 to the board about the importance of the replacement to the residents of Westville Road. I can't hear a word Pat is saying. Larry, in the minutes, it says Larry Creech spoke to the board about the importance of the replacement to the residents of Westville Road. I would like to interject the word bridge before we place the floor. Sounds good. Does it, all right? I'd move to accept the minutes as amended by Pat. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thanks, that's a little far from the mic. Well, talk louder, Pat. One of our conversations earlier was about to continue with our investigation of an improved Zoom platform, hybrid physical meeting. And I think our cameraman here is a guy that we talked to had some advice about that. We got more about that after. So we had a couple of guests lined up here and Bruce has sent a letter that he is not feeling well. So he's not coming physically, but he is looking for approval of the concept so we can continue planning and getting cost estimates for his memorial. Say that again, louder. Armed Forces Monument. Armed Forces Monument to be located. To the right of the current, is it a bench? The current monument at the bottom of the cemetery? To the left, I think. To the left. To the left. To the side of it. Yeah, beside it, near the cemetery. And here is what he's proposing there. So to the left of the gate, is that? No, to the bench. To the left of the bench. Yeah. In Woodlawn Cemetery. Yes, yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have anything to speak on about that? It sounds good to me. I'm all for giving him the go ahead to continue planning and tightening up his proposal there. Yes. Hear that, Bruce? Bruce is not here, is anybody? We'll communicate that to him. All right. We have another guest here, Larry Strauss. He came all the way down past the closed road. No, he's not closed for you. But you're here speaking on something down the line, but since you're here in person, why don't you go ahead and address that? Hear what you're talking about? Smile. Yeah. You don't have to be on this camera. That's good. No, I'm just getting a little closer to the mic. Can you hear? I couldn't hear what he said, no. Oh, that's a, I'll try harder. So yeah, so I'm really here representing you, as the select board. No, not really. And Ridgeline Outdoor Collective. Really, maybe if we took this to them a little bit better? And so the... Testing. Hello. Can you hear him? Hello, hello. Now I can hear you. All right, yeah. I'll take you to the orientation. Now I can hear you. Yeah. So the town of Randolph in conjunction with the town of Rochester and Braintree are proposing to submit a letter of intent with a consortium application for a VOREC grant to the state of Vermont. VOREC is the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative Grant. So this is the second time that the state has funded these grants. Randolph received the first one, which was, they were the only one to receive the original VOREC grant. So the state now has a pot of $5.1 million that they are looking to give out. They're looking at funding around 25 different projects. And so the first step in that process is the submission of these letters of intent. Ridge Line Outdoor Collective is a part of the process as a non-profit outdoor recreation organization that will partner with this consortium of towns in working on furthering the development of the Vellamont Trail, connecting the three towns. And part of the vision in the submission will also include a hut in downtown Randolph. The Rochester Portion primarily is continuing the trail from the top of Randolph Gap down into Little Hollow is the Rochester piece of this. So just looking tonight for support from the board to for submitting the LOI on behalf of the three towns. Hello, someone had a question or no? Hi, this is Catherine. Blank to get out the sound leg out, but when you were talking about a hut and I didn't know what the location of the hut was going to be. Yeah, so the proposed location right now is behind the Gear House Bike Shop, right in downtown Randolph. And I should also add that, you know, this is a, no municipal funds are involved here. It's, there's no match to the grant. It's a 100% grant. So no town funds are required from any of the towns. Excuse me, Larry, your voice did blank out on me again. I'm not correct that you said the proposed location, but Big Shop, is that Randolph Village? Yes. Yes. Okay. I heard something about Gear House and then that's all I heard. Sorry. Yep. We heard the beginning and the end of what you said that you could fill in the blank. So yeah, yeah, I think that's right. We're all interpolated. Yeah. So what you're looking for is for the select board to support Rochester's participation with Randolph and Braintree in this? That's correct. Yeah. Right. And this is the first step in the process. And right now it's just a letter of intent. And then the state will review the letters of intent that they receive and call those. And then there will be a final application process later this fall for the ones that are selected. So it sounds interesting to me. Yep. It sounds like we have to... It's a good thing to go forward, I think. Does it cost us anything? No. I have a little question. Sure. The original... Speak up. The original proposal did speak about the Velomoc Trail having feeder trails down to every town along the way. Is that correct? The intent of the Velomoc Trail is for the trail to go from town to town. Okay, that part of the project is not in place yet. Yes, no? Yes? This would be part of that process. This is exactly part of it. That would be the grandest part of it. This is trying to extend the trail into Randolph. Into Randolph. It's connecting Rochester to Randolph. Do we have a trail that goes from the top of the mountain to Rochester right now? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, through Riley-Bostwood and then on pieces of road and other existing trail. Down to the Forest Service? To the ranger station? Yep. And to town. And into town. Yeah. Yeah. So this is continuing it northward? Yep. Perfect. Is there any maps on all of this? Yeah. Fire Department really should have set because if there's a rescue to be made... You want nowhere to go. We gotta go. Yeah. So on the... Yeah, I mean... Well, let's finish this piece of it and I'd be happy to answer that. Okay. So I'm going to let you two decide on this because I should probably recuse myself since I have a bike shop and this is a bike trail. That's, um, so... Who's talking? That was me doing the owner of the bike shop in town so therefore I'm going to recuse myself from voting on this particular... Oh, okay. Yeah. So I propose that the town of Rochester does place their support for the new application to the OREC grant program for the Velomont connectivity, including a hut in Rwanda. You want to second it? I will second that. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you very much. Thank you. Off and running. Go get it. So to answer Terry's question on the Ridgeline website, on the Ridgeline website, there is our maps available now that are downloadable. In addition, Angus has actually prepared a first responders map which shows not only the trails themselves but access roads that are separate from the actual bikeways or skiways. That'd be good. Yeah. I think you'd want to get those to all the other towns too. Yeah. That's, you know... And the ambulance service. That's right. Yeah, it's all there. It's in the process. Yeah, it's all there. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome very much. Thank you very much. And I will stay around to answer a few ARPA questions when that comes up. That come up. Okay. Thank you. For update. Yes. Thank you. So we've seen that I believe are here to talk about the process of selecting a consultant to perform a feasibility study for the former Rochester High School building. And we have, I saw one proposal. Is that correct that you want to speak to this some? Yes. Thank you. So Catherine and I are both here to speak to this. I'll give you an overview comment and ask Catherine to jump in and add to or correct what I have to say is maybe the case. Just to go back in time a bit. In April, the select board applied for a planning grant with the Vermont Community Development Program to assess the feasibility of a program of function in the building itself and how that might be paid for. The grant was awarded making up to $50,000 available. Two rivers was selected to be the grant administrator. So it's being administered by someone other than the town staff. And that administrative cost is being paid for out of the grant proceeds themselves. A request for proposal was issued to a number of consulting firms in July to provide feasibility analysis and conclusions and facility planning services. In August responses were received several firms said they were just too busy. Some we didn't hear from at all. Only one provided a complete proposal and we have interviewed, a group of us interviewed this company spoke with references and feel very good about what we learned and we'll talk about that a bit as well. The actual tasks to be performed in terms of the work plan would be, but there's five globally speaking. One is feasibility and you may recall from having seen the proposal or the plan for the building that this volunteer committee put together that includes childcare, senior services, the maker space, arts and learning and shared office space. So the first task is to assess the feasibility of that. Is it gonna work as a consideration? Secondly is a master space plan and in conjunction with the primary consultant there's an architecture firm based in Montpelier who would do the facility aspects of this work. The third is a master facility and capital improvement plan. You're looking at the condition of the building what would it take to make the building functional for these purposes? Not to make it into an elementary school but to make it functional for the purposes in the proposal. Fourth task is to prepare a budget and profit and loss statement and fifthly a high level assessment of potential funding sources for the facility. The company we spoke with that is called Fairweather Consulting Company based in New Pulse, New York. And they and both separately and together with the architecture firm based in Montpelier they've done a number of these. Where did you say were they were from? Excuse me? New Pulse, New York in the Hudson Valley. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry. It's all right. They've done a number of projects of this type of repurposing school buildings and other facilities as well as projects repurposing other buildings and community planning. They've done a number of projects in Vermont as well as in the rural New York state. And that is their area of expertise is community development projects in rural settings. We liked their work plan. We thought that the owner, the company Peter Fairweather had a realistic assessment of both the challenge and the opportunity in this particular project. We talked about and we invited him to also bring to us all their ideas that he may have for programs or concepts that would draw people and revenue from outside the Valley in addition to the things that we were talking about in the proposal. So they will do that as well. I won't say get familiar with the project. Very important in terms of his methodology is both the data analysis and the relation dynamics and other forms of data but also getting community input. And so he is very interested in and will work with us in conducting community based meetings to get input from people in Rochester in the area to explore the depth of interest in these kinds of programs and what concerns or issues or opportunities people have in mind. So that community engagement component of the work is very important to the project. Their cost that they proposed was within the budget. However, in the discussion, we talked about the timing that we want to bring to our town meeting in March as solid a recommendation as we can make based on the data, the analysis, their recommendations. And he was a little concerned about the time it would take to get to that point. So he's gone back and he's revising his work plan and there'll be some adjustment to the fee though we believe it will be within the limits of the grant to come forward with a proposal that will have a real meeting and utility for the town meeting in March. Or I would also say that because we expect there to be community engagement in this process between now and then this should not come as a surprise in terms of an item being on the agenda for that town meeting. The submitted cost was $39,233 which is within the budget of the grant. And we are recommending this firm with a budget of not to exceed $47,000. And I'll explain that. So the grant is for $50,000 and there's also a community match of 10%, which is $5,000. We're not asking the select board to provide those funds. This would be community-based donations. We've already got pledges of $2,000 so we're well on the way and having really scratch the surface. In-kind service is also eligible to make the match. So people who work professionally in fields like Catherine in senior services and Dick Robson in architecture, even though he's retired, that can count towards the in-kind match. So $50,000 of a grant that costs the two rivers to administer the grant is about $6,000, at least $44,000 available. And then we expect about 3,000 in cash, maybe a little more from the fundraising. So we're recommending that you approve going forward with fair weather consulting with a cost not to exceed $47,000. That was a unanimous recommendation of everybody on the core team. Probably stop there and Catherine anything else or do you want to go to questions? Well, I also mentioned the John Copens project for the climate economy model community. And in that meeting that happened a week ago, Wednesday, in the town offices, Jeff Gephardt brought this up to John and asked how we were going to also, because John's very aware of the work, the community work done so far in repurposing the high school. And John is very sensitive to that. And Peter was very willing to work with the overlapping. So we're giving him John's contact information with the concern being that you can, I mean, the community engagement piece is important, obviously with the select board needing to have town consensus on acquiring the building, community engagement and giving people an opportunity to express their opinions, their concerns, their desire even prior to the vote is very important. But there is the possibility of having too many community engagement events if John's doing some and Peter's doing others. So we're going to try to dovetail some of these and include the energy piece in the high school piece as well. So, but Dick pretty much covered everything. So anybody have any questions? Yeah, I do. So I'm uncomfortable with a couple of things here. First of all, I'm uncomfortable with having one vendor. I also think there's a difference between community engagement and community information. I think the select board or the committee or whoever has not not a courtesy, but a duty to be totally transparent about this and provide the most possible information about this as possible. And I don't feel like that's happening. This is Rob Gardner's subjective opinion. So that's, you can take it or leave it. But I'm uncomfortable with the amount of information that I personally have and I have paid attention to this. This is going to has a potential for being quite expensive to the town. And I'm not hearing out front as a foreground item cost and risk. Can I respond to you, Robert, because the point of the feasibility study is to get some of that information. Wait, wait, wait. I'm just telling you what I'm hearing. And what I'm hearing and to be quite honest too much of what I'm hearing from the committee tends to be cheerleading for an established point of view rather than looking at the other unknown questions here. So all I'm saying is that there's a lot of information before we ask the town to vote on the cost, the potential risk and cost on this, all that stuff ought to be in the foreground, in my opinion. The other idea is this might work, that might work. But everybody needs to really understand, I believe it's a duty, it's a duty of the sub-court and the committee to make this money information in the foreground, make people