 discussion of road form and vacancy expected October 16. Paul, do you have an announcement for us? I do have an announcement. Can you hear me okay now? No. Little marginal. But go ahead. Pick up your video, maybe. How about now? No, it's the same. It's a little bit better. Yeah, we can hear you though. Go ahead. Okay. So guys, after 11 years with the town, I have decided to take a position at another establishment. That would be effective the 16th of October. So that allows us hopefully to find some replacement if possible before then. And I discussed with Steve, I'm hoping to be able to help make the transition as smooth as possible even while I'm here and then there after as well. Are we going to hear any of that? Yeah, we did. We did. So I guess the first appropriate thing to do is to thank you for your years of... Yeah, are you able to hear any of that? Yes, we heard it all. So what I was saying is I guess the first thing we should do with all sincerity is thank Paul for his years of service to the town of Middlesex and also thank him for the orderly way he's working with us on this transition. Obviously, it's going to be a challenge to find the right person to fill his shoes. We have already, with Sarah's help, widely advertised the position. I called all the board members to tell them we were going to do this. We didn't want to wait. Even with the 16th, that's only barely a month away. We didn't want to wait to get the ad in the paper and there's an ad running for, I believe, Williamstown for essentially the same position. So I don't know any update. Have we any response yet from our ads? No. Zero? Zero. I never did see it in the Times-Argus, by the way. It is there. It's finally there. Okay. So I've been gone a couple of days, but I think I looked at Saturdays and it wasn't in Saturdays. At least I... I haven't seen it either and I get paper every day. Could we send it on Front Porch Forum now that it's official? Yes. The answer is yes. Front Porch Forum and there's also a municipal listserv, right Sarah? Yes. The Clerks and Treasures Association has a listserv. I'm not sure there's an equivalent... I don't know if there's an equivalent in the road foreman world, in the highway world. Well, there is Sarah. We can get that information over to the folks at our Regional Planning Commission for some help. Great. Okay. We just have to see who we can stare at our net. It appears at first blush without going into details that none of our existing employees are interested in applying. Is that correct, Paul? That's correct. As of now, I've kind of prodded as heavily as anyone cared to and it does not seem like there's any interest as of now. The other thing we might have to consider, I suppose, and it's premature to do that at this point in time, is... I can't hear you. You can't hear me? No. Can everybody else hear me? Now I can. Yeah. Now we can. Turn your volume up, Mary. Everybody always here, Peter. I was just saying potentially appoint someone on an interim basis, but we've just got to see. I mean, even if we can hire somebody, it's going to be unlikely that they'll be ready to start by October 16th. But who knows? The other thing I would encourage everybody to do, especially Paul and Steve, who are well connected in this world is Network Network Network. I've been... Everybody I talked to who was remotely associated with a contracting business. I've been trying to put a bug in the area. I think what we have to emphasize is the advantages that the town has to offer. Their obvious disadvantages and Paul has been subject to all of them. The erratic schedule in the winter being the largest and most difficult one to deal with, but the regular paycheck, the good benefits. There's a lot to be... A lot the town has to offer. So someone who maybe doesn't have a working spouse and doesn't have a small children would be a good target. But we just have to see. We just have to see if we can find. But the idea of networking, I think, is important. Do you think of anything else, Steve or Paul? No. No. I don't think so, Peter. No. I think all good points. It's certainly, which I knew, which is why I wanted to give at least a sufficient amount of time as I could. The fact that there's a lot of health wanted, especially in this field, which I knew would be tough. Yeah. No license? Yeah. Yes, you do. Oh, this is a working foreman. So this isn't... You know, this is a all-encompassing position. You've got to be ready to do the administrative work, the paperwork. You've got to be ready to drive the plot truck. You've got to be ready to, you know, supervise mechanical repairs. It's sort of all-encompassing. Is there... Do all towns, I'm just curious, do all towns, road foremen take on as much responsibility as Paul has done, like Paul's known to write grants and things like that? Or do some roads have an administrative assistant that helps out with those kinds of sort of the minutia paperwork kind of thing? I think most towns are similar. My impression is that most towns... Yeah, until you head up into either a bigger city or, you know, anything like that, there's typically not a lot of middle-level management like that or upper-level management in that regard. I did challenge Paul to think about ways that the job could be improved from a personnel satisfaction point of view and also from a town performance point of view. You know, the big bugaboo and the big problem is and Paul experienced firsthand is, you know, he has small kids, schools closed, daycare crisis, irregular schedule, wife working at the house. I mean, it's just like the full-court press on him that's sprung. Well, Paul, I appreciate all the work that you've done and I haven't thoroughly enjoyed working with you as a select board member and I wish you all the best in your new job and I hope it brings you some sanity and easy living that you haven't experienced recently. We don't want a bill of doing. Anyway, Paul, I'm sure that that is shared by everybody on the board and as I've already stated it. So, you know, we want you to leave with your head held high and get on with your life as they say. But we need a little help from you in the meantime. I want you to stay in the middle. Yeah, absolutely. He's still going to, the good news is he's going to be a taxpayer and resident of middle sex for a long time. So, we still can reach out and touch him some way, manner, shape, or form. Yeah, Steve and I have spoke just, you know, I know there's going to be probably a good time duration of transition and of course with everything that we've got going on in several different facets. I'd let Steve know and we agreed that I would certainly, when I'm available, make myself available to you guys for anything that we need administrative-wise. There's just going to be a lot of back story stuff that will need to get passed along in that regard, especially with grant stuff and a lot of different scenarios that I'm always happy to help with when I'm available. I appreciate that. And we, you know, we need to think about a fair compensation arrangement for your time doing that. I don't expect you to do that gratis. That wouldn't be fair. So, you know, if it's an occasional phone