 me who live here in the village if I'd heard anything at a select board meeting about our village water system being super low because of the the drought and I said I hadn't so that's nothing I need to ask about because anything you haven't heard about if you want to ask about it during the meeting we could but there's no there's no um we're not experiencing any problems with that okay okay well then I won't worry about it I want to interrupt me I just I just I just wondered um okay thank you yep hey Frank did you see your picture in the paper this last week yeah I do yep Jerry was so funny ghost you got to know this guy in the orange jacket I don't know his name you I'm sure you know him I said yeah that's right yep all right with six o'clock and we don't have anyone else in the waiting room I'll keep an eye on that just in case but um we'll start this with our our script for the uh these COVID times as chair of the Rochester Select Board I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to addendum 6 to executive order 01-20 and act 92 this public body is authorized to meet electronically in accordance with act 92 there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting however in accordance with the temporary amendments to the open meeting law I confirm that we are providing public access to the meeting by either telephone video or other electronic means and we're using the Zoom platform for that and um all members of the board have the ability to communicate contemporaneously during this meeting through this platform and the public has access to contemporaneously listen and if desired participate in this meeting and you can find out how to get this information this contact by either contacting the town clerk to request the invitation specifically on email or you can view it on the town website or you can find it on the publicly posted agendas for the meeting um and here you here we are and nobody else is in the waiting room so at this time we'll um ask for any additions to the agenda as it was posted does anyone have anything else I want to add to that you and I have a question yeah we have the tax map um contract that we need to renew is that something that I would have to put on the next agenda for you to approve and sign yeah we wouldn't be able to approve that tonight but I guess we could um to put that on to the um meeting the agenda for the next next yeah okay uh Robert Frank's here yeah Robert do you have something you want to add to the agenda uh regarding the board of civil authority of Rochester minutes that have been uh denied by me regarding the election in 2018 I really truly want to bring this up to Frank to Patty to you to Martha and Nancy all right all right so um the get on to the agenda so um speaking of minutes we have the prior meetings minutes from the September 14th meeting and I didn't see any corrections to those so I'd move to approve those I second it all in favor aye aye okay and then we also had our special select board meeting on September 21st to um deal with the tax rate and I that looked right to me I'd move to approve those minutes and I second that all in favor aye aye okay may I interrupt who's that Robert it is Robert yep and I'm requesting the minutes from the two meetings that you and Patty just shared to make them public to the public they they are public to the public they are you can go on to the website and then and read those um if you want the meetings are also covered covered in zoom you can actually go on to the town website and click right on the link to the zoom coverage of the meeting so then you have not only the written minutes but the actual um video documentation of the meeting so you have ample opportunities to check those out and there were articles about them in the herald as well yeah yeah well let's just go back I requested minutes of the board of civil authority from Rochester for the last two years you patty frank they've all received the emails of last night including will sending Eric where are the minutes of the board of civil authority of Rochester reflecting back to 2018 election day at 7 12 in the morning I what happened what happened I think is extremely covered by the media the board of civil authority meant to count the votes and then immediately communicated those votes to the state of Vermont which then of course you have all sorts of media you got npr you got the white river valley herald you got the I mean the minutes that the board of civil authority meeting for that election was our report of those minutes was the results of the election that's the action of the board of civil authority results of the election the results of the election were not previst by what happened on the town clerk's office of Rochester in 2018 by Joanne McDonald illegally towing cars we really need to get into this because going forward with COVID the new election polling station and the rules I I really want to put this forth to you doon patty frank and anyone else including Martha the select board of Rochester does not create the rules for election day the authority the town clerk sets the rules for election day no actually yes yeah but but in terms of your your request your original request for minutes to the meeting there was no civil board of authority meeting that dealt with the issue that you're referring to this is the the meeting of the board of civil authority was to conduct the counting of the vote seat election the actual conducting of the voting is under the purview of the town clerks which it will do and McDonald committed in the