 of the Town of Essex Select Board for Monday, March 15th to order. Are there any agenda additions or changes? To be, which is the certificate of approval for the salvage yard. So still doing some research on that and request that the board remove that from the agenda tonight. Item 6B. Correct. Any other changes? Greg or Evan? None, of course. Board members, do any of you wish to take anything from the consent agenda and move it to a business item? Okay, hearing none. Then let's move to approve the agenda as amended. Make the motion. We approve the agenda as amended. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thanks, Pat. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Go on to public to be heard. This is the part of the meeting where folks who are in the audience can address the board on items that are not on the agenda. If you have something you wish to speak to the board about that is not on the agenda, you can do so by indicating in the chat or by raising your hand on the toolbar. So please go ahead if you have something to share that is not on the agenda. I've just been contacted by some folks saying they're having difficulty with the link today. It wasn't on my calendar. I had to go find it myself. Um, Greg or Evan, do you have any way that we can post a fresh link or? Um, we'll see what we can do and I can sense everybody the link. And if you have any questions now during the meeting, maybe people can just forward that on just as an immediate workaround. So it's Tracy Delfia who's not being able to get in. Hi, this is Kathy. Can you hear me? Yes, yes. I am at the meeting. Can see myself, but nobody else. And I cannot see the participants or the conversation. And I've logged off and come back on once. Teams is down right now. They've experienced an issue today and I think they're still working through it. OK. So Evan, Greg, can you hear? It's funny, Kathy, because we can see you like a regular meeting, it's fine. And yet I just logged in like literally three minutes ago and I got on. So I don't know what if at all that means. So Greg, perhaps you could, you could send, you could post the link in the chat and we can all forward it to people who are reaching out to us. Sure. Just pause a few moments to take care of that. And this is Tracy. I hope it's OK if I if I hop in. I don't have the option to raise my hand or anything. The issue is that on the agenda, you can't even click on the Join Microsoft Teams meeting. So maybe just refreshing that hyperlink on the document would help. That's still nothing. Yeah, I think it is a teams issue, like Mike said, and that can certainly present as different issues for different people, depending on their browser, their computer, the device they're using. I had the same experience as Andy. I wasn't able to join directly. I had to search for the link. Like it wasn't on my calendar, like it normally is. So if there's a teams issue, then I don't know that doing much more than providing the link is going to do a whole lot, I'm afraid. I guess everyone, if you can hear me or listening, I will do what I can to get the agenda updated and posted, although I don't typically do that. So I've got to try to find somebody who can. So we will keep working on it. In the meantime, thanks for your patience. I've sent the link to a couple people who have emailed. And Greg, I'm trying to get a hold of Greg. We'll just give it another minute or two to see if more folks are able to come in. I did just get a reminder from someone that folks can watch on YouTube and then call in with their phone if we aren't able to resolve this. Please see no seems to have gotten in. Yeah, I don't know if you can hear me. I'm in, it's just a blank screen. Hi, this is Erin Dickinson. I'm a resident. I also happened to work at UVM and there's a widespread known problem with teams right now that is across the country. We had actually reschedule our faculty senate meeting because of the issues. So that may be what you're experiencing. Thank you, Erin. Will, I think what we should do is folks, as you're coming in or if you're able to watch on YouTube, that's definitely an option. And there's a phone number on the agenda you can also call in. For some reason, the link wasn't showing on the calendar like it usually does. So if you have the ability, you may want to at least post the phone numbers because I had a hard time trying to find out how to join. This is Annie. We have a bike walk advisory committee that started at six and we had a bear of a time getting into that for about 15 minutes too. You know, I heard that there was a problem with teams. Well, people seem to be coming in now. So, so the, I am in and I assume other people are who are coming in are in and it is a black screen. So I can hear you. I could take minutes and you can speak and we can hear you. We just can't see you right now. And I can't click onto the chat or raise hand. So that might be an issue. Okay. All right, Cathy, thank you. I guess we're just gonna have to muddle through. My apologies, everyone. There seems to be a national issue with teams today. So we will do our best to accommodate folks. Don't forget, you can watch also on town meeting television on YouTube if you get booted out for any reason. And you can also call in using the phone number on the agenda. If you can't get into teams, we can still talk to you via phone. And all right. So now that there's been more people joining, we were just at the point of the meeting where a public to be heard, where residents can speak about items that are not on the agenda. Is there anybody in the meeting now who wishes to speak that about something that's not on the agenda? I would, George Reynolds, Sandhill Road. Go ahead, George. My concern is the posting of legal load limits on lower Sandhill Road. I understand it is in the books as 24,000 pounds. There is no sign and we have trucks up to 60 to 80,000 pounds going up the road. I'm sorry, can you repeat which road you're talking about? Lower Sandhill Road from 117 up to Allen Martin Drive. I do know that route 15 to Allen Martin Drive is posted 24,000 pounds. The lower is not. And it's route 117 is a state road. So it kind of is not a connecting road that exempts it from being posted. Okay, we certainly can contact our public works and figure out why that is. Thanks for calling attention. We have you on, yeah, it's recorded now. So I'll give that a try. Thank you. Okay. Okay, thanks for letting us know about that. You're welcome. Are there other folks in the audience who wish to speak on items that are not on the agenda? All right, we're gonna move on then. We have a series of interviews to conduct this evening. We have four candidates for different seats on both the Conservation and Trails Committee and the Economic Development Commission. So we're just gonna go through the list and take a few minutes to speak with each of you and ask you a couple of questions if necessary and then we will discuss next steps after that. So the first person to step up for an interview is Mike Spader, who was interested in a seat on the Conservation and Trails Committee. Welcome, Mike. Thank you. So Mike, why don't you take a moment to talk to us about why you've stepped up to be on the committee? I am a part of our Essex Trail Caretakers folks that volunteer time. I spent a lot of time off in the trails and around the town, but I spent an awful lot of time in the trails. I have a couple of trail heads that are right next to my house. So I'm out there all the time doing maintenance work as a volunteer caretaker. And I thought it would be time to step up and take a little larger role and become a little more active in my community. Nice. Board members, do you have any questions or thoughts for Mike? Andy, you look like you're trying to raise your hand. Patrick's hand is up. So I was waiting to let him go first. Pat, go ahead. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for applying to the position. Your resume is outstanding from what you sent in. I was wondering, are there any particular favorite trails of yours in Essex? I realize it's kind of a kitschy little question, but it kind of, I think gets a feel for, how much you've been out in the community, out in the woods. Well, my favorite trail is really the Birchwood Open Space trail that runs from the end of Tankwood out to the Cirque, although there's another one that is a part of that same trail, but heads in a different direction that would run you down behind Foster Fields and behind the park and out back out to the Cirque. Last weekend I was out with Madeline McCose with the Parks and Recs department and we were doing signage. You'll now see new like two inch diamonds down in the Forestdale area. It's just, it's a great resource that the town has. And with COVID, there's actually been a significant uptick of folks out on these trails. So they're being used more so than they ever have, but my go-to is maybe the Alderbrook Loop. I mean, and we're now integrating different colors into the trail systems and along with a map that's coming out. And the stuff along the river, just because of the wildlife that you get to see, deer, fisher, I mean, all kinds of stuff is, it's absolutely awesome. That's great. There was no wrong answer, but that's great to hear. And you're absolutely right about the COVID. There had been a lot of, a lot more people out on the trails over the last year, which is really fantastic. I think that you'll see now that people know that they're there, which they may not have discovered previously, but I think that we'll see a lot more foot traffic out there, even once COVID is in the rear view mirror. Yeah, we hope so. Great, thank you. Andy? Yeah, Mike, thanks for stepping up. Question I have is, have you attended any of the meetings for the committee yet? And whether you feel you have a unique skill that you could contribute, or what your focus is gonna be? I have actually attended the last several CTC board meetings. And I'm already kind of on an ad hoc committee for our spring cleanup. As much as, you know, I mean, I like what we are doing with trees and particularly with some of the new development, my heart goes out to really the trail network just because I think it's an outstanding resource for folks. Okay, great, thank you. Donor Vince, any questions for Mike? Okay, and Mike, so you've been to a couple of them. I can't see my hand. I can't see anybody's hands. Hey, Mike, I'm an avid mountain biker. So my question for you is like, what do you think is the biggest, or what do you think are like the top three priorities that the trails commission should be focusing on for like the upcoming years? Get them mapped, connect the places that right now are either not owned by the town or they do not have the proper, and I'm gonna say egress, but that's not the right word, the easement. So there's some things that we need to do to kind of connect the dots, some places where there are, you know, you have to cross wetlands that we need to secure act 250 permits to be able to have a bridge so that we don't have people potentially endangering some of those wetlands and finish mapping out the rest of the trails. Like Saxon Hill, I think that there's a bunch of trails that the fellowship of the wheel