 So I'm not a part of me in the work. And the column is leading to over at 632. Let's see, do we have any additional state of hand now? I don't see anything on set for memo. Anybody else have anything? No additions? Okay, review of minutes, November 7th. And we don't have four last name I see in no way remembers where there was. Who was Laura? I wasn't at the meeting. I was here, I don't remember. You don't remember? Somebody just popped in. I don't recall that she said anything. I just saw that she popped on the screen. Yeah. Well, what are we going to do? Who's the spy? We'll leave it. Yeah. Just Laura. Maybe she doesn't have a lot of things. Now, now. You never know? Okay. I assume everyone's ready in minutes. They don't find me. I wasn't here, so I can't touch their accuracy. They look great as usual. I don't know what time we adjourned. That was my, the only thing that was kind of open. Did that get put in? That's because you had to keep talking about it. Because we had to do that in an executive session. Yeah. Yeah, and here. Okay, yeah, I'll amend that. Okay, that was the only thing. That's for you. So, we're going to have the time that we wanted to put something on there. Yeah, I have it. Something's in my version. I must have PDFed the wrong one. Okay. Well, I only have the executive session 805. Yeah. And then, and then, okay, I have it. Blank to adjourn. You could write some questions on that. Yeah, I have it. Yeah, I have it. Okay. I clearly PDFed the wrong version. Okay, so, we could say that we will approve the minutes as amended. So, okay. And do you have a second? Second. Oh, I'll just take a piece out. Hi. Hi. Yeah, I just figured out if they do have it. The minutes are up to, okay, let's go on to the next. Thing here, county road acceleration. And I'm going to, oh, there's an area right there. Yeah, so we'll wait. Okay. Because we're going to come over here. Yes. Are you skipping the public comment section? Oh, right, I guess I did. Public comment. Sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah. You've even made yourself a public comment. Okay, let's go back to that then. You have some time. Are you here for public comment? You're really garbled. Did you say something? Yeah, I said, do you have public comment? Yeah, Seth, it's a bit of an echo. It's a little difficult to hear. I don't know who's sitting over on the left-hand side of the screen, but that person who's off-screen, I can hear perfectly. Me? That's John. Gina, probably me. Oh, that's you? Yeah. Anyway, I did have a question for the select board. Is now a good time to ask it? Sure. Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. So my question has to do with the intersection of Brazier Road and Gallison Hill and Town Hill. And a few years ago, we spent a lot of time looking at that intersection and coming up with all sorts of possibilities for slowing people down there as it's a pretty dangerous intersection. So I wondered what the status of that was because I think several years ago, I asked Bruce about it. And if I remember correctly, he said, it wasn't gonna be dealt with until Town Hill was paved again. I'm just curious what the status of that whole, all of that research is and the discussion that we had, if anybody's given it any thought, if we can do something about it. I think, can you hear me now? Yeah, let's go. Okay, so that's where it still stands. Nothing is planned for the intersection at this point. I mean, I was here when we had a discussion and then the last thing I knew is nothing was gonna happen until it was repaved, just as Bruce said to you last year. So I had to- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I will begin. Okay. If you're single. Well, that's all I'm gonna listen to you about. Yeah, I can take that one. All right. Does that stretch down? All right. Can you hear me better? Do you think so? Let's do a try. So nothing's happened. Nothing will happen until it gets repaved. Okay, and what will that be? I'm not sure. We gotta look at the paving schedule. What we do is evaluate all the paved roads every year and we prioritize the one that needs it the most. That one is coming up because that's one of the first ones we did around 10 years ago. So that road is coming up for repaving. I'm not sure if we're gonna do it this next year or the year after. It'll be fairly soon. Okay, all is well. Okay, thank you. Yep. Under public comment, are there any more public that would like to talk? Nope, okay. Now we'll move to County Road Celebration with Larry Gilbert. This Larry Gilbert? I'm Larry Gilbert. There you go. Hey, excuse me, guys. Could you, maybe Seth, maybe you might want to move down near Gina. Okay. When you put your head down, it just gets all garbled. I don't think any of us heard what you said that time. That's weird. This seems odd. Good thing. I can move. Well, when you talk, would you look up and talk to us? I could hear you just now, but I couldn't hear you just to say. I was just making sure I'm looking up. Yeah, yeah. Is that okay? Yeah, hell yeah. You can hear me now? Yes. And I won't say much. Hey, don't make promises. You can't keep. Don't make the bonus jump as you're telling me tricks. You ready, Larry? I'm ready. Okay, Larry Gilbert from the County Road is going to give us a report on the celebration. So thank you for giving me a minute to do that. And hello, everybody. I wanted to do three things. One was to say thank you for your courage in closing County Road for no good reason. And I think that was really an impressive thing that you did. So I do appreciate that. Secondly, I wanted to just briefly describe what went on on Sunday, November 13th and answer any questions you might have. And then lastly, I'd like to see what the appetite is for more. So we had about a hundred or so people, I think who came out. We didn't really do a formal head count. Cause I don't know how to do that on a three and a half mile stretcher road with people coming and going from all directions. But I think it was about, I'm going to say about a hundred at one point we had somebody arrive the length of the course and do a head count while she was biking and going one way, she got 55 and coming back, she got 45. So, you know, people come and go from, and that was at 1130. So people would come at nine o'clock in the morning. They were lined up ready to go before the road even closed. So I'm going to say a hundred. Thanks to the local call that night, we had the state police there. It was really nice to have them there. They had one vehicle there. And so they provided a calming effect, I believe. And the officer put out cones along the course. He went up and down a couple of times