valley news that she would go before the board of civil authority after she did illegal actions on the town clerk's office of Rochester towing cars screaming at 7 12 in the morning I'm asking for those minutes doon she never went to that meeting never happened rather that they she dealt with that mistake on her part and no it's not a mistake on her part it's a mistake on the town's part where are the minutes of Joanne McDonald's commitment to go to the in front of the board of civil authority of Rochester to present her misconduct against the town that meeting did not happen that meeting should have happened but it did not happen so there are no minutes for it so oh so you're you're saying to me that Joanne McDonald's commitment to the board of civil authority of Rochester announced in the paper the valley news you're telling me that Joanne McDonald never shared those minutes there were no minutes why were there not no minutes I already answered that question three times no because that meeting did that meeting did not happen doon I'm going to make I'm going to make I'm going to make public this quote to patty nancy martha frank and jet at 10 23 election day 2018 you approached Rob McFadden's bus and you had the authority or the audacity to approach him and say Rob don't you know we have unwritten rules in this town we let me re-quote that this is doon the chair of the select board of Rochester approaching the bus that was parked legally on the town parking lot and you said to Rob McFadden Rob don't you know we have unwritten rules in this town that's a question that I think Nancy martha frank and patty should look at can you just think about the words Rob we heard that already Robert so the point is there was an ongoing understood policy unwritten by Joanne which then we corrected by putting in writing in response to the uproar that ensued from this and it was that if you're going to be campaigning and leaving campaign signs that you needed to be present to do that that's not a so that's what happened and it was no no no that's not what happened so the towing of of the truck from the town parking lot in 2018 on election day yes who who paid the time who paid the fee Joanne did right yeah why in recognition of her mistake and her regret for her actions there it is not her mistake it's the town of Rochester's mistake to make certain that the town clerk just as I put forth to you patty and Frank Severy last night with email supporting uh support from the uh mr. sending up at the state house secretary state office to look into this this is total improper all I'm trying to say to you do Frank patty is to make certain that election rules are regulated announced and publicized to the public so a candidate cannot do you know do you know at 10 of 8 on the election day of 2018 Joanne McDonald insisted that Robert McFadden come to the town of Rochester to put to pay a towing fee we changed our entire campaign we were to be in Bethel at 8 o'clock in the morning we had to come under Joanne McDonald's illegal jurisdiction to say you need to come to Rochester to pay a towing fee Robert and I rode into Rochester and then you step onto the bus and say don't you know we have unwritten rules in this town so we moved the entire campaign from all the electoral votes and people from Bethel to Rochester and then we were exposed to Joanne McDonald screaming and yelling and then you come out and say hey Rob don't you know we have unwritten rules in this town what the hell are the unwritten rules so that ruined the entire campaign and Joanne McDonald Joanne McDonald I was at Deerings that morning after this happened it was the most most defilement of democracy I ran up to Rob to JD's John was on his way to tow the truck illegally he tows the truck and Joanne McDonald says you can't do that and he's like it's already done so I I don't really Martha can report whatever she wants to report Nancy can you know talk I don't really care I just want to make certain that 2020 is locked down with rules and regulations at the at the high school not at the town clerk's office so we're we are going to go back into Joanne McDonald's conduct as the town clerk in 2018 even after 2020's election because that was a debauchery dude let me ask you this question oh can I see Pat Ms. Gut comment she wants to make her in my hand that um I take the unwritten rule comment as referring to something that is like common courtesy and common sense those are the golden rule the unwritten rules that's what I think that that those two words really meant in in in that day is that we exercise common courtesy towards one another in this town and we exercise common sense and those are unwritten rules kind of like the golden rule no patty no no unwritten rules in the democracy the united states of america are unwritten and you cannot you cannot subject a candidate to be reprimanded by a town clerk who's illegally performing those rules can she uh you keep to you keep insisting that she illegally did that but in the reality of the mont statues the town clerk has got the jurisdiction for conducting the elections and she does have the say over what what happens in the polling in the polling place so it's you can back off on the illegally there's no question that it was it was a mistake and she overreacted and she felt terrible for that in my approaching the bus and trying to enter in dialogue with you as an attempt to smooth the waters and calm everyone down I see that two years later it still has not taken that effect so I suppose you would rather you just had no