 might as well get going. So as chair of the Rochester Select Board, I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to Addendum 6 to Executive Order 01-20 and Act 92. And there's somebody in the waiting room just a second. 92. I state that this public body is authorized to meet electronically in accordance with Act 92. There is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting. However, in accordance with the temporary amendments to the open meeting law, I confirm that we are providing public access to the meeting using the Zoom platform. And all members of the board have the ability to communicate contemporaneously during the meeting through this platform. And the public has access to contemporaneously listen and if desired participate in this meeting. And you can log in and join. You can find the logins on the posted notices throughout town. You can go to the town website and find that. And you could also ask for a direct email from the town clerk. Of course, all you guys know that because you're here. So I don't know. I have to give that information now. But anyway, there you have it. And I have somewhere in the agenda. So before we start, does anyone have any additions to the agenda as it was presented? Dune? Yeah. When I mentioned to you that I wanted, I've got to find out by early April about the 4th of July possible. Should I just say I want to ask Julie to put me on the agenda for next meeting so I could ask about, you know, maybe you might have, okay, thank you. Julie, if you can put me on the agenda for next meeting for that. Sure. Okay, thank you very much. Sorry to interrupt. Okay. And anybody else have something they really want to speak about? I guess we have plenty on the agenda. So we'll just start right in. I'm looking for Amy Wilk. She's not here yet because I know she has a school board meeting at 6.30 and she had some, I was going to let her slide in quick so she could bounce to that other meeting. Ask me to send her the link. So I'm doing that right now. Oh, she just asked for the link? Yeah. Okay. All right. So while you're doing that, we could go on to the prior meeting's minutes, which I found seemed to accurately represent what transpired. I'd moved to approve unless you guys have any additions or changes. Are you talking about one in particular because we're approving? I'm starting with the select board ones. And then we'll go to the special meetings. Yeah. So that's the informational meeting before the select board meeting we're doing. I was going to just do the select board meeting first then I'll do both of this informational meetings. Okay. So this would be the minutes for the select board meeting. I didn't see anything wrong with them. I didn't either. Alrighty. So I moved to approve. Second. All in favor. All right. And then we had the meetings for that dynamic, interesting informational meeting. The first one previous to the select board meeting. That seemed pretty clear cut. I'd move to approve those unless someone has. I have a couple of assessments there. Yeah. In the February 22nd informational meeting on page two, article 16, it was said that Frank noted Selecman have control. I believe Frank said Selecman do not have control. What? Kind of a big difference. Yeah. Yeah. And then again on article 30, this one is very minor, but Martha, it was just a misspelling instead of the word N-O-W now it's K-N-O-W. So change the flavor a little bit. Those two are the only small adjustments. Which article is that Pat? Under article 31 for where Martha had made a comment. Thank you. All right. So I'd move to approve with those modifications. I second it. All in favor. All right. Okay. And then we had one more informational meeting on the, I think this is someone wanting to get into the meeting. Let me be looking to get in on the meeting. Okay. So the meeting ID, you got a pencil. My computer is locked up in the meeting right now. So not a, the grid one of you guys emailed the invite to Catherine Shankman and Vic. Yeah. Okay. I just got a message from Vic too. So yes, I will. Okay. They're on the way. Yeah. Forward and forward. Okay. Meanwhile, we were talking about the minutes for the second informational meeting. I didn't see anything wrong with those. Yeah. And I would move to approve those. I second. All in favor. All right. All right. Okay. We got those. And now we have the other people rolling in. And I see that Amy, you are, you are incognito in there somewhere, where are you? I'm here. Yep. I'm going to keep going back to myself. Okay. There you are. There you are. So I'd like to let Amy jump in first with her request because she's got another meeting to go to. So take it away, Amy. Okay. Great. So I'd like to, this is about the scholarships, the two town scholarships, the Martin farms and the Patrick scholarships. And I'd like to propose that weaving the school and the administrators include those two towns, senior scholarships with the rest of the scholars that are being sent out to all of our seniors. And that a committee be made up of one school board, one select board, and one alumni representative, which is what we did last year. Maybe that that same group would be willing to do it again to review the applicants and to award the scholarships. As I said, the two town scholarships are the Capactric Award, which is for $1,000, which is actually aligned in the town budget. And the Martin's Farm Award in the past $100 has been awarded for the Martin's Farms Award. That scholarship resides in a CD and its original amount is $2,000. And the requirements of the scholarship is or of the monies being at the will is that the scholarship award is awarded on just the interest of that CD. That CD current value is $4,623.40 and 24 cents. So I'd like the select board to allocate an amount that they would like to award that Martin's Farm Scholarship for. It is a CD and as we all know CDs are not gaining huge amount of interest every year. And like I said in the past, it's been awarded at $100. So I'm asking the select board to go ahead and basically let me administer these scholarships. Sounds good to me. Do you guys have any input? And Frank, was it you or Pat that worked with Amy to assign those last time? It was me. I thought it was you. Yeah, are you still up for that? Sure, I'm willing. Good with that. Any thoughts on the amount you would like to allocate for the Martin's Farm? I don't know why we don't keep it the same, $100. That's what my thought was, yeah. Sounds great. Well, I thank you very much for putting me ahead in your meeting as I do have another school meeting after this. So that does start at $6.30 if anybody wants to join. Okay. All right. Thank you, Amy. Thank you. I don't see Catherine or Vic yet. Did you send them the most current link, Pat? I did. Ashela Beja is here. No, that's not who we were looking for. Okay. Well, I think that we know what they are here for. So I guess we could leave that till later. But usually it happens a little quicker than this. So we have an application. Well, I guess it'd be really nice to have those guys not feel left out. Since this is an open meeting, let me just give her a call and see what's up. I just sent them again. Okay. I'd sent it to Amy. So it's a kind of a forward and a forward and a forward at this point. Dune, do you want to just go with Joan at this time? Yeah, I suppose we should. Yeah. Joan, you're ready for action? You're still waiting. She sent you the link there. Twice. Twice. Pat Harvey sent it to you. I can tell you what the ID is in the passcode with the data to have a pencil. Okay. It's 830-2264. 6844 is the meeting ID. And the passcode is 016-193. 016-193. 