 Call the meeting to order. It's 650 Any additions or changes to the agenda curry. Yeah, so we don't have the town meeting minutes to Also, we don't need nimmeric contracts this year because We're not employing them for payroll services. We're going to need be needing a bulk hours contract So there are no contracts to sign. Oh, okay. I wondered why there weren't any in the Question about the town meeting minutes. Why are you not having them tonight? Oh Didn't know they were ready. Are they didn't aren't you the town minute? Did you take the minutes? Yeah, and I I got them and they're all done I guess I just didn't show them to you. We haven't seen them. Yeah If you would send them to Barbara, I guess and Barbara will we get them on we'll get them in the folder for next time Thanks. Yeah, they've been here for a couple weeks. So we're not going to do the March 5th town meeting minutes But we are going to do the minutes March 11th Anybody got any changes or additions or no somebody like to move Is there a second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I Okay, thank you Board orders coming around here. I'll sign Would anybody like to move those or does anybody have any questions on them? Okay, anybody want to move them? Oh, yes, just four of you Well, let's let's move on so who's moved to sign the board orders and has moved is there a second Jordan seconds Jordan and Donnie second all in favor So they're going around Why do we have to certify the election of the chair and the vice chair? I've never done that before is this something new Who are we What happens with this It's just in your for your records, okay, and we have to move to certify them And we have to sign would somebody like to move That we certified that I'm the chair and Jordan's the vice chair so move It does not I've done We just need the one yes, okay, all right Are we doing the CAI So the Contracts come here. I remember the date was And also we have now worn Initial set-up you will be coming out of the planning reserve fund The 3475 the set-up fee and then it comes July when the budget starts we won't pay the game You mean it's been warned for this agenda. Okay, so now we have to officially vote it Okay, would somebody like to move that All in favor Hi Now we're accepting Sandra's resignation although she hasn't officially tendered one but we know that she is I'm doing that so very sadly we're letting Sandra go and we're a point card as treasurer Would somebody like to move that one? It's been moved by answer and seconded by Jordan Hi, congratulations Okay Okay, and we need to re-sign the municipal climate recovery fund loan because the last because cari's now the treasurer So we're closing on Thursday, and we're closing when he's the treasurer. So is that coming around? Okay You're just signing it so we don't we already moved it. Okay And we don't have to do the NEMRIC contract So we're up to public comment Any public want to comment? I have public no, I have comment I just want um had the opportunity to speak when it gets to um gravel and the overage and sandy gravel I months ago The ass about the generator and she told me no you don't so I can't hide under that but There are certain steps that have to be taken to get the generator moved and I think everybody agrees it needs to be moved But we're sort of stuck So I I believe there's a contract somewhere In the possession of the select board from bookfield services to move the generator um And I would ask that the select board execute that comment that contract Um and get the generator moved by the spring Kai can you look into that and we can look at it at the next meeting? I do not remember a contract to move the generator does anybody remember that? I think I remember seeing a draft of one or a proposal. I don't know if it was a contract and Nick may have an idea of we tabled it for I think till spraying. Well, we tabled the the the actual doing of it until right I didn't remember there was a contract it but card one you look into I can look into that If you can't find it check it with nick and one yeah, yeah Maybe the second place I go wasn't there also an issue of having the What's the name of the group that oversees? The aesthetics of this building where weren't didn't they have to weigh in or they did they did Yes, and they came up with the plan right scott you were involved in that Yes, the design advisory board is responsible for the The kent's corner historic district and this is part of that They have said that definitely should be moved And there If does that recommendation match what the quote or the contract specified I don't know, okay So we'll we'll take that next time. It's not it's it's like you made it back We don't want to move it again Second time's the charm Can I just make a quick comment? You just need to make sure that they know the roads are posted So if they bring a heavier truck with a boom on it or something they can't do it until it's after mud season The roads are posted Is toby tell them with us Yeah, no toby is Not on the agenda for five minutes Well, then let's let's jump to the next one. We'll put toby aside for now because I see andy at least is here And and uh, this is the wet permit application. Oh, yes I know what wanted to be on the zoom for this conversation because they emailed me today for the zoom blink Because they said they wanted to be on They said they'll be here any minute. Okay, we'll put that one aside for the moment and And uh, how about the delinquent tax issue? Sandra is not here, but I can speak to it. So she Sandra made this recommendation She's been working with the owners for quite some time since since Some time in 2022 Um, there's currently owed as 14 157 and 34 cents There's been an effort to create repayment plans Uh, and no payment has been made since september of 2022 Uh, and sander gave the owners Final deadline of february 29th to make a payment and they did they did not do that or contact her And sander explained to us at the last meeting that what will happen if we vote to move forward is it will go to our town attorney who is gloria rise And um at that point she'll Take it to court if you whatever needs to be done is there out of our hands at that point it becomes a Process that the attorney runs Somebody is there any discussion on that or are there any questions? Would somebody like to move for collection of parcel number 15132 or what do we move for to send it to our To send it to collections send it to collections So moved Second jordan moves and seconds all in favor. Hi. Okay. Thank you. And now I see toby's here So I am okay Just by a couple of minutes never talk about a no hitter Tell me tell us what's happening with fema. Um, sure So I sent you that spreadsheet yeah um And this is the status of these what they call projects so every road and every Cost that we incurred ended up getting a project In a lot of the larger roads have an individual road some of the projects Were minor Each road was a minor number. So the The last three on the list are actually various roads all gathered together So with many hours of work by scott and charlotte and myself Um, essentially we collected all the data scanned it all into the computer moved it up to the portal It's all done. You're finished with scanning Well, almost all of the almost all the stuff that we need to do has been sent to That's incredible you guys Six hours of stuff to do Right It's for for minor roads So so the large projects I sort of took on and essentially the total of all the large projects is over a million dollars All of that stuff has been submitted to fema Um, and if we look at the list here the first two the first two on the list are what they call obligated That means fema has completely approved though. So the first one is Curtis pond the second one is mosca woods So we've actually received the payment from the state for Curtis pond And that actually is only 75 it's actually going to be a hundred percent. So there'll be more funds coming on that particular item mosca woods Had it's been approved for three hundred and thirty three thousand dollars And that's in the process now of the last stages of Sit sign and paperwork and then getting a check sent to the town I just received um This morning This pond road has been Accepted for a hundred and forty seven thousand So that project will then essentially be just paperwork and turn around Wow, so that second grouping are Roads that are complete totally submitted to fema waiting for final Final questions and approvals. So essentially that gets us to almost a million dollars When those are approved and essentially they're complete Um and all the rest um single roads um further down Some of them are still being processed through the vermont fema office that we're dealing with our project manager And they're very close to being sent to the next stage And the last three are these various roads and that's what scott and charlotte are working on and that's close to A hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but that's still not complete to to fema from us at this point Again, I'm not I'm not aware of The fact that so supposedly i'm working on the assumption that fema is paying 75 percent I've heard that they may pay 90 percent. I don't know that for a fact But right now these numbers are calculated At 75 percent from fema 12 and a half percent from the state and then if the state gets us to 90 percent That's so essentially at 87 and a half percent. It's 1.2 million at And at 90 percent it's one point. I can't read it because I had An eye checkup today my eyes are dilated. I can't read even if I could I can't read the number but anyways So that essentially the town is on the hook for about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars out of pocket And There's also a number down here that says the the town labor that that has been submitted to fema is 42 thousand dollars And the equipment that we um that we are charging for for the use of these projects over a hundred thousand That's money that essentially We're getting reimbursed for the 40,000 We've already paid out of our budget for the most part except for overtime that was calculated out as a fema expense And the total the total amount of materials that have been put into all the roads is over 200,000 dollars Again, which we're all going to get reimbursed for by By fema at 75 percent Volunteer hours, yeah And essentially I'll get paid Everything you paid me will get reimbursed and then there'll be some money for volunteer time as well that comes back to the town So that's where we're at at this point. It's pretty much getting to the We've pretty much done everything we need to do on our part for the most part and it's just waiting for fema and so essentially probably within a month or so The significant amount of the million dollars will be in our back in our coffers That's pretty remarkable Um, it's been a lot of work Incredible The people from fema Say they wish they had more people like to Absolutely They don't tell us