call now and then that's one thing, but if it's real time, that's a totally different thing. Sure. Anything else, board members? I guess it's gone by our next select board meeting, correct, Paul? Steve, that again, Mary? You'll be gone by our next select board meeting. Is that correct? No. I don't believe so, no. No, October 16th, Mary. Oh, okay, so maybe we can force you to come one to one more meeting. I'm happy to. I always attend. It's just trying to be in the right place to be able to actively engage in the meeting is always the difficult part. Yeah. Well, Paul, are you going to hang around for the highway report, which is coming right up? I will be. I will be, yes. So, Steve, onward and upward. I'm here. Yeah, highway report. Okay. So, we've been working up on McCulloch Hill Road and Upper Barnett Hill Road, got the culvert done up there. We did the Wood Road bridge deck repair, which is a good thing done. Starting tomorrow, we'll be doing some hydro seating up on Upper Barnett Hill Road, and we will also start roughing in the new parking lot area at the town, the Notch Road pit. And that parking area is for the town forest. And next week, we'll be at the Notch Road pit pretty much all week. We need to finish cleaning up the pit, get ready for water runoff so that we're not polluting anything. Do a little hydro seating there. And also, the area that I asked Paul if we could put all that overburden in on his property needs to be seated most. I told Paul we would help him seat and mulch that. He is supplying the seat and the mulch for that, but we're going to help him seat and mulch that, get that done so that's off our list. That needs to get closed up. We are going to be doing it, I don't know if it'll end up being next week, but it's in that mix. We're going to be starting clearing up at the Wildlife management area parking lot on Notch Road to extend that. They're paying for all the gravel and the trucking. We're going to do a little tree clearing, a little grubbing and leveling that stuff out. Also, as time permits, Paul has got a bunch of road signs that need to go up and speed limit signs. So we'll be working on that over the next week or so, two weeks, whatever it takes. We're kind of getting into that as soon as we can. Let's see. I guess that'll pretty much take us over the next couple of weeks, but then we will be going back up to McCullough Road. We still have some more ditching to do up there. So we will be back up there to try to get as much of that done as possible. I doubt if we will finish McCullough Hill Road this year. That's just we've been having to come off that project to do other stuff and take care of things. So that will be extended. I think that's about all I have unless I've missed something, Paul. Yeah, I just wanted to update the board, Steve, on I did place a call last week to Ed Pierce. Regarding the solar speed limit signs, he reached back to me on a Friday. I wasn't able to reach back to him. So I have another return call that I've made to him. I'm hopeful and in his message it did sound like we would be able to do an onsite meeting at both spots. This is a first for us. So I definitely want to make sure that everything is the way it needs to be. Sarah printed off all the paperwork that I need. So I have all that. But my biggest thing is just to be able to pass it through Ed through the whole way that way there. I do want to make a point to have those in before I go. And my biggest thing is to make sure that everything leading up to that is the way it needs to be. So there's no mess left behind that has to be figured out with being in the right away and far out of our jurisdiction in that regard. Paul, have we identified the signs that we're going to purchase? We have not. I have some calls into other towns. Actually, Montpelier is one of them. Berlin has some. So I've reached out to folks to see. I've also got a call into work safe where we get our normal traffic signs just to see what the options are for pricing and size. My biggest thing with the state is I have to figure out from Ed sizes and things like that. Because when you when you go from different speed limits, the size of the signs change as well. So that's one thing that I need to nail down. So I don't even have pricing yet because I don't know what size they need to be. But are you saying you need signs for the solar array? Or are you just talking about signs in general? I'm confused a little bit about that. Those are the speed limit signs, Mary, the solar radar signs that were voted on during town meeting. We're finally getting around to working on getting those in. We, like I said, the town voted to approve those signs and the installation of it's just when you go from town to working within the state right away. And I think I don't know for a fact, but I'm not sure if we're going to be delving into private property on those and be needing easements. I it's just it's there's a lot of footwork to be done on this on route 12, right on route 12. Correct. I just want to make sure that it's all done the way it needs to be to avoid any issues down the road. I would strongly recommend if at all possible, we have them in the state right away. I think that's where they are going to be, Peter, from one of those emails that I saw, they are going to be in the state right away so that we don't have to have easements from private landowners. We don't have to get any kind of written documentation that we have the right to be in the state's right away. Oh, yeah. There's significant paperwork with it. Yeah, that and again, that's why I just yeah, I just want to make sure it's all done correctly because I don't want to leave that a mess and there have to have to do in Redo's or anything like that. So can I ask a question about are you doing any part of McCullough road that's that's the part we moved up to class four or we moved it up to class three? Yeah, we just we literally had we've stopped right there because we've had to finish now that we got the culvert from Barnett Hill. We had to pull off that quickly to be able to finish Barnett Hill and then we want to close the pit down before we continue ditching. But we literally just just stepped into where the new class or the old class four was or where it was upgraded. Yes. But you don't think that you'll be able to get to that this year? Is that what you're saying? No, we will. We will be back there. We'll be finishing. Okay, yeah. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Anything else? Anyone on the highways? Okay, thanks guys. Okay, considering central Vermont Regional Planning Commission grant to create a process for identifying town's capital spending needs and capital spending plan for prioritized needs action possible on resolution to pursue grant funds? Liz? So Susan, after our conversation at our last meeting, Susan and I said we would pursue looking into applying for a grant to help us support this process of potentially building a capital spending plan for the town. And so what we did was I reached out to Sandy Levine and she quickly informed me that the deadline is October 1st for this grant. And there's support of the idea that we have behind applying for this grant. And so what Susan and I did was we had a conversation with Claire Rock from the Regional Planning Commission and talked with her about sort of the ideas we had and were they worth pursuing for a grant, for a planning grant. And she thought they were based on what sort of the goals of the grant are this coming fiscal year. So the grant is due October 1st and in order for us to apply for it we also have to include with it this resolution that basically states that the select board is supportive of the select board applying for this grant because it really is the select board applying for the grant. And Claire made it sound like the Planning Commission, yeah the Planning Commission didn't need to sign it but when I read through this it looks like they do. I'm watching. Oh you are okay. Eric put yourself on mute. I'm sorry about that. So at any rate it does say that we have to do a 10% cash match. And so what I wanted to share with you tonight is just sort of a brief overview of what Susan and I and Claire had talked about in terms of what this process would look like. So we were what we'd really like to do is engage based on what the conversations that we had at town meeting we want to make sure that our community is engaged in some manner of this process. And so this grant would be applying for not just support in building the plan but in also facilitating a series of community meetings where we could invite the community to hear about our upcoming expenses over the next basically one to ten years. These plans can go as long as ten years and many of them do where they sort of have a one-year plan then they have a ten-year plan and each year you revisit it to see where you're at based on how you know based on last year's plan. And these if you got a chance to kind of peruse that 36-page thing I sent you in that particular town you know they had a bit like they included so much stuff in their capital plan. Anything that was basically over $2,000 was included in their plan and it included roads as you know capital and as a capital that you would invest in. It included things like your buildings and your equipment and so you know ours doesn't have to look like that but that's a model of what it would look like if a town if we adopted and created a plan that allowed us to envision our long-term spending needs. It also sort of allows then for a process for people in the town like other groups for example who may want to be included in a capital spending plan like for example the village has just done a big plan for the village and there are many line items in that plan that cost thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars like sidewalks and you know bike paths and things like that so those are sort of items that could be sort of presented in a capital spending plan. So really what by applying for this grant we'd be asking for money to help us facilitate meetings and then also work with the regional planning commission to build this plan. So how much money we'd be applying for? I don't know yet but the maximum you can apply for is $22,000 so at 10% that would be $2,200. I don't anticipate that kind of money at all you know I'm sort of thinking along the lines of not having something as grandiose as that thing I sent out but that more of the money is spent on the meeting facilitation and hiring someone from outside the town to guide the conversations that we would have so that we're more transparent with our spending and offering this as a you know opportunity for towns people to hear about what we have in the works and weigh in on it and have some I mean we know that we need a greater for example it's not like you can't there it's not like there's some things there's there's no choices in the matter right but they still get put into your your your capital spending plan but then there's other things that that aren't necessarily you know mandatory like sidewalks for middle-sex village or a new town clerk versus a new town clerk building rather versus you know building so this is just an opportunity to to put everything out on the table look at it in in a in a bigger picture and get some guidance I guess I'm asking you all to support this resolution that would allow us to pursue a fine for this grant that's due did you prepare a resolution or do you it's just are you it's a green you're getting a little bit less loud um because we can't hear you yeah we can't hear you I'm shouting move closer or turn up your I thought it was me so I clogged myself in but sometimes yeah yeah yes it only got uh not so loud about three minutes ago connection I don't think there's anything I can do with my computer we heard you so the size of the grant that you would apply for costs like five thousand dollars I think um to that we got maybe it was a little bit more um we got that from the community foundation that grant um and that hired the facilitator I think we can hire central Vermont I think Claire this woman Claire is actually um well versed and has done this with other towns so we could hire someone directly from the regional planning commission to help us facilitate the meetings um why do we have to hire her if she works for them doesn't she work anything included like how much people are louder am I too loud now no anywhere between maybe five and ten thousand dollars yep yeah I guess my I I mean I I think we need to do this we've discussed it yeah we've discussed it at ten maybe whatever I I absolutely think we should go ahead my my only other concern in this is and I only spent about 20 minutes glancing through that sample that you sent us Liz but there's an awful lot of work in there for our for our town staff as well I mean you know it's great to get input from the community but you know the the highway folks have got to do a lot of work the you know the town clerk's office is going to do a lot of work I mean there's a lot there's a lot to do from a town employee point of view when there's going to be a cost to that as well of course yeah and this this process just so you know it's about it could be a 12 to 18 month process so this isn't something that happens overnight and and it you know I I sort of see it akin to what the road crew already does right like they have a five-year plan of their roads but we don't really have like a five-year plan of of our buildings or our you know other infrastructure or or the vision that we have for the town and so I think that this is sort of a and the other thing too is that none of this is set in stone this is like a plan right it's not it doesn't mean that we have to then go to our budget and say well this is what our plan does but this allows us to incorporate in our plan as our budget committee is meeting to present options based on like what our plan includes so the plan can change all like every year you might be adjusting the plan now what is different about and I asked Claire about this because this is different from how we traditionally purchase things we traditionally purchase things by borrowing money and saying okay it's time for a new truck we're gonna get our you know five-year note on the truck and and in this in in many of these capital spending plans