 So now I'll move forward with the minutes from the last meeting and as presented I've moved to accept them as typed up second it all in favor. All right, all right And Joan It's your updates. We missed you last meeting even though the information was presented, but now you're here in person. So Good First thing is the we received a letter back at the beginning of September from the NRCS and emergency fire protection program. That's the one that provides assistance to private landowners who have damage on the flood and they went through or visited with Pat 16 sites were considered and only one qualified and that's the Mandel property on Great network and I'm really unclear what happens next, you know, the town at one point said that we would consider participating if there were any eligible projects, which would mean possibly I don't know if it's a requirement or It's just a possibility of the town would Help pay for the cost of whatever repairs were approved up to 20% of the total We don't have an estimate for that and this letter is Back in September 7th just said, you know, it was just notifying us that those like qualified and those that not did not So I kind of didn't do anything with it Until today so I emailed Michael like the guy you met just ask them what's happening. What happens next what it was supposed to be doing If anything, do you know anything? No, I just know that there is a participation percentage for the town and the property And so what we need to do is look at the figures that are there if they have them I'm not even here if they've done a cost estimate. Yeah, so it would be impossible to make a decision without Figures, right. Yeah, so I was asking. Okay. What's the next step, right? Okay, excuse me gentlemen, I didn't hear emergency what protection program emergency watershed protection program Okay, which is an NRCS. I'm going to say that the Mendel property was on break. Yes. Okay. Thank you And then two other things We need a contract addendum doing for you to sign. I've got it Notated in two places you need to sign it's actually for the wastewater Improvement thing which is seems like a long time ago. The only reason we need it is because 11 months after the project was completed, which would have been in August there is what's called 11 month warranty inspection where the state and Terry and Do boys and King go look at the project and verify that everything's functioning properly and it was all done According to plan and everything looks fine, and it's all fully signed off on and at that point that triggered me to put in for reimbursement for Three final bills from do boys and King that was all we had left to get reimbursed The final one being the cost of their attending this Warranty inspection, which is about $332. Well for whatever reason that Cost was not included in our contract with them So when I submitted the reimbursement the state said we can't do it until you do an addendum so Do boys and King has presented this and then we're just like about 15 pages long Yeah, it's kind of crazy all for $332 but Sign it in we'll be able to get about thousand bucks back I'm not following the logic of this I mean, I guess what is it? NRC is it SNRCS? Are you talking about the previous subject? Yeah, the watershed? We haven't I haven't moved beyond that You know there was there was inspection of properties and they found only one was eligible eligible Frankly, I mean if this is assistance to private landowners for Ones they've spent to restore their property that money's been spent already and the properties have been restored I would hope so what is the sense of that? I? Really couldn't tell you. I'm sorry. I don't know much about the program I don't know But I mean I was hearing earlier on that emergency watershed protection program something that the town could Buy into and that would be offering us Assistance to private landowners for the monies they spent on tractors on seeding on whatever I don't know if it applies to everything, but the process is it's another federal agency They have their own way of doing things their way of doing things in this case was to go and inspect all the Potential properties that might qualify and this was done way back I don't know sometime during the summer and then they determine Using their own criteria has nothing to do well. It's too bad. They didn't do my property on April 16 When the one when the When washout was just recent no you didn't no, I think it was in early July the first half of July We went through this happened in April right, but by the time that that agency We contacted them and got them and had interest in the program. That's when I mean we're we're on their Did to expect that they will know that there's an emergency and they're going to magically appear on the spot at that moment Is an absence of logic even I understand it was a stressful time and as an expensive time Even if it's really hard in July, there was a lot of pretty large devastation, but they decided oh, that doesn't qualify Because your property wasn't determined to be in what they consider a watershed area, right? There was other circumstances which caused the other property We declare that early on because I was informed that this would cover the damage that was done to my property There's never any guarantee about it was it was up to our CS determined whether no, I thought it was I think