929-205-6099. Could you share that? Could you share that with Vic? Oh, oh, he's a Vix in the waiting room already. So there you go. We'll see you soon. Yeah, modern technologies. So Joan, yes. Okay. Well, not too much to report. Town did receive $170,658.01 from V-Trans last week or maybe it was the week before, which is a little more than half of the final amount they owe us for Bethel Mountain Road. So that's the progress there. And the only other thing I have to report is that the funding request, the application for standby generator for the town office was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security last Friday. And we will probably hear some time, and it might be summertime before we know whether we have a grant or not. So what was that a grant for? I'm sorry, I was writing the other thing down and I missed the second one. It was a standby generator for the town office. Okay, thank you. That's all I really wanted to talk about. Okay. All right. Thank you. Tony Goofy, are you here tonight? I just sent him another, I sent him a link too. He just asked for it. I don't know what happened with the link. Yeah, I never got one. I was lucky enough to get Pat to help me. Thank you. So we'll let him go. Well, let's talk about the application for the use of the park for the farmer's market this summer. And I'm in favor of continuing with that last year. When we did the different layout, when it was spread out more into the, if somebody else, more into the park to one, for social distancing, but two, I think it did, did it help with the beating down of the grass along Route 100 or is that that area still just kind of shaded by those oak trees? It's still pretty shaded and we did lime at this last fall. So we're going to fertilize in the spring. So as much as we can stay off that front, I think the better off we're going to be. Yeah. So I think even if they're, you guys could put your, put your thing out there, maybe rearrange it once in a while would be good. Yeah. Just for the health of the park. Dune, is that why Ashe is here? Is there a formal application from them? I'm sure there is. Yes, there was an application for the use of the park from the. Okay, thank you. And I think that regardless of whether or not COVID restrictions are relaxed, I think we should continue to spread it out on the park like that. One for safety, but two to see if we can't get the, the grass to regenerate a little bit up on where on Route 100 is my thought. So, Pat, do you have any input on that or? No, you're right up my alley. You're good. All right. So I've moved to prove that application. So one, I'm sorry, one thing really quick. So I, I don't know how many of you have heard, Beth Frock has officially resigned as my co-manager. So I will be flying solo this year, which, you know, it's a little daunting, but we'll be okay. I have a lot of support from, you know, Paula and Kevin and a lot of the community. We had intended to continue the set up as last year, regardless of the COVID that, you know, whatever regulations, whether they were relaxed or not, but we intended people loved it. People loved the, the way we had set it up, the way we, you kind of really came onto the park more. And so my intention was to continue that the vendors really liked that. And so most likely I, I intend to just keep it pretty much the same as it was last year, regardless of what restrictions are lifted. I talked to Rota recently and she might be willing to work with you. She showed an interest in that. If you, you're looking for, you know, some support. I mean, I'm okay. I definitely, I, because we're not going to have activities and events again this year, most likely it's going to be pretty straightforward. Like I said, I have a couple of people who are, have volunteered to help on the day of just the set up. And in case I need to step away for a minute, but in all honesty, I mean, we're, we're, we're good. We work pretty well. We're, you know, the same, a lot of the same vendors have been there and, you know, so they kind of know how to, how to run the show. So glad you're, you're willing to take that on. So Asha, is there going to be, if I recall correctly last summer, you had like a entryway and there was a place to, you know, sanitize your hands and that kind of stuff right at the beginning. You're going to continue with that, right? Yeah, we're going to continue with that regardless of what the regulations change. I mean, Beth and I actually were one of the only markets last summer that didn't relax any of the regulations. They did. The state came out and said that we could kind of skip a few things. And other markets had kind of relaxed some of their restrictions. And we kind of just decided that since we had started to summer out that way, we would just continue. And so I intend to just masks hand sanitizer, you know, one way traffic. And it works people. I mean, we only had pushback from a few people. And so, but it worked. So we're just, I just intend to continue that with insurance. Honestly, the one difference this year is that because I am by myself, I will be getting insurance to cover the market so that, you know, they don't come after me and my student loans, you know, maybe they'll pay your students. Yeah, I know, right? All right. Thank you. So again, I'd move to approve that application for the farmers market to use the park. And I will second that all in favor. Hi. Hi. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. So we also have application for a second class liquor license renewal and tobacco for the skip mark. And that's pretty clear cut. I would move to approve that. I second it. All in favor. All right. All right. Good. Now for the longer list of things to do, we have the appointments for the appointed town positions that have come up for renewal this year. Where did I go with that other sheet? There it is. So we have had a couple of people fill in some vacancies on the planning board and board of adjustment. And the positions that they filled were coming due to be renewed this year. And that would be Christine Mayor and Greg White. And I would move to appoint those two. I think they're still willing to and they've proven to be enthusiastic participants in the planning board. So second. Second that. All in favor. All right. Okay. I have a proposal. Someone approached me about filling the vacant spot of second constable. Daniel Lebesche that works at the hardware store. He would like to fill that spot. It would look good on his future resumes. And so I don't believe that any formal training or anything would be required. I think that he would just be the second constable. Is there an age thing on that, Pat? That's the only thing. He asked me about it too. And I wasn't sure. I was going to bring it up at the meeting tonight. But obviously he's over 21. Oh, he is. I didn't even know how old he was. He looks like he's 17. I'm 21 during COVID. No bars to go to. That sounds great. Yeah, he's a sharp. I don't have a problem with it. Yeah. I'll second that motion. All in favor. One question. If I recall correctly, does he spell his name D-A-N-I-A-L? Asia, help us. D-A-N-I-E-L, Daniel. Okay. Somebody I hear in town has a D-A-N-I-A-L. Sorry. The problem with the last one is the first name. Sorry. I just don't like to misspell people's names. They get testy. We're kind of used to it. All right. So for the water and sewer commissioners, traditionally we've had the select board fill those positions. So I would move Nancy, are you raising your hand with a question? Because you have to appoint a constable also. Oh, no, I see. I missed that because of the because of our second constable. So I guess for the first constable, I would I would motion to re-up Dylan Dudley. I can second that. Yeah. All in favor. All right. All right. Okay. And but the town assistant, town clerk and select board clerk, do we have to appoint them or are they elected? Julia points the assistant. Okay. Julia points the assistant. Okay. Is that something you want to do right now, Julie? Sure. I appoint Kristen LaPell. All right. And then for the select board clerk, I would nominate Julie Smith. They're doing a good job. