 September 20th, 2021, regular select board meeting to order. Brad Town, Flo Smith, John Quinn, and myself, Justin Lawrence, and Vince Conti here. Any additions or changes to the agenda, Vince? One type of I made on the appointment for approving of the 615-times lot for Amanda Smith. It's not the public's work board. And the letter in your pamphlet is correct. It's the planning commission. OK. That was on me. All right. Thank you. Public comment? Hearing none, Black Road discussion. Ken, Cubby? Yeah. Right behind you. OK. We'll start to be a little lengthy. Start with the select October meeting of 2020. There was an agenda published by the town. On this town, there was no mention of Black Road or any changes there to our traffic flow or allowing any unauthorized motor vehicles, namely four-wheelers, stone wheels on the road. It was not on the agenda in any way, nor were any of the residents informed. I want to make that very clear. From your minutes of the October 5th meeting, it was brought up at the very tail end of the meeting. By Mr. Lawrence, seconded by Mr. Quinn, and approved unanimously to allow snow wheels, four-wheelers, and so forth to use Black Road. It clearly states in Vermont law, this is 19, BSA, chapter 7, holding hearings, giving 30-day notice to petitioners and town planning commissioners. A few of the highway inquestions received testimony from interest in parties. And general board members should refrain from any discussion with parties, except for clarification of facts on the issue. None of that was done. Zero. Let's continue on. After, again, from the meeting, October 5th, recorded in The Times our guests. I quote Mr. Quinn, I think it's a good place to stutter. We're going to, suggesting the allowing use of town roads could prompt adjacent landowners to allow trails to cross in the use of their property. Sounds like a veiled threat to me. If you don't let us use the roads or use your property, we're going to let them use the roads. Let's move on a little further. March 17th, again, this is in The Times our guests. Conservation board. They weren't a meeting or were chastised for not wearing a meeting because they were under the opinion, apparently, in trying to block motorized traffic up over Darling Hill. And that did not meet with the select board's agenda, apparently. In fact, again, I quote Mr. Quinn, the conservation board serves at the pleasure of the select board and needs to follow in line, basically. Which again? Basically, or is that what I said? That's what you said, according to The Times our guests. Oh, wow. OK. OK. We'll move on a little further. Sugar making problem. Over on, again, up on top of the hill. Conservation committee, illegal tapping of trees. The conservation commission recommends in request a fine of $19,000 against the Turkey Hill firm for illegal tapping of trees on town property. Let's fast forward to the select committee. Snowmobile club cuts unmarked trees on the same hill, the trail, again, Darling Hill. The only mention is the select committee is upset because the beatings in the conservation committee were not properly worn. But they had no problem, apparently, according to the free press with the cutting of trees and going outside the marked territory. Nothing more sad about that. Let's move on a little further. Black Road, part of this class four, is a trail. Town resident, namely Josh Walker, put a log across this trail. I called Mr. Carney and complained because you're not supposed to block a class four road. In fact, I could read the Vermont stature on that as well. No person is allowed to block a class four road or any other trail. It is fine of not more than $1,000 in its core costs. I can read the exact paragraph if you'd like. I report this to Mr. Carney, the log's still in place. He's got no more right to block that trail than I do. I've also requested from Mr. Carney the exact rules and regulations for not only Darling Road but for Black Road, for the class four section. You have to receive any, in fact, if any, exist, neither Mr. Carney or anybody else seems to know where they are, even though it clearly states that in order to change that, the town has to have an inviting and post-it for anybody to come in and receive. Not there. How come? As far as the Bass Club and, well, Bass and the Barry Thunder chickens, being a $19,000 fine was applicable for tapping trees up on that hill. It seems to me a $19,000 fine at very minimum should be applicable to Bass and the Barry Thunder chickens. They illegally cut property on town property or cut trees on town property and went outside the trail to do so. But yet nothing seems to be said about that. And I'm kind of a little concerned as to why this is happening. It seems to me that the select board has decided they want that trail through. Don't care who it hurts. Don't care who object to that. We want the trail through for the select committee and a few of their good buddies on the last. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, it seems to me the motion should be brought up to the floor, both against Mr. Walker for illegally blocking that road, which his states can't do, against Bass for illegally cutting trees up there on town property, which they are not supposed to do. I know I don't have a fiddler's chance and you know they are getting anything approved. But I'm hoping that people watching on or from media or perhaps at times, I guess, may have something to say about this as well. And I intend to pursue that. And I'm going to keep pushing it till the very end. Other than that, gentlemen, I got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. I feel like crap. Now, I've said what I got to say, and I'm going home. Thank you for your time. I hope you feel better. So with that, I think that some of the information doesn't really line up as not factual. I think without a motion, we have a quick discussion on maybe having been checking to the timeline and accuracy of the minutes and the comments made. And not everything gets posted exactly as we know. I guess the one that concerns me the most is probably making sure it was worn correctly to begin with, right, the first one. And looking for the accuracy of that. I mean, the comments in the paper, it is what it is. And sometimes captured out of context. But I think it's important that we make sure that we're following the process correctly. I think as far as some of the comparisons with the trees, we all know that there's an accurate to compare statements versus what's happening. Yeah, I think there was, you know, there may still be disagreement there, but I think there was a general understanding or agreement on what was being cut. And I don't know that it was fully recognized when we talked about it on both sides of the stories. So the conservation committee wasn't there that night. We didn't have a chance to question them about it. I don't think it was fair representation, but it is what it is. If you agree what I'll do is I'll start with the October 5th, 2020 that I referred to. We kicked it off with a timeline of events together. I'll draft a letter, show to the board before we go. I would actually, I wouldn't rely on his October 5th timeline either. I would maybe give a little deeper. Yeah, I feel like when we brought it up, I can both go. I'll start there. I'll go whichever way I need to to get to the baseline starting early. OK. Brad, do you have anything on that? Well, as I, when you and I talked at one time, I mentioned there, I didn't think that the Black Royale had been included in allowing snowmobiles on the road. It was, even Pete Kelly was there. Back when Pete Kelly was on the board, and he made a point that Black Road he