our law enforcement. We also work with our community justice center is part of our police department We're building the capacity where we may be able to send folks through that process sooner as well We're thinking about as part of this vision to have a greater police presence in our growth center by having a A facility renting some space in maple tree place So I think it's coordinated. It's it's looking to have our law enforcement involved in getting people to restorative justice as well quicker That's a a proven method that that works for folks and to help get them into that Into that program that the town runs is part of part of the overall picture here as well yes So a quick clarification on the scope of article six This describes an expansion of 6400 square feet, but as I understand it you're also talking about addressing the entire parking lot Yes, that's correct. Yeah, so when we talk about the cost per square foot of doing this type of work It's not against the 6400. It's against the entire lot. Is that correct? Yeah, we're our our let me get back to my picture Yeah, it's looking to cover things within that scope area that encompass all those elements. Okay. Thank you Hi there Can you tell us what's happened to the funds for the environmental reserve fund? And the affordable housing trust Sure that's our affordable housing trust the town has ceded that for a number of years and We've currently the select board created a affordable housing committee at the end of last year If there's now been folks appointed that committee and I know What they're working on in their initial year is to propose uses for the affordable housing trust We also have some new zoning bylaws that were enacted that are going to build that That affordable housing trust fund with other streams of revenue We had small seed amounts in the budget through the years initially Having some things in the last couple years of looking at Different components of the budget. We didn't have funding there It's certainly something the town will be I anticipate looking at to its housing committee for guidance moving forward as we look at different revenue streams Ultimately how that fund is going to be utilized for affordable housing in town Environmental reserve fund. Yeah, yep There as well. There's about over half a million dollars currently in that reserve fund You know, certainly we see Using that to leverage different opportunities to purchase and conserve property in williston As we know the real estate prices are increasing We've been able to work with partners and grant funding to help us buy major parcels over the year Then everything considered with the budget. It was a good discussion by the select board In the first initial proposal trying to balance the budget that number was a little bit lower the board Her good feedback from the community and increased that allocation as well in in the budget It's certainly something that we have to look at moving forward as well Thinking about what's the the right size for for that fund moving forward Yeah, it seems like with the with the greater development the loss of land We should be increasing that that Budget amount, but it's been decreasing over the last few years It's all All part of the many pieces to balance the budget I know and there's you know, seeing the pressures of our expense increase this year and trying to weigh all these different important town goals in the budget A lot the select board before you had to look and make a lot of those tough decisions and putting this budget together Hello, my name is Dan boomhauer Um, I'm trying to follow the what we're saying here That sounds to me like you're adding staff a million dollars worth of a bond There's a in addition to the fact there's going to be a huge increase in education There's a change in Resources and the police in turn of 180 thousand dollars plus And so my question is if this budget gets voted down, what will be your next step? So Process wise if this budget was not supported by the community I would turn to the select board and the select board would have a discussion looking at Working through that proposal. I anticipate hearing feedback from the community and Moving forward at that point there would have to be a new budget that was put forth in the coming months What would be the timeline for that? Um Without discussing with the board, I you know how but I would anticipate something Discussions would occur in march and april and we'd look at a timeline Hopefully have a budget considered again before the turn of the fiscal year july 1st Great. Thank you. My second question is regarding the environmental conservation fund which In past history was funded by the taxpayers on a regular basis and from what I just heard you say I'm not really clear how it would be funded in the future So my question is how much money or how many dollars per 100 to thousand dollars of our taxes goes towards the environmental conservation fund in the future budget budget for 2025 On a per dollar basis, I'd have to run that calculation a little more But I I know we have about we have 40 thousand dollars allocated in the budget towards that fund There's a fund balance of about 550 thousand dollars right now. I realize what the what's in it. I'm just wondering what will be put into it in addition So thank you for that. Thank you Other questions yep, rent my name is brandt thinkon and I have an ongoing concern. I'm part of the racial justice and the community justice group and I Have a concern about the need for more social workers in the wilson area There's a critical shortage of that service and You know, I know that there's constraints on on our our budget But this kind of thing will actually In save the the town money, you know, if we get the adequate Social workers and we'll put the stress Help alleviate some of the stress in the police department You know