communication do let me just say this you quoted me as this obsession with regards to 2018's election day from 712 till noon that day you communicated it's my obsession it is not my obsession it's the democracy of america's obsession i don't if if joey mcdonald made a major major major mistake that day i could not believe what i experienced at 712 she was screaming at me telling me to leave to get my truck off the parking lot it wasn't my truck i didn't know whose truck it was that ruined our campaign you know whose truck it was it was rob mcfad's truck and we have we have video of the legal distance of where a truck should be parked as as said in the select board before you and frank rob mcfad or rob cratley has the measurements and he was totally legal okay so i think that what i want to bring this around to and which is i think in essence the point that i'm guessing you want to make is that that nothing like this debacle happens and the election that is coming up right dune that's exactly right it's not about robert frank's it's about the democracy of america right so all i want to make certain is that hold on when you say okay that means robert shut up the the no you there is on the agenda an issue that deals with this very topic and and it's addressing the very thing that you're concerned about and it's already on the agenda so we'll um hopefully that will put you at ease a little bit with that there's clearly stated um you know directives about how things are going to work with the the temporary polling station down at the school okay so um you were included you patty frank were included with the messages and emails i sent off to wilson and at the secretary of state's office eric covey i just want to make certain that they are in in in sequenced synced with what is going to go on for election day in 2020 on november 3rd because i guarantee you something is going to go wrong and by the way there are what do you mean some well okay you're how can you guarantee something like that robert do you have something planned no what i'm saying is is that the town clerk okay there are state rules regarding election day they are they are the rules from the state the secretary of state's office the town clerk then has jurisdiction over those micro rules that she can just throw out like towing a truck i don't want that to happen again yeah i don't anticipate in that happen again unless there's someone parks a truck in uh in a spot where it's been dedicatedly said that it there should be nothing parked then we would tell something but the rules not that were written down yeah the parking spot where the truck was parked was not designated all right we're talking about in in november of 2020 now that's that's that's the main thing here is what's happening now and going forward we we understand that it was um it was a mess before there was a problem and we've taken steps to clarify what is to happen in this next election and i think that is what you're concerned about correct that is all i'm concerned about right just make just make certain that everyone whether it's a whoever votes whoever moves onto the parking lot or drives onto the parking lot whether it's a candidate or a 93 year old senior citizen that all they want to do is vote yep yep but they don't want to have constrictions of of what happened in 2018 okay well the um i don't think any voters were constricted in 2018 that was actually non rochester residents that were affected by that so it's not that did not that's not what happened in 2018 no voters were constricted or refuse access so be clear about that voters were constricted a candidate was constricted and called and summoned by the town clerk to pay a fine for a towing fee so you might do and you might sit there and say no no uh well you mentioned the constriction of voters and i'm just making the point that i don't believe any voters were were blocked or constricted from voting in 2018 so um if you're a candidate running for select board or these a senate seat or the house seat and you're restricted by a town and the chair of the select board of the town you're trying to win votes in quote do you do not know we have uh unwritten rules in this town okay we're starting to go in circles now robert if you let us move on the second thing on the agenda will address this very topic okay right and i believe robert will be voting at Bethel so um you know unless he's accompanying a candidate um we we will be conforming to our our rules and laws which we are going to be discussing next Robert you're you're a voter in Bethel is that correct uh i'm a voter in the Rutland Windsor county of Vermont i live in Bethel but unfortunately what's happened in Rochester during 18 was not proper so patty you're holding me geographically in a voting way my voting rights are in Rochester or in Bethel Vermont you're right but guess what Rochester is part of the Rutland Windsor voting district and that's what i've been standing up for right it's just a public forum so i just wanted to make it public that you are a Bethel voter just for the record that's all well i'd be more than happy to for you to share my address here at Hooper Hollow okay so um can we move on and then we can get to the agenda item that actually addresses this issue there will be limited parking there this year because school is in session and we're going to have to deal with something different around the parking lot and there's going to be some different requirements made for that so we're going to have to address that through signage at the office down at the