 Do we have anything to do anyway? Not to take any action. OK. I would. Melissa Bounty can't not make it tonight. And so I suggested that we, that Robin Allison, we talk our hosts. Explain their facility here and what their thoughts are. And so happy to do that. Sure. Well, thanks so much for letting us have the meeting here. It's so great to do it. We used to have quite a lot of town stuff here. I think the biggest was probably the historical society met here for their annual meetings every year. And I'm not sure we ever had a planning meeting here, but we had information from town meetings and stuff like that. So it's great to do it again. So Pastor Allison joined us about almost two years now, right? Yeah, almost. We'd had our beloved minister, Doreen van der Linde, Avernathia for 30 years. And she was heavily involved in the community. But when she left, when she retired, we sort of entered this strange hiatus. And a lot of things sort of fell apart a little bit, partly then the COVID stuff as well. So we're getting back into it, really in two big directions. One of this in terms of the physical fabric of the building. So when I took over as a treasurer about five years ago, at that point, a number of things had really been going downhill. The roof and the sanctuary downstairs here, which hadn't been used very much, had gotten a serious case of mold. And we had to do, we had really done nothing except for the only accessibility stuff were the ramps, really. So we started what I thought would be a five-year project. Now it looks more like a 10-year project of renovations. Starting with the roof, which was really serious, and the steeple, which was tilted a little bit. Jay Southgate said, well, I'll come and fix that. And he did. And then he retired. And we began a number of funding activities, both the fundraising in the town, but also grants. We had a major grant from the Royal Winter Heart Department of Historic Preservation for some initial ADA stuff, from prior foundations, the Dungeon Foundation, the Oakwood Foundation over in Stowe, the Burn Foundation down in the valley. So what we've gotten to now is a pretty solid structure, but we really have to address accessibility. Right now, one of the things we did for accessibility was a new restroom in the front of the sanctuary that's fully ADA compliant with funding from several sources. But these two restrooms are the only ones that are in this community space. And they're very far from ADA compliant. Plus, there's no access from one floor to the next in this part of the building. You have to go up those stairs or down the other stairs that are right there. So when Stan Bernoski came to review the place back in 2018 for me, he said, well, things don't look bad, but you know, you've got to do something about all of this ADA compliant stuff, because you can't do anything except church functions in here. You can't have a publicly held organization that holds their own meeting in this space without it being ADA compliant. Oh, so that's the line? It is. Yeah, under the entirely 18, we can do our own functions, and we don't have to have. But our congregation is getting older. I'm getting older. And it gets harder and harder to do the stairs for the folks in the congregation. We had two years ago, one of our folks actually fell on the stairs trying to get up and down. So that's the next step really for us. And we've had really a close relationship with Back River Design in Montpelier, Roland Tate there, to design what's going to be a major renovation of this part of the complex, putting an allula in that space where those restrooms are. That'll allow us to explain what allula is. It's a limited use and limited access lift that doesn't require the same level of inspections that a full-scale elevator would. So it has a shaft. And inside that shaft is a freestanding lift that goes up and down, limited in terms of weight, limited in terms of the points of access, and so on. Yeah, but fun still. Colleagues down at Presbyterium did one that works really well. There's several up on the hill here in some of the medical complexes. So I put two, not my main person, but I helped get two in the last two churches. Yeah, and they're much less expensive than elevators are. Just the mechanism for the allula is $80,000 compared to $500,000 for an elevator. So, yeah. Yeah, they're quite expensive. Well, it depends, certainly. But for us, it would have been a full-scale elevator. It would have been about $500,000. So they've done a thorough design. We're at the point now of looking at the funding stuff. And one of the funding possibilities for us is an NEA grant, National Endowment for the Arts grant, called our town in which we act as the primary requester. But we do it in cooperation with the town to say that this is intended to be not just a private church space, but also a community space. So we're, I'm hoping to apply for that. The first part of the application is due at the beginning of August. And assuming that I can get all the materials together that I need from Black River, then I think it's just a question of something like the letter from town saying, yes, this is the space that would be helpful for us in terms of puny activities, has a history of being connected to the community, and so on. And I should know within the next week or so whether or not I'm going to be able to apply for that grant or not, depending on exactly whether I get what I need from Black River designed for that. Unfortunately, that grant is not an implementation grant. It's they only do the design work. And then once you've got that, then you're eligible for any other grants that can do major implementation. We're familiar with those types of funding opportunities. And then this week I've been spending a lot of time on the phone with Caitlin Kuerkenstein at the Department of Historic Preservation, where we submitted a grant to them at the end of June for $160,000 in tax credits that we would then, we contract at the last time at Northfield. Northfield Savings Bank and sold our tax credits to them. And they agreed again to be our, to buy the credits from us. So Caitlin's been very helpful working through the details of this application, which I thought I got everything right. But she said, no, wrong, you didn't quite get it this time. So. She's good at that. That's why we like her. Yeah. Well, how does that work? What are the tax credits for? So as a nonprofit, we don't pay any taxes, but we can still apply for credit against taxes and then then sell those credits to some other enterprise. Usually they sell them, they give us 90 to 95% of the value. And then we get the money and they get to use the tax credits in their annual tax payments. So the tax credits are for historic, something that you do in town? They are, exactly. Is that like, cause