just to show the colors, I guess, and that was nice. The reaction was incredible. I think people were so happy to have county road closed to have it available for walking. There was walkers, there was bikers, roller bladers, roller skiers, electric bikes, roller skates, skateboarders, dogs. It was really a sort of a mini party stretched out over a long, long distance. And I think the most telling comment that I heard was from a fellow who lives over near Powderhorn Glen, right on County Road. And he said, for the first time that I've lived here, I feel like I'm in a neighborhood because there were people out on the road stopping and talking and we met people that we hadn't met in nine years on County Road. So anyhow, I think that a huge success and so getting to my third point, a lot of people said, gee, this is fantastic, we're gonna do this again. And I said, I don't know, it's not my call. So I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have if you have any. I have a question. So I was at a town and I couldn't make it to the event which sounded super fun and thank you so much for dreaming it up. I have a friend that lives in your neighborhood that said that there was an email trail going around about neighbors just kind of generally spreading ahead of time. Did you see these, and I'm sure that after this, did they seem completely discouraged by how well this went and everything? Or maybe you're not even aware about this. Yeah, no, I'm not, I don't live in a bubble, but I saw no negative stuff on the internet and in any forum, there was, to the best of my knowledge, it was one person on Sunday morning who was unhappy that the road was closed. I mean, he was able to drive to his destination. I mean, as anybody could if they wanted to, it was just close to through traffic. One person was mildly unhappy. That's all, that's the only negative thing I heard, so it doesn't mean that it was an out there, but I never heard it, so. I don't know specifically what it was. I think it was just fretting, and I'm sure everything went fine, it was totally fine. So, I don't have any questions, but I guess what your main question would be is moving forward. So, a number of people said, can we do this again? I know this is great, we should do this some more. So, I said, well, I don't know what the select word's gonna, thanks, so let me just go and report to them and then see what the appetite is for more. So, I guess one question I would have for all of you is, can we do it again? And I don't have a proposal for you. Obviously it wouldn't happen until spring, and I'd be happy to get a group of excited people together and see what kind of ideas they might have for doing it again in some different way or similar way. So, you'd be thinking sometime in the spring? Oh, yes, I mean, it's, yeah. That's what I was thinking too, it's like, we know it doesn't really sound that appealing to me, you know, I see, yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry to say, we should close this on snowstorms and have cross-country skiing on top of that, and yeah. Yeah, right, wow, it's gotta get through. Yeah, yeah, but no, so. So, from my perspective, I think you just need to come up with a proposal. Okay. As far as I'm concerned, I think we're open to something of the similar nature happening again. I just don't know when and, you know, would it be the same nature Sunday, three hours, whatever. You know? I don't have a. Yeah. I don't have anything solid in my mind. So, I think that's what I would like to see. I'm not sure about the rest of the board, but they'd like to see you coming up with another day or a plan, I think that'd be fine, but I don't know what Amy thinks or John. I would suggest that you draft up a proposal and submit it to the select board, when you decide what you want to do, when you want to do it. Like for instance, it would be a little difficult to close the road down in the middle of a snowstorm and do the same thing, considering that we have health and safety concerns, fire department, ambulances, all that kind of stuff would have a difficult time going up through there. The road wasn't maintained. So we have to take, you know, I have to consider everyone when we make these decisions and it'd be nice for us to see something in writing so we could just sit down and look at it and talk about it and then you can come and present it and we can make a decision then. He's not thinking of doing it during snow time. Well, I just heard what I heard was a mention that some people want to cross country ski on it. It's going to be hard to do it without snow on it. We're not thinking about doing that. He's already said, that's not a good idea. So we're already mixed off the snow part. That was so mean. I didn't get a good, not a good idea part. Okay, and we're jumping ahead and thinking about spring. So what you're saying as a proposal and writing same as what I said, come up here with proposal. That sound good? Yeah. All right, would you pay if I emailed you? If I, okay, I'll get to the person that was talking. I'll see if there was anything specific or legit and I'll email you if that was the case. So that's okay. Thank you. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. And I'm glad it was successful. Yeah. Thanks very much. And we'll move to the next step and see what we do. Great. Okay, okay. So we're going to move to the next item is on time. It's discussed diversity and inclusion statement. So where are we on that? Well, it was discussed last meeting. Yeah. Amy was not here. So the only public comment we have was the potential to add sexual orientation or to add sexual orientation to the agreement or to the document. I think we're deciding what next steps would be. I think both you and Carl, you know, maybe this should go beyond the decision just by the select board. So the question is what would be the next steps to potentially go for East Montpelier to adopt? Well, so if the select board moves it out of its, decides that they want to kick this onto the townspeople, then the town meeting would be a natural next step to discuss it. And sometimes we're looking for controversial items to discuss a town meeting or not even controversial, but just something to discuss a town meeting just to get people interested. So this sounds like it could be one of those things where hey, bring it to town meeting, discuss it, and then move forward from there. So that's basically what was that. And Amy wasn't here, so, I mean, we could just adopt it ourselves, easy-cheesy. So I don't really have any reference one way or the other. I mean, if it's more important than we do it now, a lot of towns already have, then