probably has some maps for, but right now, none of this really appears on our town website. So we need to get the word out and get more people involved with taking care of. Thank you. All right, any other questions from the board? Just jump in because I can't see your hands. Okay, Mike, any last things you wanna say? No, I think that's, I mean, you know, it's just a great resource for us and anything we can do to preserve it and enhance it if we can is all for the betterment of everyone in the town. Great. Well, thanks for stepping up. What we'll be doing is interviewing everybody and then we will most likely go into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss the appointments and you'll find out from a staff member the result probably tomorrow or the next day. Right on. Thank you, Mike. Okay, our next guest and I have to apologize ahead of time. Is it Todd Tanisha? Yes, that's it. Oh, awesome. Afraid I was gonna do that wrong. So Todd Tanisha, you are interested in joining the Essex Economic Development Commission. So would you mind taking a few minutes to tell us why you stepped up? I'm fairly new here in Essex. However, I have been a part of organizations from Michigan. I've done Red Cross, NAACP. I've volunteered for Michigan Loose Foundation and a couple of other organizations, parents, teachers, conferences, PTA, what not, in Michigan. So someone told me about this. So I just said, okay, sounds good to me. And I was in one of the last meetings, so. Oh, okay. Board members, any questions? Jump in, I can't see hands. Todd Tanisha, good to see you again. We've actually been part of the Racial Justice Committee. So I know that you've been involved in the community in that respect as well. So it's really good to see you branching out, really. Anyone branching out into these volunteer positions? Was there something in particular that drew your interest to the economic development in particular, or was it just a general sense of volunteering? A general sense of volunteering, but I wanted to know how everything works and how you all do everything. And I just brought on some suggestions. I was talking to Linda and Aliza. So, yeah. Great. Any other board members with questions? Yeah, I'll go ahead and jump in. Again, Todd Tanisha, thank you so much for stepping forward to interview for this position. Question I have is similar to what I asked Mike, is from your prior involvement with other organizations, what do you have a unique thing that you believe you could contribute? Yes, I'm more so. I learn quick and fast and I have a lot of good ideas. I've learned that working with a couple of other people. So a lot of things I can think of. I had suggested to Linda and it was a couple of weeks ago about branching out and going to the businesses and letting them see your face. I had a lot to do with that as far as when I was in the organization because I was a volunteer coordinator for Michigan Lucas Foundation. So they've seen our face a lot. So it's just more of a community thing and they'll let them know that you are there. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Donor Vince. Okay. Tatanisha, is there anything in particular that you are interested in pursuing as a member of the commission? I haven't thought about anything right at this time. But I'm still looking over and researching a lot of things. Okay. Well, board members, if you don't have any questions, any further questions? So any Cooper's hands up? I don't know if we were... I can't even see it. Yeah, offer her the opportunity to speak as the chair of the... I think as chair of EDC, that would be a good idea. Go ahead, Annie. Hi, thank you. Hi, Tatanisha. I just wanna say that I have met with Tatanisha and I find Tatanisha your experience with personal outreach to large businesses and companies. I'm super excited to have the opportunity that you're being considered for this seat. I think it will be really fun for us if this elect board agrees. And I just having met with Tatanisha for over an hour and a half, I feel very confident in what I've learned. And I'm really excited about what Tatanisha can bring to the table. And so thank you all so much for an opportunity to say that. And Tatanisha, thank you for applying. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for doing that, Annie. I appreciate the input from the chair. Okay, so Tatanisha, we're gonna move on with other candidates but we will be talking about... We so also had her hand up, I'm sorry. Oh, thank you. It's Ilya, we're just trying to be your eyes. Yeah, I appreciate it. Go ahead, Ilya. Hi, my apologies for not just speaking up because I had been hearing the ongoing conversation about how you couldn't see. So my apologies. I just wanted to chime in with Annie because Annie and I both engaged Tatanisha in conversations about the Economic Development Commission and some of the thoughts that we had and where she might plug in. And she really had some interesting thoughts and input when we talked and what was it? Oh, and actually, so part of the reason that she got introduced to the concept of the opening on the EDC is because it came up during one of the racial justice committee conversations that there was an opening on the EDC and wouldn't it be great if we had more diversity on our boards? So I applaud her for stepping up. And as Annie said, we had a really great conversation with her and look forward to working with her. All right, thank you, Elisa. And as I said, we will discuss appointments at the end of the meeting. Is there anyone else's hand up regarding Tatanisha? Okay, thank you. All right, so we will be in touch with you soon to Tatanisha, thank you. So when the meeting started, it was nice and bright in my room. Now the sun has gone down and I neglected to turn my light on. So I'm gonna step away momentarily. I'll be right back. Okay. Meanwhile, we will call up to the plate, James McCormick. Hi, everybody. There you are. Hi, how are you? I am doing well. Thanks for seeing me. Can you hear me okay? We can and we can see you. Okay, wonderful. So James, you've expressed interest in both the Conservation and Trails Committee and the Economic Development Commission. Is that correct? Yeah. Can you talk about why you're interested in both committees? Yeah, so a little background. My name is James McCormick. I grew up in Essex Junction, went to Hiawatha, Fleming, ADL and Essex High School. I have since actually bought a house in Winooski, which is where I live and just finished up the select board race or city council rather, been following what's going on a little bit on this select board level in Essex and just wanna get involved in more local and municipal level government and decision-making. Great. Yeah, more just interested in economic development and the process for kind of building and development as well as just like the outdoors and being in nature. So Trails and Conservation also was kind of appealing. Okay, thank you. So board members, feel free to ask James your questions. James, if you've had a preference between the two, which one would you rather be seated on? Yeah, hey Patrick, I would probably, yeah, I would side toward the economic development side of things. I'll go ahead and jump in with my similar question to what I've asked the others. What would unique things do you think would bring to the table for either of the positions? So I have kind of a background in home repair and construction. So just knowing that lumber prices have doubled during the pandemic, little things like that during kind of like the planning and building stages of projects, I think would be useful information to have. Okay, great, thank you. Don or Vince. So James, have you attended any of the meetings of either committee? So I haven't on the committee level. I have on the Essex Select Board, but not on the committees individually. Okay. I have looked at kind of the agenda of the economic development committee though, just kind of following along on the agendas. Okay. And are there any other comments or questions you'd like to make? Was that directed at me? I'm sorry, or two. So nothing in particular, not like a single issue that I'm looking at, but would definitely be thoughtful in coming to conclusions. And I guess maybe one thing is looking at the option tax. I know that's being discussed and just some thoughts around food, specifically with like grocery stores being included in that. Okay. Yeah, that's gonna be a topic of conversation in the near future, I'm sure. Okay. Well, if there aren't any other board member questions, no, okay. Then James, thank you for your time. Thanks for stepping up and we will proceed with the next interview, which is Kimberly Tetra. Are you here, Kimberly? Can you hear me now? Yes. Hello. There you are. Hi. Hi. So welcome. Thank you for stepping up. Thank you. You are interested in being a part of our Conservation and Trails Committee. Would you like to talk about why? Well, I just came back to this area. And during the pandemic and right before that, actually, I got introduced to Saxon. I already was aware of Indian Brook. I raised my kids in Essex Junction and really just loved being out in nature with my children. I think it's a great place. And with all the technology that's out there, I think we still need to embrace being outside and keeping kids grounded that way. But I just fell in love with Saxon and I have a beautiful Doberman that's two and a half and run my dog over there quite often. But to go back on what Mike said earlier, I'm new to the area, so it's really hard for me to navigate over there. Like I don't feel comfortable going over by myself to walk around with my dog because I feel I'm going to get lost. However, I've gotten used to it and I've used the maps in the area. But one of my concerns is that I'm a CCV student and this last semester I fell in love with my natural history of Vermont and conserving what we have over there in such a natural resource that I wouldn't want to see go away. I will say that my feeling of the place is more about getting people more active, introducing them to it, helping them find it, keeping kids over there and also how to protect it. Like I'm over there and I'm picking up trash and walking around and seeing some of the areas that are not kept up and kind of sort of being kind of a, I don't even want to say it, but like when I see people doing something wrong, I'm willing to approach and be like, hey, can you pick up your trash kind of thing? Which I probably shouldn't do because it's not safe, but I just want to see the place preserved. Absolutely. Board members, feel free to jump in. Kimberly, you mentioned Saxon Hill and Indian Brook, both. Are you generally just doing the hiking there and or I know Vince will appreciate the question. Have you had a chance to take some of the biking, get a bike out there onto some of the trails over at Saxon Hill? Not. I have not had the opportunity to get a bike yet. I had surgery two and a half years ago and I haven't been able to get back on a bike, but it's my goal to actually get back on a bike within the next few months. We'll see how I do. So I do a lot of hiking right now up through there. Awesome. Well, this would definitely be motivation if you were placed onto the committee. Yeah. Great, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. All right, I'll jump in. Kim, have you attended any of the meetings yet? And same question I've asked everybody else. You get a preview of it. What unique thing do you think you bring to the table? So I have not been able to attend the meeting. I'm still a student right now. So a lot of my time is like my free time, which I don't have much of is right now with my schoolwork. I think I would bring a different type of viewpoint. I'm not political in the sense of, I just don't get into that side of it. I'm more of an enthusiast. I would be the one that's like, come on, let's get a group of people together. Let's bring them out. I would be the person in the community rallying and volunteering to be that spokesperson because I love talking to people. I love being out in the public. When I was a resident here before, I was part of the EJEC Committee, which is a structural educational committee. And I went to all the schools and helped fundraise for the school district when we had the Freedom Grant. And I just loved the community support that I would get for that. And that's where I would be able to give. That would be my best suited place would be kind of like a cheerleader. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Any other questions? Board members? Vince? Yeah, I was going to ask what are your kind of like top three areas of concentration that you'd like to look at if you're appointed at the board? Well, definitely marking the territories over there. Mike had mentioned that. And as a newbie, I can't tell where I'm going. So that would definitely be something that I would encourage happening, mapping it out according and definitely asking and seeing if we can retain more of the area for our personal, you know, for our community use. And somehow I think once we would have those definitive lines, those easements in place, encouraging some sort of, I don't even know how to say it, but like when I go over there, I just see a lot of misuse. So how to make sure that we're still keeping track of, like I went over there the other day as an example and I saw a fire going and I called up and I said, you know, there's a fire going over here. Come to find out it's allowed in that one area because it's that person's land and they're allowed to burn the tree stumps. But I was there at eight o'clock at night and that fire was going and it looked like there'd been a party instead. So for me, I'm like, what's allowed? Where can you not go? Who do you call in that, you know, in that instance, obviously the fire department, but a lot of people were gonna walk away from that and not even pay attention. So that, those are some of the things that I am passionate about in that area is that kind of thing. I hope that answered your question. Yes, thank you very much and thanks for stepping up. You're welcome. Any other questions, board? Okay, Kimberly, do you have any other last comments? Nope, not at all. Well, as I said to everyone else, we'll be making some, having a discussion and making some decisions later this evening and the town will be in touch with you. So thank you each of you for stepping up to be a part of the community and for serving and it was really nice to meet all of you. And again, thank you for your interest in serving Essex. We really appreciate it. Thanks Elaine, thanks everybody. Sure. Okay, we're gonna move on to the next business item. And as I said, we'll be doing an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss the appointments. So next business item is the presentation of the fiscal year 2020 audit. And I see Sarah Macy has joined us. So please take it away, Sarah. Thanks Elaine. So hi everybody. This is my favorite time of the year. It's audit presentation time. Bill Kaiser is here tonight from our audit firm, Katal Branigan and Sargent. As you guys may or may not know, the financial statements were recently issued after our long audit slash budget season starting back in the fall and running through the winter. I'm really excited with you're happy with the results. It's one of my personal favorite things is getting the audit, getting the financial statements all wrapped up. We have like a nice presentation of the actual results. So it's the conclusion from the budget to the implementation through the year and then the review and the financial statements. So it's something that I really enjoy. And I'm gonna let Bill tell you guys how it went this year and answer some questions you may have. Hi, can everyone hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, so as Sarah mentioned, I'm Bill Kaiser, I'm manager at Katal Branigan and Sargent and the lead auditor on the town's audit. We perform the field work for the town's audit in the last week of October in 2020 and we issued an unmodified opinion, which means no issues were noted during our audit procedures. Consistent with prior years, there was no single audit required for the town's financials. I believe last year I said, I noted that there may be the grants that we were supposed to get passed through to the town and onto Champlain Housing Trust never ended up happening. So because the town had no other funds from federal awards over $750,000, that was not the case this year. As far as audit adjustments go, overall it's a very clean audit. We'd received the trial balance from Sarah and her finance department. Roughly early October, I would say. At that point, they're still completing a few of their reconciling items. So when we start field work, we do get a list of client adjustments that we post. Those are really the only audit adjustments that we made this year for 2020. On top of that, there are what we call GASB 68 adjustments in the water and recreation fund posting the activity for the year on the state pension plan. This year, we also made an adjustment to capitalize the $730,000 fire truck lease. In doing this, it was an offset on the general fund, $730,000 of revenue and then the offsetting expense. And then for GASB, we booked the debt and obviously the expense turned into the asset on the books for GASB. We did have one prior period adjustment this year and it was due to the recreation fund. This is something that Sarah had been tracking from year to year. And what it was was related to the summer of 2020 deposits that are received. In the past, the town had always picked that up as revenue in the year that it was received when it was for the following fiscal year. In 2020, because of COVID, everyone likes to blame things on COVID because of the activity and the deposits being down for the summer of 2020, it resulted in a material fluctuation from 2019's deposits to 2020. And in the past, we've always looked at it, the deposits are very consistent. We aren't gonna make any changes. This year, it ended up resulting in a $60,000 fluctuation in the recreation fund on the bottom line. So we did make that adjustment. In the end, it's not a huge deal. We're actually getting the books to be reflected in a more appropriate way, even though there was nothing misleading about them in the past because of the change being so immaterial. This is more of an appropriate presentation on the financial statements. Going over to the financial statements, I wanna start the MDNA. This is consistently reported each year. And all that report is is a year-over-year comparison. It shows more of a comparative financial statement, which you don't get in the actual statements. And there's also additional discussions and major fluctuations as well as what the town is looking at for future planning considerations. After the MDNA is the government-wide financial statements, these, if you're in the business world, are more reflective of an accrual basis financial statement. You'll notice the significant cash balances for the town. I do wanna note with that, since the town and the village have merged, many of their departments, the town holds all the village cash. So you will notice in the liability section of this financial statement on the balance sheet, there's $6.5 million due to the village if those funds were ever desegregated, if those cash accounts were ever desegregated again. Obviously that money is available in the town's general fund to refund that money over to the village. The net investment in capital assets at the bottom is by far the largest number you'll see in this financial statement. All that is is the net effect. It takes the equity earned over time on this government-wide financial statement. And it's really the fixed assets, the capital assets, less any debt associated with those. And then the restricted portion of this is just this money is received from the state for the future reappraisals. And you'll see in footnote 15, you'll see a breakout of explaining what that restricted $815,000 is. Over to the fund financial statements. You'll see the modified accrual basis of accounting, which is more similar to what we call cash basis. And really how the town's budget works on an annual basis. The receivables that are reported are net with a $318,000 unavailable for unavailable balance. This amount has to be recorded on an annual basis and is the part of your accounts receivable and property taxes mostly that aren't collected within the first 60 days of the year or of the following fiscal year. So through August 31st, obviously this is a little bit of an increase from last year. And we're seeing that with all of our municipal and utility clients this year, obviously due to COVID, there's a lot, tax sales haven't been happening or a lot of them have been paused because of the pandemic. So it just, people aren't as encouraged to pay things like property taxes and utility bills. So eventually once tax sales do come back into effect, I would expect that a lot of these uncollected property taxes, assuming they have been already, but a lot of them will begin to get collected. Down on the bottom of that balance sheet is the fund balance for the town. The town does have a fund balance policy. And that policy states that the unassigned fund balance should not exceed 15% or more of the following years operating budget. For June 30, 2020, that unassigned fund balance is exactly 15%. So we are in compliance with that policy. Really the fund balance is a true picture of what the prior year surplus as well as the current year earnings are available to be used in the general fund in the future years. So that is a very important number to look at and follow us along with your future abilities to assign and commit funds going forward. So additionally in the capital projects fund, that full balance has to be assigned for future capital projects. And then on page 29, that note 15 that I previously mentioned, it'll give you a detailed description of the assignments and commitments for the year. At June 30, 2020 to be expended in future years. Now over to the proprietary financial statements. There's the water and the sewer fund, which are consists of one fund and then the recreation fund. These are more business funds essentially and they're meant to be self-sustaining. In 2020, the water and sewer fund reported income of $309,000 while there was a small loss of $5,000 in the recreation fund. You'll notice