 All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Well, first on is to approve the agenda. Is there any amendments to the agenda this evening? Are we good to approve as written? Good to go, as far as I know. Move to accept as permitted. Okay, motion by Dave. Second. Second by Paul, all in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. When they waved their hand, good to go. So first, we have an appointment this evening with Mike to go through the phase two waterline project. So we'll, I think I can, you want to share my screen and put that up there. Remember how to do it now. Here it goes. So it ends. Oh, we'll look up our names too. So we're too far. There we go. So I think that's as good as it's gonna get, Mike. Sorry. Okay, no, not a problem. If there's... I think we, everyone, we have a couple copies of the presentation over there. So if you want to follow along with that and I'll just sort of point out where there's things you might want to look at here. And the same people are here that were here the other day. So if they have any questions, this is going to ask. I'll get all the hard questions. That's right. I was holding them for you. Yeah, so my name is Mike Maynard. I'm a project engineer at Albridge and Elliott with the engineering firm that's been working with account for a while on their water system improvements project. The purpose of this presentation is to give you some basic information about the upcoming bond vote. So you can cast an informed vote. Talk about what's included, why the project is necessary, how much is it gonna cost and how can we pay for it? So the next slide here, just... Yep, sorry. Just go down and it's just got some kind of basic information on the bond vote. This is the second public informational meeting. The vote itself is at the middle school. It's just part of your standard town elections. It's even though they're water system improvements, all the voters in town can vote on it. It's not just for water system users. The next slide here. So the next slide, it talks a little bit about what's included in the project. It's gonna include some water main replacements on Sandhill Road, Bicentennial Lane, Highland Avenue, Graham Street and Crystal Drive. So part of that is gonna include new curb stops and water services up to the edge of the right of way. And then there's a couple other parts of the project. There's gonna be a new water main crossing underneath the railroad, new booster pump station on Crystal Drive, replacement of the Geico Well House and then refurbishment of the Boulevard Water Storage Bank. And we'll talk a little bit more about those in a minute. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I wanna talk about the why the railroad. Yeah, so the next one is just a map of where these projects are. So you've got down sort of on the lower left, that's where Crystal Drive is, that's up off Wellington Hill Road. Graham Street's right down there off River Street. There's a fairly lengthy section of water main starting at the intersection of Sandhill Road and Pleasant Street. It's gonna run all the way up to the town highway garage. It's also gonna cover Bicentennial, which is just off to the side of that. And then Highland Avenue out on North Street from North Main Street out to the end of the road. The Boulevard Tank, that's the round tank that's up behind town here. And then the Geico Well House is the well house. It's off in sort of off the side of Pleasant Street there, sort of across from the school. Next slide here talks a little bit about why these improvements are needed. All these water mains that we're replacing, they're old, they have a tendency to break and leak. Bethel has a disproportionate amount of this galvanized steel water main. It dates to the 1950s. It has a lifespan of 40 to maybe 70 years. So you're right up against the end of its lifespan. It has a tendency to corrode. It produces low quality, lousy water quality. And then here's a picture of some stuff that was dug up with the last water project. And these smaller diameter pipes here, that's actually that galvanized stuff that you've been finding all over town. This bigger pipe there, that probably isn't as much of an issue here, but you can see it's got some tuberculation on the inside. It's rusting. So that's why we're gonna be replacing all of that. Below that, you'll see there are a couple of requirements from the state of Vermont. They conduct sanitary surveys on water systems. The last time they did that, they picked out a few things that had to happen here in town. One of those is the crystal drive booster pump station. That's the highest point in the system. It's got very low water pressure. Low water pressure makes the system more vulnerable to contamination. So the state's requiring that we install a new booster pump station there. The state's also requiring that we replace the Gaco well house. The well itself is fine. It's below the flood elevation. The well itself is down a little bit of a pit. It's been flooded. So that has to get replaced as well. So the next slide, this is a little more about that railroad crossing. That's a fairly expensive part of the project. There's actually, there's basically two railroad crossings that connect most of the water system to that area down off of River Street and Royalton Hill Road. One of those, it dates to the 1950s or 1960s. It's old six inch AC pipe. It's in poor condition. The other one, which is fairly close to Babes Bar, that one is well over a hundred years old. The issue with railroad crossings is you have to replace them before they fail because you can't just go out and dig them up. They're very, very difficult to repair. And that's a critical link in the town's water system. So that kind of loops the system so that if somewhere else failed, we could still get water. Yeah, so if one of those failed, that could be valved off. You'd maintain water service to that part of town. That's also what links the well into the rest of towns. That well would still be able to operate. Yep. The next slide. So these are some pictures of the Boulevard water storage tank. They actually actually send, sometimes they'll send a diver in. Nowadays, they tend to send a little remotely operated submarine in. That tank was built in the 1950s. As you can see from the pictures, there is some deterioration inside of it. It's not really severe deterioration, but it is deterioration we want to take care of and repair because if it continued to deteriorate to the point where you'd have to replace that tank, that would be extremely expensive. It's much cheaper to just go in there and fix that concrete now. So these are some, you'll see the first picture. Those are some cracks on the roof of the tank. And then the second picture is the interior of the dome. You can see there's some reinforcement starting to show. So we want to get that covered up before it corrodes. Then the next slide here. So this is the Gaco well house. A lot of the equipment in there, it's corroded. This was built, I believe, in the 1940s or early 1950s. It's had some flood proofing work done. It was not, the building's not designed to handle flooding. And then there's just a lot of structural deterioration. The roof is rotting, the foundation's starting to crack. It's not designed to modern code. You want to get the well up out of the flood plain so it doesn't fill with water when you get a flood. So that we're building that to the 500 year flood. Yeah, yeah, it's going to basically function sort of like a submarine. Let's see, we'll have our own submarine. So the next slide, how much is all of this going to cost? There's a cost summary here. Construction's about 1.8 million. We've included a 15% construction contingency. There's some engineering and then there's all of this, the permitting and administrative costs of the project. That totals about $2.5 million and that's the bond amount that's being voted on. So funding opportunities, of course, everyone wants to know how to pay for all of this. So the drinking water state revolving fund, that's a part of the state government that provides funding for these projects. They can provide a 40 year loan term at 1.5% interest. Nowadays 1.5% interest is actually a pretty good deal. That saves about a quarter of a million dollars over the life of the loan. They've put in about $50,000 to subsidize some of the planning and engineering work that's being done. And then they're providing $425,000 to remove a bunch of this galvanized steel water being because the galvanized steel, it's known that sometimes it can release lead. So the impact on the current water rates, that's the next slide here. This is a good time to be doing these kinds of projects. The town recently retired about $30,000 in a year in debt service. So that creates room in the budget to do another project. So currently a typical water system customer pays this residential customer, pays about $126 per quarter. This project will cost about $26 per quarter or about the $8.71 cents per month. A lot of the surficial work related to the roadway repair, fire hydrants, stuff you're seeing up on the surface that's gonna be funded via property taxes. So for a $250,000 home that would cost about $18.50 cents per year. So construction that's last slide with any text on it, it's planned for summer 2023, that's this summer. I know folks get concerned about construction and the kind of impacts it has when you're near it. And we understand that the project contract documents, they do include disincentives for the contractor to not run over schedule. It just helps motivate the contractor to move through the project. There may be some pieces, Mike and Richard and I met last week and there may be some pieces like the rehab of the Boulevard tank that might fall in the next construction season just because it's gonna be hard. Richard can't have, we can't take the pump, one thing offline and do the tank at the same time. So there's gonna be a couple of scheduling things. So we may see some of it go into another year. But we're kinda doing the test. They typically occur in different parts of town, but they'll have to do the well house. They're probably not gonna do the well house while they're doing the tank. They're having to do the crystal drive booster pump station while they're doing the tank. So it'll move around. So we may see some pieces that change a little bit. Especially equipment, it's difficult to get now that there's been a lot of delays in getting that stuff. Is there gonna be a new pump in that pump house? Yeah, so that's a good thing. I actually got a picture of that. So the last two slides, I included just two pictures. I think sometimes we can be a little bit cynical about the state of infrastructure and all of that. But I did just want it. So here's a picture of some wood water line that was dug up