in their job description certainly um Part of jim bakers police analysis report was looking on those exact points brand We currently work with the howards center mental health services wilson and eight other communities work to share Four social workers from the howards center who assist our police officers On going to calls and and working to provide those services. It's been a great partnership and program Moving forward there. There is thinking about the town having its own staff level in house That's something that's included in the report to think about in the years to come Good evening. My name is roberta tracy and I live here in town And my husband and I recently moved here from mont pilier and the reason we left mont pilier was because The tax burden had become so onerous. We could no longer afford to live there So we moved here. We were public servants We were not lawyers. We were not professionals And we served our communities And so needless to say I appreciate the thoughtfulness with which you have put together Your presentation tonight But I have to say my concerns are That we are once again finding ourselves in a position Where we are asking people to dig down deeper than they can really afford to and what in this budget is absolutely essential and I'm not a math whiz But I know numbers and sticker shock when it's put in front of me And my can my question to you is Where are we supposed to come up with the money? Thank you No, certainly. Thank you for your comments. And I I know it is it's a very challenging year I know certainly no one wants to hear that taxes are going to go up in any year I know it's a it's a very challenging year moving ahead here And You know, I certainly understand and thank you for thank you for your comments Dave Edwards, uh, Eric just three easy questions Number one with that parking lot issue If you do put lights eventually in the parking lot will those solar panels take care of all the electrical needs? Oh, good question. Yeah, those are baked into net metering credits Throughout the town's operating budget. We also have the trackers behind town hall So it all kind of feeds into credits on our electric bill overall We'd have to run the numbers a little bit more to see what the load use was on different meters around but So there could be eventually an additional electrical cost for those Chargers and and charges in the lights in the parking lot could be the lights will use electricity I know we'll be looking at efficient lighting Options there also for folks who if we have a public charging station, we're gonna It's a ultimately a policies question for the select where that doesn't haven't worked through yet But you know the question of what the town charges for that electricity There's certain rules and terrorists for electricity As well, we're looking to install thinking about that's what I Secondly that human resources position is budgeted about $90,000 salary and benefits But if I understood you correctly, it doesn't start until October Correct. So we budgeted a year salary or is it just a really well paid position? It's a prorated position on the year. Um, you know, it also prorates the benefits costs for the employee And that the what we budget for that position is based on a market analysis and work with our consultant for that level But the budget says $90,000 60 60 and 30 for salary and benefits Oh, you're saying $90,000 salary salary and benefits together is $90,000 But the job doesn't start until October. Correct. Yeah So that 90,000 is a is an annual Salary and benefits or is it a three month salary and benefits? It would be a nine month picture So that we're starting at one third into the fiscal year. So that would cover three quarters of it Oh, okay, that makes more sense And then finally if I'm reading the the other things correctly We're carrying about six million dollars in debt plus two million dollars in utility debt On a 15 million dollar budget and we want to add another million dollars a debt It seems like a lot of debt for a, you know, 50 percent of the budget Am I reading that correctly? I have to pull up I can sit with you look at these a little closer But overall our our general fund operating budget and this is separate from our utilities as those are all enterprise funds Our the amount we pay for our debt service. I think is around seven percent of our overall operating budget costs Per year per year. Yeah, but we're still carrying eight million dollars Over a period of years My town has got a 15 million dollar budget. It just struck me as being a A lot of debt that they were committed to over the years And and I don't know what normal should be in a case like that Keep an eye on sure Thank you I'll reveal that I am an hr consultant And I have worked with multiple towns in the state. I'm standing in support of us hiring an hr professional And I want to just Give some wisdom on this choice Our professional association says that we should have one full-time hr person for every 75 to 80 Employees so you're you could even use more But the reason why this is so critical is Our most important and expensive asset in the entire town And in any company are its people And we need a dedicated hr person to support and protect that asset If we're going to put all this money the majority of the budget is to support our people so that's Why we need that position so I know it's common practice for people to say Let's cut hr just the way when we want to cut a school budget. We say let's cut arts But it's vital both are vital and we need to look at that having said that We need to figure out how to Bring this budget in a little bit. It's just it's too much But not hr Any other questions Are we going to take a break before the school portion of this? Yep, I know that traditionally quite a few people have to leave at that point Myself being one of them and I would like to