 And here's Nancy coming in the door in person. That's like ways. I don't know. It's not working. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Huh. It's not safe. All right. Welcome, everyone. Recording in progress. Progress was recording. And here we have the Rochester Select Board meeting, January 24, which has been posted in three public places, right? And on the website and emailed to interested parties so we can legally move forward with this meeting. And we have provision for public comment at the end of the agenda. And we'll limit those to five minutes per topic per person. And we'll start with the prior meeting minutes of January 10 of 2021. And I saw them and looked good. I just saw one typo. 22, right. 20, thank you. 22. OK. I can still write in 21, too. Yeah, down here, and I marked in this end, it should say town instead of tome. Do you guys see anything else? So I'd move to approve those minutes with that one typo correction. I second that. All in favor? All right. All right. And then we also have the minutes from the special select board meetings. The two of them were tacked on to the Budget Finance Committee meeting to deal with approving the budget, which we're still working on. So there's not a whole lot in the minutes, but they do show that we open the meeting and table the decision to approve the budget. So I've moved to approve them. What were the dates of those two meetings? January 11th. We'll do that one first. 2022. The second bit. And all in favor? All right. All right. And then we also have the same deal for January 19th. I second that. And all in favor? All right. All right. OK, we've got those minutes taken care of. And under new business, we have first on the list is approving first class and outside consumption liquor license for Maple Soul LLC. That one is right up. There's two of them. They got tags on them. They're upside down in front of you. Over here. Oh, there we go. The ones with the checks on them. Yep. Yeah. All right. So I would move to approve those. That's like a map. All in favor? All right. All right. All righty. So I know those to sign them. And we're going to talk about the town meeting. And along with the relaxed rules, again, by the state, we're allowed to put it off, which we have decided to put it off for a month, tentatively. And we're still talking about meeting in person at this time. And we did give us another month to evaluate the situation. We still reserve the option to go with the Australian ballot on that, or what are you guys thinking? Are we just going to do it in person? I guess you have to be determined. Nancy, what's our deadline timeline that we have on that? We're basically OK right now with the exception of getting the town report to Spalding to be printed. We have to mail them. The last day, we have to mail time reports this March 18. And we really have got to give them two weeks to. To meet the March 28 deadline. And when we go to Spalding, I've got to know where it's going to be and how it's going to be. Right, right. So we don't have that much time. We have basically a couple of weeks to make that decision. I think that if we're going to have an in-person meeting, then we should probably have the vote from the floor. Because the only way you can alter any budgets in an in-person meeting is from the floor. And if we do Australian ballot, no matter if we have an open meeting and somebody wants to amend the budget, we won't be able to with an Australian ballot. So I don't know about you guys, but if we're going to meet in person, I think we should do an in-vote that night ballot and get it over. So you can amend something if you need to. So people that are on Zoom will be able to vote? I wouldn't think so. I don't know how they would. I don't see if they could. I didn't hear what you said, Pat. People that are on Zoom would not vote. Because it wouldn't make any sense, at least to me. Either one way or the other, not a hybrid. Right. I don't think we can do it any other way. If we're going to meet in person, we might as well have the vote right there and get it over with. But if we're going to just have a remote meeting again, then we do the Australian ballot. We did not have a remote town meeting. No, we did not have a town meeting. We did not have a town meeting. An informational meeting. If we're going to do that again, then we need to do the Australian ballot. Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry. And our informational meeting was the week before. We did two of them, right? Just one second, Martha. We did two. Yeah, we did two. We did one a week from, and then we did one on the. We did one on February 17th and one on the 25th. Right, right. Yeah, OK, that sounds great. And so we just wouldn't have a town meeting if we went with an Australian ballot. Right, we'd do two informational meetings like we did last. Right. And we would need to make that decision before the report goes to press. Yeah. So are we feeling like it's going to be an in-person meeting? Are we going to make that decision now? Are we going to drag our feet a little bit? The Board of Civil Authority has to make the decision. Is that the Board of Civil Authority? Martha has a question, too. Doesn't the Board of Civil Authority have to make that decision? Oh, that's our decision. I think it's your decision. Our decision, it's the sub-board. Yeah, and then they vote on it. They vote on the process. OK. I believe that. And because you're in charge of the elections, a little right, even in the town elections, how do you feel about it? It'd be nice to bring the community back together, again, for an in-house, finally. But see how the numbers do. So we keep an eye on COVID for maybe another meeting or two, or another meeting? I don't think we have that luxury. No, no, we