understand what it is. And I don't feel that that's been done. And that's the end of my diatribe for today. Well, the point of the feasibility study is in fact to go into a depth about not only the cost of capital improvements, but also the cost for sustaining these programs, what the viabilities of these are. And we spent a good portion of the meeting today talking very much about the importance of this kind of information so that the town is fully informed. So we have no disagreement with your position, Robert. We agree with you that financial information is key. I did read in the proposal, I did state that so they're gonna evaluate the proposed uses that have been generated by the committee, but also we're going to expand that in especially in light of finding some of those ideas are not viable, they were also going to expand their view. So it's not just analyzing for those specific uses, but it was gonna be a little bit of a broader perspective on that, which I found heartening because if it's just getting a study to back up an already assumed position, that's kind of limiting. So I think that was an important piece of their proposal that stood out to me. But in response to the Catherine made that point that the kind of information you're asking for is coming up with. I also was not surprised, but it's a little disappointing to only have one proposal. It's not surprising given the fact of what's going on in Vermont right now. I mean, we knew before we even got the award when Vic was doing some outreach to quite a considerable number of consultants in this area and out of that list, there were only five that were even available during the timeframe that we have. We're on a very tight schedule because we're working with the school board as well. So we got responses from people saying, we'd love to put a bit on this, but quite frankly, we just can't do your timeline. If this were for 22, we could do it. So the good thing is, is that the one consultant that we have is actually, he's kind of perfect for us. It really is. It really, we really like it. I'm just saying, I'm telling you what I'm hearing. I'm as a voter in the town and you know, I'm skeptical about this stuff. So I think the idea of money and risk needs to be in the foreground. People need to understand this. And I'm not hearing that from you guys. I think there's a tendency from the committee to be cheerleaders for point of view. It sounds like that to me. All I'm saying is that there's serious risk for the town involved in this, whatever the results of this study or whatever they are. But there could be serious benefit to the town, Robert. And one of the things I would like you to be a little bit more open to the possibility that this could also be very beneficial to the town. It's, you know, there could be a greater risk at not doing this. Katherine, you're cheerleading on me. I am responding to you, Robert, because I'm just asking you to stay open. Stay open to the potential of what this could be. Okay, so I think we've got the input that we need to move forward on just the decision. You're asking now for a decision whether or not we will, the select board will accept in this proposal to spend not our money, right? This is grant, this is not money coming out of the town's pockets at this point. This is money that was accessed by a study to present more information so the town as a whole can make a decision. This is not a final decision that the select board is gonna make. This is gonna be a town vote, I think, so. That's right. It's about getting information to inform the voters. So I'm correct if I say that what you're going to vote on is approving bringing the committee's suggestion to bring in this consulting firm to do the work. Fairweather consultants. Right, Fairweather consultants. For Jay, this is the consulting firm. But not the suggestion to bring in a consulting firm. We've already done that. I can't hear. We've already approved soliciting the firm. Now we're approving a specific proposal from Fairweather consulting. That's right. Yeah. We're gonna be hiring them because it's your decision to do it. Yeah. Right. On our recommendation. But with somebody else's money. Money that we've been granted. Yes, we've been granted. So I'd move to approve. I second it. All in favor? All right. Thank you for everyone's work on this and everyone's input and concerns. It's all taken to note. And I will be working closely with this firm as well. So if there are any concerns, Rob Gardner, you can share them with me. Okay. We can hear that bad. But I think you said you're gonna be working closely with the firm. That's what she said. Yes. Yeah. Alrighty. So onward, we have Joan. What have you got for us tonight? Okay. First, some updates on Mason Brooke. Paving, well, you'll probably know that the Colbert is all fully installed as of last week. And the paving originally was scheduled for today. And then there was a rain delay from the weather last week. And the last I heard was on Friday is that the paving is now scheduled for tomorrow. Though I don't, that's still, I believe that is now Thursday. Thursday? Okay. Yeah. So, and the guardrail, the latest I heard also last Friday on Michelle, the contractor was that the subcontractor was aiming for Thursday also for installation. Right. So we're at Friday, they're at Friday with the guardrail. So we're anticipating formally reopening the road for this weekend, right? We're hoping so. Yeah. You know, if that comes to pass. So the discussion we had late