 Welcome to the select board special meeting informational meeting in lieu of town meeting day. We're going to go ahead and get started Tuesday, February 22 2022 at 7pm. First order of business is to approve the agenda unless there's any changes. A motion to approve the agenda as presented. A couple of additions. At the end of the meeting after the public information and select board needs to discuss. Who wants to have next meeting. In particular, there's an issue that. Rather than waiting for the new select board. Is to talk about interviewing this candidate for his own administrator. There's also some information about scheduling to talk about a potential plan. Okay. Well, I amend my motion to approve those additions. Okay. Is there is that. Is there a second. Been moved and seconded any further discussion. All those in favor say aye. I just want to make sure everybody speaks up. So folks who are on zoom, it's a little different this time. I can't remember what the terminology is, but basically. In order for you to speak, you either have to click the raise hand button or type your questions into the chat box. So. The Q and a box, I guess, what it is. So yeah, just so everyone knows that, but we were going to move on to consent agenda items minutes from February 7th meeting and the liquor license for farmhouse flowers LLC. Fast question, Champlain farms and fast stop. Okay. Second. All second. Been moved and seconded any further discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. All right. Next, we're going to move on to public remarks. This is your opportunity to speak to anything that's not on the agenda. We're going to do the best we can to involve anyone in the rest of the agenda, but this is an opportunity to speak to anything that's not currently laid out in our meeting. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to speak tonight. Okay. We will move on to the public informational meeting. Again, this meeting is in Louisville town meeting day. Last week and to run through the town report and discuss what's being voted on in terms of budgets. And we'll recap a little bit of what's happened last year. So, you know, I think from those who have seen the report. Waterbury is doing quite well financially. We had a another continued year of kind of COVID navigation. We had a lot with the budgets in the previous year, anticipating the revenues we're going to be down from things like pilot, which are some forms of revenue that coming from the state and some are peg to rooms and meals tax collection, and our anticipation that some of those revenues might be down. The good news is that those revenues came in higher than expected. It allowed us to not shift money that we had budgeted from the tax stabilization fund. Other big things that happened last year is basically the majority conclusion of downtown construction and mainstream reconstruction. So the, those parts of the budget will slowly be will quickly be coming off of the spending side of our budget. And for the most part that project is completion. We had quite a bit of increase in activity and our rec programs. And a lot of that was in response to the needs of the community as childcare became kind of a conversation so Nick did a really great job of expanding those programs and keeping an eye on budgets and I think I can speak to the select board that we're really happy with that library I think is getting back to where they were pre covered in terms of activity. We have a new library director. So there's some things happening there we got through quite a few projects in the highway department including the blush hill, repaving. Like you mentioned, I guess one of the other big conversations is bill will be leaving us at the end of the year so discussion surrounding his replacement and a plan for that. At the same time, there's conversations surrounding the potential merger with EFUD and how that might look and also conversations potentially surrounding a charter so I think there's some big things that are going to be coming up in the next year. And there's a couple of special articles that we'll get into that address some of the needs that we've identified but also, you know, we're going to start discussing as a board and in the town, the ARPA funds that you know, we'll receive $1.55 million in ARPA funds there's a rule book on how those funds can be spent. And the select board will be discussing how to spend those funds in the next couple years so quite a few things happening. We'll get into the budget. I guess. So I think you should just talk about the reports of town officers. You kind of hit a lot of the highlights of last year spending mark. If anybody has any questions about anything in the report, whether it's a narrative report by any of the staff or the select board, or if there's any questions about reports of financial information. Or even from some of the organizations that the town supports through special articles. This is the time to ask questions about what's in the town report that refers back to last year. So again any participants in zoom you can type those into the Q&A button on the bottom of the zoom window that you can enter questions surrounding any of the reports or you can click raise your hand. I don't know if anyone is here tonight wishes to have any questions on the reports or move on to the presentation of setting the tax due dates. That's article four. Yes, Carla. Talk about. For on page one of the commerce work. The tax due dates are set for August 12 2022. And the second installment on November 4 2022. We had to dodge the following November because better today is Friday. Friday that we did not want to make tax due date on a federal holiday. Installments must be paid in hands by 430 on the new day. And interest will be charged at the maximum allowed by statute not to see one and one half percent per month or portion there are on each installment. And I think that maybe state the obvious to the people who are listening. This meeting is going to be conducted all by Australian balance so there's no opportunity to amend anything here you either have to vote yes or no. So if the voters approve article four. The due dates will be as Carla suggested on August 12 and November 4 and the penalties and interest as laid out in the article, which are the penalties as allowed by law will be in place. The voters not the select board have the authority to to make this determination. And this is what got printed so this is it's going to be this or if you turn it down then we'll have that another set the date so please don't turn it down. Question. Public doesn't have any comments or questions on that we can move on to the presentation of the capital budget of the town article five in the morning. On the ballot. Yep. Okay. So article five is the question to the voters about capital spending $1,698,445 $455. If you look at page 20. We'll put this up on the screen so those of you might not have a power report. Have it. The proposed spending for the capital plan is shown here on on page 20 in this 2022 capital funds budget snapshot. You can see there that at the top is fun 70 which is paving than the infrastructure fund on 71 from 72 is for highway vehicles on 73 and 74 have to do with a fire station. And municipal building fun, that's fun 73. I mean fun 73 is the fire vehicle fun and then the fun 74 will be the fire station and municipal building fun and then fun 75 is recreation. So, we're continuing with fairly aggressive paving program. There's about $400,000 of paving earmark for this year. And then $55,000 pay the debt that we have on the very hill, very hill fun that has five years more