have. I think when we finally decided on the budget at that point, would we make that decision also? That gives us another week or so to see what the numbers are. See what the numbers are. Today was the first day we've been under 1,000 in the state. Yeah, I remember when it worked up and it was like 37. Yeah. We were down around 500 for the count. Could I ask a question, please? All right, Martha, your turn. Yeah, at the meeting you had on the 19th, I attended that via Zoom. And maybe I misunderstood, but I understood you at the time that you voted to definitely have it on the 28th of March at the school in person. And so I had written a little article about that. It's still early, and I mean, we're not quite on deadline yet, so I can take that separate article off the register page and just deal with whatever you decide tonight, like you're still thinking about it. But am I wrong that I got the impression that you've made a definite decision, so. I don't think we said it would be at the school, because that means. Oh, well, not necessarily at the school, but it was at March 28th in person was the meeting. Right, yeah. Yes. So I mean, obviously, you have to decide what you think is best, but I just wanted to make sure that if you want, I can remove that article from the register section. What did the minute say? Just make a decision. I think we should just decide to have an in-person meeting. Yeah, and that's fine with me. I don't care. Yeah. On the 19th, yeah, I would just say that. The board discussed their options and decided to do a floor vote meeting, moving the date, frankly, into motion to move the town meeting date to the 28th at 7 p.m. So, yeah, we were already doing second motion on favor, so voted, so we're pretty much. Anything you didn't say was where? The school was where, yeah. Because at that time, you didn't know. And we didn't know what the condition of the school would be for us to do it. Right, because that was when they were having their pipes breaking and stuff. So I'd say we got that pretty well, so. So should we add that detail to the school tonight? So, yeah, Martha, you can complete your article, saying that we are having an in-person meeting on March 28th at 7 p.m. at the school auditorium. And if the heat doesn't work, you can dress warm. All right, in-person, all right, OK. And so, all right, thank you. I just wanted to, I will include that in this article, too, but I wanted to make sure that if I'd screwed up, I'd cut it off the page on time, you know. But I thought I had understood you correctly that you had voted on it. OK, thank you. We didn't do the school. Right, no, we didn't say where. OK, so now I could include the school or not? Yes. OK, thank you. OK, thank you. So I guess that's enough discussion about Tom meeting, eh? You won't be there, no? Yeah, well, that was your hoping to be Australian ballot, so you could zoom in, right? Let's have it on the normal day. That's what it is from the whole of Vermont. All right, so next on the agenda is the discussion of the legal trails and the question about utilizing such-to-access property and possibly subdividing. So we had talked about this on the last meeting some and found not much new information as definitely, you know, they're in our town plan legal trails are mentioned to be used exclusively for recreational purposes and not intended for vehicle access. And they're not considered highways. That's, you know, they do get some vehicle access. That particular trail has been used to access logging operations fairly recently. I guess the question is, you know, I looked in our policies and we do have policy and application for user improvement of class four roads, but nothing specifically speaking to legal trails. I mean, the same kind of idea would probably be appropriate for a legal trail as well as a class four road. The other option out there is to the interested party could petition the town to change the classification of that road to class four or class three. And that would definitely satisfy the requirement for subdivision. Now it's a little complicated because there already is frontage on Route 100 with the lot. So of course, that's very far away, I believe, from where they intend to be building. I think the person interested in the lot is here in Zoom. Would you care to elaborate about where you're thinking of building and what your thoughts are on this? Yeah, I'm Michael Traggner. I represent the Grantham family who owns the property. I'm there, Forester and Broker. The buyer is not here tonight, but he was asking if he could use legal trail three from South Hollow Road from that point onto South Hollow onto legal trail three to get to the property where we had a landing. So it's a short ways out along a part of legal trail three that is quite drivable and has been used by vehicles very long time. So as it stands now, he can definitely use that to access his property. In terms of upgrading it or subdividing it, that's where it gets complicated. Notary, that's a snow machine trail through there in the winter, right? Correct. Yeah. So that speaks to the recreational use. That would be a significant change if all of a sudden someone was using that as a driveway. Do you have any idea how far into the lot he is looking to gain access? Yeah, almost immediately once you get on the property on legal trail three, he would then pull off the road and extend the driveway up on the slope a little bit. So that would be on the eastern slope. Yep. So any idea how far into it? Because that's an interesting point. I mean, how far are we? Where is it? Larry Strousey, are you on the phone? I believe you are there. Where is the property line in relation to that little bridge down in the gully there? It's up a ways past that? Oh, yeah. Yep. It's got to