there was misinformation So but I but How did how did your property fair in this last two plus inches of rain that we had Ten days ago or so. I'm curious I as I acknowledged The Rochester road crew they did install a very large culvert the 18 inch culvert And they did Construct a sway a lot of rocks. Yeah, and I think that's addressed The the large amount of water we've had recently. Yeah Yeah, I know in the the April 16th event was compounded by the Snow beginning of snow melt and frozen Ditches and stuff. So I guess I think it was also compounded by not keeping up with the yeah, but this yeah, this predates cooters Control of the road crews. Thank you I I presume that with all the properties that Pat showed them the The main reason that the Mendel property They found did qualify. I was because of its proximity to the White River. It's basically I know the route 100 having that culvert under route 100 Is a factor to endanger in the road, but I don't know what there. That's a bigger issue Yeah, did they tell you what their parameters were about what they were evaluating for you just showed them around I just showed them around and In that particular area the stream has actually jumped to another location and so That is now Threatening his immediate property directly The stream used to be over there and now it's coming over here. So What they did is they walked upstream to see if anything was diverting it That was man-made or anything and and that's when they determined that the stream was taking a natural course And since it was threatening his immediate property That was the one that would qualify the most There are other property. There's another property which I won't name But they're going to recommend a buyout so that you know the Dwelling on that property Should just should just be bought out and demolished and removed. So If it goes from one extreme to another they're protecting one property, but another property they're Recommending that it just be the boots. So being somewhere on the middle is not a bad thing Yeah, it seems like both of these properties have immediate streams going right adjacent to them They didn't find that for example the driveway Driveway next to Pam Stirling's and Ethan didn't find that damage was Next to a water source they found something a little upstream from where the cemetery is where there was a concrete abutment that had moved over the years and so There probably would be a recommendation when we get all of the detail that that Be removed in the stream would then go back to where it wants to flow It's all about in the meantime. That's not helping Pam Stirling or Ethan Bowman with the money they had to spend It's a government agency and they have their criteria That's nonsense. A lot of it seems to be here for all the properties that are listed is that there had to be an immediate threat to a house Driveways don't count or if it's taking out your yard that doesn't count. It has to threaten your house And we opened up the list of properties You know, we we we encompassed everything possible to be considered Not knowing whether it would be considered or not, but we brought everybody under that umbrella We went to look at it that we thought should be looked at The town accepted FEMA funding I assume Yeah, so a lot of the lot of the work down to No, I don't know after a while it's like what pocket is it coming out of I mean, I realize Joan that that's your expertise No kidding Different agency different criteria FEMA just covers public property town property This is the only program We know of that that helps private landowners, but only as we can see from you know in restricted Situations I mean we have FEMA Projects potential FEMA projects that they also say no, we don't pay for that But nevertheless we've got 24 of them that we're working on now What those are all town so there's no recourse with the agency's federal or state of Do you know Not that So we were The last thing is The IDIQ that was done for site to mm-hmm Be trans requires what they call a finance and meet-hands agreement To be signed with the town between the town and be trans with essentially I've read through it You can decide if you want to show it to Jim Barlow The ties with our red through it several times to make sure it was missing anything and I don't think there's anything that's You know complicated or unusual about it simply says that the state paid for these improvements on a town road Therefore the town agrees to take responsibility for maintaining those improvements going forward. That's that's the gist of it So it's okay. Yes, of course and this one do needs to be signed in front of a notary So, you know it and make sure you understand it. But as I said, I don't think there's anything Tomorrow I Am spending a lot of time working the footer to put together all the compile all the town expenses associated with All the sites site one site will be it's like to to submit to be trans for reimbursement That's going to take a while longer because it's It's Way way more than I realized but just what they require So if you work in that for the next few weeks Also, I I there's still some invoices to come in Tatro has not been paid for their final invoice yet So that means, you know, well that that's a different reimbursement We've been getting those regularly as soon as soon as we submit them the MAP is reimbursed the town So that's