high school so that's going to be one thing that's going to change a little bit it's not going to be an open parking lot we're going to have to respect that we're at the schoolyard so that's something that each and every one of us has to be aware of that's all well frank i'm great i'm glad i'm happy that you brought that up because the the current scan document that doom sent to me is an obsolete document that we Robert the next item on the agenda is the addressing of that issue so can we move on please we're going to address that tonight Robert yeah as i emailed you i communicated that in the email to you um previously so it's it's um you're we're going in circles now so the the next item on the agenda before that issue is the approval for christin lapel to be added to the town accounts and her um position as the the treasurer and and sec not secretary but i would move to approve adding christin lapel to the town accounts so she can continue to conduct that business i can second that yeah on favor hi okay Robert how can i ask one quick question before that her actual christin's actual title i thought was assistant town clerk and treasurer am i wrong about that yeah i'm sorry i i muddled that yeah okay so she's assistant town clerk and treasurer yeah okay thank you very much excuse me for interrupting so now we've come to the amendment to the policy for polling place parking lot and campaign sign rules to accommodate voting voting at the high school and i will um if you want i will um read those if i can shorten this window here because i didn't get them to print properly okay um hello i cannot minimize that let's see and let's see somebody wants to get in while i'm at now it will not let me minimize that does someone got that printed out that they could read i have it who's got that i think it was nancy woolly nancy would you be willing to share that with us because i my computer won't let me get to that screen does julie have it you gotta turn your volume volume up nancy i'm gonna get it does julie have it yes i do all right would you mind reading that with us julie sure um okay so the presiding officer in rochester it's the town clerk has jurisdiction over whether vehicles can be parked in the town office parking lot and where political signs can be placed on election day 17 vsa 2508 for the november 3rd 2020 general election because of covet 19 regulations the polling place will be moved to the rochester high school building the presiding officer rochester town clerk has jurisdiction over where vehicles can be parked in the rochester school parking lot and where political signs can be placed on election day 17 vsa 2508 social distancing will apply the presiding officer will not allow signs to be placed in the ground or affixed to anything on the property of the polling place individuals are allowed to stand and hold a sign in a designated area near the entrance to the marked polling place at the rochester high school building so long as a voter is not hindered or impeded from going into or out of the polling place in future elections the same policy will apply at the entrance to the town office parking lot abutting the school street exiting polls or surveys can be done outside of the polling place as long as a voter voluntarily offers to participate and the person conducting the polls or surveys does not hinder or impede the progress of the voter as he or she enters or leaves the polling place again 17 vsa 2508 when voting is done at the rochester town clerk's building public parking in the town office parking lot on election day is not allowed so as to provide parking spaces for voters individuals and businesses who regularly use the parking lot must find parking parking in another area of town so one exception to this parking policy is for those persons employed in the town office and poll workers who will be required to park at the entrance of the parking lot okay so can i bring something in here entered the the the publishing company in rochester remont has access to the parking lot at the town clerk's office so right so how was that did you not hear the last paragraph of what she just read that addressed that specifically that on the on the election day they will need to um and park elsewhere and free up that parking lot so to so voters can move in and out so you're telling me that the parking lot is not the polling station is not the town clerk's office it's the high school this year this year yes yes this year is at the high school and that's why we amended the policy that was approved in 2019 to clarify any questions about this and we modified it to deal with the situation that we're experiencing here where the polling will happen at high school we've also held two elections there doing that's true already and have worked out pretty well yeah the primary worked fine i helped with that so i would there is a there is maybe something we could throw in there we may we may want to add that mass star required when entering the building yeah i think that's appropriate that we have in that ordinance so people know that that would go in the first part i think yeah that i would agree just so people are aware of it well i would ask two elections we had julie had maybe a couple people that that one refused and another was not noticed until it was too late so but i think everybody was pretty good about doing that so we've had good luck so far with that so the the high school parking lot is kind of a tough place for a candidate to arrive on election day what i'm suggesting to the town of rochester is to seclude