 the Rochester Select Board. I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to addendum 6-2 executive order 0-1-20 in Act 92, this public body is authorized to meet electronically. In accordance with Act 92, there is no physical location to reserve and listened contemporaneously to this meeting. However, in accordance with the temporary amendments to the open meeting law, I confirm that we are A, providing public access to the meeting by telephone, video, or other electronic means, and we're using the Zoom platform for this remote meeting. All members of the Board have the ability to communicate contemporaneously during this meeting through this platform, and the public has access to contemporaneously listen and, if desired, participate in this meeting by contacting the town clerk to request the invitation to the meeting and or finding the links on the publicly noticed warnings of the meeting. We gave previous notice to the public of the necessary information for accessing this meeting, including how to access the meeting using the telephone, video, or other electronic means in our posted meeting agenda. And basically, that's the scoop, and here we are. Thank you for coming out on this holiday evening, and I'd first like to ask if anyone has any additions to the agenda at this time. I'd like to give a shout out to my big brother, Bob, for his service to our country in Vietnam. Thank you very much, Bob. Okay. I just wanted to say that the VFW post put on a very nice, very tiny, but nice little laying, a wreath laying ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery today this morning. Abbreviated, but meaningful. But meaningful, yes. It was wonderful. I guess I have one thing I'd like to add to the agenda, and that would be talking about the town writing us a letter of support for the Velomant Trail NBRC grant application, and amongst a whole bunch of other people expressing support to that, so we can talk about that. All right. Got the amendments. So we have, thank you, Orca Media for being here to keep an eye on things and keep it recorded. We have the minutes for the prior meeting of May 11th, the select board minutes. I had had no changes to that. How about Frank, Pat, are you okay with those? I am. I'm okay. Then I'd move to accept those minutes as recorded. I second it. All in favor. All right. All right. All right. Got those. I don't see Joan here with us tonight, but she did, I guess we won't get in any updates from her or the library. There's no one here from the highway. Let's just move on to our, the things on the agenda that we've got going here. Isn't May 15th executive session minutes need to be addressed to? Yes. You're right. I see that on here. And I would move to accept those. Yep. All in favor. All right. All right. Here we go. Thank you, Frank. Yep. See that. So we have the issue of concerts on the park. What the thoughts are about concerts on the park. That's why you don't know that Joe is here. Okay. Hi, Joe. I understand Joe. You have made arrangements and have a schedule set up for the park. I do. I do. It's a light schedule. It's five concerts, one, two, three, four, five concerts starting July five and ending August two and going every Sunday through those. I can name those if you'd like, but that's every Sunday from July five through August second. I don't know if we need to name the performers at this time. I guess what we want to really talk about is do we feel comfortable that the park is big enough and the turnouts are usually modest enough that we have enough space to have those concerts? I feel personally that it would be a good energetic boost for the town to have that. Dune? Yeah. Well, I'm head of the park committee, actually I am the park committee, and I would agree with you. I wanted to say that of all the things that we're going to have to worry about canceling or having, this is something I think we can safely have because the park is big enough and people bring their own chairs and sit and or else they sit in their cars. A lot of people do that and so obviously if they're cars, they're in their cars, they're far enough away from each other and when people are sitting together, I've noticed pretty much they sit in family groups. Sometimes they sit with friends, but there's plenty of space just to, you know, social distance and when I went, for example, to the cemetery today, just about everybody was wearing a face mask too. So I think this would be safe and not only do I think it'd be a wonderful thing for people to just have something to go to, to look forward to, but also those five musicians, all the musicians have been losing work left and right because of this and it'd be nice to be able to pay a few of them. Yeah, I totally agree. There was a great response when I posted the calendar of events about a month ago. It was a terrific response. The response from the performers couldn't be better. I mean, Martha's right. They don't have jobs basically and they're just thrilled, you know, to have this. I also want to say that I did write a disclaimer to all the performers in the sense that it was worded and they totally understood that pending government order, so to speak, this was on, but it could be overruled. And so they all understand that. I just want you to know that. And they once again, you know, I hate to brag but Rochester Park is one of the biggest and most beautiful parks in the whole state. We were just in Brandon the other day and they have a little tiny peninsula park. Randolph has a little, but there's plenty of room. Everybody's right to space out and to my biggest straw, Rick Reddington, you know, kind of fills the park, but even that said, there's large spaces between people. Okay. That's pretty much it. I also think that perhaps we may have a much larger attendance because of the lack of any other type of entertainment. I feel the space to accommodate. Joe, I don't know if you've gotten posters made yet or not, but if you haven't and can put across the bottom of the poster something about social distancing or whatever, I was planning to put that in an article announcing the concerts that I was going to run in next week's Herald. I think that's important to include, but you're right. People are, you know, really... It's gross. I think the draw will be bigger if anything. You expect, you know, the crowd plus. So I have a question. Would there be garbage cans on the park this year? Would there be any porta-potties or any facilities that people can use when they come to the concerts? How is that going to work for people? We've never had porta-potties before, but I don't know. That's for July 4th. We've never had porta-potties at any of the concerts. No, not for the concerts we've never had them. And I don't think that we want to start that. Now, I don't think that we'd be putting out garbage containers, which we haven't in the past. It's basically you bring it in, you take it home with you. In the past, there hasn't been a COVID pandemic where restaurants and other places that offered services for people were available. So this is different this year. That's true. Right, but we've also been instructed to lock the porta-potty down by the fire station there just because we don't want to create a public space where people are going to be going in and who we don't have anyone going in after everyone. So I think that if people are going to come out to go see a concert, they're going to have to manage their personal needs. I saw something on the news this morning about porta-potties and about how a lot of places are not going to have them because of the issue of keeping them, you know, germ-free, etc. So I mean, who would think that a porta-potty would be full of germs anyway? Who knows? Historically, I have to say that I send very few people to use restrooms and usually it's a skip mark. And the exception of this that we need to consider is that the band is often there two or three hours before the event. So they're the ones that most requested. And I usually send them the parkhouse right across the street. Yeah, I was going to say we need to think about that alternative. I wouldn't send them just the skip mark because the last time I