been very helpful But that means that do boys and King has at least one more invoice to submit because they do a lot of work certifying and preparing the final You know approving the invoice So I've asked them to just let me know how many more invoices and over what period of time we can expect from them So that we can be prepared to submit the whole package when the time comes. It'll probably be Some time next month Well, I'll help with the budget a bit cash flow And then the FEMA stuff continues That's also mostly cooter and myself meeting with them on a regular basis to go through the process and get things approved and cost approved and Thank you, thank you Tony got any news from the library for us There's the making terrariums with Jan McCann Tuesday at 7 o'clock and They'll be doing Halloween story-telling thing We might of course and so well, I think That is moving to Pierce Hall because Pierce Hall does that thing too. So yeah, I think that's happening there Yeah Yeah Thank you cooter Any highlights from the highway sand is here the sand is here. I saw that We had a Little culvert issue on the town line that we're going to take care of tomorrow. I Think Yeah, the head wall is collapsed Over the end of So I'm not really sure what we got there Though we get the rocks move so right after we returned the excavator, right? What's that this happens right after we return that the rented excavator would reach down over there And yes, that did turn into a pumpkin and went away We were actually running that one the trailer show about my game wait Notice there's snow tires on the truck down there Beware for Emissions and your life problem. We should get that back in there. Don't Steady as she goes Thank you Terry's not here You can move on to the new business which first off is the approval of the The renovated employee handbook and thank you Tom for putting all that the energy into that Do you have anything that you wanted to say about that not too much? We have a The new one new version finally updated since 2008 This is it it is a public document. So it's available for anyone to view There will be a copy left in the town clerk's office with Julie in case for some reason somebody wants to inspect it We'll take a look at it. It's been more than welcome to But we intend to Sign it off tonight and make it make it law. What major changes did you? Did you make this significant changes from 2008? a lot of it again the VLCT is our Backbone for helping us with the legal lease of it all but you know much of it is based on their recommendations and we take their recommendations and basically Add our own what makes sense for the town for local policy and And then I take it once it's done it goes back to the Head of Human Resources of the LCT and they they look at it again Was there coffee this available prior to this meeting? No, because hasn't it just been finished the old one the old one. Yes. Yes. Yeah Yeah, but there was no comment Well, we could put it I know sometimes actually do put it on there on their town websites We can there's something we can discuss Some do some down Yeah, it's it's very possible we'll do that But it is available. It is a public document anybody can look at it. It doesn't mean if you don't like it We're gonna change it, but it's always we're always open to comment It's not perfect I'm sure but But improved but improved I Guess my point is what we do know what to think about Well, you have an opportunity to look at it All right, but if I wanted a copy of it, I could ask Julie to make a copy in the office You are you could Man, I'd like to pay for it. That's all It's 28 pages Which is just kind of keep the paper down to a minimum Put it online like what Marlon said makes probably the most sense and you know Disable our paper But Julie will have a copy of it On hand behind the desk so to speak in case someone else come and just look at a hard copy Okay, any questions about that So I would thank you move to approve I second it So we'll sign we'll sign this document off and we're signing off all of the bills And we already talked about that the MVP health insurance plan I was out of town and not at The well I got to the tail end of the meeting with the presentation on the insurance plan But with the work from the budget and finance committee, it's It's looking like this is a good move Greg you're here for do you want to speak about that? Yeah, so we took the information Larry Smith provided from BLCT and there's primarily two churns carriers MVP and blue cross boom shield and just looking at the current plans that are used by town employees the Blue cross who shield is going up considerably 14% for the platinum in 15% For the gold plan which are ones currently used MVP's rates are such that they're actually slightly lower than our current Blue cross who shield rates So there's a small savings actually if we go with the MVP plan and employees enroll in the same plans they are currently so Considerable savings and that would that's assuming obviously the same contribution rate from employees 14% And the benefits we compared benefits. They're very similar Yeah And I did look at some of the in-network and it looks similar, but I'm not sure who folks use so But from a hospital perspective and urgent care and so forth. They're the same same in-network Like Greg what is your role to be speaking about health insurance? You didn't know