be because we're almost to low. Yeah. Well, Patrick DeSantis, well, hello to Michael, first of all, Michael, I own the last house on class three road. You've probably parked near my driveway to look at the land a time or two. And so but Patrick DeSantis owns a tract of land between my land and the Grantham land as well. So I don't know the exact point of the Grantham property line, but it's just before the opening where the log land is. OK, yeah, so that's a little ways up there. Yep. So referring to town plan, it's not considered a highway and not intended for regular vehicle access. But of course, it is drivable and you can't access. Now going into the zoning regulations, they have states that no land development may be permitted on lots which would not have either frontage on a public road or permanent 30 foot right away easement onto the land. That, again, it gets a little tricky. Obviously, they're not considering the frontage on Route 100 to be applicable for where they want to build way too far away. You know, it seems like the zoning, especially with the consider of subdividing and building, the two brothers wanting to build a place, if they wanted to do that, it sounds like that would need to be modified from a legal trail to more of a town, a classed town highway. Or the other option is to seek an easement right off of Bethel Mountain Road, which would be another option. You know, so there's a process to petition under the requirements of 19 VSA 708 to change the classification from a trail to a road that that petition is submitted. We're required to go through the process, but that does not require us to do it, to make that change. Of course, we would, you know, it involves input from the general public. And I know I've talked a lot. Do you guys have any input thoughts on this? Oh, you were doing a pretty good job. I'm running out of things to talk about. I have just one question due, and I'm sorry. The petition would be to change the class of the road. Would that be, I'm sorry, did I hear you? Yes. Thank you. The legal trail to a class three or class four? Yeah, either one of those. The class three road would mean that we would plow it. If it was just a class four road that would satisfy the requirement for frontage on a town highway, but it would still leave the responsibility for maintenance on the person who files an application to do that. OK, thank you. Sorry to interrupt. That's all right. Wanted to make sure I got it right. That's right. I knew we had that agreement. But we have that application in place for class four roads. But like I said, not for legal trails. But it would, I guess. The town zoning, I believe, like you had mentioned the town zoning, you could build, if you have a legal right of way. Isn't a legal trail a legal right of way? It's, I believe, it's 30 feet wide. So could we, that is our right of way into the property. Is that legal trail? So isn't that that that does give you access into it, but for subdivision that it requires right away on a town highway. And the legal trail is specifically not a highway. How about if it isn't subdivided? It's just built upon. It's still the same. Well, no, that gets a little less fuzzy because it's you can. It's still not a highway. It's still not a highway. It's a right of way, though. But it is a right of way. But it's a limited right of way. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little tricky. The property does have road frontage on Route 100 as well. Right, which it does have frontage on Jerusalem Hill, too. That's the cloudy part. Yeah. I personally feel that the only way you can go forward with something like this, because you're going to create an issue if you just leave it as a driveway and say that you can fix the right of way up to be a driveway, because it affects another property owner, not only one but two property owners. And the other thing is the size of the lot is conducive to subdivision. So that would make it another issue for the town to have to deal with down the road if we just allow it to be a driveway. And I don't see that we should do that. And I know from what I've read, at least recently, is that the select board carries a lot of weight there on how we want to address that. And it's just a matter of how we want to do that as near as I can figure out in all that I've read. I mean, we have to make that decision. And I think if we keep it a legal trail, that's not going to permit any use of it other than what it is as a trail. And the only way I see forward to even possibly use it as anything would be to upgrade it to a class three. And I don't know if that's right for the other landowners. I think that's an issue that we should address with them before we even considered something like that. Because the lot is definitely so big that there could be several building lots on it. And I think that's where you run into a lot of problems by just putting a driveway in there. Bruce, have something to say? Yeah, Bruce. Yeah, I just want to say just because it's been used for logging, that's a temporary use. They're in and out of there. If you're creating a driveway, that's more of a permanent use. And if the town allows that on a legal trail, I feel that you're leaving the town open to a lawsuit. Like Frank, I see the only legal way to grant that access is by upgrading that legal trail to a class three or four road. And just because vehicles have used it in the past doesn't mean it's a legal use of that legal trail. Same things happen on the Cushman legal trail. Vehicles are going up there, but it's a problem with enforcement. But that doesn't make it right. The legal trail is supposed to be a recreation use, not a driveway. So it sounded like to really move forward in terms of subdivision or even a driveway access that it