bought gas there, you can't walk inside. No, that's what I'm saying is we have to think that that one out. That one's not a given because and once again the band usually arrives two or three hours early and they need to have facilities. Yeah, and the parkhouse is definitely not where to send them. I wonder if Pierce Hall would be willing to allow the band to have a refuge. It's very well might. I don't, I don't, well, you know, restrooms or whatever they need if they're there two hours ahead of time, but parkhouse isn't going to be a good place. No. You might ask Becky Doné about that. I think she's kind of like the ground supervisor, so to speak for Pierce Hall. Right now it's something that maybe we can all think about or somebody has an idea they can get back to me on. Yeah. And so you're part of it to make me aware of it. My other question is when people come in their cars, if they want a social distance and stay in their cars, is it okay for them to park on their cars on the park all the way around the perimeter? They always have. They always do. Okay. They park. That's a good point. I mean, a lot of people might not want to get out of their cars. I mean, a lot of people don't want to get out of their cars anyways and now they have an excuse. When I was a little kid, everybody parked and facing in around the park and it was always the south way up in town or that was always the Rochester town band. But anyway, instead of clapping, a lot of people just honk their horns. Exactly. They'll do. Parking around. So we're in agreement that we'll move forward with the concerts on the park and we'll iron out the issues where they could use a bathroom. Yeah. Thanks for making me aware of that. It's good input. I mean, backburner stuff. I just think we need to maintain that whatever the state of affairs is as far as COVID is concerned and make sure that we're all safe with that. Yeah. So, you know, this is subject to change. But as of now, I don't see why it shouldn't be a go. Totally subject to change. It comes up. Yep. Yep. Thank you. So that leads on to a more crowded topic of conversation is the 4th of July parade. I'm doing. I've been putting a lot of thought into this because I've been organizing this for gosh, 15, 20 years. I don't know a long time anyway. And the more I think about it and then I heard this morning that the Tunbridge fairs canceled. They've canceled all kinds of the governor's canceled, all kinds of fairs and gatherings. Now, I know this is not a fair, but when I looked at pictures that I had from from past parades, we get sometimes 250, 300, maybe more people. Park. And there's just no way that I think you can keep people far enough apart even and you can't guarantee everybody's going to wear a mask. And I know the Warren parade is canceled and Mochilio parade is canceled and I don't want to do it, but I'll take guidance for you guys. If you want me to do it, I'll do it. But I'm thinking maybe maybe we should skip it this year. I don't want. So I everybody else think I I was kind of thinking the same thing. I had a thought earlier that what about I see we have the first concert is scheduled for the 5th of July. Is it possible to move that to the 4th of July and replace the parade with a band event? I don't know. You can ask Joe. You still there, Joe? Anyway, Joe left, but I'm here. Can I convey a message? Yeah, I was just thinking if we go ahead and cancel the 4th of July parade, what's the possibility of moving that 5th of July 1st park concert to the 4th of July? So we still do have a smaller scale for the July celebration or just a thought. It's not for, you know, a little over a month now so we could dwell on that, but that was just a thought I had. Yeah, usually Jake Wildwood loves to do the 4th. I mean, we could have back to back concerts. I mean, what day does the 4th fall on? It's a Saturday. Yeah. So but anyway, it's not my call and I can mute this and go get him. Yeah, that's all right. I just thought I'd throw that out there. June, if I was also thinking part of the parade 4th of July parade thing we've over is sometimes we've had like a running race in the morning and we've had a chicken barbecue and we've had games for kids and stuff. I mean, that's just too much. Too much, yeah, I agree. So if you wanted me to, if you, I could look into seeing if Jake would do, you know, like, you know, a concert and it could be like a 4th of July evening concert because maybe, I don't know if anybody who has fireworks around here, but I don't know. I could look into an alternative if you'd like me to and be happy to do that, but I really do think that the, trying to keep everybody away from each other at the parade is not going to, it's just not going to be possible. I don't think. No, I agree. I agree. I just want to throw in, if you make it a 4th of July event, you might attract a lot more people than you think. Oh yeah. Okay. We should probably just cancel it. Okay. Well, I'm going to, so I will put that in the newspaper article and maybe put a little separate thing too, but I'm, I appreciate everybody understanding and I hope we can do it next year. I look forward to doing it every year and it's fun. I think people enjoy it, but I, Martha, you've done a great job. Thank you. I just don't feel comfortable trying to do it this year because of everything else. I agree with you. It's the right choice. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys for understanding. Thank you. Well, thank you for making it easy on us. Yeah. Oh, I wasn't going to argue with you as much as I'm disappointed. So next on the agenda, we have the announcement of a water sewer assistant. Last week, Frank, you said you wanted to do a little more homework on that. Are you at now with this? Yeah, basically, I talked to all the people involved. The person that we are looking at is Cody Bowen. And one of the reasons is he's going to be around for a while and he's interested in it. He did work with Terry some in previous when he was a town employee and he's, he wants to do the schooling. He's willing to do the schooling. Terry's going to monitor that as far as getting him into the classes and making sure he shadows him when he needs to. And I'd also spoke with Dana because I offered it to him first because he is assistant. So I gave him an opportunity if he wanted to and he's all good with Cody doing it. So I think that's the way we should go as a town. He wants to do it. I told him it's like a 25 or 30 year commitment to do it. And he was all for that. So I think it's a good move for us. It'll ensure that we have somebody there for a while that knows where things are and he can learn a lot from Terry in the meantime. So Terry didn't think it spiked the budget at all. He thought there was plenty of money there for that kind of assistant. So he's going to use him sparingly at first when he does major jobs or anything that he feels he should learn. I think it's up to Terry to teach him what he needs to know. So I'm all for it myself. I think it's a good move for us. Are we putting a time on when his certification should be in place like six months a year, two years? Can we do that? Right now there's no classes available until the fall. At least that's when they usually schedule them for the winter, according to Terry. But because of the way this thing is happening now, nobody really knows if they'll schedule them again. He does have a lot of paperwork as far as what the classes are all about and what they are. There's a lot of math that goes into this. It's not hard math, but it is math that he's got to do and he's willing to do it. I told him if he did take the project over as far as taking Terry's place down the road that he'd have to report to the select board and tell us what's going on with the water system and all that. And he's willing to do that. So right now they don't have any classes scheduled and hopefully they resume them in the fall. That's all we can do. Why don't we go with a one year and we'll revisit it again in a year to see how the classes are going in certification. Do it that way. I don't have a problem with that. I think that's probably a good idea. So I have a quick question. If something