 election of the chair of the select board. Ethan? I'd like to nominate Andy Watts. Second. Are there any other nominations? The nominations be closed at this time. It's the best way to do it. Second. Okay. All in favor of Andy Watts as chair of the select board. Hi. Then aye Kendall. Thumbs up. Yes. Okay. Five in favor. Andy, congratulations. You are the chair and I turn the meeting over to me. I think the first thing I said last year when I was elected chair was yikes. I'm hoping we're in for a good year coming forward here. Okay. I will now accept nominations for vice chair. I make the motion that we nominate Tracy Delfia as vice chair of the Essex Towns select board. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Kendall. Thank you, Kendall, for that. Any other nominations? And what would be the nominations for vice chair be closed? Thank you, Don. Second. Thank you, Ethan. So which one do we need to vote on? Yeah, I forgot. Screwed up my one job. Sorry. Okay. So there's a motion to close nominations. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Nominations are closed. All those in favor of Tracy Delfia as vice chair, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion passes five zero. Congratulations, Tracy. Congratulations, Mr. Chair. Yeah, thanks. Excuse me. Can I interrupt? Can we wait and make Kendall a little louder? Is there a can I try it again, Kendall? Yes. Thank you. Okay. And now we have the position of clerk. Traditionally, it has been the typically been the newest member that asked to perform this function, but we happen to have two new members now. And so, yes, we will accept nominations. Or did you want to have a comment? I didn't know if you wanted to tell them what the clerk does before. Oh, right. Yes. So, yes. So the clerk, yes. That's a good point. Clerk's responsibility. There's two primary roles that the the clerk is expected to perform. One is to read things into the record when there's a document that needs to be read into the record, typically a resolution that we're approving or proposing. And also, there's a there may be something read at the town meeting for the civil civil about civil discourse, I forget what it's called. And then the other the other thing is to sign the minutes for all the meetings. And so, in times past before we had electronic signatures used to this clerk used to get a folder full of documents that needed to be signed physically. And then the clerk had to, you know, kind of pass them around the table and try to get everybody signatures before everybody left by the end of the meeting. But now I think most things are being done electronically. So it's largely just signing the minutes. That's done electronically now as well. So it's responding to the emails asking you to sign off on the minutes. So, Tracy, I saw your hand up before. Were you going to make a nomination or a comment? I was going to say in keeping with the theme of the newest member as the newest member with the shorter term, I would like to nominate Ethan Lawrence. Okay. Thank you, Tracy. Thank you, Don. Are there any other nominations? Move the nominations to close. Sorry. All right. Thank you, Don. For a second. Second. Thank you, Tracy. All those in favor of closing nominations, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Nominations are closed. All those in favor of Ethan Lawrence as clerk for the Select Board, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Congratulations, Ethan. All right. So then let's move on to the rest of the agenda. Any agenda additions or changes from staff? None from staff. Any requested additions or changes from the board? Okay. Then we'll move on to public to be heard. Public to be heard is a time when the public can make comments to the Select Board about topics that are not on the agenda. If you'd like to speak during public to be heard, you can either raise your hand physically in the room or in the use of the raise your hand feature in the Zoom meeting. If you're on the phone, we'll offer you the opportunity to speak at some point as well. I don't see anybody on the phone right now. If you'd like to address the board, please be brief. Please be civil. Please refrain from using inappropriate language. Please address your remarks to me as a Select Board chair. Please do not attack other members of the public or town staff. If you are participating remotely, please keep yourself muted and your camera off to avoid distraction. And that's it. So is there anyone who would like to speak during public to be heard? See any hands in the room? Irene Renner? Irene? Yes. Perfect. I just wanted to tell me television could give those of us who are in speaker view, the view of the room. We can't see anything. There's a big black screen and other people are asking me about that. So I'll pass that on. Thank you. All right. Thanks for that, Irene. We'll see what we're doing. Can do there. And then there's someone that says Brad. Can you give your full name, Brad? Yeah, Brad. This is from the Hill Road in essence. When will the board be meeting, when will all of you be meeting in person at the town office? And is there a plan to Oh, I don't know that we're ever going to require everyone to be present in the room. I think the intent is to continue with hybrid meeting because the participation is significantly greater. Folks can join remotely. So, Brad, I don't think we're ever going to discontinue that. Okay. So what I'm trying to say, the select board is the governing party for the community. And you set the example for the community. It would be very, I think it would be the proper thing to do to resume the Pledge of Allegiance like we did prior to. Is that a plan? We haven't had a discussion about that. There's some equity concerns about the language that's in the Pledge of Allegiance. And we've brought this. This has been discussed previously only, well, only briefly. But we're, I think the intent is to wait for, actually, we were looking to have an alternate Pledge or statement. And that hasn't been resolved yet. To sad day, I think we will say that there's some equity issues with the Pledge of Allegiance. I thought we were a democratic society. Well, there's the, there are a few phrases in there that that some people take offense to. Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Brad. Patty Davis. Yeah. Hi, Andy. You know, maybe it's me. That's why I'm always, you know, not wanting to join any committee because I feel like I'm really challenged with computers. I just see a big black screen that says town meeting TV and I see your head. But I don't see like the whole group. I don't, and I'm on, I enlarge my screen. I'm on, like, my laptop. Patty, that problem's been highlighted to us. And we're, I think it's being worked on. Oh, okay. I just wanted to say, Andy is, after living here for six years, I am so sleepy, hollow road and old. I am Emily's first country ski coach at um, school sister high school, lives off. I think it's nail on it. He just bought a house. He offered to let me park there. And a friend of mine, Eric Hovel offered to let me park at his right. They are the most amazing road. And so I won't talk any more about sex. I'm very happy. All right. Thank you, Patty. Anybody else for public to be heard? Okay, let's move on to the first business item, which is consider approval of rules and regulations for orderly conduct of business. Did I miss something? Other hand, Mary post, I'm sorry. Mary post. Okay, now I can hear you. But I just want to say that I think we still have to work on Saxon Hill. I'm thrilled she's found a new running area. But I think we still have to really take a look at Saxon Hill. What's happening there? I would prefer that we try to turn it into a park for, you know, for people to walk and run and play and not be afraid of other things going on. So just wanted to say, I'm going to say something now for continuing work on Saxon Hill. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Mr. Chair, can I say something about the TV over there? It's showing the same black screen town meeting TV on the on the computer. I don't know if that's what they're, what they're seeing. I just saw it was. Can someone confirm what you're seeing? What is being shown on the television? Yeah, this is the only show of town meeting people who are watching. On Zoom, we can see everything. On Zoom, I just found the TV advice. Yeah, whoever, yeah, whoever speaks gets highlighted to the to the front of your own personal setup for Zoom. If you go into the top right icon for you, set it up for speaker view or gallery view. That might help people at home. Thank you. Oh, yeah, everything. Great. All right. All right. From Brazil. Okay. Hey, thanks. Okay, let's, moving on to first business item, consider approval rules and regulations for early conduct of business every year during the reorganizational meeting. We do review the three policies that are here. Does anyone have any comments or questions about those policies? There are a couple of things I want to mention about the rules and regulations for early conduct of business. A question comes up many times about how the agenda is set. I want to make it clear that the saying that any person may request that a new item be placed on the regular meeting agenda by informing the town managers office by noon on the Wednesday before the meeting, the agenda is published. That's a rule we try to keep pretty steadfast with because the work it takes to get the package together for the select board and also to make sure that everything that is needed is prepared appropriately. The behind the scenes, the other thing that happens is that the town manager and the chair meet actually going to start inviting the vice chair to those meetings as well. And when you can. And so there's discussion about what should be on the agenda, what's been requested, what's ready to go, what's not. So that's how agendas are set. There has also been concern about interruptions. There is a sentence in there that says only the chair should interrupt any speaker and only in the exercise of the impartial role of chair. And so I know there have been instances in the past where folks have been interrupted and I just want to highlight, reiterate that that's inappropriate to do so. You can, there are instructions in here, you can ask the chair for permission to interrupt, which seems like an interruption, but then it's, that's, that's how it's, how it's written and how it should, should move forward. Another thing is side conversations are not allowed either at this table or in the audience. If, if, you know, new members of the board, if you have any question about procedure or anything, just raise your hand and