thought was, was unacceptable as a snowmobile trail. He took in, we took in allowed snowmobiles from Shed Road. I believe it was Shed Road, or maybe it was, I think it was Shed Road to under the throughway onto your property. Right. And if I remember right, that was the only one we did approve. We also approved at one meeting the use of Black Road and Brookfield Road. Yeah, but the way it was worded, if we look back at the, look at the minute, not the minute, but the tape, the way the, the way the, the way the motion was worded, I, I, I just listened to the tape. Okay. See what, see what it is. Okay, thank you. There you are, going up. I just wanted to add that as I recall, and I agree with listening to the tape, I also recall there were discussions almost as if it was a done deal before we were discussing it based on boards in the past. So, Vince, you may need to look back at some of the historical, because there was a lot of reference to that, as I recall. And I think the Times-Argus even published that as well. And we may need to refer some of this through legal counsel. But that's a down the road, you know, if it comes. I wasn't on when Pete was on the board. No, that's what I mean. I just mean that there was some discussion with our board and some articles in the Times-Argus, one or more, where they referenced almost as if the agreements were in the past, and we were taking effect to something that already had been established. So we need to look into that a little further, from my perspective. Yes, I think that would be great. All right. Highway Superintendent, truck replacement discussion. Coming up. So, two weeks ago, we brought one of our trucks up for maintenance, and Clarks said that International is not taking any more purchase orders for the next year. They've already met their quota for 2022-2023. Due to everything that's going on in this world, they've set a number that they can make X amount of trucks. And they've already met that. So without being said, Clarks purchased, I think he said, matter of town, for stock on their own. And then they kind of know which towns are coming up for replacements. So they said that if we wanted to, he gave me a quote. Don't know if it's short, but you guys are not on it. I have a quote. So what it would be is contingent, if you signed a purchase and sales agreement, kind of with them, that it's contingent on that if it goes through the budget and votes through a town meeting, it puts our name on one so we wouldn't have to wait for 2023-2024. Is that right? What truck are we talking about? I was just going to ask, is it replacing one? 2015, kind of like that. When you're talking about in the FY-23 budget, next year's budget? It would go in this fall's budget. Right, for next year. So do you have FY-23? And that was one of the ones that the implementation would be replaced anyway? Yes. It was? It's at its 2015. So to that seven-year mark, that one was the one that was out of five-year warranty. So that truck's been out of warranty for two years now. We dumped a bunch of money into it last year. Is it having any issues right now? No, but we've been not running it as much using it. We moved the equipment with it since we're the trailer, so we moved the excavator and stuff with it. Because I put brand new tires on it last year, so they don't want to run them. Is it going to be OK for this winter? Yes, because you know what I mean, unless it has something. Well, that's what we know, right. But I put brand new tires on it last year. We ran through the winter, and they're kind of a snow tire almost, so they're kind of softer. So I've been trying not to run it that much on the asphalt, so the tires are still going to make the longevity of the truck for replacement. So we won't know how much they're willing to give us for our truck until the last minute, right? Yes. Yeah, I don't think. But we lock in the price now. Yes, it would be that we would get our name on a vehicle that they have coming in that will be delivered I think he said something in the spring to them. And then it would go to. Fully outfitted? Yeah, they do everything through biking now. So it'll be just when it's done and we're good. We just drive one up there and drive it a little back. You know what the increase in the price was over the last purchase? Yes, not to the fee. But it was right around between, I think, 8,000 and 10,000 from when the last truck was purchased. How much do we have a reserve account for equipment? No, we started trying to spend it on literally growing culvert. What I am going to work with him to put together on is going forward is a five and a 10-year equipment plan as well. So we can see when things are due to be replaced. Yeah, I just thought that Diane, the other day, once she's started working on that, so we can plan for budget purposes that way. We'll see how he stuff gets that started. I thought there was 250,000 or 200,000 in her budget typically that we had in there. So I think it's close to 250,000 usually for that. But it always ends up for equipment, infrastructure stuff. And I think we ought to pitch up to that right here. I remember when Diane said earlier, be here. Yeah. Be up for the greater. But that would be in this upcoming budget anyway. Are you ready to? There's no vote or anything, right? This is just discussion? Yeah, just discussion. OK, I think it's good if we stay on our replacement cycle. And I think if it's the board's intention to get any truck next year, it's going to be the cycle then. OK, pull it out to everybody, and then we'll finalize everything and then we'll bring it to a vote. Don't we still need to do an RFP for a truck? Yeah. OK. So it'd be sent to multiple places. Yeah. OK. But we'll still go through the process. So yeah, it'll go through all the. But from what I've been told, everybody's in the same boat. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you bringing those to us. Definitely. It's better to find out now that we plan for it. Yeah, I don't understand what's going to happen. Yeah. As long as we do one we have. I guess that's where they've done it in the past, because they have it all pre-made at the end of the month. Anything else, Tim? Did you pass out the paving? We're going to type out. That's later on. Yeah, we have it later. It's further down on this. A little bit further down. We want to make sure you are with us for a while. We'll keep you awake. Don't worry. All right. Pauli Morpec, Proposal and LOI Decision. We have a couple of gentlemen here to decide your question. The proposal is in here. You want to ask Susan as well? Oh, yeah. I'll let them introduce themselves. Yeah. I'm Mark Barth from Balli Marvitt. Dad's on the engineering team. But yeah, we're here to answer any questions on proposal. And I think we have a chance to demo events and how it works and everything. I think you have a chance to speak with Corey as well, who's using in St. Almond's. And then we're just we're in town for onboarding. We're doing with Fairfax for months. Yeah, I did talk to the town of St. Almond's for probably half an hour at least on this. He couldn't say enough good about it. The things that he's done, he said in 10 weeks in the town, they've generated 512 records with their residents already in 10 weeks time. Useful. Stop screwing up. And there are going to be some of the calls. Yeah. Yeah. So I think from an efficiency and gaining useful data, it's going to be a powerful tool that we should consider. So this is a customer relationship management system that will help us better. They've also got the process. There's process management. Management is one of the things that I should consider. Again, it's something similar to what I've seen in previous life. And you guys said that this is free for the first five years? Yeah. We are willing not for a, I think we've put it in the LOI, but a two month violence. So that way there's a way for you to get up and running and make sure everything's good. We have to have a pair of facts in San Jose. And that was $8,000, roughly $3 per resident? Yeah, for the first year. And yeah, lots of points. I think I said over a document. It's free for the first year, first. You know what the discussion was the first time? I was here for the first full year, not two months, right? First two months are free for the pilot period. And then the first year after that is $3 a resident, then fourth year. The second year is $4, and $3 to $5 is $5 per resident based on the latest census. So I would make a motion to have Vince enter into contract negotiations with Paul Amorphic for the use of their software product. Can I get a second? Second that. I was just looking at a couple of things. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. There you go, Brad. Is that a lay or can you hear us OK? Are we hearing Chidler's rallying around on the table? OK. Hungry during dinner time. Yeah. Sorry about that. I'll just put this on mute. Probably definitely. Thank you. Appointment approval request for Amanda Smith to the Planning Commission. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Amanda is with us. She's online. Hi, Amanda. Your phone is muted. Amanda, if you can hear us. Well, she's getting off mute. I would just say that percent increase is from your two to your three. So I would like to negotiate that a little bit. Yeah. If you can hear us, your phone is still muted. I'm just putting them in a state billboard right now. Apparently, we've lost them. Oh, she's calling in again. She's on twice now. I'm here. I'm so sorry. Don't worry. Hi, Amanda. Hi. Thanks for joining us, Amanda. Yes, thank you. Amanda, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? Of course. I'm originally from Mississippi. I moved here about 24 years ago. My husband and I live in Berlin. And we just finished building our house. And I just finished getting my master's degree. So now I have the time to give. And I also work with Carla Neusel at the state. I've been with her for about 12 years. And she's always encouraged me to apply when I can to help the town. And she said there was an opening for planning commission. So I jumped on it. So here I am. Oh, great. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. What's your master's degree in? Public administration and law and policy. All right. Yeah. We'll make a motion to appoint Amanda Smith to the planning commission. And I second. Any discussion? Yeah. Thanks, guys. Thank you. We haven't voted yet. We haven't voted yet. So we're going to have to hold on for you real excited, OK? But we didn't make it to any discussion. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Don't motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. We appreciate you. Yeah, thanks. I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you. Working in right-of-way permit for use-disk cable approval request. Making approval to allow use-disk cable to work in the right-of-way to lay underground fiber. I second that motion. Any discussion? Underground CATV. Excuse me. Yeah. And maybe let me sign. And I think just to expand on that a little bit, this is a company that was recently on Brookfield Road. Well, I guess it was last year. They laid cable and fiber for a number of companies. So I think this would expand broadband goals for the area as well, because this specifically is for Comcast, where it will allow high-speed internet along that area and offer additional options if there are some already there. Just as a point for information for you. They've already done Togs Fargo Road. So of course there's a lot to Scott Hill. Okay. I think they need to tell them. Yep. So we get a second? Yes, I second it. All right. Any additional discussion? Those in favor? Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Amusement permit application for our first congregational Church of Maryland. This one, if approved, meets my authorization for the Church of Maryland. Yes. Yes. That's there. So this is, looks like an outdoor concert, a West African drum and dance. They're expecting 200 people. Yep. On September 25th, with a rain date of the 26th, from three to five, and that's at, oh, right here, 1808 Scott Hill Road. Looks like they have their liability insurance in here included, because of traffic control, one person at Scott Hill Insurance, security, two personnel from the church with cell phones. Chief's been notified as well. Chief has? Tell other people, where are they going to park everybody? They said they were going to make additional parking. They said they were going to park in the back. Yep. That's what he had told me. So they're not planning on parking on Scott Hill. He said they're not planning on parking on the roadway. I would make a motion to approve the permit application for the outdoor concert. Any discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. America fun usage. What do you got for us, Vince? We have a list right there. Some of them are obviously most of the, the price of their estimated costs as well. The one update I can give you is this afternoon I did receive the server upgrade quote from RB technology as well. I will send that out for the board to review as well. That came in at a little under 15 for the server equipment upgrade. Why that says 15 to 20 is the other thing, item for discussion on that upgrade is going from these old desktops that the staff have for most of them to laptops with a docking station. Thank you. So if there is a time again that we have to work remotely, it's easy. There's no, there should be no issues with the ability, everybody's ability to be able to do that and support daily work. Is there any ability to include the Lovers Lane bridge and the ARPA funds? I think that's a historical bridge, so we're working on getting the state pay for it. Yeah, I think Vince has an update. On that one? Yeah. They did do an inspection because we wanted to open it at a reduced rate and the state inspected it in absolutely no way. So we're, again, the best that I can do right now with the state is this coming January, complete the paperwork again for the process. Working with the Regional Planning Commission as well to get it moved up on the priority list to be done. That's the bad news, right? Is the time involved with that? The good news is, again, it's going to be paid for fully by the state at no cost to the town. And we have that confirmed with the state? Yeah, I have an email saying that that is, in fact, a case based on that agreement. I thought we were going to look at these culverts out here as well with the potential ARPA. Isn't that the Fisher Road culvert? The Fisher Road culvert is on here and the Richardson Road culvert, I thought, is on here as well. Yeah, there's a top two. Sorry, and more so, I thought you used culverts or something like that as well. I didn't, I may miss that, but I did. Brad, where's two? Do you recall if these culverts right out here weren't those part of the conversation for potential maintenance before they can fail? They were inspected a couple of, I think it was a year or two ago. 26 last state inspection of the culverts. I have that report. Somebody inspected them last year. Oh, somebody else? There was. There was some. They were inspected and the fellow said, he looked all right, but again, I don't know if he's a, you know, he's a scuba diver. I don't know if he's an engineer or not. And I don't know how you'd ever, I mean, I don't know