should happen to Terry in the next five or six months where he couldn't work for whatever reason, who would run the show? There is numbers that people have. Terry gave me a bunch of numbers that there are people like there's a guy in Bethel that can manage our water system if we need. And the state has a list of people that can step in if we get into a situation like that. He has to, once he gets his, Cody would get his certification, he needs a year under someone's belt basically before he can get fully certified. So that's after he completes the schooling. So regardless of what we do, we need to get him started as soon as possible and then play forward from there. Frank? So would you, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Nancy. Does this involve the sewer system also? Yes. Yeah. Yes. So he would become our sewer system is a little different. It's kind of a, it's a mongrel. It's one of a kind kind of system. And there's not as much to state control over that. And he doesn't need any licensing for that. He just needs to know how the system works and where the problem spots are and how to go about taking care of those. Don't they need shots? Yeah, there's stuff like that, sure. But there's not the, there's not any schooling or anything as far as that goes. And I've mentioned it to Julie in the past about what we do as far as getting him started. And he, of course, he's going to have to do the COVID thing and become, you know, a town employee, so to speak. So then he'll start doing that as soon as he's, as soon as he accepts the position, which he's going to do. So we'll be with him and moving forward. May I ask a question? Patty, what you were suggesting when you said for one year, are you thinking approve it for your suggesting you, the board would approve for one year subject to renewal kind of thing? Yes, I think that's the way to go. I mean, if he's not doing the work, then we would not, we might as well give it up, you know. All right, thank you. For the class, because it's a two year process. So if he gets this classic room done in one year, then he can go on to his, what we call the journeyman's part of his education and he'd be actually certified in two years. Right, exactly. It takes a two year certification, but in my conversations with Terry, he said if something happened to him in the two years, in the second, you know, his second year going into it, that the state would help and get through that process so that we would be covered deep out. So Frank, as an employee, how many hours a week are you anticipating? Terry said he's not going to use him that often, only when there's something that he feels he should know and how to do things. He said he has a job coming up that's kind of a tricky one. It's something to do with the water system. I'm not really sure exactly where it is or how it is, but he said he'd like to use him there because there's some things he's got to crawl in and I don't think Terry wants to crawl in anywhere. So he would like to use him then, but he doesn't anticipate it being a financial drain on the community. He thinks there's money in the budget already that would cover the usage that he's going to have. It needs to happen anyway, regardless, yeah. Right, exactly. He's replacing hours we're already giving to Dana. Right, right. It's not a big expansion of that expense. Nope. And I think it's a good move for us to start that process. All right, it sounds good. So that's not something we have to vote on. That's more of a hire thing. So get that paperwork going. Yep, Julie can get that started and I'll talk with Cody and make sure he comes forth to do the COVID and any other information he needs to get or anything else he's required of. So we'll do that. All right, Cody. We also have the agenda at the advice of Amy Wilt, the modification of the criteria for the Kirkpatrick Memorial Scholarship. And I will just read what the original wording is and then what her suggestions are and changing it. And this basically is in response to the evolution of the school structure and the fact that our high school kids are being dispersed around. So originally it would say the award would be awarded to a graduate who it has maintained at least an 80 grade point average over a four-year period of grades nine through 12 is accepted at a four-year college has demonstrated good citizenship in school and community life and who would otherwise be unable to pursue further education because of low family income defined as total family income below the medium family income for the Addison Windsor counties. And what she is suggesting is that the award would be awarded to the graduate who has maintained a strong academic background over a four-year period is accepted in a postgraduate accredited program of higher education or certified trades program and demonstrates good citizenship in school and community life. So basically it is broadening the where they are headed from not just a four-year college but could be a two-year college or a trade program. What are your thoughts on that? I thought the wording was good and we should accept it as she wrote it. I thought it was a change that we needed to make and if we are going to continue the scholarship I have heard rumors that other communities like Bethel are looking for ways to dissolve their scholarships and I know they are not a great deal of money for kids as far as at today's values go but I think anything is a help so I think if we can maintain the scholarships going forward that we probably should. I have a question as to if it sounds like you probably approved this how will graduation is pretty soon as far as the date when kids normally would have graduated how will you decide on a student how will you get applicants? That's up to Amy at this point. I usually take the recommendation of someone from the school. Okay thank you. Can I just have a quick question does that include apprenticeships if someone want to be an apprentice to a plumber or if somebody wanted to be an apprentice to a car mechanic would that also extend to those sorts of situations? Well I'd say a postgraduate accredited program so if it was a formal you know I guess it could be if there was a formal internship but that's a good question you know I don't know. Usually someone doesn't pay to be an apprentice it's a work situation. I think what she was trying to get at was anybody that was involved in any vocational school anywhere that was put forth and was in good standing and was an upstanding person I think and that's that's how she was looking at it as near as I could tell. I mean we need to have the word you know certified trades program you know certified by whom you know I don't know that's yeah that's usually a state of accredited or certified. Doon could you just read the thing about Addison Windsor County again? That was in the original the original language was but it's not an English. Someone who would otherwise be unable to pursue further education because of low family income defined as totally family income below the medium family income for Addison Windsor Windsor counties. Okay it's not in the revised. Not in the not in the new one. Perfect. Yeah so I guess I'd move that we make that change and and approve that. Second second that. Yeah all in favor. Okay that's a unanimous good good good. We also have here the 2020-2021 Windsor County Sheriff Department Service contract and it's we had stepped them up to a little bit more of a another four hours of service in response to the extent to which they were paying their own way. I know that the ticket writing has dropped off probably with the COVID situation because they're just everyone interested in keeping distance. I don't think that's a reason to to lessen our coverage because I think that things are only I'm anticipating things will improve and I I think that we should keep it at the level that we have. Are there any other you guys have any concerns about that? No I don't it's been I think you know it's been rather slow at this point as far as for law enforcement and all around talking with the state police lady there the other day she was saying that it's really it's been slow for her