as they're sort of referred to um many towns put money aside each month i mean each year in their budget to to put toward that larger expense that they anticipate down the road yeah you know if our plan to go ahead just interrupt you for one second so you know all all this is all this is going to come out in the in the wash as we go along the one comment I would make is in the old days that's exactly what we did we had an equipment fund we put money in the equipment fund every year when we bought a truck or whatever it was front end loader greater whatever we took it out of the equipment fund or took money out of the equipment bar of the balancer or whatever our philosophy for I don't know I forget what we did away with the equipment fund but a long time ago anyway was you know pre-funding sounds like a good idea but what you have to keep in mind is you're charging the current taxpayers for something that they may never see the benefit of and when interest rates are low which they have been for quite a while especially for municipalities by borrowing the taxpayers who are paying for this equipment are the taxpayers who were seeing that equipment run up and down the roads and you know it's it's a philosophical difference when you get to us we go through this process I think bill yakivoni didn't like us having those funds sitting around either did he as a matter of principle no he doesn't mind they don't mind you having you know we have a paving fund we have a bridge fund we could have an equipment fund that's no problem what he didn't like was the undesignated fund balance yeah right he didn't like so I mean we could we could go back to doing it that way all I'm all I'm pointing out it's it's a it's a philosophical a philosophical question and especially if it's really money really big money which it's going to have to be you know to charge people now for a truck that they're going to see in five years or six years or who knows when I just don't know if that's what we want to be doing but that's a decision we have to make as a town I'm not I'm not suggesting one way or the other but there's a reason we have made it our approach to do the borrowing route so I would recommend that we approve this resolution and see if we can go ahead and get this grant and if we can then we're off to the races I'll move approval of it is there a second oh second okay all in favor of the resolution wait hold on could you also authorize peter to sign it if you can stop stop stop bad idea to have me sign it because I'm away okay I could sign a scan and scan it back but I can't sign it I'm around okay we'll just pick somebody to sign it well I would if Mary's around I would have Mary sign us okay vice chair address the the grant you listen and Susan or yeah it's a huge grant it's like a 36 page think about 36 pages that you saw the grant itself is 36 pages I mean it's a lot of work and you know the regional planning commission is going to help us out with some of it but you know oh this is a well before we before we move this this is something that I want to bring up and I don't know if I should just have an offline conversation maybe with peter but the grant in order to be competitive there's a couple of things in it that are that like are addressing COVID for example so you know has your town been negatively affected by COVID and and I mean and I think that you know planning a you know our argument is there in terms of you know we want to be transparent and have the town's people understand what our upcoming expenses are and involve the town in this process because you know everyone is pinching their pennies and everyone wants to know how much things are going to cost right and so one of the things that I'd like to do is create a short survey to send out on front porch forum in like the next week which basically will give us a little bit of data to use in the grant sort of situational data so like one of the questions I want to ask is you know have have you been unable to pay your monthly bills because of COVID right we can all say we've been affected financially because of COVID because you know the stock market right we're all worried about you know so I need to word it in a way that makes it gives us some data that people are potentially impacted financially by COVID in a detrimental way so peter is that something that like because it has to go out fast I don't think it necessarily needs to be approved by the select board but I would like someone to see it and Susan and I will work on it together we're getting together on Thursday I'd like people to see it so that we so that you understand why we're asking these questions because it really is so that we have a better informed data to present what I would what I would suggest that I know it needs to be quick but when you have it draft ready or kill it send it around send it around to the board and give us you know 24 hours or something and you don't do anything with the the open meeting law then I can do that is that is that right Sarah um well I think what you're trying to do is get input on something that you're talking about tonight I'm just walking through this so if you don't have a group discussion where you're all talking about it at once you do it with individual emails to each person's probably all right so I'll send individual emails to each person so it's only about whether people were effective financially because certainly in terms of doing communication about and being transparent it's a lot harder doing everything by zoom then but in person but I'm assuming that you'll raise that issue yeah so like another question is would you participate in a series of conversations either by zoom or in on phone or in person um like in playing field for example they did a socially distanced meeting in the rec field right so so and they had like you know some white some you know sandwich boards where people could make comments and things like that so there's there's an opportunity not right now like because it's going to be winter but like maybe in the spring where you could have something that's in person um but but yeah I mean that so this is another question like would you even be interested in doing this do you um uh so so anyway so we're throwing together some questions that um that I'd like you guys to review so that you understand why we're asking these questions yeah okay perfect well we need to vote on the resolution it's been um I'm lost so is it Peter uh who made the motion Mary Skinner Mary who seconded it Steve Phil Steve beat Steve beat me oh okay Mary and Mary's gonna sign Sarah okay okay we're ready to vote all in favor of the resolution please say aye aye aye any opposed you've got it Liz all right thanks so Sarah I'm not sure if it then has to go to Sandy to sign you know we'll just work it out okay let's print it out fill it out Mary can sign it we'll just have Sandy sign it also if it's going to go to the central Vermont planning committee CVR's PC right yes it goes with the application I believe with the application okay because I was going to call Claire and say what do we have to do yeah um I think it has there's something about September 30th they have to