to go. Okay. So, we received a grant a state class two paving grant in the amount of $175,000 that we will put towards paving on Stow Street. We received that grant this year, but given the timing and the fact that you have to put these projects out to bid if there's a grant. We've shifted gears and pay blush hill this year and we'll go back now in 2022 and do do Stow Street, the project on Stow Street will be about $270,000 altogether. We're going to mill off some of the existing pavement and then overlay it. There's a concrete roadbed under Stow Street, unlike the job that was done to several years ago we're not pulling out the concrete roadbed so that will, that will remain and deal with the cracking from that over the years. That's a huge expense to remove that, that concrete from that road. And then since we'll be in the neighborhood, we plan to do work on Hill Street, which is in that need of resurfacing. North Street Swayze Court. And then we have the last part of blush shield to do beyond Bones and Trail. There's a culvert up on a blush shield that needs to be replaced. We'll replace that this summer and then do that final paving on that section of the road that was left as a base course. After last year's portion. So altogether we estimate about $461,000 for that. In the infrastructure CIP I'm not going to read all of these things and it's fairly self explanatory. The main street project is essentially complete. We have some amenities, some things like trash barrels and way finding size and the life that need to be need to be installed this year to finish up that project. We've estimated the cost of $140,000. All of that is grant funded from transportation enhancement grant that we have received. And we'll be submitting reimbursement for that after we spend the money so that will really cost the town, anything. There are improvements including sidewalks. Again, we're hopeful room. I hope we'll be applying for a downtown improvement grant made available to communities with designated downtown's the maximum grant is $200,000. And it's a 20% match so that would be $40,000. And we hope with that 240 that's listed there as an expenditure that will be upgrading the lighting at the rusty Parker park. The lights there that have been there since the 1980s are really have seen better days they're starting to get a little tippy, and they really need to be replaced. If we're successful will replace those lights with the same style of period we have on the main street project. There's also some money in there for some enhancement of the trash receptacles and recycling receptacles that are on the park. And then the bulk of the money will be used to rebuild or rebuild the sidewalks on Randall Street and Park Road. If everything goes well, both sides of Randall Street the full length and Park Road from Randall Street over to Main Street will be will be those sidewalks will be replaced. And that's what that is. And again, if we can do that work and end up spending $40,000 of local tax money to do that will be a great thing. We're hopeful that the grant application will be approved. So this sidewalk replacement for $20,000. We're going to propose to build a sidewalk on Stow Street opposite the school. Currently, you know that the children at the school. We're going to build down below. Next to that your book for recreation purposes gen classes cross country scheme snowshoeing they also do science work down there, along the bank. Right now they're crossing the street kind of from the parking lot of the school where there's no crosswalk and going down that field driveway that's there. So we'd like to build a sidewalk that connects. There's a short stretch of sidewalk on that side of Stow Street from the corner of Swayze court that goes up through where the houses are, but we'd like to add a section there so those kids more safely cross at the crosswalk and then walk all the way up on a sidewalk to that driveway. Building improvements in the highway garage we've got to do a little bit of work on the grid barn, some siding work. And that is in the budget there for $45,000. I spoke about the culvert on West Hill. And then the big project here $200,000 on the river road rehabilitation project. This is the road that goes in from root 100 to the state park. I'm sorry reservoir road, you said river. I'm sorry reservoir road, which goes in from root 100 to the state park up in watery center. If you drive in there now you'll notice that the guard rails, I kind of joked with the board that they're more like guard curbs right now that that whole left side of the road as you're going in it's is sliding down the hill and you need to shore that that engineering work already done. And we have an estimate of $200,000. We're hopeful that the estimate will hold, unfortunately with all the challenges that we're having with supplies and, and with so many communities trying to spend money bid prices or bids when they're opened are significantly higher than the estimate so you have to deal with that when we deal with it. There's a little bit of debt service from past infrastructure that needs to be paid as well. Highway vehicles, pretty straightforward. We've already purchased the bucket loader. We typically don't try to get ahead of the voters, but sometimes with the way that supplies are working. If we hadn't ordered that, we probably would not have received the delivery on the loader in this calendar year. So we've already taken delivery on that one. The cabin chassis for a truck is a normal replacement of a truck in its regular cycle. And we are hoping to buy our Harley Lake, which we're going to buy a Harley Lake which can be used on gravel roads. After grading and then also on recreation fields to try to know to get the get the surfaces graded out a little bit better. I think that's that there. The fires, the fire there's, there's no, no purchases of any fire trucks this year. 129,000 of debt service is that service basically for the two fire trucks that we bought 2019 the select board refinance that that five year note turned it into a 15 year bond. And that's the fire department share of that, which is really a good deal for the town most trucks will last will have 20 year lives. We were able to refinance that 1.1 billion not all for the fire trucks, but we refinance that for 15 years that 2%, which is a very good rate in this environment so I think we're in good shape there. So the recreation fund. The tennis court improvements are for wind screens to go on the fencing of one of the courts to allow them to play tennis, mainly Howard tennis in windy months of the year. There's pool improvements, which is a mechanical lift to try to facilitate those with disabilities getting in and out of the pool if they have to be in a wheelchair. The field improvements and court improvements is really to finish the paving of the parking lot here we did have a bit last year and the other half we're planning to do this year. The building improvements are some improvements to the right building itself, a new handicap grant going in that meets standards we have a ramp there now but it does not meet the standards of American with disabilities act, and to do a little bit work on the roof so the ease where we can have a little trouble. So, with that, that's a kind of a quick update on capital spending so there's questions of the African. Any questions. Anyone on zoom have any questions feel free to click the raise your hand or enter a question in the q amp a. We will move on to presentation of the budgets of operating funds designated reserve funds and special purpose funds of the town article six. We'll, we'll run