in the recreation fund and comparing it to prior years, there is a deficit this year. We expect that to be flipped as soon as the books are closed into July 1, 2020. And this is due to that $140,000 hit from the prior period adjustment I discussed previously. We expect that though, hopefully to become a positive fund balance in 2021. But that obviously has a lot of the success of the recreation department in 2021 during COVID. There has to be somewhat of a profit there are a promising year in order to turn that around which I would expect that to be the case. The cash flow gives you kind of a, the strength of the proprietary fund cash flows. And it gives you an idea of the fluctuations from year to year in the operations for the water and sewer fund. The water and sewer fund is positive this year and there is a reduction in cash in the recreation fund because of towards the end of the year, obviously not as much funding was coming in. On to the footnotes. These provide a more descriptive detail of many of the balances in the financial statements including the types of debt that the town has as well as what makes up the capital asset accounts and the future expenditures in the fund balance of what that is being set aside for. We didn't have any new disclosures this year in the financial statements there were no new accounting requirements. There are some coming up but because of COVID a lot of those have been delayed. There is one disclosure in the financials that you will notice regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and just the risks and uncertainties involved in that and just the unknown future ahead economically. And then lastly in the supplementary information useful schedule is the budget to actual which you'll see the voted budget as well as the actual figures and how the fiscal year ended up compared to the budget that was voted for the 2020 fiscal year. That is all I have and I'm open to any questions. Thanks very much Bill and thank you too Sarah. There's a lot of work that goes into preparing for this. So thank you. Board members questions or comments for Sarah or Bill on the audit? I have a few. Apologies for not raising my hand Elaine. I'm just kidding. Me anyway. Bill I realize that this is kind of looking forward into the future but I think at our town meeting we had, excuse me, we've received some word that we may see some local funds coming down because of the upcoming COVID relief Bill. If that happens, is it still the, you had mentioned I think $750 or $780,000 would require. You said, is it a separate audit? I just wanna sort of be clear that if we as a municipality receive money from the US government sort of directly is that something that we need to kind of have on our radar going forward into the next year? Just again, I guess I'm not really sure if we need to be aware of it, be aware of how we're spending it or if there's anything that we need to worry about at all or if we just push it all on the service plate and have her tell us how to spend it. No, so you are 100% right Patrick. There is hopefully some money that is gonna be allocated to municipalities in this new stimulus bill. Any funds directly received by the town or in that case the village would be subject to single audit funds or single audit testing. All that is is an additional compliance test with a single audit we look into more, we look more into the internal controls in the finance department used within the municipality and do specific testing related to if the funding, if the expenditures incurred that the federal funding funded were appropriately spent and funds weren't misappropriated. The town kind of has the best of both worlds because we are auditing the village at the same time and they do have a single audit. We do all of that internal control testing throughout all of our audit procedures. So in a way the town is kind of undergoing its own single audit just because we have to do that as part of our audit for a lot of the functions that are already consolidated within the town and the village like accounts receivable, accounts payable, things of that nature. But yes, to answer your question, if $750,000 were spent in COVID relief funds or other federal expenditures which the town does have, we would have to do that single audit. Okay, great. And then the unavailable property tax revenue that you spoke about. I'm not sure if this is a bill or Sarah question, really. In comparison to last year, do we know what that was? I guess I'm just kind of trying to get an idea for number-wise, that might tell us how many of our citizens had issues paying their property taxes, we have that number now. I just kind of want to get an idea for what it was like a year ago. I have that figure handy. So at FY 19, it was $265,100 and then at the end of FY 20, how do you get to that page? It's $318,400, so $318,400. So 50,000 increase, how's my math without a calculator? I think that's about right. The town's tax sale policy does have us looking at delinquency in May. And so we will be doing that. You should expect to hear from us in a couple of months about that. Awesome, great. Thanks to appreciate it. Thank you. I see Evan's hand up actually. Thanks. Yeah, go ahead Evan. Thanks, thanks Elaine. Bill, you mentioned you do the auditing as well for the village. So I'm gonna throw a joint question at you. Can you talk about the financial health of the village and the town comparatively just in general to you do a lot of auditing of other communities, how would you rate our financial balance sheets? I think the number one thing to look at there Evan is really the strength of your cash position and liquidity on the balance sheet itself. The fund balance is very strong. I think it was just a few years ago when Sarah and Lauren kind of came into the town, they enacted the fund balance policy. In a way, this kind of spreads out revenue, hopefully with the hope I think of reducing potential tax rate increases by forcing the town to commit past earnings to future expenditures and minimize that unassigned fund balance as much as possible. And at 15% to be where the town is at as far as fund balance available and unspent is very strong compared to what we've seen throughout some of the municipalities we audit in the state, yes. And then my second and final question and is accounting and financial controls. I know you auditors are very keen. If that is an accounting term, keen on an eye towards those things, can you address how you feel the town does in its accounting and financial controls and maybe give a little bit to the people at this meeting what those are and why it's important. So one of the big things is like kind of internal checks and balances and segregation of duties. And I think that with two experienced like leaders in the finance department between Sarah and her assistant finance director as well as a really experienced staff outside of the two of them. It enables everyone to kind of check off each other's work, review each other's journal entries before they're posted. And the fact that the size of the town and the village, both the fact that we can come in and while I said there are audit adjustments between the time we receive the trial balance and the time that we start field work, we audit a huge volume of invoices and other areas within the trial balance for the town and the village and come out with very few adjusting journal entries. Overall, I would say the controls are very strong. We review those. One of the requirements like I said with the single audit and the village and how the town kind of gets the best of both worlds is that we are constantly checking the internal controls and making sure that expenditures for the village are charged to the village and likewise expenditures for the town are charged to the town. Does that answer your question or did I? No, you can answer it however you wish. Okay, I just wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out. You know, it's a sense of pride to us that our financial controls are strong, that people have confidence that our numbers are correct, our processes are tight, that we take their information and our monetary numbers extremely seriously, Sarah and her team as well as the front office and that when our auditors come in, they're not aghast of what they're finding. They're like, out of a million transactions, you're gonna find something, right? You should, but you find very little. I think the most confident way for the select board to look at the results of the audit is that on a monthly basis, everyone is kind of tracking the budget to actual going throughout the year and when you get the audited financial statements, it's not completely different. So I think that as far as the select board goes, everyone should be pretty confident and comfortable in the finance department's capabilities. Thanks, Bill. And I know you're not an easy pushover, so that's nice of you to say. We try to get Sarah every time. We know she loves her job, so. Board members, any other questions? Yeah, can I jump in? Right ahead. So Bill, one of the things that we have run into, and at least I've seen in the past, is the question of our funds available for payout of vacation and earn sick time. Sometimes we end up having to add additional funds to that because we, and I guess it's a very difficult thing to predict because somebody has to actually work long enough to retire and then claim those benefits. And so it's hard to plan for that. I just wonder where we're sitting with that concern right now. Yeah, I actually believe, Andy, in that fund balance footnote, Sarah, correct me if I'm wrong, but are we reserving for a portion of that, those future expenditures? Yeah, so for anyone who is, I think approaching retirement age, I can't remember exactly how close, we take their actual balance of vacations, eligible sick and comp time, plus the FICA, METI taxes that we'll have to pay on those things and we have an assigned fund balance category for 100% of that. So yeah, and I know in the past, we've, I think we've been a little behind on that, so I'm glad to hear we're trying to keep up with it, okay. Any other questions or comments, board members? Okay, I noted in the chat, a resident is curious about property tax increases. I'm wondering if we could just briefly, Sarah, ask you to share what residents can expect in terms of when the next property tax rates will be announced? Certainly, so we set property taxes every year in August after the grand list has been finalized. So what we do is we take the final grand list and we divide that into the voter approved tax levy to get a tax rate, which then is applied to all properties. And so I don't have the anticipated change off hand that we talked about during budget time. I can be reached by email at smasmacy at sx.org, and I'd be happy to answer that question or any other questions people have about audit or the budget. And so that's how you can get in touch with me, but it will be August when we set those final rates. All right, thank you, Sarah. And thank you, Bill and Sarah, and also thank you, Courtney. I neglected to thank Courtney earlier for all the hard work that you all have put into this process. And I'm really happy to hear, I mean, I always