we'll, you know, it's best to have it as a public discussion rather than a whispered discussion with your neighbor or whatever, just, just want to make that clear. There's a comments in there about remaining civil and accepting all viewpoints and also want to make sure that we're all members of the body, meaning the select board, recognize that we shouldn't be posting on social media, responding to email or doing other things during a meeting, unless it's actually part of the meeting. Other thing in the motions and votes, motions are not always necessary on every item. However, if we want to create policy, give direction and act or enable or adopt a proposal or an ordinance or anything with within its authority, it has to be done by a motion made, seconded and recorded vote. We do sometimes carry forward with a consensus where we haven't actually had a vote, but then it's not an official position. I'll make that clear. And during a vote, abstentions are only allowed if you have a conflict of interest and you have to let the board know prior to the vote that you have a conflict, which is covered in the other section. And then there's a section right about not using devices during the meeting, which I think is kind of where we're covered before. Another thing is we have to have unanimous consent that can go past midnight or 11 o'clock. It used to be midnight. Now it's 11 o'clock. That's good. And oh yeah, we have had instances of people participating remotely who have not yielded to a request to the chair to stop speaking. And there is a final sentence of the policy does say upon fair to yield to the chair. Any person may be warned and expelled from the meeting place. So it's in our procedure. Actually, after that occurred, I asked the Vermont League of Cities and Towns how to deal with this kind of thing. And they said if it's in your policy, you can do it because folks should be aware that that's part of the policy and shouldn't be surprised when it happens. So I just wanted to point those things out. Any other comments about the policy? Any comments from the public? I don't see any hands. So Tracy. Move that the select board approve the rules and regulations for orderly conduct of business. Thank you, Tracy. Do I have a second? Does this have a date date? There's a date on there. There's no amendments to it this year. I'd say you don't need to update. Approving it again. Second, then. Thank you, Don. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you for that. Next policy is the conflict of interest policy. Do you have any comments? Questions? Sorry, but I'm going to highlight some things too again. If you believe you have a, if you have or may have a conflict of interest, you need to identify it to the board in the public meeting before the topic is discussed. Anyone can request that someone recuse themselves, but there's no way for any individual to require another individual. So it's a personal choice of the person who potentially or does have the conflict whether or not to recuse themselves. If you can explain why the conflict, if you have a conflict and you, but you can explain why you don't think, why you think you can act impartially, then you can continue with the discussion and the vote. But if you feel that you can't be impartial and can't explain or can't explain why, then you need to recuse yourself and physically leave the room. And this policy actually applies to all of our boards and so forth. So you can't recuse yourself and then sit at the other side of the table in the audience. You basically have to leave the room and not be present for the discussion. I think those points clear. Any further discussion, comments, questions? Comments from the public? Okay. Tracy. Move that the select board approve the town of Essex Conflict of Interest Policy. Thank you, Tracy. Thank you, Don. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? A. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Very much regretting. I didn't bring my water bottle. Okay. Moving on to the communications policy. Any comments or questions? Board members? Once again, I'm going to, I'll add a couple things. Unless something, unless a vote has been taken, there is no official position of the board. If a individual member wants to speak as an individual, this policy requires you to identify that that is the case that you're speaking about your own opinion. It may not necessarily reflect the position of the board. If you know what the position of the board is, then you should state what that is and then state your own opinion and clearly identify it as such. There's a question, there's a discussion in here about being mindful to prevent email and social media conversations from inadvertently violating open meeting law. That's why we don't have, we can't have discussions in email and social media also you need to be careful of because you could, in the same way that you could in a three-way email discussion, if there's a three-way social media discussion that could be could be construed as a open meeting law violation. So that's why I never go to that Facebook page. Just just be mindful of that. Oh yeah, there's another thing in here that says that the First Amendment gives citizens the right to criticize government regardless of the quality or accuracy of the criticism. It's a weird thing that is perfectly legal for someone to lie about you as an elected official and you can't do anything about it. It's protected speech. I think that's enough. Any other comments, questions? I move that the Essex Blackboard accept the communications policy as written. Thank you, Ethan. Thank you, Tracy. You said accept. Do we need to be approved? As it is, I should say approved. Proof, okay. Okay, with the amendment, all right. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passes 5-0. Sorry about all my talking there. Okay, now moving on to next business item 60, Introduction of Proposed Fiscal Year 2023 Water and Sewer Budget. Is that you, Dennis, Aaron, both of you guys? Come on up. We work collectively on the budget so it's important to have both of us here so one of us forgets the other one remembers. I don't want to say which one that's applicable too, but it is what it is. Usually when we provide the water and sewer budget, the first meeting we put it into the reading file and this year we tried to, we wanted to put it into the actual business items just because there are some new members to the board that we think we want to explain the difference and what goes into the budget, how we format it, where to find stuff. The intent would be the next meeting there would be more detailed discussion. We're open to any questions you want to raise tonight if you've already looked at it, but the next meeting we want to get into a little more of the detail of how we got to the rate and the budget and maybe the deeper questions. It is an enterprise fund which is a little bit different from the general fund. When the board meets on it officially you don't actually recognize this but you act as the legally as the board of water and sewer commissioners as opposed to select board when you approve things and approve the budget. You never take your hat off and say that but that's legally under state law. That's what you do. Water and sewer budget is, like I said, it's our utility budget. It is an enterprise fund. Collectively I think Aaron and I are pretty proud of how we've been able to keep rates relatively low over time and still provide quality service. The budget leads to the rates and in some cases the budget is higher than the rates and this year is no different. The budget in the water department went up 5.6 percent but the rate increase is 2.1 percent and I can explain that tonight or I can explain that later but we're able to do that. It's not magic. It's just a question of the calculations and how that calculates out. We have proposed a corresponding increase in the water initiation fee if you will, a hook-on fee. The correspond, we haven't changed that in a few years and that we tried to raise in generally in accord with the percentage that's in the water rates. Two items in the water budget just in general. As I said, the increase is a 2.1 percent but we did get a 4.26 percent increase from Champlain Water District. That's one of our major bills because that's where we buy our water from and then increased cost investigate water system losses and system infiltration. That's the two biggest dollar items in the water system. In the sewer system it was a 6.7 percent increase in the budget and a 3.4 percent increase in rates. There two items really stand out. There was a 10.38 percent increase from the village of Essex Junction in terms of the treatment plant and again increased cost to try and reduce the system's infiltration inflow. The budget is set up in three components and if you go into the budget data which is the quest to get a piece of this, there's three components. There's a shared portion which is kind of all the things that are shared between those accounts. Employees, automobile costs, electricity costs other than specific like pump stations for sewage. So we we lump those together into a shared cost. Some people take that in some rate structures and take that into almost a base rate that everybody gets. Then we also calculate those costs that are real specific to the water system like purchasing water from CWD and those costs that are real specific to the sewer system like the cost from the wastewater treatment plant. We then combine them to come up with a total rate and that's explained in the memo how that rate, how it goes from budget to rate, some history on what that budget's been, some of what our neighbors are charging. The hard part with the budget and when you look at what our neighbors are charging and where we sit is it seems like all those numbers are almost a year behind because everybody's doing it the same time. So when we give you a proposed rate everybody else is doing it the same time so we really can't give you what the other communities are doing yet. So we'll provide you with the rate we're looking at but the other communities are mostly last year's rates. So that's just important when you're looking at that. In a general sense we fall in the middle category of the water rates in Chittenden County and surrounding communities. We're a little bit higher on the wastewater end but not a whole lot higher when you take a look at average rates. Some of them are quite high some are quite low. So that's kind of the overview of the system. If you go to the Questica numbers there were also in your packet you can actually see in the budget numbers we try to explain in a little more detail what each one of