through the budget for those of you who have a town report page 18, which is the budget summary is there. You can look at that, but I don't think we have page 18 to put on the screen and if you don't that's my fault because I was told to watch pages to have so proposed operating budget starts on page 21, and goes through page 31. So it's the general operating fund the highway fun and the library fun. I'll try to hit the highlights pretty quickly and then let folks ask specific questions if you have any. First on page 21 and part of page 22. That shows the revenues, both what we budgeted and received in 2021 and what we're anticipating for revenues in 2022 as mark indicated at the top of the meeting. Other governments, which you can see in the middle of the page on page 21. We received all of the pilot money that the formula generally produces for watering, we budgeted significantly less in everything that we were thinking we're going to get from the state because we did not know what would happen to state revenues, all of which pay for these line items so the pilot, the forest and parks payment and the current use payment those three items there. You can see we budgeted 160 30,000 35,000 respectively. In every case, we took in significantly more 330 pilot over 90 1,000 and forest and parks and about 106,500 in current years. The fact that we received that money along with some pinching on the spending side are the real reasons why we had such significant fund balances in in our operating funds and flipping way over the page 29. You can see that in the general fund at the top of page 29 in the middle column that the ending fund balance in the general fund was about $173,000. The primary fund, the operating fund balance, which was this on page 30. The ending fund balance last year was $98,500. And in the library fun, it was 15,920. That's on takes 31. So those fun balances are very significant. Okay. If you go back to the screen share and click the first box and thinking the other one highlighted. I know so I'm going to you where you say screen share to share. Yeah, so go click it and right it brings up all the different screens you could bring up. And then stop sharing and then do screen share again. And then get that was one. Thank you. I'm through to page 31. So on page 31, you're going to go. Oh, you're through. So 15,920. So, all together, you know, those fun balances are pushing $300,000. And that that money will help us going forward to 2022 to stabilize the tax rate. We also have budgeted in 2022 as if it was a normal year for most things. The tax rate that we're projecting right now. We don't have this page either, but we know you don't have that page page 18, the operating budget summary. We're projecting a tax rate of $0.53 in 2022 if we get a 1% increase in the grand list. If the grand list increases at a greater rate than 1%, the tax rate might be able to be a little bit lower. The way that we have asked a question for this article. Article six, it asks the voters to set the tax rate up to 53 cents. So 53 cents tax rate in 2022 will be the highest tax rate that we can have. If July comes and will be halfway through our budget year when we set the tax rate. If things are looking better than anticipated, and if the grand list should grow more than has been estimated in this budget, the select board might be willing to reduce the rate a little bit. We'll talk about that at that time, making a tax rate that's lower than really necessary using kind of good fortune that you gather in the year that you're budgeting for. Sometimes it's a little dangerous because in subsequent years, you might have to make up that reduced rate and and see a higher increase to get you back on even footing. However, the 2022 budget has a number of items in it that are one time expenditures. If you look on page 22, on page 22. There's two to one. Look at page 22 in the regular pay line item. You'll note that that is lower than it was a year ago. 327,000 budget compared to 352 spent. The 352 included significant salary for Barbara fire, who was our transportation liaison in the for the main street project. I've had worked for the town since 2012 or 13 after the flood. The 327,000 includes just about $10,000, potentially for bar because that project is closed out and once she does all of the requisitioning of grant funds. She will no longer be working for the town she's retired. We're not replacing that position. In addition, there's some eight to 10 weeks of overlapping time for me and whoever the new municipal manager is this budget of 327 includes eight to 10 weeks of time when the new manager will be working with me. I plan to work through the end of 2022. I've advised the select board that they should try to bring somebody on in November at the latest to begin working with me so there's there's some money there that won't have to be in the budget necessarily. Next year. Breaking point Martha's task is was a question. Going back to the $200,000 for the reservoir road work as it serves for water marine parcels. Is there a possibility that the state would contribute to that with that cost. Likely not. I always ask, but it's a class three road. We already received state funding for that road. The road existed before the state park went there. So, I, I don't think we should count on that. I don't want to belabor things too much on the operating funds. There are some other long items in here. I can remember what they are that are one time expenses that won't have to be in next year's budget. But I think for the sake of time and your interest level, I'll skip over some of that. Unless you really want me to throw one item by line item in the highway fund, which is also part of that 50% tax rate. This is a very standard highway budget. And yeah, I'm sorry page. So go to page 30. Other reasons why this fund, this tax rate, I think is really as high as it needs to be for this year and it doesn't put unnecessary pressure on next year is we have significantly increased the amount of money going into our capital improvement funds. So on page 30. If you look at the very bottom in the highway fund, last year we sent $585,000 almost to the capital funds in 2022. We're sending about $200,000 more $994,000 will go into the capital fund. And we have the ability to do that. And it's, it's an important thing to do because capital expenditures as we have learned, you know, the last article, oftentimes push $2 million a year so we can put some of that money aside and and make it available for future years. That's a good thing. That same thing. That same thing that can be seen on page 24 Karen. Not to the same degree. We're sending second. All right, so again, you can see there where in the fire department. We're adding significant money to the capital fund. We're really doing it. And you can see a test on page. 2017, the copper page 27, which is in the recreation administration building expense. We've upped the, the appropriation to the capital fund from $10,000 to $100,000. So we're able to do all these things and still maintain a 53 cent tax rate. In 2020, we had budgeted for a tax rate of 55 or 56 cents, the pandemic hit. We cut back spending and the select ward set the tax rate at 53 cents that year I believe backing off our tax burden for our residents and property owners. In 2021, we maintain that tax rate. In fact, we dropped it to 52 cents last year. So this will be three years in a row, the tax rate will be 52, 53 cents. And I think if we went back to 2019, it was in the 51 52 cent range then we had anticipated going up by four cents or so in 2020, but we didn't. So I think the board's been very fiscally