we could do it now. Or we can just wait and discuss it. Tell me if we have town meeting, because that's a little bit up in the air. And we have some individuals here. I'm not sure if that's anyone wants to chime in. We have Paul, who did speak at the last meeting about it. So. Yep. I'll be glad to chime in. I'd be glad to address that as well. And also we have Al Wakefield and Bob Harness, who are the founders of this here, if you want to chat about that. Hello, my neighbors who I haven't seen in forever, it seems like. So hi, Seth and Carl and others. So this is part of a, the declaration of inclusion is something that we have been working to get many, many towns to adopt and some have. And I know that you're wrestling with whether to bring it to the broader audience or for the select board to answer that. And both Bob Harness and Al Wakefield are on the call today. And as I said, they're the founders and they've been working with a lot of towns. And maybe they could add some context to what other towns have done, why select boards or city councils have adopted it. I don't know Al or Bob, if you want to jump in and explain that, that would be great. Yeah, sure. I'd like to see, you know, arguments pro and con as far as adopting at the cycle level or bring it to the townspeople. That'd be great for us. Why don't we let Bob go? Bob's the creator, the founder and very much our inspiration in moving this initiative across the state. And so let's let Bob go and I'll fill in whatever details might be helpful once Bob concludes. So Bob, you're on. Well, thanks. Thanks. And thanks for being on the call and all of you for making time on your agenda. You know, yes, as Betsy said, it's our effort to encourage Vermont and all its cities and towns to be more inclusive. And I guess it goes in part to, you know, just the moral aspect of it, where as we all know, the United States has been a welcoming country for 300 or 400 years and with the diversity that's occurred as a result of that, we have tremendous diversity and economic success. So it's our effort to encourage Vermont, as I say, and all its cities and towns to be more welcoming and respectful. And so there's a moral aspect to this, but there's also an economic aspect. And that is that as the 2020 census showed, Vermont is basically stagnant in its population growth. And at the same time, the population is getting older. So this is not a good recipe for economic vitality for the state. You know, with a stagnant income level, how is the state gonna maintain its infrastructure and programming? So this is just a grassroots effort to encourage Vermont and all its cities and towns to publicly be more inclusive, more respectful, more welcoming to people from all over the world who might wanna be here or look for a place outside of highly metropolitan areas. As we know, as a result of the COVID pandemic, many people are working from home and that means they could work from Vermont and bring their families and their talents to our beautiful little state in the Northeast corner of the world. So yeah, so that's basically our cause and our request that is to have towns discuss it. And I think that I think it's a very healthy thing that should be discussed by certainly by the select board, but certainly, but also by townspeople. This kind of discussion is healthy and important. I'm wondering, Al, if you have any ideas about how many select boards have offered that versus town meeting broader votes, has there been discussion about that in other towns? Yeah, we have, quite honestly, we've discouraged towns taking this to the voters with the piece that certainly the more people get involved in discussions about this, the better. I mean, while the select board can commit, it's really important that the townspeople understand what the declaration is all about, what it intends to do, and to be welcoming as a community. But that has to come as a result of leadership and that leadership is typically, it comes from the board of selectmen or the Alderman or the city council. Thus far, 82 towns, municipalities across Vermont have adopted the Declaration of Inclusion and the great majority of them have adopted it just as we have outlined it. Two towns have gone to a vote and in one being Clarendon, the other being Plymouth just a couple of weeks ago. The towns overwhelmingly adopted the Declaration, but it's our strong feeling that the select board, as leaders in the community looking out for the image of the towns, what the town stands for, economic development, economic growth, prosperity, et cetera, that the select board, that's an undertaking which the select board can take. And the Vermont League of Cities and Towns has looked at this from a legal standpoint and said there's no legal liability. In fact, it's the right thing to do. And in fact, the league along with the state, which you might have read about in Vermont Digger over the last week, have both adopted programs as follow-ups to the adoption of the Declaration of Inclusion. So that's the implementation part, if you will, this whole thing ties together in I think a very neat package of action, but also information, education, et cetera. Okay, well that's good answer to that part of the question. Was there anything else, Paul, anything else? That's something or not that you got blocked out, whatever you did. I got blocked out. Yeah, you froze on the screen. Oh, okay. Well, I was just looking for any more comment from Paul or Betsy or Bob or whatever. I'll speak briefly if I may. But thanks to Betsy and Al, and I'm sorry, and Bob. And I came to the meeting convinced that it would be best if the question went to the town, the town meeting. And now, Al, you've raised questions in my mind whether that's the wisest course, but in any event, it would be lovely one way or another for this town to consider and hopefully adopt this resolution. One of the reasons Paul and Seth and others that we've been urging the select boards to do it is obviously that the statement is very brief. If you read it, it's just a couple of sentences. And that is by intention because there's so much that needs to be said, needs to be learned, needs to be added. But we think that as the amount of towns, the number of towns that vote to have this, thinking about sort of what we're saying more broadly as a state. You know, when I got involved in this, Al, I think you guys were at like 20 towns or something and we've been working at it for over a year. And now, Bob, I can't remember what the number is. I know that the population is at 50%, but we've got a lot of towns and we're really gunning for that, every single town in Vermont. Because if you think