 Every square project is proposed to PUD and it will help solve two social issues relevant to the town of Randolph. First it will help provide affordable housing to Randolph residents and second it will use solar and thermal technologies to achieve the energy efficient status of net zero which is pretty neat. And personally I think this project would create a new environmentally friendly and affordable development that will likely attract a young new demographic to the town of Randolph. In case you didn't know the Salisbury Square project is a multi-phase project that was originally permitted in 2009 but the housing financial crisis in 2008-2009 installed this project and under that permitting originally it was under the 2006 Randolph town ordinance that explicitly allowed for PUDs such as this however the new Randolph ordinance amended in 2016 does not include PUD language so we therefore voice our support for the re-inclusion of PUD language back into the ordinance. So this we suggest that this amendment will make Salisbury Square another innovative development possible by providing the town with a sound flexibility device that will encourage growth in the downtown and village areas of the town which are areas where the town generally wants to grow and we are not alone in our support of PUD language needed to make Salisbury Square happen. The state statute suggests that municipalities should provide for planned unit developments to permit flexibility in the application of land development regulations and the Randolph town plan supports development of energy efficient affordable housing such as the Salisbury Square project. So just to conclude we ask the select board to vote in favor of the zoning amendment to re-include PUD language in the ordinance and thus help Randolph and Vermont achieve the goal of compact pedestrian friendly development of where the town and the state wants it. So we have a few handouts as well in case you want to look through some of the statutes and the regulations of the town plan and some of the comments that we provided on this project. So John will hand some of those out. We also have to answer some questions if there are any questions. Are there any big differences between the PUD as it's written here and as it was written formally? So my understanding is that these PUDs are a little more narrow than as originally planned in 2006. So this PUD language will only include three zoning districts and those are the RVHD district, the business district and the East Village district. So those are mostly all located centrally in the town. The town shall be a little more limited? Yes, yes a little more limited than the previous one. The previous one applied to the whole town of Randolph. Just three districts. I said one clarification on that, if I may, Jenny Carter, is that it's the exact same language that was in the previous, the 2006, except for I think there was a definition added that was missing and by saying it's more limited, it's just limited in terms of its application in terms of which districts because it was really intended to be the way it was drafted, it was really concentrating on trying to promote the high density development in downtown and village districts. Any other questions? Comments? Great. Thank you. So that will close the hearing. We actually take up adoption later in the select board agenda. We'll get to that part. But now we're going to change our hats to be liquor control people. So we'll call to order the order of liquor control. The first item on the agenda is anything for the liquor control board? Any public comments for anything out on our agenda? No, we don't have samples. Seeing none. Do you approve of the agenda? If I may ask the board to make two changes. We had two applications arrive after the posting period, both for larger alcohol sales locations in town, one for Sodexo and DTC, and the other for Kenny Drugs. We included the applications in your packet, matter of convenience that the board wanted to hear those applications today. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with the addition of Sodexo and Kenny Drugs. Before we do that, just a question, did we get a new application in from Eminem because they didn't answer if they were criminals? It just has to be there before it goes up in the state. Okay. I think we do this with them every year and we have to go back and tell them they got to mark the box of whether they are or not. Okay. Not saying they are for the public record. Just saying they missed the boxes. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve the agenda with the added items. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Carries. Approval of the minutes from January 23rd. Move it up and approve the minutes. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? No. We have the licenses to approve. We can do them all once. Sure. So is Eminem included or not included? It's included. Okay. We just got to produce the check boxes. Here. All right. So I would make a motion to approve liquor licenses for right aid, ranch, market and deli, box, Eminem, kidney drugs, and so on. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Carries. Any other business for the liquor board? None. Motion for adjournment? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Carries. And now we are at the select board again. So we'll call the regular select board meeting to order. And first item on this one is public comment. This is something for the select board. And that's not on the agenda. Yep. Just identify yourself. This is Tamara Morgan. I'm the treasurer for Kimball board, Kimball library board. Just wanted to update the select board on the fact that we had a special meeting to talk about how to spend the McNair funds that we got. We've been doing a lot of strategic planning around our own and the town's strategic plan. And we decided that we would fund up to $25,000 for youth engagement, up to $25,000 for events, and up to $50,000 for building needs in this next fiscal year, closing 2021, if that's right. And then reserving the other $100,000 for the following year, we're going to set up a way for people to propose what the events might be and to go through the board and to make sure that the money's being spent responsibly. And just to see, we felt that that was about the right way to divvy it up, given that those three things are kind of the highlights of our strategic plan. Any questions? What was the second $25,000? Events, like programming and events. The first with youth engagement specifically. I may ask the board to consider a change for this meeting. The change that is being asked to be considered is adding working communities' grants to the grant section. The town was recently awarded a grant and would like to ask the board to consider it. Can I ask a question? Is this part where I might introduce myself? We're doing the agenda now. Public comments over. Did you have something that's not on the agenda? He does. He wanted to speak to the board during public comment. Let's get to the agenda now that we're on it and we'll come back. Is that the only change? It's in motion for the agenda. Move that we approve the agenda with Adolfo's addition. Is that our agenda? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Seeing motion carries. No. We'll come back to public comment for you. Thank you. I'm sorry, I missed the opportunity when she said no. I'm Dr. Charles Foster. I have chiropractic practice here in town. Randolph Chiropractic Associates. It's a subsidiary of some other offices that I have in different communities. And we've been here, I think, I've been principal owner since 2013. And I've been very interested for a number of years in the Singer building that the town presently owns. And in fact, is it one time I had a contract on it and it didn't work out at the time. And you guys ended up with it. And I noticed that it's still empty and I've been searching it whenever I come to work. And I see it's still empty. So I would just like to let the board know that I am interested. I don't know what your plans are for it at this time. But I would be happy to start negotiating with the town about the possibility of moving this unperforming liability off of your thing into my performing asset column. So we are, are we still in the six months on the childcare study? Six months ended last month in January. I have reached out to the childcare group and informed them of things that have happened since then and that the six months have expired. They are working with a municipal planning grant that they received through the town. They feel that this grant is going to allow them to explore other options there. They haven't come out right and said that they favor other locations, but they do believe that location off Route 66 would be favorable for a childcare facility. And they understand that the town is in a position where it would like to unload the building. So if there's an actual purchaser that's out there, they're okay with the town moving on, but they will have a firm answer, a more firm answer by, I gave them a deadline of March and they agreed that by March they should have a more firm answer. As soon as we hear from them, not to pull the carpet out from under them, although they're six months is up. 100%, 100%. I'll just stay in touch with the town manager. Sounds good. Thank you. Is it back? Hi, my name is Crystal Courier. I own five Greenhouse Avenue and I just want to talk about the access road and just my concern since I've owned the property two years now. It was poor up in the fall, but apparently not by the town really admitted who tore the road up even more and made it further on to my property. But yesterday the town said that a backhoe had gone up there and trees were torn down, boulders were moved, the land is dug up on the access road pretty far into my property. Now I understand, I have the deed, I understand the right of way. I guess what I don't understand is why it's becoming a two lane road now. And I thought maybe it's because of the Winterfest, but long after the Winterfest has gone the trees aren't gone. And the land has been tore up where the root cellar is, exposing pipe. So now I've had to put a no trespassing sign because it's dangerous. And I guess I'm just trying to find out at what point is it going to stop? At what point, you know, who's going to stop tearing that road apart? I can't really get an answer on that. All I hear is, well, the right of way. Legally we can do this, but just because you legally can do something doesn't make it right and doesn't mean you should. So I'm trying to find out at what point when is it going to stop and should I put a fence up and how far do I have to put the fence up to stop the road from being tore up? The issue was reported to the water department, the water department spoke to me about the issue. There is a right of way that