which is good. It's written in the month of April yeah so you know they're saying that people are driving really fast because there's not a lot of cars on the road not the case in Rochester and we had no speeding ticket so we've been very safe. Well he was out there today he was I saw someone pulled over today yeah. He might have gotten one up on 73 too that was on my bike there a couple motorcycles flew by we're going about 80 so I figured he might have had them but I don't know. So that that um so I I'd move that we approve approve that um second on that? All right second it. All right thank you. Now that leads I don't know if I have a older copy of the agenda or not but there was also um this this segues right into it there we have had a request from the folks that have bought the Apple Hill Farm for permission to put some signs in the in the state right away in terms of animal crossings and stuff my agenda doesn't have that on there but I believe that was on a on a modified agenda. I've got it zoom but it's after approving liquor licenses. Okay yeah that's um Honeycomb House in Maple Soul and then it says six signs on the right away for Peter Rogel is that what you're talking about? Yes yes um since we're talking about um traffic and and and such I why don't we jump to that right away and deal with that question so is that is that a request also to lower the speed limit or just to put signs asking people to be careful? Um I can speak for this I he's my kind of my neighbor and has kind of taken uh he's asked me to help him do a few things so I'll explain what he wants to do and then I'll recuse myself from voting just to save the integrity of the board. Um he wants three signs um west and three signs east and one of them's a pedestrian two of them would be pedestrian signs and two of them are horse signs basically horse and animals slow um and in my conversation with Ryan Slack the for the state apparently as I understand it he needed permission from the town in order to put those signs up but he I don't believe he has the right to put them up that the state comes in and puts them up for him but he's requesting but the way the protocol for the state is they have to get us to sign off and say it's okay to do that because we don't have any control over the speed limit on the state highway right and we certainly don't have any control about how where they place the state the signs in the state right away so I I believe it's all turned over to the state at that point and I will check on that tomorrow uh or maybe not tomorrow but during during this next week um because I have a personal issue with Ryan that I want to address and so I'll be in contact with him but that's what he wants to do so I'll just mute off and you and Patty can figure out what you want to do well I for one think that what yeah you're breaking up on me pet I'm I'm thinking that six six signs maybe too many signs um I just you know I think maybe one each way or two each way no more than four um rather than litter the rug with three signs for one property um but I I don't have a large opinion one way or another I I would not want to be uh asking to lower the speed limit so that's that's all I have for an opinion what is the speed limit is it 45 miles per hour or higher it's 50 50 yeah yeah I think that's a good point I don't know exactly how much property he owns on there but three signs does seem a little um little overkill he does on both sides of the road he does on both sides of the road I understand that but yeah side two so you know it's justified for one or two signs at most but I'm not sure about three he owns uh from where the power line crosses the river that serves over to uh the ai place and then he owns up to bruce uh I think he owns up to your driveway I believe isn't it no no it's the edge of the upper meadow is the joint property line between their property and my property and um just to clarify I don't know if he's changing the signs that he had up because four of them were all the same wording basically it said slow down animals and people crossing and he had one pedestrian sign which looked like the person was laying down in the road and Frank you probably saw that yeah yes I did I got a chuckle out of it too bruce yeah a lot of people did their signs up it won't be the signs that the homeowner had the state will do their own signs right right I um I could see the I agree with you Pat on maybe four signs but six might be overkill would be overkill so I I'd vote to prove that you know or give our support for that my second day all right long favor hi hi okay um and then we're um so you approved for there yeah for four okay that makes sense if you have if you're entering this property if you have a sign there and then have a sign like close to the house and once you're beyond that and leaving the property there's no need for you know then you could have the two and so they'd be staggered okay yeah thank you yep so we have a application from the Huntington house for a third class hotel liquor license first class liquor license renewal and outside consumption liquor license so the um when this issue came up about noise at night on the park last year um we made um notes that we are going to revisit the hours when we renewed that and I they've applied to midnight but I um I would suggest that we limit their outdoor permit to 10 o'clock I agree Frank you had something just no I was waiting for Patty to finish I think you did oh did she I think it's probably a good idea that it's a residential area right there and I think it's probably going to use it more now I would think with social distancing he's probably going to try to serve food outside at this point I would think yeah I think so probably can't you know that's probably part of his use there um I know they got a backo there and they're doing some digging I'm not really sure what that's all about they're putting in a patio there yeah yeah yeah so I is there a difference between a beer license and a hard liquor license is that the same they're different I think that's this I think that's the same liquor beer um no it's wine and beer wine and beer it's different thing it says third class hotel liquor license and first class liquor license so those are two different things obviously yeah I think that what the um correct me if I'm wrong but I think that um with the um takeout they're upping the takeout that is giving them permission to sell alcohol to be taken away versus just previously it was just to be consumed on the property and we all know that the liquor or alcohol is one of the major profit centers for um for eating establishment and so that's that's the request there so if someone orders a bottle of wine out and they're sitting outside and they order it at 10 of 10 in the evening that means that they can continue on drinking inside oh we have to go inside first would let them know that the curfew is approaching just like uh any other we're closing in 15 minutes the server would let them know that yes okay so um any other discussion on that I'd move we approve it but with the modification to 10 o'clock instead of 12 o'clock the second that no in favor hi hi thank you all right and I see there's a lot of farmers been haunting the zoom meeting here and um thank you for your patience what about maybe so say what what about me so they're doing liquor license all right see i'm still working off of a old yeah okay so you want to um what's on the maple soul one it just says approval of of maple soul second-class restaurant liquor license all right and I would um I would move to approve that I second it yep all in favor all right right okay I haven't had any complaints about noise from there um okay now the farmers um so the um it sounds like there the governor's guidance on farmers markets is is opening up and allowing there's the the main issue that is been coming up pre-covid was the overuse of the park and that one stripped on the trees so I think that the COVID situation is a perfect opportunity to spread things out and spread the wear out on on the park um you guys um Asia Paula and Kevin this is so that's that's okay so whoa I I have to move sorry yeah okay okay I