that's like our village district? It is, exactly. They're at the, it's under the Village Center tax credit program. Oh, okay. It's actually under the state. Oh, okay. Yep, that's what it is. And for us, at least the main area of applicability now used to be, we had structural things and we got the grant for those. Now it's all ADA funding. So the code violations that we're trying to remedy are all related to accessibility for individuals with disabilities. And the Lula is the big chunk of that. I didn't know that we were with that mess up. Well, this is the main room that we're gonna be working in. The Lula will be right in that corner and we're really not intending much change in this space. We may need to change where the door for the kitchen is. Depending on how exactly the stair comes up from outside, we're going to put a new door in to the back part of the church right over there behind the Lula and create a new sort of entry vestibule in that area. So that, at least according to Stan, that should allow us to meet all of the ADA requirements. We probably will keep at least that ramp. We'll have a new entry on that side that's at the ground level and the level of the main sanctuary. So you can come in without any ramps or anything like that for ease of accessibility. And then the biggest question we face is whether to keep the ramp on that side. The folks at Black River said that they felt if we have the Lula, we don't really need that ramp, that's not quite compliant. It's grandfathered in at the moment. So there are still some questions, but the recommendation from Preservation Trust that we've worked with very closely had been that we do this as a phased project and that we start with the Lula and that chunk of it and then locally run it, additional entry, this additional part over here, things like that. So it does, I think. So the initial funding is 398,000 that we'd have to, at least from the estimate from Black River Design, we're working fairly closely with. Is that for everything? That's just the Lula and the entrance there. It does include all the demolition of that area, stripping out of the stuff, building the shaft, includes the electrical, we have to put in a new service, 200 amp service, in order to support the Lula. So, but all of that is there. They added then a contingency on top of that, which I can't use in the request for funding, but we'll look at trying to get enough additional grant and then community funding. We've had very strong support from the community over the past several years, about 100,000 in community funding in the last five years. So it's been really, one of the great things is that the church has really iconed it for a lot of people in town. People who, when we did the first fundraiser in 2018, said, you know, I don't think I've ever been in that church, but I drive past that every day and I want to make sure it stays up. So it's been really great. And Tom has been a tremendous help in all of this. One of the really unfortunate things that we found out was the well we had, which was put in in 2000, when this was built in 1964. Oh my gosh, that was warm. Yeah. Chronic E. coli. So, and I had gone into Tom to say, you know, we don't want to replace the bathroom over there. What, do I need any permits? Tom said, well, well, it depends. How are you doing through water testing? I said, what water testing? I haven't been doing any water testing. And so Tom getting me up with the folks downtown and it turned out that we had only two options. One was to try to do another well somewhere else and risk having radon and bacterial contamination from the agriculture use that used to be here or else connect to town water. And Tom was instrumental in getting us that connection and that design. So, it really was, made huge sense. And the planning commission in 2018, 2019 got the Berlin common, this Berlin Corners as a designated deli center. Exactly. And this was the cornerstone of that project. Right, right. Well, I didn't realize it was, the taxpayers who were speaking of were related to that. Cause I knew that that was available through there but I wasn't aware that we were taking advantage of that. So good. So I was thinking it was only commercial properties but it's not. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's specific. Yeah, exactly. Clearly. Yeah, yeah. And so the thought process on my end is that there is not a lot of community space in the town of Berlin. And I came for a function here and I looked around and I said, wow, this is, this is the first time I was ever in a church and so we've gone to not Vermont Land Trust, who was that we might say? It was Preservation Trust of Vermont, yeah. Went down to Stratford and spent a day down there. And so what I've offered to, cause oftentimes grantees need a municipal partner in what they're doing. And I said, I really believe that the town would partner and that's really through our planning commission. And so I just wanted to plant that seeds with everybody here. And now as we are thinking of various things that we're doing, I mean, this is a terrific space. I mean, they're talking about maybe some concerts out here that maybe the town could sponsor. It's just, it's a great opportunity for both entities to make our community a tighter knit community. And I always say, and Tony, you're wonderful at this, is thinking outside the box, what can you do here? And I would encourage everybody to think along those lines and come up with. Absolutely. And we have lots of ideas. Last year we had, the last two years, we had a West Africa in September, a West African dance and music festival out in the back. And we also had Green Mountain Swing playing and several other, I'm a musician, they have done concerts out there as well. And it's a wonderful space back there with using the front of the building as the sort of stage, and then people sitting in the sort of amphitheater to the back. And the labyrinth in the back there, which was built when Doreen retired, is one that, it's amazing how many people from all around the state use it. I often am here, and there'll be folks who come and say, well, I drive past here, I'm away from Boston, I'm going to Montreal, and just thought I'd stop and walk the labyrinth, so it really is incredible. There's a labyrinth website that lists us as one of the labyrinths in Vermont, yeah. So, and we're thinking, we'll have a picnic table that we have to put together. But we're hoping to really make that space a really inviting space back there. This is near to me, can you explain what this labyrinth is? So, in many traditions, one of the meditation of ways you can meditate is a walking meditation in which you follow a path, sometimes a spiral path, sometimes a series of concentric circles. And it's true in Eastern traditions and Christian traditions