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Yep. Next year these are these are three year positions though. Is that correct? Not the assistant. Not the assistant. I think this is regular. Yeah. After the election next March, it becomes a three year position. So back to the water and sewer commissioners, which traditionally are held by the select board. Pat, you had a question about that? Or were you just exercising your finger? No, I did not. No. Okay. Yep. So I'd move to assign that responsibility back on our shoulders. I second that. All in favor. Aye. And for the road commissioner, do either one of you have a burning desire to take that over? I would like to nominate and appoint Dune Hendricks as both zoning administrator and road commissioner. Oh, thank you so much. On-site wastewater officer as well. Well, what's the third one? And we're on-site wastewater officer. Okay. And last but not least, local emergency management alternate. I believe all those are due for this year. So. Yep. That's me. Okay. So, Jeff, do I have a question? Does the select board appoint the zoning administrator or does the planning board do that? I think that falls on the select man. If I remember when we work with Earl, Sandy, you might want to correct me on that though. I think all of those appointments are by the select board. Me too. That's what I thought too. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we broke it up. So I got a bunch of attention. I think that another on-site wastewater officer, I would nominate Frank Severi for the second one. Thanks, Dune. You're welcome. Yeah. All in favor? Aye. And I think that I would nominate Annie Mackay as a two-river autokwichi regional planning commission transportation planning representative from the town. And yep. I can that. Yep. All in favor? Aye. And then, well, it's actually a lot easier now that since we don't have to drive to Woodstock, but I volunteered to be the two-river autokwichi regional commission transportation advisory committee so I could go with her to Woodstock. So I guess I would continue to do that even though we're doing it from home now. So what's that? That's the two-river autokwichi regional commission transportation advisory committee. So basically we're Annie the representative to the town for two-rivers and I'm the helper. Okay. Thanks. So Jeff Gephardt has recently been taking on our the energy representative and for the town and this is also represented to two-rivers, so I would nominate him to continue on in that role. I can second that. All in favor? Aye. And then he has an alternative for that position which is you, Frank. I would nominate you to keep in that position. Is that all right with you? Sure. Okay. Not a problem. All right. Second that, Pat? I second it. All in favor? Aye. John, I don't know what you think is next. That one, it looks like that one is good till 10 October, the end of October. Is that right? That's got a weird dating on that. Yeah. So we don't have to point him yet. It's a state date. It's a state date. Okay. And Vic, would you be willing to continue on as the emergency management director? Sure. Sure. The pay is great. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. We're gonna double it. Oh, man. Yeah. Oh, may I quote you? Can we also nominate Vic for the White River Valley Ambulance? Yeah. Okay. Second those motions. Well, actually, I'll second it. You second it. We got seconds. We got first. All in favor? Aye. Good. Vic down there. And then we've got down here. There we go. Okay. Down service officer, officer known, tolerity. Frank, the state doesn't require that any longer. Oh, it doesn't? Okay. Yep. If you notice, it's not in your town report or it is not going to be in your town report. Well, it's in there on my paper. Right. But it's new this year. Okay. They don't require appointments any longer. So thank you, Paula, for taking that on for several years. Much appreciated. Made it to the end of that appointment. Marvin is not around as he has held the post as energy coordinator and the Beth of Royalton Solid Waste Advisory Committee. And do you think he would still like to continue on that? It's not been taken a whole lot of his time, I don't think. I guess we'll point Marvin. He's not here to say no. So if he's got an issue, he can bring it up at another meeting. So do you have a second? What was that again? What was that again? Marvin Harvey for the energy coordinator, town energy coordinator and the Beth of Royalton Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Got a second? I second it. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Yep. Okay. And Jim Bowen, I see you for the recycling coordinator. Would you like to continue on in that esteemed position? I don't know if you'd have heard me, but I guess that's a yes. You're nodding. Okay, because you're muted. Yeah. Okay. So I would move to the point, Jim, for the recycling. I second that. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. And then Martha, would you like to continue on on the park committee? I've been a one-woman park committee for years, I guess. So why not? I'm hoping you're going to say yes. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I second that. All in favor? Aye. All right. Yep. Okay. And the on the recreation committee, we have right now it looks like Norm Christensen, Kerry McDonald, Joe Shankman, Meg Brown, Caitlin Vesser, Dean Mendel, Martha Slater, and Walter Fuchsma, and the tennis capacity. And I would move to a point those folks, and if any of them have an issue with that, they can beg out. I second that. Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. And I would like to nominate Jeff Brown as the animal control officer again. Happily second that. Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. And Tim Crowley had been holding the post for the Tri Valley Transit, and I haven't heard anything from him that he doesn't want to do that. So I would nominate him for that position. I can second that. It isn't that what used to be stagecoach, right? Yeah. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. And Jim Bowen, are you still willing to be the Werva alternate underneath, underneath thick? All right. So I'd nominate Jim Bowen to be the Werva alternate. I second that. All in favor? Aye. All right. Yep. And I would like to nominate Norm Smith as the tree warden again. I second that. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. And so all these people involved with making town work here. Our E911 maintenance man is Angus McCusker, and I think we could safely nominate him to keep on with that. I second that. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Yep. And we've got a green update coordinator of Nick Picuto. Nominate him. I second that. He did a really good job last year. Yep. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. And we've got the current budget and finance committee, which has been in lowest bond and barb to heart and Robert Mayer, Greg White, Jim Bowen, Rom Gardner, Victor Botto and Nancy Woolley. And then of course, all of the select board members. And that's, you know, we're going to have to do it again in a couple months. So I'd move to nominate those folks to that wonderful task. I second it. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. And then our tri-pound energy committee, Jeff Getpart, has stepped up to want to do that. So I'd nominate him for that. I second it. All in favor? Aye. All right. Okay. And we have our EC fiber representative has been John White. And it seems like that's been rolling out pretty smooth. I don't know how much work that takes of them, but I'd nominate him to keep it up. I second it. All in favor? All right. All right. Okay. And our official newspaper has been the Herald of Randolph, as long as I can remember. I'd move to continue on in that vein. I second it. All in favor? Aye. Yeah. And I thank you. Well, thank you, Martha, for all the work you do to keep us all remembering what's going on. Hey, I've been writing the Rochester news for the Herald for 33 years now. Long time. All right. So that was a mouthful, but we made it through that. And back to here. Now we get to the interesting topic on the agenda is what's going to happen with the high school building. And I'm hoping that Vic and Catherine maybe have a report for us from the committee that's been working on thoughts about that. Yeah, let me. Hi. Thanks for inviting us. And let me start. And I'm sure Catherine will jump in. I just wanted to, you mentioned the budget committee and it kind of takes me back because I've been part of the budget committee for the last five years, I think. And every year we get to the end of the long struggle and say, geez, you know, we're, we're getting older