during the last project here on Main Street. So that's 150 years old. I'm pretty sure it was out of service at that point. It just goes to show how long lived this stuff is. This is something, once it's been replaced, it's not something that you have to replace for another generation plus. And then the second, so this is the discharge head in the Geico well house. The pump was removed and had some refurbishment done on the lower part of the pump. We call that the wet end. That was done maybe 10 years ago or so. This discharge head, that's the top end of the pump. That's original to this well. So that was the 1950s, if I'm not mistaken. I actually called up this company and asked them about a new one and they can make a new one. But I think that's pretty cool just how long some of this stuff lasts. So this is definitely a long-term investment here. And then if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them. If you came in and you didn't see it, there is a sign-in sheet. So just hit it on the way out. It's fine, thanks, both on the doorway. When you replace that pump at the Geico house, it won't be the same GPM and horsepower. It would be a more efficient electric motor on it or something. Nope, it's pretty much the same pump. It just needs to do what it needs to do now for a system like you have here. There isn't a huge benefit in anything really sophisticated. It only does pump whole forces up to 10. Yeah, especially with some of the costs of more sophisticated controls now. A lot of that stuff would be easier to add in the future though. So one of the things that came to light today is that we did not meet our bond notification requirements. So while we will vote at town meeting on the bond, we're gonna have to vote again on April 18th. So I spoke to the lawyer today, Stitzel Page and Fletcher and Bob said, basically just for lack of a better word, consider our March vote. We still encourage everybody to vote. It's just gonna be more of a... What's the answer? Informational. I mean, it's gonna give us an idea where we stand with the project. And then the fastest I can turn it around is April 18th. I have an email out to the school right now. So to let us see if they'll let us use the middle school, excuse me, the middle school entrance. And so to where we normally vote anyways. So basically this is just gonna be kind of a referendum. And so, but he just said, move forward with it. There's no reason not to look at an idea. How do we do? Have we put it town meeting? We've done a mail or we've done everything except I hit the two dates in the newspaper. So we hit one of the three required. So what he's saying is just move forward with it and just see, goes then you'll have an idea. Did you overwhelming support? And then what we're gonna do is create a flyer so that when people come into vote because you won't be just voting the bond, you'll be voting for cannabis as well. That's the second article that's on that ballot. So what we do is create a sheet that will be at the exit. So you come in, you name, you vote and at the exit when you hand in your ballot there's gonna be a stack there that says we didn't hit the dates for the bond informational for the notification requirements. So we legally can't sell the bonds. We'll create a legal headache down the road. So what we'll do is we're gonna re-vote on April 18th right here at 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and also list the ways that you can request an absentee ballot. It has to be Australian ballot because it's a bond vote. It's gonna be warned as a special town meeting. And on March 13th, you guys will sign, will not Paul but the rest of you and someone else will sign all the bond. And that's the results of the original bond vote because it might swing the results of the second bond vote. I don't know. I guess I'll have to, I don't, I mean, it's all public information. So at that point, it's really just a, it's just kind of an advisory at that point. We'll have an idea of how well we did, I guess, getting the information out and then it gives us time to answer any more questions. But at that point, so when people vote they will leave with the information that says what they can do. So we will say at town meeting that it's basically at this point for lack of a better phrase. An advisory vote because we didn't get hit the notification deadlines per statute. So that happens, I guess. And so we'll still vote it. That gives us, I called Mike. The lawyer was the first call. Mike was the second call then Richard. And to get all of our ducks in a row to see how fast I could turn it around. There's a 30 day, so many days you have. So Tuesday the 18th is gonna be as fast as we could turn it around because I didn't want it to delay construction going out to bid and all that. So that's where we stand. So I still encourage people to vote. You got to vote for cannabis anyways. So you might as well check the boxes and on water. And that's what we'll do. I won't do another mail to the house, that sort of thing. We've really gotten all the information out to about the bond, but we certainly will do all the newspaper notifications, front porch form, Facebook, all the other ways that we notify people as well. So just a technical glitch. Do we have to do informational meetings again within a certain time? You will do one informational meeting and it will be the Monday, I believe it's the Monday prior. So you will do one informational just like this. You only have to do one. The reason we do multiple for town meeting is because we want to answer budget questions, et cetera. And we only have to technically do one bond informational. So it'll be, you have to do it within 10 days of the election. So, Lindley, do you have a question? No, just to say that Owen has his hand up. Oh, I'm sorry, Owen. That's okay. Thanks, Lindley. Thank you, Mike. My name is Owen. I'm one of the owners of Babes Bar and I just had a question about if you know the timeline for that section of repair that's under the railroad just because it's definitely gonna impact our event planning and stuff for the summer. Sure, absolutely. I don't know exactly when that's gonna happen. That's a pretty specialized type of construction work that has to happen there. So it's dependent on the right subcontractor being available at that particular time, but will we can coordinate a particular time to get that work done, the particular time when that's done hasn't been specified yet? Okay. Yeah, you can coordinate that to let Theresa know and she'll, we can work that out, yeah. Okay, I think we wanna make it as easy as possible for you all, but we also have a bunch of events that we usually do in the summer. So we're just the sooner we know the better, but I also understand it's kind of a moving target right now. No, this is good to know. I think that I would think that because that's a directional bore, so that's a sleeve that could be tough to get those materials. It may be something that we do later in the fall of the spring, but we'll try to work it out, Owen. If once the bond vote passes and we move forward and we go out to bid and we have a little more information, Owen, I'll reach out to you and you and I can always sit down and you can give me the dates that you have stuff and we'll do our best to not inconvenience you too bad. Okay, thank you. Of course. And once it's bid, Owen, there'll be whoever the contractors that gets it, they'll have to submit a schedule. And usually inside that schedule will give you a fair amount of a warning of when that activity may take place. Okay. There's ample, well, when I say ample. Well, it should be some wiggle room to help with your schedule. Yeah, and do you expect, Mike, I don't know if you have a sort of visual of what this will entail, but I'm guessing that the driveway, the Southern driveway of our parking lot will be inaccessible. So right now it's pretty much used by everybody as a turnaround, but I'm thinking that it will kind of be a blocked parking lot for some period of time, right? Yeah, they need to connect there's a a water main stub there they have to connect to. So they're gonna have to reach right up that. And then most of the actual construction work there will be occurring sort of in the Southern end of the parking lot if there's a flatter area. Okay. Okay, cool, thank you. So we're also working, I have two zoning permits that are gonna go in front of the Development Review Board because it's municipal, we're automatically kicked to the DRB, which makes sense, everybody should know what we're up to. So we'll need a zoning permit to build the crystal drive pump station. And we need a zoning permit to do the well head, you know, to go to the Geico pump houses. So those permits are done, Kelly has those. And I believe we're set for March 21st. We meet all the setbacks and everything. But still we're just like everybody else, we have to go through the process. So the zoning permits are out. And I still, the last thing I have to do, I have all the easements. The last thing I have to do is a driveway permit to crystal drive. But once the snow melts, I'll go up with Morgan and he'll tell me what we need for culvert, whatever we need to put in. So we're following all the rules. I don't know, I have dust, Mike. I don't think there's really big, they're pretty modest. Yeah. Regarding the replacement of the pipe going across the River Street bridge under it, is that, what kind of delays can residents, which I am one of on that side of the bridge expect for? So you're referring to the one going under the railroad tracks. That's at Babes. And across the river. Already buried? Yeah, it's going to stop on the other side of the railroad tracks. So unless you're. OK, so it's not because that's pretty new. The section under the river was done in less than 10 years. 2000, a little, I think, 2008, roughly. Yeah. Very worst case scenario, you'd be looking at, you know, some one-way traffic, you know, during the day. Yeah, I'm thinking more on water service delays. Oh, yeah, not. You'll probably, there will be a few brief shutdowns. Yeah, but not. But nothing prolonged. Yeah, usually we try to keep the old line in service and then, you know, wait and then tide. And the only place we may not be able to do that possibly is Sand Hill just because of the way that the water versus storm water versus sewer is on that road. That may be, we're going to have to do temporary water to some places on Sand Hill. But I think that was the only location that we were going to run temporary water, wasn't it? Yeah, that was the plan. Yeah, so, but that should be, you know, it'll be less invasive as in, we won't be digging up Main Street. So, which will be nice. Everybody will be happy about that. So much easier, it's a much easier project than the Main Street, just without, with less infrastructure in the way, that's going to be very, very nice. And Rick is maybe one of the ones where we're not sure where his shutoff is. He may be actually on Graham. Yeah, but that's pretty, a pretty new shutoff. Is it? Oh, good. Then it's not you, we were looking at, we were, there was a couple, we weren't sure and were like, oh, I bet, because someone said, there's one that comes the way out. We're like, oh, I bet that's Rick Benson. Comes off from Graham. Yep. Yep. Perfect. We were talking about that the other day when we met, Richard was like, I think that, and we're like, you think that's Rick Benson? Yep. No, good. Yeah, so there was a couple there, but. Any other questions? Board or public? Don't see anything online? No. So here and done, we'll get you off the hook, Mike. All right. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. No, thanks for coming down. I put your other stuff in your, over there on the chair. Exactly. All right. Well, thank you for coming this evening. Yeah. Thank you everyone. All right. So then the, the only thing else that we had for discussion this evening is to go over the town meeting morning again, as well as the highlights of the, of the budget, right? Yeah, we'll get to that. So, so we'll just go through those pieces. So if there's anything that's not a part of what we're going to finish up tonight, then, then now would be the time in public comment to bring that up. Owen has his hand raised. Hi again. It's Owen. I'm putting on a different hat. I just wanted to invite you all. I think you received an email, but since there's other community members there, I wanted to invite everyone to, to trainings that the Equity and Inclusion Committee are doing as a part of Bethel University. This is really connected to our founding purpose of offering education and training to foster a more inclusive community for everyone. So those two trainings are, the first one is March 14th. That's going to be on Zoom in the evening. And that's about Juneteenth and the history of slavery in Vermont. So we're really going to be talking very much locally about our state and its connection to slavery. And then on March 20th, we're going to have an in-person training at Town Hall at 6.30 PM. And that's going to be about supporting transgender and non-binary people. I think both of these topics, we've been hearing a lot about in the last year. And as you know, last year, our state went through the arduous process of amending its constitution to finally remove slavery from the constitution. And we're also hearing a lot about transgender issues, especially in the school system. So hopefully this will be really good opportunities for us to learn together and have productive dialogue. And it would be awesome to see some select board members at both of them. And then just on behalf of the EIC, I also wanted to acknowledge that it is Paul's last select board meeting and that we really appreciate you, Paul. And it's been really awesome to work with you and we look forward to continuing to work with you in other ways, moving forward. That's all for me. Thank you. So when I did print out your email and gave the select board a hard copy and since Lynn Lee's not here, I took a picture of it and sent it to her. So they did get the email plus copies of it again tonight. So as promised, we got it handed out. Thank you. Oh, and I forgot to mention that you do need to register for those events. So click on the link and if you don't have that in front of you, if you're in the audience, you can go on the Bethel University website. There's a bunch of other awesome stuff happening, but you do need to pre-register for those events. So it's not a walk-in type of situation. Thank you. Thanks. Anything else, anybody in person? All right. So we'll move on from public comments and we will go to the town meeting warning first. So Jean and Lynn Lee weren't here last time, so we just volunteered you for everything that we needed to fill in the day. So you guys are all set to make a few different speeches on town meeting today. But so the warning will just kind of go through it briefly again. The first three is to elect the moderator, the clerk and the treasurer. And then four and five is to elect select board member. First one is the seat that Paul currently has and the second one is the seat that I currently have. So those would be the two select board member pieces. And then six and seven are Listers. The number six currently, Pam was helping in that capacity this year as an appointee that will be vacated. So there'll be one year left of that three-year term. And then Judy who is running for hers again would be the three-year term one. And then we have two for the trustee of public funds. The, I believe Sandy is running, rerunning for her three-year term. And then the one that's vacant, Paul's, it'll be a one-year balance of the three-year term for the one that Paul is in, which I think I remember right, Paul, you said there was somebody that was running? Yeah, yeah, I believe so. I haven't heard definitely, but we'll find out. Will those elections be held for the board? Will they be held concurrently or consecutively? Consequently, just like they're numbered here. Okay. Yeah, so Paul's will be first. Then Chris will be second. Yeah, so Rick will do it the same way it's on the morning. Yeah, I just... And then number 10 on the warning is the budget. So I'll talk about the budget when we get to 10 as we talked about last time. And 11 is the extra appropriation for the library. Yep, and Bennett Law and Lisa Campbell, both will be doing that one, Rick. We did confirm. And then number 12 is the recreational facility improvement fund to add for the skateboard park. So there was the additional resources that they needed for the skateboard park, which Ellie said that she was going to talk in regards to article 12. I had a question about that. She used the word presentation. She said she's done a presentation before. Do they do... I've never seen that. Do they do more than just talk about it or... Okay, I wasn't sure. I didn't know. I've never... They have in the past. Okay. Yeah, probably do. That's right. Use of boards and, you know, maps and charts and stuff. Oh, okay. I wasn't sure. I didn't know. Way back when. Yeah. I didn't know. Okay. I wasn't sure I've never seen it. So I wasn't sure. It sounded like when she was here that they were going to do something at their table. Yeah. About it. And then I'm sure that... I don't know if she'll have any visual aids when she gets up to talk, but she'll come prepared. So... And then we had the human services piece for number 13 that Paul said that he would talk to. And 14 is White River Valley Ambulance. And that is going to be Dave Eldriguetti. I did confirm with him and he said that he had... He received... He got extra information from Matt Parish, so he's prepared to speak about that. We, you know, had kind of talked about what we were all looking at anyways with their budget, the staffing, the insurance and those sort of things, but he also has call information and sheets. So he's prepared to do that. And 15 is the... The extra for the Playhouse Theater that was petitioned. And that will be Bennett Law. He did agree, I emailed him and he said he'd be happy to speak about that. 16 is collecting our taxes. We'll need a new speaker on that. Hopefully not. I don't know where the remainder of my warning went. Here. That might have been the other piece of time. I forgot. 17. Well, then we get into the Australian ballot item, which is if we want to elect County officers, Australian ballot-wise going forward. So that is... We have Rick next to it. I think just to explain how it works, as far as, you know, people may be confused thinking that they're gonna vote right then and then they're gonna, you know, that it won't be effective till next year, but... Well, I think we also talked about that. Some of the confusion that, well, had, maybe not as much now, but we definitely did last year when we were talking about it was, you know, that it would just be for electing the officers that are on the warning. So that would be... So for this warning anyways, it would be the two select board members. It would be the two Lister positions. And I believe it would be the two public trustee of fun positions. All set. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Moderator. Moderator, treasurer. Yeah. Yeah. Clerk, yeah. All three not valid, but... Yeah. But they're... Gonna go that way too. Okay. Yeah, all the... That'd be one for... So it'd be one. One for nine. Now, if that were to happen, a trillion ballot, what would happen at next year's town meeting, as far as having Rick be the moderator? He'd still be the moderator. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, he'd be the moderator until the new vote. All right. Yep. He'll be the moderator forever. Hmm. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. We're gonna make that up. Didn't work with Carol. Yeah. It's true. And then number 18 was to... If we wanted... So I guess we were talking about, instead of printing and send town meeting day... Town report. Report to everybody that we would deliver a postcard system where everybody would get a postcard, then they could come in and pick it up at certain locations. So it could be the post office, the town manager's office, those places. If we're gonna change our delivery method for distributing the town report, then we have to do that by a vote. So it's an opportunity for us to potentially save some money by printing less, as well as save on paper and things like that. Right now, we print 700 and something reports a year that... 750 and 75%. There's probably two or 300 of them that kind of go to waste. So we're just trying to cut down and see if people are interested in that. Who do you wanna speak on that? I mean, who's gonna do that? Dave, Jean, who wants to talk about 18? In case any questions come up. I mean, we could probably just direct them to the board if a question comes. We could print 700, 80 of these this year. I think we've printed 725. So who got one? All of the... It goes to all of the registered voters that aren't challenged and anyone who owns property, we merge the two lists. So basically ends up going like one per household, basically. And so by the time you print them, mail them, that's a significant cost when you and I both know that if we just printed a little pamphlet that said who was Delinquent, who was born, married and passed away, we'd, I think that's information a lot of people look for. And then we see a bunch of them at the transfer station right after. So this way you can request them, it's online. And so you can see it online. And then also if people want hard copies or if they want one mailed to us, they'll just call us and we'll mail them one. Yeah. Yeah, I think we could just... If there are any questions, I