and Jewish traditions. And when Doreen went out to the Southwest for her sabbatical, they had a labyrinth there, and she told the folks here that if they were gonna do something for her, for her retirement, she'd like to have the church make a labyrinth in her name. So that we went ahead and do that, hired a contractor who laid it out, put in the bricks, and it's a fair amount of maintenance. But it's worth it to have a place that folks feel is really accessible and it's a beautiful spot to just go out and sit on the bench or walk around. Public space? It is, public space, absolutely. So I think about this with our, sorry to interrupt. No problem, Tony. As we're talking about the idea of the trails, right? The trail network, you come from town center, going to Berlin Pond, but having this as a part of it is really funny. It would be great. I think about where it was, it's like every time I ride the bike path in Stowe, I wonder, why don't we have these spaces like that? The quiet walking path? Why don't they have that in Berlin? It's wild, we do. It's here, so it's kind of really cool, so it's kind of cool. And in fact, Ellen, who owns the property right behind us, which we had to use for the water line, is also very interested in having public access on that land. So for example, a trail that goes along that space and comes into the church here, not on the road, but in that natural space. So I think there are actually a lot of ways we could connect in, and we'd really love to do that. So we also have now a number of members who are in Chestnut Place, and it would be great to, for example, have Vermont Transit help us to bring them over here, then we're doing events and things like that. So I think it'd be great to- You know, Kaye's the, Kaye-Nuiso, my cousin is the- Yeah, I know, I do know Kaye. She's got a great supporter. Yeah, because they have transport. I don't think for the residents, yeah. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. We haven't arranged with them yet for our Sunday services, but they have, I think it was, I think it was for the festival, and they did one bus that brought some folks from the, I think from the Exit 7 Welcome Center up to here. So since they already stopped at Shaw's, it was just a small additional- Yeah, nice. A stop, so. Likely the next one of these out in the community meetings is gonna be at Chestnut Place. Nice, good. Yeah, excellent. It is good. It's, for us certainly having folks there who really still wanna be part of the community, it's really, this place gives them a strong sense of that. We have, at least one member always comes over from Chestnut on Sunday morning. So then we also have folks in other places too. My aunt, who's 102, is down in the gardens in Williamstown. And we bring her up for special events. She walks every day. She walks every day. She is much more, she's helped me a lot. It's quite amazing. I am amazing, that is amazing. Yeah, you might, she's, I need a Flanagan car list, right? Yeah. You might remember her and her parents, the pickers, my grandparents. So. I don't, but. Okay. You were strongly connected to. Yeah, I'm sure that, maybe I would visually. Yeah, that's what people do so much. I've been pictures. Well, I am not very creative, but I just imagine, sometimes we have meetings over there that the space is just too small for. Yeah. I mean. And we love to have, I mean. Have things like that here. What's the space you're referencing? The town office. The town office, yeah. I was thinking about that. You know, if it's one that's planned, we plan to have, it's gonna be well attended. Yeah. It might be wise. It would be wonderful. Yeah, anyway, it's supposed to. Yeah, it's just not a big difference. It's like people are gonna complain about. Right. Right, right. The thing about what we did at the. Grange. Grange. Yes. And how great, I actually have a really cool one. That's a wonderful space. But maybe to mix that up. Yeah, sure. And make sure the space is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, when we think of meeting a meeting space, that was the only place I really thought of, because it was the only place I really knew. I think this is much more palatable. Oh, me too. But I'm sure. Yeah. There's certainly, you know. A lot of space. I mean, the outside is much more, pretty slick. Yeah. Plus, one of the things we did two years ago was to extend the parking so that now, for the, maybe because of these big events we have, so that we can have about 80 cars altogether without having anybody park the park on the road. So. Oh, good. Yeah, so it can, we can take a pretty big, pretty big group. We had 99 people here, though, for the Shiba event. Yeah, we did this in that time, yeah. And a lot of kids, it was so fun. Yeah, it was fun. Dancing all over the yard. Yeah, the Green Mountain Swing Folks as well. It was really, really lovely. Oh, it's great. What is the artwork I'm gonna have to ask? Is this Art Zorn? Art Zorn was the organist down at Bethany Shurch for years, and also the director of the Mad River Corral. And then he retired five years ago and started doing, focusing on art instead of music. Well, he's standing in for us this summer. Our organist died in April. And so we've had Arthur and Lorna Cardi who was done in the Methods Church in Barry. I don't know if you knew her, Tim, did you? No, I'm sure Martha did. Yeah, exactly, yeah. I need something bright in my house. It's their first day out, as I figured, yeah. So it's great. He's a wonderful guy, very exuberant, and he's, he creates a wonderful atmosphere in the church on Sunday morning, for sure. It's great. Well, it's funny, because Lorna's just the opposite. She's very quiet. Very quiet. She's very confident, very quiet. So she said the other day, she said, I'm the internal spiritual. Martha is the eternal spiritualist. And then Janine said, he's Ligurachi. So, and we can use, especially from May through September, we can use the ramp there for getting up here for folks who are, so we had, the, while the, see, several, Hommathlin Hospice was doing traveling foot clinics, they were here about once a month, and we had usually around 40 people or so who had come. The elder members of the community, most of them folks who were not connected otherwise with the church. That's good. It was very good. They unfortunately ran into staffing problems when Jim Gauthier retired. So they are not traveling any longer, but we're thinking about, you might, well, let's talk about the visiting nurse, the nurse. Yeah, we're talking about doing a visiting nurse, parish nurse program. And that might include the foot clinic kind of stuff as well. Certainly blood pressures and sugar, diabetes checks and those kinds of things. And we have either one of the visiting nurses that's already coming, or maybe one of our nurses in