and slightly shrinking population and it just gets harder and harder. And what can we do to help turn that around and attract people and generate revenue for the town and, and, you know, make it a little economically more resilient in the future. And, and I really think that the opportunity we have before us to develop the high school site is, is just the kind of thing that could really be very beneficial. There are a lot of unknowns yet and but we have a very enthusiastic group of volunteers who envision this becoming a multi-purpose facility that we'd be very beneficial to people who live here as well to help attract and retain new people to town. So programmatically we're talking about a maker space using the shops and art room facilities and coupling that with a business incubator to help draw people who might want to get started with a new business that a low-cost kind of way and develop physical products. A child care center. We have a subgroup of four very enthusiastic young people who would love to see a licensed child care center not only because they see the direct needs themselves but their friends and they understand that this is critical to attracting new families to town and you can ask anybody involved in these kinds of projects around the state and it's absolutely true. We are looking into it at adult daycare center for our senior citizens. Katherine who works in this field every day understands that there's need for places for seniors who are mostly homebound to have a place to go for socialization and other kinds of care and support that they're just not available here and we think that's an important need and then also something we're calling the arts and learning program which would help bring together existing artists and artisans to develop new programs to also continue to be able to use the auditorium and other facilities there and we want to think of a Green Mountain Suzuki Institute. It's been here for 15 years and if the high school goes away so will they so I'd hate to see us lose that incredibly valuable asset to this town that has been coming every year and draws people from all over the country and some from outside the country so you know no high school no Green Mountain Institute. The the other thing though that it's it's not a new building as everybody knows it's going to need work. How much work for this purpose is undetermined yet. You know the study that the school commissioned put numbers to what it would take to turn the high school into a modern fully accredited school building that's way beyond what we're talking about for this purpose. But we don't know what those costs are yet and so we are applying for a planning grant which would if it's awarded would provide funds to do a facility space and improvement assessment and also business plans so that we can determine you know are the ideas that we have in mind are they economically feasible and is there enough of volume and opportunity area to help make it go and what's it going to cost and what's the strategy for for making it happen so that's in progress and and you know that once that work is done we'll we'll have some more reliable facts to go on but the problem is and this is where I'll stop and turn over to Catherine to the problem is we have a timing problem. I mean the school board is pushing the select board to make a decision now which we feel is premature unfortunately and if we had more time to do the work that's envisioned in this grant for planning purposes we would have you know much better footing to be going forward on but you know if we could if we just get you know a break on the timing I think everybody'd be more comfortable here so let me stop there Catherine can you do your mute no I just unmuted okay so so I think one of the things that has concerned us was the recent decision to turn off the power and the heat as of July one and of course it's very difficult to proceed with the the plans that we are working on with that kind of situation we don't want an abandoned building and Pat and Vic and I met with Nathan Cleveland on Friday to discuss all this and what we need to get together for the planning grant now Vic just said this but I'm going to restate it so the planning grant will give us the funds to do the analysis that needs to happen on many levels right it's going to help us with the space plan it's going to help us with the environmental review and it's going to help us develop the business plan and within that will also be a marketing analysis so that will give the select board a lot of very hard factual stuff to the best as you know as anybody could give at that point in terms of what their risks are and what what the strengths are and we understand that the select board needs to have more hard and fast information so you know it was my understanding when I read to the planning grant that the optimal way to do it is to do the planning grant before acquisition takes place and of course the school board is is pushing us to take acquisition now there isn't a hard and fast thing they will be working with us but it seems to me and I suggested this to Nate what about the town of Rochester making some good faith gesture to the school board for instance you know the town of Rochester offering to cover the electric and heat for the next year which will be nominal since there's no real use of the building happening and and also the planning grant will include funds for the environmental review the school still has an underground oil tank we don't know what the outcome of that review is going to be we don't know whether there's been any leakage so in a lot of ways it's to their advantage to work with us towards this and so that we have the time and the funds to do what is necessary to plan for the acquisition and the repurposing and included in that planning grant is a hearing with the whole town so that uh there will be a chance to air everything publicly which I know is a great concern to everyone uh Dick did I leave anything or Pat is there anything I left out here I I have been very happy with Dick to make multiple presentations this week to different boards and organizations and we're we're getting a very positive response we're getting emails just about every day with people who want to join in the work and that's been very reassuring and and affirming to the fact that this looks like a potential thing for us going forward for sure you know it's a brick building it's not going to disintegrate like you know like the wayhouse or is and and we will be prioritizing some of the capital fund work that has to happen on a timeline so it doesn't all have to happen to to be functional we didn't close the school because the building we closed the school for other reasons it's still a functional building right um Catherine um as a well over 30 year member of the White River Valley players I'm very anxious to see you know whatever we can do to to take over the building and keep it functional so that we can have a when covid's controlled we can have our performance space back again and that kind of thing so and that was I think that was mentioned before um so um yeah I think there are a lot of people in town who would agree that this is something that you know is an important thing is to to make that building into a functional space and there's a lot of good I I think the committees come up with a lot of really good ideas and the and the we also want the elementary school students to continue to have access to that that building for their music and art program and you know Green Mountain Suzuki would like to come back this summer we we would hate for them to have to find a different venue and lose them they've offered to pay you know not only the traditional rent but to pay to clean up that building which I don't know whether anybody on this board went to the the walkthrough but it was as though the kids were in there just yesterday things were just sort of left that there's extensive cleanup that's necessary and Green Mountain Suzuki Institute is offered to pay for it so do they want to use it from July 11th to the 16th I think I have been in touch with the school board about the Suzuki although I you