would want to entertain a request to change the classification of that road. It doesn't sound like it has to be we're not talking about changing the whole trail. We can just reclassify a section of it, basically would be extending Little Hollow Road by several hundred yards, South Hollow Road. South Hollow Road, yeah. Yeah, that is basically what the request is, is if they improve it to the standards of a class four road, would we reclassify it to be a class four road? So the landowners were going to do the improvements? Did I understand that correctly? If their proposal is? If we upgrade it to a class four road, then that would be on the responsibility of the landowners. If we improve it to a class three road, I think we have to still don't have to. No, it's on the landowner. It's not something we would do. That's three would be too much. Class three would be all on the landowner, too. Right. Now, do you have the specifications to provide to your buyer on what would be involved to upgrade that road from a trail to a class four? I assume I don't know of any specs that the town would require and would be interested in those if there was such a spec. There are specifications for drainage for bringing that to a class four, widths and setbacks and drainage, and the agency of natural resources would also have their hand in it as well for ditching. So there's still a lot of agencies out there. You might want to look into what it would cost to improve the road to the standard where we would be able to call it a class four. Larry, stress. Yeah, I was just going to ask. Just part of that discussion, I think everybody should be aware, and I think very few people actually are, is that after Irene, the culvert on Rogers Brook, which was washed out, was replaced with an oil tank with the two ends cut out by the Snowmobile Club. That's the one at the bottom of the hill there. Just past your house? Yes. So the existing culvert is not a road grade culvert. So I would think that if that road was going to be considered to be brought up to standard, it would include having to put a culvert that met AOT standards. Right, yes. I would think so for sure. I agree with you 100%. My question, and I'm sure you can't answer it now, is whether the town would consider upgrading legal trial three to a class four. We can go through the motions on our end, but we certainly don't want to do that and then hit a stone wall right away. And then the other comment is, I'm not sure there are, just anecdotally, I'm not sure there's standards for class four roads. Class four roads are unmaintained town highways. They're in terrible shape in most towns. I would think the standard is the standard of driveway and safety for emergency time. We think that's the standard that would have to be met to upgrade that to a driveway. Whether it be class four, class three, it's a safety issue. It's an environmental issue. I mean, obviously, you have to maintain drainage, but it's also a safety issue. In answer to your first question, I'm just speaking as third of the select board, I think we would definitely entertain that concept. Part of our dictated process is to reach out and get public comment from the town at large. But we are definitely well aware of the lack of buildable lots in this town. And every bit of improvement is actually is a help for everyone in spreading out the tax base a little bit. So there's no we don't want any building going on here. Welcome to our grand list. Yeah, welcome to the grand list. Yeah. I'd be cautious here because on a class four road, if they build the house and then say they build another house, then we have to service that with fire and rescue and all that. And if you have a class four road that's partially maintained in an inadequate way, then you're asking for trouble when they can't be serviced at all. And the insurance on their properties is going to be tough to get without access to fire and rescue, I would think. So to do it properly, really, it would need to be a class three road. I don't see it to be any other way. And I can save a whole lot of problems that way for everyone down the road. Because I think if we don't do it that way, then we're going to build some problems. And it's just going to be a continuous fight and struggle. So that's the way I would look at it. That's the way I look at it, anyway. Would your buyer consider upgrading the road to class three specifications? I would have to talk with him. Nick is actually on the Zoom. I don't know if he's available to comment. And I'm not sure he may. I think there he is. And I'm not sure if he understands the full cost of upgrading the road. But Nick is here, and he can comment on that question. Hi. Good to meet everyone. Hello. I think that upgrading the road was something that was sort of in our minds, referring to Michael and I, from the moment I began looking at the property. So I think there's certainly an expectation that upgrading the road is going to be required. Obviously it boils down to costs. I have had some conversations about upgrading to driveway standard. But I will confess ignorance as to the difference between driveway standard and class three. So we'd have to research that a little bit. And if the pricing was similar to what I've been discussing with an excavator or two, then, yes, I think that is possible. Let's look into why don't you do some homework into looking into that. And then if you can meet us at the class three standard, I think we could make that commitment. OK, Michael, you may know, or a member of the select board may know, are those specifications something one can easily get their hands on? I can follow. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. And I believe the Agency of Transportation, you can find those on the Agency of Transportation website. We may be able to provide that to you. Joan is going to be on board. She may have that at her fingertips. So we can help you with that if you can't find it on your own. OK. Great. So just so I walk away with a clear understanding, if we do some research and establish that upgrading into a class three road is viable, both in terms of physically possible and affordable, then we would move through the process to have that approved by you. And I think you said other agencies would be involved. Right. And we would do the approval of the class three depending on whatever plans you were providing to us. There would probably need to be some type of engineered plans to show where the drainage for the road is, how the ditches are, the elevations of the road here and there. So that would be what we would do our approval on. Is it not possible that an approval could be a preliminary or a tentative approval could be given to the upgrading to class three? And then the money that would be required to actually develop the plans would then be presented and you would remove the tentative or not. You would accept to reject. In other words, I guess what I'm saying is, if the road is going to be rejected as an upgrade to class three, then you don't want to spend the money on the engineering plans for that. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, we get that. We're going to be fair and we understand that. If you provide us with the specifications of class three, we're making a commitment that up until the point where you leave the trail, it becomes a trail again after that. But up to the point where you want to improve the road, we would grant that upgrade in access in class. And we also maintain it after that, too, the class three. The town takes that over. So it's built to town specs. Class three is built to town specs and we take it over at the end of the construction. You would save in cloud bills. And cloud out to your lot. Bruce? OK. Until the true driveway comes off the class three. Correct. All right. OK. Got it. That's helpful. Bruce, Lou Ellen, you had a comment? Yeah. Am I correct in saying that in order to change the classification of that legal trail to a town road class four or class three, you have to go through the hearing process before you can make a decision? Is that correct? I don't know. We were downgrading. I'm not sure if we were upgrading. I'm not sure, Bruce. I'm not sure if we have to. I know that we do have to do have some public comment and input on it. I know that's part of our I think it's whether it's in the town plan or the zoning. It's stated that any change will be have public input on that. It's like throwing up. You may want to look into that, because when I looked into upgrading the Jones Mountain Road for that first quarter mile, I was told that that would have to go through the process of regular hearing to upgrade that road from its current class four to a class three. So it's something to look into. No, I think that would be part of the process that we would go through to make that determination. Right. All the more reason to have the plans in our hands as well. Yeah. Anybody else have any comments, questions? Everybody here looks good on Zoom. I think it's a pretty doable chunk of road right there. There could be a lot worse places that you'd be proposing to have the town expand a road. I mean, it would take some work. But I don't think it's jumping over too many hurdles. Well, thank you for your consideration very much. Oh, yeah. Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. From a timing perspective, is this a situation where if we were to secure or to have plans drawn up, we would then get back on the select board schedule? Is there a? Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. We're here twice a month. And then we would probably, when we know for sure that you're interested in moving forward, then we would conduct probably the public hearing and to make more noise about it and gather all the input that we need. OK. Great. Well, thank you all very, very much for considering this. Appreciate it. Yep. Yep. Thanks for stepping out on Zoom. All right. Moving on to Joan, I think you're there in Zoomland. Do you got any updates or more insight on the conversation we just had? I'll abstain from that. OK, I'll abstain from that. They all dropped anyway. OK. So, yeah, I do have a few things to discuss. Let me turn on my video so you can see me. Let's see. First of all, Pat and I attended a meeting with Robert Austin from the US Forest Service and two of the engineers from DHB having to do with getting the bid out for the replacement of the bridge at West Hill, bottom of West Hill Road. And we're looking to be able to do that in early February, if that's possible. The engineering drawings for contractors used early February, February, yes. They are almost finished with the engineering plans that would go out with the bid documents. They just need one more review by a high-level engineer. And then they will be sending them to us for review and comment. And the bid package is almost complete as well. So they'll be sending that to us for review as well. We discussed whether there would be a mandatory site visit and decided that wasn't necessary. There are just a certain subset of contractors who are experienced with bridge replacements for V-trans and for similar authorities in the state. And so they feel that those guys will do what they need to do in order to place a bid. But they'll welcome to go out and take a look at the site on their own if they want to. And typically, the bids, they're going to follow a V-trans way of doing things, which is they put the bids out on a Wednesday. And bids will be opened on a Friday. We don't have dates for that yet, of