who you could ever get to go in there and inspect them. I don't know if you could block one off and, and just have water go through the other one and let it dry down enough or pump it out. So you can get in there and just take a look at. I just know I thought that was one of the discussion items for the Arthur funds before we ran into an issue with that and the Richardson road, as I recall. Yeah. The, the only thing that we, we commented on the, on the culverts is that they, that we need because of the cost of, of Fisher road. We really needed to take and look at those and see if, if that's going to be in the timeline that we're going to fix. Right. This is before they fail. We have to put eight of them here. Stop and think if, if, if you had to close the crosstown from, from the town from a. Red road down, I mean, right. So, I think, I think we should. I think we should at least. Consider having some sort of inspection. The funds as well. So that, you know, that Richardson road. You guys see anything else on here that we want to look at. No, I think for me, I just. Not knowing some of these projects or some of these things would be good to have a little bit more information. Right. I thought we replaced. I thought at one point we did do all of our meters with the smart meter technology. There was discussion about that. I remember talking about it. And so could someone educate me on why we would pay for the smart meters rather than the utility companies? I have no idea. Water meters. No. Is it the smart meters for water? Yeah. Okay. So this time savings, the billing, the accuracy. And we do all of that. Yeah. And it went, it went, the time and money that we spend, I guess, collecting the information through the billing and all that. Efficiency. Papers. I forget what Tom had done. Tom did the work on this one quite some time ago. Right. And I forget what the return was. I think it was like a five year return on investment. In staff time. Yeah. And I agree with the thought to include the inspections. Maybe we could get a cost associated with that. And then get some backup information because like, if we're going to add on the inspections for perspective wise, you know, when 200,000 is the wetland scoping study, maybe some additional information for various things that are on the list so that we can make a real keen determination. Why is the new town center wetland scoping study? Why would that be on there? That wouldn't have been done at this point. Or is that built into the budget somewhere else? The wetland scoping study? Yeah. No, that's a new item that came up. Because the way they were, the way we were progressing through the new town center is project by project. And each one goes through the Act 250 process. Each one goes through its own permitting process. The state came back with a letter to Tom saying, we'd like you to reconsider and do an overall study of the wetlands and their use within the new town center as kind of a consolidated package. This is what it really revolves around. Instead of piece by piece. So I wasn't in this plan with the guy? It was not. No. But again, the idea of the plan was we don't know who's going to come in for investors and what they're going to build, how big it's going to be, where it's going to go on there. We have a plan for the town center as a whole, but we don't know individually. That's why I meant as the applications came in. So we're, I mean with the Heidenberg or the mall, they're still saying that the tremendous amount of their master permit was up to Act 250 as well, right? So I mean, of course, having a discussion with them and partnering with them on some of these things a little bit more as well. And the hospital. The hospital, yeah, they could help us out a little bit. I'm just not sure like the address, hospital, hill, water conveyance line. Like what is that? Or what's the issue? I agree. Connect well number four to water distribution system. I don't know what that is either. They sound great. I mean they sound like. We just need backup data. What I'll do is I'll get more details of what these are. I'll distribute it to them, to you, to the board. Are you talking, are you talking about the hospital water system? Wastewater line. Yeah. It says hospital address hospital hill wastewater conveyance line. And then there's like gravity Berlin Corners wastewater directly to Montpelier. You know, develop wastewater collection for Crosstown Road neighborhood. There's a bunch of stuff on here. I'm just not sure what. It would be good. I get it. It would be good to have more of the information, the scope of each one of those. Excellent. So we're going to add these culverts. Yep. I've got to know to add those culverts to get more information on each of the projects. What was our, when do we have to spend some of these? We got, we got time. We got plenty of time. We got plenty of time to decide. To say that now, we'll be scrambling at the last minute when the funds need to go out the door. But for now, we're okay. I just want to make sure we get the most bang for our buck, right? It's perfect. Absolutely. Anything on that? Any additional? I would like to just throw my vote in there for the digitization of records as well. Oh, I think that's the best. You mean near the top of the list? Okay. Well, you'll give us some additional detail on that, right? Sure. I'll show how important that is. Sure. Thank you. Oh, I don't think you're probably less. I think we'll have a C.B. Fiber letter discussion. Yeah, this is an interesting one. I don't know if you had a chance to read the letter if or not, but they're basically asking us to give them a response of areas that we would consider locations for them, for their equipment, as it's basically a mandate from the state saying that we have to give them one or more sites for communication plant components. Then each municipality, you know, like the fire station, like the town office, if it's a central spot where they can have equipment. Okay. So it's more of a discussion about where do you think the right spots are in the 40-by-50 town. Yeah, 40-by-40 spot. Doesn't it really matter where they're starting? I mean, especially in Berlin, right? What if we told them Riverton? Well, this is it. That's why they're asking. I think that's part of why they're asking is because their engineers are going to look at what we have available and how it fits into where they need to put things. Okay. Should we have Jeremy? Should we have someone from C.B. Fiber have a discussion with us on it to make that decision or have a thing? Yeah, I don't know enough about what the plan is. I know that they're going through design phase now, but I don't know what they're designing, which is the parts of the town where they're... Right. They've done studies around town and surveys, and they must have a good idea of where most people are that don't have an acceptable connection now. And maybe it's that Riverton area. I have no idea, but that would help us. If you want to reach out to Jeremy and get some more information, maybe invite him to a meeting. I would invite him to a meeting for a discussion. A discussion? Yeah. Because even as he says here, we do not know if each town will require this equipment. So, you know, it'll be worthwhile to have a discussion and get additional information, but it's great that he provided this for us. Yeah, and I don't know if this was more or less form letter. It's canned letter. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. So, thank you for that discussion. Okay. This is Dutch Tax Stabilization Agreement. Yeah. So, you've got a note on there that gives you the summary around the public cover. It was approved in the minutes, but there was no contract ever done between the town and Dusvich. But then again, it was approved. I reached out to the town attorney, asked him to draft up a contract similar to the last one that was done with the town as well. I don't have it back yet. The other question is, if you read the procedure or process, it's not completely specific as to when it starts. I was going to say there's no date on it. No date. No. And when you read the procedure, let's call it, it's not clearly defined either. Northfield Savings Bank was at 100% completion. That doesn't mean the board can't decide from what I've read that it can't start earlier. Dusvich is asking, I think he said either 80 or 90% of the estimated completion cost now that he's asking to start it this year. So that would start his five years if we do it this year. All right, so back me up a little bit. When was it approved? What year? It was approved in... 19. 829. 2018 or 2019. And what's the application on it? Okay, so all right. I remember that meeting. I just don't remember when it was, Brad. You must remember it as well. Yes, I do. The fourth quarter of 2019. Yeah. In the select board minutes. So they... Right before I got on the board. You were not on board yet. Right. So they... They had... You're doing pretty good though. Sure. Nice. So they... Yeah. So they haven't paid... He got a tax bill this year for the full amount. Okay. He's waiting. I told him it would be on this board's meeting and he's just waiting on the board's decision. To hear back from me. Okay, help me out a little bit further. Did he get a tax bill for 20? That's what I'm doing. A full tax bill? Yes. And he paid it? Yes. Full thing? I think 2020, we're in 2021. Right. I think in 2021, he got a full tax bill in 2021. I don't know on 2020. I'd have to check. In 2021, he did get the full bill. He has not paid it yet. He's waiting on the decision of the board. So we waited until 100% completion for the Westfield Savings Bank. And that was how long... How far into that project? We've got multiple years. Was that one year? How long did their construction take? You see what I'm talking about? Okay. And then can we find out what the tax bill was for last year? Is that something you just asked for? Diane. 2020. I can find it. I'm just curious. I'm fine with this point forward, I guess. Pros and cons. If you look at the pros and cons, it's good for him this year. It's also good for the town because we're starting earlier. We'll get to the full value of collecting taxes a year earlier. I'm just wondering how Diane budgeted for how she expected or what her thoughts were around the collection and if she had a number in mind, whether it was the number before the bill or on just the land or if this is all new, then it doesn't really matter because it's additional revenue. But if she was banking on 100% and now we're going back to 25, we should just know what that difference was for planning purposes. And they also offered a more detailed summary to us when the estimate is completed at our request. That's also in there as an option for him. I mean, I don't have any problem starting this year as far as I'm concerned. Yep. Just get some additional information. We don't need that. We need to draft it from our attorney. It is, isn't it? Is that it? The draft from our attorney? In here? No? No. This is just the application. Okay. We don't have the minutes to approve it. But the contract was never done. No. Right. Okay. That's probably the issue. Got it. So we'll start it. Bless you. Bless you. When they do write the letter, when you're ready to have it start, obviously, we'll have two directions for it. Okay. I'll get you more information. I'll give the information. I'll have it write it so we can just get it. So it starts this year? Yeah. Yeah. Realize it. Just on the findings of the additional information. Yeah. Just so it's done. Makes sense. All right. Paving bid approval request. Four companies. Two did not bid. Two bid. One of the bidders cannot perform the work this year. But that bidder was also not the low bidder. So Pike was the low bidder on 42401. The second bidder, but couldn't do the work this year, was Fresh Coat Paving at 166050. Extreme Excavating and Hutchins did not bid. Okay. Move approval of the bid results and request that we award to Pike at $142,401. Second. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Emerald, Ash, Moore. I received an email from the Regional Planning Commission that recognized that we had done a report a few years ago. The town had done a report on the Emerald, Ash, Moore. They were reaching out to see if we'd be interested in them helping us to create an ashtree management plan for the town. Since it's a, from a forestry standpoint, it's becoming a big issue. We're starting to be in the red zone of the Emerald, Ash, Moore right now. That's expanding in town. I assume that would be something that the conservation committee would do or no? I would think so. Sure. I can bring it to the conservation committee. Well, at least ask you if that's something they're interested in doing. I mean, I got to imagine with our state forest they would have a big piece of it anyways. Yeah. At least, you know, we're not. Let them start with that. Broach is subject there. Yeah. If they don't have time or can't do it for resource reasons, at least we'll, at least we brought it to them. Okay. Anything else on that? I'll ask them for their thoughts on that. All right. Websterville Christian Academy discussion with Mr. Fescher. Hello. My name is Brian Fescher. I'm the pastor and the major head of the school of the Websterville Christian Academy. And I thought it would be good. And it's advised that you should probably come and talk to you about introducing what we are, what we're doing. We've recently moved in to the Vine Street property that's like a day of mental school. And releasing it presently with the attention to purchase it. That's still being worked out. But part of it would be the opportunity if you wanted to ask questions, provide, see the property, anything else I'm here for you for that right now. The school that you were in that's now vacated? No. Actually, what has happened is we kind of answered the call to the daycare preschool crisis that's in the state. Okay. So we've grown from 15 to almost 80 in that building which forced us out. And so we released a property over in Eastbury last year. It was with the Roman Catholic Church called Mother Cabrini's. They've recently sold that, which put us racing since spring. We looked at about six buildings and this finally opened up about two weeks before we started school. So that's why we're just getting around to catching up on things. But we've had talk in the state, the agency of education, we've had the fire marshal in, people have been working on the water. So we're trying to do everything on the up and up. Good. Is there anything that you need from the town? No. Honestly, Berlin has a great reputation. We have families that are in our school that are from this town. So that's on the issue. One of the things I would, I didn't recognize the name. But I would say that there has been some talk about sanding and plowing as we get to that. But I've heard it's already done pretty regularly, pretty well. Maybe it worked out there for that. The one thing that he will leave is an additional approved wastewater allocation for the increase that happened, the number there from the school. But I think the state's working with you to get some numbers or things as far as... Right, so we've been working with the water and all the other properties. And so we're just waiting on that finalization. One of the things we had to do first is the building been vacant for six years. So as a result, I think it was climate, somebody came in, technologies came in, head turned everything back on, checked all the pipes, make sure it's working properly. We just had their last visit today. So now we can start to get the final idea of how much water is going to be. We have the well system, so it's really up to the wastewater side. Okay. Well, we can certainly... The road foreman was here a minute ago. He heard it and he ran. Yeah, that's right. We'll make sure Vince and him look at the route and make sure that we're getting to the hell before school starts. One of the things that, just for your sake too, is that because we get so many people coming from great distances, we probably will close school more than stay open, but I don't know how that works out. We're planning how to do it, but we're just going to do it to see how it goes over the years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I'll leave these in case you'd like to look at them. Yes, please. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Pleased that you came. Thank you very much. It's recorded. It's recorded so far. We've got it recorded so you'll be able to pick right up. All right, next up, we've got the recruiter outfitting cost review. You've got to do your hand. That's what we wanted to do. We'll forward that. That's what we've ordered in the recruiter. We already talked about this this time. I didn't remember that. I thought because most of this stuff wasn't going to fit over. Because it changed everything. And our evidence is in this budget. Yeah. And it's $78.50, so he's looking for it. Did he go out to bed for this? Or is this just going to one place? Is this the lowest bed? I guess that's my question. Good question. I don't know the answer to this. I can find out. Yes, that would be good. I can find out right now. I mean, they're supposed to follow the RFP process. Well, I don't know. That's right now. Hi, Chief. It's Vince. I got you on speaker to select board meeting. The question has come up on your cruiser outfitting cost. If you went out to bed for that, or if you did, if this is the lowest bed. The fully outfitted cost? I believe that. We're still not the same procurement. Right. We approve the overall amount, just like we approve the overall budget. Right. So, is this global public safety? I mean, how many people, I mean, who would you, you could put it out to more than these individuals for RFP, right? So, this is the group that does all of our cruisers with the exception of state police. They don't have the policy in front of me. But, I mean, at the end of the day, it's whatever's in the best interest of the town. It is what we can do. How many companies do you say are in the state to do this work? I think he says there's only one company. How many companies are in the state, Chief? We'll do that. Did you hear the answer, Brad? If there's only one company in the state that's going yet, I'll see states that it's up to the select board or they decide whether to go with it or not. It doesn't necessarily have to go out to bid. We don't know if there's only one company or not. Do you see what the name was of the company? Global public safety. What's that? Global public safety. Oh, I got you. I think there are probably more companies out there. I think this is who we've probably always used. And, you know, we would know by now if there was a real problem with their pricing. I think compared to previous years. But there's, in my mind, there's got to be more than one company in Vermont when you think about the number of cruisers and the number of ambulances and fire trucks across the state. They're not all going on the state. So what? It comes down to the select board and whether or not this is in the best interest of us and whether or not we think it's a fair price, I think. I mean, I don't have a problem with the overall price. I'm always just wondering, is it the best price we can get? Okay. So what we do right here about Brad May. Brad's our historian as well. He's all our historical data right there. I appreciate it. I think what the concern is just maybe validate. I mean, it's great to have a long-term relationship with a company, especially if the service is exceptional like you stated. I think what maybe John's concern and the board's concern would be is just having something to, you know, validate the expense associated with it for a comparison. Does that make any sense? Because you don't always have to go with the lowest, if obviously if the price is a little bit higher but you know the quality's there and the relationship's there. But I mean, in order for us to make sure it's in the town's best interest, I feel like we should have something else to compare it to if possible. Is that something we can work on? Is this an urgent, so this should have been my first question. Is this an urgent need, Chief, in order to get a vehicle on the road? Or are we, how is our fleet right now? And can this wait just a little bit? So, thank you. That should have been my first question. I apologize. Yeah. Next meeting after we have the computer. That would be good. I appreciate it. Thank you, Chief. So we're going to compare. No, I don't think so. Do you have any questions? No. All right, have an excellent evening. Thanks for your time. Good night. Sidewalk agreement approval and signature with the most state employees' credit union. Yeah. This looks very similar to the sidewalk agreement we entered with the Newtown Fair Tire. It's almost identical. Yeah. The names have changed to protect the residents who work and put in the sidewalks. Right. In there, we have it there. Responsible, with respect to its maintenance repair and replacement. Yeah. So, that was the big one. And the last one I remember was the maintenance agreement. It probably says in here, and I'm probably just missing it, but then it's what happens if they sell the property next year. And I only say that because, you know, with success with all. It does have. It does. Number two under binding effect. That's lighter than you're trusting. Thank you. Well, it's a long flow spot at first. Not really. Thank you. That answers my question. We just prefer to read before we eat. I think nothing of it, John. I usually don't. I make a motion to approve the sidewalk agreement with the VSECU. And I second the motion. Any discussion? All right. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Municipal planning grant, 20K with 2K match approval. Can you explain this one, Vince? This is requesting basically approval to proceed to apply for the grant. It's a 20K grant with a 2K match for municipal planning for the town. It was brought to us from Carla at the planning commission to bring to the board, surprising us to, so where is the planning going? We're specifically, I mean, so we've got 2K match for a $20,000 grant, and where is the planning going? So I'm curious about. First question. Just, it's, as I understood it, it's a 20K grant. Just, it's, as I understood it, it's a general overall town municipal grant. So really this goes toward, can it go toward staff cost? Probably could, but I think the intent is to hire a consultant to work with the planning commission to develop this one. Okay. Is the 2000 budgeted? So we don't have the money for it. The 2000. Is it in the planning commission's budget? Back to you on that, I don't know the answer to that question, if it's in the planning commission's budget. If it's not in our budget, maybe it's in the sub-budget. Yeah, it could be. It probably wasn't, it probably could be in the planning commission. Most likely. It most likely is. And so I'd like to know where, where they're planning