Yeah, and it's it's sort of so Essentially, there's a there's a program manager that we're dealing with directly and she Funnels everything into her Um group in burlington. That's the state Version of the fema. They're all there and they look over everything before and then it goes to this Fema office that's somewhere in washington or somewhere where they go over it all over again It pick everything Occasionally get four or five extra questions that haven't been answered. I mean one thing that I didn't understand is They wanted to know the gps of the pits where all the gravel came from No one ever told me that at the beginning, but this environmental group wants that information. So Those questions came in because I didn't realize we had to offer that. Um, so we're answering those questions There's also what they call mitigation. So anytime we Upsized a culvert or Particularly like on singleton road where we went from a three inch three foot culvert to a 12 foot culvert It has to go through what they call mitigation It's actually proving why we needed to upgrade what we did and And there's different monies that go to pay that So there's been some not holdups, but there's questions raised by mitigation that I didn't answer in the first pass because They were not appropriate So for the most part, it's pretty much done. Hopefully It's we're done the down slope Can I ask? In the cases where we fully rebuilt the road like on mosca I was just thinking was it built to the Sort of the top standard that we would have wanted. Yes. Yeah. So everything was returned back to this In fact, sometimes a little better or better, right Um, because mother nature took all that bad stuff out and we put all of this stuff back Asked a terrifying question. Um, so With uh, with other kind of flood insurance and and FEMA reimbursements, um, and like the private sector, I'd guess, uh, the fears that, um You'll get it covered once, but you may not get it covered again. Has there been any kind of indication as to like whether or not, um Any any of these expenses would be covered in the future if they were to happen again, um, if there weren't mitigation efforts or So A road that washes out just because of a flood there's no mitigation involved in that. I mean, essentially if you restore it to the shape it was in beforehand If you didn't pay attention to a hazard that you knew was happening when you put it back together So essentially singleton road is a case in point It was a three foot culvert that was not designed to handle a 50 foot flood So when we put it back, we actually met that hazard future hazard mitigation by putting a larger culvert in And that was dictated by the state. Um The state hydrology people that we had that evaluated most of the other places that we did anything Um, the only changes were so some of our cross culverts that washed out were 15 inch Our town and state standard now is 18. So we actually upgraded to that standard So there's nothing really out there that we could do any differently as far as hazard mitigation goes you know when when Whatever happened at bliss pond and it washed the road out down to ledge is what may happen again but there's no mitigation uh procedure and you know, we've identified some areas where Um A larger culvert would have helped up there, but that wasn't washed out. It just overtopped and then went down the road so essentially In the future, I will put in for a hazard mitigation of that culvert make it larger so that won't happen again But that's not something that was done So fema wants you to put it back as it was That's what fema pays you for And if it happens again Bad enough that we didn't take measures and and there's lots of money for hazard prevention In fact, um We're dealing with replacing this culvert here And there's state hazard mitigation monies available. I'm going to apply for that to pay for this Um, so and anywhere we can actually find the funds for hazard mitigation. We will and it's been my um Policy over the past few years is that all the large culverts in town Have been with grants have been upsized to a 50 or 100 year flood standard So essentially almost every culvert in town is is graded at that. It's best the best state. Yeah Other questions for toby Well, thank goodness. We had you guys It's been a lot of work. What it has. Thank you. I think I have over 200 plus hours Well, I believe it and some of it was really tedious particularly the work Yeah, so well essentially every road had Luckily for me that I had the road crew Keep track of their hours and the machinery and their materials But then every slip that came with a truck full of gravel had to be accounted for And reported and every invoice from the pits and every check sent to the pits All had to be scanned for every road and then there was GPS and length width and depth of the damage and photographs and a lot of data had to be submitted in order to Qualify I was over in the garage a couple of times and the guys were coming in from work and saying and now we have to sit here for an hour And they were not happy about it. Well, I was as happy as could be to have all that Yeah, I know they did it. They did it. Yeah, and we know now The depth and a lot of those things that they weren't initially doing Right. So again, some of that was they didn't tell me that I needed to have, you know, the length of the Scour and the depth of it And it all had to be done at the end because they compared to what we put into the road versus what was the damage And if they had told me that at the beginning before it snowed and all that other thing, it would have been much easier So a lot of it was difficult to Recreate We're pretty successful Was there anything else through the process or is it maybe too soon? And to think of like that would make it easier Should we need to be documenting these things in the future? well having had to do FEMA reimbursements and state reimbursements for projects I have a history of Oh, you need to take pictures and you need to record it if you didn't write it down You didn't do it right and so essentially I stepped into the garage immediately and said Okay, here's a form everybody every day put your hours in you got to put your machine in you got to put your materials in And some of it was cryptic some of it I had to go back to the guys and say did you really mean this or Well, it says four here. Does that mean four trucks or four? Cupid yards. So some of that translation needed to happen But the fact that every day They kept the hours that they were there on on individual roads made all the difference And that that made my job much easier if I if I hadn't done that we'd still be scratching our head Trying to put all this data back together. I think there's quite a few times that didn't weren't as organized and are struggling now Right. Well, they have to make it up. Hey, bob. What did you do on july 15th? I don't know I don't know So essentially that documentation made all the difference to make it easier for us Well, thank you I think we'll probably get a reward for being the best organized Yeah, we'll get a jar full of ground We need it Yeah, we'll be more than a jar full So I see that um, Mike Myers is here from WAC. Is there anybody else from WAC? We're expecting Okay, so we're gonna move on. Thank you All right, we're going to move on to um WAC's request for a permit to work in the highway right of way You've all had a chance to review that. They'll be putting the proposal is to put in two utility poles Running down color hill road and then underground the wire to the property of andy seaman and sofia Um Which is about it's a lot. It's about 2000 feet. Isn't it underground in on our road So, um, how shall we proceed? Where did Mike go? Oh, there he is Hi, hi. So we're you need us to give you the permit Would you like to describe the project for us? We all have it in front of us just very briefly Sure. Yeah, we're looking for a town highway permit from you Um, the first part of the project would extend down collar hill road About 580 feet with an overhead line Uh to Worcester road And then we're proposing Burying a primary underground line within the town highway right away down Worcester road Uh to to serve mr. Seaman who's applied for power Okay And there will be some cutting of trees which our town Tree warden has looked at and says he finds no problem With with any of that and the road crew has looked at the proposal and kari. They have some things they would like to stay Can you tell? Yeah, their primary concern was the culvert that crosses just about at the property of the curb cut and The preference would be to have the power go underneath the culvert and um, and when we met out there there was a discussion of some in some cases they will put a Concrete cap on just for added protection in case you ever do need to get in there and dig And there was a sense that it would be nice to have that At the side of the culvert because that'd be an obvious place to do some digging in the future And then anywhere where it's not at full depth You know was explained to us that they're trying to get down four to five feet into the road bed Um, so it's it's going to be less than that than that concrete would probably be helpful But other than that they didn't have any problems. It sounds like it's very similar to the work that was done at kentill And they're having many problems Questions Uh So is this going down down the center of the roadway or One side and I think we were looking at the south the left hand side heading towards Worcester That there was less trees there. There would be less routes to deal with Easier access and there's a natural ditch that occurs because it's downhill slope And so how long how long would that project take? It sounds like it'd be down to one lane. I guess while it was while it was being performed for a duration of time Mike do you want to respond to that? Yeah, I think the primary underground portion of it Going down Worcester road could take a work week Monday to Friday to get that done And it could result in closure of the road for a period of a time Fortunately, we have collard hill road That that you can use to get around that work site Oh at the site visit like they said that they could get it down to one lane and they would have flaggers So now you're saying but so I hadn't heard that when it crosses the road. They'll have to close it, you know for that portion We'll definitely keep it as short as possible But my understanding I'm filling in for brian who's on a health leave right now Um, and my understanding was it would need to be closed for a period of time so all the um, the general conditions on that first page Would be incorporated into the permit plus, um, we would want to add the the road cruise Requests about the concrete cap and the and going under the culvert Does everybody understand where we are with that? No more questions Would somebody like to move then the andy, do you want to say anything? I guess from the town's records say it'd be