last week is I guess we're past that now. You don't need to make a decision about when you want to open the road. That's all we're done with that. Yeah. So if I said the goal is to open the road formally this weekend, if all goes well. Sir. Okay. Okay. Good. If all goes according to plans. According to plan, okay. Yeah. Okay. The only other thing I have is an update or correcting the record on the West Hill Bridge. First, an update is that we were short a little bit of funding for the design phase. We had a grant from the FAR service of $60,000 and the contract is for $63,553. And so FAR service was just recently able to come up with some additional funds so that now we're fully covered for the contract amount. So it's an additional $3,553. And in addition, what I need to correct is from the last meeting, my understanding was that there was no set timeframe for construction. But it turns out now that FAR service does have money for construction and their plans are full speed ahead for installing the new bridge next summer. All right. That's good news. Thank you. Have you put out word to those folks up there and all, Joan? Okay. Great. Thank you. Great, Joan. Tony, what's cooking at the library? Well, let's see. The cookbooks are ready. All right. On sale. They're being sold at the library at the bakery. What is he saying? The cookbooks are ready from the library. Okay, thank you. Yeah. And Tony, can people just buy them at the library or are they for sale somewhere else? The bakery at the, where else? The bookery. The bookery. And the cafe. And the cafe. $15 each. $15. For two for 30. Get them while they're hot. I can't get the prices. No, don't get the prices. All right. Three for 50. People say I'm doing pre-advertisement. I can say where to get them. All right. Was she okay with that? Yeah. And then the library is open at regular hours but with a strong mask recommendation. Did you hear that? The library is open for regular hours with a strong mask recommendation. So I think that's all I need to say except you should keep track of the Herald because you get the best information there and most up-to-date information on the Herald. Did you hear that, Martha? No. You should definitely keep checking on the Herald because that's where you get the best and most up-to-date information on what is happening in the library. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to make sure you heard that. All right, thank you. Yeah. Well, and I just have a question here. Have you heard any more about- I think that's a lot of questions but I'm afraid to get things right. The roof. Both the roof. Have it. Have them. But I will be in touch with the guy. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Is it still leaking? The last time I was up there, it wasn't leaking at all. No, it doesn't leak when it doesn't rain. I don't know, this was right after a rain storm and it was no- Well, I know. So it's weird. It's very unpredictable. Yeah, so there's something weird about that. Yep. No, it's, I got it. Okay. And how about painting any of the buildings, town buildings, anywhere? We can't get anybody. We haven't been able to. I've been after it, but there's just no one available that we can get. Yeah. So I haven't lost it yet, but I will keep working on it. All right, thank you. You're welcome. I think we've kind of covered the highway already tonight but Terry, anything on utilities? Just- Nope. Nope. Water's good. Toilets are flushing. And we don't have our energy coordinator here, so I'm going to move back onto the request for the town's permission for household hazardous waste day on September 18th, 2021, which as you know, that's when you can come and drop off old unused buckets of paint and nasty mysterious things that have collected in your basement, I'd move to give permission for this. I second it. Yeah, all in favor? All right. Do you want me to just question, is that going to be at the town office parking lot? Yeah, yeah, 67 School Street. And now since the recycling is weekly, they'll have to divvy up the parking lot appropriately. You don't know what time that might be. It's usually same hours as the dump, I'd say. The dump is the same as the dump, yeah. You know, morning, it doesn't go- It's 8 to 11, is what the dump or what the garden is. Yeah, I think it's focused on the morning. It doesn't say on here what the hours are, but I wouldn't go in the afternoon. Go in the morning. I'm sure there'll be advertisements around, so yeah. All right, and on the old business, we had the driveway permit for Dave Kennett on Liberty Hill Road, and after some back and forth with Cooter and I, he's moved it to where we're comfortable for it, so I think we should approve that one. It's in here somewhere. I don't know, I see one with the green side. I've moved to approve. Second. All in favor? All right. And is there anything else from the gathered masses, either online or in person? You don't mention the next day or the next meeting, but I'm assuming it's Monday, the September 13th. It wasn't on the agenda. It's not on the agenda, so I guess we'd have to- Monday. Have to verify that. I don't know, it'll be the 13th. 13th? Second and fourth. Yeah, so yeah, the 13th. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you all for everything you do and being part of our wonderful town. Thank you for everything you guys do. Very much appreciated. Thank you for answering all my questions, and thank you for being the techie, Kristen. No problem. Didn't I want to take a hair?