those budget numbers are, why they were what they were or are what they are and from that we developed a budget. That's Aaron you want to add anything? That's pretty much it. I will add that one of the other big components or costs to both the water and sewer is the system stabilization fund which I believe for both this year was 160,000 both water and those are those are the three main big hitters purchasing of our water and or treatment appreciation of system for assets and something in searching for leaks and we've been putting money into that stabilization fund for well it's in the it's in the budget but I don't know 10 or 15 years and it's built up over time and that's the money that we use to repair and fix the system. If we're replacing pipelines it comes out of that. It's also allowed us to be able to move forward with some of our capital means projects and that's kind of the next topic on the agenda we can get into on the next item but it's allowed us to be able to move forward. The big thing coming up is with all the federal funds that are available that fund that's sitting there is a great fund for us to use to get matching grants and if we're going to do that now's the time to go after those matching. We'll cover that in the next section. Any general questions in terms of how it's set up? No but you I remember last year you brought forth this meter replacement and I'm wondering how that's going it seems you have a stock pile of them does that mean you're not they're not getting replaced because we don't have the help to do it or we're just we don't have anything to be replaced. Right now we have about a little less than 100 meters residential meters to install. Those of I guess have kind of been the holdouts within the system. We're actively trying to keep door knockers and at least get these meters switched out as many of them as we possibly can make that number more manageable. But moving forward the next step is to actually utilize some of this data that we can collect. We can collect it at multiple times a year numerous times a year and then there are softwares I know that our manufacturer of our meters F2 and 360 is a software that we could use to implement to help us utilize some of that data and then that not only benefit that the system the department itself also some of the residents I know within the capital budget we also have a fine item in both the water and sewer or a portal for our residents to go into pay bills look at their usage look at if there's any leaks that all kind of goes in so we're kind of moving from the meter mass meter installation into the next phase. And we continue to replace meters I mean obviously even if we put a new meter in eight years ago they eventually wear out and so we're continuing to go back and replace some of them but the last hundred or so 90 to 100 are really the hardcore and some of it is physical where people have redone basements you can't hardly get at the meter you can't the meters behind a wall that was built in their basement when they did it they didn't give any thought to that they just built very nice wall and expensive house and really don't want to let us in to change the meter because it means taking apart their wall I mean that's one of at least one of them I know or a couple and some people are just some customers believe that we're from Mars you know the same thing and that we're going to wire their house and we're going to be able to tell everything that goes on in the house and I mean there's just some ridiculous things that go on but we've had some of those and those are difficult ones to deal with and some we've been finding ways to work around but they take time um I think so we're down we're down to the hardcore ones that are not not easy to resolve but none of these are actually leading to where that water where you're looking for your water on no no the most most of any leak detection abilities or opportunities we have with our water meters are for internal to their home one whether it be a leaky toilet or they'll get a high kill left to faucet on in the backyard and yeah if we're going to find leaks in the system it's going to be in the main lines but a one of the common ones is also between the shutoff valve at the street and the house itself right and and in a lot of cases in Essex um they're in sandy soils and if there's a slow leak it's very hard to find yeah we did find some we had into a leak detection this last year um Aaron put in place we found a number and some of them were significant paybacks to the town I think we found close to a total of 10 gallons per minute in leaks and that's only in about a third of our system um we'll loss of revenue um we're talking about 15 which basically paid for a whole leak detection themselves and then do it with grants and that what we even cooped for so part of our financial plan is to continue that over the next couple years and then revisit again and just because leaks will continue to occur it's not like a one time one and you're done it's go back in a couple years and start it all over and go through the same process again any other questions excuse me I just have a short question um I think it's it's something that's really um confused upon I've received the question a few times but the the surplus that you guys build in for the 160 000 for water and sewer that money covers emergency repairs correct so like if if I'll give you the question short and sweet so the question is from from people is when there's there's a big break and you have to use municipal dump trucks to bring in stone or whatever mostly it's it's subcontractor because we don't you know do all the big repairs but the question is where does that money come from um and I my understanding was it came out of the surplus as two you know it's two separate municipal you know I know it's it's it's a little bit a little bit great we we build in where to yeah we do build into the budget numbers for that kind of an occurrence okay so that's in the operating piece of it that's not in the other piece but if we have to replace an existing asset um a good one that we'll get to later is a section of pipe along Sandhill road that's got to be replaced okay um it's older ac pipe it's underneath the state highway it's um the pipe is there because the state allows us to put it there just like the power poles if the state comes in to the power company it says move the pole they have to move the pole because they're given permission to put it in the right away we're gonna have to replace an existing asset replacement of that ax asset would come out of that hundred and fifty thousand we put away okay what wouldn't come out of that is if we decided for example what's we did um a couple years ago we did a project in the fort to put a new waterline through there some of that did replace waterline but some of that was considered new so that's the question that we always go through with finance is it a replacement of a current asset or is a new asset being added to the system and in a lot of cases the new assets that are added come out of impact fees that the developers pay so we've got a kitty for that and then we've got a kitty to replace the system and the intent is over the life of the system and these systems types of a 50 year life another example replacing an existing pump in a pump station um that might be a quick 20 000 dollars 15 to 20 000 dollars where does that money come from that would come from that 150 because replacing an existing asset um and so we end up a lot of times working with finance okay here's the bill which pot is it coming out of it um and most of time they agree sometimes we get into discussions where we think it might be an asset replacement and they don't so we work it out but and it's usually the asset itself and not the the installation yeah the installation the labor costs might come out of our operating funds but the actual piece may come out of that sinking fund the actual piece of equipment so it's a little bit confusing um and it comes back to what will the auditors allow you to take from that fund and so that's why we always go back to finance and say okay what are the ground rules on this particular item that we have to deal with and which which banking account do we pull it out but I don't know Ethan if you if your point is that it's the water rates that pay for all of that what it's only water users that pay for all repairs to water systems there's no tax dollars that go into that yep yeah there's no if if we had for example a case where there's a water break and we're using our trucks to essentially bring in material we would cost that against the water to the toe um the same thing we have water sewer employees who in the winter will plow their salary for that plowing operation comes out of the highway budget not out of the utility budget so we're very careful about trying to separate those those functions so the costs go into the right box the the labor is coded as such and then usually we track whatever type of materials usually we haul out of a pit so it's kind of active people awesome thank you yep any other questions yeah I would just go ahead I'm sorry this is Kendall I was going to speak up and say that I have uh had a discussion this morning with a town manager about some things that I'm very curious about I do see some opportunities for revenue enhancement I was going to ask you though so I couldn't find any information on how are your delinquencies looking I know you've come through a couple tough years it's a good question um we've checked that again that's not on our end the financial piece of it is more with Courtney um we have checked with that uh delinquencies are actually pretty good um we do have the standard program the state allows us to which we backed off during COVID but we'll be going back to and that is if there's delinquencies um we have the ability to shut them off we don't do it in the winter but we do it in with the spring water usage um the other thing is I think during this time frame finance has been very much proactive with working with the state program where the state um allows funds to go to customers with those kind of delinquency problems and so that's helped us reduce that delinquency account I don't have a specific number for Kendall but Courtney will get that for us so we can handle that for the next meeting a good question okay thank you unlike the question that I had I think you've already answered through email but I want to bring it up in discussion here it was one of the you mentioned the um uh fire suppression you know water that's used for a flushing hydrants or for extinguishing fires that that gets hauled to a to a location that doesn't