good if we had documentation of of where it is. I mean right now it looks like it the Some infrastructure could be running on the opposite side of the road. That's what that's being discussed and it's kind of a crude drawing but you know We had a situation where things were buried under the town right of way Uh last year We and we came across stuff because there just wasn't adequate documentation of exactly where it was and so if I could add a condition to make sure that the There's documentation of Where it is as well That would be that would be great We can get you the documentation on the location, but we'll also be about a foot foot and a half down will be Burying a special tape with with like a mylar coating That is easily located with a underground locating device. So anytime work goes on i'm sure we can Help you pinpoint the precise location of of that wire All right In that case I think what we need is a motion to approve the permit as proposed with the conditions That cari talked about that you can give to rose to Regarding the concrete cap and going back to the coal So move Jamie moves and seconds Uh donnie you're with us here. Yep. You're there. Okay. Okay all in favor Okay, thank you and I had a point of clarification it said um The electrical lines for a new planned multi household development On is it on or in wester? Is it in callas or is it in wester? It's on the wester road in callas in callas The development's going to be in callas. Yeah, all the land is in callas, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, so it's a it's right now. We're building our single family home but that plan is to we have some Basic conceptual plans almost done but to come to the drb and discuss it, but it'll be a small Maybe Trying to figure out how to do it in a way that allows For people all back to set it so But we have some work to do so So cari you will do that or have someone do it up for us and we'll sign it at the next meeting Or did it it's yeah, I think that it's a pretty basic form It's just that we have to put those conditions in other conditions. Um, or I guess Looks like one person only needs to sign so you should authorize me to do it Yeah, you can swing by okay, so I'll ask for a motion to authorize me to sign the permit once cari's put Had the conditions put in so moved second. Okay moved and seconded all the paper. Hi. All right. Thank you Okay, when are you going to build? All right The next item on the agenda is a discussion about road condition Communications and I'm going to turn it over to ann who requested this item Well, or did you have things you wanted? Well, the one thing I wanted to say is it's the time of year where the Agency of Transportation asks select boards to certify That we have road standards that we are in compliance with our road standards And that these standards meet or exceed the state standards so I think we need to do a little bit of um study education stealth education Well, actually you you did this last year. So you're you're ahead of me But anyway, I put the standards in the april 8th folder I'm just asking to brush up on that be prepared to have a discussion about that the next meeting Okay, I think toby walked us through that last year. Did he I That's my memory. I asked him to do it again And he was gonna he was gonna do an analysis to show you where How we compare to the state standards that would be very helpful for me and there's a lot of History and Feelings in town about that we could have some attendance at that meeting But it's part of a process getting that certification of compliance as part of the process for getting grants Okay, so with communication as Thinking it would be How about like in the future we've had three months seasons being more Proactive and perhaps the emergency management team can also be a part of this of putting out some proactive messaging about what What season it's like for people that are accustomed to it And planning for for safety and awareness that sometimes you can't get down the road and sometimes they can't work on the road Because if they bring the trucks on they're going to Destroy the road leading to the place. That's a problem and make the rest of the road a problem I think when we get to better weather we have a better idea of what we're doing We could Have a model somewhat cabinet has like a weekly update. So when we know It had the capacity to have a pretty good idea of where we're going to be be able to say, okay next week We're going to be tackling this and that, you know, you'll see the mowers out whatever whatever Just to kind of be ahead and that might help With, you know, obviously some people and everyone has a right to say whatever they're feeling about the roads, but Try to have as much awareness in particular doing mud season and snowstorm safety because We did have that woman over in middle sex who nearly died a couple mud seasons ago when her car got stuck. So Um, you did that when you were road commissioner sometimes you would say this week we're going to be out here Yeah, I tried to update like during the flood Yeah, like where that's what you're talking about. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about You know, the way to it's kind of hard in mud season because you don't know what you're going to be doing Because you'll have a plan and then you'll discover the beavers are back on gray road and flooding I'm going to go do with that. Um, but in the summer, hopefully well, there'll be a pretty, you know Tight idea because we want to maximize our reimbursement from the state Yeah, I know I got a lot of, uh, positive feedback Over the last with the last storm Both this weekend with the communication that we put out Manage expectations. This is what we're expecting. This is how we're planning to respond. This is what it might look like and I got Well, quite a few people saying they really appreciated that and and also that It's sort of that's how it worked out and You know positive positive comments on the road cruise Response and getting through that storm Really pretty well So, I mean, I I agree that that that type of communication is Very much appreciated by people in town Do you have a sense of where we need to put this? I mean, there's front porch form There's facebook we put in this case. We posted around town also Do we need to do all that every time? I think front porch forum Reaches a lot of people. Yeah, I mean, I think of an initial like with snow storms is good to kind of plaster it Like I think pre mud season in advance of mud season pragmatically um Have safety and you know common sense messaging But I don't know they should have to like all the time But front porch is certainly an excellent tool and that gets people talking and talking with their neighbors and Did you want to say? Yeah, I mean we've done some of this this winter. It's been it's kind of a puzzle and it's it To put out information. I want to make sure that it want it's accurate and That's the thing about snow and mud is It's hard to know what it's going to be like, you know tomorrow But also that's useful. So I don't want to just say, hey, the roads are going to be bad tomorrow You know, it's going to be a little more to it than that. So I am looking forward to to getting past mud season and then I think the communication should get more predictable Right, we should say here's the plan for this week, you know, and you know, it as long as it's useful I think people appreciate that Has there been any contact with sarah post post creation of the flood flood response map and what it might look like if we tried to adopt something When things got really bad and we had impassable roads in February. We were using that map I don't know that anybody was going and looking at that but we were we were trying to keep it update up to date I want and I wonder fire department likes it the Yeah, so emergency response crews like it, um, you know, I think to ann's point, you know, is there is there a place You know from my perspective is always like, how do we make it easy? Like is there any way that we can automate that type of feedback so that you know any kind of input that's coming from the community gets like you know registered it's like uh, if there's a form that's connected to the to the map in a way that like That creates a heat map of problem areas So that you know if people know that that's a resource that they could go and just say here's a bad spot And then the more people who say this is a bad spot It it turns red And at the very least it it signifies that there's a bad spot there to To kind of help schedule the road cruise time But also alert people who might be traveling through that area that this has already happened And um, uh, so I'm kind of curious whether or not She has any thoughts about how How that might be facilitated in kind of a turnkey turnkey way Maybe it can't be done with that particular resource, but with the with the gis resource that we're Going to be activating soon. Maybe maybe that's something that more interactive. It can be More interactive and then, you know, I think to Ann's point If you have that resource then Then the front porch forum post just becomes a regular reminder to go to this place and Interact with the map and you don't have to Get down into the nitty gritty of which road and when etc etc, but And now I'm on that landing page. You could have A tentative schedule of priorities, you know for the for the road crew for for that week to know that This is this is what we're planning on addressing or or whether that we're planning on responding to Yeah, I mean, it's a good idea. I do think sometimes with citizen reports that I know I've seen that The guys will be told you have to go out here. There's this terrible terrible thing and they get over there They're like Oh my gosh, we just brought two dumb trucks in the x3 and we're here and it's totally not Yeah, so, you know, I Think it's good to get citizen input, but then They'll need to follow up to assess how One person's bad It's, you know, one person can be like, yeah, it's manageable and half the road's missing, you know And another person could have like a pothole that'd be like, I can't drive through it at all So we did have some of that last year, right, but but it is it is helpful to get people's reports a heads up of Because it's constantly changing like a sinkhole just shift overnight, right? We've had that. Yeah, it's really helpful to get So there is on the existing Road condition map There's a link to report And it has a file upload So you put in yeah Um, I don't know I presume what then happens as it goes in an email to zara It's just a google form. So right like somebody still has to then like register that report and change the condition of the road But exactly, you know, I think that was kind of a crude first pass. I'd be curious and know whether or not Um, Sarah or Jake has any like Any thoughts about how to try to automate that with a more sophisticated resource because I'm sure it's out there