I was a health insurance expert. No, I didn't I'm on the budget and finance committee. All right, okay. This is a recommendation That's like board from the budget and finance committee Yeah, they're very aggressive right now It's good news Slight increases in both plans in 2019 as far as co-pay Not a pocket and deductibles, okay No, I think it's kind of obvious decision I would move to approve that Then we can fold those numbers into the budget as we continue to move forward that process Long-favorite Great. Thanks for your work on that. Yeah All right, and we also have a model class 4 road policy that we presented from and suggested from Jim Barlow town attorney and basically in a response to the request at the last meeting to do some improvement on the Class 4 road and anticipation of it at the timber sale the swamps mill sale Did you guys have a chance to look at that? Yeah One typo in terms of their wrong town in there, but I think it's a good start You get a chance to look at it I looked at it I haven't completely digested it I may have you may have some comment on that a little bit later. Yeah Like you said, well, it's a it's a policy noise Yeah, but at least now we have something in place, right, right. It's open to now Kind of loosey-goosey Yes You could get a copy of that once it's approved and typos fixed up, yeah Honestly, it might be a good idea to step out, please In reference to reviewing the policy, it might be a good idea to table this until next meeting So that more people can have a chance to review it Yeah, it was warned on the agenda and they have been reviewing it and there is It's we've had this for a week at least a week a couple weeks Couple weeks for that. Yeah The select board has had it we haven't public hasn't been known to fight about it Well, that's why we're here. So is there any problem with tabling it till next meeting to give people an opportunity to review it? I'm not I'm not sure if that's The problem I see with tabling it is that we were approached and asked permission to work on a road and winter is coming and they that's it's You know, we want to have Instead of just as in the past go ahead and do what you want to do We want to give them a proper agreement to move forth and do that So there is that is the time time pressure on that. Yeah Well knowing the amount of controversy over the last four rows. Yeah, I think policy that was not yet available to the public to see Create more controversy Well, I just suddenly pass a policy Pretty boy I play I mean, it's not Oh, what do you guys think? I mean Tom said he has some comments after you sign it Well, it could always be changed But the public has not had the ability to see and like I say the scouts have a lot of controversy over the last four rows Several of them Like I say, I understand what you thought about that come on time. But today I mean, we've got an operating policy right now Is that operating enough so that we can do the work that needs to be done on? No, we don't Are you more concerned with the permitting issue that this one talks about What actual use I mean not classification. I'm not talking about classification But you're talking about the permitting issue for someone to do work for someone to do work That's different than what currently exists Currently, there's it's not exist at all There's no written policy about someone maintaining, you know, or they're using Improving or maintaining Class for road. There's no written policies. So just by default the state rules and now this puts it into It's so this is what are played from the lawyer. It's it's not Something that we have sat in the back room and created, you know to our purposes is just to protect town basically Yeah, yeah, I think this statute is is is cited right in the beginning in the first paragraph Well this document doesn't actually discuss Exact work to be done Okay, like right, you know, that's it's right. That's that's that's referenced material as a reference to the state Right. This is this is more legal lease as far as you know permissions granted things of that nature It's not the actual scope of the work But Sir, please. I mean it puts on paper Details like requiring anyone that does work on a town road to have insurance and to have the town Listed Informing to the road like to approve, you know Various aspects of maintenance and things of that nature. It's not this isn't a document that tells you how it's not a how-to document it's a It's for me permission document Responsibility Like that no, no, this is between the town and someone in this case someone is requesting To harden the class for road because they need to utilize it. Yeah No, this It's a separate Okay with that it's up to you. I mean Which are not specifically what we're talking about here, but people reading paper class 4 road Jim have any comment about public comment about No, he didn't and I didn't didn't ask him about that. So I guess I don't know the answer is to the requirement of that I just Okay, it's trying to be considerate of The contractor Right Well, this document is pretty much about a contractor utilizing a classical road it's pointing towards that It's not a general thing, but we can wait Well, perhaps what we could do is Put it off and give it I don't think I would want to wait two weeks Maybe we could hold a special select board meeting to approve it and then at that point if anyone