an area where candidates can be presented properly legally and according to the the laws of vermont and the town of rochester before election day so they don't arrive and then all of a sudden get reprimanded for being in a place where they shouldn't be now you're going to establish an area for them robert outside along the entry way to the high school that'll be approximately 12 feet from the the uh paved part of the entrance and we're going to flag it off and we'll have a sign there for campaign personnel well frank what day will that happen will that's going to happen the day before i'll i'll do it i've done it the last two and i'll put put all that stuff out um it'll just be flag and tape and we'll have some cones and and uh it'll be pretty well spelled out i think that's great i think it's great that you took the responsibility to do that because candidates have to move from every town all day and they don't want to step on to a village and then be reprimanded for being illegally standing there yep that's why we put together this amendment to the um the campaign sign rules to to make sure that this is all very clear well thank god all right so i would move to approve that um policy with the addition of the text about the mask i i have a comment yeah bruce um you can't make mask a hundred percent mandatory because there are some people who are unable to wear a mask so there's got to be room for an exception in there i think i think julie has uh in the past that anybody who doesn't have a mask or won't wear a mask that they can take we can give them their ballot and they can vote out outside yeah as long as it's not a hundred percent mandatory right i i think julie doesn't had done a fairly decent job policing what she needs to do there and she'll have control of that on that day all right thank you well bruce i want to thank you for bringing that out because i've been suffering through a major neck and an ear issue i cannot wear a mask at max and i apologize i wish i could but i cannot so there are a lot of people out there that whether they're elders or whether they're you know dealing with serious situations i cannot wear a mask so i don't know how we're going to deal with that part of it but you know maybe you could just bring the ballots out to the parking lot and if they don't have a mask you just deliver the ballot to the car and they they vote i think that the um as it turned out the handful of how many people julie did you find that was uh issue with that i don't know i had one uh actually two yes two people so um i think that we're able to to work around that you know so back to my um um my um proposal to approve that amended policy with the um with the takes of with the addition of the um the um how well how do you want to change the wearing that masks are required but will be accommodated if not um physically possible well one of doing i'll throw this out to you because of my situation i apologize to people for not wearing a mask but i wish that if we have to wear a mask or supposedly wear a mask i would i would like to have a little badge that says i'm exempted because i cannot wear a mask i'm seriously yeah i mean try does um a face shield that would be a way of going going forward with it but um well it's um but in so if in this case if you were a resident of rochester and voting in rochester um it would be you'd communicate to julie that julie i can't wear a mask and and she would give you the ballot to vote outside and then give it back to her so then it would you know we would you know we would deal with that yeah i think that would be that would be proper yeah but what would what bruce said is very important for the elderly elderly people there are people that are on oxygen they can't you know they want to vote that um to a large extent some of these people that have real um compromised situations they would um more and likely um vote absently and and mail in their ballot and not not feel the need to to physically come and expose themselves to uncomfortable situation or an unhealthy situation if they're really compromised yeah well sadly there's a um there's a group of the american people and populace that um prefer to vote in person and not by mail yep yep so um back to the um um and i moved to to approve that that policy with the modified text regarding mask pat are you talking i think i saw your mouth move i second that all right all in favor bye say thank you but um hardware can make can provide a couple of those face shields so that julie has them if she needs them i have some time so um frank you did a little bit of um work around the removal of of sediment on the um downstream from the route 100 bridge in the north end of town well i went down and had a look at it and um i'm going to uh tomorrow i have to meet with mike le point down at the mendel property to finalize that and um i'm going to see if maybe he would come by and take a picture of what um is the issue there and send it to jared um and go from there so the dean mendel project is uh the final uh inspection is tomorrow at 230 and so i'll meet with mike down there i think jone isn't going to participate but i think anything i think we've done everything that we needed to on that project is that correct jone as far as our paperwork just one last thing to put in a request for reimbursement to the town which i i'm working out with with mike well can i add something here frank and jone jone thank you for all the things you've been doing the demon del project needs a uh i'm thinking at least a 12 12 foot wide covert to