responsible, trying to respect the taxpayers pocketbook through this whole pandemic and through this difficult time. And with that, unless you have other questions about the operating budget, I would recommend voting yes on this. And I think that will get reasonably good service for the tax rate that we're asking for. Anyone have any questions on this portion. Yeah, that's the old one right here. Right, moving on, we'll meet in the Q&A. Yeah, if you hit answer live and then. Any questions here or online. Welcome to the presentation of a special article during the ice center. Okay. Article seven of the warning asks the voters to appropriate $100,000 of the county's capital money. And appropriating it for use by the ice center of Washington West. I indicated in my report, if you want, a lot of information about this. You can look at my managers report that starts on March nine. We won't put it up because we don't have it. And I don't, I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I do talk about this fairly significantly on pages 10 and 11 of my managers report. So the ice center is a private not for profit organization. It's a community recreation facility that is here to serve the needs of the town of watery and the greater Howard community. The facility is located here on River Road down at the east end of the village. The facility opened in 2003 or four, and has not had any appropriation for its operation by the municipality throughout its entire existence. The town and village at the time did spend about $300,000 to provide access through the road the paving of the road down there and the village brought water and sewer lines down. The village has more than recoup this investment through the generation of water and sewer fees by the ice center over this 15 or 18 year period. But there's been no appropriation of municipal funds to the ice center for all of this time. This hit pretty hard by the pandemic, forced to close for over five months, and when they were closed, they had no revenue. They had to continue to pay overhead expenses including debt service, their mortgage, they had to pay staff, because they needed to be doing things at the center and and didn't have any revenue. During that time, they had to dip into their capital reserve funds to pay their operating expenses. So this is an opportunity for the community to use aquifines. This is money that has come from the federal government through the American recipe plan act, and it won't cost the local taxpayer anything. This cost us as federal taxpayers, a little bit we're all paying for that, our money that has been doled out by the federal government. As Mark said, is going to be about $1.5 million. This budget, including this line item and and the next. We won't talk about that. I'll go back to that in the operating funds in a second. It potentially uses about $795,000 of the Apple funds, which will leave about 775,000 left for the town to appropriate in a future year and the town can have discussions about that. But giving this money to the ice center now and the select board discussed this at several meetings starting in December and then a couple of times during January had representatives of the ice center in to talk about how they might use this fund. The goal of the select board is that by appropriating this money to the ice center, it will be able to continue to operate as a private not for profit. An organization not seeking funding from the town. Organizations in town from the senior center to the children's school to center for independent living. You may when you can see them in the, in the budget, who asked for an appropriation every year from from the town of water break. $57,000 worth of those special articles that are on the document for you to act on next week as well. Since 2003, the town is appropriated about, I don't know, I think it was 1.6 or $1.2 million to those organizations over that time. So hopefully, if this money is appropriated to the ice center they'll be able to replenish their capital fund they have some capital expenses on the horizon that they'll need to pay for. And the goal is that this will allow that organization to continue to operate as a private profit. That does not ask for an annual appropriation from the town. All right. The q&a I can't see if there's a question at all. Anyone from the public wish to ask questions surrounding this special article. If you're on zoom, you can either click raise your hand or type it into the q&a box. Mark, I would like to go back a step back to the operating budgets if I may. So Karen, if you can go to page 23. Sorry, I failed to mention this. So the $100,000 of our appropriation that we just spoke about to the ice center. That's a special article. I would be remiss if I didn't let voters know that the select or have included in the budget, a $600,000 appropriation of our funds to be five the Edward for our utility district, which is the successor to the municipality to the village of waterway. The $600,000 that the select board have included in the budget for appropriation to eat but would pay for water improvements to eat but customers that lie outside the utility district's boundaries. Particularly there's a mobile home park on your own flats. The park's owner is already a customer of a flood there's 60 something mobile home units in that park. The owner of the park has a water meter in their former well building. The water from the flood comes into that building goes through a meter he pays the water bill to the utility district. And then the water is distributed through private distribution system that the owner of the park homes that distribution system is quite old. It's, it's built of, I won't say, not state of the art, not state of the art materials, and there's likely significant leaking in that system now. And that means the owner of that park is having to pay for water that nobody's using. The flood has the legal responsibility to be responsible for the quality of water to the individual taps. So even though those mobile home units are not direct customers of if I, if anything should go wrong. And it could be traced back to this poor distribution system if I could be held responsible for that. It's not a very unlikely scenario, but it is something that is in law that we have to pay attention to. More importantly, the people in that part should have good quality water and good quality water service. We can improve the fire protection in that whole area, that whole park in particular and that area of town by getting some bio hydrants in there. So this money would allow you to make those improvements. There's also on room 100 from Howard out stretching back south to the where the sunflower natural food store is. There's a small one inch service line there that provides service to a handful of customers on that line. The fire protection in that area. The area is really beginning to grow in terms of economic development. The ID computers is planning a significant expansion in that area. So this $600,000 if there's any leftover after the mobile home park gets upgraded. So it's good to upgrade that one inch line. And again, it would be best to put an eight inch line in there, providing good service, good pressures and good fire flows, which would all be beneficial to the to the town as a whole. While it doesn't say so in the budget, this appropriation is actually conditioned, it's conditioned on if I'm taking some action at their meeting in May. And if I'm in consultation with the select board thinks this is a good idea, would like to make these improvements, and having this money appropriated from the town of this if I