know I have no control over it I I have made a plea on Suzuki's behalf and the select board's behalf that they reconsider you know cutting the utilities through the building in July because they gain income from the Suzuki so it just didn't seem to make much sense to cut it cut it off that early I know that they're looking at the beginning of the budget season so I I did I did plant that seed and hopefully it blossoms into something that brings the Suzuki back I'm not sure they even just realized what they were doing I also want to say hey to Kirk White who's also going to go to bat for us and has already provided us with a couple links a couple sources that the state of Vermont with and we will continue to work you a little bit hard Kirk we're coming that's all I have to add Dick and Catherine are very much up to speed on the path that they have been down and the path they're going to go down next so the mentioning of the the grants you're the planning grant you're applying for and this seems to me the critical part of that which would which would be the hearing or really to get feedback from the town on this issue which I think is something that would have to happen anyway before we would decide to buy that building what what the plans are for it but there's the time frame for that that grant that that stretches out I assume beyond their their deadline of April 2nd now we've got them to extend their their deadline for us making a decision by a month to April 2nd in light of their we wanted to hear what was going to happen with the stock bridge vote to to dissolve the union but that still is not that's only three weeks away that's not enough time that um yeah you know that's that's the timing dilemma I'm referring to yeah yeah I think there also is an appeal coming forward for to resend the vote that stock bridge took and maybe do another vote yeah yeah I think that's on the table at this time and plus there's a lot of issues with having to subdivide it and if the merger's up in the air I don't see how we can progress forward with it at this time anyway and and we do need to have a meeting and a town vote on whether or not they're interested in proceeding with this especially if you think that we need to put some money into it because I don't I don't know where that's coming from well that's my feeling on it um so I'm not opposed to the idea you guys are doing great I like that concept but I think the timing is going to be a tough one to follow the the merger if the merger dissolves it won't dissolve for another year anyway due to budget items I would think I mean there's no way you can come up with a new budget between now and the time that the fiscal year starts again for that so we'd have to reelect the school board I would think if the merger destroyed you know breaks up so there's just a lot of issues here that I see are problems well doesn't Rochester have to vote on the merger as well it's not just stock bridge making that decision and if Rochester which has a larger vote doesn't want to uh demurge then what happens well we do you're right Catherine we do but they also have to go through their appeals process and if they're going to appeal it then they'll have another 30 days where they have to schedule a vote in the town of Stockbridge to revote the issue I had an email from Kerry McDonald tonight and this is on the discussion it's on the agenda for that meeting that they're currently having in Stockbridge and apparently a lot of people in Stockbridge are not happy with the decoupling vote I record so I probably will have the information on what was discussed in that meeting when they're done also I think there's some real ramifications here for Rochester regardless of the vote I mean if if they stay if they still want to decouple the merger or destroy it I we have to really think hard on that whether we want to do that or just keep the merger and make enemies there or you know end the merger but if we do end the merger I want to get some hard facts from the supervisor reunion on what that entails and what the costs are of that too in the ramifications because if we choose to demurge we're not only affecting our town but we're affecting the towns north of us too with something it's like 30 kids that are tuition kids that come from north right that's not a matter that's actually on the on the select board's table at the moment but whether there's a vote to demurge or stay together that high school building will be separated from the elementary even if we get our own district back we're only going to have an elementary school I don't see us as as taking a different path than the one we're already on whether we are still in a unified district or we're a standalone district the high school building will still need to be repurposed either way so I don't think that the merger has anything to do with how we're proceeding with the investigation of what to do with the building and then eventually the decision of what to do with the building well it does pat because number one you've got Stockbridge and Rochester has a unified district and if you split that unified district up it's just the Rochester district then and the school board has to come through to do the changes that they need to make in the subdivision that's on the school board now whether that's the unified district school board or the town of Rochester school board there is a difference so I don't know how we can proceed when they haven't subdivided it yet there's no implication of what they want to you know how they want to do that and I don't believe in doing you can correct me on this I don't believe they've approached the the select board or the the zoning board for subdivision at this time Sandy you want to speak to that yeah Frank we did get an application on Friday for a subdivision so we just got it that means that we can we can warn it for our April 6th meeting and we're in the process of communicating with them on that yeah still the whole frustrating factor I find in this is the the push to insist that this sale of the building happens now and not allowing time for the proper unfolding of the research and the planning that would go into a really logical evolution here it seems like that the school board is this knee jerk attempt to to balance their budget by by you know shedding that school it's that's um you know that's that's the frustrating part here because it's um it's one thing to say okay this needs to happen and let's figure out how that can happen but then to try and threaten us it's like well if you don't make your mind up now we're just going to sell it to Joe Blow you know 20 20 30 thousand dollars out of a four million dollar budget it's really um symbolic issue it's not a real financial I hear you Vic I agree with you 100 but I I don't like the push either I think it's really it's just not a good way to go as far as I'm concerned well while we're exploring what's to do with the repurposing buildings that can happen are coming up against the brick wall on a lot of these things that can't go beyond that brick wall unless we at least have an option to purchase the the property in hand right now everything is still very abstract because we have no power to get any of this grant we we you know is getting hard for people to even want to talk to us because it's all in theory um so if we were to go into an option agreement and not take possession of it by July 1st but at least have the option in our hand so that we can pursue um the repurposing committee can continue to operate they're they're coming against something that they're they're not going to be able to go much further with it until they have it seems that would we have that option now and that we have the right of first refusal or just um they want that commitment that option's agreement would yes we've got it in the merger but it seems like is we're on a teetering thing because they're wanting some they're demanding some sort of decision from you by a deadline and then they're going to turn around and do whatever they're going to do but if we actually create a secondary option agreement related to this uh you know this planning grant then then maybe we can do some