has issues with it, and they've had a chance to look at it and Bring that up, but I'm not comfortable putting it off another another two weeks Just When would you be thinking of holding this fashion? That's what we're just talking about. Yeah Next Monday, I guess. Yeah You say five o'clock Alright, so we'll We'll warn a special select board meeting at five o'clock on November 4th Take this back up and meanwhile we Like I said, there's some typos and it's not ready to hand out at this moment But we can have it available to Inspect at the town office say by the end of the day tomorrow That's not there Good another meeting I Suppose so yeah, who's anybody else? I want to save the trip to town and get an email to them But you'll you won't be open Monday She's here No, we are you talking about the the meeting will be open Wondering about how anyone would find out that we're saying that we'll have it available by the end of the day tomorrow But how would someone find out? I mean someone could find out by reading the minutes which are available when the end of the week You'll be in the paper Thursday So that's what I'm saying if somebody So somebody would have Thursday to look at it Friday Monday Saturday and Sunday, too They could read it at home if they came and picked it up on Friday Nancy Why don't you post a copy of it down here on the board outside on the board? Accommodate everybody Thursday if that's where somebody sees it then they don't have one day to come yet Well, they can see it but they can see it posted Okay, it's not super exciting reading but I guess you Okay The last time review and sign agreement would be trans to maintain No, actually We already took care of that when under Jones updates Okay, so we've got now we could move on to the exciting part So Mason you wanted to update on the new location of the gate At the end of the big road there 42 42 And 42 instead of 62 wait, no, it's the other way around isn't it 62 is where the old gate was 42 is now where the gate is Yep, I talked to Chris Mattrick about that And he is he was surprised that they'd already done it and I guess their thoughts was they would instead of having Two gates, they would have one and the bears had kind of destroyed the old gate and Cooter had brought it up to me It was concerned that if we ever does need to plow out that way. There's nowhere to turn around And Chris wanted to stay in touch and see if it becomes an issue now usually we don't plow out that far which leads into your other question about the town Supporting the ski loop out there and by not plowing the road That's is that what you're asking about You can step up here so we can do yeah, I mean so in terms of the update on the on the gate Yeah, I was it was a surprise Surprise it was a surprise to Cooter brought it to my attention There's a price to Chris. Well, he knew that it was Surprised it happened so quickly he said usually things but he knew about it He talked to us No, I hadn't heard from him Because a few weeks back I was asking the select board to talk with the US Forest Service about our new federal policy of eliminating the public from public land management and You invited Chris to explain it, but we didn't really hear your opinions in that and here we are today with a new gate on a town road section and what how does this match out because In one respect we've always had a asset in the community to have a ski loop and Because of climate issues we have to be careful about the establishment of the ski trail and The smaller camps and myself have all recognized and worked with the Forest Service To not have it plowed last year We went and plowed it on the best snow we had and with a good hard base and it was not skiable until January What's going to be the policy this year for this asset for the community. It's a very special asset There's very few places as special as that area for this type of recreation So part of this is okay now It can't even plow up to the four corners because no turnaround both sides of the road is the US Forest Service land How is this going to work out? We're just gonna is it cost saving to the town to go ahead But it wouldn't vary a rep where the ski trail starts and call it done Save some money. I'm not trying to plow up there. What do we want to do? I mean this is the moment to just start talking about it because of last year It's November whatever it was the first big dump This actually has to do with it sort of sounds like what I was going to ask you about was if the town actually had a policy for bingo this year because of the gate and They're also building some sort of parking lot. So if the parking lot is functional That's a turnaround Where are they building parking lot? It's within the forest boundary, but just Past the boundary so it's not It's within What a mile of the Orange house You go up just past into the boundary and you go up a hill that there used to be a campsite right there They've taken out the campsite and now they're building by assume a parking lot because that evidently was part of the plan Or increased parking. So if that part is not as functional I don't know if that's their construction plan Would you just plow to the parking lot turn around and come back out? I Pretty much yeah, perfect. Perfect So I had but the party the parking lot they bill unless It's useless to us. We can't turn around there. I don't know. I was like turn