have something before the October 1st deadline but I'll look into it I'm going to be reading more about it on Thursday okay I probably wouldn't hurt to just send it in now okay it's possible all right um thank you Liz yeah thank everybody for all the work and and Sarah for all the work you've been uh doing on this so we'll see Liz if there's any any part of that that I can work on to help you out I'm happy to spend some time working on it also yeah that I mean I may definitely call on you guys I mean there there may be things that I can't answer I mean I'm sure there's going to be things I can't answer that are going to be related to the town um I will need a copy of the latest town plan um which should be on our website right yeah it's on our website because we have to sort of tie tie in what's in our plan to this grant as well and Sandy did send me the town um village uh draft that that she just got from Du Bois or whoever it was that was doing it so Du Bois Du Bois yeah okay okay well thank you everyone because I suspect they're gonna be they're gonna be opportunities for a number of people to work on this a little bit if we could divide it up a little bit yes that would be good okay thank you very much yeah thank you okay Darinda you're under a report yeah so I sent out a budget status report um and uh which brings me to my first topic I think the first week meeting in November we probably should start the budget process um so uh I don't know like I'll talk to Sarah about you know um so I don't know how I don't know how we'll address it this year like as far as um the boards they're gonna have to do the presentation on zoom or something like that yeah yeah so I'm just I just want to interject here that the first Tuesday of November is election day right yeah so we need to move that meeting yeah period end of question there was no question Sarah well no it's not like we could just squeeze it in that this is going to be no no no no no this is enough for discussion but that's not like a question that's a statement Steve and no and I don't think we should start the budget meeting until after the elections okay good no I agree yeah but I would I would leave I mean we need to figure out when that meeting is going to be but I would uh I would leave it up to you and Sarah to parse out who's coming when and all that I'm sure we'll get pushed back from the fire department whenever we ask them to come but and of course you want the data for the whole year anyway yeah anyway it's it is what it is it's time to talk about it I guess the question is I would presume that we should not try and have a meeting that whole week of the election it's going to be an ongoing process and it's going to be a circus in the town so please don't please don't I'll I'll go insane if we can just move it to next Tuesday that would be very helpful or Monday or something so November uh so what is the date the second Tuesday the day of that the 10 probably the 10th and that's the day that doesn't work for you right well right oh the second week right that's why we move to the first and third what time is your meeting six can't get it we meet it could we meet at four on that day I know that's probably problematic for you lez hello lez lez she's muted could you repeat that question well the question is if we weren't asleep were you I see that I see that sleepy smile yeah um just checking Facebook is that pretty working on the grant any grant okay the the question is we don't want to have our select board meeting in November the week of the election no the question is if we push it off for a week that conflicts with Phil's uh computer meeting yep could we possibly meet at four o'clock would that possibly work for you sure it depends on the day what day we're talking November what Tuesday is a 10th but Tuesday November what 10th 10th okay sorry I didn't hear okay so so great and we're going to start at four well then we could start the regular time at five then right why because it's Phil I mean because oh because of Phil okay that's right no no no we're gonna have the meeting we're gonna have the meeting from four to approximately six so Phil a long tiring evening but I'll be able to attend both meetings so we're just deleting the occurrence on the third and we're having on the fourth and then are we gonna have it again on the 17th no no no we're having it on the 10th 10th Liz I know I meant that really was asleep and then are we having it again on the 17th no she's saying our second meeting is on the 17th well we're gonna you know we either meet on the 17th or we meet the following week and then we then we run into Thanksgiving now leave leave it on the 17th so do the 10 two weeks in a row yeah yeah that won't that won't kill us okay it won't kill us okay thank you okay Dorinda um other thing just so you know that we're in the middle of our auditing of our books for year-end so um we're just getting information off to them now so um but that's ongoing and we're still holding on to the Du Bois and King um check I still have not received any information on when we're gonna receive this money for the grant oh you're holding on to us can you remind me I I remember this vaguely but I don't remember it that well you're holding on to their invoice we wrote the check and you told me not to mail the check because we hadn't received the grant money I still don't have not received the grant money and now we've had the check for about a month the one for the village plan that Du Bois and King just did the study on so is this the planning commission that's holding it up no I don't know yeah well they're the ones that apply for the grant yeah but one week I'm sorry Dorinda I can't remember either but I mean isn't it isn't that that the planning commission has to draw down the funds for the town and they haven't done it so it is well I I brought it up at the last meeting and you guys were gonna talk to and Mitch I talked to Mitch I had reached out to both Mitch and Sandy I never heard back from Sandy Mitch called me and said that he had reached out to him but we still have not heard anything more reached out to who Mitch had reached out to who said the people for the grant I guess no isn't this the one where Peter I think you and I were named to be able to go into the portal correct I think so fine off Mitch had contacted me I was out of town and so I know I think you were around and I said you know contact Peter he's around never did there's the holdup well why is it that Mitch seems to be in the middle of all our problems lately that's a subject for later tonight but yeah yeah okay if in fact if in fact Phil or I need to need to sign something we need to find out what it is and get our hands on it I will I will reach out to Sandy tomorrow morning I mean she's got a she's got to take charge of this and take control of it the the question is Dorenda at some point we probably void that check I don't know in terms of best practices can we hold a check for 45 days or not like so okay so as as far as we know just to be clear Sandy or someone from the planning commission needs to approach whoever gave us the grant and say okay we need to draw down the money to pay this