make a matter of privilege a very brief Comment on the relationship of the school budget to our overall town budget And I'm hoping that you will vote my fellow citizens the school budget down this year not because you're necessarily Opposed to the amount of spending it would incur but because the school board itself admitted Not about over an hour and a half ago that they don't even know what that funding stream is going to be based on anymore They designed the budget based on act 127 the former act which had the famous five percent cap But about two and a half weeks ago They'll actually repealed that and substituted a flow chart system Which would in fact apparently allow us to make adjustments that actually might mean something If we say that we support that budget as it stands now, but yeah, maybe the board will change it later But we'll vote for it. What we're saying to legislature is we have in fact no problem With the amount of money you're proposing to spend because hell, we just passed it So don't worry about it. It'll be fine. Right over. We'll take it just fine And this comes back on the town. We're all sitting here picking at the town over Well, I think are important and needed positions And at the same time the school is proposing an increase which they also admitted about an hour and a half ago Will be no less than about 18.4 percent and could run as high as 26.4 or more And they won't know for a long time But in fact, the legislature has authorized them to pause that vote and rethink it And that's what we must get them to do and that means the school portion of this must be defeated and I appreciate your attention. Thank you Digital questions on the town budget Okay, my name is Joy Saustin and on page 22 Of the town municipal tax history It seems like the tax rate from 2016 to 2022 was pretty flat I I know inflation and all that because we're living with it In our homes And when we shop but it seems like quite a Increase from 2022 to 2025 I I just like to I know you can't really address anything But I just like people to notice that that's quite an increase um, I have We've been here for a while and I've always appreciated The flatness of that graph in in earlier times And maybe it's just the sign of the times that it's going to be increasing and I'm afraid that If it increases much more after this that people will have to move away um That's what I'd like to say, but I'd also like to ask if There's a charging station at the new park and ride right The the state park and ride. Oh, that's a state. So that's difference then Yep, it's a state of Vermont facility. I'm we can't use it Um, anyone can use it for for park and ride. I you know, I don't think they have a charging station there right now I'm coming in the police station The state the state police station. I I am not positive But I don't anticipate it would be public available, but we'd have to check with the state on that Um, and I also wonder why We're all here in Vermont We never had like an open house at the state police department to just see What's there? Sure, I Anybody interested? I'm sure reaching out to the state of Vermont and seeing I know they If we went, you know, it's not put us in jail, but no I'd reach out to them as a as a state taxpayer and see if you're able to get a tour of that facility Oh, okay. Is there a person I can call? Um, I wish I knew to see what Oh, um, represented arson may know. She's on the uh judicial committee These parking lots, you know garages and now they're saying there's no room for their facilities from the old state department In that one and it looks like there's plenty of space, but I just Thank you All right, any any final questions here? All right. Well, well, thank you everyone for your attention. Oh, sorry one more in the back. Come on down Hi, my name is sherry arnold and I just want to let everybody know that I have grown up here in vermont I grew up here in wilson. I love it. I would love to see my children stay here. They're not I would like to be more affordable And this is not I don't have a question for the school budget and I don't have a question for the town What I wanted to say is that? With all the fiasco we just want to have to be reminded with all the fiasco that happened at jpeak with a fraudulent lawsuit Governor scott and his team will be starting to pay this summer our first installment And we didn't commit the crime, but we have to pay the bill So it's uh 16.5 million we have to pay over three years and that will be 9.5 Million starting this summer the first bill so we have to take that into consideration when we're digging deep Into our pockets. I also want to say that i'm a blue collar worker I don't have a college degree and i'm sure some of them Some people here don't either so it's kind of tight for some of us when we're trying to save for retirement We've helped put our kids through college and we're struggling and now some of us who are Trying to make decisions of whether we leave or we stay in our homes seniors having to be forced out I talked to a real estate Agent recently and she said all you baby boomers need to go and i'm like we love our homes. That's not a solution We'd I'd rather not be pushed out or have other family members my mother might in loss be pushed out because um It's just getting to be too expensive and I'd really like to have other solutions that we could put our heads together and come up with Thank you Thank you Any final questions? All right, we will wrap up the town portion there It might or the polls are open from seven to seven tomorrow If you have a question you think of after leaving tonight give me an email or a call I'll be around in the office tomorrow happy to make sure your question is answered before before you vote I think we'll take a brief recess here to let the school district folks get set up and then we'll turn it over to them Thank you all