good faith gestures towards them so that we have the sense both boards of working together towards the same end Rochester acquisition of the building in other words instead of just saying I won't be pushed while they're pushing if we could find some place where we're actually softening our relationship after all it's the unified district so Rochester is part of the school district and then there's Rochester the town so we have a lot of representation all around well do we um do we call a meeting at you know a town meeting to gather the you know dispense the little bit of information that we do have and get the town's actual feeling for for this this movement it seems premature in a way because it would be much more practical like is what Vic was presenting about real options about what could happen um yeah I I I think calling a town meeting now um it's just going to be a lot so many unknowns you know who's going to get comfortable with that right right I agree with you on that Vic I do I it's just I it's this is a tough one to move on at any time right now and I I do think we need the input from the voters on this but I would like to see a more I don't know what the word is or what what I'm trying to say is basically a more concrete you know solution rather than you know a lot of you know unknowns yeah yeah I hear you yeah well that I mean that's what the planning grant is going to give us is significant money so that we can actually get the professionals in there and knock out the numbers which is what are you saying so what about the fact of the select board and the school board meeting together for only one purpose to talk about this I mean our boards actually even meet on the same day that one of the problems is a total lack of communication well I I don't think the select board can can just say yeah we can buy for a dollar without going through the voters I'm I don't think that's a good I'm not saying that I'm saying to find a way forward so that we're that we know they know that we're working in earnest towards this and and we'll work with this and put the pressure off so that this thing can actually happen in a reasonable way yeah it's all about timing in my mind to give it a fair examination and and a proposal that you know it can be presented with some confidence and then let the folks decide I totally agree that town as a whole should should have should have the opportunity to weigh in on this it's a big decision and I think that you know we just don't have the time right now to get this done by April 2nd or April 3rd over the date was it's just not feasible so Catherine were you saying that the select board in the rsud board should meet together and you know come up with an idea to put before you know not anything definite to vote on but you know for an info meeting for the town you know I think that that there's something to be said about having these boards meet so that can actually represent directly to each other what their issues were ours I mean we don't even understand this pressure because there was a vote to demurge on top of everything else which just you know after we're trying to appease them and you know the building was closed down the voted for the power off and still there was a demurge vote I mean come on what is it you guys want yeah now I think the Catherine's point is that to see if we can't negotiate something to that would in the end allow more time for a reasoned approach to a plan for the building I mean we are operating in good faith the planning grant is due on April 13th and their board meets on June 2nd I think and or in June right and then the next step would once we do that we get the money to hire the consultants the next step would be the implementation grant and that's a whole lot more money and and it can and we just keep going forward but realistically what talking to Nathan and understanding what other towns the process of other towns to do this very similar thing it cannot happen overnight but I think once the planning grant results come in the town will have the information they need to make a you know an informed vote that's what we want an informed vote Nancy well I think we also have to understand that we will be having a vote ourselves by reason of the Stockbridge vote we're now required to have a vote here and that has to happen within 60 days of their vote so sometime in the next seven weeks we have to have a vote as to what our wishes are if if they go for a revote then I think that delays our vote it does it does yeah that may happen tonight but in any event at this point we haven't even been given the I don't think we have been given the information to do a decoupling vote I understand that we would be notified by the secretary of state that we need to to conduct that vote right well we're one week into it yeah so so I've got a question for the select board with respect to this uh demand of the school board for you to make a decision and it was April 2nd and now that's a that's no longer the case because no it is April 2nd now it was May 1st and we we approached them and then claimed that in light of their um vote on the ballot to demerge that um we needed um we requested that deadline be pushed out and they they did push it out yeah doing you said may I think you meant March right yeah I was gonna say March yeah sorry yeah okay so they pushed out so that that when the new deadline comes up they're still gonna want something from you they're gonna want an answer and they feel that if you don't give them the answer they're looking for they're free to put it up on the market so what's gonna stop that nothing so and that and you're okay with that uh we've had this conversation in an executive session and I think there's some things that we just can't say at this time I mean but we're not I personally I'm not okay with that but I'm not at I can't just give the dollar on behalf of a town you know without the the weight of the town making that decision and right now we don't have a clearly informed decision it's um I mean go can go back to the school board and and try and explain the um the um the irrationalness of their dear demands that they expect us to be making a educated realistic decision and take on that building why won't they give us the time to do that and as I thought they're all about education right has that been stated in in writing to them not in those words but in writing we did um when the vote appeared on their um to demerge we you know made that point that um we need to understand what is happening here and I don't have the exact text in front of me but um yeah we could um end this meeting early and I'll jump into their meeting and make a bunch of noise you know I'm sure it's still going oh yeah they're all marathon marathon yeah um but no it's not um it's it's not something that the select board can just say oh well let's just buy it for a dollar and um you know we need um you know we need to have this properly planned out so there's two things here that are coming to my mind yes we need more information to really make a town informed vote on the repurposing of that building but but there may be another vote which is should the situation be does the town want to retain the building to pursue a possible repurpose or to sell it for themselves or does the town okay with you know the the school board going and putting it up on the market because I think the town might vote that they don't want that outcome they don't want to simply have the the building go into a commercial market so there's really two things here but that meeting still has to be warned well that's not a problem so we're 30 days plus yeah even warning a meeting of that right because of this revoke you mean no when you have town meetings there are laws that require periods of time when you warn meetings um am i correct that if if for example if we did go ahead and and do a warrant a meeting we'd still have to do it via zoom um probably yeah okay I would think so at this time yeah okay that's what I thought I just wondered it would have to be an australian ballot vote oh an australian ballot vote okay we probably end up having more informational meetings like we did for