our own congregation maybe have that be a part of what we offer. Yeah, that's great. How often is the radiology event? Is that once a month? Oh, they're once a month too. We have the Amanda Thomas fit, they call it the mobile fit clinic, or Bob Boobs on board, which they're out of Merrimack, and they can't park in the hospital parking lot because Vermont Blue Cross Blue Shield and New Hampshire Blue Cross Blue Shield don't speak. Really? Yeah. So they've been coming here and they'll be here once a month. They have this mobile, wonderful mobile unit, and they just park it, and we put a sign up for them, and they have appointments. Sorry, I work for financial regulations, so I'm fascinated by this. What need does this fellow, is this for uninsured, uninsured, or is it just people that can't get around? Most of the latter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's mostly accessibility. That was the same reason for the fit clinic, was folks who just had a difficult time getting. Okay, that makes sense. So I mean, like the cameras, Marta and Dan, they were perfectly able to go down to somewhere like DOSHA, but it was just tough for them. They lived just over on Crosstown and to be able to come here, have this really easy access in from the outside made it. They just really prefer to come here, so. Well, yeah, I'm just always curious about needs that are going up hill, yeah. So that's been really, we've had them twice and they're gonna come, they've given me the schedule for the neck, and they don't need anything really from us because they're self-contained. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They just need that space and. And are the foot clinics diabetic? Okay, for diabetics or no? They are. Okay, I just wanna, because my uncle is now maybe diabetic, they unfortunately though, the home health and hospice, they do in Barry still, but that's all they're only one they're doing now. They used to do them at the gardens and they stopped those, they're now planning to do one, but it's not at all clear how much they'll do, so I'm forward, so. Too bad, because we had a really good turnout here. We did, it was really important. I bet. We're half hour into this meeting. Okay. So I wanna thank you for opening your home to us here. Well, you bet, it's our pleasure. It's really, this place means so much to us, it really does. And the standing offer is whatever the town of Berlin can do to help your organization. And we'd like to. It's a great thing. Exactly, and vice versa, whatever we can do to support their town. Exactly. Great. Perfect. Okay. Tim, you wanna? Yeah. Go. Let's see, so we've got ice rink, year-round facility update. Tom's certainly immersed in this. You wanna? Yeah, I can handle it. I thought we'd do that. I saw that. So we submitted a $25,000 grant request to the building services. It's building communities. It's, and it's really a piece of the solar panel project you know that we're doing at the ice rink, but it's just another source of funds that we have, you know, we have to come up with 50% of money. So it's just another source of funds to ask the match. So it's, the application was submitted today. The, they don't, they don't act on this until September, October. So, but I was speaking to the person in charge and she read it and she called me right back. And I said, it's the best application you've ever seen. She goes, well, that's pretty close, but she had a lovely conversation. Nice, good, lovely conversation. That's good. And it was, so I think we, I'm always, I'm always the half full kind of guy when it comes to this stuff. I think we have an opportunity to do it. So, okay. Yeah, so, and I think. What about the big grant? Are you getting another, is that on the agenda? Oh, yeah, sorry. So just, what we're planning, so we've got the ice rink over there. And our plan is to make it a year round facility. That's what a roof over it, that have some headspace, but also then solar panels that the town will take the, reap the benefits from that. Yeah. And it'll make it easier to, to maintain the ice. Keep it clean. And then, you know, have some quartz underneath there as well. Oh, good. Can you remind me some quartz, like pickleball or what are you thinking? Pickleball, basketball, yeah. So the roof have some height. I mean, it's not going to be a, you know, the super dome by any means, obviously. Retractable or anything like that. But at least an uphead space to be able to have some, some racquet and basketball. And for this application, I said, the immediate use would probably be outdoor volleyball and bocce volleyball, because we don't have to do anything for that. Right, right. So that's what I said. Yeah. That would be the, probably the initial use of it. Just, yeah, so. Will it be slept? We would have, I mean, it would be covered, but we'd want some, you know, it wouldn't be perfectly flat, I'm sure. Just given the ice, you know, it will be flooded. So we'll want to make sure that we've got it pitched and some borders up there that will help it slope. And it needs some drain work over there, no matter what. So there's a lot of, that's a big, it's just grating over there because it, things are not moving the right direction there. It's just, well, the small rate behind it, by the shed there, it doesn't really drain to the other side. And then, which is much water. And then there's a storm water pond there, and then there's a storm water pond, so it's easy to drain it. With the right, you know, grating to get it out. Exactly. So that, yeah, that certainly needs some work. And so we're also working on the hydrant, working with the public works that are gonna replace the hydrant over there for the winter. We'll have a work bee in the fall, just to get the rink ready for the upcoming season. Tom Wellard is always, is always involved with that. And then we'll, I think likely last winter, we didn't quite get it together and that we had that quick change with that warming. So we kind of closed the window once, but we'll have a pickleball tournament, or not pickleball, excuse me, broom ball tournament this coming winter out there as well. Is that an annual film? Well, it would have been a second annual, but the weather last year, if you recall, James had that really warm, it really made it a challenge. Yeah, yeah. So we'll go for a first annual this year, as we try to schedule a little early and let Mother Nature, not have as much a negative impact. It's never an all-heat case. So yeah, so I think, you know, obviously we're looking to raise money for the big project that'll take some time, but there's some interim things we can do to kind of get that project ready to go. And I think Mike is on. Mike's on, yes. Yeah, Mike, so I can turn it over to you and just give us an update on the programs that you've been taking the lead on as