Yeah, I think it is and I don't actually know How many if any reports You know, I haven't ever asked her If people are using it at all But we haven't done a lot of outreach about it Most people don't know it's there But I do think it's a a tool we can dial in and that could be a really useful tool In the future I did I don't know but it kind of forms but I did just this we'll be talking about it in a couple of weeks And how bad I mean in mud seasons largely been weather Related but there are Some roads that because we don't cut trees back people want to have the overhanging trees So the sun doesn't get down the roads are consistently more problematic For the road crew, they're definitely have a preference for adhering to the local road standards As set forth by this state of Vermont as opposed to our back road standards. Yes as a pragmatic and I would just Put it out there that pragmatically we have a very small crew for the number of miles comparatively to other town And For being able to do the best work they can Report unsafe But just financially and and with the staff that we have and the capacity that we have That we might need to be somewhat more pragmatic about How we want to approach roads I've been thinking I've thought about this a little bit also. I know there is so much work into it Well, I don't think we should get rid of the back road standards I would never advocate for that, but I think there are probably places we can identify For you know, there might be five miles of road and maybe there's A couple of places on that road Where maybe you don't want to have to strictly adhere to the standards because of the shade trees that are making it more difficult And ideally I would say we would do a study in which we try to identify all those spots And would people be willing to accept that those sections of roads would be in much worse conditions during certain times of the year and You know because that's always going to be the poll is that then folks are like But it's so terrible right here. Well, it's going to be terrible there every year because it's It's not done in a way that's going to be conducive to it. Yeah, I'd like to see that done at some point But that's for the future Any more on this? I I don't know that we're we have yes, Barbara I'm wondering if you want to come up with the next step related to the The mapping and either Ask sarah to come meet with you guys at an upcoming meeting or at car and Contact her and go in consultation with her to find out what what's the best way for us to keep this active and going? Well, that's what I was just going to ask Would somebody like to talk about that? I just started a note to myself to write an email to her to have a conversation about it Um Yeah, I mean it seems like it seems like at some point there should be a A small group whether it's you or her You and her I can If you make it my action item, I can't imagine it's going to be in the top 25, right? So copy me on it. Okay, let's have an initial conversation. I don't want to go as far as you know I'm organizing a task force or a committee, but like you know, I'd like to kind of Form some opinions around what what is possible and what isn't before Before we get too down the weeds and spinning up resources around what is or what isn't possible, but I think it's pretty important to get ahead of the conversation as much as possible Yeah, I agree because I think it can tie into To what Ann's speaking of and like the the management of where we apply resources and do what things relative to What portions of the standards, you know, what what's practical? What isn't practical and I'd say it even goes even further than that and like Where are we sinking resources where it's not practical? And and we need to think of something even different Even more different I won't say the p word but right and with the changing of the map software that we're Working towards Probably putting a lot of time and energy into the existing isn't Practical and it may sort of kick the can naturally till That software is up and running and we're familiar with it And build on that platform versus one that we're moving away from it right now But we'll start that conversation. Okay, great anything else on that one? Um, you probably all noticed a lot of chatter on front porch forum about the east callous intersection Oh my gosh with the marshfield road Um, and I just wanted to have a very quick conversation about that while we're on this I pulled out this this study. Oh, I was going to say 2008. It's 2004 Uh, the town hired resource systems group Which to look at that intersection and also lightning ridge road and root 14 and at that time they came up with Three options for the east callous Inters I mean sorry for the the one by the church and five options for the lightning ridge road They're all incredibly expensive And nothing was ever done as a result at the time the cost for the east the The one in the village would have been about 800,000 I can't even imagine what that would cost today. It involved paving backstreet But I'm wondering if We want to do anything to further this discussion Um, I don't think we personally are going to take this project on but we could ask some people in east callous Who are interested in it if they would like to Review some of the studies and make a recommendation. I think That's part of it that intersection. But I I think too just That's going to be a v-trans thing is is trying to get the traffic slowed down coming up the hill Because I know like the crew had said if we get sidewalks that they're going to have to clean them And they're going to have to get a skidoo what they're going to have to so but they want to have a crosswalk You know, and you can't really have a crosswalk if someone's whipping up the road 60 miles an hour Um, but that's a it's v-trans is road. So I don't I would have to I can email Kevin Gaddape with v-trans and ask What steps would be as far as 14? Um, he's the the head of the local v-trans for our district And then yeah, I mean and that's that that intersection is going to have to be something that whether you know making One way only or I think people coming off down off the marsh field road around But there seem to be other like there one person suggested mirrors so you can see if somebody's coming whipping up the road Somebody else suggested to me is there a way you could um, you know that light down there that That blinks the the speed Yes at the bottom of the hill if that could be connected somehow to a light at the intersection That warns you when it starts blinking yellow or something somebody is speeding up the hill Don't pull out right now So there may be some some creative ways that we don't know about There was a stoplight on the main street through my college campus that was speed Controlled and if you approached the light going under the speed limit, it would always be green And if you were speeding it would turn red It was great. I've never seen it anywhere else Well never something like that You know brilliant. Yeah walk into the bus stop. They're almost getting clipped It's just it's Yeah, so so but I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about ideas here I'm just saying there may be some really good ideas out there that we just don't know about And I wonder if we don't want to ask some of the east callous residents just to Oh, they would totally do it. Yeah, would they do it? Oh, yeah But I mean I'll because it's be a chance to let me find out what the parameters are as far as things that they can do and then you know, he can Maybe Say not my party you figured out Figure it out. Yeah, okay, but yeah people in the village would definitely be more than happy days Well, what if you do a little scouting and if some of them want to come and make a proposal to us we can We can talk about it after mode season. Yeah, so be happy to come up All right any more on roads and conditions Thank you Okay, we come to appointments of officials boards committees and commissions And barbara has done an incredible amount of work here. Nice job. Thanks So I would We have um I would like to suggest You all have looked at this first chart called annual reappointments to be considered on march 25th Barber's made several boxes here these are all jobs, um That we appoint annually and these people most of them don't they're volunteers Some of them most of these things require a little bit of training. You have to have some understanding Barber has listed all the people who she's contacted who said they're willing to be reappointed And I would suggest that we go ahead and reappoint everybody in this first box And then we'll move on to the second box And we'll talk about that one. Does that sound okay to everybody? Yes Okay, would somebody move to reappoint everybody in box one So moved A second been moved and seconded Um Rose that's it's called annual reappointments. Yeah. Oh no has everything. Yeah. Oh, okay. Thank you. All right It's been moved and seconded all in favor All right. Thank you. Thank you, Donnie Okay, the next one is called new animal reappointments. So these are um The same sorts of jobs, but where uh There is people have resigned We do not at the moment have any Formal applicants for animal control officer and or constable although I've I've been in discussion with somebody And we may have somebody soon, but we don't right now. So we can't do anything about that one but I see Jamie has Agreed to be a Curtis pondam monitor and I would like to know that I would like to suggest that we not bother with the third one because If all goes well, we will not be needing Curtis pondam monitors pretty soon So we're just talking about for the next month or two really Um, and then of course we've already done treasurer and y'all understand Oh, Rachel C. League has agreed to be Curtis pond island oversight person David Healy and Jared Thomas would like to switch positions So that David would be the alternate and Jared would become the delegate Which is the opposite of what they are now and then we have two volunteers for the next two positions Say that again about CV fiber CV fiber currently David Healy is the delegate He would become the alternate Currently Jared Thomas is the alternate and he would be the way it's listed is correct. Just ignore those arrows Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay So I would take a motion to move Those one two three four five six positions that I just discussed. Okay Yeah, it's seven including treasurer, but we already what we already did treasurer. So I wasn't including that Okay, so we're moving the six six positions. Do we have a second second? We have a second all in favor Box three on the back of the page there is eliminating the positions of inspector of lumber and way of coal those positions are no longer required and According to the the current office holders. They don't do anything So I would accept a motion to eliminate those positions in his future Can we just say with regret? Yes Well, thanks to