come out of a hydrant um gets is considered a revenue loss but the relative to all the other revenue losses like leaks and so forth it's a very small small number I had to check to make sure so I did the check with the fire department to make sure today but the fire department building is metered so when they wash their vehicles yeah or when they fill up at the fire department it goes through the meter so their tanks ready to roll are full of water that's paid through their meter okay so that is accounted for okay now they roll and they go out to a site they've used up that water and now they're drawing off a hydrant that's unaccounted for got you if they go to another community they may draw for their hydrants and that's accounted for water under the other community so yeah and so it's a mixed bag in terms of how much that is but the fact that when they come back to the station and they fill and they do that for a couple reasons because sometimes when they're drawing they want to ensure that their tanks are using even within tanks the best quality water that's there and so they will actually empty their tanks sometimes when they get back to the fire station and fill them with fresh water out of the hydrant not all the time but depending upon what they see at the very parts of the system or where they're drawing from they upon sometimes they draw from and so on the rural fires they want those tanks clean and ready to go for the next time so but that water is all all paid for okay okay yeah the bigger losses come from losses in the system leaks um we flush hydrants those are some of the bigger losses so we can't put a number two real accurately okay all right any other reward questions is he one a couple yeah oh candle year yeah yeah i actually just wanted to follow up on that when it comes to the fire revenue and everything um this is part of my day job and i just want to point out but at first i would say thank you to all of the existing water and sewer customers that are subsidizing the folks like me that are not on the system and paying for that fire water and i would just like to ask if the customers of the water and sewer department are aware of that and are fine with that or if they would like to pursue some kind of a fire fee from the town residents that are not on the water and sewer system because there are a lot of customers that you know i am not comfortable being subsidized fire fire protection is key and as you said that first water that's going to roll out at the end of my road is going to come right from your system that somebody pays for so i just wanted to mention that thank you and it's a good point um a lot of the customers in Essex you know i'm i don't have an exact figure but i can tell you roughly off the top of my head probably 75 to 80 percent of the customers are in in Essex are on municipal water so and as opposed to some of the more rural communities where it's reversed so most of our customers who may have a fire are on the water system there are rural people on wells that obviously don't um and it's a good point i think one of the things my recommendation would be in that regard for the future is to get some more data on that you know how what's the record of the fire department where do they go how many calls are here and there and one of the reasons for that is it's financially financial um if we were to do that if the board and it's not a bad idea it's a good idea but if the board were to do that now that means that you would be charging general fund payers tax base fee towards the utility at a time when the general fund is going to have issues over the next couple years just meeting expenses given separation whereas the number is small enough it's not going to affect customers i think it's a great idea but i think you do the data collection figure out what that loss or what that might be and put that on the table when the general taxes have stabilized and you're better able to do that because i think i honestly think and i that the board is going to be scrambling to find every dollar they can to keep taxes low in the general fund and the last thing i think you'd want to do is throw in an additional fee under the general fund if it's not significant and doesn't impact the water rates it's something that needs to be done but maybe postpone for a couple year all right thanks danis hey i see you want to hand up from the public betty pooling hi good evening um i just have a couple general questions um first of all i was just wondering if you could talk to uh the fact that we do have a minimum usage and why we have that i know we've had that for a while um i happen to be i happen to fall into that that was just good it seems counter intuitive when we maybe we're trying to minimize what the amount of water people use along those lines i was curious how many or what percentage of our households do fall into the category of falling below the minimum and then i had a question about the minimum is it really a annual minimum or is it really a trimester minimum and that's probably just getting to detailed but for example giving the new rates if i fall below the minimum the first trimester and then build 63 33 and the second trimester i fall below and build 63 33 and then the third trimester i exceed the minimum will you true me up for the year and only build me the 190 or will i be built for the actual for the for that particular trimester so those are my questions thanks for all your analysis i could answer some of those um that's for in-depth building questions i would have to definitely defer to finance on that but i did talk with Courtney today and we do have 1100 connections that do fall under the minimum usage and they're built 60 per trimester so the full 180 important but as for how we would work that i believe that was a discussion at one time like you said you're below the minimum for the first two and then the third you use way too much i don't know really how that works i would defer to Courtney on that one so it is based on the trimester so for the billing period there is no year-end reconciliation it is based on those four months usage if you fall under the minimum which is currently 60 per billing period you get charged to 60 there is no real mechanism to go back and reconcile for the year without that being extremely labor intensive and an administrative burden on um sure yeah i understand i just maybe it's better than to stipulate that it's really a trimester minimum and not an annual minimum if that's in fact what it is and um you know just an observation in terms of going to 190 versus even 189 and i know there's a lot of number crunching out into that you know 63 would be a round number but um you know my other question that i'm not sure anybody can answer because maybe it's been around for a long time is why we have a minimum i can i can answer that one um thank you one or try to attempt to minimum covers a lot of facets for example the water system that serves a community provides fire protection provides that fire protection whether you're in your house or you're out of your house whether you're drawing water out of the tap or you're not drawing water out of the tap um that is and i can give you an example and maybe this is crazy but someone um owns a cottage on the lake and they move out to the summer that water system they're not taking a drop of water out of the sx system maybe for that period but that house and that structure is still protected because that water system is there we still have to employees to go to work we still have to drive vehicles we have to flush the water mains those costs go on year round so they're not specific to oh i'm drawing that one gallon of water out today why should only pay for that one gallon of water you're paying for the entire cost of operating a water system which includes all components to it hydrants water lines valves because if those valves aren't checked and flushed and taken care of and you they don't work you may not get water so it's all part of that system and so that was a way to effectively level the playing field so that everyone pays for the cost for some basic fee for what the cost of that water system is and that minimum when it was set was set at 50 percent of the average family use the average family use historically has been around 200 gallons a little bit less maybe now but around now but around that and so we've tried to keep it i think the last it's in here the last few years it's been less um it's been less than 100 dollars if you look at the actual cost it's actually been instead of 90 100 gallons if you go back through history it's been 93 90 87 86 86 89 86 83 trying to keep it at least at about the 85 to 90 percent level um 80 to 90 gallons a day as a minimum to help be fray some of those other costs that go into running the system and and that's why it was set up and that's the system that's employed right it's like there's there are some utilities that have a daily connection fee that you pay whether you use like electricity right you don't draw any electricity you can work at a bunch of different ways to minimum you could have a daily connection fee you could have whatever right um we've decided the town decided to call that minimum fee well thank you for explaining that to me thanks for the question Betty uh Patty Davis yeah i just wanted to say Dennis and Andy of course i gotta talk to you but i i i read all that's i read all the notes for this meeting about the water system and i just want to say thank you for uh Dennis for all the the the fact that you you you go through each pipe to see if there's any leaks or breaks and the maintenance that you guys do to to keep these pipes from uh bursting uh you do preventative medicine on the pipes and it i read everything it took me forever it's like 111 pages but i read it all and it's definitely worth the money that what you do and because why wait until our pipes burst and they oh god we have a problem i'm i'm glad we're on the preventative side of things with our water system so thank you thank you i wish we were batting 100 but we're not that good because we still you still end up with breaks in different parts of the system and unfortunately one of the areas that is a concern for us for the future and you can see that when we talk about the capital fund is the 40th and allen system and the pipes over there are 100 years old and they have a 50 year life and it's a component part of our system even though a lot of it lies in the town of colchester because of the fact that the water system was deeded to us by the federal government when they left and the town accepted the deed um not i'm not sure everyone knew what what that was about but