allows the town water department to use so that it can access the North Reservoir and the three wells that are being proposed for the area. And that is a right of way that Ms. Currier is referring to. That's basically that long driveway that goes up to the wells. That's right. And we have a right of way to go up to the wells. The issue that may also come into play is that there's another property a second right of way off of that right of way that spurs onto their home. And so as we plow only our section, the water department plows the section so that the truck can make it up the road, it could be that the neighboring properties that have these second rides away also plow and make the area much more wide. The only plow that we use is the pickup truck and that's because that's the only truck that has to make it up to the water facility up there. We have extended an offer to the property owner so that if she feels that her property has been damaged that she could submit the information we need to file a claim with Passif. I don't want a claim and I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to stop further destruction. I don't want to put a fence up because then the turkeys can't get to the property and neither can the deer if I put a fence up. So I'm trying to find out nobody is really saying who's doing it and no one's really answering the question. I can't share with you that. I can also share with you an aerial view of the area that clearly shows the right of way to the reservoir. I want to follow rules. I need to get that other party. It's another party that's not here tonight and see what they're doing and what our folks are doing and then look at what we should be doing. I was told it was the Alice property which is nowhere on my deed. Before we get to the Alice, the Alice lot that is owned by the town is where the reservoir is. Way further beyond your property. But as we're standing on the right of way and we look to the right, we see your property and we look to the left, there's another property that shares that right of way and then as you move up another 50 feet there's a third property on the left that has a second right of way off of the main right of way and that's what the chair is referring to and if you work with me, I can more clearly show you the right of way that you're referring to along your property and then also the other two rights of way that provide access to your neighbors on the other side to... I own the other side. There's a portion on the other side but whatever reason that side doesn't seem to be moving over. So it's wasted land. I'm trying to figure this out because I plan to stay in Randolph and come and speak with you. Please feel free to call me tomorrow. We can sit down and we can look at photographs and we can look at the arrow views and determine where the boundaries are and we can talk about the trucks that need to access the road. We don't have to have dumb trucks that go up there so it just needs to be wide enough for an F-350 pickup truck to make it up there. It is wide enough for two of them now. If you went and saw the damage, you'd be surprised. We're going to ask a question. My understanding was because I own the property, the farthest property. So when this started back last fall, is that when this first occurred? Because somebody called me up and said did you just mow all this? I didn't mow anything to do with that. I mowed the property, the Ellis property for the Conservation Commission. I mowed that field above you and I mowed my field. But somebody mowed something and I understood it to be the power company had contracted somebody to mow the right away for the power line. Is that correct? That's correct. Mowing it, they exposed the root cell completely and piping and caused damage. But I figured the trees there, big boulders are there, there's no way that it's going to move further. And then with the back home, the power company or somebody had contracted somebody to do that. So you might want to look into that. Because I think the power company has the right way up through there also for the power that goes to reservoir. Yeah, there are a number of different entities. There's the town, there's the two neighbors, the two neighboring properties, there's the three face power or the three mount power that's up there. If you were to call me, we could connect with all the parties involved right away and at the very least... That's why I moved here. Absolutely, very well. Consent calendar meeting minutes from the 23rd and warrants. Second then. In favor of my new business. You are up. Supervisor, you're meeting. It sounds like it's invited to talk a little bit on taxes where things stand. There's a rather large presentation in the packet. It might be easiest if folks give me an indication of where you want to start or what you're interested and I can kind of tailor things a little bit. There's also packets of folks from the audience that made me interested. This is about the school budget. So feel free and welcome. So this generated off from that. We're putting our budget together. We're trying to keep the town affordable for folks. And we're looking at what the town needs are, what's there and how do you keep that in a reasonable amount of growth so you don't price the town out when we're trying to bring in businesses and have young folks that want to buy homes and start up here with that whole shift in dynamic. And then we heard that there was another good size increase coming out of the school where like, this isn't helping us and we have two budgets that are pretty sizable that come together to create what your property tax rate is. We don't control both of them. But somewhere in the whole realm of things that becomes what a big piece of the system when we put us together but we sort of do our budgets in the back room. And then magically they come together and we sit here and say, oh, we did really well. We only have a small increase and then they get their tax bill and they're like... So we're going to talk a little bit might make a little bit of sense to go into a little bit more detail so folks understand the why's and the rationales there. And in terms of a longer term plan for the school district the school district in and of itself has the potential to actually be a great benefit to the town. And the way that that works is if we improve that district to the point where the outcomes that we're achieving for the students are so high, you will get people that are moving into town to take advantage of the schools. So we started that process about two years ago and it is actually starting to pay off in terms of school districts. The name of the game for funding is enrollment. So as enrollments go up so too does the money that we receive from the state. The more money we receive from the state through the education fund which is funded by all the taxpayers in the state the less of a burden it ends up being on the town. So what we're doing at this point in time is investing in the schools because they hadn't been invested in for a long time our enrollments are climbing where one of the few districts in the state where that is happening and at some point in time if things continue the way that they are those enrollments are going to overshoot the investments that we're putting in. I can talk a little bit about that in the budget. The other piece in terms of the landscape of our budget this year is a huge piece that is out of control that has to do with the state-wide healthcare negotiations that went on. Last year the legislature started to negotiate with the teachers union put a law in place where the negotiations are state-wide so the state group actually negotiates directly with the teachers union and that applies to every district in and across the state. They went into it with the intent that it was going to save money for the school. What ended up happening however was quite different from most districts. The agreement that they reached allowed a whole other category of employees within the school districts to receive full health benefits that hadn't received it before. In our case that one change made by the state that we had no control over no voice in the impact that our district for $740,000 in terms of that decision that's huge. Bigger than what I usually ask for even in the big budgets. We are in the position where the majority of the increase that folks are seeing and experiencing this year and for next that $740,000 will be split out over two years the way the agreement ended up working out will be high. There was a big article in the digger a few months back that statewide on average you can expect the increase in schools to be 6% which is right around where we are. I can go into detail in terms of the numbers I can talk about what the actual impact in Randolph is going to be. Folks remember that the district impacts three towns. We impact Randolph, Brantree and Brookfield. There's a page that says Randolph Randolph Bottom Line Randolph Bottom Line Randolph Bottom Line third page from the back potentially we're looking at and I tried to break this out in the way that kind of made sense to folks what you're looking at is a 5.11 increase for $100 of assessed home value average home value in Vermont is $253,000 so the average tax increase for the year would be $129 which is $1075 a month in Randolph. This estimate we don't have perfect numbers from the state we don't get that until after the old day on the third because they need to know what the towns are actually charging the state so that they know what they've got to fill the education fund with. The big piece that I think it's important for folks to realize is that there is an income sensitivity pressure you have to fill out an extra form on your taxes but it provides a significant discount so if your family income is less than $90,000 your household income is less than $90,000 and the value of your property slash home is less than $400,000 you qualify for that subsidy so it's important to make sure that books apply for that flip over a couple other pages with any questions you've got so this average tax increase that you mentioned here that's the total dollar amount that someone would see as an increase on the school portion of their property taxes from last year to this year so that $129 do you know what that is what that $5.11 increase is as a percentage increase from last year so the overall school budget increase from last year to this year is $6.47 that's in here as well again because I didn't know how much time you wanted to spend flip to the second page the one that says total new expenses so this is talking strictly about what we are adding relative to the dollar amount from last year's budget you can split it up basically into two categories there's the discretionary spending those are things that we have control over those are things that we're asking for