far as the softball and such. And you're muted, Mike. There you go. Can you give me five minutes? I'll be right back. I gotta go deal with something, okay? Okay. Sorry. Well, yeah, so I can... Thank you. So, signage, we're still, I'm working with... They're there, still there. Yeah, so, all plans, but in August, if they're not up in early August, I'll just take that upon myself to get that done. But we bought signage for Berlin Pond and Dog River just to more information or updated informational sign. Will this move it over for you? Just, like kind of right at the parking there, just there's some things needed to be updated and such, so. I don't know if you want to put one of those. We just got to get those themselves. Oh, I'll take them. Oh, yeah, that's great. I don't think Hannah's... Thank you. She's not here, no. So, Hannah's the point on the swim lessons. So, we've worked out with Montpelier, Community Pool, and Offred Discount there. So, at the end, we'll get an invoice and be able to make that affordable for anyone in the Berlin community. I don't know, Tom, how much on Midway, where that's down further? Yeah. I think I printed this out before. Did you have that on the Midway Solar? Yep, where you have a site visit on the 19th. Yeah, it's next Tuesday. Wednesday, I think Wednesday. Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, yeah. So, I'm out of town. Okay. Yeah, as I said before. I should be able to go, I'll put it on my phone. So, it's 2 p.m. at the site. I will carpool from here, and I'll probably leave here at a light 25 till 2 to get over there. I probably will drive directly there. Yeah, okay. Just because I would come from up there. Wow, so when the roads are all... Exactly. Jeff, are you able to attend that? I forget if you said you were... Yeah, yeah, I can make it. I might catch your eye with you if you're just taking off from the town office. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, so yeah, I'll meet you there. Yep, sounds good. 225 you said, right? Yes, yep. Okay. 125. 125, 125. I'll be there 125, not 225. 135. I'll be there 125 just in case. There you go. You won't leave without ya. There you go. And so, I was going to go to this select board Monday night, but obviously with the situation and given my availability, I think it's August... 7th. 7th, yep. So I'm going out a ton twice between now and then. So yeah, August 7th, I'll attend there and just give them an update. And Tom was gracious enough to work on some talking points and we would work through. So there's, yeah, I haven't been in front of them in a while, so really just get, you know, get out in front of what we've got going and can only ask for some things in the future and be able to help maintain, fund, support the projects that we have coming. So. And yeah, so, you know, I think inside that, there's obviously a lot of the trail stuff down below. You can check. Mike, oh, Mike, you're, are you ready? You're still muted, Mike. Yeah, sorry, trying to click the button. Yeah, I'm back. All right, welcome back. Yeah, hey, yeah, for those of you who I haven't met before, Mike Noyes, Wednesday meetings are hard for me because I coach a lot of different stuff, but the capital soccer season's over, so here I am. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, so the update on summer softball, we have a summer team that's playing at Berlin. It's a U-14 softball team. We have like, I think 12, 13 kids on the roster. Most of them are from Berlin, so it's great. Having a lot of fun, we're doing well and it's going great. So kind of my first step was I wanted to get something going and we got that going, so hopefully the next step for next year is to kind of expand those teams to different age groups. But I wanted to get something started, so that's what we did. And then, yeah, so it's going great. We're using, like I said, we're using the Berlin field as our home base and it's been great. Excellent, I think that's great. That's wonderful. Mike, is the scoreboard, is everything there to do that, or are we still short some materials? So yeah, a couple of things. So the field was set up for baseball and we had to change that for softball because softball doesn't use a mound, they use just, you know, it's flat. So we got rid of the material, we went up and did a little work day up there. We do not have access to the dugouts or any of the equipment and stuff in the dugouts, or like, so I think that's one of the things that we're going to have to kind of look for if we're going to try to build something in the community, we're going to need, you know, field liners and, you know, not necessarily equipment like balls and bats and stuff, but like field equipment, like I said, field liners, you know, little stuff to smooth out the field line. So those types of things I think we're going to need. Hannah told me that we have some stuff in the dugouts, but I have no access to it. I tried the combination that she told me would work and it didn't work. So we're making do, but you know, obviously we can do things better. I think if we want to expand things like this, yeah. Do you know that there are two different passwords on the locks? One is playing. I tried them both. I tried them both. So yeah, so we're going to need some material and we're going to need some equipment in order to kind of grow the program, which obviously can grow. What I did was, you know, it's not a money maker for the town or anything. Like we kind of fronted a lot of the money. We fronted all the money, but you know, just getting umpires, everything's expensive. You know, you're not necessarily asking the town for any money to run the program, but we're going to have to start thinking, you know, as far as like, you know, balls and bats and helmets and umpires and all that stuff, but we are going to need some stuff to just make the infrastructure work. Does anybody have any questions about that? No, I think, I mean, we do have some money too. I mean, make sure you're not, and you shouldn't have to take a head or anything. So if there's some reimbursement too, we can figure that out. And there's, you know, we do have rec funds available. And I would encourage this group when Tim goes to meet with the select board in early August. One of the topics that we talked about was really, you know, putting some funding into the Rec Commission. I think you get 5,000, 3,000. That's not enough to run a program, right? So the more folks from the Rec Committee that, and they do a Zoom that can show up and advocate for these things, just reiterate what you said there, Mike. You know, basic stuff. I think the select board would fund that kind of stuff. So ideally, you know, you can get to a 30 or $40,000 budget where, you know, it took the planning commission about seven or eight years to get there, but they're there. And