think we can just have them directed to the select board and take them. Somebody, you know, Theresa, myself or somebody else can answer those questions. All right, I'm so sure. I've been asking a couple of times if somebody has a home in Bethel and pays taxes in Bethel, but they're like, say they have another place in another state, are they able to vote at the town meeting as a resident of Bethel? No. It depends on where they've established their residency. Yeah. You have to establish your residency here. Because if they're all, say, just we'll make it up, say they're already registered to vote in New York because that's where they live the majority of the year and that's their main residence, they're already registered to vote in New York. So they can't vote here. Okay, because some people had confusion. They had talked to somebody and they're like, as far as the town meeting goes for just voting for the town, anybody that's a resident in this town can vote at town meeting. No. My thought was, no, because somebody else said, well, I have property in Royalton and I have property in Bethel and I was told I can vote at both town meetings and they were giving bad advice. You have to be a registered voter to that town. Right, okay. And that was my thought and they're like, no, I think for the town meeting, since it's only the town, anybody that has a home here. And they'll find out because as soon as they come in, they're gonna get checked off the checklist and given a sticker. And I mean, it is same-day voter registration, but with that comes mail, they have to prove that their residency, whether it's a mail, driver's license, and actually someone called the office today and Pam went through the rules with them. But yeah, just because they have a second home here doesn't mean- They can participate in the meeting as a visitor. Right. They can't vote on any- Yeah. They can't vote on any of their thoughts. Yeah. They pretty much said, no, no, no, that's not what we heard. I figured I'd meet up and talk to the visitor. Right. Yeah. And then if you, someone passed, say someone wants to pass a paper ballot, then I asked Pam this question today, then everybody who comes up, will have a sticker on, like mine says visitor, but Rick's obviously says his name and you know he's a resident by the sticker box. I don't know what his name is. But that's the case, right? Did I explain that correctly? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I was asking Pam today. And that is a question that comes up a lot. People do get very confused on if I own property in a town, even though I don't use that as my primary residency, can I vote? Technically, I can't remember to speak unless the body is okay with it, right? That's right. Right. Yeah. If there's no, use that safe, there's no objection. That's- We'll let so-and-so speak on whatever. Yep. And one more question. Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago, if the dedicated town report for Tim and Carl will be read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. I don't know because apparently I found this out not since I've been here, but in the past. Well, when Gene, when it was given to Gene, I think it was flowers and a little presentation, right? For Gene. And then we have had COVID and so I'm not sure we've had it. Well, we don't. I don't know how we read that. Okay, I didn't know. I have been asked to read, Kelly asked me to read something in particular to Carl, I believe. Yeah, I don't know. But I'm not sure if it's what was written in here and I need to, I must have to check with her on that. Yeah. Is that- So that- That day, too. That you asked me. How do you normally acknowledge who's spent- We don't. We've never read it loud. In the book and people see it there. And that's it. Okay, that's fine. I wasn't sure. I know Carol, he got his in the mail and he was tickled that he sent you a card and then he passed away shortly after, but he just got his kind of as a surprise. And of course, the families were notified in advance. So the families know that they were the, that it's dead again. Yeah, I think Gene's name was just an appreciation. Oh, maybe he is. Oh, maybe he is. Okay, I wasn't sure. 20 or whatever years. Yeah. 30 years. 47. 47 years. Yeah, this one I think they- Well done. It would tell you as well. Yeah. Because they both passed away if they would not be recognized because they were- Well, it could be that maybe Rick just makes a statement and was dedicated to him. He doesn't have to read the whole thing. It's up to you guys. I think you have to be careful with that. Yeah. Because next year, you don't have to. You start picking and choosing and you do whatever you want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're right. You might have been just an appreciation. I just go incidentally, she had that. That's human time. Yeah. All right. Well, good. That's helpful. That's good. And then we have the Australian Ballot Pieces, which the first part, the Australian Ballot Pieces is to allow the retail sale of cannabis in the commercial district of Bethel. So again, and that one, as we talked about last time, we may have, well, if not may, there's probably a good chance that there's gonna be some confusion on what that means. So when it comes to the growing of marijuana, the state is the governing body of that. So the town has no influence over that, that government crosses that stunts through the state. Now, when it comes to the retail sales of it, then the town has the option to weigh in on that. So we had, I believe they, I believe it was three years ago. Three years ago is when Montpelier had put retail sale of cannabis out there for towns to vote on. And over the last two years, we have chose not to vote on the article just because we hadn't had any interest in it for the most part. And there is a retailer that's interested in putting us a retail cannabis storefront in the village. So what that means is if it does go through, so retail sales of cannabis has to be done inside what is your commercial district anyways. So it'd have to be done where retail shops are currently, can't have it, I'll make it up, can't have it done. Gilead Brook Road on a housefront store type thing has to be in where things are marked as a commercial. Where it's already used for retail, yeah, for retail sales. The piece that is kind of confusing and a little bit powerless on the towns end of thing is if the town decided to allow retail sale of cannabis. So let's say people vote in favor of this year and a retail storefront opens. And then let's say next year, it's the townspeople don't want retail sales of cannabis and put it back on the warning or petition to have it on the warning and it's voted down, let's say this time. The retail store that did open as long as they remain open would be grandfather-caused into selling of cannabis. So it's not just because the town decides that we wanna take it back. If there is an establishment, then they still have the rights to sell it. So that's kind of what it means. Thank you. Oh, the other question was the Owen had last time, I think was about in relation to the school. Oh, yeah. And we did find the answer to that. Yeah, there is language about how many feet within a school it can be, because technically our commercial district goes all the way out to school. So it has to be outside so many feet of a school or a certain other established. So a retail shop has to be within, you know, it has to be three to 500 feet, whatever, I don't have the rule in front of me, but yet they could cultivate cannabis there. So they can't sell it, but they can grow it within the school. So I put together basically a page and a half, we talked about doing a statement about cannabis, but there's so much there. I ended up doing like a page and a half, kind of frequently asked questions. I gave a copy to Rick, and I don't know if you've looked at yours yet that I sent you, but kind of defined what a retailer is, you know what maybe integrated license, so to try to answer some of the questions for people, because I don't know how deep the questions can get, because it's discussion only, then they're gonna go out and vote. So, I mean, I have a feeling there's gonna be several questions. Yeah. And I think probably the most common one is going to be retail sales versus grow. I think that it's some of the feedback that I have gotten here in the last couple of months that we've talked about. The confusion of that. Yeah, and it talks about the permit fees and stuff. So it can be a complicated issue. So we'll have some information, and I'm also gonna bring, there's a document that the State Cannabis Control Board put out, so that if someone asks a question that's not on our frequently asked questions list, we can kind of try to scurry through to try to find them an answer. So I'm thinking that when we talk about that item anyways, it's just read it as is. And if we do get some questions that come from the audience, then I guess Theresa and myself could have the frequently asked question list in front of us to help answer any of those questions. Yeah, and hopefully people do research on their own too. If they have specific questions or concerns, they can go to the State's Cannabis Control Board and website and look, and looks like Owen has his hand up. Hi again. Is there any language that you saw about the distance that a cannabis retailer needs to be from either a class one, two, or three liquor license? No. There's nothing? Okay. I didn't see anything. I only saw what it said was between the school, a school zone and, but I didn't see anything about that, the distance between, obviously they can't, it's just like they can't, anyone can't have an open container on Main Street. They can't smoke on Main Street either. And it talks about that a little bit in there about what the state rules are regarding cannabis. Do we have, what might be helpful is if we had, I don't know if we could print some information off, you know, like the frequently asked question list. Questions and leave it at the check-in. Leave it at the check-in or somewhere around there and maybe. Is that appropriate? Right? Yeah. Anything informational? Okay. You know, because you always end up talking about the things that are at the table. So you could say, you know, when you come in, don't forget that to pick up this, this, and that, you know, and you could mention that what they are. And, you know, that there's a frequently asked question, questionnaire in regards to the cannabis retail sales one. So hopefully that answers some of those questions that people might have. And it's just an outline of the law taken directly from my cut and pasted right from the control board. So obviously we're not saying we have no authority to say vote yes or no, certainly just to provide people the information. So, and there was a lot of information that I didn't cover. I just tried to hit the high points of, you know, what maybe might be asked the most. And then in an article two on the Australian Batwood would be in regards to the waterline phase two project, which I would say at this point we should, it'll, We'll make a statement. Yeah. We or you or- I can, I will. I'll do it. And Owen, I'm going to look through that cannabis control board thing for you. So you're wanting to any distance between class one, two or three liquor license places? Was that your question? Yeah. Okay. I'll look and see if I find something or I'll email you either way. Okay, thank you. Yeah. So that's fine. So that is the warning in a nutshell. One year, John. Can I have a little ball of question on town meeting in general? You know, if Seth is, do we have anything going on with the- Yep, he, we were just weird. I just thought we were following up on that question today. Yep, Pam has Facebook and he has his request in Ellis to take the morning off, I guess, so that he can do that. Cool. Yep. Seth. Seth Stoddard. Stoddard. Okay. We'll just online it for the first eight minutes and then we're talking about it. Oh, oh, Seth Stoddard. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so, and Pam will take minutes at town meeting. Right. Pam does the minutes there and we don't, we won't need Orca, so. But yeah, Seth will do the microphones and stuff for us. And I think Jean, Pam, we're going to see Jean on Wednesday, but to see how she's doing with food. So if people want to donate pies, muffins, brownies, whatever, you know, get ahold of Jean Burnham, please. She's doing coffee and stuff. So we'll see her Wednesday and ask her how she's doing. If we do, we'll need to put, if we need to, we'll put out another push from Portion Warman Facebook. And I think Representative White had asked about getting some time to speak on town meeting day. We did send her a meeting, Alan. We also allowed the representative, the senators rarely speak. Dixie was there occasionally, Dick McCormick, but rarely does he speak, but Sandy always did. And I'm sure Kirk. Did you do that in the beginning or under 19? He does that in the beginning. Okay. Yeah, before your meeting. Yeah, that's right. I thought so, but. And this time Kirk is registered here, so we don't have to ask the bodies approval of his, him speaking, which has never been a problem anyway, but I've heard it has been some balance. Oh yeah. And I just, we're all, it's been a while since we've done this. So I'll be a little rusty. We all will. But just a reminder that I'll be answering only procedural questions, even though, you know, that I may know an answer. You guys will be answering those just so we keep that separation and helps me to keep control a little bit. And we can easily speak on the Australian ballot. I just think that they might have procedural questions about that. That's a kind of a procedural thing. Yeah, they may have, yeah. But if they, you know. Yeah. So we can answer that too. But yeah, that's what I think it'll be procedural. But no, and then. And you'll go through at the beginning like normal of the procedures of yeah, Robert's rules. And I have a whole, some of the questions that normally come up about the, whatever, seven. Yeah. To cast a ballot. Yeah. To ballot seat. I have to my handy dandy cheat sheet here with all that good stuff on it. So I'll be doing that. And announcements, general announcements. Absolutely. I know there's always one person that makes most of the motions at town meeting day to cast one ballot. And do we know who that may be this year? Those people are dwindling. I know. I'll, if not, a lot of people are going to be sitting there waiting for somebody to make a motion. This is where it can make motion. Basically, I can entertain a motion. Let's put the word out there and make it so moved. Gotcha. Yep. Cause I know in past it was, it was two or three that would jump at that and go past this to put each other on. Yeah. Yeah. Normal case. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Carol sometimes too. I think Louise does quite a bit too. Yeah. Louise has been awesome. I would be one who was good at this. Yeah. Well, I just got wondering. It's been a while. So, yeah. I would assume that, you know, a fair amount of the individuals that'll be there may be newer to the process too. So. I don't know. That'll be good. So Doug, you just be prepared to make motions on town meeting day. We'll go home and practice it. Yeah. We'll go home and practice it. Just practice it right there. Also, yeah. Right. Oh, that's funny. Well, even those little things, like you don't think of, oh yeah. So many tell me it's the same, you know, three people that make all the motions or ask the cast one, you know, one ballot or, you know, so. That's true. So any questions, any other questions in regards to the town meeting day warning? Okay. So we will just move forward into the budget. And so what I'll do, like we've done the other ones is I'll just kind of take a brief overview of the budget, what's kind of the major components that are changing. And then afterwards, if we have any questions in regards to, you know, getting into more of the micro level of the budget, then I can field those questions from anybody. I did. I just remembered, Rick, there is something. There's a mistake. Page 36 and 37 should be reversed. And that, cause that's the revenue page somehow. Oh yeah. So I don't know if that's something you want to say that page 36 and 37 should be reversed. Last page. Yeah. Yeah, the last page is revenue, first page of the expenses somehow, we didn't catch it. Reversed. So I just wanted to, that, I think it was last week. Well, maybe it was you who had a question about salt. And then we were like, oh, oh no. But what is town report if there's not at least one mistake? You know, it's, sorry, I meant to mention that. I just put mine over and saw I had a note. Sure. All right, budget wise, the, so the, you know, two parts of the budget, the revenue and the cost and the things, the revenue piece of it is the localized revenue that we collect. So those are things like, you know, zoning fees or dog licenses and money that we get from class highways type things that helps offset what we have to ask taxpayers usually doesn't change a lot. The major mover of that, it did increase by $56,000 year over year, of which $54,560 of it is the sale of the transfer station that we completed with Royalton in July. So over the next five years, we will have that extra revenue source in our budget. So that is the only mover really on the revenue side of things. And the cost side, the cost is up $263,000. And I will go through the major components why that's up $35,000 of that is the benefits. So the benefits that we pay our current employees. So those for the most part are healthcare, retirement pieces of it. So as we've been, you know, I don't know, every year, every year there's big jumps. This year there was 21% jump in healthcare alone. Last year there was a large jump after town meeting day, there was a large jump to retirement. So anybody that's been following the retirement up in Montpelier issues that they're having is there was a large retirement increase that happened after town meeting last year. And I wouldn't say it's going down, but it's sustained that high level. So we're carrying that into the next budget as well. I think it's worth saying too that when we talk about a 21 and a half percent increase in the health insurance premium, that was approved by the Green Mountain Care Board. It wasn't like we had a choice in that. And again, it was just another thing approved at state level that was kicked out. So those are items over which we have no control. Yeah, we get a bill and we have to pay it. I mean, it's... Exactly. And we did do a due diligence like normal. Teresa did look at the only other health insurance carriers to see if there was any potential of going back to them because we actually were with them probably about five years ago before we switched. And the rates wouldn't have changed enough to go through the hassle. So we didn't... No, and it was a cut in benefits. So this climate with the employees that you have, it's hard to cut benefits. And so we were trying to compare apples to apples to see what we could do. And then the largest mover in the budget, as we've all seen at home, is what we call the inflated supply end of things. So of those, salt was the biggest mover in it. So we use about or budget for about $60,000 in salt a year. And just the salt budget alone is gonna go up almost $30,000 a year every year. And of course that's something that you... His budget is tough because you're projecting out like next winter. So we're trying to figure out what next winter is gonna bring. We're just still trying to pay for this winter. So salt is the biggest mover in that. And then the other big movers on that, I think diesel was $35,000. So diesel pretty much powers all of our equipment, mostly for winter maintenance. And then things like heating for our buildings and other pieces of supplies. Even the things that we, for our equipment ourselves was up like 15 or $20,000. And just things like tires and those types of things. So those are the inflated piece of it was a very large portion of it. The $60,000 increase is in what we are setting aside for grant matches. So the positive piece is that we were able to secure or Teresa was able to secure grant funding for four projects throughout town. The first piece that we'll see the soonest will be the Christian Hill project. So eight tenths of a mile from the beginning Christian Hill on 107, basically the paved portions of it, we're gonna take it back to dirt, do the necessary drainage improvements and repave the job. So we had a grant for that. So we have to pay for our match. The, we also got for Sandhill. We talked about the waterline project tonight, but there is drainage improvements and pavement and whatnot that needs to get redone on Sandhill. We were able to get a earmark through Senator Sanders for that. And as well as it comes with a portion that the town has to match on that. So we have 600,000 from him and then we have to match 150. Yeah. And then Pleasant Street, we have a streetscape sidewalk project that goes from the intersection of Sandhill and Pleasant Street down towards the school. Probably won't see anything on that for a year, maybe two. No, you won't see anything, but the engineering is, I just sent all my stuff to Rita. So that'll be going out soon. So the engineering will happen behind the scenes. It'll be redoing the sidewalks on that piece of it. As an end of way, it's walked on those sidewalks. You know, here's probably this much curb poking up and you know, the sidewalks about even with the road and the walls tilted in. Yeah. I mean, so there's it