to improve education for students one case part of it is for a teacher at Braintree because the enrollments have grown so much they need an extra teacher some of it is for a partial math teacher in Brookfield to try to help out with their math program to split it out so that they're doing math classes by grade to have multi-grade math classes because it's better for the students about 100,000 of the discretionary of that 405 is to put in a professional development plan across the district one of the reasons that the scores have been so abysmally low for the last 16 years is because we were one of the few districts in the state that has neither a curriculum director to make sure that our teachers are teaching what they should and as well as they should have professional development money to train them in the programs that are going to have the most impact on our kids in a positive way so I'm not asking for a curriculum director in there I'm asking for a professional development budget of about $100,000 that right off the bat next year is geared straight towards the high school at this point in time because the elementary schools are doing really really well it's going to facilitate a curriculum in science a revamping of the curriculum in mathematics a revamping of the curriculum in ELA it's also going to bring in some training in what they call a responsive classroom we've got a lot of students with trauma which is a community based problem that come into the schools whose behaviors interfere with learning so we need to give our teachers some training to be able to interact with those students in a way that allow them to heal that's a lot of what that's about we are also building an elementary science curriculum there is no real elementary science across the three elementary schools so that's scheduled to go in there so on the discretionary side the stuff that I actually have a lot of control over you're looking at about $415,130 total but over the last couple of years because of the investing and the work that we've been doing at the elementary level our enrollments are increasing so we are actually generating revenue at this point in time that revenue is growing year after year right now the offsetting revenue that we have generated is close to $300,000 for next year so most of the discretionary three quarters of it is covered by what we're generating in revenue because of this investment that number will continue to grow and the improvements we've made the enrollment across the district is up anywhere from 50 to 70 kids I have 30 some odd students alone that are coming to the high school that are paying full tuition at $17,000 a pot to take advantage of our high school from other districts we have people that are moving into town which is going to help the tax base here because the tax burden spread over more people to take advantage of the elementary schools at this point in time and a lot of that has to do with the preschools that we put in over the last two years so again the effort or at least the vision, the long term vision here is to keep that growth going as that enrollment increases we generate more revenue as a school you get more people across the three towns which is more people to spread the tax burden over if we do things right eventually a few years down the road will be a break-even point and then a reversal point and we are on track to do that so if we flip over a little bit we've got the nondiscretionary side these are the things that I don't have much control over the first piece you'll see there is health care it's $340,000 this year and it's $340,000 next year that's about the $740,000 to $780,000 that we're talking about there's a little bit of an increase to facilities things were be straight up and blunt things were mismanaged for facilities for years and we're still taking account of repairing and replacing things that need to be repaired and replaced because they weren't taking care of the way that they should special education we're actually doing very well we've got about a 9% increase to special education for next year we are revamping how those services are delivered to hopefully recoup even more savings as those changes have a stronger effect on the students with the goal of we've got all these students that are on IEPs if we provide better service to those students we should be able to make more of them independent so they can come off the IEPs and our special education population shrinks for years they did not have enough folks to actually provide the services to make the students independent but this is to manage them but not to actually get them off the IEPs the last piece there the big chunk the 685,000 and we are stuck in a negotiation year again because of the statewide healthcare bargaining because no one knew what the outcome of statewide healthcare was going to be and what the cost was going to be it would not have been prudent to engage into a contract with the teachers union and the other unions without knowing those costs that just couldn't have done a good thing so that amount represents their potential increase for next year depending upon how the negotiations go could be more, could be less that's the estimate based upon the comparables across the state those things on that side are out of my control so you are looking at a 6.4 or 7% increase if I wipe out what is in my control you are at about 6% so questions on that page the health you are ended in 40,000 you said times 2 but is that an ongoing cost so yes and no so because there is a whole new layer of personnel that have access to healthcare than before that's the 740,000 to 780,000 we are splitting it out over 2 years because the way the state came back and said it was okay based on the negotiations those healthcare plans don't change until halfway through the school year next year so we get half the impact next year we get the remainder of the impact in the year that follows so at that point in time those increases stop the problem and it has to do with compounding remember at least for the schools healthcare goes up just the cost from the insurance companies by 14% per year is on the average they've just added another 780,000 to my budget that I have to supply money for that when healthcare goes up it's regular 14% paying 14% on that 740,000 to 780,000 significant chunk of change year after year so even though those larger pieces just to allow those folks access to healthcare those big increases stop after next year I've got that compounding piece I'm paying 14% on top of that just because of the way the healthcare rises each year the cost of the healthcare plans it's not an increase but it's going to be there every year yeah it's not all the way are we into block grants yet? so they've pushed it off for a year at this point in time they had a big what they call a waiting study that the legislature had UVM do and so basically what the waiting study is doing is it's adding information that they can put into the formula to calculate how much money should go to each district and what they are talking about with waiting is that okay should districts that have a high poverty rate we have a high poverty rate we're around 40% because we have a high poverty rate should you get a little bit more in this financial formula than a district that doesn't if you have a high rate of students with emotional disturbances because those tend to cost more should you have an extra consideration in this financial formula so they just got that study it's 155 pages long they've already pushed things off a year it is possible that what will happen is that they will need time to digest that information so they may push it off for another year or so and where you have to gain are those you can't tell there's not enough information out there yet I am concerned because the way things work right now we tend to have a lot of students move in mid-year way things work right now if I have a real expensive student move in some of the students are 200 to 300,000 a piece to be able to service right now I know when they move in because we're under the reimbursement method that I'm going to get a significant amount of money back from the state to help me out with those students what happens in the case of a block grant I get the money up front it's based on the formula which is really based on the total student population you have in the school not so much your percentage of special education students versus regular but the total school population so I get the money up front and of course the reason they did all this was to save money so it's not going to be as much as we've had before and I get two kids that move in $200,000 and I'm not getting any more money or getting reimbursed for it what happens that's a catastrophe so what I've been doing to plan for it is at the end of each budget cycle the last couple of years if there is any money left over we typically do have some money left over I have built a reserve fund for special education so that if one of those catastrophic events occurs I've got something I can pull from to help out a little bit so it doesn't have a dramatic impact on the schools that sounds like we're a year or two off on the block yeah we're at least two years off there's a transition year they pushed it off a year then there's a transition year and then we're there but again the legislature as they examine this weighting study because in terms of the overall it means that if they accept the findings of the weighting study the overall cost the overall amount of money that they're going to have to put into this block for systems to be much higher than they predicted it could be so it's unlikely but it is possible maybe change their mind on it given what the cost may be across the state as a whole so good question so as we've shifted the investment in the education what are you seeing in the scores a lot from employers that they lost a potential employee because of the so the main focus the primary focus for the last two years the first two years I was here was elementary what is happening at the elementary level because of that work right now is that the most public scores we have are SBAC our SBAC scores have increased 5% per year about 10% we're actually in a pretty good category if you compare us across the state at the elementary level and that's awesome it means that our kids are very well prepared it means that when they get to the high school that they actually have the foundation they need to engage in that level of work the focus of this year's budget especially that 100,000 that I was talking about for the professional development that is geared directly to the high school level they've been struggling for years it is not the fault of the school it is not the fault of the teachers as a district the district has never provided the resources needed to do that work so the hope is is over the