they did so we have the deed for the water and sewer lines in the fort um they've actually been a significant contributor to the rates which has helped us over time so um at one point they were probably 50 of the flow from the town now they're probably 20 20 percent but still a significant contributor so they're part of our system um we'd love to sell at the town of colchester for a dollar but every time we ask them they turn us down you know they they really don't want to go there so all right any other questions uh uh margaret smith hi thank you just a question on on who who should i see because now i have a question about my water bill and i don't want to take up meeting time but i do want to ask somebody about it who should i um contact contact public works um contact us um 8781344 you can talk to erin you can talk to me um we can look at your bill and have finance look at the bill and see if there's an issue there or try to explain if there's some things that are under that maybe are incorrect hey thank you margaret margaret before you go though you need to remember that your bill is water and sewer not just the water minimum if they were talking about earlier okay well that explains part of it then thank you all right there is no sewer minimum right no all right thank you margaret uh any other questions i don't see any other hands up is there anything you need from us or is this informational no just information okay all right okay move on to the next agenda item which is a capital water and sewer plan yeah this one i would hope that next the next meeting we have we can get into a lot of detail but again just general when we develop the capital plan for the town quite some time ago we included all the water sewer projects in that list and it was like apples and pears because the two cents and the general tax funds the capital program with grants that are associated with highways and storm water and things like that but it doesn't fund the storm water the the sewer water projects these come out of the some that may be out of that set aside the 150 000 that goes in some of it's from grants some it's from Delaware impact fees so we decided to separate that out this year and create a separate and for the future capital plan for the water and sewer department water and sewer so that it's real clear to taxpayers that ratepayers are paying for this grants are paying for this and developer impact fees are paying for this and not the general tax base that being said it's a fairly long laundry list the projects that really are needed and some of them will probably lead other projects that are needed some of them are in the form of investigations that may lead us farther to say down the road more money has to be spent the reason why it's important this year is with the federal infrastructure funds that are coming they're beefing up the SRF funds at the state and they're I get this right they're offered in the forms of loans but the loans are being forgiven why they don't just give us grants I don't know but that means I'll just give you an example you have a project that's a million dollar project we would have to go to the ratepayers taxpayers to request a bond vote to bond for one million dollars they would turn around then if if the project was funded by them by the SRF funds they would turn around and give us a loan forgiveness of between 50 and 70 percent and those funds would really not with the with the financial status that the town is in most of the projects that we need to build over the short term are fundable through either the set-aside funds or the developer impact fees now you got to try to explain that to the ratepayers please please vote for this bond because it's not going to cost you a million dollars it's going to cost you either 500,000 or 300,000 and it's really not going to cost you because we're taking out of the impact fees that developers already paid for the project for future things and it's at a time when the town is in the separation mode and taxes are going to be affected and so it's going to be difficult but it's a golden opportunity right now with those federal funds to go after them and to do that what we're going to be looking for when it comes down time for the board to vote is the permission to go ahead with some of these projects and get them designed and ready to go so that we can bring them forward so we don't lose the opportunity that we're probably never going to have again most most most of the money out there and projects that would be eligible would at least need to have a preliminary engineering study completed and in the near term over the next year or two those are going to be the major projects within the capital budget as you look through a lot of that is get the signs together study projects and coupled with this there's a drop dead day on these funds and I've got to believe that every community in Vermont is trying to figure out how can we get at and use these funds and you're going to need engineers to design the projects which means when you make the phone call are we one on the list or aren't we 25 on the list and are we ever going to get to the point of getting them done that's why I think it's important for us to work with the board to come up with a workable list and go after the projects so that we can get them at least to the point where we have a chance to go after those funds realizing that we may reach a point where it says we've got to stop for whatever reason you know we just aren't going to get those funds but they're projects that are worthwhile doing and in some cases investigating to see if we really need a project what that product is going to cost us questions questions yeah I have a question kind of go ahead if you like a motion to start that today because because really you you are hitting the nail on the head that's something that the town needs to move on right off of that to get into that like just like Dennis just said a lot of money there and I'd like to see the town really start now getting some of that engineering and ready to go so that you can get in there and get that one number one that's my opinion thank you thanks Kendall who else from the public Annie Davis these SRF funds just this year because of all the money being thrown at us Dennis and and Andy or is that why you're you're saying we got to get these engineers I hear what Kendall just said but these SRF funds only this year no they're their funds as I understand the process and that's some of that's still being worked on but those funds are funds that are coming from the federal infrastructure act and they're channeled through the SRF program and they'll be available for a number of years I'm not sure of the exact drop dead dates but we've got some time frame to do it and I think I would love to be able to say let's go do everything but I think it is important for us to talk to the board about each of these projects you know not two hours worth but enough time so you understand what we're what we want to do and why it's important and that part of the community may impact and then I think that if we get that okay in our in the night that you go ahead and approve or hopefully approve budgets and give us a go ahead on the capital plans to move forward it's not it's not that we're going to spend the money to go and build the project but to get moving on it that will give us enough lead time to get the and we've talked to already talked to some of the companies and engineering firms to get them lined up so we're ready to go but I would hate to pull that trigger until the board's looked at what we've got and said yeah that's fine go for it I've talked to some of my peers out in the private sector and the queuing up fast yeah just timing wise to put to put a bug in everybody's year we'll have a election in November and another election next town meeting in March so those are kind of the benchmarks that we'd be looking at as far as getting things moving and and bringing it to the select board and the community but those dates and minds as opportunities to have a vote it's far away maybe August 2nd check is there a it's probably primary primary you know as opposed anybody done yeah there's a primary in August we might have an August out yeah that the challenge there though is we won't yet have had any budget discussions for the first year after separation right so there's gonna be correct but the way Dennis and Aaron are talking about it it doesn't involve right it's a vote on the bond but yeah I know I know but it's gotta be carefully explained the lawyers have to do a good job of wording it so everything's clear nothing's hidden here's where we're going yeah and enough fact sheets and enough discussion so people understand that this is a good thing that this is a time where we've been able to collect funds that we can now use and it's not coming out of today's pocket it's actually like I say most of it's coming out of impact fees and other costs that already been saved it's a good position to be in it's just we have to explain it correctly Ethan just like to make a quick comment I think if we you know really like you're saying plan this out and word it correctly and then you know possibly looked at holding an informational meeting or or two informational meetings you know might be a big help to really write from the point so yeah so Margaret Smith I see your hand up is that a new hand or is that a residual hand from your prior comment sorry brain cramps all right Bruce Post yeah hi can you hear me yes okay just a question on the bonding and the timing of it appreciate the fact that we're all learning on the some of you are learning on the job I'm learning in my chair here in the office when when would a bond vote be triggered only when we've been guaranteed receipt of funds you know the state says yes you can get a million dollars and before we can get that million dollars do we have to have the bond vote as I understand it we have a project for example that's moving forward that's kind of sitting we know what's going to cost and that's one that's already almost 90 95 design in order to get the SRF funds you've got to produce evidence that you have the local funding through a bond vote and that's been my argument all along is if we have the local funding then why the heck do we need a bond vote because we've already got the money and if the select board approves it why it's because it's tied to how those SRF funds were set up and they can't give it to us as a grant it's got to be a loan forgiveness and you've got to have a loan to qualify so we do have to go for the vote before we actually know that they have got that project we can tell where the project is we can get all