on coming up with the 2000 dollars. Okay. Nope. I don't know if I should have thought of that. Sorry. I'll find out. Yeah. Any other questions? And I will, and I will come back with, if it's there and what the, the details of it look like. Great. Anything else? You want us to find out all we're doing this? Yeah. I'm just, you know, the general options for it. Not just, not just what is the planning commission want to do, but how broad is it? Like how can we, you know, is there more opportunity here than just the Newtown center, maybe, and planning there, or is it for, you know, a sidewalk plan for the entire town, or a bike path, or can it be used for any of those? Okay. Okay. I got it. Maybe. Maybe and bike. That was the chair. Yep. And you have to quickly talk to the details of it. Yep. Alright. RFP for legal services approval. So as, as we talked about in the last, in the last week, our town attorney, right, is the, basically, semi-retired. We needed to go out to RFP for a Newtown attorney. This is the draft to do that. I'm just looking for your approval to move forward with this draft and get it out into, out of the hands of some firms. Where will we be posting it? Where will it be published? I'll, I'll put it in the, in the Argus for a few days. Post it around town. I can put it in the world as well. We should, we should post it on our website. We should have an RFP site. I mean, everything, I feel like with our website, we should have a place for RFPs, whether it's the cruiser, the evening job, the survey. Also out on the Vermont fire association as well. I'm glad we're starting that then. I'll bring you some more on the website as well, because we did get it started with us. You can be interviewed with staff as well. And I would include it on the Vermont fire association as well. The fire association. Excellent. Good idea. I would move approval of the RFP for legal services. And I second that. And just the last two lines under selection criteria, just indent them a little. Other than that, everything looks good. Oh, stop it. All right, any discussion? Those in favor? Say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Approval of license, permit, vouchers, and applications. Yes, we can do that. Thanks, well. You're welcome. I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 22-05 for payroll from August 15, 2021 to August 28, 2021. Paid on September 1st of this year in the amount of $45,496.74. Also payroll warrant 22-06 from payroll from August 29 this year to September 11th this year. Paid on September 15th, 2021 in the amount of $45,902.89. Payable warrant 22-g04 with checks 21-401 to 21-455 in the amount of $219,999.17. Also the August reconcile bank statements for the general fund and sewer water checking accounts. August general journal entries and August budget status report, trial balance report, and delinquent tax report. I'll second that. Nice job, Flo. Nice job, John. Great back at you. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Approval of minutes. We're going to get the meeting for the 27th out from there since John and I were absent and we don't have enough for a vote again on that one. So we'll have to say those. But June 7th and August 16th looks like we could probably get an approval on those. I make the motion to approve the Monday, June 7th, 2021 regular select board as presented. Thank you. Any discussion? Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Actually I should set it on there. I see that on here with the Fisher Road culvert update that said Podosky reported that Chip Lague signed the easement agreement. That's about it. Just waiting on the attorney. Town attorney sale. August 16th. I make the motion to approve the Monday, August 16th, 2021 regular select board meeting as presented. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Anything for round table, Brad? No. No. Yes. A couple of things real quick. What leaves the cities in town the town fair is coming up August 29th, the voting delegate I'm going to step out on a limb and assume that you're going to want me to be the voting delegate for that unless one of you would like to do that. It makes perfect sense for you to do that. I'm only going to attend the one day fair portion of the meeting where the votes will be occurring and stuff. I'm not going to go spend four days there. I'm going to do it remotely. Isn't it virtual? Make sure you watch the cybersecurity piece that's very riveting. Yeah. Okay. They had me do a five minute clip for the conference. Okay. And then the second one is we have some viewers that have decided to move into the park on Muzzy Road. They're starting to back up into the park area to build themselves a home down there in the Brook. So I'm just looking for the board's approval to move forward with either relocating them or terminating their residency in location. Probably the last time we did that was a few years ago and I think we paid the individual $60 a beaver to either trap them and relocate them or to make them go away another way. I believe there's a gentleman in Barry that does that. Do you have some names and resources already? I don't. I'm going to start from scratch. I'll probably start with the warden. I think it's Mr. Brown. I don't know if you have a chat with him and get some leads on how to go with this. But I know there's a reputable individual in Barry. I would start like you said some names and go from there to relocate it. Are we okay for $60 a beaver again? This is my question. I'm just looking for approval to wrap this one up. Moving forward to wrap it up. I don't have any answer. I don't know the current going feet. I'm sure Mr. Brown is pretty reasonable. Absolutely. If it's anything substantially more than that I'll come back to the board. Anything else? Mr. Cunty? No. I don't know, but I think you're going to bring this one if you wanted to talk about this one in this meeting. Yes. I have nothing for Roundtable. Okay. Just actually one thing very quickly. Vince, do you have a date of when we're doing the new speed signs on Brookfield Road? No. But the signs have been ordered. What we've done is the delivery date. Once we know when we have the signs then we'll make a plan to get them up. Okay. Thank you. The only thing I wanted to start with a discussion was I was curious about some of our properties in town and what participated in the pilot program and just who, where any of these places were partners in the community in any way, shape, or form. And I was looking down through the list and I realized I think Blue Cross and Brookfield isn't a pilot program. Aren't they, Brad? Doesn't Blue Cross... I think they usually send us some If they are, it's voluntary. It's not with the state because the state what's listed here from the state pilot program came right from the state site. It's voluntary and so maybe we can narrow that down a little bit. I believe Blue Cross Blue Shield gives us maybe 50,000 here. 25 or 50 as I recall. You'd have to ask Diane if she would know. And then as I looked down through it, I mean I know obviously the town wouldn't make sense a lot of the churches. I thought for some reason the Central Remote Medical Center was on there on the state pilot program and no... Right, which I found shocking. Especially with the New Town Center and some of the stuff we have going on and just how I don't know. I just wanted to see... I wanted to get this out to the other board members and just see what their thoughts were. This is the first time I've seen this so I just want to make sure I'm looking at it right. So the estimated property value of state buildings in Berlin is 30.7 million. Yeah, yes. And they give us, in 2021 they're going to give us $134,696. Correct. Okay. Do we have a formula? Do we know what their formula is? The... Calculating the pilot cost? Yeah. Yeah, calculating the payment to us. Yes, they have a formula that they use. It's on the website. Oh, it is. I can get it and send it to you. 80% or 20% of it. And then there's a number of other buildings here with prices that are fairly long list that adds up to $78.4 million. Right. Of parcels or property value that don't have pilot programs that are associated with the state. Not associated with the state. Is that correct? To your knowledge, don't have any pilot... They are not in the pilot program of the state. Got it, I think. So they don't pay us anything. Unless it's voluntary, which I got to check on Blue Cross Blue Shield. Which I believe they do. I was looking at this and if you see the $78 million figure over half of that is from the Central Vermont Medical Center Campus. They have one building at 46 million on campus. 