much needed. It's been like that for a very long time. And then we have a p-line culvert, which is down by the opposite end of Sandhill, intersection there, that we have a structure grant for to replace that. And that, again, probably won't happen this year. It'll be next year. Because we have to time that with Sandhill. We can't close Sandhill and P-vine at the same time. So we're trying to, that'll go the spring of 24. We also have that brick grant to do the scoping study for a large culvert in Gilead. That's going to go this year. So these grant matches are something that we're not taking care of all the money for the grant matches. Now we've already set aside some money. We're setting aside some more money. And then next year we'll set aside, you know, some more money to go towards that. So it's all, you know, 80, 20 or 90, 10-type money that we get. The highway department, we had some changes of the way in which we're doing some methods due to sand and gravel. So one thing we had noticed, well, everybody's noticed is that our gravel roads don't have a whole lot of gravel on them anymore. So one thing that we are trying to get on is a seven to eight year cycle of maintaining our gravel roads. And we have identified that as a section of the budget that we need to increase money to do that work. And the other piece of that is sand. So normally we put a native, you know, round stone sand, you know, for everybody that's seen sand put down, you know, it's dark, it looks nice, but it doesn't really last very long. So we were working, we spent a little extra money to put some manufactured sand into our budget this winter season as well as next winter season. The benefits to that that we feel that we're gonna get out of that is it'll help build some of the road base even through winter cycles. The native round stone sand's usually only good just for a day or two. And then it goes to the side of the road and it adds no structure to the road. So we're hoping what so far things look good and we'll continue to get feedback on that is to pay a little bit more for the manufactured sand, but then that's material that will help towards our gravel roads base. The other thing too is the sand that we've spread in the past since it's dark colored, has a lot of organics, it can get a little slimy. So one of the things we have heard is people think that we're not sanding, but we are sanding, it's just, it's a different color. You're used to seeing the dark sand we've used with a lot of organic material. So it says darker, you can't miss it, but the stuff we're putting down now, the manufactured sand is lighter in color. So people are calling and I actually heard Pam giving that explanation the other day saying, no, actually it's a manufactured sand. So it looks so different. So people, we are sanding, just the product looks different on the road. And it has other good properties too. Like for instance, when we go through those freeze thaw cycles, you'll still see that, if you go, it freezes at night and it thaws during the daytime and it freezes back up the next night. Instead of having to go back out and re-sand that, you'll see that those stone chip particles are still encased into that product a little better. The constable wise, we had quite a bit of discussion at the select board level over the last year of, of, you know, so our dedicated service to the town is, or what we budget for is 20 hours a week of coverage. And the challenge that we've had over the last couple of years is for so many years, we either shared resources with a neighboring town with a constable or we have constables that have a full-time job somewhere else and then they come and do what we'd call overtime here in Bethel. And just like most of the labor force in around Vermont and the United States is the last couple of years that these individuals that normally come and provide assistance to us during their off hours, they're not getting that off hour. So it's, they're on either mandatory overtime for their departments or their department's short-handed so they don't have any time to spend with us. And then the other piece that we looked at is, if they do have time, you know, they can pick up shifts for higher income where they're at rather than come to Bethel. So we looked a little bit this past year on some options, some options were, you know, having potentially the Windsor County Sheriff's Department come in and do some patrolling for us a few times a week. We did find out that that amount is, our typical budget's around $50,000 for a constable. So just to have Windsor County Sheriff's come in would be about 125,000. So it would have been a significant increase in our budget. So what we decided as a select board to do was reach back out to our existing two constables. We have decided to increase the rate that we're gonna pay to be more competitive of what they are getting now to attract them to do the hours when they have them and reach out to them and get an understanding of we want you to do 10 hours of fees or 20 hours or, you know, so, so far it's so good on that. Yeah, I've seen an uptick, I just did payroll today for Deutre and they were both working then. So we're trying to kind of work in the middle rather than go to the extreme and probably some of the extremes that you've seen as, you know, Rochester has decided to go and do some Windsor County Sheriff patrolling. So their budget has drastically increased. Did they go with Windsor or Orange? I thought it was Windsor they were going with. They did go with Windsor? So they typically I think have like 10 or 15,000. How many of you have Windsor or Addison? Oh, or Addison, they were talking to Addison. Yeah, maybe they ended up going with Windsor. So they increased their budget drastically to do that. Of course, Rochester's budget's a lot smaller. And then, you know, our neighbors to the north, they have or had Orange County doing their patrolling for the last three or four years, maybe? Or more, yeah. And there's the Orange County Sheriff didn't get reelected. So there's new Sheriff. They lost 11 of 17 deputies in the area. So Randolph's actually looking at going back to doing their own police department and just their budget from what I was reading the paper was going to go from $440,000 to $700,000. So it was drastically going to increase to do their own services again. So I did have a conversation with the town manager and Randolph Trevor and I talked last week and talked about what Bethel was doing, what they were doing, what the situation was. And hopefully in the spring or summer, he wanted to know if people were interested in perhaps a regional contracting. And I said, yes, actually Bethel had talked about that a little bit and would be interested. So I did tell him, I guess they'd talked a little bit to Northfield and different places they were talking to different towns. And I said, yeah, if somebody could house it and we could kind of almost do it like the ambulance where you pay for, you know, for call or for capital or whatever. I said, we would definitely, I said, at least be interested in having a conversation. So he said he'd get in touch with me the spring, early summer or whatever. And when they're trying to get together to start thinking about that. So, you know, there's a big shortage. So it might be something that we could work with him to do. So yeah, we kind of got lucky for so many years to be shared resources with other communities. So, you know, you're not paying for all the training or all the travel time or different pieces of it. You were sharing a third of it or a quarter of it. So, you might also just want to say that the duties or the training and licensing expectations for a constable have increased significantly over the years. So that we're really talking about police coverage. We're not talking about just a constable. And so that's something that I think the citizen would appreciate knowing. Yeah, absolutely. Because you're right, years ago, it could be anybody. But now they have to have gone through at least the part-time academy. So they have to be, they have to be certified. Absolutely. Yep, absolutely. Well, another thing we had talked about as well as, you know, being in Bethel, we've always kind of been under the umbrella of, you know, Vermont State Police. So we kind of always think of that they're kind of patrolling our area, which they did a lot. You know, at times we had one or two deputies that lived in and around our area that patrolled. But again, their forces are strained as well. They're farther away now. So we don't see their services quite as much as well. So it's kind of a lot of things that have kind of balled up here over the last few years that's made it more difficult to provide service in the town. So I guess this is kind of our last effort of trying to find something in the middle before we have to do something drastic. And we're trying to avoid that. So we're hoping that this method will work. It also gives us a chance to see what's gonna sugar out with Orange County and Windsor County sheriffs, too, they're both brand new. So it'll give us a chance. Of course, the Windsor County Sheriff, Chris and I met with and he has, you know, some great ideas and hopefully they come to fruition. And so we'll be able to see, you know, give them a year. So for growing pains to figure out how it's going for us and what's going for them too. So the percentage wise, the biggest mover in our budget was the Whitey River Valley Ambulance. So for many years, you know, the Whitey River Valley Ambulance might move by a percent or something like that a year or two this year. And this is based on like $125,000 a year budget. And, you know, they've gone up $26,000 this year. So, you know, there's a significant increase there and a lot of the same thing. If you go through in the book, you can go through and see if you look at the numbers, a majority of the numbers are things like, you know, they're having to pay for services, the healthcare costs, the pension costs, just like we are for our employees as well as to find and attract individuals that are accredited to do, you know, EMTs and things they're having to pay a little bit more for them as well. So pretty much most of the increase that they had, all centers around those pieces. And then the last $22,000 of the increases are things that are just the normal things that we usually look at. Some of that was some of the appropriation money. So we had increased some appropriation money for the library, you know, we used to be at $2,500 a year in the library. Last year we went to $5,000 and then this year we went to $7,500. You know, supplies, there's money in there for wage increases for employees. And, you know, and then a lot of the little stuff that's in and around there. So what that means for us, and this is where as we found out over the