kind of indications on their priority list but will not be a letter from them saying if you vote here's the money it's going to be vote here's the money may I follow up may I follow up yeah go ahead okay so so the state is got this pocket of money you've got a project we bond for it in anticipation the state's going to give us money correct is there a scenario that's possible that we vote yes on a bond and we don't get the money from the state and then are we obligated having voted on a bond and the state hasn't funded that project there's there's two ways that you can do that one is the project may be valuable enough and there's enough fees that have already been collected that you could just build it and pay off the bond from funds already collected that to me would not be a wise thing to do it may be that what you would do is not construct the project or at least not in that time frame and delay that project until you can get raised on that priority list and then do it I don't believe just because you vote the bonds you don't have to start the process selling those bonds and becoming encumbered with that until you reach the point where you make do you take that action now that's something we've got to check with attorneys and the bond council and all that but I think that's the way it works so you know it's it's kind of a crummy position to be in because in my view we have collected these funds we could use that money if it was a grant it'd be easy in this world it's not easy and I got to imagine Bruce that a lot of communities are going to be struggling with this as well moving forward so that I'm sure the league will probably give us more guidance as this rolls out on wording of the bond or how we proceed further but I like I said I think we're going to be the rest of the communities trying to scratch our heads and figure out how to get this done and address your concerns yeah I appreciate you thinking about it I just don't want to get caught catch 22 you know it's it's such an interesting timing issue and obligation issue and then an implementation issue all these moving parts hinged on a bit of uncertainty thank you very much thanks Bruce and one last comment the answer might just throw the answer might lie in how you word the bonding if that bonding is tied to the award of SRF funds and again I'm not not a bond council I don't know how to word it but if the bonding was correct you might avoid that ambiguity that it's one cracks with the other and that's something we just we haven't reached that point of checking that yet yeah all right thanks any other questions or comments do you use anything needed from us tonight there's no another informational thanks I appreciate you taking the time great thanks thank you both thank you thank you hey yeah thanks moving on to the next agenda item consider appointing representatives to try town sewer committee who's going to speak to this that will be me so for for many many years the town has benefited from Jeff Carr being its representative on the tri town sewer committee that's the committee that works with the village of Essex Junction in the town of Williston on oversight of the wastewater treatment plant Jeff has moved out of town so he had to step down and resign so there's an opening on the board and looking at the the guidance from the original governing document for tri town each of those municipalities appoints two select board members or their appointed representatives so typically it's been Jeff Carr the manager representing the tri town from Essex I'm happy to be one of the representatives although there if there are two like board members that's fine as well you're also in good hands with Dennis and Aaron as the the staff representative and alternate it is a position where you know our recommendations we have somebody who has a bit more technical expertise whether it's in the fields with municipal operations economics Jeff Carr brought pretty much all of that so but to have somebody from the select board who can speak for the town on behalf of the town and if there's any interest an expertise on hands from one or two of you great and again I'm happy to be one of those appointees if there's only one of you who wants to step up who's able to step up chairman it would be great if Greg continue but I also think it'd be a perfect position for Kendall Kendall any comments any thoughts about that my only hesitation to do that is that I am not a current water user but if there is no objection to that I could probably fill that wall yes it does have the expertise it yeah yeah and I don't think I think it actually makes it less certainly less of a conflict of interest if he's not a user if if if there's a concern there at all anybody have any concern with like I don't have a concern but I have a question is it just do we just need one or do we do we need to we need we need to we need to it doesn't have to be Greg though if if there's another select board member is interested in doing it speak up okay during no other and do we have do we assume you're looking for a moment we need a motion I make the motion that we appoint our manager Greg Greg Greg Greg Duggan and select board member Kendall Chamberlain to be the representatives of the tri-town sewer committee thank you Don do I have a second second thank you Ethan any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye opposed Kendall I think you stayed you stayed muted through that did you say yes I did say yes I'm good hi all right all right so motion passes five zero great thanks Kendall for stepping out for that and thank you Greg thank you all right okay um oh you're waving I thought you were raising your hand oh no but guys thank you yep take care thanks guys okay the next agenda item I am going to turn the gavel over to Tracy uh so in a previous meeting I had sort of asked for the select board's blessing to meet with Greg and Marguerite around committees reappointments things of that sort we did meet Tammy joined us as the person who reaches out to folks whose terms are expiring and seeing if they wish to continue most terms do expire on June 30th each year and for the past few years we've done reappointments for those who are already serving on the consent agenda um due to time constraints but with the end of shared management we should slash will have more time uh to take that up during regular business even though the interviews were you know so kind of the standard questions I think that we can approach that by having a standard list list of questions recently we have used a standard list of questions that are more informative about the candidates so essentially we have two options in front of us we can continue with the simpler more time-efficient consent agenda reappointment or we could have those wishing to be reappointed come back in front of the select board um for interviews and also advertise those positions um if I may insert my own opinion here I think that that's the way to go if we're not advertising positions we run the risk of becoming stale um in the pool of volunteers that we have um on a personal note I got involved because I saw a vacancy being advertised for the zoning board and that's how I got here at this table um some could argue that that's a good or a bad thing um but it it really opens that first door if we're truly interested in inclusivity um for people to be involved and widening our horizons as far as opinions and and really leveraging the expertise that exists with our within our own community any questions I have a question may give a comment to add to that and I think it's a good idea that we don't keep renewing the same people because then people that might be interested they're going to say who I bother they're just going to renew the same people so I think this gives us a a broader outreach for people that may be interested in different positions different boards like that I do I just have a question is there a standard for um um I'm gonna say another word right now but this is our standard for the you know the period that they are serving on these commissions or is it year to year is there like two years terms on these I believe the Greg go ahead yeah most of the boards and committees have three year terms the planning commission is the only exception that comes to mind they have a four year term and Greg if I'm not mistaken those are staggered correct yes yeah so there's um we alternated so it for a five person committee like yourselves there's two seats that are three years and another two for three years and then one for three years so that there's rarely total turnover unless mass exit is from town for some reason something like that but when were these um uh terms like adopted or put employees just from the beginning or is it something that was voted on and I guess my my question or comment here would be would it make more sense to have a spectrum across the board whether it's two years or three years have them all the same or say you know as we as we begin to reappoint these positions as they as they come up you know not change everything completely but I have to check the charter as far as the planning commission terms the rest of them are all bodies that were created by the select board and when so they were created that's when the select board said it's going to be a three year term the other questions comments discussion Kendall did you have anything I would support your approach to it I think that it's important that even if you have only one person that wants to renew that you put out an advertisement and I suppose it could be just one per view if they wanted to do that person or not I was just one person but I agree that an advertisement like that that's to get more interest and I'm not I'm used to raising my hand um yeah I I agree Tracy and I think I really like the idea of having uh lists of questions to pick from kind of thing because we you know it's a little awkward when we have somebody come in and and nobody has any questions and we're saying you know thanks for thinking you know the only comment they get is thanks for volunteering and then I think it'd be good to have and it also with with people who've been on the who are being reappointed or being considered for reappointment I guess they should say um to ask them how things are going whether there's anything the select board can do to help them you know those those kind of things that maybe I don't know if we have a different set of questions or another subset that we could ask for reappointment just to get feedback yeah I just wanted to add sort of to some of that discussion I think there's you know there's sort of a short-term thing we're looking at here because it's coming