why they got there is because they kept applying for grants, they kept the, and so you guys are showing a presence here. I think you have a strong argument to request some funding. Yeah, and it's not, and the stuff that, you know, that I think we're gonna need is like, you know, like a liner for the thing that looked it up. It's like 160 bucks, you know, a case of paint, $75, stuff like that, you know. But that's going great. The kids are having a lot of fun. And, you know, it's a start, you know, that's kind of what we wanted to do. And so the idea is to grow the program for next season, but, you know, we had to start somewhere. Oh, no, thank you. Yeah, thank you. I feel like this is the kind of thing that really helps to build community. Oh, absolutely. So I had this brilliant work. Yeah, and it's cool, like, you know, because we're playing the teams we play, we play, you know, Orleans and Thetford and, you know, White River Valley and Barry. And so all these teams, you know, it's like, hey, we're, you know, we're Berlin. We're like kind of making a name, you know, and I think it's great. You know, rather than... And the great thing is, is that we have the fields available because they're not easy to come by, you know. But yeah, we need a backstop because the backstop only goes up 10 feet. And if you know anything about softball, like, you know, that should be 30 feet high at least. And so, you know, we lose a lot of softballs that way, but like, you know, those are things that I think we can, you know, I think that with some funding we can fix. And that's going to help, you know, not only the town, but it's also going to help the school, you know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, good job. They have a new principal there now. Yeah, exactly. So I'm hoping that we can kind of maybe work together a little bit better than the last one and get some stuff going, maybe even in the fall. Yeah, and she's from Berlin, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She lives in Berlin. She lives in town. Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you, Mike. All right, good. That's it. You just subbed up soccer? Yeah, I don't. Soccer, yeah, I don't. Yeah, so soccer, so basically we're doing everything over at U32 right now. And the reason that we're doing that is because, A, we can. And B is, you know, obviously it's centrally located, but we don't have the equipment that we need in order to run any programs there. You know, we're going to need goals. We're going to need corner flags and lining equipment and all those things. You know, if we want to run any sort of program and my goal for next year is to be able to run, you know, have my high school kids, for those that don't know, I coach the high school team at the school, is to have the high school kids, you know, kind of run the program to the little kids. And, but we're going to need equipment in order to do it. It's just without it, you can't run a soccer program without goals or lines or flags or whatever, you know. So I think that's going to be our next mission is to find that equipment and those supplies. And, you know, again, it's not, I don't think it's anything that's going to break the bank, but I think it's going to, it's essential in order to run anything. Hey, Mike. Yep. Will you, can I give you my email? Will you email me? Because I work at U32 and I have funds that might match up with what you're doing. Tony. I'm Tony Snow. So my email is ASnowatU32.org. Tom, you can send it to him. Yeah. Tom will share my email with you, but send me an email and let's talk. I think I can find a way to help you out with that. Okay. Yeah. He sounds very skeptical. I'm a real person. I think he's worked with his school before too. He's new there. He hasn't been there very long. I'm funny with a U32 email, but I'm going to give you the benefit of living it out. He hasn't been there very long. Well, thanks, Mike. So before we get into the light items, I just want to send this to folks. So this is programs that we've been seeking grant funding on. We have written grant requests for $9.8 million. And of that, we've just been rejected on almost $2.4 million. So we still have $7 million plus out there that we're looking at. And we have had some victories. Some of it doesn't really pertain to you folks, but we have, and I'm including the acquisition of the school properties of victory. I put a value of $685,000 on that. So we've got about $800,000 of victories this calendar year. In July, August, and September is when these other ones are going to start again. We're going to know, right? So I'm optimistic as I have to be. So that's where that's. I'll go down through the particulars. I think I shared with the planning mission, the River Tin project went through the Clean Water Stay Revolving Fund. And we were third from the, they're three out from the money. I thought that was like a given. Yeah, I did too. Do we know, this maybe you might want to shut me out now. So with everything that's just happened, and there's, you know, with FEMA happening, I imagine funding is going to be brought back in for rebuilding infrastructure and rebuilding some of the things that we've lost. West Berlin and Northfield, that area, River Tin area was hit pretty hard. Is this an opportunity to start talking about like as a part of re-improving the land and re-improving all of this? I don't think through Clean Water Program, maybe through some other thing. Well, not necessarily through Clean Water, but I imagine there's going to be hopefully an influx of like rebuilding funds. And I think that, I don't know, that's my assumption. My sense from the property owner, two years is... Too much. Yeah, and that he's going to start doing stuff on his own. That's just the sense that I got. But there's other options, right? There could be. My hope is that, you know, there was like 20-some homes of capacity there that he may take two or three homes of the capacity and then we could do something in the future because it's ideal spot. We have all the information. We've got, we have the scoping study done. Wait, is he going to build the system that we designed? No. He would build it individually. He's a contractor, right? He built the house a couple houses down. Right, right. How much was it to build it? We asked for 2.2. Really? Yeah. It cost that much to build that system? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So anyways. That's my sense talking to him that they're going to walk. The couple of these programs are all baked together like the VTrans bike and peg ramp that's been submitted. That's $550,000 to do the pedestrian access over in Berlin Common, the Newtown Center. It's the sidewalks. It's the multi-use path. It's the street trees and the street lighting. It's a $550,000 project, which if we are awarded, we will get $440,000 of that project. So I feel good about that one. I spoke to the VTrans. We've just done a scoping study on that, on that multi-use path. Oftentimes, those studies will sit on the shelf and they were surprised that we came in this quick to do that project. So I think we have a good opportunity there. The Northern Borders one, which is really the big one, it's $6 million worth of projects, $3.7 million for an extension of our water system, the complete pollute. Two of them that are involved, the Rec Committee is, when we put that water line in, we'll be digging up Scott Hill Road. And when we put that road back, we've asked for $1.6 million to widen the road and make a multi-use path on that road. So it's about two miles of, I'm calling it bike lane, but it's more than just bike lane. Is that with existing right away? Yeah, right away. Oh, it is. As far as I know. We haven't designed it yet. But we don't want to get into right away acquisition. That just, those dollars are not baked into this. Yeah, okay. And then Tim talked about the ice rink. The project from Northern Borders is $775,000. The stanchions over the rink, solar panels making it a four-season community space. I think we're going to get some funding out of that. We'll just see what comes down to. Does it, so if we get some, is it, they will say you're approved for this project or they just say you get $3 million spent? No, I don't know the answer to that. You're trying to get the Superdome? I think we need about three more zeroes on the back of that. The priority is that water project, right? Yeah. That's the priority. And next would be the bike. Because we're ripping that road up and it just makes sense. I'm all four and I live on the East Trail, so yeah. Oftentimes the funders like to give piecemeal grants to many, many folks and then you really can't do much of anything. I just applied, I'm still applying, it's this community recovery and revitalization program grant. It's for $207,000. That will be our match to the VTrans bike and pet grant that I talked about up above there. And what this will pay for is in Berlin Common the storm water bringing water and sewer to three undeveloped lots, including the recently acquired town of Berlin lot. And that's those three pieces. So at the end of the day, if we, let me go down here then, the Route 302 gateway project, it's a loan, $2 million loan. Again, that's the end of July date when we're supposed to know that's to build, to realign and reconstruct what's now the Berlin Mall Road and once that's down, the town will take it over. But with the VTrans and that loan, that gets four developable lots on that property, one of them which is the towns. And assuming all the grants come together out of the pocket expense for the town for two and a half million dollar projects, about $100,000. You gotta change that, it's not Route 302. Alright, put 302. I was confused when I saw that. No, we talked about that though. The Route 302 gateway project is different. It's done. We did not apply for it. We applied for that one over there. Really, we already got all the dirt down there for doing the work, the part. The EV charging, I think I said to you guys that we applied in July 6th. They said they're having a bunch of applications that they may be back to us in four months. It was 10 EV charging stations on the town property campus over there. As homes for all, we didn't get, we weren't awarded that. Little Sex was awarded it. So I'm gonna take aid off this agenda, gonna go for it. I'm gonna take Riverton off this agenda to go forward. And the last one there is, we were working our way through and TMI was unable to make the last meeting, but maybe you want to talk about the meeting we had with Land Sander. So they're kind of a resource to help us with really gotta be more open and equitable community. They really have a lot of resources to help us think more holistically. One of the big things that comes out of it is a community survey. They've got a standard survey. I forget how many questions they had, maybe 18, 20 questions. I say the survey probably will take someone 10 to 12 minutes. So pretty extensive investment of time, but hopefully, and then we added a few that were specific to the town. So that's just to kind of get a pulse of where we are, what's important to people, what are their priorities. And that could be influential in the future for grants is saying yes, the community is invested in this. This is what they've said. Hence, this is what we're asking for. So I think, yeah, it's already had been a valuable resource. And I think they continue, as we continue to mature that relationship with them, we can become more broadly seen and inclusive as a holistic community. Yeah, very, yeah, you know, great benefits for us, certainly. And I did, yeah, you could share the PowerPoint, certainly with, you know, the, the team's talking points. Yeah, they're kind of just, obviously, the high level. It kind of talks about who they are, what they do. I feel like we dropped at some point, or that was dropped. Is that what happened? They came back. Oh, okay. They left us and then they came back. And I think you may recall that from Regional Planning Commission was here last. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is there any? Clear. Clear, clear. Yeah, I think we said, you know, they ghosted us. And I think she went back to them because I got a letter of apology from them. Yeah, they watched the meeting. You had to be on the Zoom. Well, no, it doesn't get recorded. It doesn't get recorded. This is the only time work is at this meeting. So, so, oh, anyways, I think that's where it came from. But they seemed engaged. Yeah. Yeah. Good. There was three people from there on the calls. And as Tim said, it opens up some funding opportunities that we're all, we're all about that. And help me understand what the relationship is with the state. There is no relationship. The state has hired them to go into work. To work with people. To work with the Vermont communities to do this. Okay. Yeah, they're not locally based. No, I know that. I want to fill them out here. I want to fill them out here. I want to fill them out here. I'm the second member. Yeah, they're all over the country. Yeah. Okay. Are they the old? No, that's all. We can't do minutes. No. I wish some of that, some of those nos would be yeses on these grant applications. Is there a chance to stay on the Riverton one? And we've done a million this time. But I wonder about, so what organizations are through? Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Okay. It's a federal, federal dollar. How far off were we? Point-wise. Yeah. If you know we were third from being funded. And if you look at the ones that were past funded. Yeah. We were like four or five points higher than some of them that were in the past have funding. Yeah. So, as I said in the email to you, we, in my opinion, we're going to need some of those that have been funded to say. They can't do it. They can't do it. Right? And that's what I was going to ask about was like, is there a, is it, I don't know how close a relationship you have with them. Maybe you want to go visit some of those towns, John. I live in the one. Put the, put the, put your guard in it. I live in the one. That's it, no. Get out. I don't know what that, they need to do. I'm just curious if like, if there's a conversation, how well you know this, because like when I used to be a, do the grant making, which is the best job in the world, that you give away your money, and everyone seems to love you, no one's meeting you. Yeah. When you have the, those folks were calling her like, listen, I know that we're three down for, you know, we're going to lose out on the product permanently. This is the one we get an opportunity in the future. It's going to be gone. We need housing desperately. We need to get this kind of, if someone, if it doesn't have to work out this or that, like what do we need to do? Do we are ready? You know, like, I don't know, just just putting in that message and keeping that communication open. Cause I, I've definitely been a part of like, when the other one, the town comes back and they're like, you know, it turns out we actually can't, we didn't get the rest of the funding to make this happen. We're going to have to resend this grant. I've called them right back and, you know, said, if you're still ready, you know, we're able to just wish us a word. Part of the problem, this is just, my opinion again, part of the problem is that there was this huge influx of dollars into the state. Yeah. And so they announced all these, the state announced all these programs, but they did not hire people to manage the, the dollars or the applications. Yeah. And the people that are there are just overwhelmed. It's, it's, it's taken us, I don't know, almost a year. It's been a long time. To get, get our application reviewed. Yeah. And, and that's, you know, I, yeah, Where are they located? Those are, they're state employees. I mean, a lot of them are working at home now. Okay. I think it's part of, it's part of ACCD, isn't it? No, this is. ANR. It's got to be ANR. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. They're their own, they, it's federal dollars that go into clean water and drinking water. Yeah, it goes close to the state, but it's got to be ACC National Resources of the Master's of. Yeah, you'd think, yeah. And that, that's my sense. It's just, it's, and what the regulated community is really hoping for is that the regulators realize that if they, instead of them having to go through the process, if they just gave monies to the municipalities, that the municipalities would get projects done, because I think it's like 2025 this money is supposed to be spent, which is not that long. Yeah. You know, it's not that long. Yeah. And, and so, that's what You mean just split it up? Or, yeah. Or, how, yeah. Like this, how do you prioritize it? Yeah, it would be based on population, just like the ARPA funds where it was based on some formula, right? There's some, you know, and then you get a share of that formula. And, It doesn't look like strings have been attached to it, that's got to level this problem. Oh, yeah, I mean, that's what when we sit around and complain about the process, you know, what it is, is just let, let the municipalities decide what's the important projects. Good. All right. Well, wait to see, I guess. Yep. Oh, but we did, we did have good news from Sanders' office, right? Well, Well, we're still on the list. Yeah. That's, yeah, it's part of this, party. Oh. That's in here. It's not, it's in the $9 million ask. Yeah. $10 million ask. Yeah. We're still on for the balance of the multi-use path in Berlin. Sorry. I'm, I'm one of these people. So I, I've done, yeah, have, have you responded in to them and said something to the effect of like, we've met as a planning commission where, like, after the devastation, like they just landed right over there half a mile. Like they went toward our town. They, as well as the other ones, like they know that all the stuff has just happened and just sort of like having that communication and the conversation of like, like, we're really excited about how we're going to, you know, recover from this. And this is one of those things that like, this is where people were, right? They were at, I'm a little jaded right now. I know you're an old. I get, I get that. I also, I also, I'm talking to the half full Tom. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I just wonder about continuing to send those messages of like, don't forget about us. Like, this is really important. Yeah. Like, this is part of our recovery for Monday made everybody's plate a little more difficult. But I, I will. I get that. Just don't let them forget. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. You're talking about the congressional, the Sanders money? Yes. Yeah. They just, they just reached out to us this week. No, I know. I know. I just, just to like, don't let them forget us. Yeah. Like, keep having that conversation. How like we were. Yeah. I just, I just think about how much the tiny conversations make all the difference. Like those small ones of like, we were like, this isn't, you know, because the reality is like, we also just applied for a shit ton of grants and a bunch of little ones and just keeping that thing of like, we're not, they're too, where you get the applications from, you know, 60 people and 55 of them don't even live in town. They don't know where Berlin is. They, they are applying for the wrong job, but, but there's a click away that just like saying, like, no, this actually matters to us. We've been meeting about this. We're really hopeful. Like, you know, this is something that's really important to the growth of our town. Yeah. You know that housing is a huge thing and this is going to help with that. Like, all of these things, do you do that? Oh! So, yeah, that's a good idea. They said another meeting? Okay, nevermind. Just, I get that also. However, I can help with some of those. I'm happy to write things that you can just copy and paste. If that's ever helpful. Yeah, I think, I have to say that the website is horrible. I think it's absolutely horrible. What's the website? Just for the record. Berlin's website. It's horrible. And it's new. It's pretty awful. It's just ridiculous, but anyway. I'm the choir. You're the half-full. I'm the choir. No, I'm the choir. You're preaching to it now. This is a pretty good place to do it. You're over. You're just over about 20 feet. That's a second of our part. Okay. Thank you for coming.