course of the next two years you're going to see the same sort of dramatic increase at the high school I worked in some very wealthy districts in Massachusetts when the scores are high people move into town to take advantage of the schools and it's beneficial for everybody that's the goal that's what we're focused on so we've got everything going right at the elementary schools right now we built the preschools preschools are a huge draw especially the fact that they've all got after school programs people will move into town just to take advantage of that which is one of the reasons the populations are growing at the elementary schools because that's a rarity in the state there are not many districts that offer that so the goal is always that focus on it and how we do that we've got to improve the outcomes for kids if we go back to the way that things were the way that things were it works something like this budgets were incredibly low the budget increases didn't keep up with the cost increases that were occurring every year so every year there were cuts that were happening when you make cuts especially to programs or staff your schools become less desirable fewer people want to attend you have to make more cuts and you're in this downward spiral which you can't get out of it was hard but we've reversed that spiral that's why the enrollments are increasing there and I don't want to go back to that there's going to be a break-even point in about two years and hopefully it will exceed we'll actually be able to keep things neutral or even reduce is the goal and the hope it's another piece that was important the outlook for the next two years so we're in a position where at the last minute literally we got notified in December the final outcome of the state-wide health care negotiations before budget season we got notified of this impact if we look ahead for three years barring any more legislation coming out that may have a dramatic impact on the schools in terms of costs things are pretty good I got what I need after this year next year we've got the 340,000 increase we've got to deal with health care the big question to the community is do you want me to take the last step in terms of the preschools the year after that we've got what we need the only increases that we should be making barring any mandated changes from the state is as the enrollment grows up we'll have to add staff that you know attended the students because the enrollments have gone up the preschool question is this what we did we started out with kind of a three-step process we're on step two we have full day preschools at two of the elementaries partial day in the morning and partial day in the afternoon at Randolph the final step in the process the cost of which would be about $300,000 is to have full day free preschool at each of the elementaries in the district four-year-olds adding another year of education for every student in the district that is coming in at that grade it's beneficial in a lot of ways because when you combine it with our after school programs parents have the ability to drop their four-year-olds off in the morning go off to work and pick them up at the end of their work day it's beneficial for the school because I'm getting a whole extra year of education to these students at the time when they're the most malleable where it's going to have the greatest impact on them in terms of socialization skills in terms of setting them up for success as they get into later grades but again that's a question for the community next year we can stay where we are right now one of the reasons that I didn't push for this year aside from the state health care piece there's actually two reasons for it one is that the way that it exists right now it is generating revenue that wasn't the intent of it especially after school programs are generating revenue which are offsetting some of our costs the second piece is because the state as a whole recognizes that there's a shortage of space in terms of child care as part of the R3 group what they haven't done yet what they've talked to the legislature about is that okay you want us as a public school to help you out with the child care issue we're willing to do that because it is beneficial to us the problem is is that for every student in kindergarten through 12th grade you give me $10,300 from the education fund it doesn't come from this town it comes from the education fund to support my budget they don't do that for the preschool kids so if you're going to do a full day preschool then you should be paying me the same $10,300 into our budget to help those plans that you have and so my hope is that a year or two down the road they're going to make that decision there isn't an important chart in there probably the last one unless people want a little bit more I know the stuff can be a little bit dry but if you flip over the page from where we were from total new expenses to the OSSD expense you see those lines on the right hand side how funding for the public schools works it's a little quirky it'll be a very simplified version but you see these levels there's $10,883 per student every student that I have in that building the state from the education fund gives us $10,883 for it that money doesn't come from the three towns that money comes from everybody in the state paying into the education fund from that threshold from the $10,833 to the $18,756 dollars that we're paying from students 33% of the money per student in that range is coming from everybody across the street every two thirds come directly from the three towns that feed in the school and so we'll be at $17,994 per student next year which is pretty much the average for this area the red line there that's the scary threshold if that's crossed any additional dollars above and beyond that come directly from the towns so I'm doing everything possible below that red line but we are maximizing for the most part what we are able to draw from the state as a whole if that makes a little bit of sense so does that imply that as long as we stay below that red line that we almost we're incentivized to increase to that point because we're getting subsidy from the rest of the state to do that we're not getting a lot of subsidy for that from that 10 to the 8 but 33% is a pretty good chunk of the change so that 33% is coming from taxpayers across the state every taxpayer is paying that amount because you too you're paying into that also the knowing ear at the rate that you are if it's coming straight from Randolph two thirds of the rate right so it's and if other districts are doing it then it's sort of like you're at a disadvantage and you almost have to do it but part of it part of it you know with us in terms of the cost piece is you know you can also think about it as economy of scale we do draw income if the schools are better and people are moving in we have money that's coming in that's not coming from us those 33 kids that are coming in actually I think it's 37 that are paying tuition to come to the high school $8,000 $994 to attend our schools that's a big chunk of change that we're not paying for so that's the idea behind the growth if we can get things going and keep it growing there's going to be a break even point tax base will level off and the towns are going to benefit too because you're going to have a broader tax base you get enough people moving into town then hopefully you're going to have businesses that are going to want to come in and serve them so you've got to move in and build something not just move in because the tax base doesn't grow unless you're building houses there are new properties or improving some who's going to be paying more in taxes if you've got my argument will be that if I've got a working family that's moving in they're going to pay more taxes than a retiree or an individual but for the town the tax is coming the grand list is going to be for you so I'm on the school side you get by the person in your school so for you it's good if the young families move in with kids and all that so for you it's based on household that's why you said we want them to come in and build something the people that we are seeing moving in there's a word for it and I always forget the word but because so much of folks work is online now they come in they work from home on the computer and then once or twice a month they're back down to Boston or whatnot but those are the folks that are moving in at the elementary level right now so that's the demographic that we're seeing so we've got to work on the housing piece we're working on the housing piece there's conversations going on about the housing piece but the point being is the town doesn't see an increase unless the grand list grows so if these folks are coming here and they're just buying existing homes if they're improving existing homes I guess at some point that comes back online but nothing's going to change unless there's actually new construction happening the intent budget wise is we don't want to ever get ourselves in a position where we're going through that downward cycle again an average budget once everything is settled out and the health care piece passes and the town makes the three towns make the decision on the preschool piece average increase should be in the 2.5 to 3% range if you want to keep things steady if you're not increasing by that much then what it means is that your increases are smaller than your yearly cost increases and you're going to be back on the cutting but that would be the norm if we get the enrollments at least on the school side they're going to be lower than that the 2% you're talking about is your budget not necessarily the tax rate increase no not a 2% increase on your tax rate it's probably less a penny or less it's going to be clear for those that are going to be watching this video at a later date it's funny I get a little frustrated because the tax formulas especially for the school that I can sit down I can spend three or four hours and at the end of that it's like okay I kind of get it and then if I walk away for more than an hour it's gone and I've got to re-learn it all over again it's crazy it's that complex thank you any time folks have questions or want to just ask I'm happy to hear and I appreciate the opportunity thank you we have representatives here from the Randolph Post of the American Legion that could add more information to the ongoing work with quick or finance director and also a trustee of public funds member but the issue itself is that the American Legion Post in 1968 initially gave a plot of land known as Grant Park to the town the process itself didn't really see itself through the whole process so the town took possession of the deed but the deed was actually never signed over to the town so that it officially says the town is the owner so we have possession of a plot of land town