trust the numbers coming from the finance department, but because we have some serious professionals that we're lucky to have employed by the town, but it's always great to have a professional and objective assessment of our numbers every year and to have a clean audit. So thank you for all the hard work that goes into that. And Bill, thank you for such a good strong audit. Thank you, Elaine. We'll see you next year. Yes, we'll be here. Back in October. Thank you all, thank you, Bill. Thank you, Sarah. Okay. We are now ready for item F and G. I think we might wanna talk about together. Consider approval of first class liquor license renewals and second class liquor license renewals. Greg, do you wanna kick us off? Sure. So it's the time of year again where you have the whole batch of liquor license renewals, some changes to remind you of that we started doing last year to sort of streamline things rather than having all the applicants come in and rather than having a select board sift through hundreds and hundreds of pages of applications. We're having the police department and the clerk's office handle pretty much the bulk of the work. Both have vetted all the applications that you want the list of applicants you see in your packet and they're comfortable with approving those applicants. The packet list includes the first class. We also do third class liquor license approvals now. Outdoor consumption we continue to do. Those are all listed there. Second class liquor license applicants are also included in your packet. We still have new applicants come in. That's why the Silver, blanking on the name Silver, hospitality sauce and bubbles wine bar is listed in your consent agenda because they were a new applicant that you approved recently. The outdoor consumption permit is new for them. So that's separate in the consent agenda. But they have also been reviewed and approved by the clerk's office and police department. Beyond that, yeah, if there's any applicants who have had issues in the past year, we would ask them to come in to chat the select board if need be about what those issues are and how they might improve them going forward. We do not have any of that this year. We got the police have given a clean slate to the applicants that have come through. So beyond that, I'm happy to try to answer any questions and hopefully that's a good reminder of what we have been doing. Thank you, Greg. Board members, questions or comments? If Don has a hand up. Oh, thank you. Don, go ahead. You're muted. Glad you could see that because it didn't show on my screen. How does the police vet these applications or what do they look at and what does the town clerk look at when they apply for liquor license? Sure. So the town clerk gets the actual application and ultimately this take a step back. The select board approves the liquor license applications are acting as a board of liquor control for the town. They forward the applications once approved to the department of liquor control which gives the final sign off. So what the clerk's office does is they collect all the applications, they read through them, they make sure they're filled out correctly, they make sure that the applicants have their up-to-date, gotta forget the name, but basically they're licensed to say that they've gone through the training to be able to serve alcohol. They make sure that the addresses are there, that the fees are posted, all those things. The police go through and they check to see who's had any violations, if there's been calls in the past year, if there's been any, basically anything that should raise concern from a police public safety standpoint. So between the two of them, they're reviewing, doing the full review of the applicants. I'll add, and this is Devin, I'll add the police department, we say calls, if there are any activity at that establishment or that started at that establishment that give the police concern, whether that is fights, whether that is over-serving, whether that is DUIs that can be traced back to that business. If that is the case, they will stop in and talk with the owners and managers of that establishment probably prior, well prior to any liquor license renewal, but those will get flagged and those businesses will be brought before the select board, either prior to license renewal or as part of license renewal, depending upon when some of these occur. And that's one of the reasons why when the select court chair reads the admonishment that has been created, that we tell people, we take liquor licensing extremely seriously. We're not kidding. And we have looked to revoke someone's license, which in essence, if someone's license is revoked, they will shut down and the department of liquor control has done that before. So we don't like doing that. We love working with our businesses, but if they are not serving in an appropriate manner, our police do take those actions. So thanks for that. And then again, back to staff, they do all the reviewing of the terms and conditions of licensing. They make sure that people have their ownership listed, contact names, prior businesses that they've been associated with and contact information. So again, it's a very good type process. And I also give a shout out to the department of liquor control. They do an excellent job in those areas and they do their own inspections as well. Thank you both. You're welcome. Thanks, Evan. Board members, any questions or comments on the first set of liquor licenses, the first and third class? Okay. If anyone would like to move to approve those licenses? I can do that. I move that the select board approve the first and third class liquor licenses, the liquor license renewals listed, including the outdoor consumption permits in the February 10, 2021 and March 10, 2021 memorandums regarding liquor license applications. I'll second it. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. And now the second class liquor license renewals. Would anyone like to make a motion? Oh, sure. Looking for the words. I guess they're the same as the first ones. I move that the select board approved the second class liquor license renewals listed and the March 10, 2020, no. Where are they? Andy, I think the recommendation is... Yep, I found it. I found it. Here it is. I'm sorry. I move that the select board approved the attached list of second class liquor license renewals. Second. Thank you, Angie. Thank you, John. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, and before we leave the subject, I will just quickly read the liquor license admonition for all of the renewed licenses. The select board takes the issuance of liquor licenses very seriously, as should the area establishments who serve alcohol. We expect you to not serve alcohol to minors nor anyone who is obviously inebriated. We thank you for doing business in Essex and we wish you a very successful year. All right. We have moved through the liquor licenses and once again, Greg and Jenny, thank you so much for this expedited process. It's super smooth and we hope it works out better for you as well. Thank you, Eddie. It's great on our end and really it sits the clerk's office and the police have really streamlined it and they're the ones who deserve all the credit, but I will pass that on. Thank you. Please do, especially to the police as well. Okay, item H, discuss results of merger vote and vote for reconsideration. So there's a memo in the packet. Greg, you wanna go ahead? Sure, give me one moment to get to that section. And as I'm pulling it up, basically just wanted to give the select board an opportunity to discuss the results of the merger vote. Obviously the vote happened on March 2nd, town meeting day. Since then we now have a petition. There's gonna be a vote for reconsideration in April on April 13th. So nothing specific necessarily that staff was looking for the boards to discuss. Maybe you wanna talk about upholding informational meetings or hearings before the vote for reconsideration, but really just wanted to have something on the agenda and give the board an opportunity to discuss as you see fit. Yeah, thank you, Greg. I think really the only question there was out there, I believe came up at our last meeting, which is whether we want to have informational meetings prior to the revoke. So I would open that up to discussion of the board. And again, just jump in. I can't see hands. Yeah, hey, this is Vince. I'm sorry, I have my video off because my team's keeps dying when I have it on. But yeah, I'm in favor of holding a hearing or two for a couple of informational meetings, specifically around like, you know, people that still have questions. Yeah, that's kind of all I had. Vince, are you, you said plural, so you're thinking more than one? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we should probably do a hearing and then, you know, have an informational meeting after that. So like listen and then respond maybe. Okay. Well, how does the rest of the board feel about that? Or maybe if you could get the rest of the board's opinion on that, Elaine? Certainly. I thought I saw Pat like he wanted to speak or something. I always want to speak. I mean, this was a struggle. You know, I mean, I've said personally that, you know, I have issues with how the mechanism of revotes work and function, you know, we all know it's law and we'll follow exactly what we need to do. But we're also in a really odd situation. You know, Elaine is not going to be here after, you know, this upcoming select board meeting. You know, to what extent would you be willing to participate when you need to participate before your term is up in, you know, as of the April meeting? You know, we took a position as a vote with the majority of the board for merger, but I don't believe that, you know, or at least I feel that this is kind of a different question. You know, it may be worth us talking about whether or not we as a select board are going to take a position again on the revote or not because I personally feel it is a different question. You know, while I may, while I think and strongly believe that merger is absolutely the path forward, you know, I don't think that this is exactly the same as it was before. The plan itself is the same, certainly. But, you know, the mechanism of doing a revote, I'm just, I guess I'm struggling with whether or not this is actually something that we can say, you know, hey, the select board has approved this revote because I don't think that we necessarily have, you know, we as a board, majority approve the plan of merger in the past, but, you know, we're, like I said, in this kind of weird time period where we're going to be having the vote with the composition of the select board changing. So, you know, I'll say that I'm struggling with some aspects of it. I'd love to get some feedback before I kind of come to a final decision. I will absolutely participate and be willing to hold informational meetings, you know, I'll do whatever I need to do for, you know, speaking to and getting the plan of merger out. But, you know, there's a lot of questions, I think that are in the air that certainly weren't there before with this. So that's where I am now, more questions than I probably have answers for. Okay, Andy