bill is that correct that's that's my understanding of the process yeah Sandy have a copy of the bill we don't know they're the ones they're the ones who submitted it to us they forwarded the Du Bois bill to us yeah okay all right okay well I'll reach out her to her tomorrow I'll circle back with you okay okay but don't send the check messages don't send the check right okay I think that's everything I've got okay I did I just would uh would reference your uh your your warrant uh report or whatever call you calling it that you you sent out this time and I found that very helpful it made it easier to understand so if that isn't too if that isn't a big problem right it's just pulling that report yeah yeah I don't know how everybody else felt but it was a lot easier for me to tell what was getting paid and yeah yeah I like so I would I would say we should continue that okay we'll do and thank you for that I I thought that was uh I thought that was helpful I spent I mean we we ever get back to in-person meetings when we have the file of the bills there maybe we won't need to do that but in the meantime in the meantime I think it's a good uh a good practice um okay move approval of the minutes is that the next item uh sure second second to the minutes second all in favor of approving the september 1 2020 select board minutes please say aye aye abstain okay uh you got enough people who approve the orders thank you everybody Brenda I didn't I'm sorry yes um yeah I think I've heard from three of you so no problem you're all set yep I like what Amy did thank you for that that was helpful good I'm glad yeah it shows a little more detail so yep yep uh correspondence uh nothing nothing of import okay and uh do you want to talk about the the conservation commission thing under correspondence yes yes well or under any other business whichever it's time yes so I think Lee's here hi hi Lee how's everyone doing good so I remember when I believe it was you came to us with this that this was that this was likely to come up but now it's uh now it's bubbling to the surface so and I don't have I don't have I read the stuff but I don't have it up in front of me but purchase this is a resolution to spend five thousand dollars of our conservation uh uh what's the name of the fund conservation fund yeah um to assist in the purchase of the development rights of the peas farm and I believe the development rights and correct me Lee if I'm if I've got the wrong number but I think it's 327 thousand is the number it's close to three three seventy two seventy okay I have the wrong number so our our share of this 372 thousand is only five thousand dollars and what this does is maybe you explain it like you're the you're the man all right so the Vermont land trust is purchasing the development rights um for the seedman harrower property um and they they're encouraging continued agricultural use they had a number of applicants um that they worked with and they selected this this person Nicole Dutch who has experienced farming in central Vermont and is looking to expand her farming operation was currently on Leastland in Callas I believe um she has a good successful farming models uh sells at the farmers market in Montpelier into local restaurants so the Vermont land trust by buying the development rights ensures that that property but it's not the entire property it's I believe 88 acres um that's subject to the to the project would be um the development rights would be held by the Vermont land trust and they're leveraging um obviously other other funds are paying for the majority of it this is more of a political um it helps leverage those funds helps their applications to the larger pool of money and um shows kind of solidarity and support from the town so as a conservation commission we we've reviewed the application um back in June had a number of comments and received a revised application in August um the revision was focused around having at least some language that there there would be willingness to discuss public access there was kind of came down to know hard and fast set um way to bake public access into the conservation easement um at this time but the Vermont land trust broached the subject with Nicole and she seems eager to talk to the town about having community events and and other ways to involve the town in in the property whether that's developing some trails or just hosting events at the farm so in our last meeting we reviewed the revised application and unanimously decided to support it we stepped through the conservation fund guidance document and looked at the criteria that they they had pointed out in their application and agreed that um it hit the nail on the heads in a lot of in a lot of respects and um moved to recommend to the select board to use to to provide $5,000 from the conservation fund as applied for balance in the conservation fund now do you know it's a little bit over $9,000 and we've been putting in roughly five thousand a year yes yep as a special article um right on the right correct so when we discussed this my memory is when we discussed this the last time there was some concern and I think I expressed some concern that really this was a private landowner situation and was it really appropriate for the town to be involved even in a relatively minor way I guess since then in thinking about it the real question is is it in the town's interest to because by let me back up a little bit the way this works and correct me if I'm wrongly is this makes it possible for someone to purchase that land someone who wants to use it for farming at a reasonable viable price so that economically it's possible for them to farm whereas if they had to pay the the pool that what we'll call a development value or the full value it would be so expensive that it would be unlikely that they could succeed in agriculture so for me it's exactly right I've come around to the point of view that I think it is in the town's interest to maintain agriculture and middle sex that's a beautiful piece of land I would hate to see uh and I I don't know what I don't remember what what zoning area it's in but I would hate to see it that divided up in and a number of new houses built in those in those beautiful fields so I personally am supportive of this I think it is in the town's interest and I think our contribution to the whole project is is relatively minor but I think it does show uh our support and I also think uh it's in conformance with our with our town plan which is uh what was a good thing to be able to point out when we're dealing with our town plan um one of the criteria um in in other criteria there's natural resources scenic resources uh recreational resources and other criteria and the application has to have some you know um relevance and at least two of those and in the other criteria they pointed out that it meets some of the goals outlined in our town plan and conserving agricultural land but there was actually something that was relevant in each one of those categories and I don't know now's the time to step through them if you wanted to in detail I'm happy to do that and remember um if the acreage included like the forest