Greg for all his years of service and owning a coal company for 30 or 40 years Um, I told them I said you're getting eliminated tonight. He said just tell them they owe me back pay So who made that motion to eliminate? Okay, thanks Johnny I was just I was trying to get one in Okay, it's been moved and seconded all in favor. Hi. Hi. Okay. Hi. Thank you Now we move on to boards and commissions and Committees and I was thinking we could take those one at a time starting with the conservation commission That conservation commission currently has nine seats Two of those are vacant Barbara we have nobody applying for any of those is that right? We have one that One nominee who has interested in conservation But it's not before you tonight because the conservation commission wants to meet with that individual first And then make a recommendation to the select board as to whether to appoint that person or not So one of those seats does have a nominee. It's just not before you tonight It will come before you theoretically after the next conservation commission meeting Okay, in that case I was going to suggest we move to eliminate those two positions But why don't we just put that one aside then until next time Uh development review board has seven seats and three alternates Ryan This is public now. It's public as of today. Okay. Yes. That's right. He's informed the rest of the board Ryan has tendered his resignation. So we have one open seat and two incumbents who need who uh request reappointment Plus one alternate position And since we have more applicants for these Or some applicants that we don't know I would like to suggest we put that one aside and go into executive session at the end of this Meeting to talk about the appointments to the drb Is that all right with everybody? Yes. Okay Okay, we don't need to vote on that. We'll just do that later Okay historic preservation has nine seats What question barb? No, I'm just I have I lost count here. I think you've got exactly the right number of people. Yes, right number of seats Yes, but they're applying for some of the same seats Which which we just need to go and talk about. Okay. Thank you. Okay Uh historic preservation. We have Nine seats three are vacant and we have no applicants I wonder if we would like to reduce the historic print. Oh, yes So I ran that idea past them and david sheets is checking. There's a minimum requirement by the historic preservation uh local What's the local grant plate thing called global feet the local grants for the front program And david hasn't gotten that answer back to me So before you eliminate any we have to make sure that they're still eligible for grant funding So we have local government. Is that the name of it clg? Yeah, clg. Thank you. That's right. So don't do anything yet. So we'll put that one aside Also until until next time so Uh Trails committee They're pardon me planning. Oh, yes planning commission We have seven seats on the planning commission one is vacant and we have two applicants For the one position is that have I got there? No, I don't you know me confused the way you're doing this I know but I think it makes more sense for us to take take them as we go Uh, no, I'm sorry. There are two openings. I just wrote this down wrong um So I think we have a right number of people three One ends 26 one ends 27 one ends. Yeah, so melanie keen is asking for reappointment Rachel c league and kathy hensley have applied for the two openings And and I got an email a late arriving email from the planning commission that they both endorse They endorse both of those nominations Okay, so I think at this point I would take a motion to appoint those three people to the terms as listed in this Document to the planning commission Not a second. So what is it you're doing? You're just learning the three planning the three planning commission folks. Yeah Okay, so jamie moved and seconded all in favor Thanks Is um Rachel Rachel c league and kathy hensley. Okay, and and melanie was already on yeah melanie's reappointed her seat Yeah And we can look you can look at this. Yeah, I have it electronically. Okay Okay trails committee. There's 10 seats. There's four uh that are up for reappointment all wish to be reappointed And we have no other applicants. So I'll take a motion to appoint those four trails committee Moved jamie seconded all in favor Okay I didn't get that one We're reappointed because I was still typing the previous thing. Okay, so it's the four seats for the trails committee The incumbents all wish to be reappointed jordan moved jamie seconded. Got it. Okay Uh next is design advisory board. There's five seats one open no applicants So I guess we just have to leave that one open for now Yes, as of today, we have two open seats because somebody else just reasoned. Oh, that's right How many people so that leaves three that leaves three people Yeah, and they've just gotten a more quasi judicial, um Roll with the new zoning Where they are actually approving things. I think it would be good if we could find some more members Do you do are you aware of that? I don't think I know in town office is not aware of that That whatever you just said But I just said Under the new zoning They actually now have the authority to say yes or no And if the applicant, you know, if they say no, we don't like your design in the historic district They would have to appeal and go to the Um, I understand what you're saying. I'm just saying that the town office has not been notified of this new change It's in the new zoning. Yeah Oh, I see okay Um So it might be good to try to solicit some people for that I would prefer not to eliminate seats at this point anybody. Yeah, I think it'd get a little dicey moving less than five Okay Um swim committee three seats one opening with no applicants. We got one. So I'm just wondering if The historic preservation. We don't want to go ahead and reappoint the one Income that who wants to be reappointed again. Oh, yes. Sorry. I missed that. Yes, please. Thank you For catching that Barbara larry bush. We would like to be reappointed. Would somebody please move that so moved so moved Tech hunted all in favor. I Swim committee Swim committee, I guess there's not much we can do there. We're just going to keep trying to find somebody Okay energy committee We have had seven applicants now For folks to create an energy committee I would like to suggest that we ask our energy Coordinator, is that what he's called? To call a meeting of those seven people and ask them to come together and develop a mission statement And maybe a plan of what it is they might like to do and come back to us There's a number of ways they could go. They could just be an advisory committee to the Energy coordinator. We had that with the emergency management team for a while. They could be in a committee that we appoint They could be a smaller committee than all those seven people But I would suggest that we let them get together and talk about how the think the way they would like to structure it And I would ask bill powell as our coordinator to call a meeting of those people And I'll open that up to discussion Yeah, I like the idea kind of Inventing the organization of the group a little bit or what the charge is going to be for a new new committee I definitely I'm glad that there's so much interest in it, but before we you know formally rubber stamp a new committee with Seven very active And enthusiastic members would be good to have a better sense of like what the plan is and how it interacts with the other committees If that's a pretty big group for for a small town, but so do we Need to form an ad hoc committee If we formalize them as a committee, they have to keep minutes on on the meeting. Is that right? They have to comply with the open meeting Yeah, so that's why I'd like them to discuss it and talk about what would work best Have a proposal and come back to us and just put it on bill powell for now to just call the committee The group together Yeah, I like that I think this is your one of your best opportunities to give it some shape though Yeah, if you want you could let them talk about their charter, but Well, what was the origin of this was at the town plan Well The town energy committee is not required by statute It was a suggestion because having a town energy committee can help us to apply for grants and come up with projects the Is this the natural we Vermont natural resources council Has put out something about town energy committees that describes what some what most of them do And I would suggest that they take a look at this And talk about it I guess if I were to pass along specific feedback, I think to takari's point is I would It would be really great to see a committee like this really taking action to to look to see what kind of monies are available and how they can how they can How certain initiatives that are identified within the town can be Uh Can be reframed in a way that opens them up to uh to other pools of funding that align with some of the initiatives of That was that was kind of brought to the board. Yeah, that one of the Wheels that were kind of spinning after the presentation that we got plus Seeing that one of the applicants had experiencing quantifying carbon impact is like We could quantify the carbon impact of our road maintenance, which could put it in Open up road maintenance or reconstruction or something to that effect To pools of money relative to you know carbon mitigation, which I think is Really exciting thing And and certainly beneficial to the to the town so explore grant opportunities Either through new or existing initiatives. Yeah Yes, I like it as opposed to saying, you know Here's four other new projects that we could get money for You know if if we do them now because I mean those are good to know about but I think it's really exciting to think about like How we might be able to form uh committees like this one to look at Look at what the initiatives and priorities of the town are and how does each committee Mm-hmm Take those initiatives and priorities and put them through their own lens and seek seek funding Relative to the pools that they're aware of Barbara did you want to Jan Olson was in the town office today, so as the former planning commission chair of her primary Wish is to make sure that it's a group who will work closely with the planning commission on the energy section of the town plan Yes, that's one of the things that's listed in here is something most of them do. Yeah. Yeah, and I will certainly pass this along Although I'm sure bill is well aware Um, all right. Is that all right with everybody? Then I don't think we need a motion for that We'll just ask bill to call these people. We'll put them in touch with them all Um, I guess you couldn't make that happen, but okay What would you rather the messaging? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. I should yeah The messaging could come from you. Okay, but I have everybody's contact information I can get give it to him when you tell me it's ready to go copy me and all those emails. So I have it all Oh give give it to bill. Yeah, okay. Yeah Okay Okay, and I think Uh, we'll go into executive session at the end of this meeting to talk about the drb, but the rest are done for now Okay So there'll be a follow-up about a future select board meeting about the other open seats or as we have candidates, I guess Hopefully, um, we have to at least do conservation commission and historic preservation at the next meeting And then if we can get more candidates, that'd be great Do you want to at least free the point the one incumbent tonight on conservation or we don't You already did that we put that's larry bush No, no, you did Yeah, the incumbents above larry were oh, I'm sorry on historic preservation Okay, well teams we didn't oh, okay Conservation I missed that. Okay. Thank you. So we'll take a motion to reappoint wall teams to historic preservation. So moved No, those are the seconded Right historic preservation Conservation We started that by Can I just go back and put that under when you were doing appointments sure It's going to be walled aims to conservation commission. Yes All in favor. Hi. Okay. Thank you. And with that are we done. Thank you barber for tracking it and catching Okay Uh Okay, let's move on to the financial report So the standard reports, I think that you get are in the google folder just focusing on the budget the two budget ones The general government highway About 137 000 short on revenue between the two departments And we expect, you know a certain amount in delinquent tax Still about 40 000 is what senator was estimating and then Beyond that we'll have to see what the actual Final tax bill from the school district is if it comes in below, which we expect it probably will That can be treated the difference can be treated as revenue, but otherwise I think we should probably expect it will come in below Budget for for revenue this year And we're not really sure because neither sander and I were involved in the budgeting process Asked you why that is exactly Um but um Be that as it may on the on the expense side, we're doing reasonably well if you combine the two Departments were were at about 74 percent You know and we're not quite three quarters of the way through the year, but we're through the expensive parts of the year Um, the one area I highlighted was the gravel budget. So I just totaled it today We're at about 111 000 in gravel expenses and we budgeted 82 And we're not done with gravel unless you say we're done the gravel or you want us to slow down or something like that. So You know, I think we're watching labor, you know, we're watching all expenses at this point. We're we're you know, going to be a lot more Consciousness about can we bring this in on budget? The labor situation with peter leaving. I think we're going to see some savings there obviously until we get that position Well, we've got paul working now. Well only over the weekend Only over the weekend. Yeah, he was he just paul stacker tyler's father came and helped out As an independent contractor caught us through the work weekend really really helpful But yeah, it's not that's that you know, so when we're trying to repair the mud the roads when mud season's over It's going to take a long time. It's going to take a while. Yeah two and a half been How many of them can run the greater though can two of them run the greater Well, you can't have two running the great. Yep. Well, then it's going to be complicated. So yeah Yeah, we can have two but um, you know, you're depending on if you need gravel you need truck drivers as much as you need Greater so it's going to be yeah, we're going to be reduced capacity um Contract uh contracted truck driving as much as possible that's a possibility Yeah um I guess just bottom line is we're really paying attention to cash at this point because um You know, we're still waiting on those fee bear reimbursements um We do have that tax bill that district tax bill is going to be a large This is going to be the majority of the cash that we have left and that comes in april Thursday is the closing for the municipal climate recovery fund loan So we should have that that money fairly soon and I can also start requisitioning damn Bond funds for what we've already spent or if we have an invoice in the hand so You know, there's things that we can do But it may be that we'll need to draw on that line of credit to those are our options. That's our backstop So it's it's starting to feel tight But You know, we will be okay Um, we just it's going to require some active monitoring. So What else do you have questions? We'll have a we'll have the march numbers at the next meeting is what I expect So you'll get an even fuller picture in two weeks. So just a couple of picky things. Um Recording fees We were expecting 21 000 And I'm 20 000 and we only got 8 000. What what is that? That's we that's land records It is but I I get the idea that lots of things are just being tossed in there And we're being a little more particular about how we document where clerk funds go And so some of the other buckets should be more full. I have enough got a chance to look at this report, but Yeah, I When I look back it seems like I've found some dog licenses in there in the past and I found some Hmm reports and some marriage licenses like I found other things that I don't believe were from recording fees And I don't have great record keeping on what it's been in the past The that's probably those fees are correlated with how many real estate transactions are So while interest rates are high, there's but not been a lot of activity. Is that is that accurate? I I don't know again. Did I've only known this year? I do know that half probably the borrower transactions give or take our life of state deeds So there's not a lot of property changing hands a lot of people putting their money into trust and into life of state So did we did we put 21 000 again in in our next budget? I didn't think I didn't know if we talked about revenue, but no one I was not asked No, that's right. We didn't that we just yeah, I can think of about two thousand dollars just through ecct Recording fees from last year I remember twice from work Mahali wrote it over a thousand dollar check for recording of all these ecct documents. Oh, I'm just Brooklyn Jeremy is curious why it was projected that we were going to get so much and we're getting less than half Okay mileage reimbursement Projected to be we budgeted for 300 and it's 900. Why is that so high? What happened? Oh, so it was for the FEMA driving around for the FEMA I don't know necessarily that it was FEMA. I just know that I got Invoices from him for mileage reimbursement. I know I was told that when I went to the conference and fairly I should put in my mileage And so I did for that so I think So just completely whoever budget In the past people haven't reported mileage when I look back. I've only seen one or two people reporting any kind of mileage for anything and so We should probably have a clear policy on what sort of mileage we Will reimburse for because at the moment we don't really have that or a more realistic budget or a more realistic budget. Yeah, okay Um, those were just some things that jumped out. Yeah, it's hard to know not having been a part of last year's budgeting process And I don't think there were good notes about what the assumptions were. I think this year we have we have better notes Anybody anything else? I I wanted to talk about gravel and I don't know if I should mention it here because kari spoke about gravel or Later and go ahead rose. We'll do it Well, I've gravel on my mind Okay, I wish I had a lot more gravel on my mind. So You know, we're all concerned about the mud so just quickly right after dinner before I Came here. I went to the shelf and I pulled out 2003 2006 and 2017 And I just made a little chart about what we had budgeted what the actual was and they're proposed for gravel so back in 2003 2004 sand and gravel were lumped together so back then It was budgeted for 110 and then the proposed up to 2004 2005 is 126 In 2017 I like I said, I just randomly pulled them off the shelf. They separated out They began to separate out gravel and sand But if you total them together The actual was 123 787 so you could say 124,000 And like I said 040503 it was 126. So they're kind of in the ballpark They're proposed for 2019 Was 150,000 Combined it was 95,000 for gravel 55 for sand. So that's 150 So then this year Well, let's go back to fiscal year 23 80,000 for gravel Actual spent over 92,000 In fiscal 23 budgeted for this fiscal year now 80,000 Buds budgeted for the new one that just got approved at town meeting day 78 But if you add the sand in there It's down to 117 So if you go back to 2003 2004 and 5 126 and now we're down to 117 So the cost of gravel is way up You got the trucking and everything else involved And I really believe We have been skimpy. We've been skimpy. We've been skimpy. We've been skimpy We've been skimping for so many years and You know, we just can't do it anymore My suggestion is overspend that gravel line item for as much as you can Don't put up new guardrails. Don't put up new street signs Don't pay the fences white Don't you know, we have to really invest and we have to invest big time We really do and the sections of roads That were damaged and rebuilt with the flood and every day I travel on the little place in adamant that donnie mucerino fixed And you got crappy crappy you come to the adamant dam and it's beautiful And then you go to the adamant store That section of road that was totally washed out and totally rebuilt is just exquisite And now just think Of what an investment it would have been if all these years like you said last meeting We're going to do small sections. We're going to dig deep and we're going to put it back right But what if we had been doing that for the last 20 or 30 years? And so we really just we need to get a handle on these dirt roads. I mean the older we get Less tolerance for snow less tolerance for mud. It's like it's just really bad. It's really, you know It's just like I came down Um Singleton road hit peak and brook and now I'm thinking okay. I'm here. I think I'm going home that way, you know Anyway, I I just wanted to say my two cents the record show and like I said, I just randomly went to the shelf I have every town report since we moved here almost 40 years ago And um, I you know, it's just right there. We're just spending less We're doing less and we got to do more Well, I appreciate you highlighting 2003 amounts because I know when we were budgeting this time for this year Not exclusively but in particular because we had two years of grant money to tap into right that's 60 000 additional money That's going to augment the grab all in the but it is the costs have gone up a lot Yeah, and I mean really too with that. It's just the size. I mean, what can we do with what we have? Yeah For materials and