records indicate that we're owner of the land but the actual deed itself doesn't reflect the fact that we own it we're open to correct the issue and we have Peter and we have Laurie here to talk a little bit more about their work thanks the American Legion and Cliff have had several discussions very productive discussions and I think the genesis of those discussions was first what restrictions are there on the grant funds that were turned over to the town and grant being the grant family not grant being the largesse that I'll get from heaven the grant funds well let me back up I'll just give you the historical background as Cliff and Laurie and I have figured it out in 1938 the grant family in honor of the World War I veterans proposed to give the one acre of land on South Prezent Street to the American Legion for the purpose of developing and improving a memorial park on veterans and to endow that they gave five shares of American telegraph and telephone company stock with the restriction that the income from that corpus would be used to maintain and improve the park and the principal would not be invaded and those documents are well so in 1968 there was a meeting of the American Legion where that meeting the members voted to turn the American telegraph and telephone company stock over to the town and to file the deed to the land and the town offices and to dissolve the corporation that was owning the park and then that was in 1968 so that's 55 years later we started talking about the funds and there was some discussion about improving the park and some mentioned in the town reports it was $97,000 $94,000 and people just started thinking of wonderful ways to spend it and that started some discussions and between Cliff and I in those discussions we resolved that that's not all income that can be spent as a principal and it wasn't clear over the time what exactly what is principal and what is interest and of course the stock was 5 shares and 38 it was 70 or 80 shares in 1968 and now the stock has been transferred and reinvested and it's not even American telegraph and telephone company and re-tracing what is principal and what is interest but we've got a fairly good idea of that that we can agree to and over the years the Legion has been engaging people to maintain and improve the park and coming to the town with invoices and we wanted to have a discussion about really who is authorized to do that and the obvious answer as you all know is the American Legion members can't spend funds that are being held by the trustee of public funds under obligation so we have been discussing really ways in which the Legion might be able to recommend improvements but that the authority to make the maintenance improvement could be the town's authority to do so and the town will contract for that stuff even the mowing we've been doing the mowing and sending the build of the town and that also led to the fact that what's the problem? you know some guys making it a problem Cliff didn't like the way the books weren't balancing so in going through all of that we discovered that the quote filed the deed in the town meant they took the original deed from Grant the American Legion and the original agreement with the grants the American Legion with regard to the endowment and they put it in one of the drawers in the vault and it was never a deed created which conveyed the property by the Legion to the town and that of course we want our money back well there has been discussion of that in the Legion the essence of it is no we think there's more headaches than there are benefits of having the money back so and in a way I have to apologize to Cliff a little bit I don't know how much the board has heard we've had a very good productive relationship with Cliff as we worked through this over the last few months and I don't want to come down and start putting words in his mouth because he wasn't here tonight but we're doing it like but and at this point there's only a recommendation by Lori and I to the Legion membership that we convey the property to the town and that we enter into a memorandum of understanding with the town which sets forth all of this stuff there's a record somewhere that can be found and an acknowledgement that the trustee of public funds have the control but an acknowledgement we hope on behalf of the town that you would accept recommendations from the Legion with regard to what improvements might be recommended and this is something I put in after Cliff left it occurred to me and we would like an understanding that on Memorial Day the priority of use for that part might go to the Legion so they can continue the Memorial Day exercises without being told no, you stand on the street so that is the recommendation that we are making to the membership but we can't give something to the town or convey something to the town unless the town will accept it he's willing to take it without Cliff being here we're saying come on guys you want to take a while on an acre of land believe to have on for some time so we have in front of you in your packets is a draft memorandum of understanding if the Board was willing to entertain the the offer being extended by the American Legion the memorandum of understanding in your packets would be the first step in resolving the decades old issue for my understanding this MOU has not yet been reviewed by the American Legion membership so then the Board here could agree to continue the conversation with this potential MOU and if the Board is so inclined can authorize me to continue working with Cliff and the American Legion to hammer out a final product if the Board is interested in taking possession of the land and at the end of that memo I've added 5 just as another talking point with Cliff which in my draft reads the American Legion of Randolph Post-9 learning successor thereof shall have priority use of Grant Parick on Memorial Day to conduct public memorial observations and Cliff would say if he were here the rule of the trustee of public funds is always to follow the intention of the gift so if it's cemetery gift in this case it was a gift to benefit the veterans to honor veterans the park is supposed to stay that way in perpetuity so that is in everything that we would certainly expect to continue any questions anybody it is in the deed it's not very clearly in the original deed the original deed and the original agreement set forth the restrictions and covenants on the property except there was a pool created and you'll remember this I don't that was part of the fountain in a pool was to be built and the pool I understand from Steve Webster was covered over probably in the 50s because some young child drowned in it other than that the Grant Parick has been improved and developed as in the deed and obviously those restrictions in the deed run with the land and they would have to go to the town there was another sentence that I thought would be useful number four the town of Randolph agrees to maintain Grant Park on an annual basis I thought that would be a good clarifying statement and then go on as is there I'm sorry what you just said is not in here is that the sentence you want to add that's just personally I think that would well you can't do that because I'm dropping everything the town of Randolph agrees to maintain Grant Park on an annual basis which is what we're doing annual versus ongoing once a year we just have to go ahead and mow the lawn once a year the major part of work that has been done there in the past is the trees have been pruned and taken good care of that's and several years ago little before my time trees were removed and replanted but the maintenance of those crab apple trees which is the side of the crowning glory of the park other than that keeping the grass in decent shape which is difficult because it's a sandy, sandy lot and they do have a they did put water in there several years ago and then the lighting of the flags that fly all the time those are really all the maintenance that goes on there trimming of the trees the mowing of the grass the watering of the grass if needed and last year that started this whole kerfuffle was the hundredth anniversary of the American Legion and because several of the members of the Legion were under the impression that they had a tremendous pot full of money sitting there for the improvement of the park we went ahead and started to spend some money and put in some new plantings mostly bulbs and perennials under some of the trees and we did have some very grand plans but I had been told by our past treasurer that there might be something that we needed to look into about spending a lot of money down there so that's when we started and I went and saw Cliff and we started finding out that we didn't have anywhere near the kind of money that we thought we had for improvements and that started us on this whole road trying to finalize the deed, the transfer of the deed trying to explain this to our membership is very difficult because people have had assumptions about it for years but we're getting there and finding out and wanting to be part of setting up a process where we could be involved in perhaps some of that maintenance but having a real process that we go through that things are not just brought in to the town and signed off on in sort of a helter-skelter way which has happened in the past we don't want that anymore so my understanding of speaking in generalities about the part of money is that the part is available it's just that the details of the use of the money is that correct me if I'm wrong but the details say that only the interest is available for use every year that interest isn't a someone will see $90,000 and will think oh we have that part of money but really it's the generated interest on a yearly basis that is available which limits the type of work that can be done at Grand Park and there's not just the mowing there's an electric bill to keep the light on the flag there's water and sewer for the watering and a few miners like that can I go back Patrick can we say the town of Randolph agrees to maintain Grand Park period or the town of Randolph agrees to maintain Grand Park in accordance with the requirements of the deed I think that would be good and this will we'll continue to work with Cliff on all of this unless you've got other direction the legal bills are not really the bills expenses that you talked about I think some of what we're looking at right now is just is the town interested in the Legion of Adults and Cliff continuing to work out what these details are so we're not going to be approving this no more than anyone is saying it tonight we're we're basically saying let's continue we're bringing to your attention and saying it's a process because the Legion will have to go among the membership we haven't talked about the cost of preparing deeds and to transfer documents so I