have this aqua money, which is an eligible function of eligible use of these funds to improve the systems. The fund, their share of this deal will be to turn over to the town, a revolving loan fund that has assets are more than $1.8 million right now, about 1.2 of that is in loans, but as of this morning about 650,000 cash and investments and so that will be going to the town, if the ifad was so go if they, if the budget here passes, and ifad does not take that action at the meeting in May, then the $600,000 doesn't get transferred so having the revolving loan fund will be, I think a boom to the, to the town of being able to use that involving loan fund to help with economic development or even housing in in any area in town, not just restricted to the former village area where it is solely used now so there's definitely something in the town for this. The water improvements alone, I think they're worth doing, but getting the revolving loan fund is something that will be very beneficial in my estimation to the town. I think that would be if these things both pass. That's the first step towards potentially emerging the communities and that's a discussion that the next select board will have the next ifad commissioners that elected in in May, and we can start talking about what what the process of the merger might look like, you know, and ultimately that would have to be voted on by the voters of both municipalities it's not something that just can happen by way of the hand, but it's it's something that the select commissioners have indicated a willingness to at least explore so that's that. Yeah, no question. What type of oversight governments is established for how the 100,000 funds is used by the center for the town have to cover reporting on how the center expended those funds. Jeff identified themselves. They can hear us. Okay, well, can you please identify yourself for the question. If you go into part of the last one is my first. Oh, right before that. They were just telling you to squeeze. We don't have a question. We need to know who the person is asking the question. Sure. I mean, it's a reasonable question. So I think it's just in terms of knowing if it's now resident asking the question. Sure. So the the ice center is not for profit community recreation facility they're an eligible recipient of Apple funds. The town can make this appropriation without being outside the law or the rules that speak to the law. The explanation is, I believe, right in the article that article. To allow the center of Washington West to make necessary. So the money would be used to replenish their reserve funds that were that were had to be spent in order to meet their current expenses during a pandemic when they had no income. I know for a fact that they've got, they've got to work on a cooling tower. They've got to make sure expenses other capital needs that they'll have down down the road. And I think that the select board's decision to ask the voters to do this simply puts the money into the ice center's pocket and allows their board of directors to use it because they believe is necessary expenditure for for the for the facility. I'm pretty certain they're not going to be using it for, you know, paying employees. In the end, the, the appropriation allows the facility to continue operating into the future, which will include, you know, capital upgrades and improvements without having to come and ask for for more money or at least that's that's the hope of the community. So my thing was mentioning also there, the meeting we had in January that's recorded where they came and presented to us they did talk a lot about what they needed the funds for how to be used it presented a really thorough budget so if it's a more interest. You can find that in a meeting minute and a recorded meeting from January. I don't know if there's anybody from the ice center that's out there that might want to put in two cents, but I don't think they can talk though right. She can walk in my house. She can. Anyone on this room is. Right. Any of the lens go ahead and click. I'm sorry we'll come right back to you. Can you hear me. Yes. Okay. Your names everyone knows who you are. It's Bob Perrette. I'm a Waterbury resident. I'm a board member on the ice rank for the last 20 plus years. And yeah, I mean, we certainly could use the replenishment of our capital reserves as has been talked about here. We've got a lot of capital projects. We've spent some money. That is one of the reasons that the capital reserve fund is down. Part of the cooling tower compressors. There's a list of items that we went through and there's ongoing maintenance. I mean, the reserve fund is there for stuff that it's going to break in the future. And we've always had, we've built that up over time. And we like to have that reserve fund there for emergencies and for ongoing maintenance of the facility. So the facility is 20 years old. You know, we've, we've been able to pay down debt over the last 20 years significantly. But as the, as we pay down debt and the facility ages, you know, we're sort of replacing our, our debt savings with, you know, higher repairs and maintenance in the facility. We had some issues with the deamification system over the summer that we had a fix as well. So, I mean, the money goes into our capital reserves and, and, you know, we're very diligent about and practical about what we spend it on. I think when the select board met with, with the ice center and one of the reasons why I recommended this to the select board was that, you know, here's a private not for profit organization, providing recognition facilities to the community at no cost to the, to the taxpayers and over their 18 years of operation. They were able to pay all of their bills significantly pay down their debt. I think they started off at about $1.6 million and, and they're down to $1,000 range now so they've paid off about half of their debt. And they were also able to put money into a capital reserve fund I think they told us the year before the pandemic if my memory is correct mark and in particular that they had about $300,000 so in reserves that unfortunately they had to burn through once the pandemic hit. So the organization appears from the outside looking in to be well run, and the town is looking to just give them a leg up to kind of replenish the reserve funds so that they're able to move into the future, continuing to operate as well as they have in the past without being a burden to the community. Any additional questions on either the ice center discussion or the discussion on the EFUD 600,000. Any questions here. We're on zoom. Okay. Thank you Bob. We're going to move on to number seven presentation of the proposed expenditure of up to $50,000 to engage a consultant to develop a master plan for the recreation facilities at Hope Dayby Park, and on land use for recreation activities and 40 acres of land. That would far utility district on River Road, near the ice center of Washington West, and that is article eight. Before we do that Jonathan. Okay, yeah, he's all set. All right, you didn't know. Okay, article seven, $50,000. So, Hope Dayby Park in Waterbury Center is a mixed use recreation facility on the on the Maple Street frontage, there's a picnic pavilion, and then there's a couple of playing fields. Little League fields, softball fields in the springtime that get transformed into soccer fields in the fall. And then in the back portion of the facility. There's a bridge that Ben and Jerry's volunteered to build for the community that takes that allows people to cross over. It's not really a brook, it's a brookish kind of wetland