about the message that that can send to Vermonters as well as people beyond our borders, we need a few more people here, not tons, tons more people, but we need a few more people here and we are working on all the things that we have to do to do that. Yes, housing's an issue and all of those things, but we've got to show the world that Vermont is that welcoming place and this teeny little couple of sentences is really just a start of the conversation. It's not the end or okay, we're done, we're never talking about it again. It is the beginning of that conversation. And I think Al, you mentioned the governor's announcement the other day that he's got a program to help towns sort of tease this out more so that it's not just a one and done statement. Hey, the select board voted and we never have to deal with that again. We won't have accomplished anything. It's more like the select board voted. We now have that declaration of inclusion. What else can we do? And there's going to be a program and money with the League of Cities and Towns to help towns think through that a little bit more. So this is just the beginning. Well said, Betsy. The chamber was one of the first state organizations to really come forward. And in fact, we were not going to do a website. We're three 80 plus year old guys and we said a website, we don't need a website. What about a website? Right? And you three 80 year old guys, you really do need a website. And so the chamber developed the website and that has been the thing which has launched us so that we have the support of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, Vermont Interfaith Action, the NACP, the Social Equity Caucus, all of the organizations that care about Vermont that are in both the spiritual as well as the day-to-day kind of realistic feet on the ground responsibility for helping Vermont grow and prosper. They're all backing this for sure. And so, you know, to have Eastmont Pealier adopt would be a wonderful thing. We're still working on Montpelier, et cetera. And I don't know whether you guys compete with Montpelier or not, I don't know whether the political aspects of this all are, but they are close. And so you could be closer and right on it should you move to adopt. But if that's the case, then I'll shut up. There is a follow-up and let's be real. This is really important to the growth and prosperity of the state. I don't think there's any question about that. If we're going to compete, if you're going to compete with Montpelier and Montpelier is going to compete with Rattle Barrel and Rattle Barrel and Vermont are going to compete with New Hampshire and we're going to compete as a state, we've got to be something other than green for trees. We've got to be green for people, green for development. This is one piece of a very, very important and vital mission to the growth and development of Vermont. Good one. Okay. May I add one, just one little piece? Sure, just to say to Betsy and Bob and Al, one little tweak that maybe you've heard before that a few of us noticed that we would like to make to the language is to add in the categories sexual orientation. Yeah, we think that's fine. So we should amend that, put that in there, because we haven't. Right, so it sounds like to me and just speaking to the rest of the set board that is in attendance that we just should adopt it and not wait till town meeting. That sounds like- I'm fine with that, especially since we don't know there is going to be a town meeting. That's what I think too. The only compelling argument for keeping it for that would be to get interest in town meeting, I guess, as you said, but- Right, but it sounds like from what we're hearing is the slack board should move ahead and adopt it. That's what I'm hearing. Sure. I'm good with that. I'm good with that too. Yeah. Where would you snip in the sexual orientation part? Would it be gender identity? I don't have it, the fun of me doing it. I don't think I have to- It's in the packet. Oh, it's in the packet? Okay, let me look. Welcome to all persons, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, identity, or expression. Could be anywhere in there. So that's your sense. That's your sense. Those are not listed in priority order. Added after sex, maybe. Sex, sexual orientation. Yeah. Okay, sure. I will create an updated version of this that reads for Eastlaw failure and bring it to the next meeting. Well, we could pass it now. Or- Just with that correction. Sure. I'm for doing that myself. That's fine. You good with that, John? I'm good with it. Okay. We need a motion. So moved. I move that we adopt the amended declaration of inclusion. I'll second that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. They do have it. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, folks. Education. I appreciate it. Thank you, Betsy. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Good night, folks. Good night, folks. Thank you very much. Yeah. Well, thank you. So we've adopted that and we'll move forward and see what happens. I think that's pretty safe move and positive move. So let's see. What's next here? Consideration, I quote, for completion of land records digitization project. And that's Rosie. I can't. I see you there. Rosie, can you hear me? No, she's nodding her head. So I'm assuming she does. She, Rosie, you're muted. Yeah, Rosie's muted. I think she's trying to unmute. There she goes. There it goes. There you are. Okay. So this looks like a quote that you had done. This is in addition to the quote that we received last June. Yeah. And the rationale behind it is that while they knew how many images there were in our microfilm, it wasn't clear at the time that there were a number of documents on each page. And they charge us by document because each document has to be indexed separately. So we have an issue with three to four mortgage discharges to a page that we weren't anticipating, which has brought the cost up a little bit. Okay. So I assume this money's not in our budget. It's not. However, this is certainly an ARPA eligible expense. Perfect. So this would go on the list for options for ARPA. Exactly. So that sounds like a good idea. That's a very good idea. This has to get done. It's a one time expense, which is ARPA money, it's good for that. And Rosie has held her feet to the fire. This is the last adjusted quote, so. Yeah. So it sounds to me like we should get a motion and get this done. Authorize Rosie to do it. Actually, you authorized Gina to do it, right? I sent him a quote. Oh, you're the one that sent us? I signed a quote. Oh, okay. Authorized Gina to sign the quote. So we need someone to say that. Okay, I move that we authorized Gina to sign the Avenue Enterprise Solutions quote for documents. Digitization. Digitization of documents. Thank you. See, I've got a number maybe to put that in there. We've got the amount. It's $8,521.41. Yeah. And not only a second on that. And John just said, Yeah. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. Done. Thank you. You're good Rosie? Thank you. Thank you. Review of coal for road foreman truck plow. Big people seen the coal, 8,500 or something like that. 8,635. 8,635. Working on trying to sell the old truck, which will offset some of this cost. He thinks we will at least get 5,000 for the old truck. Hoping that it will get more than that, but he's reached out to various auction houses and is working on that. Yeah. Where this was budgeted, how this was budgeted, I'm not really sure. There's no documentation that directly spells that out. So. That's a capital cost that comes out of the capital reserve or capital fund. The only thing I'd like to see if we could is if this, we probably have to authorize this to come out of the capital fund, but we could authorize the money that we get to go back in. Yes. Yeah. So I was going to say the motions could say that. That'd be great. Okay. Because that was my intent. So it would be great to sort that out. I have a really dumb question. Okay. Like the dumbest. Is this a plow that you just put on the front of a truck? Is that what this, this isn't a truck. No, no. This is a plow. You go behind the truck and you plow the fields, especially on North Street. Okay. Thank you. To stop the wind from blowing. Okay. Stop the wind. Stop the wind. Stop the wind. Stop the wind. It goes on the front of the truck. Stop the wind. Stop the wind. Stop the wind. So then how's the snow? In the snow, where's the one fly or the other? You don't have to be mean. No, no. Your tone. Oh, my tone. So you need a motion on that? Yeah, we need a motion to say we could take the money out of the capital fund and then we should be, should put the money back in for when we sell the truck and plow the old one. Okay. So I make a motion that since we're comfortable with a quote that we authorized road foreman Perry to proceed with a purchase via, well, via our motion to approve this and that we utilize the money out of the capital reserve account and replace what we can of that money used out of reserve account by selling the old pickup and plow. And you want to put an amount out there? Put an amount of 8,635 dollars and 22 cents. Yes. I'll say it doesn't go over that. Right. You want to say up to, you want to say up to 9,000? Yeah, I would. Yeah. Up to 9,000. Yeah. And then we need a second on that. Second. I was a favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, do have it. Time Treasury report. Is that Gina? Same report. Nothing extraordinary to point out necessarily. Importantly to that is the update on the tax collector, which is maxed on the item or on the agenda. Yeah. So I assume that in the various categories that we're approaching 50% of the year growth. And I assume in some of the categories we're over the 50% or 40%. Are there ones that are aligning to you? It's like the Sally's line. Well, what we understand that is. Yeah, yeah. So it's not alarming. Right. So no, nothing really that's nothing to be done. We don't understand or necessarily a surprise. As we work through the budget for fiscal 24, some of those types of things that are again, known to overages, staffing, mixed changes will be. Insurance, health insurance. Yeah. But nothing is jumping out at you at this point. Now, and you'll see one of the changes when we, when we, and I don't know that we'll delve into that in the level of detail necessarily, but with the fiscal 24 budget. Yeah. One of the things I am doing that I don't think has been done in the past is re-forecasting the current year. Because I think it's important to do so. We have a completely different set of staff, but a fairly different staffing structure than what was included in the current year budget. Obviously we know health insurance has gone up. So I think it's important for us to kind of re-forecast the current year to help us then go into the next year to better explain where the fiscal year, 24 budget numbers are coming from. And just so everyone understands, we have more people doing the health, taking health insurance. Right now we have, we previously had an employee on a health stipend. That person is actually going onto the town's insurance. So for example, the budget for fiscal year 23, I assume six people would be using the town's health insurance. And in fact, we will have online eligible employees using health coverage. So. That's significant. That's huge. It's a significant cost. It is. Yeah. Here's where it is. Yep. Yep. Okay. So if everyone's happy with the town treasury report, we can move to the link when tax collected updates. So with this, and unfortunately I realize I actually forgot, I put that report on the, it's just a summary report, but you have the number here on the website that I forgot to actually put it up. So we have 301,000, just under 302,000 outstanding right now. There's about 37,000 that you still need to be posted that we've gotten that in that number yet. And I know while I was standing out front earlier, two people, at least I know of came in to pay today. The notices were just sent out. So people know now for anyone that has, I did hear someone comment to Rosie, you know, I've never been, go ahead Rosie. We've had three people just today who have never been late with their tax bills come in to pay. And we have an inordinate number of people who are on the late list now that have never been on the late list. So we're hoping that the notices that just went out last week prompt people to come in, I'm guessing that maybe what prompted some people to come in today. So we'll keep you updated. And then, you know, Michelle, this is something she's obviously looking at quite closely and we'll come to the board for any next steps as necessary. Michelle and I both maybe, you know, Michelle may need some help and guidance on how the town has historically or typically addresses. Oh yeah. I think when tax payments, so anyone that can offer some advice that she may reach out to. Well, I know what, I know the long history of tax collection. Well, that's what I, so she and I discussed this today because we understand statutorily what next steps may be, the question is, how have we typically handled things? What's the town's approach? So she'll need some help with that. So where are we historically though? It sounds hot. So historically last year at this time, we were at 239,000. And you're