or Dawn? I'd rather see us do like the informal meetings that we did on the weekend where people call in and talk to us one-on-one or two-one-two as we work together, not have an official hearing because there's no new, the charter, the merger and the charter aren't going to change, we're just doing a revote of the vote. We can't change anything else in it, so. But we can still answer questions and then I'll inform away. Okay, Andy? I think the information that we need to get out is the fact that there's a vote, you know, to begin with, you know, a lot of people may not realize that this has happened, you know, even though there's a lot of, there's a lot of, you know, churn about it, at least that I'm seeing on Front Porch Forum, I don't go to the Facebook pages so I have no idea what's being said there but and or who's seeing it. But I think we need to, we need to, I certainly agree that we need, potentially could be neutral on this whole discussion and only share information about the fact that there is a vote, why there's a vote, that it's the exact same thing that is going to be on the, you know, shared ballot, you know, envelopes with the village in the school district and why we're doing that. And I think those are the kind of questions that a lot of people are asking, you know, people are even asking, well, why aren't, why are we posting this, you're posing the same question, why aren't we trying to strike a different deal? And, you know, we all know that it's, that's the law we have, you can't ask a different question, you can ask the same one. So I'd like to at least have, I mean, what I'd really like to do is send a postcard to everybody and say, hey, this is going to be re-voted, this is why. And, you know, not have it be a sales pitch in either direction, just a, you know, this is being re-voted, you know, please pay attention and, you know, I don't know if we know what the ballot's going to look like yet, you know, it sounds like if it's on the same page, it's going to be at the tail end of whatever else is on the budget or on the ballot. And, you know, if it's on the backside in the back corner, people may not, you know, see it or whatever. So I just want, I'm more interested in getting information out about the vote than having more discussion about, you know, should we merge or not merge. And I have concerns about us talking about separation if that comes up in a meeting, because it's not, I mean, the town can initiate, cannot initiate a separation, right? It's a, we don't have a way to divest ourselves of part of ourself. So I don't, you know, I don't think we can speak for the trustees with regard to any questions around separation. Other than, I don't know. I don't know. And it's, anyway, I guess to circle back, what I really want to talk about is the fact that there's a vote and this is where to look on the ballot to find it. This is why we're re-voting those kind of questions. Yeah, it's a, that's a great point, Andy. You know, I do think speaking about separation, you know, a lot of what we do is black and white, you know, it's either a yes or a no. But now we are, the separation thing is a little bit more confusing now because we're in a position where there has been a petition put to the trustees about separation. You know, how much information, you know, is, I mean, that information is public. That's out there. That's already done as well. You know, it would be, I think it would be a disservice to not mention portions of that. But again, that's not really the kind of black and white stance that we have. But, you know, people need to be aware of that. It's also, I think, a reality too. You know, I would prefer if a question was black and white, but we have this gray area now where there is a potential for something else to happen. You know, and that movement has occurred just in the last two weeks. So it's really tough for us to, I think, kind of say here and say, you know, where is the line? Where do we draw on the amount of information that we send out? Definitely that a revote is happening. You know, definitely why a revote is happening. You know, our citizens have come to us with a petition, you know, why it's the same plan. Those are three things that I think we can all agree, you know, have to be on there. But there's more information that's involved right now. That's really kind of tricky to say, is it our responsibility to include this? Because we know it. Because there's another official petition through Partortown. You know, I guess, you know, I don't really know that I have the answer to that. Or if I do, it's opinion-based rather than, you know, this is the right way to go or the wrong way to go. Evan, can I ask you a question? Yes, ma'am. Do you have an idea of what the mailing date is for the ballot? I used to. No, not exactly. But, and I don't know if I see, I do not, but here's our issue is, if I'm not mistaken, I think the ballot will be going out roughly seven to 10 days from now. The ballot went to the printer for proof. Susan is trying very hard. There's a lot of articles, not only on the village ballot, but the school district ballot. And then there's this question. So she's very, she's looking into it being an 18-inch sheet. Dawn, are you familiar? I'm sorry. Are you familiar with that, Dawn? So she's trying to look and see if she could get an 18-inch and it would all fit front to back. I have not talked to her today because we were taking taxes all day. It being the official deadline and the grace period, but today was the official tax deadline. So I could check with her tomorrow, but I'm guessing about seven to 10 days tops. Our concerns are because there are overseas ballots that have to be sent out and they have to come back. It is going to be a very quick turnaround. So, can I just, there's my understanding and this would match with Evan's seven days that they wanted to have everything ready to go by the 22nd, to start stuffing and mailing. Okay. So we went out of our way to communicate extensively with the residents about the initial vote. So I think Andy's suggestion of a postcard is a very good one, particularly if there's, if we need to remind people that this vote is actually happening. Understanding that March 22nd is pretty soon, next Monday. I don't know about the feasibility of creating and mailing a postcard. I mean, I know it can happen very quickly once the copy is ready, but there would be the issue of actually writing that language to put on the postcard. I would not be opposed to the select board approving sending out a postcard, but the logistics of it may not work. And my only other comment would be that the select board has, by a majority vote, approved merger. So I don't know that we need to have, like others have said, a discussion about whether or not we're talking about merger. Again, that's just beating a dead horse at this point. We do need to make sure we make every effort to inform people that the vote is happening. So I certainly am not averse to public meetings. Dawn, you and I and Pat participated in multiple online Q&A sessions, informal Q&A sessions that were set up by staff. And of the ones I attended, I think there was maybe four people between all of them that showed up. So yeah, and one of the ones that I was attending, nobody came. So just having a random Q&A session is, laudable, but not necessarily efficient or effective. So I know Vince, you had said an information meeting would be a good idea. Pat, you said you're okay with that. But as Dawn said, nothing has changed. Right, one new information that we're gonna give anybody if we have an informational hearing. Well, one piece of information about the vote. And so that's the new thing, is that like folks you need to know, there's this hope, here's how it's going to go. These are the dates related to it. This is why we're doing it. And here's what you'll see when you open your envelope. That I think might be the best approach for us to take. So the question is when to have that. If the ballots are going to be stuffed and mailed March 22nd. One thing I noticed with town meeting, we were so struck by the fact that nobody asked any questions about the budget, but it was the day before the polls were open and like 60% of people had already voted. So I think we should be, if we're going to have an information meeting for the public, it should be before or right when the ballots go out in the mail. Madam Chair, don't we have a joint meeting next Monday? We do with the trustees. Wouldn't that be a good time because they have a vote also? That would be a great use of everyone's time. We have frequently put a public hearing at the beginning of a board meeting. So that is definitely something we could do. Greg. We have a very packed agenda with my memory serves from Monday. So we can do it. We'll make for probably an incredibly long night. My recommendation, as much as I hate additional meetings is to have a separate meeting. And we can certainly invite the trustees if the staff board wants to. But I would suggest a separate meeting for an informational session. Perhaps the 23rd, 23rd, 24th, or the 23rd, is that a regular trustees meeting? It is, yes. So then perhaps the 24th or 25th, the select board could have a informational meeting. I see that face, Pat. I hear you. Yeah, I mean, I'm not against it. It's just, since I'm typically presenting their new informational meetings, the 24th and 25th are when I'm at work. So if there's an emergency or a call comes in, I have to prioritize my work over being in a select board meeting, I don't wanna have to put us in a situation where I would suddenly interrupt the entire presentation or the entire meeting because I have to take a work call. I'm good about, I think, double dipping for the most part, but in this case, no one wants my proverbial nacho germs in the onion dip. Well, Pat, I think, I appreciate that. And I know that these meetings, their frequency is really impinging upon a lot of people's professional lives as well as personal. I think that the content would be about the vote and I'm guessing it would not include the presentation on merger. Okay, yeah, if we're not doing that then, I can make that work. And then if it turns out that you're called away, as long as we have a quorum, it's okay. Andy? No, I was just gonna make that comment that I don't think we need to go through the presentation again. Again, it's more, this is what the vote is, is why we're having it. And then I don't know how long people will wanna discuss that. Okay, Vince, I haven't heard from you in the last few minutes. What are your thoughts? I mean, I think that's a, you know, I think it's all a good plan that's been discussed here. I mean, if anyone has any questions on merger, I just think we should, you know, like the specifics of it, like they haven't been involved or whatever, we should just say, like, you know, while we're talking about the vote, like if you have any questions, please ask them now, something like that. Like just a little side note in there, like not really like, I wasn't really suggesting that we like go back and rehash the specifics of merger but just give people that may not have voted the first time a chance to ask questions. That's an excellent