go under that road more than 12 feet jone you're right something about it's it's about it's at least 10 feet wide isn't it frank the color it's pretty wide but it's not wide enough um for what in the because of iran it's changed so much in the storms every now and then it's this was just a band-aid and it's going to have it'll happen again there's just you know they they don't allow you to do all that much there and uh so we're just we're just doing the best we can with it and this is a pass-through for us anyway it's a the culvert is is uh the state of remont's responsibility you know since it's um under root 100 and from what i've been told you know they acknowledge that what's really needed at that spot is a bridge but it's not a priority for them right now so until that gets fixed the way it needs to be um as frank said it's this is just a temporary fix for uh the mandels which we hope will last for a while can i add something uh jone i've been up without water for three weeks i have no water at the top of the mountain nothing and i know what's going to happen um dean his pond is probably dry as uh dust and um actually it's fault it's not got a cup of water in it deamondell has water in his pond not very much but he does have water well and he gets a little bit of stream there and there's a spring up beyond his house that's that's running endlessly that frank twitual has rights to that well retained rights to well i hope it all works out but that culvert under uh that root 100 a piece of road like jones said or frank you said it's not 12 it's got to be 14 you know it's a it's a gigantic hydraulic flow of water and i met with the uh town of bethle today up here on hooper hollow and uh we went through all the hydraulics and the out of qui chi grants and all the stuff i could write a book about what i experienced today and you know the town of bethle is very gracious but they're concerned about what the hell is going on up here because the out of qui chi um uh grants they don't listen to the people that live on the roads that they're actually giving money to through the towns seriously it's a big it's a it's a really good discussion because it's like they want to make certain that hydraulic connection is synchronized with uh water flow so um any um joan do you have any updates with them that would relate to that or anything else that you've been working on uh everything else is stuff you've heard about before i'm doing you know still working on reimbursements from the same place we've been talking about for over a year uh i'm doing what's needed from my end to gather information for the single audit um and just generally keeping track of other things um so nothing really to report um a couple other things i'd mentioned doing i uh went with jeff and we toured the the town office there and i happened to notice that the chimney is about ready to fall off the roof so i i've talked to dav kurtis to maybe get up see if he could do it and uh i've got to meet with him again but i'll be doing that right off i also had the furnace clean in the building because it hadn't been done in five years and i'm going to disconnect the heat to the old garage so maybe we can save a little money there um but that's about it on that and nancy and i worked in the basement today so i'm sorting things out that's quite a job and we're going to talk to the sheriff to see if there's anything there that he needs and wants and yeah there's a couple things that'll go into the town stuff but most of it is going to the dump as i can figure and nancy figures all righty yep doon doon may i uh yeah robert communicate this with uh everyone that's uh on the online there's a positive word that you always say and it's onward doon are you listening i am i'm making onward yeah so let's just let's just try to do whatever we can to move onward yep it's a very inspiring word but it seems like it's uh it's a way to um keep moving forward and um you know not getting stuck so right so whether it's whether it's demon del's problem or my problem up here or whatever your your word onward is incredibly encouraging that's what i was hoping we need to move onward yeah onward yes the um is there so speaking of that word onward is there anything else that anyone wanted to address tonight there it looks like we've covered um what's on the agenda and well um is there anything we need to do an executive session about the employee employment situation i have a small um small bit to report but not not much but we could return to executive session for discussed employee situation so doon um if you're going to if you're going to adjourn the regular meeting and go into an executive session would you be it says need something i need to stick around for would you be doing no no there's nothing that we'd be taking any action on this on the just you know information gathering stage yeah thank you yeah um it's robert again from bethle not rochester yeah i do want to thank uh patty and nancy and frank and martha and jeff and do to move move onward yep all right thank you thanks robert jeff let's be around town everybody all right hey maybe jeff has something jeff do you have something you want to say um somewhat overwhelmed um with uh you know what our needs are in the valley i'm sure i'll you know we'll find more of it as we look yeah um yeah thanks robert said onward onward right yeah onward and upward so are we are we adjourned or i think we're adjourning yes okay thank you thank you oh god bless america thanks everybody all right good night robert good night good night all