think that's better all right I'm high so so as Dune said because of the governor's um guidelines for how we can do the farmers markets this year um what they have said is that the tents need to be 12 feet apart and in lieu of that what we're planning on doing is doing sort of like no tents on the front where the grass is not in the greatest shape but rather do it like in a big U all around the park maybe the there'll be one on the front at at the north and south side of the park on route 100 but then they'll just go kind of around in the stem circle and back to the from the south side to the north side that's what that's what we're thinking right now um these people we have to make a clearly designated um entrance and exit people can only go one way they need to stay six feet away from the tents I mean it's just all the same stuff yeah um no music no lingering no activities of any kind so there's no um prepared food is that one of the prepared food but it has to be pre-packaged okay I don't know about not getting it on the park not exactly sure that's how that's gonna work because for the market is there's a lot more park we're gonna try and get people to not yeah yeah so that's it we have it pretty well planned out I bought 100 yellow flags to help mark everything out so to make it really clear and so you could actually have much more than the minimum of 12 feet between the tents can't you I don't think so that's a lot that's a lot of space well 12 feet and 10 feet if we have 20 vendors I don't know I don't think we're really going to have that many this year but um you know yeah we can't I don't think so I don't think we'd be able to fit everybody in if we put them too much farther that's a lot of space we plan on also being director about vendors letting us know whether they're going to be there or not and in doing so we can you know Beth and I always get here at least the morning of and space everything out so if we have exact numbers um we'll be more able to make sure that they're everyone is adequately spaced um and obviously like Beth said more tape regulating one way signs um the Nova Vermont has a lot of options for signs that show you know you must wear a mask etc etc they have a lot of resources that we've been able to access so are people who are selling going to be wearing masks yes and we're just doing so yeah and do you expect people who are buying to be wearing masks yes I would think they would probably want to be some signage when they entrance making that making that point yeah that's part all part of what Asha was saying that the the NOFA has provided us with the signage which will print out and yeah Rob you had a question well just got a comment um I've been we do Westfield farmers market every Saturday and started two weeks ago we've had two weeks of compliance and they're taking quite a lot of grappling with all the different vendors and all the rules and everything so we've been doing it two weeks already so Beth and Asha if you want to talk to me about how it's worked there how we've refined it over a couple of weeks you're welcome to I mean okay there is particular signage they've got um it's quite controlled um someone's counting the people who come in although it hasn't been necessary yet is that going to be an enclosed space if we have a circle with the outside with everybody on the outside the enclosure but if you're going to have a one-way traffic you will have to have if you're in a circle you will have to have an outside perimeter ribbon as well so people can't move back against each other so the state's been clear that there has to be a one-way traffic thing so if you're in a circle you're also going to have to have a second circle round it out an entryway and then you keep to the right you're keep to the left and go one way I see like a grocery store yeah the rules are actually stricter than the grocery stores which was kind of amazing really because you're in the outdoors and you're on a great expansion but um there's two issues one of them is all these rules and I think it sounds like Beth and Asha you've got them down but the other one is about like the impact on the park um the way I also do Woodstock Farmers Market sometimes on a Wednesday and the way that they deal with that is they just shift it each week a little bit so they move it in or out or down on a cross but I think for the last few years we've had pretty much the same place yeah up in the same spot and then my feet are in the same spot wearing the grass down so going forward whether in the center of the park or if we do it uh along the front all we have to do is shift it slightly um you know a few feet forward or back and around so that the impact isn't in the same place Rob how are people paying and do they get close to the seller are they just print cards is that the way it works best is they're seeing they reach out and put their card into and that right the state has required that that every vendor makes it as maximum possible to prepay and pick just pick it up there's also only one family member allowed at Waitsfield you can't come in with your whole family so you get a frustrated husband standing at the gateway while his wife goes in and does it and there's like wines to me over the tape saying why can't I also come in or what can't you serve me over the tape out the back you know but um yeah um you you're supposed to prepay as many as possible I got three on the first market and I got two on the second only and there's a sign saying please offer correct change or use credit card or a Venmo or some other form of payment and I've got a chip reader I use square have a chip reader and the chip readers right on the table out the front so there's a second table you have your own table with a display and then six feet further out there's another table look at the video of how Montpelier farmers markets done it if you want to see how they've done it they posted it and so nothing's on that there's nothing on that front table except you know some disinfectant stuff and it's you have to wipe it down after every transaction so there's no tablecloth for example or there's no there's no samples people can put their hand on and transfer it's just the chip reader and and then if you're going to pay by cash you put your cash into a container and take the container away and tip it out somewhere you know people are supposed to not ask to make change although some people they do anyway especially if they're tourists they've come in they were tourists this last weekend and they hadn't quarantined for 14 days they had massacring and standing around with no masks but they wouldn't let anybody into the weightsfield market without wearing a mask and they had to disinfect their hands with provided disinfectant as they i've got a question captain um will will people who have ebt cards be able to use them at the farmers market so we actually um we have never been ebt certified so to speak um this year was going to be our first year where we started the process um it is a lengthy process to apply to be eligible to accept SNAP and other benefits um and we had started that process in the fall and then with COVID obviously everything kind of shifted we weren't even sure if we could have a market so long story short we're in the we're in the process of talking to the state but all the applications are taking longer to process and as as you can imagine so the hope and the goal is that yes i can say tentatively the hope is that at least at some point in the summer we will have that option well i think it um right that it's it's a good plan i mean we're gonna stumble our way through it and i'm sure there'll be some you know some frustrations but it's um i think it's going to be as as the concert's on the park i think it's a um a vital um vibrant sign of of life in the community and that's um rob well i got thanks for doing for that i agree with that part for sure um it's people do want to get out and people do want to get fresh local food more than ever and and i found that people are calling me just because i've got something on my website page saying you can order from me and pick it up at the park and people have picked it up