years, Rick, right? That sometimes the way the warning goes can be very confusing because you have like, if you look at the warning on article 10, you have the budget and then you have three or four articles that we have after it that are additions to the budget. So it can be a little confusing as we've seen in the past where somebody thinks they're adding something, they deleted something, or it gets pretty wild. So if the base budget, so that doesn't include, doesn't include any of the other items, which would be, so the base budget, which wouldn't include, wouldn't include article 11, 12, or 15. So those are the, right, is it White River, Angelo, one of those extras? Well, it is, but we kind of figure it's a normal, it's on the warning every year, kind of like human services. Yeah, it's not on that number. So we kind of think it has more of like the- You may be contributing to the confusion if you report that that's one of the reasons the budget's going up when that's not part of the base budget. I'm just trying to sit down and say, can we send this to somebody? It's clear on page 54. I think if people look at 54, they'll be able to see, you know, what's broken out at where the human services, Warva, Bethel Library, recreation, and then it gives an estimated tax. So I think maybe 54 will help make it clear that we refer people to page 54. Might help, as it helps me when I look at it. So there's that. So the, if you include 10 and 13 and 14, which are the typical three that's on every year's warning, then that would be an increase to us of 2.3 cents. So the cents, what that equates to is if you have a, and we base it on the average home value of a Bethel resident, so the average home value of a Bethel resident's $250,000. So if yours is a little higher than that, then you pay a little bit more. And if there's a little lower than that, you pay a little bit less than that. So that tax bill-wise is roughly about $58 that you pay more in taxes for the year on that. The add-ons, so the add-ons would be Article 11 for the library, Article 12 for the skate park and Article 15 for the playhouse. If those were all voted in together, that's an extra 2.8 cents. So that'd be an extra $70. So on a $250,000 home, that total amount would be about $130 more in taxes that you would spend for the year. And then if you're trying to break it down by each one, so about every $21,000 of budget up or down is about a penny on the tax rate. So on those, we probably won't go over on town meeting day as much as we will tonight, but so normally, if we would have looked at this budget, I mean, we're probably close to, with everything right now, we're saying if everything here was approved, you're about five cents increase. The budget before you is probably really closer to like a 10-cent increase. Now, there were some factors that helped drive it down this year. So the grand list has continued to increase. So the grand list is based on property values. So like last year, for instance, we had proposed to the taxpayer the two-cent increase that ended up being, I think, virtually nothing. And the reasons why it offset it was that the grand list had rows enough to offset the difference. Again, this year, it's good that that's happening, but at some point, the grand list won't and we're just seeing the property taxes or the property values have, as Rick knows, have skyrocketed here in the last year and a half, two years. So that's helped soften the below that we have. The other piece that helped save us about two cents on the tax rate was the transfer station revenue that we have. So that revenue is the only stuff that we have for five years. So anything greater than five years on that, which for the most part, what we talked about as a board is the transfer station monies and stuff that we kind of used for our matching grant funds. So things that wouldn't be prolonged out longer than five years. Cause if you, at the end of five years, if you're still hoping that for revenue, then your budget's gonna go up even further. So those are some things that are offsetting the grand list. Usually on a normal year, it doesn't move much. It stays about the same. So we've had two years in a row of significant value increase of the grand list. And as Rick's probably this year in the real estate market, seems like it's kind of starting to plateau a little bit. Not much is happening because there's no, a very few properties available. Yeah, so there's a good chance that the grand list will plateau. The only copy of that is that I know there's a number of new homes being built, which will. It's true. Kelly was processing zoning permits today. I mean, aside from our two for the water project, subdivision and I mean, she actually was funny cause she's like, I said, must be, I don't know the cold weather all of a sudden, but people are thinking brand for spring and starting to see more zoning permits. So what, you know, so we'll be going, we will be going through a reappraisal in town. So this is something that we have been talking about the process for over two years now that we are contracted. So we will start the process and it's usually about a year and a half, two year process. So what that will do is help because, because real estate values have changed so much. So for instance, if you're building a house right now, that value, you know, let's say I'm building a brand new house and I'm right next to Dave's house that's been there for 20 years. And let's say they're even similar houses. My property might be valued more than Dave's property just because of the new, newness to it. So my, I'm probably getting taxed higher than Dave is even though we might have the same square footage and the whole, you know, same acreage and whatnot. And then on the flip side to that, you may have people that have made updates to their home since the last reappraisal that was done 15 plus years ago. So that may be getting taxed a little bit lower rate. And then a majority of people really won't see a difference because the reappraisal is just resetting the baseline that we set our tax. Their house value will go up but because the brand list goes up, the taxes won't. The tax level comes down. So it should offset each other, but, you know, so. But, you know, you're gonna start seeing things like those spikes in the grand list that are kind of helping us right now aren't foreseeable. However, Oda Quichi is sponsoring a series about climate migration. And have you, did you get that information? And I heard that as it's worth looking at. We have people in Bethel who came here because they got tired of eating the smoke out in the West. Except that there's no more places in Bethel. Well, that may be, but they may, they may build. But they may build. I mean, that's, and so we're going to, we may, or I wouldn't look for places to go down. I guess, I just, I wouldn't, I wouldn't look for that. Yeah. You may be, maybe true because there was a, you're talking with realtors, there was the pandemic and then there was the political refugees from Florida and Texas. And then there were the climate refugees. So that's, yeah, those are real drivers. Yeah, so it's, it's a moving target for sure. But looking at what's going on with, you know, what Otokwichi is planning for and earning us to plan for is something different. Right. And the good thing is we're addressing some things right now with the, obviously with the water project because we can't add new users to the system till the bond boat passes and the water project goes, the state, until we install that booster pump station at Crystal Drive, the state has, says they won't allow us to add any more users. And so we need to get that done. And the planning commission is working with Two Rivers to update our zoning regulations to make some, allow for, you know, an increased density. And so, you know, we're certainly taking some right steps to address that. Public hearing in April, Otokwichi. Fingers crossed. Okay. We'll find out on the 16th, I guess, or the 13th, whatever day that is our next PC meeting. And the school will be doing their informational budget meeting Wednesday night. So, which right now, I know the town and school are different, but right now the town of Bethel's looking at about a half a cent increase at the school level. And again, what's happening at the school level is almost opposite of what's happening at the town level. So the real estate hit is actually a negative on the education end of things. So at the town level, it's kind of a base system. So you have your grand list, your grand list is the value of your property. And then at the school, there's a multi-tier calculation to figure out your tax rate. So there's a combination of what the state pays you for every kid. So they set a value of 15 or 16 or $17,000 per pupil that is there for a year. This year that went up, which was good because the more money per pupil that the state gives you, potentially the less tax that you'll pay in. And then the state has a bond yield, which the yield kind of coincides with the real estate market. So as anybody knows that how we pay for education is based on real estate and it's not based on income tax in Vermont. So that being that real estate has gone up, that the yield has gone up at a drastic rate. So the budgets they were gonna put forward would actually have been an eight to 10 cent savings for our town, a little less than Randolph. But then what happens is then they take in the common level of appraisal value. So an even baseline for common level of appraisal is 100%. And right now Bethel is 88%. So, and what that means is usually once you get to about 85%, it triggers an automatic reappraisal process. So we're on the bottom end of that. So as it goes down in the negative value, it negatively affects your tax rate on the educational piece of it. So where we could have been getting eight or 10 cents back, we're gonna pay in like a half a cent. So where we're here at the town, it helps you. At the school and the things that go the other way. So it's very convoluted. But I mean overall right now, what we're looking at is half a cent at the educational piece of it. And then the town right now, the base bid, based amount with the White River Valley ambulance and the human services is 2.3 cents. And then there's a potential of another 2.8 cents with the increases for the library, the skate park and the playhouse. So. And of course too, we can't say how that affects anybody if they're getting a pre-baid or anything like that. So that certainly doesn't take that into consideration. That's something that's between you and the state of Vermont. So, Joanne, did you have any specific questions about the budget that you had? Do you want to ask? Okay. That veteran line there. Sure. The veterans exemption is well, something that you voted on years ago at town meeting to allow $40,000. Per veteran, so it has, I believe that the veteran has to be, I don't know if it's over 80 to 100% disabled and they qualify for that through the state of Vermont. And then the state sends us a list of those veterans or widows of those veterans. And what happens is they get $40,000 taken off a reduction of the value of their property. So if their property is worth 240,000, we subtract the 40,000. They're only taxed on the 200,000. But the town has to, residents of town have to make up the school tax portion. That's part of your local agreement rate. So the 560,000 here. Yep. That's the 40,000 times X number. Yep. Okay. Exactly. So the local agreement rate covers that as well as any special exemptions which in Bethel is just the Grange, something that you vote on. So that's what that is. Yeah. And that's town only. Yep. That's just town only. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the school tax gets calculated might on that reduction in rate. And then we pay the, we just have to pay the school tax value. So. I think the other thing to mention too is that this budget that we're talking about does not go into effect. That's right. Until July of 2023. It doesn't start instantly. We're still have about halfway or so through last year's budget that was approved. This one go kicks in July 1st. And I ask a silly question for general knowledge. There's in parks and public spaces, there's money for Stonewall, which where is that? That Stonewall out there, 16,000 we've paid. So far to have that refurbished. Yeah. That one. Thank you. You are welcome. Yeah. Stonewall is a little more expensive than. Yeah. Maintaining it. Yeah. So we've done a couple. Yeah. He had the ends and then the stairwell pieces that needed some attention. Yeah. He did a nice job. Yeah. Definitely a nice job. Yep. We're running into Dave's. I was looking to see if there was any hands. Let's see. Wait, somebody said something. Hang on. She said the walls. Oh, the wall looks amazing so far. Lately. Yes. Thank you. So yeah. So it's eight o'clock. It's pushing up on Dave's time. What are you pushing on? He's going over. He's going over. He's going over. Shit. That was great. Sorry, you get passed. We didn't get started until 6.30. That's okay. Well, you get plenty of booklets again. That's right. Call on cookie time tonight. That's right. So any other questions in regards to the town meeting day activities, warning or budget? I think they were still looking for volunteers for pies. So Paul Jean wants to donate a pie. Bring it in pies cookies from offense. She has to take all sorts of stuff. I know we had talked about the last meeting about, where maybe it was the last two meetings ago, about our spacing of our chairs and things like that this year, helping out with some of that. Yeah, I don't know. Pam was going to talk to, Sherry talked to Mr. Hubbell. They set up for us. They're very nice. They set up for her. So she's got that under control. And usually we have plenty of space, especially on the bleacher wise. The bleachers don't usually get very full. So there's always kind of can move around to how you want to do that. You set up half the gym and close the curtain. With the pet peeve in line. I can't hear you. Don't move the pump. It's always fun. Well, there'll be a couple of mics out there, so people can get up and go to the mic. All right. Town managers report. So good news finally on the international that's been up at Clark's. So ended up that they did get a hold of International Corporate and we are getting a new motor at their cost. They're installing that. So the truck is still there. We're waiting for that to be delivered. They're going to deal with it. There still is a part that we're waiting for that they can't get. But they have another truck that they can't either. So we've also reached out to the state and some other people that deal with international. Just to see if we can locate it on our own to take it up there to have them install it. But that is good news that they're going to install it. That they're going to deal with the motor and so that should be. So they'll be taking care of that. So that was good news. Morgan came in and told me that last week. We finally hired someone to fill our full-time position on the road crew. So it won't be just Morgan and AJ any longer for full-time. So I'm very excited to bring Todd Ashley on board and he starts on March 20th. And then I think I just told you in the town manager's report, we have just about what I have out to bid for properties. We've met with Mike Maynard, all that that you know. I did tell you, had mentioned last week about that Tim Mills had done this for me a while ago the water construction phases. And so I had Mike Maynard look at it. So obviously we did the $2.8 million. We're doing the sandhill now. And then we had three other sections to be done. And we talked a little bit about to Mike about it when Richard and I met with him last week. And his suggestion is, you know, we may end up depending on where brakes are combining some of these a little bit differently or doing a bigger project. But he did say that we should be really thinking about completing our third project five years prior to our bond paying off in 2031 to take advantage of the best chance of receiving any state subsidy because it will, you know, just the way that it's going to play out as far as they look at your debt and they take it to median household income and what the rates are. And, you know, it's, it seems like it's always a financing game, but certainly I did tell him that we were interested in doing this project and then getting probably another planning loan and rolling into another project just because when you have presidential elections and things like that, you sometimes they come up with money to do infrastructure. And a lot of times they want you to be shovel ready. So if you're shovel ready, sometimes you can get more money. So kind of depends. But so we did talk a little bit about that on Wednesday and I put that note in your packet. So yeah, so a lot of things Chris said is out to bid. VHB will be making an amendment on Pinello Bridge contract, have some other stuff out hoping to get our RFP for municipal project management for the VOREC grant out this week. Three properties that we sold at TaxSale did not get redeemed. So we issued, you know, delinquent tax collector deeds. So those are now out and those properties have been taken over by the person who bought them at TaxSale and any delinquent taxes that had occurred since the prior TaxSale have been paid in full. So, and so we definitely are. So anyway, so those three didn't redeem. So we sent about $32,000 to the state for unclaimed property because we don't, there was some, you know, ones in a state without a will and the other one was same sort of situation. So that money has been sent to the state of Vermont and to unclaimed property. So anybody and the other property, there was an amount left of over $3,000 and we divided that amongst the two owners and have mailed them checks. So the person who owns the property, if there's a bid that goes over the sale price, they get that money back, the town doesn't. So all that money has been distributed. That's it. Okay. And select board meeting minutes from the 20th of February. Long time ago. Good to. Okay. All in favor. All right. All right. And we did have some, a couple of things in there from the communication. The Bethel energies may need. It's the only one I thought that was there. Yep. And any other business to come before the board. I just want to thank Paul for his years of service to the board. You know, he's free to ball and chain. Six years. Ken. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. It's been great. No, it's been terrific. I'll be speaking a little more at town meeting but as for the public that's tuned in now, I just want to say thank you to this particular board. Plus Carl Russell and Mo Righam were also on the board when I first got started. And it's been a real pleasure or honor to work with this group. When we first decided, when it was first decided to go to five person board, there was a lot of discussion. You're never going to get five people to agree on anything, how this is never going to work. And it's been the exact opposite. It's been nothing but finding consensus. We've had discussions. We've had vocal discussions. We've had, you know, but we've always been constructed. Yeah. And but we've always been able to come up with a consensus for the good of the town. So thank you folks. Yeah, definitely agree with that. I mean, it's nice because we have, you know, five board members from a little bit different walks of life. And I think it just goes to show what you can do when you don't have, you know, political agenda or something like that. It's just about being open-minded and being prepared to compromise and have the will of the people first in mind. So I don't think I've even had to ever do a tiebreaker vote. I mean, it's usually we find, you know, we might be on one side of the issue or the other, but then eventually we, you know, we figure out something in the middle and we're all able to come together on that. So it has been nice. Now, however, I will say that we are still having difficulties with volunteers for committees, you know, people on the select board aren't gonna be here forever. So, you know, so anybody that is, you know, willing or able or, you know, you know, setting in and just kind of going over the select board meetings, it's, you know, there's really no special degree or skill set that you really need other than just being, you know, open and honest and fair and optimizing. Right, yeah. Planning commission needs people and energy committee and lots of all the committees. And usually with, you know, towns, like especially the committees, you'll see these waves like a, you know, something, it's usually something happens and then there's a peak of lots of people that want to help and then there's a valley. And I think, you know, we're kind of getting into that valley again, where we're happy and everybody's kind of happy. And so we're not really thinking about, you know, that we really need to be out there helping out. And cause, you know, again, you know, what select board's not really designed to be on it forever. I mean, you know, there's times people that are on it for decades, but it's really not meant for that. It's meant to, you know, fill in, have some service for, you know, a few years and then somebody else comes and takes your spot. So, so definitely any, still use more volunteers or anybody wants to run for stuff or school or anything else that's in the community. So. That's right. Great. We need you. We have a little Uncle Sam point that. Yes. Take a motion to adjourn. All right. Second. Yep. Is that your Dave? Okay. All right. All right.