on the other side of culver hill rode across from the farm um it includes part of that um and they at one point provided a map I could send around that shows the breakout of the part of the parcel um I wouldn't mind seeing it I use that land a lot to ski on and Sarah's always let us use it and I'm just curious as to what what yeah it's about this is here is a tillable land and the rest is forested okay so what not included of Sarah and scott's land what part's not included maybe that's an easier do it yeah it's been it's been a while since I've looked at the map um I will just um say that I did have a neighbor reach out to me um to just ask you know if I knew what was happening with that property and they had some concerns about you know that that big barn that's there right now being used for some commercial reason um you know it's not in a commercial zoning and but you know I I said to her I didn't think that I mean you know looking at what what these um farming is allowed right and you're allowed to have like a home business there um so um I just think that we'd want to I don't know keep an eye on what the plan is for that barn I don't the barn is a horse stable it's not insulated or anything like that um it's made out of I don't know plastic or something I think there's a there's the old what I'll call horse barn and then there's a hoop barn which is a which is a riding arena I think isn't that that's where it's made out of plastic well whatever it is it's it's like it it's I don't know whether it's meant to be a permanent building or a temporary building but yes it's it's there but you know I think the I think what the concert and and you know I don't know how how urgent is this lead do we need to act on this tonight or is there no and I don't think it was warned in time to be able to vote right and it was not it was not warned so you know we have time to uh to circulate the map and and uh and think about this so uh if you would if you would do that Lee I think I think actually you sent all that stuff to us once so I may have it but if you would resend it that would be helpful I can resend it to to all you guys I just great thanks sir that would be great and I would also encourage uh at the time I went over and drove by there and peered around to try and uh I mean it is it is an absolutely and I'm sure Liz would agree it is an unbelievably beautiful uh piece of land and uh I don't know I like the idea of a farm in middle so you know this neighbor was worried about oh if it's going to be a really big farm or they're going to be migrant workers illegal workers living I'm like we're not going there I think I just said I sent that to you this evening guys so it's also with your current email the picture the map everything yeah if you look at the whole thing okay I think the fire department is trying to get in the building here I don't know why but hold on well uh can I Lee um the purchase of the development rights was done just between Sarah Scott and the housing conservation trust fund or wherever the source of the money is is that correct that's one of the sources of the money but Vermont land trust is the is buying the development right and they'll be the that's who's that's who's purchasing but that isn't before us that was done in a separate transaction is that correct I don't think it's happened yet but it's gonna but it's separate from this correct it's it's part it's separate and that it allows um Nicole Dutch to purchase the farm at an affordable price no no I understand that but we're not paying any money just gotten Sarah we're paying the money to make the trust keep a farm here the money would go Vermont land trust to purchase the development right we are not gonna we mean in the town of Middlesex certainly not gonna own the development rights the land trust is right I understand that but I mean it's a one-two process they you sell the development rights and then the property is for sale at a reduced price because the property the development rights were transferred so it's correct being there connected because it's the same piece of land but they're two separate transactions correct correct okay so we will uh we will take this up at our uh at our next meeting thank you ready sorry I'm back is there anything did you do I need to do anything for you since the time I left no okay Lee didn't you want to talk to us about the delay on the on the forestry project or that was just an email to us um I guess I got forwarded um I could mention it real quick with there was an opportunity to um potentially um do some harvest hard timber harvest in the town forest at the same time as the joining property Scott Bowden um he's delayed his timber harvest at least a year because of market conditions we also um had the Chittenden County Forester because Washington County doesn't have one right now went out and assessed um that where where on Scott's property we would skid logs out and it really didn't make sense it's way up at the top of the ridge line where there's not really any trees worth cutting and it's sensitive habitat that should probably be left alone anyway so it even when Scott decides to do his timber harvest it doesn't really look um like a reasonable way to skid logs out thanks hey Sarah I don't see the map of the if you click on one of those email one of those attachments it all comes down I will send it to you again just to make sure yeah I I didn't see any map when I was looking but um yeah it's it's it's in the two there are two attachments and you click one and it's all cut there's like a bunch of PDFs and the map is there but I'll send it resend it of course it's always hard to skid on your cell phone right so uh so Sarah I guess the only other thing under other businesses uh congratulations on getting grant for digitizing the town record so that's great yeah we're gonna we're gonna try to pull some um fast action here actually my computer recording computer absolutely had a breakdown meltdown today almost as though it knew we had a grant for that so we might have to just uh work with avenue for them to uh buy stuff we may have to buy stuff right away and use that grant money to pay them ahead of time for digit for indexing because all this money has to be expended in a ridiculously short amount of time um I've also talked to the state about uh possibly getting an extension because this is just crazy there's no way that these these vendors can keep up with the demand that's suddenly been created by COVID so I don't know what the state's thinking saying you get a grant in October or in September and you've got to have it spent by December 15 or first I mean I don't I don't know what universe they're operating in that's a that's a federal issue is it the same thing at the internet board that's the same thing with community action all our money has to be spent by December 20 it's insane so how are you guys dealing with it well spending can't for for internet I mean you can't run fiber in a month and a half you know right yours is much worse yeah it's insane but I mean that's why a lot of town clerks didn't apply and I figured the only thing we could do is I'm just going to talk to the state and see