 Good evening, I'd like to take and call the Monday, February 5th, 2024, Berlin Select Board to order. My left is Flo Smith. My car left is Joe Stob. My right is Tor Nelson, who was also our town administrator, and Karla Newiesel. Any additions or changes to the agenda, Tor? No. Any public comment? Hearing none. Oh, to entertain a motion to recess the select board and open up the public hearing for the charter change. So moved. Second. All favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. As you should know, the Berlin Select Board is asking for a charter change to allow us to impose a local options tax. The charter will be amended as follows in section 3-2, powers of the town, addition of paragraph D as follows. The town of Berlin Select Board may assess a 1% sales tax. The town of Berlin Select Board may assess a 1% rooms tax. And the town of Berlin Select Board may access a 1% meals and alcohol beverage tax. The tax imposed under the authority of this section shall be collected and administrated by the Department of Taxes in accordance with 24 VSA 138. The revenues received through this imposition of the tax imposed under this section shall be designed for capital projects within the town. Any comments? I think I hear the Perkins term. Well, I would just like to say as a comment is that this 1% local options tax would allow us to take and do road and equipment purchases, road projects and equipment purchases. It will also take and help control the budget as far as capital expenditures go. Anything else, Flo? I concur with what Brad said. I think it's really necessary. And we've come so close to it being approved that I'm in high hopes that it will be approved this time because it will be beneficial for the budget, like Brad said, and really assist us with the capital projects. Joe? I do believe there was a report where 78% plus would be paid for by non-town residents. So I see that as being a benefit. They're using the roadways and such of the infrastructure of which they don't typically pay taxes on. Good point. Gary, good point. Carla? I can't think of anything else to add, just that I'm certainly in favor, and I do hope that the residents will support it. Dora? Yeah, it's been said before, you know, Brun's resident population is about 2,900, but that swells to over 12,000 during the day with the shoppers and workers that come to town. Brun hosts regional health, retail, and institutional organizations, all of which use our infrastructure, our roads and bridges and police force and everything like that. But they do not contribute to the maintenance of this infrastructure, and that falls entirely on the Berlin property owners. This options tax, if enacted, would allow us to continue and even expand our investment into our capital infrastructure, our bridges, roads, and culverts, while not increasing the tax load on the residents, but spreading out over all the users through the options tax. As the chair stated, when he read the text of the Charter Change, these funds would be used towards capital improvements, greater road repair and maintenance, bridge repairs which have been lacking in the past, a lever-slinged bridge, which has been closed for several years. We had the Fisher Road culvert, which was closed for a significant period of time a couple of years ago for repairs. And we're facing significant expenditures this year with the repairs still needed from the July flooding. All this would go towards that and more without burdening the already heavily burdened Berlin taxpayers. Another thing to keep in mind that all the expenditures of these projects would still be approved by the voters at the annual town meeting budgets. So it's not like they're just giving us a blank check to spend all this money on in the future. And rough estimates are between $640,000 a year that this tax would generate for the town, which is about 150% of our usual capital budget. So it would be a nice increase there. And like Joe said, it's estimated between 74% and 87% of this tax would be paid for by non-residents. Things that are not subject to this tax would be groceries, clothes and shoes, drugs and medical supplies, motor vehicles, fuels, gasoline and diesel, and residential and firm utilities. So there's a lot of items there that everybody buys every day that would not be subject to this taxes. So here again, also I am in favor of adoption of this local options tax. And just keep in mind, the overall scope of this, I went out to one of the fast food places the other day and burgers, fries and a drink was $10. So a family of four, that's $40, the 1% would be an additional $0.40 on that meal. And if you do that once a week, every week for a year, you're talking about $21 total for the year. And keep in mind, if you go to the grocery store and you buy some chicken and potatoes and lettuce and bread for dinner, you pay nothing extra on that for the sales tax. Anyone else, any comments? I wanted to also add, I think it's wonderful that it will be administered by the state as opposed to our staff here. I think that that's a huge benefit too. I think it might be worth noting too that people may not realize they already pay this 1% tax when they go out of town to Montpelier, to Barrie, or to others around in town, and they may not even notice the difference. So while if we are able to pass the low options test here, the impact to the individuals and be so ministerial that you might not notice. But the benefit to our town with all the visitors coming in is going to make a big difference. And it would improve the experience for the Outertown residents as well, having better roads, having the paint turn pipe north open, and things like that. So it's a benefit to everybody, not just the permanent residents. And like you mentioned, Lovers Lane, it's been closed for quite some time. People have been concerned. This would really, truly help in that regard. And other entities as well. Good point, Rachel. Well, one other thing is that we're not burdened to town businesses. The money just passes through. It doesn't come out of their operating costs. OK. And like Flo mentioned with it, being administered by the tax department, they just report it like to do their regular quarterly sales. It's not an additional paperwork burden on them either. Any other comments? If not, entertain a motion to close the public hearing and reconvene the select board. I make the motion to close the public hearing and reconvene the select board this evening. Any comment? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Appointment of social balance, solid waste management district representative, and alternate. Do we have some changes here? Yes, so Matt Levin, who is our long-term, long-time representative on the board, stepping aside. And Tim Shea has volunteered to step up to be a representative on the board. Matt is interested in serving as the alternate to Tim. So I would make the motion that Tim Shea be appointed as Bruins representative to the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District Board and that Matt Levin be appointed as the alternate. Any second of that motion? Any other comments? Question. Who's our current alternate? Any other comments on this? Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. I would like to express a certain amount of gratitude towards Matt. I don't know how long he's been doing this about. At least 10 years, that I know of. Maybe even longer. I think he was on it when I came on the board and that was 20 years ago. 20 years ago, so OK, so you doubled what I was expecting. So we do a great, huge gratitude towards him for his service. He has a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm. He's done a really great job. OK, approval of permits, applications, licenses, and awards. I'm going to approve payable warrant 24G18 with check number 23692 to 23702. And the amount of $29,934.33. Any discussion? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Approval of minutes of, there is one set from January 25. I make the motion to approve the Thursday, January 25, 2024 minutes, and just one change in the first paragraph under FY2, just including the letter C, other than that. You missed one, I don't know. Again? FY2 budget. Oh, yeah, I didn't see that. Very good. That too? OK. All those in favor? Looking for a second with that, it's there. Thank you. OK. Sorry about that. Any other discussion? If not, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And roundtable, Joe? Pass for now. Well? Same for me. Thank you. Dore? Excluded in your printouts, a letter I received from Town of Berry, just this afternoon, acknowledging the one-year contract extension for the EMS. But they are also looking for a $9.39 increase above the pre-programmed increase in the capital rate due to the increases in insurance and rental for them fire station. And they are offering to come and meet with us if we would like to take them up on that at a future meeting. Any thoughts on that? I'm not opposed to them coming to a future meeting and having a discussion with us. That's just my thoughts. So how many people are in Berlin? Well, per capita is around 1,900. Do we get charged for 1,900 people? The rest are covered by the Northfield ambulance. Yeah, I don't know what that information has. So that's what, a $20,000 increase, which was not? That's high, I mean, a rounding rate. Yeah, but that's not budgeted in our budget group. Yeah, that's in the committee camp. OK. I won't bite them until I meet them. OK. That's all I have. So just a question, so if the contract doesn't specify the rates, they can increase them? The contract does provide for the rates, but also provides for a provision that of certain expensive exceed amount, they can increase it, which their exercise I get it, I'm just curious. So basically, this is just an increase to cover their cost of inflation. But what they're, what they're, what they're tightening. Well, we certainly know insurance rates have gone up. We saw that in our budget. Right, right. Any else, Carla? Nope, I'm good. Did I do good? Yeah, quicker than any of your meetings? Yeah. So the local options, tax, social media, any post recordings by select board members? This was intended to be a recording, you making snippets of, you know, sound bites about the options tax that we could use on our own social media pages. I think that kind of felt a part this afternoon, so. Well, so the big debate is how to. Get across some of the little messages that we have that may give people a better understanding of why they want to pass this. And so while we could do little video snippets of here of you guys just saying why you support it and the benefits, there was an idea bounced around this afternoon about doing those videos in certain locations that may have a bigger impact. Maybe in front of the town garage down near the closed road on the intern pike. Maybe with the police chief and some of this guy. So I don't know if you guys were prepared to do any kind of video today. If you have a strong desire to do it, we can certainly record that now. And but if you prefer the idea of being somewhere else, I mean, I know I'd be happy to go during the daytime. If you have time to record a video with them town scenery as well. I'm happy to do it in front of the panther quite close son. Okay, is that something that you're comfortable doing on your own? You can certainly record it with your phone and send it to us or we could come out and record it with our phone. We also can set up a laptop or you can set up a laptop and record a video as well. I can just do it on my phone, right? Yeah, if that works for you and you're comfortable with that, that's certainly easier. If I need to help, I'll call you. Okay, perfect. And as far as, you know, do you want to just wing it or say what I want to say and just wing it or just speak from the heart. So what are you looking at? 40 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds. Something real. Something has to be quick. It can be whatever you want. And that's the benefit of this. You know, we're not trying to do a 30 second spot or you could be whatever you want. So if it's 17 seconds, that's still work. Right. And I like the idea of the location. It can be an odd number, so. Locations are key. Right at the fire apartment. And the other beauty is that Rachel's been editing. Exactly, that's right. It is, it's a great idea. Do you have a timeframe when they have to be done by? I would say the sooner or the better because we really only have a few more weeks to get that message out with some kind of discussion. I was thinking this Friday for me. That would be great. I think that works. Mm-hmm. I think that's great. And location, I'm up for suggestion. Okay. Just like you did with. I think Lover's Lane Bridge was right. I was just going to say that. Sure. Sure. If that works for you. That makes total sense. Yeah. And I'm not opposed to Lover's Lane, Lover Lane. Lover's Lane Bridge. But the exception, there's some hold up on the state side. It's not. It is, it's going to be a financial burden. Okay, I get that. But it's not a matter of having the dollars to do it. Is that not? You don't want the message that, one, if we pass this. Yeah. So you're going to have Lover's Lane Bridge. We're still waiting on the state. Right. Right? Right. So, great idea. I didn't think wrong message. You're not going to be incorporated in the message. Well, I think you're saying we'd go with the fire station as well. Because as of right now, the fire department will not benefit from it. Right. Maybe in the future. Because it's bright standing in front of the temperature. I think so. Local options, taxing more on this, the media part. If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. And I will make that motion to adjourn tonight. It's regularly scheduled select board meeting. I will second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. That's amazing. We adjourned.