around there today So anything about one time full snow Martha I just want to make sure I heard this correctly that the new location of this gate is by number 42 on The town road section of Angel Road It's on it was confusing to me I guess to where you could say the locations the new location of the gate is What this side of the four corners this side of the four corners No on the east side, yeah So Does it answer your questions in terms of the towns not Planning on Plowing that road in terms of the gates Are you voting tonight? The plan will be for the season for the No, not voting on that. That's just We're not going to the land or the window if they requested people out with the power. Yeah, so That's not what they purchased But who are you talking about? No, I don't know someone requested it if someone requests that is plowed the landowner a landowner if one of the camp owners up there if the full National Forest starts selling timber off there and They'll probably leave that gate open and have that road plow tonight though. What's your policy for the season? Our plan for the season is not to plow that road Are you voting that? Ridiculous to vote on Has the gate been Installed on forest land or town. Well, that's a good question. Yeah. Yeah, I Would assume that the forest service thinks it's on their land, but Cooters not quite so sure about that Yeah So as of now you're saying the politics house policy would not we are not planning to plow out there Unless there's a specific request to get an emergency or something. Yeah, it's not no and that says Generally not been our policy to do Anyway, and now that that gate is in place it makes it almost impossible to plow out there Yeah, that's sort of truncates things a little bit. Yeah So if a request is made will it be Announced at a select board meeting so the public can also be involved with this So it's just a surprise to us when something different happens like the ski trail gets plowed It's just when do we find out is the public well, I think in you know Informing you something like that happens is fine and we can certainly do that, but it's not going to stop it So I'm not even sure what you're asking I'm asking to be notified I think Eric would appreciate getting notified before you went out to go ski in What the situation is going to be it's gonna be plowed or not Well, I see my trip out there for the day I Just kind of it. Well the upper loop. It is a convenient loop. Yeah, it's been that way for 30 years No, we're not changing it's been changing What's changed? Plowing it last year Once once that was a major issue for it wasn't skewable from January Okay Must be that that that leads on to the your next topic of climate change and the lack of snow which made it a Takes so long to make it for Well, I'll let Lizzie speak because she's a volunteer in this Anybody here doesn't know me. I'm Lizzie Shackleford and After Mason raised at the last meeting the idea of a climate emergency declaration I did a little bit of research. I've been reading up on the options and what other towns and municipalities and areas have done It's been a bigger movement over the last few years worldwide really and I think that for me in particular Looking at what's happened in this current administration You know, we can't rely on the federal government or frankly anybody else to protect what we have here So I think it's a great time to start looking into it. I'm gonna come back. Hopefully And you know like a meeting in December or some other time And I can get on the agenda to talk about what I've learned and what I found out what some options are There are different folks who are doing I know Burlington City Council just passed their own climate emergency declaration other places have considered them and they're probably about a thousand and 15 or more countries around the world municipalities that have done it so but there are different ways you can do it their things as as extreme as is saying You know, if this is we're going to declare that we're gonna be fossil fuel free by a certain date All the way to just saying we're gonna find ways to educate our Citizens about ways that they can be you know Just energy conservation and climate conservation conscious and the types of things that we can do in our community And you know where the places that we want to protect and end why so I'm gonna do some research We're I'm working with Mason on this as well And I just want to put out there that if there's anybody else who wants to get Involved and kind of doing some of the background research and kind of considering what are some ideas that we can bring as options for Rochester You know, please let me know over the next month. I'm gonna be we're gonna be working on some of this and researching options so I'll I'll share my email addressing contact information, but But if anybody wants to sit down and get involved in the brainstorming of the conversation, I'm happy to To join up with some other folks who are interested. You're gonna take steps to put this on the town meeting agenda Yes, exactly. That's the plan You know, whether it's probably right now looking at likely, you know a declaration itself We're gonna look at a lot of different options and figure out what might make sense for here and discuss it in at You know, at least a meeting or maybe a couple between now and then and kind of see what the different