up in June and then kind of a longer bigger picture as we sort of see how this goes but I think there's also an opportunity here I know I've heard from a few different board members over just the last few months even about um yeah kind of looking at what the committees do getting them to interact you know know what other committees are doing these are volunteers they don't have lots of you know you are all they just you don't have all the time necessarily to read every other committee's meeting minutes and so are there ways here as well you know maybe even while you're doing those appointments to have those committees be able to be in together and be able to listen or or you know I mean if that's something where you're talking about reorganizations of certain committees that's where the term limit you know what are their missions what are their terms those things come in to play at that time I don't know that you need to address all of that before June this year but but I do think you know that could be something you could also glean from when you have these interviews from committee members of asking them you know does your is your mission too big how are you at like well how can we help make this you know doable if it's not or or things like that um you know it could be a two-way kind of thing as well if you get you know some you know I don't know that they need to be done at the same time but that I think is something else to think about as well as just to get that feedback and you know find ways to do that whether that's in a regular meeting or you have a subcommittee of you all or something like that to look at that but I think there's opportunity here as well just for getting you know new voices and perspectives per chance but also hearing from those who are here and have that institutional knowledge and want to continue to help make it you know even better and kind of work together a little on those um different committees or stuff like that so those are like what have you accomplished what do you wish you accomplished and what do you look forward to accomplishing right yeah just in that's different for each committee but you know that's gonna that's gonna change so and is there things that you know as yeah like as this board we could do to help that or whatever um and and get that communication easier for them between each other you know if there's ways we can ease that either a staff or whatever um so to have that but there are many layers to the yeah yeah I just had a quick thing pop into my head when you had mentioned that um you know as I know that the planning commission isn't is part of the charter or possibly part of the charter um if the the select board appointed committees are are you know under discretion of the select board per se um I don't know I don't know this but is there is there a process that we have that you know once a year we ask the the chair or or the the lead of the committee to give us a progress report or or you know just come talk to us and say hey you know this is what's going on and and these are the important things that we're facing right now or or whatever just just you know maybe we could word that in there in these in this reconstruction to to have a follow-up um yearly or even you know every six months or or however it feels fit to you have that feedback because then maybe we could be more proactive as a as a full board to um sustain these goals that we have as a community so and that's definitely something that we we talked about um we're just focusing on the the short term I think the the overall idea is to come back with you know how we can increase communication not only between this body and the committees but also between the committees themselves to really foster those ideas and identify where those overlaps exist and where we can you know leverage sort of more people to meet the same goal Madam Vice Chair do you want to motion um I would like to see if there's any public comment first did you have it how do you see you have your hand up oh yeah well I forgot to take it down but I'll I'll speak up because I was really interested in what you had to say um when you applied to for the zoning Tracy um in South Burlington um you were obviously very interested and it sounds like you you attended meetings and did you apply just because there was a vacancy and you were you attended a lot of meetings um and and you wanted to contribute but but you did you really feel qualified that that's that's the thing um that's my question I think outside people that are very interested but admit that they have not you know jumped on the learning curve they don't know all the vocabulary and just all the laws and we people like me feel like I really need to know my background is medicine so you know I have no zoning experience for example so I guess my question to you Tracy is did you have zoning background when you apply to this spot when I when I was speaking about coming to Essex and applying to zoning I had previously been on the South Burlington Select Board so I had that experience coming into it so it was a focus of something that I was already familiar with and had uh at least some semblance of expertise but when you applied to the position in South Burlington I did do you is that your background like like I say I was interested in zoning for example but my background's medicine so you know if you guys interviewed me I have absolutely no background so why would I be a candidate so I guess my question to you is when you applied to the South Burlington position did you come from before you even got this experience how did you get how did they pick you did you have um do you have that background or um did you come from a different background I can't really speak to why the board selected me um but being an IT professional uh with various regulations and policies and being sort of a rectifile um you know I it was definitely in my wheelhouse and that's why I was interested well you're great I guess you know sometimes people may be interested in something and but yet we we hesitate to apply because we're like oh my god I'm not an architect you know but we want to we want to control you so we we go to the meetings instead so anyway I just wanted to mention that thanks and the hope is that this will open up doors for for other people uh bruce post yeah I I'm certainly like what you're doing uh I think it also I I'm picking up on something Ethan said but I think it's very important for both a board in the residence to have an opportunity to have oversight over these uh commissions on a regular or semi-regular basis uh if someone comes in they want to be reappointed to planning or something for instance um there but there should be an opportunity for the board to ask um what is happening and for the public to come into that meeting and say well here is what we're experiencing and dealing with the planning commission or dealing with the trails commission or dealing with economic development um I work in congress and that's one of the poorest things we ever did was any oversight and when I was on the board I don't think we really did any oversight or say we we would have people come in and we'd interview them but I think a structured oversight process helps the board and also helps uh the public who have concerns or um don't fully understand something and then get some feedback rather than having it done that you know public to be heard which is not the kind of venue that you want to do that thing and also uh not having them have to go before a commission that they think really is oversight and but go to that commission and raise their concerns they have that opportunity but they should also have it with the board or through a structured oversight process thanks and your point is well taken and that will that will be on the agenda going down the going down this road thank you any other public comment seeing none any other discussion from the board and with none I would entertain a motion not sure if I can do this I'm looking at the make the motion that we sorry Tracy I thought I had this that we any open any okay any opening that comes on any board is advertised it's not an automatic renewal process was that not what I really do you want or help people I know what I I had it and then I didn't have it so it's like um make the motion that we don't automatically reappoint positions on current boards that everyone will interview for any open direct does that mean that work that works thank you I knew I had it and it wasn't there is there a second I'll second okay final discussion being none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries five zero thank you with that I will turn it back over to you thanks Tracy okay next agenda item is consider approval of select board meeting schedule comment needed there uh it's um a schedule proposed schedule laid out for you in the packet sticking with the first and third Monday of the month um exceptions are listed in the packet due to holidays in some cases um in a couple instances September and July the select board has traditionally met just once that month so looking to go back to that hopefully things will calm down a little bit now that we're getting past the merger and separation discussions we should take it up a lot of time and extra meetings in the past couple years so that's what's before you right now it is proposed at 6 30 I know one member at least has brought up the possibility of a later start time so staff is fine either way that's really up to the select board about what time you want to start um otherwise happy to take questions on what is proposed I should point out the budget day is not in here we are tentatively looking at two another all day budget day in November like we did this past year but well we need to flesh that schedule out a little bit more and when we have a proposed date for that we will bring it back to you for for review to take a look at it so for now it's kind of just the straight uh first and third Monday the other thing not in here is joint meetings with the trustees the idea is to bring that to both boards when you meet your joint meeting in April to figure out what schedule makes sense for that going forward and with that I will take any questions all right the other exceptions you got in here are holidays are moved to when there's a holiday and a Monday is moved to the Tuesday of that week correct any uh I'll answer questions uh Kendall I'm uh comfortable with your 6 30 as long as my board is comfortable with me doing it I got to be honest I did this saves a lot of gas money just to stay forward and I do have a commitment a prior commitment on one day if you moved it to seven that I could