people Yeah, and we just need I mean we just need to do it and you know historically if there's you know a hundred and a hundred and In 2017 they budgeted 110. They only spent 81 thousand five fifty seven Oh, well, then we'll only budget 95 000 because we only spent 81 But you budgeted 110 and you should have spent 110 thousand dollars on gravel for our town You know, so I think it's that kind of you know, and I know that everybody Does their best to manage it and there's no easy fix Um, but I think that you are hearing From a lot of people just really tired of these roads, you know, and worried about car repairs I already had mine in the shop last week. They couldn't hear the noise that of course My next month it goes again for the annual inspection. So maybe it'll be noisy again next month But anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I got gravel on my mind I tend to agree and I think Sand, you know lumping them makes sense and I think the same is true for sand. I um think probably the Single most common complaint. I've heard about the roads over the last 10 years Has been that we don't sand as thickly as towns around us Well, you've got to remind us of this. I see go ahead Donny I think some of that is the type of sand we use I've I've actually spoke to a few different road foreman's locally around us And they're using more of a granite sand versus a wash sand with stone that you mix in So not only are you you are putting granite sand down, which is Basically what you're putting down when you put a type of plant mix down So they're they're going through their whole winter putting material down that's not going to affect them as much in the spring So why are we making that choice and other towns making a different choice? Because the cost for us to travel to graniteville is a lot more than Pounds that are around so you're going to pay more in trucking But in the on the other end You're kind of preserving the road in the springtime springtime. Yeah Okay I really appreciate that context. That's a little bit crazy that we're spending less 20 years later But it does strike me as it goes to sort of long-term planning again And with the gravel I can tell there's two components. There's What sections of roads are you going to rebuild this year and we should be absolutely planning multi-year like, okay, it's You know, hopefully we're going to get Kent Hill on the french mattress Maybe get that done this year. But you know, what's next year? What's the year after that? There's also the month season, which this year was wicked, right? It started in december and we've been hauling gravel that was not planned for there was no plan for that And it's not it's never enough, you know, you dump it on some of these roads and like, where did it go? So you have to have both in the budget somehow and and plan Well, and I think but you know to Donnie's part I had the same conversation somewhat indirectly and feedback from The road commissioner for Berlin and they're they're putting down Essentially sand, you know, what they're putting down on their dirt roads in the wintertime for traction is Is basically creating a layer on the top that drains Well, because the quality of the material that they're putting down and And I think there's there's a lot to be said by You know said for Choosing the higher quality material doing whatever you need to do to keep the trucking efficient Contracting it out stockpiling however we can I mean it just it it seems like we have a lot of conversations around what our budget is And what our tolerance is for going over budget, but there's not a lot of conversation on saying like okay What's our long-term plan for making sure that we can That that we can have the material on hand that we want if we want to pay a premium for it We can pay a premium for it and we're going to offset that premium You know by contracting out the trucking or doing something else So that we're not just dumping We're not just dumping material into holes Every every year and just having to dump more material into holes because we haven't we haven't made a plan for improving the bed material I don't think we've really talked about it here, but mccullough does plan on operating the pit behind the Behind the garage again And they're going to get started this spring that they have a permit for four more years of operation there and I definitely want to provide us with gravel and they asked about sand and they said They they would like to sell callous sand specifically just because it's so cost effective and and the Sand product that they make is gravel I mean granted and they and they Remember that because he said you we have to add Dark material to it other because otherwise people will complain because they don't recognize it as a sanded road All right I'll see if they recognize it when there isn't any water sitting in it I've got the spring time I'd also like to just kind of touch on what rose said and thank you rose for your compliment. I really appreciate that and I think the the thing that Everybody needs to keep in mind with the material as the material goes up anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar every year So it's constantly going up Yeah, okay At a very high rate All right. Well good discussion. We'll just have to remember this at budget time Thanks, steve Would it I think we should move on to curtis pondam Jamie you want to update us about what's going on there? Yeah We had a couple of things come together today Um, we got final approval on our army corps of engineer Permit, which is the final State level construction permit we need before construction So that's very exciting. That's been months and months and months. So We're going into that and it's very good to have that done Congratulations The final permit we need is just the callous Um Building permit which john says is forthcoming Uh Probably next week We are doing very well. I did not tally up final numbers today, but we're doing Very well and on track with collecting Uh pledges and having new donations, you know, there's lots of people who Pledged a thousand and end up sending 1500 or whatnot So fundraising feels like it's going very well The the Larry hebert the contractor is away the last two weeks of march So I haven't been in communication with him My understanding from where I left it from him with him Two plus weeks ago when I spoke to him last Was that we he and I would connect in the first week of april Um and start hammering out details of contract and Um get his final there's he's made some final tweaks with Dnk. So the number he gave us the 967 or something Um could change a a little bit based on Final tweaks that were part of the army corps of engineer permit requirements um Dnk is also still doing final run-throughs on a few things With bam safety. So there's a lot of pieces still In flux, but we anticipate Probably by the mid april Maybe april 8th if not april 8th definitely the 22nd We'll be ready to present a final contract And move forward I did get one piece of interesting information about two Well now three hours ago right as the Our first meeting tonight was starting. Uh, so I haven't digested it, but there is some potential Funding through a congressionally directed Um earmark that we had requested two years ago. It's been just sort of sitting there Um, it's A lot of money but We have no idea I'll meet with them in the coming days. I have no idea how much Like it might be we approved it now and you can have it in two years in which case. It's no good to us I don't know the details, but it's potentially Which congressperson is with sanders Is $525,000 Whoa Um, yeah, so but again, I don't know yet if it will be actually Useful to us. It would have to filter its way through FEMA, which We all know can be a lengthy process Or exhausted Do you have a really good contact with sanders office that you can communicate with? Yeah, there's a contact who's worked with us on this particular issue who's been really helpful Okay, wonderful But if you have one, I might double the size of the Dan We could pay the monitors Right. Yeah, which that would be a very conflicted Right Um Yeah, so I think that's most of what I have it's all coming together and looking really Promising and it's going to happen the construction starts June 1st Presuming everything goes as planned Well, um, that brings us then to this the loan agreement. Yes Which uh was in your folders and we have two documents We're looking at one is the the promissory note Which would be between the Curtis pond association and the doni And the other is something that Thomas Maloney drew up actually Joe McLean. Oh Joe did this. Okay Which um would be an agreement Between us and the doni so the doni would have to sign this in which the doni promises never ever under any circumstances to go ask the town for money That it's a Which is yeah, you I hope you read that one carefully So Um, and we need some action on this right no, no, I don't think so. I think that this will come Basically the way I see it happening is The loan and all the donations come into the cpa and the community center Um, and then we'll tally it all together and do one big gift From the community center and one from the cpa And that The board will accept the board will accept the gift and ask for this to be signed. Okay. Okay. So we'll just wait But if you had the feedback about that, that would be great. Yeah Yeah Looked fine to me. Did anybody it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. Yeah, and cpa The cpa executive board looked at it. We didn't have any issues with it. Okay. Anything else on hurtus palm All right, so tegan you got anything to tell us tonight So finishing up the last little election bits and then preparing for the next one 27 and the one after that and the one after that But it's good because I As cari has mentioned a few times in his gig. It's nice to have the practice So doing four elections this year means the after this I'll feel fairly confident I know what I'm doing going forward. It's nice to have the practice before I forget everything that happens um Barbara and I got the wheels turning about the inclusion work group that we've talked that we put in the Um The spreadsheet she had so we emailed She talked to individuals about who would be willing to serve right now and who was interested and she passed it was done to me So we're in the process of setting up a first meeting Just to meet each other to have a first conversation talk about the potential purpose of the group what we could be working on It's partially based on the fact that we have a declaration of inclusion and we would like to Put something behind that instead of just having a document on the wall that says we're inclusive But actually looking at what that would mean for the town um, and also because the we just had an ADA inspection of the town office in the town hall Uh, and the first meeting that had some recommendations that we could change to be more compliant and instead of You