course. You'll know well in advance when we're ready to do that. So hopefully, we will be ready. We'll have contractors chosen by, say, April, I would imagine, at the latest under contract and ready to go. As the weather permits and contractors are ready. What else do I need to tell you about? There is one thing that I need select board assistance with, which I mentioned to Pat in the meeting, is that we do have John Alexander all signed up. He's under easement. And recorded easements are done there. But I am not getting a response from the Carter family. Brian and I met with them back in some time around the end of November. And Mrs. Carter, Kelly Carter and her son, Michael, both said they would agree to doing easements. We need both a permanent and a temporary easement from them. But since that time, I've been trying to work with Kelly. And she clearly has indicated that they want more money than what's been offered to them in the draft documents. And so I've asked them to let you know what their requirements are. And I'm not hearing back from them at all. So I'm ready to turn it over to someone on the select board to try and get the cooperation from the Carter's so that we can move ahead. Because there was some reluctance at the meeting for us to actually go out to bid without knowing we've got our easements all in place. Excuse me. I'll give you a hand with that. OK. That would be great. OK. Frank, I can give you her email and phone number. And I can fill you in on what our conversations have been up to this point. Yeah, we can talk about that. OK. That would be great. Thank you. You're welcome. And Mike, this is the same first thing about the West Hill Road project that you were talking about before, that you need to get the cooperation of these people to dealing with that project. West Hill Bridge, yes. This is the West Hill Bridge project. OK, great. I thought so. But I wanted to make sure. OK. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. No, no problem. The generator bid has been put out. It was advertised in last week's herald. And it's also on the state sites. And I have the due date for bids to be submitted February 14, Valentine's Day, which is a Monday at 3 o'clock. So that'll be before a scheduled select board meeting. So we'll be able to open the bids at the select board meeting. And so far, I've had two contractors who asked for the bid package. And we'll see how that goes. I have one at the office. And another one. Has anybody spoken that they wanted to meet not at the site? One of them is one of the contractors who provided us a quote in the past. So when we had to do it for our grant application. So he probably did not need to do that again. There's another one who will, I imagine. He had some comments about it when he got the package. So you should be hearing from him. OK, yeah. The instructions are, if you remember, Frank is for them to call the town office and then the town office will. Right. Right. Yeah, I do recall that. Call me directly. OK. OK. June, I need you to sign a grant agreement with ETRANS. Yeah, is that here in our packet? I think, yeah. Yes. And I think Julie has stuck with it. You know where to sign. This is the reconfigured Mount Cushman Road replacement grant that we got in either 2017 or 2018. Just remember, it's being repurposed. And this should be the final document, the grant agreement that gives us up to $175,000 repurpose for the construction cost. Hopefully, we will not need anything like that amount. But we'll see. OK. And last but not least, do you remember the town, garage, stormwater project? Yeah. Four or five times. Hoping that either it's five, six, that the six time, whatever it is, will be the charm. Whatever partnership you're going to bid again. Yes. And they're doing it a little bit differently this time. In consultation with the stormwater engineer, they have a list of three contractors who have already had experience with installing one of these downstream defender structures and also have the equipment to do the installation. Because if you remember, that was part of the problem with the bidding process in the previous efforts was limited number of contractors who have that kind of equipment. Because it's a big, heavy piece of concrete. Yeah. All right. Well, that's interesting to see what comes of that. Yeah. They're being posted in the bid on January 28th, two days of March 7th. And hoping for construction anytime between May and September. And I have an email out to Cooter to find out if he has any timeframes that he wants to block out, like if he's getting no sick burdens in September or something like that, when he wants to have the project finished. Yeah. So have that time frame set. If he's OK, we'll be all set to go out to bid. It's really a great partnership, which is doing all of this. So excuse me, Joan, did you say the Stonk County Garage Stormwater Project bids will be posted February 28th? January 28th. January 28th. OK, sorry. And they'll be pushed back if we don't have all our ducks in a row, but that's their plan, right? All right. That'd be nice to have that resolve and get those things in the ground instead of sitting in the flood plain where they are now. Yeah, you're really nice. Yep. Who pays for the maintenance on that? Yeah, who pays for the maintenance on that, tell you what I'm saying. That's a town responsibility. That'd be town responsibility. That's a town responsibility. Yeah. Has that been taken into consideration next year? No, it's the kind of thing that once in a while, I'd have to go back into the file to remind myself because it's been a little while since I've looked at it. But remember, we discussed it, and it was something where you just have to check it and then make sure that that filter down at the bottom is not getting