at the market and people have done that but if we're gonna have it i'm just for beth and aja if we're going to have a circle in the middle of the uh no it's not a circle it's not a circle it's gonna be a blob it's gonna be like a you know the hell so so essentially from where the skitmart is parking towards the monument and around back towards the parkhouse a sea if you would think you'd go up further than that just to protect the front of the park because that is tough tough business there and i think if you could start up further and do the backside that might be a lot easier and that's a better place to do it as far as uh um the protection of the park is concerned my issue with the whole thing is simple i'm not against the farmers market at all but i am against the way the town uses the park i think we need a vibrant policy there and a fee schedule set up for this type of use whether it be a weekly fee a yearly fee but i would think it would be a weekly fee and for the vendors and everyone else it's a policy i think the town is missed out on because what it's done is it's created a eyesore and a tough place to do to fix up the park is a really the crown jewel of our community and the way we've used it in the past we need to take better care of it and you can't expect the taxpayers to pay the full brunt of any damage that incurs by the amount of traffic that's on the park and that's the way i feel i'm sorry that if you think that's wrong but i think that we need a better policy as a town for the usage there i can see it's a venture that is not town sponsored the harvest fair is not a town sponsored event although it does a lot of good things but i think you you don't go to the pierce hall and not pay a fee for using the space and i feel honestly that this would go a long way in trying to help keep the park a sacred place as far as the grass and the ground and i do think we need a better policy as a town going forward and that's my my feeling i'm not opposed to the farmers market being there but i do think we need to take better care of the ground and i i think it's essential now it's in really bad shape i've had the the thing uh soil tested i haven't got the results yet but i have i've emailed both doon and patty and nancy i believe um about my friend coming down who ran a major lawn business he had major accounts in the park needs some work and it's going to take some work to get it back it's going to take some money to do it i haven't run any numbers because i didn't get the proposal until saturday and i don't know exactly what it's going to cost but i do think as a select board maybe we do it or we have to go through the voters but we work on something that is a fee based plan if it's not town sponsored there should be a fee associated with the use of the park to help with the maintenance and that's pretty good are you opposed to the benches or picnic tables on the park the way they are now i'm not opposed to them being there i i think they could be in a different place but i'm not opposed to them being there the park is set up to it's inviting it invites people to come and have lunch to sit walk their dog walk themselves have a break from the drive or whatever and that's the way i've viewed the park over the whole course of my life when i grew up here as a kid the monument that's down at the cemetery there used to be on that cement button right behind where the farmers market sits and that place we used to play baseball there and that place was so full of glass and that was one of the reasons why that monument was moved because everybody broke bottles on that thing and it was just total you couldn't slide into home base without getting cut so part of the reason for that monument being moved they felt it was a lot better place to be down by the cemetery and quite frankly my personal feeling is we do need a better plan as a town going forward i agree frank um and i i love but i do like having the benches and the picnic tables there i think they're they are inviting and they're a good thing to have catherine you've got a question yeah i um in your uh consultation with um the specialist uh i would hope that maybe there's some exploration of ground cover that's more durable because i also think that posting things like harvest fair and and the and the farmers market is a real boom to the town and people do like to congregate on the park for that purpose i don't agree with you a bit i think it is a a boon to the town but i do think that it's a use that we need to to watch over as far as have a plan for a fee-based plan i think is important and it's not to make anybody upset or you know be hard on anybody i'm not saying that it's just i think the town needs to do something about it that's my feeling so bet that up to this point there's been there's no um fee to the town in regards to using the park for the farmers market is there now no there hasn't been yeah so frank did you have something in mind or is this something i think this is something that needs some discussion not that we could decide right and right now i i think we need to keep it in our mind and i'm not even sure um how much that would be but i do think we need open discussion about it at some point and we come up with a a figure whether it be a weekly figure for the duration of the market or whether we come up with a vendor fee i mean i personally think that just the weekly fee is the way to go to help to put towards the park for this type of use frank i don't object to what you're saying but i think it's premature to try to do anything this quickly particularly in light of the fact that they don't even know how successful the farmers market is going to be this year i do agree with that nancy but and i think that that can be arranged i'm not you know saying we need to do it tomorrow or anything else but i do think in the long run we need to start this discussion yes yeah yeah that's what i'm saying just it needs to be a discussion and people need to be able to have input into it that's right and it it could take until next year to get this kind of a policy established true yeah yeah rob well i think what you're saying about protecting the park is that's good there shouldn't be a negative impact to the park in any way from any activity that takes place there if it solves that problem well then that would be good but then the fee does what the fee then pays for the road crew or something to to replace the grass i would rather see us reduce impact than just go over than just go over fees the answer that's my feeling and rob gardener you had something you want to say yeah i think it's uh i think it's quite a good idea but but it's a complicated idea because something like the farmers market or the harvest where they bring something to the town they bring a value to the town so simply charging them for it doesn't make a lot of sense to me but i think it's a good idea in a larger and more complicated discussion the way i think nancy is is suggesting i think i suggested something like this in the in a budget uh meeting yes you did and i there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for it i i think it's a complicated thing whose essence is correct but you thought that's all right well i i think it's reasonable and i think it's good that frank is having somebody come in and look at the park look and see what needs to be done get a sense of how much that would cost and you know use that as part of the discussion once a discussion is set aside i can tell you that we go to farmers markets in in a town in maine and it's it um has had the same kind of use it's heavy heavy use and the town has been bearing the expense up to 20 000 a year to recede now there are a lot more people who are using the area and but it is a it's an expense to the town in that case it's 20 000 that's a lot of money so we actually i mean as the market we in the last few years i mean we've been committed we always leave the park and nicer than we left it we pick up all the garbage before and after last fall beth and i and spencer went out there and raked and seeded and everything i mean we can have a long discussion about why grass doesn't grow in that particular