trench that water moves through the through very slowly through the through the park. And when you cross that cross that bridge, you come to a much more undeveloped area of the park. And that area historically was used for people to hike to walk to, you know, observe nature animals. horseback ride, and a number of years ago probably 20 years or so ago, maybe even a little bit more. A group of people came to the town select board and asked if they could develop a disc golf course on on that undeveloped portion of the property, the select board gave permission to do it. And at the same time told the small group of people. They're not going to spend any money on a disc golf course, whatever you do out there you do on your own. And for good or bad that has morphed over time into a disc golf course that gets a lot of use. The pressure put on the property by this golfers and conflicts have arisen, both in terms of conflicts with with the natural environment. There are wetlands map wetlands that are out in that area that have likely not been avoided as probably they should have been. I think there's conflicts between people who are interested in using the that part of the facility for quite more passive recreation, the walking and the hiking nature absorbing, as opposed to the disc golf. This has become an issue. Over the last couple of years it's been brought to the attention of the select board a couple of times over the over the past decade or so, but really kind of started to take on a life of itself in the past. I would say 24 months. The committee has been trying to address these concerns that have been brought to it by members of the public, and trying to work with the people that play disc golf, looking to try to establish a memorandum of operations, or a memorandum of understanding about how the course will be used, maintained, and further developed. And so what we've said and raised is that there's been a lot of managing of that land, if you will, that has not been done by the municipal. And that's regrettable from my perspective and I'm responsible, I guess as much as anyone for that situation, but we're trying to address it now. And as I said, some questions, whether the course has been developed in places where it's appropriate for this use. And as I said the recommended has been trying to come up with a plan to address these concerns. Recently, the. I just left MOU presented to the select board. Currently there's really no group to sign that MOU with the select board and the select board has, has pushed the group of users there to say you know it might be in your best interest to form a formal group so that we can enter into this MOU so that you can continue to use the facility in a manner that the town is in alignment. Some push has been made by members of the public to the rec committee about. Well this is a facility that really should be available, fully available to the public. We've got American with Disabilities Act issues. Facilities that are on town land that are owned by the town, even though we didn't build the disc golf course it's on our property. A case can be made that that the course should be accessible to those with disabilities. Certainly the playgrounds and the playing fields need to be fully accessible and even even walking facilities need to be accessible. So with that, the rec committee has worked hard. They have come up with a draft scope to have a consultant hired to come in and do an assessment of what's on the ground at these facilities and to help kind of design a plan forward where the, where the facility can be improved and to meet the needs of the needs and the desires of all the people that want to use that that part. The rec committee estimated that that work that I just described might cost about $35,000. At the same time, a different group of individuals have been talking with both the select board and the commissioners about developing a significant major skate park at the site of where the ice center is. And on that 40 acres of land that is currently owned by the utility district. That facility, if it's going to be there is going to have to be fit in amongst other recreation uses that have been permitted by the fight over time. There's a, as most of you know, there's a watery area trails Association trailhead there that allows access to peri hill biking trails. There's a pump park for bicycling along the road in the vicinity of the trailhead. There's a soccer field that's operated by capital soccer, and there's a dog park on the site that's operated by another group of users that were interested in developing that back right after the flood. Of course, there's the ice center. The soccer folks say capital soccer have been asking you fund commissioners for about four or five years now to try to develop an additional soccer field down there. And now we have the group that wants to do skateboarding to have a fully designed concrete permanent skateboard park there. And I like some room at that area to take that. The property is owned by the other for our utility district right now, there are conversations ongoing between the commissioners and the select board about transferring that property to town ownership. And that is a utility district now the former village which was a general purpose, all purpose government. No library exists. They operate a water and sewer system. They don't have any authority to to operate recreation facilities there's nothing illegal about them leasing out land for recreation purposes but I think that the town, given the fact that town has a regulation department and the regulation committee would be the better, the better municipality to move forward, and to get that site fully developed. That would require an upgrade to its master plan. The site is under an active 50 permit, and all of the facilities that I just mentioned that and uses that are ongoing there are part of that master plan and part of that active 50 permit, the ice. The skateboarding park if it were to be located there would need to be would need to upgrade and amend the active 50 permit in order to allow that. So, the hope was that we might be able to hire one consultant to do the work at both of these facilities and to get some economies of scale. One report that has to be written field work that can happen all at the same time, as opposed to, you know, two different consultants coming to two different locations and having to do similar work so the $50,000 is a is a best guests educated guess based on a $35,000 budget that was suggested for hope Davey Park. We believe that we can get the work that I just described done at both facilities for this money. And if this article is approved at town meeting today, then the appropriation will have been made, and the select board will work at that time. So with the rec committee and with the group that is interested in the skateboard car to refine a scope of services that would be able to be put out to bid for consultant that much better defines the deliverables that we would expect so that's a broad overview of those two projects that are included under one umbrella of a $50,000 appropriation. Thank you. Um, any questions from folks in the room or online. Again, if you're joining us, just joined us online, you can either hit raise your hand or type into the q amp a box. I think Mark fryer suggested when we talk about putting this in the budget that, you know, maybe we would could be more hopeful that $50,000 would be actually more than we need for this. And there might be some money left over to begin some of the implementation of the project specifically at at the hope baby site. I don't see about