clogged or has too much sand, silt, whatever in it. And then it has some kind of a, I think, somebody has to come and vacuum it out. It's not necessarily what happens every year, but it does need monitoring. It's the nature of the equipment there. I guess that would be interesting to know if there is any clean water grants out there that will kick in any on that ongoing maintenance. Do we have any estimate about what the maintenance schedule or cost would be? I think I might, June. I'll have to get back into my file and let you know. Yeah. What are you going to say? As we remember, something like $1,200 for the vacuum visit is what they had as an estimate. And that was two, three years ago. Yeah, you better add that back again. I bet it cost you two grand for the back truck. And whenever the engineers tell you it's going to be double that, just like our sewers. It's going to be a big expand. All right. Thank you, Joan. Yep, you're welcome. Yep. Have we got anyone online from the library tonight? No. No, no, it's still there, though. Highways are in pretty good shape. They've been digging at that sand pile. Terry, got anything from the utility world? Thanks for coming in. Is Jeff get part here, the energy coordinator? Hey, Jeff, what have you got for us tonight? Good evening, not very much. I've been, was asked by the Murray family to attend the planning and zoning board meeting regarding their plan for a family solar system. And so we did that. They wanted to know how the committee felt about the project, the Valley Energy and Climate Action Committee. And I said, we don't know. We have to have a meeting and to have an opinion. So the planning and zoning board asked if we would take that up at our last meeting. And we did. And essentially this is a decision of the planning and zoning board. It's not the energy committee's decision. But we did look at the town plan and also at the public utility commission's rules for that. And we'll provide a letter to the planning and zoning board. Hopefully we'll help them a little bit with the decision. In addition, the Rochester Climate Initiative is moving on a meeting Wednesday with Vermont Council on Rural Development. They are transitioning. John Copens is leaving end of the month. And we'll be working with Alyssa Johnson going forward. And then the only other thing I wanted to do is just remind the board that we have an offer regarding electric vehicle charging. And really the next step is in our court to figure out the location for use and to identify maybe some grants to seek for funding to get that project going forward. That's it. Thank you, Jeff. So when they did come to visit the Green Mountain Power about an EV charging spot, the one spot that they were relatively excited about was the old fire station, which is interesting. It's close. I know you have some reservations about that, Frank. I do have reservations about it. Only because it's a building. And if you stick something in there, then there's a liability issue with that. And plus we use it for storage. So we have to do something. I would worry more about vandalism on something like that because it would be sheltered. And I just have reservations that way. I think there are spots where we might be able to do it. But I think we'll need to get some feedback from Green Mountain Power on whether or not they'd be willing to look at it that way. So one of them is the park and ride down here that when we talked to them before, they were adamant that they wanted to keep it in what they were looking at as the resiliency zone, which is the village compression area. So that park and ride is a little bit out of the resiliency zone. And I think they could probably do it, but I'm not sure if they'd be willing to do that. So we'd have to clear it with them. What were their concerns about right outside the town clerk's office here? That seemed like a good spot. Well, it's more a question of being able to service it with a three phase power line, which we'd have to probably build in order to do that. And there's a couple of ways they could do it. They could bring it in right from the street here, right out through the back by the firehouse, out to here, and have their setup right here in the parking lot. That's an option, certainly, but it would be a more expensive option. So there isn't a couple other spots that I can think of, but I would want to run that by everybody before I shelf those out. So I think we just got to figure out what they can do. It makes us to take advantage of their interest and at least coughing up a chunk of the cost for this. And I'll talk to Caleb again at Green Mountain Power and see what he thinks about where I'm thinking. I'd like to use this little parking ride down here, if at all possible. Joan, are you still online here? That was our selected spot back in the day. I was curious. Because that was initially part of the concept on the parking ride, and then that kind of fell in disfavor. Do you have any history on that, Joan? Well, the grant we got for it was for it to be a parking ride. And there isn't really very much room outside of the actual parking area. I doubt that would be because, plus, you're right on the bank of the stream there. And that's a no-go for a puck. You have to have setbacks in the stream. And if you do any setbacks in the stream, you're off the property. So I don't think you can kind of do much solar there. Just not enough room. Certainly not a commercial operation. I don't know how many you're looking to get there. But they're looking at two units, Joan. One is a fast charger. I don't think they call it a class three charger, class two, or something like that. And then one's a slower charger, I think. I'm sorry. I'm still thinking solar panels. You're talking about the charge