around 260 something now. So we're about 40,000 difference. Take away the 37, we're getting a little bit closer. Yeah, it's still hot. It's still hot. Yeah. Still hot, yeah. So we wanna see what happens with the notices just going out, so it comes in. Yeah. But then we'll need to, probably if you're open to Michelle reaching out to because I didn't know if you likely knew this very well. So she would certainly want to probably go over that list with you and maybe have some discussions with your thoughts on how to move forward. Yep. Yeah, it's been an issue for years. And we've handled, I mean, Bruce took it over. Yeah. We used to have a tax collector, but then that kind of went south. So Bruce took it over. And it went on, all right, you know, there's always repeat offenders. Yeah. Yeah. And there's always the ones you have to strong on and then there's some that don't need that. But it's almost like every individual a little bit different. Yes. Yeah. Anyway. So you can talk about that. I actually found a paper file late this afternoon we stumbled upon that was some delinquent tax collector info. So she grabbed that and was gonna start going through that. But again, just really trying to get a feel for what have we done in Texas. Yep. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So the next item is discuss tree warden stipend. So the tree warden receives a $1,000 stipend. There was a note on the appointment schedule that I inherited that said for this year would the select board consider there's a total of $2,000 allocated to tree wardens. 1,000 being to the tree warden and 1,000 being to a deputy tree warden who have not gotten a deputy tree warden today. So there was a note to question whether the full $2,000 should be paid to Paul, our current tree warden. So we paid the only the thousand because obviously that's all we were authorized that we processed in the last payroll but if the select board would like to move forward with paying this or paying the other $1,000 since there has been no identified deputy tree warden then we can do so. I just wanted to mention that because this note was. Right. I think a thousand was more than he's usually gotten paid. Actually, I don't know if he got paid at all before. Yeah, I think he got, did he even get a stipend at all? I think last year was the first year of the stipend and we gave him that stipend because we knew it was gonna be a really busy year because of the. Right. Pastries. Yes. But I don't know if it makes sense to give him another thousand. Okay. Nothing against the work that he's been doing because he does a lot of work. Yes, he does. But on the other hand, we really should be getting a deputy tree warden because he's aging out of it. You know, his eyesight's a problem and we want to educate someone to come along. Now, not that we can't just put 2,000 in the budget but considering that we're over on a lot of other things, I think we should just give him the 1,000. I'm not trying to run him down either, believe me. He does a great job. No, he does, yes. He does. I mean, he probably earns way more than that. But on the other hand, because he hasn't gotten a stipend in the past, probably happy with 1,000. Put the 1,000 back into the budget. Good night. And try to find a deputy tree warden. Exactly. Yeah. That's probably a good idea. Yeah. John, do you have any opinions? I agree with you totally. And we do know he does a really good job, but this was the first year of his stipend. So let's leave it at that this year. And if we need to change it next year, we can. Yeah, that's what I think too. I mean, none of us do it for the money. Speak for yourself. Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Daddy Warbucks, come on. Oh, Daddy Warbucks, come on. I don't usually hear that in Congress on my name, but something I do, I do submit. Okay, primary discussion on 2023 town meeting warning. So I bring this to you because in year, last year, this is the meeting when this was first brought to you all. This is drafted in a format that would be an in-person town meeting. Yeah. So first question for the select board is, how do we want to proceed with town meeting and whether that decision makes tonight or not? Well, no, but at least open up the dialogue for discussion of how we will proceed. The format can obviously change accordingly, depending on what we do. Yeah, I don't know what the status is with the legislature. Rosie, the legislature, I believe, is leaving as is. So town meeting can be either in-person or not. They're leaving that in place? I mean, that's why I opted out this year. I read in the paper the other day. I don't know why they opted out, but obviously they were able to opt out. So legislature left that door open. I can't remember that was, I don't believe that was a permanent thing last year. John, do you remember? I don't think it was supposed to be permanent. Must be they just didn't bother to act on it and decided to have it carried through. Yeah, I'm not sure. What was, do you know anything? Sorry, I missed the last part of the conversation. I went to get a drink of water. Poor town meeting, Rosie. The legislature, does the legislature still have in place that the towns can opt out of an in-person town meeting? No, that's my thought. Then how did Duxbury do it? So I just read in the paper the other day that they were not having in-person. Who is that, Duxbury? That's not a Duxbury, yeah. It was on the front page at Times-Argus that they're not having in-person town meeting. At least that's why I got out of it. Well, you can, if you don't have an in-person town meeting, my understanding is that the COVID emergency rules end on January 15th. And that after that, you're not permitted to use those emergency rules. It looks like David might have something to respond to that. Yeah, Duxbury voted on election day. They held a special town meeting to change the way they vote on town meeting day to Australian ballot. So they formally made the shift. Formally they ended town meeting. Yes. Yeah. You know more town meeting in Duxbury ever? No more in-person town meeting. No floor vote, basically. Oh, okay. They did it by Australian ballot on election day. Oh, so they'll just have a phone. They could do that. Okay, that's how they did it. So they didn't have any go-ahead from the legislature, any special go-ahead or anything that was residual from last year's decision. This is a completely separate decision. Okay, so we don't know anything. We know that right now we'd have to have town meeting in-person because we didn't decide not to. We didn't put it to voters on an election day. And we don't think the town legislature is gonna have the opt-out version this year because they're not operating under COVID rules. That's what Rosie just said. Unless they have new rules, we don't know that. We don't know. Correct? So we're the likely we should just play in-person town meeting. I think so. As yet, yeah. As painful as that sounds. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Kyle would give me a good slapdown right now. I know. I know. I know he would. He would give me a lecture about that. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Phew. Phew. Okay, so let's plan on having a format that would be in-person. So looking over what we have, everything looks fine. This does assume in-person. Yes. Yep. Anybody have any comics about this layout? Now, of course, the property tax thing, you do understand that's been a little controversial about how we're doing it now, but I'm fine with it. Doug. Post my thing. Yes. Oh. Yes. Remember this? Does everyone remember? Yes, from the last one. Yes. They got changed on the floor, even though it wasn't legal. They got changed to this, which is actually how it, this follows the statute more closely, I believe. I believe. And so we've talked about this endlessly ad nauseam. I think it works fine the way it is. Does anybody have any strong thoughts and opinions? Bruce was always against this. He's like, wow, you know, postmark makes him come in late and then we can't budge it. It doesn't really make that much difference. Yeah, it's a day. So at once, somebody's taxes got delayed in the mail. This was a big point. And then you get the thing a month later, but they had to write postmark on it and their screws up the budget. Well, it doesn't really. Well, that's like one person. It's not going to make that much difference. Come on. That was an argument. That really is like, come on. You're wasting your time, I didn't like that. Rosie had a hand up for a minute. Yeah, Rosie. You had something to say on this? You knew it. You knew it. It wasn't about the, the postmark issue, which I agree to what you just discussed. It's rare that we have any come in the mail that are significant after, you know, after tax day is over. I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that regardless of how town meeting has helped, the school board is going to come to you in the next couple of meetings to ask if you would consider mailing ballots to all voters who are not challenged for the school ballot. So that's also going to be a time when you want to consider whether you're going to do that for the town ballot as well. Doesn't, it is enough for discussion tonight, but I know that it's coming down the pike. So if you just want to start thinking about that and what that may look like, we're actually going to have three different ballots this year. And the Central Vermont Career Center ballot will not be able to be nailed out at the same time as others if we were to do as we have the last two years. They would be by request only based on what their, what their charter is, how their charter is worded right now. Okay, but that's, so the issue though for us is are we just going to mail ballots to voters that ordinarily would vote by Australian ballot? That's different than the items on the town meetings. That's right, that's why I was saying, I put my hand up, so. So that's probably what we would decide to do is to mail the ballots to the voters with the school ballot, the ones that are items that are voted by Australian ballot. We probably would decide to do that. I mean, we'll have a discussion obviously, but. Just keep in mind that we're only able to mail out the school ballot if all the other four towns agree to do the same. Yeah, so we'll see what happens with that. I think. But thank you for bringing that up. That's a good point. Okay, anything else? Anybody wants to talk about on this, on the town meeting warning? No. Nope. No. Okay. Yes, yes. I just want to put it out there that it was, I feel that Gina did an incredibly good job getting this together. And I appreciate the collaboration that she used in asking the questions about it as well. So thank you. Yeah. Thank everybody for working together on it. Yep. It looks suspicious to me like last year. Yeah. That's what I thought too. There were actually more differences than you would think because last year's was not in person. So. That's true. But we did have a pen template in the beginning when we talked about the article. Oh, it was all yellow like this one? Oh yeah. Yeah, I had yellow prices on it. Well, if you all are used to the yellow, I like yellow again. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay, so let's see. Town Forum, we're planning to do that at a support meeting on Monday before. That's right. That's what we've been doing. How are you all about to do it? Well, we used to do it in the school on Saturday. But that was, turned out to be such a waste of time. Okay. So we can do it on Monday then? Yeah. It works out meeting at a regular meeting. Yes. And that works out. Much better. It works out way better. So that's the night before, just C&O. It's the night before, yeah. Yeah, it could be, yeah. No, it is the night before. Yeah, it is. Yeah. The first, right, okay. So I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention that it would be at the select board meeting on Monday before. So, are we all set with that item? Yes. Okay. Then we had a discussion on FY 2024 budget development. So I've just, I don't know how you normally review the budget. Essentially, I'm kind of putting this out here as something for you all to take a look at. Yeah. It's very preliminary. So staffing costs have been updated. Some costs have been updated. Highway has not been changed yet. And we know we need to revisit some of the budgets for highway. Guthrie and I are gonna meet this week to go over his portion of the budget. Rosie and I still need to get together on her portion of the budget as well. So some of it's flat except for the things I know right now. Okay. And I'm looking at historical spend as well as I look through these. So this is meant to be a preview and a slightly different format than what you're used to as well. So happy to take any comments and suggestions on that as well. Hey Seth, can I make a comment? You wanna comment? I do, I do. I have actually not looked at the budget. I was at the CIC meeting for the last meeting and I was the loan dissenter of the proposal. It's a flat budget that will be presented to the select board. And unfortunately I can't make the next meeting. I'll be changing diapers with my two new grandsons in Maryland. But I just wanted to mention and I think that it may be presented there but with the increase