743, 254, 365. Yep. So... Fair to say they have $50 million worth of property that they're not being taxed on. Right. So I don't know if... I don't know what you guys thought is on that. And with these other ones. You know, right now, the town is spending a lot of money on infrastructural pieces. You know, I think about the Fisher Road culvert. I think about the town center. All those pieces, especially up here in this area. You know, there's a lot of conversation around public-private partnership and not being at 100% and I get it. Nobody would ever want to just voluntarily break checks when they're getting, you know, but I don't know if the board would want to look into this further and have discussions, maybe see... I mean, I know that we... some of these entities that are on here definitely use a lot of our municipal resources. And I'm... I don't know, maybe worth some conversations or inviting them in and asking them how they'd like to cart them moving forward. Just as a note to that. Kind of opened the door with the hospital. You did. Yep. And had some conversations with them and we've agreed to, you know, talk openly with what we can do to help each other as the town develops in this area, similar to what you just said. And we're also agreed to have a quarterly meeting with them to have discussions. So that's in place. We had the first one a couple of weeks ago. What was the topic? We talked a little bit about the services that the town provides like fire, police, and so on. They're... they didn't talk fondly of the fire department. They'll be very transparent. The amount of time it takes them to respond, they get a quicker response out of there. So they're very open about that. Very, very great. Well, that's it. They're a full staff. I always say that. No. And I said, there's no surprise there, and we understand that. I said, but we, you know, we want to be open and talk about how we can work together, you know, to build the community and build our services and support you as well. So those are the discussions that we're having. So they are open. They're open for the discussions. They are going to share, when they have it done, I asked them to share their five-year plan with us as well. How does that impact the town? How's that going to impact our services? We'd like to know that, so we can plan accordingly as well. So they aren't ready to share yet. Did they give you a timeline? No. They weren't ready to come into that quite yet. So they're engaged. Okay. Look, we open up the dialogue, and we're starting out there. They will schedule accordingly the meetings with us as well, going forward. How long was the meeting? Just out of curiosity. Almost an hour. Almost an hour. Who are the representatives from the hospital? I'll get you their names, because I wrote them down. Okay. I'll send them to you. Thanks, Vince. I don't know what the board's thoughts are on this, but I just thought it was interesting and something we should definitely... I would just expand, because the fire department does a lot of really good work in the community, and I don't want them to have a negative reflection of response time. What's the discussion with it? And the fact that they're responding to a lot of fire alarms that are just called fire alarms. Right? And the amount of people in a volunteer organization that it takes to respond and get up there and leave work each day or, you know, multiple times a day sometimes. Those guys do a pretty good job and they're well respected around the center of a modern job. And very committed department. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan, for saying that. Some of these places, I mean, I don't even know what professional practice incorporated is. Places like that, but I mean, I don't know. They're affiliated with Washington County Mental Health, and they're located above Blue Cross and Blue Shield on the opposite side, about halfway. Okay. Yeah, I just didn't know, you know, maybe some point that even the non... you know, the ones listed under the non-tax parcels. And I see the Berlin Corner Cemetery's on there. I know that they had come to the board a while back asking about, it might have been before John was on the board or Vince was here. I was on the board so you were here and Brad was obviously here, but, you know, they now go on every year and there are many extra items that people vote for but they weren't worried about having some financial issues down the road with funding as I recall. But it might not hurt to maybe come up with a letter just to send out to all these entities and ask them for a brief explanation of what they do for the ones that we don't know. I don't know what kind of services they provide. Just have a better understanding of what they do in our community. I don't know if that makes any sense or not. It would be also good for the town report as well. That's what I'm thinking. Including the information there. The town report. People understand what they're off-setting as well as what they're paying for. In comparison I know it would be nice to know the accuracy of it. If Blue Cross isn't a private non-tactifier they're paying a little bit. I guess not to pick on going to the medical center but do other hospitals like what other hospitals contribute or anything to local communities in comparison to the churches. I'm sure the churches probably don't. Do they contribute anything? Do they donate donations? But it's hard to say if you don't really know what they do. I can tell you from my experience in Northfield the churches are not a tax-paying organization. But the Norwich University and the town of Northfield have had a really good relationship for many years and have established a pilot program for emergency services specifically. Norwich University has bought a ladder truck for the town as well as given to the pilot year after year after year. So I think it depends on the organization and how deeply rooted they are in the community and I think there's some different things to go into it. But I know in Northfield they certainly have different pilots. On other hospitals in other regions municipalities and what they do as well. I think that's something we could we'll keep this kind of a discussion maybe on the agenda. Okay. I think that's good. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Sorry to take up so much time. I thought that was important. Thank you for doing that, Vince. Very much so. So I'm going to say a motion to enter executive session. Is it contract or is it legal, personal? I said it was contract. Contract. Okay. Are you expecting any action after? No. I make the motion to exit the regular select board meeting tonight at this time to enter executive session to discuss contract issue.