probably in a lot of cases make it as a as a person Ethan I am perfectly okay with um you know I don't want to speak for Kendall but if you're okay with staying in your area and not driving I'm I'm perfectly fine with with uh keeping the meeting at the same time and you know and being comfortable with zoom I don't want to speak for anybody else but personally um I'm up where early in the morning and I've be on two young kids so I hesitate to to move the meeting back any later um if we did I would I would recommend that we maybe shorten the I know it went from midnight to 11 but I would ask if we started at seven that ended at 10 30 because um I'd rather start sooner than later turning it up both ends there yeah that would be my yes my recommendation if we move the meeting to seven any other comments concerns I like it at 6 30 because well and maybe we won't have these I'm godly late night exactly this session but just sorry it just makes it easier to I'm just stating a fact I'm sorry it's a late night when you're yeah for years and years the meeting started at 7 30 I remember and um part of that was because well it was it was um I don't know I guess it was that way when I joined and then it stayed that way partly because a couple of us couldn't remember making earlier um time but yeah I I'm okay with 6 30 of Kendall is and I guess Kendall is the mind being remote I mean it'd be nice if you could be in the room with us from a staff point is it a concern to have it it adds a little more complexity to executive session discussions yeah we can but that's all manageable yeah we've managed that in the last two years okay what you get you know I would I'm now working in Montpelier on Tuesdays and Thursdays so my I would rather go to six so I think 6 30 is a a very good middle ground that work all right and then uh let's see is there anything else in here that's I don't think there's any other concerns I have and I'm sorry I missed what you said about joint meetings we we're not doing that tonight no we'll um bring something to you uh the joint meeting this month um so both boards can discuss that together and figure out what makes sense for both of you yeah it needs to be a joint decision when we're gonna have joint meetings so but yeah if we can get yeah and we'll see the proposal before we get to the meeting so the other thing not on here is um we've staff have talked about wanting to do a strategic planning session with the select board sometime this spring so that's not listed here um as we get a little bit more into that we can reach out to you about scheduling and see if it makes sense to do uh an evening at some point or half day on a weekend um but we'll not show it here but put that on your radar as well we did that on a Saturday at the rec pass couple of years pass couple of times we've done it on a Saturday yeah right any other Ethan I'd like to make a motion we um if there's any public comment any public comment I don't see any hands up at this point all right Ethan go ahead I make the motion that the select board um approve the proposed meeting schedule for the year of 2022 to 2023 thank you Ethan all right thank you Don any further discussion those in favor please say aye aye aye closed motion passes five zero all right go write those all on the calendar all right okay so next question is next business item is this discussion about select board representative on Essex best building equity solidarity and trust this is not a select board appointment it's a the manager does the appointments it's not a select board based committee it's a so but the question is whether anyone would like to volunteer and maybe Marguerite can tell us a little bit about what the best is and what the yeah yeah so um currently the the full group meets quarterly so we've already had our one meeting in March so there's three more there and also currently there are two sort of subcommittees of Essex best and one sort of deals with the safety policing what that looks like in the community and then the other one deals with representation and leadership and what that you know part looks like and so those recommendations that Essex best brought forward February I think it was um that's kind of those are the two subcategories that those subgroups are working on and then they come together so it would be three more meetings for the full group this year and then depending on kind of which subgroup in this case Patrick used to be on the representation and the leadership which is sort of that's kind of the idea because that one has to do with thinking of you know having the community involved with strategic leadership planning for you know the select board and having that role there and that's also the one that currently Raj for the trustees sits on in that sort of subcommittee as well and that's just to have that voice have you know one of the elected officials from these governing boards be be there and have a voice on that and also be able to hear from the community members directly that kind of thing so those meetings aren't as set and how many there will be but they happen more often than the Essex best kind of full meeting so usually it's between the two s express me will probably have you know two of each in between those so and again it sort of depends what part you're involved in sometimes we meet in a little bit of smaller group to get some more stuff done and then bring it back to the big group so but probably you know it'd be three six maybe eight moving forward and of course you know as you can if you can't come to one or something like that that's those but that would be I would say the probably on the more max side but again it's a little bit hard they are trying to figure out what the recommendation is to bring forward for next year so it might be that it becomes more labor intensive at some but you want to step forward I do actually but somebody else would like to very interesting I I support that I was gonna say if nobody wants to step forward then I I will godly take that opportunity but I fully support on and her retirement taking that away anybody else so so it's again it's still it's still Greg's decision who gets appointed right don'll be in touch all right so moving on to consent agenda mr chairman I make the motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you don do I have a second thank you Tracy any further discussion I just have one question does the consent agenda involve the liquor licenses yeah yes ask the town manager a question about that and I just wondered if that was the affirmative I have an answer for you I'm not sure which affirmative you're looking for but quickly to to just fill in the rest of the board Kendall asked if we looked at if tax payments and water sewer payments are up to date for applicants and Kendall I apologize I did get an answer and then I got distracted and forgot to get back to you so typically no we have not been looking at that in this case the town clerk did have an opportunity to look into it for the liquor licenses all the applicants are renters but she checked the the property owner everybody is up to date on their tax payments and water sewer payments so if in the affirmative yes everyone is is paid up thank you I do think that's important all right thanks Kendall any other discussion okay all those in favor please say aye opposed a motion passes five zero a reading file any any board member comments and for the new members this is just the time you can say anything you want about you know this this is this is the board members version or portion of public to be heard so there's something you want to say that's not on the agenda you can talk about that or you can talk about anything that's in the in the actual reading file I do have a question about that letter from the agency does that mean they're not going to run they're not going to check out if there's a violation of speeding on that road no they are it they received it and they're acknowledging that they received it and they're going to start their process on their end okay but so they can start it before they meet because they didn't even have a meeting date I mean that was so confused me it said it looked like they weren't even going to decide that till they had a meeting to decide if they were going to actually check into it all right I should reread it I read it maybe I read it quickly and I thought that they were going to move ahead with it let's see there's near the I think it's in the second paragraph or it starts to say that they are going to take matters and further reeve further evaluated and addressed directly by v trans I don't know if that speaks to your shoe about enforcement but I think the regulatory issue was set by the traffic committee and let's see down here where it says a date that third paragraph with that last line say a date to something yeah John I'm reading it in that second paragraph about halfway through it says to address the speed limit the traffic operations will conduct a traffic engineering study as required by state law and will forward a recommendation to the Vermont traffic committee who makes the final decision that's when the traffic committee meets two or three times okay so they will get a recommendation from the traffic advisory traffic operation we'll get an invite thank you I just that's like I couldn't decide if we're going to do something so the speed study would make the recommendation to the state traffic committee correct right you want to change the speed understand and travel that road daily as many others and people are crazy any other board member comments and just for clarification on that same item it states you'll be notified of a recommendation two to three weeks prior to the traffic committee meeting will that be publicized so that members of the community who wish to go and do so uh yeah we can do that okay all right um I wanted to recognize this is the first meeting for for Ethan and Kendall welcome um glad to be congratulations and yeah yeah hope uh hope we have a good year um and thanks for for uh stepping forward to run for your positions um and congratulations and thank you glad to have you thank you but I just make the can I just make the general note but I think the sound remotely for the Blackboard meeting has been very good that's channel 17 or Tom eating television that gets a credit for that all right great it actually sounds pretty good in the room here too and maybe it's a fresh battery of my hearing aid all right hearing no other discussion mr chairman I make the motion we adjourn thank you Don I'll suck it thank you Ethan it's a non-debatable motion all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed okay we're adjourned