don't know whether that would be part of the trustee of public funds or whether I think it would really have to stretch the general construction of English language to make that a constant part of the grant funds but Bill, the original members of the American Legion didn't and we still have the list of those names I'm sure their families would be very surprised I'm Marty Strange, I live across the street from the park on South Pleasant Street I'm really glad to have this conversation going on it's long overdue, we need to resolve this the park has deteriorated in recent years the original deed called for a fence to be along the front of the park a decorative fence and I have assumed that the shrubbery that's there has fulfilled that obligation and I think it does so beautiful but that shrubbery is really getting unwieldy there's spikes on it that long and you know when shrubbery gets long spikes pruning it really doesn't make it look like a shrub anymore so I'm hoping that this moves ahead as quickly as possible and that this spring we're getting the kind of work done that needs to restore the park really to the beautiful place it once was and I'll confess I have more at stake in this than anybody because I sit on my front porch and I admire that park every evening it's a beautiful place it is a lovely place, it needs to be maintained yeah moving forward right that's one for your list none for ours are there any expense issues now as a question I was trying to get at before is that all I'm saying there are outstanding bills from some of the work that was done this past year several of them have been paid but there are some that are that are still outstanding I am going to drop down to item E thank you which is the amendment that we had the public hearing on for the land breaks and I don't think you guys want to set this up I should have probably done it earlier but questions on it anybody want to make a motion go for it there I took a bite I know it was starting the question earlier I didn't answer it fully so the three districts that this amendment is limited to is limited to is the Randolph Village Identity District, the Commercial Business District and the East Randolph Village District so those three districts are PUD and it will be implied thank you final questions It was my job I was on the planning commission I think it would have been better if we did it this time I can if you Like I'll move we do the three Perfect thank you back can't wait all night Okay I'll second that are you going to do that too All right All right. All right. Post, sustained, motion carries. All right. Thank you. Okay. We're going to back up local hazard mitigation plan. Yes, the town had received a grant or really the state of Vermont on behalf of the town of Randolph and several other towns received a grant to complete an updated local hazard mitigation plan. We sent out an RFP so that we could receive assistance to complete a local hazard mitigation plan. We received one application and that was from our Regional Planning Commission, two rivers out of Quiche. They would like to help us create our plan. And normally we would have more options, but we sent out the RFP to local experts as well and we really only had one. That's what they're supposed to have. Yeah. If the board would be so inclined, we'd love to have a vote to accept. I'm looking at previous minutes. I don't believe the select board actually accepted the grant granted by FEMA to the state and not by the board to the town. But if the board were to accept the grant and then authorize me to establish a sub-grant agreement with our Regional Planning Commission, we could commence the project. Craig, maybe if I'm wrong, this is the effort we've used to go around and actually check with businesses on what some of our risks are. Hazards? No, that is what I would call the tier two report. But we need Donahue to do this last time, any round. Maybe the last one was five years ago. It could have been this project. We also have what's called a local emergency management plan. That one's a yearly project, but I think maybe you're referring to this one five years ago. We did send the RFP to Mr. Donahue, but. No response? No. Just some of the data that we were hoping to come out of this with for the fire services study. I can't imagine that we're gonna get much when the line item for it is $1,200 and they want $100 an hour for the people on it. Yeah. We are hoping to offset our match from the information collected through the committee. Oh my. But. The mayor gave us a date. Yeah, they're giving us a date. They're giving us a date. They're giving us a date. So. But a part of the sub grant agreement can be that we have a conference in someone from two rivers to our meetings and ask them to help us with the process as well. Over the next half of the grant and. Second that. I have a question. We actually have more money than we need Donahue. We tailored our RFP to the total amount that we have. We have to have a match of at least 25%. That could come through cash or in kind contribution and the majority of our proposed match is going to be an in kind contribution. The grant was a little over 10,000. The total grant of that 10,000 includes our 25 or $2,300 match. The whole grant is 10,000 and change including our 25%. But the amount that we are receiving cash only is 70, like $7,400. And that is what we would have reimbursed before the census. It's ample funds for what we need. We'll make it. So maybe we could add in training lots as part of it. Well, it's two separate reports. They've been going to different companies and asking what they have, chemical-wise, danger-wise. We're doing that now for our facilities. The other companies have to report to our fire department said to FEMA, it's not to FEMA, but to forget the agency that they report to. Yeah, but that's a two report. That's just chemicals they have on base in containers. What we want is to get into building materials and the facilities and so with the new building products that are being used, the way you would fight a fire is completely different. We need to take in the committee and go in boots on the ground. And each of us, we were hoping to avoid it, but we're probably not going to. That's a nice try. Great. Any more questions, comments, concerns? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Scheduled the reorganization on meeting. Next month is when the board will have the new board. We wanted to ask the board if they had a preference for when it wanted to meet, whether it be the day after the meeting on the 4th of March or whether it be the week after during the normal meeting day of the select board. Which would be the 12th? The 9th, I believe, of March. No, no, I'm sorry. You're right. The 12th. So I would be away until the 10th. That has any bearing on the situation. I can still call in if you'd like. No, sure. I have no preference either way. Pressing. I've not really ever understood why we need to organize and then meet again. We've been doing it for a hundred years. I know. Tradition. I mean, I'll call in if you guys want me to. It's fine. I have no problem with that. Doesn't take us that long. I mean, unless there's some pressing reason why we need to meet right away. I don't know why we would. I mean, there's just a little lag in time of who's really on the committee, but we're not talking a week here or less, right? So, there's some appointments you have to make, but we're gonna likely anything's gonna be an emergency between that period of time. If it is, we'll hand it off to Perry. Sure, I'll hand it right off to me. I'll be right off. I'll be happy to take care of it for you. And if there is an issue, there's still a majority of the board that is available and can currently serving. So, if we needed to have an emergency meeting, we could have the three sitting members of the board hold a meeting. Oh, the board is actually what's voted. Exactly. At that point anyway. So, it's not to decide who's on the board. It's to start appointing people on committees and all that. Right, it's committee appointments. Yeah. I think it's fine to wait until the 12th. All right, me. All right, so we're gonna go March 12th for the regular meeting. Susie? That was great, gang. Working Communities Grant. The Workies Communities Grant is a grant that the town participated as part of a group. We're successful in receiving the initial $15,000 grant from the Boston Federal Reserve. This $15,000 grant with no match will allow us to continue working with other towns in our partnership to develop the goals that we're hoping to develop, which is increased regional activity. And if we are successful, we are one of eight groups that were selected in Vermont. If we're successful, we can apply for a much bigger grant of $300,000, payable over a three-year period. A three-year period. We're really hoping to receive that grant. We do feel that we have a great group. And with all the activity and growth and the grants that we've received over the last two years, leveraging those successes will potentially lead into this new, much larger $300,000 grant. Can every group get to $300,000, or is there a limit? The eighth area is a limit of, I think there's four. Four at five. Yeah. So we're whittling down the group. There's four. Yeah, four. And then there was the piece that, because we're in Opportunity Zone, that adds a little something to do with this. Because they're treating Opportunity Zones are supposed to be getting preferential treatment because of the demographics of Opportunity Zones. So, Josh, we have a very strong chance of securing this. And these zones were highlighted actually in some of the plans at the federal level going forward, even to try to give additional resources to them. We could see it playing out as points added in scores at the federal level for grant applications now. And another good point is we, as we move forward with the $15 grant to the board accepts, there was a group to the south of us that included Royalton, Stratford, and a few other smaller towns in their area. This group that was successful that includes Randolph is considering expanding the group to include them. So it would bring almost all of the towns in the White River Valley area together. So it would make us a more attractive group because now we include Randolph, which is the anchor for the group that we're in, and then also Royalton, which was the anchor for that group, because they're also part of an Opportunity Zone that would make us a much more competitive group. But they were not chosen. So that's why we could add them to our group. Yeah, and they were part of an unsuccessful attempt at $15,000, but if we rolled them into ours, we're a much bigger area, much bigger group, two Opportunity Zones. Here's a similar discussion as we're had for the type of funding. What do you do with funding? So they're comparable. So, good stuff. So you need a motion to accept the grant? Motion to accept. You do, please. I just did it. Second. Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Those stand for the various USDA grant gear house. This grant Opportunity Zone that Josh found online is meant to help businesses in rural areas. The thought behind applying for this grant is that it would help the potential tenant at the hub, the bicycle shop, to be able to provide them with some expertise in training, opportunities to become more successful. If the board allows us to apply for this grant, we would use the successes of the Boric Grant, the private donations that have come to the hub, and hopefully if we are to receive this grant, this funding could be used to make that business successful and help to continue growing the Apple economy. So he's looking for permission just for authorization to apply? To apply. Let's try it. Softwareization will apply. Well, I would make a motion that we ask Josh to apply for this grant on behalf of the gear house. Aye. Aye. Post? Steve? I believe they're seeking $10,000 would be the amount that they would see here. Okay. So you can get up to half a million though. Why would you stop it? Yeah. For our, he's for everybody right there. I think it's a beneficial thing. These guys are dumb guys and they're gonna need some help. We helped out business kids. We need to get them on the ground. Yeah, it'd be really great. All I have been given is some creative suggestions here and there, so it's obvious they could use some assistance. We should look at that grant application before it goes in and see if there's anything else we can roll into it. Roll into it. Yeah, we can talk with Josh about that. I could share it. We could share with the board before we pull it together. As we're pulling it together, we could just share it. We're just even with the outline of it is what we're thinking and see if it sparks an idea that somebody might know something else that's going on that we could put in with it, especially when it's training and things like that they're providing. Is there somebody else out there that could benefit from the same training that might help add points? Sure. Yeah, okay. Before we leave grants, just a note for the board that East Randolph Valley Group got their first report in on the building, but they wanted to be on the agenda to be considered to apply for the second phase of the grant, but I didn't get it right up from what the second phase was gonna do and whatnot. So we can expect we'll see that probably soon. So the first phase of evaluating the town hall there is completed. It's a very just extreme thumbnail sketch. The second phase of this is through the preservation trust is bringing in actually somebody to evaluate the structure itself and so better. I think they feel they're ready to go, but they didn't get the summary of what the second grant was gonna do. Plus, they're ready to come to the board job. Okay. But it will be. They're moving along and getting a little momentum. Yeah. And they feel they need both of these reports to start doing fundraising and getting folks to be committed to raising funds. Yeah. All right. Draft, tax, stabilization policy, business. We did not include the dissing drafting your packets and would like to ask if you could postpone it to the next meeting. Fire services, reach discussion. Oh, yeah. Yes, that was a vote that had been taken by fire service advisory committee, which apparently there was, there may have been a misunderstanding from when the meeting initially occurred between the members themselves. As I had a member of the committee come to speak to me and say the minutes did not actually reflect what they felt had happened at the committee itself. I still need to reconnect with the committee itself to ask what actually was discussed during the meeting as opposed to the revision of the minutes. Because what has since been reported to me, and apparently maybe in the works of changing the minutes is that the committee did not vote to raise our wages, but instead voted to advise the board to consider raising wages. And the reason why that difference is important is because one is dictating to the board that wages need to be increased. And the other is asking the board to potentially consider raising wages to our firefighters. But my understanding of the challenge is that there's two totally different perspectives on what that raise equals. The coming out of the committee, it was only around a $1,000 cost of the town. Coming out of Cliff, it was more like a $5,000 or $6,000 cost for what they were requesting. And so I was expecting we would see that analysis of what is the true cost to the increase they were requesting. You're right. The information is, as it's being relayed to the town, is very station-focused. And so one will hear an amount of, oh, it's only $800, $1,000. But that's only for a station. And then we start considering wages for all of the departments. In addition to workers' comp payments, in addition to all these other payments that we have to make that are off the books, or they're on the books, but they're not necessarily seen, they're just firefighters or everyone just sees their wage, their check, but there are all these other payments that have to be made. And that's closer to the amount that Trini's referring to. It's not just the wages, but it's the wages plus workers' comp, health insurance. It's the workman's comp and all the, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. One of the things that we, as a bit of a tangent to this, one of the things that we, in the finance department did was, at the end of last payment cycle, or last calendar year, we included a memo and every staff member's pay stop that said this is your wage as a cost of the town, and this is what you don't see, which is the insurance payments made on the behalf for vision, health, mental, and everything else. So everyone now knows what their cost is to the taxpayer, which is their salary, plus the additional benefits that are paid on their behalf. So what their total cost is to the taxpayer. Payment to firefighters is very different. Two of our three stations get paid once a year, so to them, it's harder to communicate with them in this way, but Trini's right. It's not just the raise in wages, it's the raise in wages. It's not just companies that go with it. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's how do you get your head around what they're asking? Is it unreasonable? Yeah. But you gotta have everybody with the same understanding of what it is they're asking before you can buy it. One of the options that I do hope to bring is, criticism we hear regularly from some fire leadership is that it's usually the same firefighters that show up to fire scenes and not so much. The issue isn't so much you have a full staff of 25, it's you typically have a core that show up at just 10 to 12. So I haven't approached the majority of the group with this option, but it's trying to change the mentality of, well, maybe it's reducing the total roster from 25 to let's say 15 and raising wages for those 15 and trying to make it more of an exclusive group as opposed to we're begging people to be a member, more of a we're an exclusive group, we show up to these scenes, we're fairly compensated, but breaking into this group is a very hard thing to do. So you have to be with us kind of like a trial membership. It's kind of those little tweets here and there. I haven't approached the fire department yet on being able to do that if they're interested, but it's like having a nightclub. A nightclub on the inside could be empty, but you have a long line outside and people think it's the hottest club in the world. So it's just the perception of it. And in this case, if we make 15 highly paid firefighters, the priority, everyone wants to be a part of that group. And then it becomes, if you get highly. I don't think any of them do it for the pay. Right. Is what we hear. No, I don't think so. But if you look at some of the surrounding departments and what they're paid, it's much less. I hate to have to live off Jeff's volunteer check. Yeah, but then like you said, it's not about the money for them. It's just what's fair compensation. Well, it's also about what do you have for a volunteer pool because I might only be here nights because I work out of town. So I'm not gonna be able to cover you during the day. Right. And this guy's got the expertise on this type of fire and the training in the background. It's when you, I hate to start limiting below the number they have now when they have a fire and three people show up because it's during the day and everybody has to work out of town, you know. Hopefully, how do we continue to build jobs in town then maybe that option is there because back in the day, we had to email in all them. Yeah, you can email in all of them. We had no problem pulling the fire roster. We had no problem with full compliments responding. So I just want a different world. I'm a little not nervous about narrowing the number of them because it's, you know, if they were full-time employees, we would definitely have a much, much higher cost on our hands and that's some of what we're, you know, we agreed that the fire services committee agreed to take on the compensation question and the whole list of goals, but to look at what, how do you balance it and stay on the right side of the law? Well, it sounds like you have more homework to do here. I think so. Yeah. Appointments, we have some recommendations for the Water Wastewater Committee but we would be appointing them to reappoint again in a month. In a month? In a month. So it looks like the recommendation is to hold off and appoint in March? That would be my recommendation but I wanted to give the board the option. That they need. Anything going on there, Larry? Chris has been talking about scheduling a meeting for a while now. I don't know what his plans are for the immediate future, whether he would really like to do something sooner or later, but I know he's been, it's been on his plate to like, to get something going. He's not hard on putting somebody on and then reappointing them in a month. Yeah, I mean, you can do that. I'm fine by me if you're glad. If you're having a meeting and you need some, you need a staff person, somebody willing to volunteer, I'd say put them on. Yeah. We'll get two volunteers for one vacancy. Well, we, so it's set up as a five member committee, is that right? Yes, what I had listed was, it used a member, we had John Lutz, we had Jay Hooper, have Dave Farnham and then they vacancy left by Suzanne. Now, it could be bigger, I think there could be an error in that I saw what was listed on our website and it may not have included two vacancy listings. We can choose to enlarge it and recognize that. Right, I think in the short term, like if we did need