spot um but you know the farmers market remember is not like a private business where we where we make money off of this event you know this the vendor fees go to essentially um supporting the market whether it be musicians or whatnot and even this year we're talking about how to make it affordable for vendors because you know we see the farmers market as bringing food to the community and also you know so it's it's a little bit of a touchy subject i think to start regulating an event that brings food and yeah this is a bigger discussion that's not going to be decided tonight but it's important to bring it up and and to recognize i'm personally excited to see how it works spreading the wear out on the park and not hammering on the same spot but but we're gonna have to explore this topic and and and do some research and see what other places do and see what what the costs are going to be to do the park and um i mean this would reach over to i would just seem to something like the harvest fair also you know where they're you know players um i'm on the first board and we've been discussing whether we could have the harvest fair and then i just heard recently this week that the governor has decided that all fairs are are closed down including the tumbridge fair so we probably won't have i can't say for sure but it looks like we won't have the harvest fair this year but i don't know we hope we can i suggest there's two things happening here one of them is what to do in the long term relative to maintaining the park and how that will happen second thing is there's a farmers market scheduled plan for two weeks less than two weeks away right can frank meet with uh beth and aja on the park and and step out where frank would you know is proposing we have it for the moment to reduce the impact so that we can get that part settled for the upcoming market yeah i'm more than willing oh wait i'm muted hang on a second um yes um we were going to i was gonna talk about planning and actually we're going to ask another people to go out and do sort of a workshop this coming this week yeah maybe first thing next okay let me know yeah we'll meet with you okay then we can go through it all right um look the one thing that occurs to me is on all of these events it's not just the pedestrian along the uh route 100 it's cars parked all the way around the park and so if you're going to be taking the longer view of park usage maybe you should be looking into thinking about the parking as well maybe there could be a solution i do have some ideas about that too so and that and and then you know the kind of uh surface uh it doesn't all have to be grass and it can still be very attractive well it's definitely going to be an ongoing conversation for sure i i think so and there there are issues about cars parking in the new riverbrook park and they're also parking right in front of the tennis court on the grass they're parking alongside the tennis court on the grass there is not enough information for drivers although you might have some common sense where people where they should park and you know i think that the town needs to address this as a whole you know parking and where people are supposed to park and where they're not yeah all right well um frank you're gonna um meet with beth and asia and see about the plan on that okay um but meanwhile we're looking forward to having the first market in two weeks is that what i heard it's a week from this coming friday i jone i see that you're here i didn't see you earlier so i didn't ask you for any updates but do you have something that you want to share jone can you hear me now yeah now i can hear you okay never can tell if i'm muted or unmuted um mostly i'm just working on all the stuff that i reported on the last meeting uh the only update i have for now is that i just heard from that they're delaying approval of the structure's grand applications similar to what we heard a little bit earlier about the uh better roads applications it's kind of unclear at this point whether they're even going to have around this year they're not staying they're not yet but because the transportation budget at the state level is up in the air and various other reasons related to covet 19 i don't know what's going to happen with that we are already out to bid on the nascent brook over um we'll just have to wait and see what happens because obviously whatever happens for rochester is happening for everyone around the state and when we put that out to bid it it was tangent on that funding coming through yeah yeah we were very careful cricket in particular was very careful to make it all very transparent and say you know we're dealing with an uncertain environment and we're based we're basing this bid on what we know now but that could change yeah not a total surprise is it no no all right um so um we have um i had pat you already gave your shout out to your um your uncle bob was uncle bob or my brother brother bob brother bob all right i um wanted to talk about the um the request from angus mccusker who is putting together the grant application to for the velomant trail and um i think that it's a um basically it's a win win for vermont citizens and visitors to the green mountain state and the um you know the economic vitality of the the whole area so i i i would um i would be interested in writing a letter of support for that grant application and who knows if they're giving out money but it's um it's it's worth a try so where does that go dude where does that start this is um basically this is it's a long term project this grant is for the section that is going to basically connect rochester to pitsfield via um corporation brook oh way up not corporation brook i'm sorry i mean chitenden brook chitenden brook so it's um and this is like a planning this is still uh um you know there's a it's a it's a big it's a big project yes it is yeah but it's roaring there the national forest is on board with it it was part of the robinson's project and it would um head up and in drop down and to bingo and then hop over to chitenden brook and then there's a route over into lower michigan road and basically it's i eventually it's going to be a recreation trail multi-use trail that um the length of the state originally the the first um vision of it is to between killing tin and still and it's um it's a big big project but um it's uh there's a lot of um a lot of momentum behind it and um anyway i think that the town would offer it some encouragement because it would the whole town would serve to benefit from that i would support that yeah me too we've been forced for years to be a recreational area and so i don't see any issue why we shouldn't some people aren't going to like it but that's the way it is yep we've been talking about it for a year yeah and it won't be done for one or two years right uh huh oh yeah it's in it's a long term long term project but all right um there's um rob um gardener did you want to have um anything to say just in terms of uh update on the the whole covid situation in in vermont in our town and and i guess um as people start to relax it's important to still be vigilant and and and still be careful i know you have something to say about that only that the state of vermont nationally has done very well uh the governor's made that clear and he's right and of course people here in the valley have done really well so i think everyone is moving forward cautiously and as we talked about in this meeting here um but slow and cautious seems to be the the direction people are going and it's going well but slowly slowly yeah thank you june i saw in the national news wednesday night that the state of vermont has the lowest infection rate of all the 50 states yeah um we also have the technically most rural population of the 50 states in terms of how spread out we are so true true no they're there it's um they base that on the fact that there are so many like 260 separate villages in vermont whereas when you get to wyoming there's a lot more land but then then there's the bigger towns that people um are joined in and so that if you look at the ruralness of the dispersion of population where we're right up there