that. There's a long way to go, but if if we get a good deal for the consultant might have a little bit of a leg up on making some of the actual improvements necessary. So I do want to make a correction on the last, I don't know if it's the last meeting that meeting before. I think you were here Tom, we talked about possible avenues of, you know, this approach. I had suggested that wetlands biologists from the state agency and natural resources would come and donate for free. After researching that and talking to a few other people about it. I understand that the process is that you have to hire a private wetland biologist to come do any first and then the state comes in and checks what they've done and make sure what they've done is correct seems a little redundant, a little excessively costly for no reason but that apparently is the process now. I've had people from agency and after resources, some properties of mine and projects of mine that we have talked to me about the wetlands issues that were there but as the state permit process evolves, you know, more people get involved and that's how that occurs. Well, I think part of, you know, I'm not defending the state's decision if that's what they told me, but from our perspective, the process is not only to donate where the wetlands are. There's a reasonably good mapping of that now, but we'll be asking the consultant, not only where the wetlands are, but then how can the wetland areas be protected and then still use the property for some recreation purposes and of course, you know, part of the wild card of that is, is that, you know, it could be that that you can't use the property the way it's currently being used and I think the board is going into this with the eyes open about that fact. But this is something that we need to address. And, you know, there's, as I said, in addition to the whole issue of wetlands and conflicting or competing or complimentary uses, however you want to talk about that. We also have the issues with making it accessible as well for for all people, including the disabled. So it's, you know, we don't know where this is going to end up. Unfortunately, that's a, that's a reality of the situation, but I think we owe it to ourselves as a community to do that. Is there any other questions on this item of the presentation, either from in the room or online. Seeing anything online. So we have a little, we have a little surprise presentation and I'm sure this would be more impactful. During a normal town meeting. This is, I think this is the Victor Victor senior calls similar issue, evolving at the waterworks. Is that the creation of bike trails. Billy, there are some concerns with the use of the 400 acres that if I owns up in mostly in stone, where the water, the source of water is for the Edward for our utility district. Those issues are currently under discussion by if they had a meeting a week or so ago, and some people who wanted to do an event. I guess it was up there. They came in and talked to the commissioners a week or so ago, and the commissioners have been working with its forestry consultants and its consultants that deal with the source protection plan for the water system to try to address those needs and that's a challenge because people feel emboldened. They feel that, well it's public property so I can use it any way that I want. And they, they go out and they've cut, they've cut trees in the watershed they built built trails through there, and it's very difficult to regulate. And I said that that's a different municipality, right now anyway, and we, the select board doesn't have any authority to, to make any many, make any statements about that use at this time. Hopefully that answered your question. May, would monies needed for restoration of the weapons in the hope to be actually included in this 50,000. That was up for vote. Well, we don't know. I said a minute ago that if, if the planning work doesn't cost $50,000, there may be some money left over that some implementation can happen. We don't know yet whether any restoration of what needs to be done. So, we'll answer that question when we get the answers. Any other question. So, we have a little surprise presentation for some folks to receive some outstanding community service work but I'm going to hand over to Chris. You know, I'm going to be listening off. You know, it's obvious tonight, what the pandemic has done in our community. It's derailed a lot of our normal seat. It has allowed things to slip through the cracks and some cases made parts of our normal life completely disappear. I wasn't sure how I was going to bring this conversation forward. Today, when I came down to the sign orders. As I was leaving the building, it hit me right in the face. I looked on the side of the wall across from Karen's seat, and there was a couple of displays showing some people that were. Very devoted in their lifetime to this community. And it was kind of a display of history of people in the past that have been very instrumental in the evolution of this town. I'm just going to touch base along a couple of things that, you know, that I felt were important to me in my lifetime here and I'm sure that there's other people that have been here for long periods of time that also have, you know, anybody that's been here for any length of time has has a history here. And we all have different stories. But they all intertwine. And, you know, I remember as a kid. Fishing the show mansion Brooke, you could walk down through that rock during the day, and from pool to pool, see any number of travel book travel. Needed book to swim in the holes. There in the old hiding Myers farm up on this hill, there was a swimming hole with a big old will treat that hung out over that swimming hole. And they had a rope off of it and you used to be able to swing off that rope, go out over the hole and drop off down into the hole and the hole was so deep you couldn't see it bottom of it. Today you can walk across that same spot in the water probably comes up the middle of your shins. The old show mansion debt used to be a great slide in place for people, you know, for kids. I remember many a night slide down that Steve bill halfway up the other side before it was a town maintained fully maintained road through the winter. So part of those things, other things in my life that drove me to stay here. And the history that came with that is important when it comes to communities. And like I said, there's so many people that have histories in this community from being here a long time. Then when I got involved in the town part of the municipality the politics of it. I really came to learn something else. One of the really important parts of community, the history of that history of the fact that there are certain people that get involved in their communities with their life long effort into it, their love into it. And a lot of the voting time into it. The water buries don't just run on autopilot, you know, they don't just happen when people come here to live. They come here to start a history of their own. But sometimes it's difficult to see the history that came before them. And as towns evolve, they leave in their wake this history that's so important to the community. Because it helps new members build on the history that's been made by the sacrifices and the time and dedication of people that step forward to serve their community. And I think we would be remiss if we didn't continue to recognize those people. And I was thinking about it, and you know there's two people that I can think of off the top of my head that to me are would be the George Bailey's of this