to meet, it would be nice for it to be bigger just because right now there's really just three of us. Just three, right? Well, Jay is officially on the committee but he has not come to a meeting. It's difficult to get him there. Well, difficult is I kind of understand that. And so I would propose that we appoint the two people that are requesting to be on the committee and get Jay off because he hasn't shown any real indication that he intends to serve. Okay, we can deal with that part next month, right? In terms of Jay wants to get a great point in the motion. Unless we need this slot to appoint both of these, right? Well, I mean, can we make the committee bigger right now? Sure. Because we could do that too. It's more of a motion. We could leave Jay on it and give him another chance to commit himself to the committee if he wants to. I can be in touch with him and we can make it seven if it's not already seven. It is five, yeah, if it's not already seven, yeah. And then I can appoint these two folks who have expressed interest. Does anybody know these folks? One of them is here. I know one of them is a member of mine. I think he would be good here. I was gonna actually have experience being on the water committee in a previous town, you know what I mean? So I think he would come with rather than experience also, which would be great. I don't know the other person who expressed interest, but. She was here tonight. Was she? Oh, she was already on it. Right, right. Oh, okay. She works for Simons, I guess, which you should have experienced. Yeah, at least a knowledge, right? Which is in the office. That's what I mean, yeah, knowledge. So I'll move who you appoint those two people, so the water and silica, Dio Johnson and Crystal Currier. And increase the size to seven, if that's what it takes. All right, if needed. I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Ghost, stain, motion carries. All those pot, stain, motion. Yep. And Larry, that was the second. Yes. Any other business? So roughly we'd be reaching out to those folks. I'll reach out to them. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we have to reach out. Well, we'll reach out to them, but we also have to reach out to the committees just to remind them that they need to check with our membership for those that want to be reappointed or not to be reappointed. Business? I do. I'll make it very quick. One is we have an RFP out. We have two RFPs out at the moment. One is for the two dump trucks for the town. We are expanding the radius of where we release it. So we posted the truck announcement online. We sent it to local contacts. We're also sending it to retailers and manufacturers in Canada. Once we receive the bids in, we'll present them to the board. And if the cost is low enough with the exchange rate that the truck purchased in Canada versus potential having a truck drive it up there for maintenance, we'll perform that analysis and share it with the board, but we're trying to get the cheapest possible trucks that are available. Most price, most responsive. Exactly, yeah. And I said the cheapest. I was like, uh, not necessarily, but. Well, it's good to have some competitive bids to see what's going on. Yeah, absolutely. We are still working with the Department of Environmental Conservation with our water, water issues becoming a little contentious, but we'll keep working with them. Hopefully we will not have to end up back in court, but we'll have more news to share with the board as we move forward. The, I'm not sure if Larry may be aware of this, but I believe the water wastewater committee is potentially looking to make changes to, well, the water wastewater superintendent may soon make recommendations to the water committee to include some penalties into our water ordinance. Some of the issues that exist is we have some of our larger companies that produce sprinkler tests without informing the water district superintendent. That test tends to create issues with the quality of the water. Mainly what happens is somebody opens the tap. It's almost like a flush. It gets everything up riled up and it could create water quality issues in residences. So there have been some repeat offenders or superintendent is concerned about the number of times they do it that it costs the town for staff time and water that is released. So those are some changes that may come to the water committee at some point for their review. The R3 report for the town's process is now out. There's some copies upstairs. Other copies have been left throughout town. So far it's been a good part of read. I haven't read the whole thing, but it's been a favorable report. And lastly we, some staff members, Josh and I and some members of the board met with members of the board with RACDC recently to discuss a housing project in town. The town is interested in working with an organization called Twin Pines. They have done some work with Greenmount Economic Development Corporation. They'd like to perform a project here in Randolph. We recently met with RACDC because they are our local housing organization to just to share the information to get feedback from them. We agreed that RACDC's board would discuss the issue. They've confirmed that with me that they're gonna talk about it their next meeting. So I just wanted to share that with the board that we're still having these conversations about potentially having a housing project at the branch of the property. Nothing is firm at the moment. It's still just ongoing conversations. I just wanted to share that with everyone. And that is really it with the exception of one lighter piece of news. Dave Crosby and I are undefeated at Trivia, for Echo Whiskey. We went to Trivia last weekend and we didn't lose and we didn't win because it was canceled, but it still says we're undefeated. I'm undefeated in a zero in a no contest. You knew all the answers. You knew all the answers, it was great. Yeah, I couldn't match them up with the questions. And that is all I have. Is that a combination of other business managers report? Yeah, that was yeah. Anything else? You know, if we turn it into a paid to get into the bar event, we can generate some revenue for the town. If I get the feeling that your school taxes are going to be down in the future. I don't know, I don't think so. I might tend to agree with some of the thoughts about increasing enrollment and more families coming here. I think that's could be building. I think based on what I'm seeing and feeling and hearing and knowing what's going on, kind of in the background some projects that are coming forward. So maybe, but I still don't see this much happening until the grant list, you know, increases. So, at least on both sides of that. Anyway, unrelated to the school budget, Cliff and I are projecting additional increases in revenue because of pilot money that will increase. So if all things stay steady for the town, we may actually see a very favorable tax rate for next fiscal, not the next one, but the one after that because of the pilot money that will come, well, not just the pilot money through the state for the state lab, but also potential increases to free foods and some of these other projects that are eventually going to start to come online, LEB's project. So we're seeing some favorable projection over the next few years, at least from our side. School district is down. And that's why the Salisbury Square Project, that moves forward and becomes an asset that's taxable along with- We need them both. Yeah, you need them both. I really think you need them both. Because I think you need both of them because they're hitting different income levels, right? That's what I get out of this. Both, both meanings. Well, the project that, you know, the Transquist Project could be, you know, could be another potential, that's the higher income type units. So, you know, I think they both could raise the, raise the bar here. Absolutely. Those coupled with, you know, again, LED, with expansion of free foods and all these other projects going on, we're actually growing the tax base. Yeah. So. Yeah, I could be entering a nice sort of virtuous cycle here where success breeds more success. We'll be building two houses in the East Valley. There's a- Oh, hello. I just saw it. Did you see the paper? It was off us? Okay. Did you see the back of the valley? That way, we're rally heralded in the Duff was off us. The 1960s version? Yeah, 1961. Did you see that? No. You should show it to them. It was kind of ironic. I got a copy of that the next day. Yeah, after the day after Trini shared this paper with me, Perry, found another copy elsewhere. Yeah, another copy of it. If we're reading the reportings from 1961, it says that the town has entered a period of growth. It showed all these great projects coming online. 10 years of things that were happening from 50s to the 60s. Yeah. The interesting thing is that for the most part, you can change that whole report to now and then just change the pictures from all those projects from back then to the projects that are happening now. The town on the move. Town on the move? Yeah, that's what it was called. Yeah, you should go look. They're well. It's fascinating. It's pretty, it's a, it's a, it's six pages. So it's a high school before they entered. Yeah. It's six or eight pages of, you know, different businesses that were growing, you know, expansions. Brand new? Yeah, brand new things that were up here. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Right, White River Valley Home, I think it was. Yeah. Huh? That's funny that you got it. I was over the Sam Hoopers. I'm like, you were told me about it and I'm like 10, like two hours later, I'm over there and I'm looking at this thing and it's buried in a pile of paper. I'm like, what's that? And I pull it out and it's the same thing you told me about. It's like, wow. It's really funny. Yeah. That was like, I don't know where he got it from. Well, there's left in the glove factory and there's a pile of stuff. But the glove factory's mentioned in it. That's maybe why it was there. Uh-huh. Well, Clint's actually had it. He collects a bunch of them. Yeah. They have a memorabilia from town. Yeah. They had it. It's pretty stuff. Okay, wow. We need to do a story. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha. How are you written? It's just, you know, rewriting it. It's just got to change. Somebody's been around blank and old news papers. That's what I'm wondering, right? Ha ha ha ha. Somebody over there that is the Herald missing some out of their archives or something. Who knows? I'll have to look. Ha ha ha. You have to look. All right. Motion to adjourn. I second it. We'll move it when we go down to the high schools a lot. With Matt, the rest of them. Please pass it over again. Well, I'm going to go make snow. Oh. That's what I'm going to do. All those in favor? All right. Bye.