know currently sitting down and trying to scrape together money from wherever we could having a group that knows the ropes of Disabilities and all sorts of other things Barbara did a wonderful job of choosing folks who are familiar with all sorts of worlds of folks who are in minorities and So i'm looking forward to that. I agree to kind of help get them together the first time and take minutes and hopefully they'll You know take off and do their own thing, but i'm happy to continue participating. Barbara also expressed interest in participating as well So we'll see how that goes It's looking like maybe we're going to meet april 5th friday april 5th in the morning um, so there's that um Quick question. Are y'all going to be open to? I know we had had a conversation. Yes. I would certainly want to have any group focusing on inclusion and diversity to reflect that And the the these people who are involved are wonderful fantastic people They travel a lot and they were not excited about doing things at night They really wanted to do daytime things that was an overwhelming response from them as daytime works better than nighttime But i will certainly talk to Barbara will figure out a way to put it out there so that other people may participate And zoom will always be an option For every meeting that's kind of another thing that came up just an emailing back and forth with everyone Doing their travels and accessibility options. We thought that would be a good Yeah, no daytime is good. I just yeah, I know some folks like within the disability community and things that But if you want to if you want to send me names so I can reach out to specific people of any of you Want to send me names so I can reach out to specific people feel free Um, do you want to just a brief update on where we are with policies? Yes, that was it. Anyone to talk about? Um, not that you don't know The personnel policy has finally been vetted by the attorney And we've taken a last look at it and so it is in your folder Or should be in your folder to the April 8th Yeah, it's in the April 8th Well there because it's you know, there's a few pages to it a few You're going to want to take a look at it and set aside some time There are a few other policies that we thought they were wrapped up or were close to wrapping up And so we're going to present all those to you as well some are financial They're different ones. We've you know been working as a group and with Sandra and with the lct and with the attorney to try and figure out How we can best update some of these things and then we thought we would Put them before you kind of all in a bunch and you could you know, look at them and process And that way we can warn it to the public as here are the things we're going to be talking about if you have opinions and you want to come Is there anyone else? Anyone else on the policy committee wanted to bring up in that? Yeah We're trying to get the the administrative policies all the ones that the town office needs cleared out and then we're going to Kind of move on to Statewide ones. Yeah In some cases, yeah And ordinances Did you mention that you updated the website? So there's now I updated the website So there's a page that has the ordinances and the charter because those are sort of overarching Everyone in town might want to it applies to everybody and then there's a page for policies But instead of just being a big old list Uh It's it's just a little everything's a little more cookies have been more explained and easier to navigate And if you all have any suggestions on how you want that Even better we could talk about those. This is just a first round of trying to make things more accessible for people Thank you. Thanks Tegan. Thank you And cari Okay, so we talked about gravel. I think we're gonna do that for now That was there Just wanted to say that we've had no applications for road crew members And so starting to think about what else can we do? I've been asking around we have three recommendations for incentives one is We'll quantify the benefit portion of what we offer because that is often what gets you know people to To do that kind of work so specifically or the retirement benefit was that worth the medical insurance is is really outstanding So get more specific about that. That's easy. I can I can do that the next round of advertising The second one is to offer to train for the cdl and The local roads program, which is a part of the aot actually offers the online the the study portion of it So we can essentially I think do that for free and then We can help the A person with their driving hours just by driving around with them having someone on our crew Drive around and show them the routing part, but So there's some cost to that, but it actually can be done fairly minimally and I have to get a better understanding of that, but that's something that we may want to offer I know I know when we interviewed people in december The two applicants that that didn't one didn't have their cdl at all and one didn't have it for The level that we needed it at Yeah, the third thing is is a signing bonus and something to consider I'm not recommending it now, but I think if if this goes on for much longer, then we should we should consider it And perhaps another option would be paid advertising. We haven't done any paid advertising yet And then apartment labor. I just want to So that's that one just wanted to plant the the seeds the next Uh is is approval of the letter that's in the work packet. We have a resident who's violating our right-of-way Ordinance and basically this letter would be a warning give them a period of time And if they didn't come into compliance with the right-of-way ordinance We would ask the sheriff to meet our road crew out at the site and the road crew would take care of the Obstructions, but the sheriff would be there for safety purposes and to Let the resident know this shouldn't happen again. So a little more because It didn't help when I called it didn't help when the constable had a conversation. So we need someone with a little more authority And you know it refers the letter refers to fines and that's something we could do but what we want is compliance That's really and so trying to think through what's the best way to get that outcome It seems like the logical next step So this letter would be coming from the select board So that's a recommended action. Do you all have a chance to review it? Okay So, um, what should we do? We don't actually need to sign it. We just need to approve it. I guess I can distribute it Okay I have two suggestions on that letter one it should be addressed to someone Shouldn't it it is It says deer but it's not addressed to No Oh, maybe it's got updated. Yeah, maybe you got it. Okay. But also I recommend that we send it a certified mail return receipt requested And that should be stated in the heading that it's being sent that way All right, is that Or you can send it to me now We see Okay, sounds good So what do we need in the motion just to to approve the letter and to send it by some kind of mail Okay, would somebody like to move that some mood and to who moves it Second and jordan seconds all in favor. Hi. Hi. Great. Thank you And then the last thing is the arpa fund so we're we're right down We're done to the last 901 dollars and 19 cents and it would be helpful to obligate the last of it now because the annual reporting cycle ends March 31st. So if we clear the books we can do one last report and just be done with arpa So there's 901 dollars We did in Is it's the expectation of the emergency management committee that they still had 621 dollars and 78 cents to work with Challenge and and nick had asked about that recently because he would like to pay for Incidental expenses associated with the antennas. There's one on this building and one on somewhere else Yeah, and and so he didn't know the exact amount The problem is and I just called sandra about this when I realized what you all Dedicated the emergency management funds to previously or the previous select board of this Was to an emergency management grant match And that has been zeroed out. So I don't think that's the vehicle here and The town did create an emergency management reserve fund, but I don't think that that's actually an effect until july Hmm So I was trying to strategize with said like where to send this money that is is a actual destination Um, because we don't have a we don't have an invoice. So so we're not actually Obligating it unless it's going into a reserve fund or it's being used to pay for something specific So I think our our recommendation is to Um send it to a reserve fund and then we will we will figure it out in the budget to cover Emergency management's remaining expenses associated with these antennas So highway capital equipment Swim fund What about moving the generator? Do we have funds for that? I don't know. Isn't that going to be more than Pardon me that there was going to be more than 900 Yeah, it's like $2,100 to move it and I think you guys already approved that expenditure We may have but um It's coming out of general fund, isn't it? That's what I don't know There's a town hall reserve fund. Yeah, I was going to say what since one of the buildings is town hall Yeah, I don't it seems like it'd be clean. It's just a dedicated to the town hall reserve fund Since we know that there's a scope of work to be performed relative to that and then they just get bill Both the scopes of both antenna projects get bill Get billed to that. That was one idea I had the other was the c a i map mapping Um, so I mean just pick something it's all going to come from the same place anyway So I don't have an idea. Yeah, what's what's easiest? I like the town hall idea because then we can cover at least the antenna wiring for this building And and what's left over goes to the Okay, so we'll take a motion then to move the remaining ARPA funds into the town hall reserve fund for the purpose of Emergency management equipment or does it even have to be for a purpose of any? It doesn't have to be for purpose because it's going to the reserve to the reserve fund It can't be spent for anything else Okay, so uh motion would be to Move that money into the town hall reserve fund Uh, so moved It's been moved the whole 901 19 Yeah, jamey seconded all in favor i i okay Is that it carrie? That's it. Thank you. I see Oh, this is a different one. Okay status of shed v callus anything to report Request for an executive session You're not Nothing to report at this point. Okay Communication has re-engaged. So that's exciting It's been pleasantly quiet Well, yeah, it's an email chatter Okay If there's nothing else I'll take a motion to go into executive session under one vsa 313 a3 The appointment of the employee or evaluation of a public officer So moved Okay, and in a second Yeah, are we in but I don't think we need to invite anybody else in Carrie Okay, all right, uh all in favor Hi, okay. Hi Thank you. Jordan made the motion. Thank you