point, Vince. So we would need to be make consideration for questions that are not necessarily about the mechanics of the vote, but that we'll just have questions about merger. We should be expecting that at this meeting. Okay. Before we make any decisions on this, I know there's, we have a large audience tonight. So board members with your, if you don't have any further questions or comments, I would appreciate it if we could open it up to the public. Would that be okay with you? Just one more. If we are having a joint meeting on Monday, and again, I realized Elaine, what you mentioned about it being very tight to get language, but would we have enough time to add a Monday meeting if a postcard was created with some info on it to approve it at the Monday meeting as a select board and then get that mailed out? I'm just trying to think of a way because I think Andy brings up a great point. We wanna try to get that out to as many people as possible. That's certainly gonna be the best way of doing it. We're gonna have 30 to 50 people at the meeting on Monday, but if it can get created over this week and then approved by us on Monday, then maybe that gives us an opportunity to actually make it happen. That's a great idea to put a draft in the packet, Evan. I was gonna say, if you want staff to take a crack at that draft for that Monday meeting, we can hear the screaming now, but we will take a crack at it and have it in the packet for Monday. That would be much appreciated. Is that all right with board members? And if I could, what I've heard so far, make sure people know there's a vote, something short of why there's a vote, any ballot info that we could put, like is it on front, back, third page, et cetera? It's a citizen led petition. That's why we're having it there. And then if there is a potential for a public information meeting that state is known, we can add that. And we would probably go back to the size that we just sent out and more than likely and if so, we could also maybe, we'll do all that. That seems like something that could be generally put together and then we'd send it right back to the company that did the other mailers so we know what to do and get them the mailing address. And so if it's approved Monday night, it would go to the printers on Tuesday. Okay. And Evan, if possible, some ballpark costs. Okay. Just so that we're aware. For Monday night. If possible. Oh, I can, you know, I could certainly find out what we spent on the first one and that would be your ballpark. Okay. Linda, the person who took care of it. Yeah. We sent out, if Madam Chair, is it okay if she chimes in? Absolutely. Please go ahead. We sent out, well, the postcard went to the village residents only, I believe, but the merger document went out to about 9,900 addresses and can certainly get a quote on shore for Monday. That would be helpful. Just so we have a complete picture. Okay. So for stuffing ballots starting Monday, is there a potential of this would end up being behind the ballots? I see Don shaking your head. Now that I said that, she was shooting for the 22nd, Andy. I'm not sure. Now that she's had to add the merger on is she's still gonna meet that deadline. All right. Okay. Okay. So we might move pretty much on top of each other, I think, when these things get mailed out. Yeah. Andy, tomorrow I'll check in with Susan to see what her proof is looking like. So that if that's some type of information that we could put on the postcard, we'll have something out this for the packet and we'll do our best. And so board members, if you see the packet and you wish to make edits, I suggest you send them to Evan before the meeting on Monday. Perhaps they will have an opportunity to incorporate them in time for the meeting. Thank you. All right. So let's go to folks in the audience. There's a great deal of you out there. So let's try to keep our comments to two minutes and raise your hands. And if I don't call on you, my apologies in advance. Greg, can you help me with the selecting people to speak? I will try. Right now I see hands, but earlier I did not. So maybe towards the end, you might want to just ask anyone else who had another chance to speak up. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't have hands, so I'm gonna have to ask you. So right now, I bet she done, has her hand raised. She's had it up for a while and then Erin Dickinson has her hand raised next. Okay, so Betsy then Erin. Madam Chair, before we go to that, I need to shut my camera off because you guys are jumping all over the place here, so I can still hear you. That's totally fine, Dawn. Okay, go ahead Betsy. Thank you very much, Elaine. I respectfully disagree about what you don't have to tell us about. There's so much misinformation or information out there that is conflicting around what it is. If we did, if the village did separate from the town, what would it mean to the town? What departments would be separated because we are no longer a united community and what would be left together and what would that kind of cost mean? Because I think that's information that people want to have if they're gonna make this new decision around the vote for a merchant or not. And I think that is an important piece because people out there saying that your taxes are gonna be three times higher, that's not real, but what is it that's real? That's all I'm thinking. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Erin. Yes, actually I have a couple of points and Betsy just took one of them, so I don't have to say that. There was a beautiful booklet that was sent out prior to the last merger vote. It was pretty extensive. I recycled it thinking that this was done. So if you do send a postcard out, I don't know if there's a PDF of that merger document online, but I would highly recommend including a link to that document in the postcard so that people like me have access to that information. And then I have a hard time navigating and really trying to find succinct facts about the merger. And I'm wondering if you have an FAQ document on your website, which I had seen that there's a video presentation of the merger information, but I think it'd be really helpful to have common questions that are asked with really succinct answers so that people can just navigate to the website and get some information to pretty commonly ask questions. So maybe that exists, but I'm not finding it right now. And that's all I have. Thanks, Erin. You will find lots and lots of FAQs in that booklet. And so greaters62020.org is the website where all that information and the FAQs lives, but that's a great idea to put it on the postcard. Greg, are there other hands up? I am not seeing any other hands. Oh, there's one, Rachel is up. Go ahead, Rachel. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. So this is my very first time speaking at a select board meeting, and I'm a little nervous. I just wanted to say that I live in the town outside of the village and I am very much in favor of the merger. And in my opinion, there are quite a few residents in the town who are also in favor, but potentially stay quiet because of the noise and the divisive nature that has been festering here. And it does feel incredibly divisive, but I think that this merger is actually something to celebrate. I think that we are in a unique space to make lasting change for Essex. And our town is great because of all the unique parts, the village, the town, the rural parts. Our town government here is equally and serves all equally. So thank you to the elected officials. And there is a narrative being circulated that the town residents don't feel heard. And I wanna say that I feel heard. I feel this merger plan is a good compromise, keeping services leveled, taxes under control and achieving the goal of one streamlined community. And I will enthusiastically vote yes on merger again. Okay, thank you. Greg, can you see who's next? Who's post? Okay, go ahead. I'm not gonna talk about merger, but I do wanna get, I just wanna make sure the timing is enough for the foreign absentee ballots. I know Susan last week said she'd probably get an advance copy and email him. I hope so. All I know is our daughter, our youngest daughter lives in Germany. And I was told by her that it didn't come by plane back to the States. It came by boat for some strange reason. And I don't know what it is. Given the closeness of the vote and the demonstration that indeed the cliche, every vote counts, I just hope that those Essex residents who are abroad will have enough time to be able to vote. And we'll make sure once she's able to get about, she can get in. But if there are any conflicting factors, that would be very, very, very unfortunate. So don't forget those folks abroad. Thank you. Okay, are there folks who wish to speak? Excuse me, Mary has her hand raised. And Mary, if you could give us your full name for the record, please. Yeah, it's Mary Post. And I don't know that much about this, but I know somebody said to me the other day that we just had a bunch of people from the guard deployed and that that would be much harder for them to get their ballots on time. I think it's because they've suddenly changed addresses or something. So I just want to bring that to you for all the guard members that have deployed that they will be able to get their ballots. Thank you. I'm not sure they've actually left yet, but we will make every effort to get our ballots out to the people. Yeah. Anybody else? I don't see any hands, Greg. Do you? I don't see any hands. This is Evan. I don't see any other hands. Okay. All right. Then thank you folks for your questions and comments and suggestions. So board members, would you be willing to schedule a special meeting next week, perhaps on the 25th or 24th or 25th Wednesday or Thursday? Yes. Yeah, either day will be well for me. Evan and Greg, how's that going to work for you? Do you want honesty or do you want us to just say yes? You want to say yes. I would prefer the Thursday since we already have Monday and Tuesday. Okay. Okay. If we can keep it to the item at hand of the whatever, just whatever the item is on that night, which is probably the, I don't know if it's the postcard or the materials or information meetings. Greg and I will pinky square that no other items get added. Yeah, that happened sometimes, just saying. So I'm assuming the special meeting would be for the purpose of discussing the reconsideration vote and leave it at that. And then we can just talk about, here's the facts of basically we would review what's on the postcard at this meeting. That would be the information that we would share and then take questions. Okay. All right. Do you need us to vote on that or are we okay with just scheduling it? I think we have the direction and I'm comfortable with that unless the board wants something more formal. Just if I could make sure we have a quorum, I see heads nodding. Yes. That, Pat, I can see you. I can't see Don. Thursday works for me. Thank you. So we'll have a quorum. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So unless there are no other, unless there are further questions or comments from the board on this topic, we can move on to the consent agenda. Would anybody like to move that for discussion? I make the motion. We approve the consent agenda. And we have amended it to remove item B. I'm sorry, as amended. Thank you. Any, is there second? I'll second that. Thank you, Andy. And any discussion on items of the consent agenda? Here. I had a question about some of the check warrants, the February 19th that were dated February 19, there were some invoice dates back in 2020, even as far back as May of 2020. Just curious as to if we haven't answered yet, why those were dates are late or what's going on there, I guess. I believe there was an answer to your question via email, Andy, but I, Gregor, Evan, want to discuss that. Evan, do you want to take that one? I actually can't. I wasn't, I was not able to be on email today. Again, I was, I was taking taxes for the clerk's department. I don't know if Sarah's still with us. I'm trying to search my email right now to see if I can find the answer. You know, Sarah, Sarah answered the question about the audit that Andy had, but I don't see a response from her regarding the warrants. Yeah. Sorry, Andy, I don't- That's fine, I'll just take it as a follow-up. It doesn't change my- Okay. We'll definitely get a follow-up to you tomorrow. Thank you. Okay. Anything else about the consent agenda, board members? Okay, well, we have a motion and a second on the table. Oh, sorry, I just want to mention, sorry. One of the meeting minutes, the February 23rd, I wasn't in attendance to the meeting, but it doesn't, per slight board policy, I will vote anyway, because I can't not vote, so just, I wasn't at the meeting. Just making that clear. Were you listed in the meeting? No, I was not. I'm just stating, allowed in a public meeting that I'm going to vote for approving minutes for a meeting that I did not attend. That's all I'm saying. Okay, well, that's not necessary because we appreciate the effort, so thank you. Any other questions or comments on the consent agenda? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, now we're onto the reading files and board member comments. I have comments. Go for it. I didn't put anything officially together, but Elaine, I want to thank you profusely and wholeheartedly for all of the work and all of the effort that you put in guiding this community and honestly being a mentor to me on this board, a lot of you and Max and Andy as well, but in particular, I've treasured the time that I've spent learning under you. There are very few people that I've encountered in my life, I think who are as genuine and true about serving their community. As you, and we are certainly going to miss having your presence on this board. So I want to say just from the bottom, certainly of my heart that you've made Essex in this board a better place, and I am positive that we will be staying in touch and look forward to seeing you around town. But since this is your last official select board meeting as chair, I did not want to let us go by without making sure that you were thanked and appreciated from me personally. And I think from, I can speak on behalf of the, certainly the staff, our managers and if our other board members want to say anything, I'll let them do so as well. You're very kind. Thank you, Pat. I see Evan's hand up. I actually have two things. One, I will echo Pat's sentiments. Thank you for your three years of service on the select board. I don't know if the residents really know what goes into being a citizen volunteer on the select board. Andy's been on it for many years. Dawn has served at the school board, had also at the school board, how many hours, how many nights, how many weekends, how many morning coffees, reviewing packets, you all do, how many emails, texts, phone calls, how many extras you all do. So thank you for your service to the community. So you'll be missed. Thank you. The second item I wanted to bring to your attention, I've sent you all some commentary. The Global Foundries wanted to thank the Essex Fire Department for its quick action along with Jericho Underhill. Several weeks back, they were experiencing water loss at their plant. For anybody who has any idea how microchips are made, they are made with water as one of their key processing ingredients. So when they're water tower, by the way, Global is the largest water user in the state. They are a customer of the village and of the town. And so when their alarm bells rang, we and Underhill and our Essex Junction spring into action. Just to give you a little idea, Underhill and Essex, town of Essex Fire, are very adept at laying hose line for long distances because large segments of the town do not have fire hydrants. They use tanker trucks. They use water sources where they are pumping water long distances. So they laid over 3,000 feet of hose to get water into Global that kept Global working for several days while that water repair was taken care of. And if anybody can imagine Global being down at all is a national security issue, as well as just a Global supply chain nightmare. And so they wanted to thank us. So they did, they gave us a $2,500 check and did a nice little plaque and other things, which is not really in their core, you think about it, it's nice, but to get that through corporate was a big deal. So it was very nice of them to acknowledge the work of the Essex Fire Department and just the work that our men and women of the Fire Department did to keep thousands of people working that week is commendable. So that's what I wanted to bring to your attention into the audience. So, and I'll answer any questions with that other than that, I can chat about it offline. Thanks, Evan. Any other board member comments? Yeah, I just wanted to say a deep thank you to you, Elaine. You know, it's been a pleasure serving with you on the board and answering all my newbie questions. And it's been a wonderful growth experience for me to learn the processes that you know so well. And I really appreciate the time and effort you put into helping me. Thank you, Vince, it's been a pleasure. Elaine, thank you for all you've done. Excuse me, I got to the town and the village because you spent many years there also. Thank you for your help and enjoy your future with Jed. Thank you very much, John, I appreciate that. Yeah, I gotta say thank you to Elaine, even though we didn't always see eye to eye on things. I think some of our discussions, we ended up with better solutions than we may have otherwise. And you helped me often see things in a different light than maybe my blinders allowed me to see. So thank you for that. Thank you all very much. It's been an honor serving with you and I've enjoyed every minute of it. So I will miss you all. So we have a... Sorry, the other thing I wanted to mention I guess on the reading file is the meeting schedule comes to an end with our organizational meeting, the first meeting in April. And so just wanted to remind people to bring their calendars because we gotta set the schedule for the coming year. Although everybody's at home, so I guess you're not really bringing it anywhere, but have your calendars ready and think through availability through the year. Are we good with the time? And we also, sorry, and we also talked about our policies. Sorry, Yelena, I'm interrupting. I'll stop. There's still time. I just wanted to talk about going into executive session because I'm not sure we have a link. We will... I forget to do that. I will send it out. Great one. I've send it out. I hope my team is just more... So this will be going into executive session but then we'll come back to this meeting potentially to take action. Correct. What happens if we can't get back in because of the technical difficulties? That is a great question. We'll have to defer, appointing the, I think. Yeah, I guess for discussion, I'm not sure. Let's give it a try. If it turns out that we can't get back, then you'll adjourn from executive session and we will reschedule this on an agenda item. Okay. I have a sense that since the beginning of the meeting, attendance has gotten better. I've seen a lot of people log in since then, but we shall see. And you should have just received an invite to your email. So, Kathy, still with us? I am still with you and I still see a black screen. So hopefully it resolves itself. It's been nice hearing you all. I guess we'll take minutes from here and then you don't have to stare at a black screen for the next 20 minutes. Okay. Thank you. And thank you Elaine for everything you've done. Thank you, Kathy. It was a pleasure working with you. It's been a pleasure. All right. So let's try that out going into executive session. We expect to come back, but only, you know, I guess it's gonna, we have what, four candidates, Madam Chair? That's right. I'm guessing. Four candidates, three appointments. Yeah. 30 minutes, 40 minutes in there. That's max, yeah. Yeah. Okay. At first we need a motion. Yeah, I've got it up if you want me to. Go right ahead. I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss the proposed public official appointments in accordance with one VSA section 313A3 and to include the unified manager and the deputy manager. And is there a second? Second. Thank you, Pat. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. We'll see you on the other side. Excuse me. The second was with Vince, is that correct? Pat. I thought Pat made the motion. And so who made the motion? Andy. Andy, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay. We'll be leaving this meeting and hopping into the executive session. The appointments to conservation and trails. Would anyone like to make a motion? Oh, here comes Dawn. Let's have regarding conservation and trails. Sorry, question. Do we need to point to a specific seat because they're different turn lengths? We'll reach out and see if the two candidates have a preference for one or the other. Sorry, I'm not thinking of that sooner, but just look where I was able to make that appointment. Okay. What are the terms? I don't have the opening in front of me. So conservation, one seat ending June 30th, 2022 and one seat ending June 30th, 2020 received preferences from members or from candidates. Go ahead, Dawn. I'd like to, thank you, Greg. I'd like to make the motion that we appoint Mike Spader to the 2023 term and Kimberly Fetcher, I'm sorry, the 2022 term. Okay. So here's the motion. Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Vince. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say any. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Mike and Kim are the new members of the Conservation and Trails Committee and the EDC seat is one seat that expires June 30th, 2023. Can I have a motion? I move that we appoint Tatenisha Radhita to the Economic Development Commission. Is there a second? Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say any. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, so we have filled those three seats. Thank you, Greg and Linda and Tammy for the work on reaching for the interviews. And thank you to Mike, Kim and Tatenisha. Welcome aboard. That is the end of our business agenda. Would you like to move to adjourn? Don't move. Thank you, Dawn. Any seconds? Seconds. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Thank you all. Have a good evening. Thank you, Lea. Thank you.