in inflation and what the markets look like, the committee was approved a flat budget going forward for the next year. And I thought that the select board might wanna consider some sort of multiplier or an increase because of costs for any sort of capital improvements that may be coming forward in the next year, two, three or four years. So just a brief comment only because I probably will not be able to make the meeting your next meeting next Monday, but thank you. Okay, so I was gonna comment on that. In the capital plan, there's paying money, which is usually the biggest line in there. So personally, I'd like to look at that to see where we are on paving. If paving is a huge driver of cost. So I think that's one of the lines I would look at to see where we are on the paving, repaving. But the other thing that I'm conscious of is our break-in taxes looks like it could be increasing a lot. So and we also have a higher cost on the mutual side of things with insurance, et cetera, et cetera. So I think that we would be to try to keep that flat with paving, et cetera, looking at that line. But I am pretty sensitive to the fact that we have a lot of costs going up and we may have to hold a line on that particular line. So that's all I got to say for it right now. I mean, it doesn't exactly put out a multiplier in there. That's tied to inflation, but unfortunately, a lot of our residents are struggling. So that's kind of what I'm at on that. I just want to bring this slide forward. No, I understand that. That's just to be aware of the cost for the families of the county who bring up improvements are not going to be less than one year than you would be going forward. And that's the answer. The good news is we're not really tied to any capital improvements. So we're budgeting for those, but we're not tied to doing one. Yeah, we just did the big one. Yes. In County Road. Right, County Road was huge. It took a lot of money out of our capital reserve. Okay, well, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Thank you. So any more comments on the proposed budget? Do we have multiple pages to look at? They're in very fine print. There was no paper last year. There was no paper? Well, you could make a bigger if you want to make that executive decision if you so chose. It's hard to fit this much on you. That's okay. Anybody else have any comments, John, Amy? No, I just said I just want to look at it some more. I can see just going through it than most of the cost increases or where we expected them to be, you know, in salary and in healthcare and insurance. And so that's what we're expecting. We have to work the best we can to keep as low as we can in other areas and still keep everything going. You know, the infrastructure improvements and everything still going as best we can to considering everything. So if we add one employee for health insurance, is it $30,000? Well, on a family plan. On a family plan it's $30,000. And that's roughly one cent on the tax rate. So that's just something to remember for adding three families onto a health insurance, that's three cents right there on the tax rate. So that's just putting that in real life terms. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. So any other comments on the FY 2024 budget development? Amy? No. No? John? Rosie? Okay. Keep moving forward. That's what I'm trying to do, but I don't want to make sure I don't want to be moving too quickly. No, I meant we'll keep moving forward with the budget. Very good. Thank you so much. I have detailed calculations. They're very detailed on salary costs, health insurance costs, all the better costs. Yes. Because they're calculating these down to a much more detail level than they were previously. I'm happy to share. I'll probably send you all a PDF of that via email. And you can take a look at it. It may be more than you care to begin to, but it's available. I mean, basically it's common sense to know we have increased costs. So I mean, all you're doing is proving a point. Really. You're going through the calculations to show us, but I don't even need to know the calculations. I could just apply a multiplier to it and say, good enough. I know exactly where it's going to go. Yeah. You know, so anyway, let's move to the next item. Discussion on town management like COVID-19. We're still a word low. I mean, I don't know when we're going to leave that based on the new way things are calculated, but it's kind of same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good to me. Any comments on that? John. Amy. Okay. Follow me. Oh, we got to look at warrants. I think we're going to have to move that I signed them, right? Because there's only two of us here. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll have to do a motion on that. Um, Lincoln tax factor. I'm just looking at your report. Um, warrants. So we should do the. So, I mean, everyone should look at them, but we're going to need a motion to say. I move that we authorize Seth Gardner to, um, sign the warrants on the select board's behalf due to. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. We've had five date applications so it's the last select four meeting for permits. There's been a total of 77 for this year. And then we have the dates of the next select four meeting which December 5th, Amy, I believe you can attend. I think I probably will be here now. Yeah, so. Then December 19th, and then I have January 3rd, so. Yeah, I'll be here for all those three. Okay. Yeah, I believe so. And so far it doesn't appear that we're gonna need a special meeting in December. So 5th and 19th, we shouldn't need more than that. Okay, good. Now we've had times where we've had like a gajillion meetings in December. Yeah, every week. Yeah, literally. Right, that was. Is that related to budget? Yeah. Budget stuff, yeah. Hopefully not. Yeah, I mean, if it happens, it happens. Yeah. We're used to it. Yeah, is that all you had? Let's be purchase reimbursement. Recreation board. Oh, recreation board. Do you want to see these, Amy? Sure. Is that all you're... Gee, no other business. There wasn't any other business. Should I move to adjourn? Seemed awful early. Yeah, it does. Do you want me to talk a little bit before I do that? Fill in the time with some... Well, I have already been told I talk too much, so I am not going to say anything. I think you did great tonight, Seth. Yes, you did. I think you're looking for something for me. For me. I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn this meeting tonight. You're going to move for adjournment? Yeah. Okay. I second that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. It's about 7.41. How's that?