station. Sorry about that. That was in our original concept, I think, when I wrote the grant. So the issue was, you probably have to enlarge the parking area coverage, though, because while there are five spaces there, and I think it would be pretty tight, you have to look and see whether you can handle that. Yeah, Jeff? Yeah, Green Mountain Power's discussion was that they were going to have charging available for four vehicles. There would be two fast chargers. That's a level three and two level two chargers. That's for an overnight or a longer duration, half a day kind of thing. The fast charger is what's really lacking on Route 100. And charging in particular, if it's closest to the businesses in town and visible, it's going to do more for the community. Yeah, so I guess maybe, I don't know how much that parking area is actually used. I mean, maybe you just turn the whole thing into a charging station. And I don't know what's required in the way of underground infrastructure, but as Terry can tell you, there's a sewer line, or I forget what it is down there. Yeah, it's a sewer line and a sewer line goes through there. Yeah, so I don't know how much room you'd have to maneuver there. So it's pretty tight there to begin with. Yeah, well, that's what my thought process was. The town actually owns within six feet of that house. Yeah, I know we do. And I thought that I'd need to talk with Green Mountain Power whether or not they could do that on a secondary system or not. And they're still wanting to keep it in the resiliency zone? Right, and in order to do that, you have to build the bank of transformers in the village and then run the cable out to there. So I don't know with the size service they have, and it's more charging stations than what they originally talked about when we met with them. So I don't know if they can run that through a secondary system or not. I'd have to check with that, because it's 2774. Well, I'm talking to the church, and digging out back in, putting a little wall there. They have some nice looking block walls now. It doesn't look bad, and then it'll be right in the middle of town. The worst problem with that is you can't just block out the parking spots and keep them open. My other thought was, and this is something that's not even our town property really, but it's a school down there right on the bank, right after the line that's right there. You could put four stations in on that bank just off the road. Yeah, both fire hydrant there. Is that the school property, or is that Debbie's property? That would be school's property, but you'd have to get it through the school to do it. But it would be perfect right there. You got the sidewalk would come right up into the village. And it's just a place that's pretty open. So it wouldn't be a lot of riprap, traffic, and stuff right there, just be open. I'd want to make sure we keep it away from that hydrant. Oh, yeah. We'd have to. And as far as that hydrant is, the only one we use. That was my other spot, I thought of. Yeah, that's cool. You guys would be pretty good at the less work. Yeah, the three phases right there, but I don't know. We'd have to get permission from the school in order to do it. Yeah, they'd probably insist that we buy the other building. But when we were looking at the bank air building, there was a lot of discussion about the traffic that was going to be down there. Right. But you only got four spots in. Right. Well, that's why I thought this over here would be good. But they really like the firehouse thing. But I don't know. That's a little, we'd have to tear the building down, I think, in order to do it there. So that would be my thought. The one thing about the firehouse, if we could ease it into there, that would also possibly give us a public restroom, which is kind of lacking in town here, especially since COVID, a lot of people have closed off access to their new bathrooms in town. And we ended up buying a porta pot. They just stick on the backside of the park there. I love it. Yeah. It got used fairly regularly, I think. Oh, well. Well, anyway, we should make some traction on this before too much time goes by, because we might as well take them up on their excitement about doing something. Yeah, I'll get in touch with Caleb, and we'll go over it and see what he has to say. I mean, in reality, wherever we decide to put it, won't probably be that long until we're thinking about where to put another one. Well, that parking right down there doesn't use very much anyway. So I mean, it makes it, it's already pretty well set. We take down some of those trees and stick that some sort of lean tour in there, just to house the stuff. I mean, most of them are right out in the open. And I think eventually, when we did our sidewalks study, didn't they bring the sidewalks down to the parking ride? We did. Yeah. So eventually, we would have sidewalks right down to that area. Well, there's one there now. Kind of, yeah. Yeah, that doesn't get bothered. That's all. All right. Thanks, Jeff, for sparking that conversation. Yeah. Oh, you won. With nothing under old business, even though we did touch on a lot of old business already, did any public commentary out from in the Zoom world or in the room? Well, I would just like anyone who's still working on their reports for the town report to spend some time and get them to me. We'll get you that letter. You can call it a report. Report. All right. Well, I think that we don't have anybody raising hands on us. I think that does it. Thank you all for coming out. Happy January. My move to adjourn. A second. All in favor? All right. All right, y'all. And have a good evening, everybody. Yep. Good night. I'm Martha. And then I'm going to move to enter into executive session to talk about real estate issues.