the town meeting and then do the paper vote yep but we could rent a tent I think a lot depends on how the the subdivision goes to and what's gotta happen with that and what that is tonight with that stockage well I don't even understand how you can go ahead with that position when you don't even know what it is you're acquiring well that's another issue there's there's no clear um you know they're asking us to buy something that is undefined right now right you know um so it's at least they're only asking a dollar for it but they're asking easements aren't they yes they are easements and it's it's still not um it's not clear that what they propose to the planning board is is an acceptable subdivision well what about pushing that through I mean you say it's going to happen on the sit the when is the planning meeting coming up another month April 6 April 6 April 6 would be the would be when they present and I'm not sure well it's possible that they won't be able to answer all the questions at that time uh and there's a certain and even if they were it wouldn't be wouldn't be probably decided that day so right when they pushed the meet the the deadline for did they push it to May because you they you can't they cannot be expecting an answer from you on April 2 when they're not even going to meet with the planning commission till April 6 that seems well and then I think isn't there a public hearing for subdivision with the neighbors that would be the public hearing that would be the public hearing yeah to us was that we would be taking the building contingent on the subdivision being intact by June 30th so that's that was all part of what they were proposing to us is that you know all of the ducks would be in order by June 30th and then we would just you know take over the building with all of the with all of those chores that they have to be including the under oil tank I wish they would have looking at that last fall I was um under the impression that would be part of the um the agreement was that that would be dealt with before they sold that and and they were promising in in their last proposal to us what the in February that those things would be done by the end of June so is that part of our contingency the oil tank yeah oh yeah oh yeah yeah so then there can't be an acquisition till they meet their part of the well I see it's like any other real estate transaction you have your contract of sale and then their contingencies they have to be cleared before you go to closing right then right right and closing being June 30th they're giving themselves that many months to get these things done if they're not cleared the parties can negotiate an extension to the closing closing date right so then it is conceivable for Rochester to mourn a meeting and have the town come together with what we're doing or you know whether even the decision to acquire it you know that even if you you if things aren't going to happen till June 30th anyway I don't understand the problem with that with who's what having a a warntown meeting I think you need more information Catherine and more more of a I mean you have a set few things set moving forward but I think you have to come up with some more some dollars and cents so you've got some idea of what you're dealing with that's true but if you take it by two approaches the one is just the town decision to acquire the building then the second would be the town's approval of the repurposing of the building in two steps two votes well town may end up owning the building because of the the demurger right right right we may end up owning it without having to spend a dollar you'd have to take your own tank yourselves yeah and of course we pride the subdivision maybe we'd have to buy the subdivision expense from the the rsud they've got quite a bit of money into the boy and king and mark bannon engineering to develop the secondary septic system and the subdivision so we would have we would have to acquire that from them and what about this talk that I've heard from the school board about emptying the building of of everything I mean building with with none of the supplies that Rochester purchased right they called for an inventory of all the contents of the building and they're going to start selling off stuff from the building they did and then that's fine if we're going to do a delay tactic I guess they can go ahead and do that because it's there's been no definition about the contents of the building if we were to use it as a school you know they're going to get five thousand dollars for the desks and everything and it would cost the town five hundred thousand dollars to re-equip that school so that's okay but the one thing that I'm going to take exception with is that they want to remove the lockers and sell the lockers because they think they're worth a lot of money but lockers to me are like kitchen cabinets you don't rip off the kitchen cabinets when you sell your house so the lockers are attached to the wall and I believe that they are part of real property and stay with the building. Patty um oh I'm sorry when you're talking about things that are in the building if I if I understand it correctly the White River Valley players still own a great deal still have a great deal of equipment in the you know the storage area for the auditorium up above the stage and things like that you know we better get it out uh oh dear and all the the desks and chairs of Green Mountain Sazook Institute needs needs all that stuff I mean I just don't think it makes the shop the shop tools that's what I mean about meeting it just feels like it's become very aggressive and strange this whole thing is being orchestrated by a very few people I feel like they're coming into our town and trying to tell us what to do and that's not fair I've done it you're the newspaper reporter yeah but I can't say stuff that's not in you know yeah but you can say factual things and the factual things if they were in print I think more and more people would really understand the stakes that we have in front of us because I don't think it's widely understood at all I really don't well I'll try to I'll try to get more information about this from from other people too you know I can't um this is just what's happening at our select board meeting but I'll see if I if my boss would let me write something else I'll find out you know I'm wondering about Sandy um as you're talking about the contents of the building we were just talking about the player stuff um I don't think we want them to to take down all of the stage lighting and sell those pieces you know into exactly that's that's that's big bucks and they've been there a long time and so I just I don't know maybe it's appropriate doing for the select board or somebody to write a letter and say you know you know before you do that you know we need to talk about this because and after Irene the players spent a lot of time raised a lot of money to redo a lot of things in the auditorium including seating and things like that in the stage and you know there are I don't know it's just Stockbridge does not care about that the town out of a unified district I don't really understand this I I I thought maybe the root of this whole thing was a fear of Stockbridge that the state was going to close down their school and they'd have to join with Rochester and maybe that's why they need you know the high school to go away because they absolutely don't want to envision a future where they have to come here to go to elementary school I thought that maybe that was the root fear because it's so there's something that's really giving it so much power maybe they want a K to 12 choice school that's what they're going to end up with but um that's why I brought up the contents because I thought it would be an issue that a lot of different entities may have an opinion with and so I did want to bring that forward for everyone not to stir up a any more controversy but a lot of people needed to know about that for a conversation between the two boards I think I did have a conversation with a school board member the other day and they said there was no interest from the school board to sell anything off