ideas and Options are and then so by that point by the town meeting will have something that we wouldn't been able to put out To be able to you know, get a larger vote on it. I Don't have a lot of information or knowledge yet, but I plan to have more What do you mean on the time agenda Informationally or in terms of emotion? I think I think by for a motion for a vote by the town meeting in March But I want to make sure that people have an opportunity to share if they get informed between now and then so You know, I'm I'm willing to go forward and try and find some of that information and bring it to Some of these meetings if it makes sense in a couple of months to do a special meeting if people have that level of interest You know, we can do that but this is kind of just the initiation stage. So anybody wants to get involved Thank you Mason So that I was looking to have The new business next meeting to have the Rochester Civil Authority Here to talk about the ability of us being able to look at e-voting Yeah, I suppose we can ask them to come in but in the investigation that I've done around that I've found Nowhere in the VLCT or the Secretary of State that Addressed that topic all of the statutes on voting talked about Australian ballot and the abundance of the ability to vote early and absentee voting but I found As of yet, no nothing other than Larger areas backing away from e-voting because of concerns about Fraud potential, so that's why we have the opportunity the state of Oregon seems to be doing very well with it statewide But we're dealing with 800 voters. This would be a good experimental vote to have it on Yeah, like I said, I'm not I'm not sure that the the state Statutes actually allow it in my research about the voting So you would be able to give us more details about that Well, it's probably more like the Secretary of State that would be given us the more of the final line the civil board of civil authority I don't think has the authority to make that decision that it's not allowed by statute So that's so we'll dig deeper but so far So we have the civil authority here to have at a meeting so we can have a discussion We work we have three of us are you all here three of you? Only other members of the justices, okay, they might have some good input they might Can invite them Martha what you said the state Secretary of State's office Would have the client I think that there's probably statutes that and I so far from what I researched I only found the options that have absentee ballots and Australian ballots at present, you know voting present and there is I mean they'll the Absentee ballots you can get your ballot by mail You know, I guess the email what is I know it's very modern and you know, not everybody has email but a lot of people do and But I'm not sure it's accepted Legally by the state yet, and I haven't found any evidence that it is Well, as a community we can ask the state to allow us to experiment I mean if there's a lot of ways to go about this you have to start somewhere This could be a great community to start with and do to try Allowing our citizens the opportunity to participate on a new level Whatever The discussion needs to start somewhere to be on the positive side of this what you are interested in and see more Participation by our residents in the voting process How do you think an email is gonna prove that I Think free lunch at the town meeting would probably Be nice to have a conversation with the whole Civil Authority board actually find out what what the civil authority can do I think that the civil authority board is going to say what we just said now that you have So have they had an official meeting on the subject In statutes it defines the total responsibility of the board of civil authority And There's a definition total definition of responsibilities of the board of civil authority It's in statutes, and you are on the board. I am not So you guys you three are yes, and you can repeat that statue Right pretty easy to go fine Nice to have a conversation with So long for you about how we can do things a little you have three of them Well, that's no fun. That's my official meeting of Julie's also on the board So for Julie, what do you think? Yeah, I mean us as a civil authority can't change the state state rules How we can do we can research state rules and report and so far my research is Is come to a dead end talking about email voting? So that's my report so far So there's official meeting that's so important. We are a warned meeting and this is I mean the civil authority needs to have a Real meeting Public meeting. No. No, we don't think so. I mean we are is this a quorum of the civil authority board? It's four of us. How many are there all together and there are five justice. Yeah, I'm just not quite a quorum But I think that that's I think you're investing a lot more power into the board of civil authority than It almost needs to go before the Vermont election management system VMS I can talk with them Welcome civil authority Rochester civil authority. It's not their job. It's not their job. No, it's not their job. What is their job? We count both Go to statutes Ravens Go to statutes and read it back grievances statutes So could we put this we don't know an email voting system is a complex issue Let's figure it out That we Tells you how to run the election the town clerk is That's right