community. And if it wasn't for those George Bailey's, we'd be living in Potterville. And if nobody has ever seen that movie, it's a wonderful life. You do yourself a service to watch it. So tonight, I would like to take the baton from Skip Flanders. At least for this particular night, we'll see where it goes from here and present Keith Wallace award. The probably two of the most important people that are the true definition of what that word was created for. They'd be in the red neck that I am. I have to sneak their boards in to bring them in. And Bill Sheppluck, you are with all my heart and all the select board's heart and the past select board's heart. With all of our love and respect. We appreciate your years of dedication to this town. And with the changing of the guard, to say, it's a little bit. Frightening to move forward with with somebody, you know, new after all the years that you've been here. And, you know, it's it's going to be difficult. But there is no way I was going to allow this town meeting to pass in in you leaving our community without this award. So, thank you very much. This is not here to receive this tonight. No, thanks. Thank you very much. Won't be forgotten. Just to be to be mentioned in the same breath of George Bailey. My favorite. I'm a sucker for seven movies. That's one of my favorites. We watch that every Christmas. Yeah, me too. And I very much appreciate this. I'm not going to give a speech. I'm hoping I'll be around next year at town meeting. I won't be in my position and you don't have to give this to me again. I'll be here and you're from now too. So thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. That's the way to get the chat. And the other one was for skip you said it was. Yeah. Can we express our support for this wonderful recognition? Well, I gotta tell you one more thing. To sit here and watch you go through everything like you do and have it be such second nature. It's, it's frightening to think that we're going to find somebody as. With their, with their job as you are. Well, fortunately, nobody's irreplaceable and I'm confident that you'll find somebody. Lisa Lisa has a question. I'll tell you, I tried to get my wife to come in and sit with just a bag here beside us. But in the chair there and you know what, she's not one to be in the public eye. So. My coach got up. So. Change. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So now on the number eight presentation information or questions concerning articles nine to 34, which are special. For those that do have the town report, you can find each group that has a special article or class tends to have a, I think it's a requirement correct today. Can I ask, isn't the town report on their website now? The town report is on our website. There is a digital copy of the town report. But happy to answer, try to answer any questions that we can on any of those special articles. I don't know if we need to go down. You know, each group, I think there's only one additional new group this year, which is the friends of the Waterbury reservoir. The new one. Yes. Which, and the, and the. Yeah, yeah, this is just nine to 34. Any questions. Any questions on the special articles from anyone in the room or. All right. Presentations of instructions for Australian ballot voting. So, early in the voting started on February night. Unlike last year, we are allowing people to vote during normal business hours. So I've been studying. I don't know any ballots to those that request them. That time window is shortening towards the end of the week. And then we will be going in person at books like primary school on March 1 from 7am to 7pm. Any questions on the procedures for Australian ballot voting. We're going to move, I guess, your addition to the meetings kind of start partially encompassed by number 10, which is discussed next meeting. Yeah. So, the planning commission has interviewed candidates for zoning administrative. We've, we've offered the job three times in the last four months or so, five months. And for a variety of reasons, the people that we've offered the job to haven't taken it or took it and then left within a week. So the planning commission interviewed three candidates at their last meeting. And they have recommended an individual. I don't have his name with me. Unfortunately, I think I know it, but I don't want to say it at this point. As I have mentioned in the past, the process for hiring a zoning administrator requires it's a two step nomination by the planning commission and then appointment by the select board as opposed to, you know, hiring by municipal manager. So on Thursday this week, I'm going to meet with the individual that the planning commission has nominated to talk about a benefits. And I think the life is very good candidate is a is a director of planning and zoning community. So I think maybe somebody that could step up to the planner position when Stephen tires. If, if the person is appointed by the select board and then takes the job and stays here longer. The group does not meet now until March 7, if you stick to your regular schedule. There's also a grant application for this downtown transportation fund that we've included in our budget we talked about tonight the $240,000 expenditure with $200,000 potential grant. That process requires a resolution by the planning commission and then approval by the select board as well as a state rule. And unfortunately, I was not aware of that when we talked about putting that money in the budget. We put it in at the last meeting in January and said, you know, if we get the grant will spend this money without the grant we won't. We can't get the grant unless we go through this process. So I was wondering if the select board might be willing to meet at 630 on February 28. That's Monday night next week, you can interview the candidate for zoning administrative, and then you can take action on this. The commission is meeting at seven o'clock on Monday next week, so they can review the grant and make a recommendation that you'll be finished with the interview by seven or so and then if they recommend that you can approve the grant application. If we don't meet on the 28th. The deadline for the grant application is March 7. You know, the board doesn't meet until the evening of March 7. So you missed that. So I would recommend if you can do it to me on 28 at 630 to interview the candidate potentially appoint him and take action on this plan. I'm not sure what the schedule is yet, but I would be able to come afterwards. That's to be determined. Yeah, so even if you hold, I'd be here by 63640. So if you can one meeting Carol 630. And I'm assuming that means that the three seven meetings probably not necessary. Yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to be out of town with seven anyway. You've met a lot will be in your board. The board can certainly meet that need. I guess my recommendation would be to wait to have the first meeting and match on the third. 21st, as opposed to doing on the seventh. There's nothing wrong with that. Whoever wins election will come in and take their own. They don't have to wait until the first time to come select board members immediately, but I think scheduling the meeting on the first. Okay. That everything. Anyone online. No questions, no hands raised looks like we can take a motion to recognize the work that you and the past. Thank you. Oh, yeah. I'll bring the beer. Motion to. Is there a second. Second. Any further discussion. Thanks everyone for coming. Thank you very much for those who attended tonight. Thanks for the tech support. What a team. Yes. Yeah. It is great. Yeah.