in the building and that's what she told me and she said there was a lot of misinformation out there so I don't know where everybody gets their information and doesn't really in a school board meeting that's where it is okay well this this uh person was just the other day she said things that have not are not as uh robust as they were so and I don't know this is just what she told me so I do think it's a good idea to have things in writing especially addressing the uh the equipment in the school so that there is a clear understanding of what what the Rochester select board expects you know and uh and in terms of stirring things up I don't think we should stir up negative energy but we should stir up awareness in Rochester awareness I think there's a lot of people who are just not aware so hence the hence the the need for for informational meetings or maybe like like we did with COVID actually sending a mailer out through town that gets to the people that aren't on zoom aren't on facebook you know aren't going to meetings I think if if we could afford to do it as some sort of a meal a mailing from the committee etc that went went out to all the taxpayers voters whatever but again we would need we would need more information we would need the actual proposals that that are concrete and what we're we're looking at it doesn't do any good right now yeah we need some advice from our lawyer at this point to if we're going to draft anything I think our a chat with our lawyer should be in order to figure out what our move forward should be well I think there's a lot of good information in this in this draft attached to your emails today rhs repurposing project there's a good start right there incredible information for townspeople can can we put that I mean I know that Julie really liked it I mean I shared it with her on voting day and she asked actually us for us to come to the meeting tonight and to talk about the ideas can we start with that can we put that out publicly to really say you know this is this is what's being proposed this is what's being developed and this is the and this is the actual situation right now and we'd like to hear from the town we would we'd like to hear from Rochester other than in a vote yeah send us things in writing we could have that we could create a way for people to respond to us so that the select board would know that's a very good idea Martha I think you've got an article here well I was just thinking I think I got that email that had the attachment on it and I will I didn't open the attachment I didn't have time I was in the middle some other stuff but I will open the attachment and see what that if if that's something I can make an article out of and maybe talk to your Julia whatever and see if I can put something together as a separate article I'll talk to my boss about that um it's it's news like important oh yeah yeah no I mean I'll talk to my boss to make sure it's okay with him did he think so I I imagine he will think so but you know I need to usually check with him if I'm going to write something big that I didn't you know he doesn't know Catherine did you write this did you write the yes I I did but I have to say it was done you know collaboratively you know Vic and I both hammered it out with input from committees it's not just one person's work none of this is one person's work perhaps Martha could come to your committee yeah absolutely Vic is the host anybody is welcome to our committees you just have to tell him to send you the link you know so Vic for the next time you have a committee meeting could you send me a link do you have my email I will I'll give you the date in just a second here it's it's in a couple of weeks so would would I wait to write the article till after coming to the committee meeting no we can give you any information you need right now based on this level March 23rd at 6 30 Martha March 23rd that's a Tuesday correct it's your deadline date March 23rd at 6 30 via zoom right yeah via zoom okay and okay that's after okay we have another select board meeting the previous night okay the 22nd so it's not the same night okay good um so yeah if you could but I'm on the news at our herald it's all our case just n-e-w-s and then at sign and then o-u-r-h-e-r-a-l-d dot com news at our herald dot com and that's my direct email because I'm the copy editor for the paper well you already put little something or somebody puts a blurb about the maker space in the slides yes yes I got that from Vic and Dick yeah so I think it's good to go ahead and follow that up with with the project description to date which is what and that's what's in that attachment yes project description to date it's all narrative there isn't any financial cost information there okay so moving forward I guess it behooves us to have a conversation with the school board or part of the school board about um you know what um you know how realistically they think they're handling this um you know and I mean that seems all up in the air there if they're going to have another revote on I know it's a separate issue but it's still it's um it's all related it's all related yeah and and it might be helpful to them for for them to know what we are doing and who we are working with right yeah because because we're we are working and we're submitting this grant on April 13th and if they can actually see that we're taking the necessary steps maybe they have more confidence in us yeah and we're looking at other funding sources too uh kathrin patenary meeting with the vermont council rural development on friday for some more advice about different grant sources and we've talked to other places other people and uh so you know we're not putting all our eggs in one basket we're trying to find out all the best uh baskets we can and as many yeah because some some programs are more bureaucratic than others and yeah yeah find the sweet spot I appreciate all your efforts though I really do really yeah well we feel very very fortunate to have the people on the committee that we have and uh yeah jeff is one and we have new people coming all the time and uh it just feels very positive and I wish that positivity is what we could really you know energize on because it's it's happening on some really grassroots level the word is getting out and people are responding well and I've started a spreadsheet on all of our contacts for grants and I I expect that by the time we're done it's going to be as long as our budget well thank you everybody yeah so um we put this stuff to rest it's definitely not done but um for tonight I don't know if we can get any further on on that um we have there's any is there anything else I see tony goopy did you make it into the movie did you have something that you wanted to talk about in the library I'll just say that we have a trustees meeting tomorrow afternoon okay thank you what time quarter six okay thank you well dune yep this fyi um amy got me um energy data for the consumption and cost data I believe cost data consumption data for the school uh I'm still awaiting uh uh Bonnie born or Amy clarifying what some of the coding is so that I can separate the stock bridge expenses from Rochester so I hope to have that soon they don't have a lot of it digitized I'm gonna have to do a lot of data entry but uh we should get a clearer picture of what's really going on there okay thank you um Kirk did you have anything that you wanted to share with us you've been very patient I'm waiting through our um our town stuff here what have we got to bring to us uh thank thank you for having me um now I just wanted to be available I I know you sent out my legislative updates that I had I saw you those were in attachment and I just wanted to be available in case anybody had any questions or commentary or or to let people know they can't contact me if they that with any of those things that's all right thank you for that yep thank you so if that's uh no one has anything else I'd like to talk about we're gonna close as part of the meeting and and go into executive session to have a little personnel discussion so um everybody for coming in tonight yep thank you folks thank you thank you everybody tonight