yeah i think we're considered the most rural we have also extremely high unemployment rates yeah right now the office there been any increase in the uh the use of the uh food shelf do you know i don't know i haven't talked about that we did some uh put out some advertising about it yeah a short time ago at flyers yeah yep so there's been work done on that and and uh and and the the unemployment figures were were pretty much as dune suggests i mean as as uh vick suggested they would be but you know a lot of people are spending the last of their uh stimulus money and uh it's not the kind of thing i don't think that would happen as as a sharp sharp edge yeah um i did want to mention one other thing though because it's come up a couple of times and that is the concern about uh people with outside license plates there's a proper way an improper way to deal with that and uh the proper way is to call the town uh john white the town uh health officer uh co good all health officer and have him go and talk to whoever it is you're concerned about and let him handle that the improper thing to do is to is to bitch people out for being from out of state which has happened a couple of times and and i had gotten some notes from people who were out of state who own property here and called me and said you know what's the temperature like there and people have really been pretty kind here but i think it's important that they understand that there is a way to do this and that the john white does have the power of the court and the police behind me if it comes to that which it never has and that's the proper way to do and i just wanted to mention that here and you can pass that on as much as you want thank you anyone else have anything they'd like to talk about tonight okay i don't have that agenda so two hours of the town clerk uh yeah what's that Becky and i would like to starting june 1st have hours the hours of Tuesday through Friday from nine to five instead of eight to four that sounds reasonable to me it might make it a little easier for people to get in there in the end of the day um yeah it's pretty quiet from eight to nine so i thought that really is it would you know it didn't seem to have bought you know impact anybody that's working um early in the morning we get very few so i don't have a problem with that and um frank or patty no me either do did we need to talk about the tax situation julie is that something that we were next it says probably tax payment grace period on the agenda oh i don't have that on my agenda so my agenda but uh julie you'll need to update your hours on a lot of different levels um on the website and with the state the lawyers books of all parks there's a there's a lot of different places you have to go to do that so make sure you get those bases cut i will yeah that's why i wanted to start now with uh maybe martha could put it in the paper and then yeah i'll put it in my article yeah okay thank you yeah close to the public now i guess this is a good time to start um working on changing the hour so when we do open it'll right move into the new schedule yeah i thought that was you raised your hand the agenda is now the property tax payment grace period i think that's the final thing on the agenda for today right um what we thinking of doing uh julie was thinking of uh not charging a penalty on payments that are coming in uh the final payment was due may 15th yeah and extending the period to make a payment without a penalty until june 50 i believe we would still charge interests but not the penalty which is eight eight percent correctly that's correct yeah the state went out and said that they they want that to happen is that correct yeah right and i know we discussed that earlier in our conversations um i'm not sure we brought it up in a meeting but we were we kind of threw it out at each other just to think about it to come up with some kind of idea and girl for julie you think it's going to be a good thing yeah i think there's uh you know surprisingly uh we we were anticipating a lot more taxes would come in um the link went but um people paid their taxes and there's a few so um you know this might this might make make you know if we give them the grace period i think that the rest will come in uh at that time i i think it's a good idea i i'd vote for that yeah i i think it's fine too i don't see an issue with it myself it may maybe move them to to pay a little quicker too you know move them to do that that would be good right and that's really good news people paid their taxes for the large part that's that's what we were wondering how that was going to go yeah yeah yes we were very happy when the uh the amount of delinquent taxes on may let's say 16th um was not an astronomical figure this is just slightly above the average um my my concern was uh Becky that the treasurer and collector of delinquent taxes that it does get a percentage of that i did have a discussion with Becky about that and and she's okay with waiting the extra 30 days i wouldn't want to extend it at all because uh it'll get into the next fiscal year and i don't think right right um the one the one installment i'm worried more about is august i mean if we've got a massive amount of unemployment we may not be quite so lucky yeah the next time we also have a school vote that will likely take place on june 30th right only a vote do you know anything more are you saying most likely will take place that tomorrow night tomorrow night they're supposed to sign the warning when to say tomorrow night tuesday night at five o'clock it's possible that the warning will be in this week's herald but i don't know for sure depending on the dead you know by the time they sign it they're supposed to sign it tomorrow night yeah so um i haven't heard anything i'm worth looking forward to when you know they haven't had um they have a warned meeting for tomorrow night i know but it's via zoom kind of thing yes and and does anyone know how the voting is actually physically going to happen as julie uh it looks like we're going to test the voting um similar to what we what i guess uh frank and a group has uh looked at the school for um the primaries in august and then the election in november right are you going to have a absentee ballot for people to vote on the school vote uh i believe so uh we're we're just getting the details to all of that so it'll be coming out um so you wouldn't actually be going to the town officer to the school to physically vote is what you're saying well you could either do the absentee or i'm sorry you could do you could do either or okay i'm sorry we've been through the space a couple times rob meadows sandy haws and myself uh we went through the space and with uh bonnie borne and i think julie and specky you're going to go down there uh wednesday maybe uh yeah and and i was going to join you and make sure we iron it out and i'll inform you berma on what that is when we get it set for sure it looks pretty safe to me as far as how we have it set up it's a one way in one way out we use two rooms uh basically we can tape the floor the the floor is actually tiles so it's got foot you know foot markers in there already and we can put a piece of tape down and and run some flag and tape in different places to keep people separate um the two entrances there's an entrance and an egress which will work great because we can keep people separated that way plus there is some eaves there where people can can be out of the rain if it's raining or whatever so i think it would be a good setup um we've been through it once and in a we'll be looking at it again later this next this week so excuse me um is that it looks like it on the agenda i have thank you all once again be nice to meet in person again but meanwhile yep celebrity squares um oh dude i do i have one more dude the next meeting is is the um 8th june 8th monday june 8th i believe so would that that be the second monday yep okay well because i always put i always put that at the end of my article so monday june 8th and it would be a zoom meeting as usual as far as yeah okay thank you i'm sorry didn't mean to interrupt all right no problem all right okay night guys