But it's really not the board of civil authority that In charge of the orange you only show and we what we follow the Vermont Election management system So we have to go we have to go by their rules what they and they go by the statutes So statutes are there are legislators Thank you have a question. Yeah, I mean Is he voting gonna be an agenda item for the next like what meaning if someone Picks it on the agenda they do you know you want to have it? But it seems to me that I mean the the state officer who knows the Legalities of whether he voting is possible. Yeah in this state as the secretary of state. Yeah, and he would be able to advise No, this is not possible under statute I didn't have it verbally from him, but I had it from you know Reading of what the voting options are and They go through great lengths as I said to make absentee ballots available. They'll even deliver them to people And you can vote in person and it said nothing about voting. So I'm aware that there are states that allow it like Oregon But but given that given an answer notice for example notice is not Allowable under statute right now. Yeah, the next question is what would be the process either? By which citizens in the state or citizens within my municipality would be able to evoke during You know an election I guess right here legislator Asking but but it seems to me that is the stuff that would be a requirement that the legislation that allows that additional to the So that we've talked about this enough To your satisfaction Mason at this point That the uh, civil authority is great. You here to speak next meeting? No No, it's not really their job. It's not really their job You're assigning duties to people that are not not quite it's um, but we can um, I can um reread what I read and I can make some more phone calls and Julie will and and I'm I don't think I'm going to have Well, maybe we can use by Jim Finows to speak on the subject Maybe But don't we think this would be found in statute too one of the I didn't find any reference to email voting No, no, what what is it? What are the processes for voting that are currently I've said it three times already? Yeah. Yeah So Moving along from that um, I'm just the side note. I think that E voting would tend to lessen the attendance at a town meeting Then when people need to show up to if they're really concerned about something that they'll Come to a meeting and be concerned about it. They just think oh, I only worry about this I'll just sit at home and then and vote then that would actually Um lessen their involvement lessen the involvement then increase the involvement So I think that it might might backfire in terms of your your um, your thoughts about it increasing the involvement This might Be careful. It could be a very uneducated voting What's that? It could be very uneducated voting using email Uneducated voter. Yes No, I didn't say voters. I said voting Uneducated voting by the voters. Yes Absolutely, you know, you might understand the issue just as well as you Um So our last annual meeting what was our total, uh attendance roughly Was better than that it has been in other years some in some of the less the other years So how can we increase how can we increase how can we increase participation for your lunch? I like that's going to work. I like the high suggestions. Yeah You start faking All right, um, I think that we've um Beed up all these topics enough for one night and um, there's Eric's questions and we're going to um Include this part of the meeting and move into the executive session to Oh wait, I'm sorry. I forgot cover all of Eric's questions Well, it's just not really it's just it's it's it's the You know, it's um, I know it's old. It's all it's important. Yeah You know, I mean just blowing it off. That's not the way to go about So anyway, yeah, have you had any What's that? Have you had any more success? No, I haven't uh been assigned any tasks. I was wondering if Julie mentioned something about, uh Ballot bags great ballot bags in there that one of the books could have fallen into And the ballots are locked It will cut the thing does it entail to check the locked ones it wouldn't be in but I was thinking of the ones that were open What's that? I was thinking of the ones that were open not the ones that are locked because they get locked at the time that they Well, with out of the conversation I have you said something locked or something and We were kind of wondering how you go about checking If it had to be done like in front of like the civil board or civil authority or whatever I wouldn't look at those I was just wondering if Anybody made any movement on trying to check that out or if anybody's Done anything or if there's any new places to search I don't have anything to report I continued to search when I'm moving stuff around in Cleaning areas and I told julie. I'll come in when the weather shuts in for a winter kind of I'll help her move the cabinets There is stuff behind those cabinets so julie and I had that on the on an agenda at some point in time All right, we will on maybe why you're why you're doing that we can clean by Maybe we'll dust at the same time somebody runs bring a sweep Thank you And eric, I'm sorry. Do you have something else that you wanted to talk about? We talked about bingo was actually Anybody else going once going twice. Thank you all for coming out once again