if we if we purchase this equipment right away like computer equipment that at least will be covered and that would means that when we get the contract with avenue renewed in May it won't include financing as the current one contract does now for all this equipment that I use so that should bring down our monthly recording expenses at least we could get that Sarah can you get specs from them as to what they want to see in a computer and I could probably get something ordered really so what Phil I'm going to just go straight through avenue because they actually they came in and installed all this stuff they actually they spent a week here installing it it's pretty oh okay it's that's pretty I I have absolutely nothing to do with it you know and if they say you know absolutely we cannot they're obviously dealing with this with all the town clerk so we're not the only one dealing with it and I just don't want to spend any money and then not be reimbursed but right and don't they have the caveat that you have to show that you were affected by COVID for that particular purchase and you well that that's we already got the grant based on that I mean okay you know I made an argument that it's a very small office and that the people of middle sex were underserved and things were delayed because it couldn't get into the office okay okay kind of so Sarah just quickly uh the other thing that I want to talk about quickly is you send out that email about the ballot box yes I talked to I talked to the secretary of state's office we do not have to have this ballot this drive-up drop box I have heard a lot of interest from people in town saying you know that they would because they've been reading so much about drop boxes that they would like to have something like this they um a large drop box that would be bolted to the ground somehow and people would be able to drive up put their ballots right into the drop box and then I would be and it would be secure and weatherproof um but it wouldn't arrive for two weeks and uh may not be worth it the wills the the secretary of state's office says that putting your ballots through the slot in the door is is fine by them as long as the door is locked which it is do we need to install a bigger slot well if we install a bigger slot then I would suggest getting an entire unit where we have a slot that the bigger slot goes with a receptacle kind of like at your mechanics so we don't have anything on the other end of the slot of this door in in the same company sells a slot that matches a receptacle so everything would be contained do you understand what I mean yeah I mean the problem is yeah the question for me would be does it make more sense to to put the slot not in the door but right through the side of the building going into that ante room well in that case I think you might as well do a secure weatherized lock box because you don't have to go into the building you have all you have to do is just install this um this no no no I'm suggesting a slot through the wall from the outside so you walk up to the building you shove your thing in there that's just a box inside that catches whatever falls through well I don't know I think I just want to make sure you know I mean we have no time right we've got three weeks to have this installed it would be easier to order a self-standing lock box that comes fully assembled and then just have somebody bolt it to whatever that seems to me to be much more doable within the time period then cutting into the building install the lock box that seems like a lot of trouble plus people like to drive up and just deposit things they don't have to get out but can you is there a place where we don't want to we don't want to have the thing free standing on its own concrete pad we want to have it bolted to the building right so just bolted to the building just bolted to the building or some people are like bull I don't know bolted to the railroad ties that are out there in the garden I don't like the idea of something free standing that makes me nervous I'd rather that people just get out of their car and slide it into the door and of course and that is fine that apparently meets the requirements so we can just keep it like that we don't have to we don't have to pay any money I kind of like that too yeah I'm picturing someone stealing the box and that's why it has to be bolted that I can I can just tell you for example you have it lag bolted to those railroad ties yeah I hope my mighty three-quarter ton truck up to that box with a chain and I would have it home in my house in 10 minutes just like Liz's car going up east hill right Liz oh I do remember that I'm just saying if somebody really breaks down the door of the town clerk's office to get those ballots I'm willing to live with that risk and I like that better than okay then fine let's just do that um one other thing I want to talk to you guys about very briefly is that Dave Smith makes films has come up with an idea to make a short film for voters about the absentee ballot process when you get your absentee ballot how do you fill it out fill out that signature envelope and then what happens uh back at the town clerk's office um how can you deposit your ballot how can you return your ballot um and then what happens I mean how do we open it how do we process it I think it's a really good idea the quite probably and he would do it for a reduced rate so I'm asking for about 80 to 100 bucks to pay for him to do that oh love it yeah let's do it yep my great um Sarah um I would also make sure he stresses that whole signing of the ballot when it's closed because two people in our family including myself had it all ready to go in the mail and I realized I hadn't signed the envelope and it would have completely well Liz I know that there were 35 defective votes because of that and I have to say that it went across all voters uh experienced voters didn't sign their signature envelopes new voters didn't sign their signature envelopes it was not it was bizarre and even people who came to drop off their about their envelopes on election day on the primary day they were about to drop off blank signature envelopes wait a minute so yeah that's what that's why we want to make this film and we also put people at ease because the I just every day people call with questions how will they access it um um Sarah I think we're going to put it on the website and uh will uh you know for front porch forum we're also going to make it available to other towns and to the secretary I was going to say yes make it available yeah that's great thank you that was that was Dave's idea and I think that was a great idea anything else before we go into executive session okay so we need a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters who wait wait who made the move the move Bill and Liz Bill Liz okay can you also do you want me to be present uh yes so that should be included in the motion that should be included in the motion so we got to get rid of well first you have to vote on it and then you have to get rid of right so all in favor of the motion to go into executive session which will include uh Sarah please say aye aye aye any opposed