 So it is Monday, August 3, 2020, the Moretown Select Board. This is our first Zoom meeting. I can see we have Martin as a guest. Neil is on in Orca media. So it is getting out there. And all members of the board are on. So Martin. I'm not sure if you can hear me. I don't know. Why didn't you go ahead? No one else for, for general public comment. I know you had a few things that have come up. If you want to start with the, I don't know, with the Rodney's truck. We can go from there. Sure. Everybody can hear me fine. Yeah. So Rodney's truck. After budget season, of course. We had an issue with the side dump. His side dump hinges broke. So he finished the winter plowing season with. Just using straight body, no side dump. He was not able to get. So basically he was able to get half a load of sand out to do his route. And we all adjusted and covered as we needed to. I worked on getting a quote from. Everest slash. Fairfields. And they gave me a quote of nine grand. To fix the side dump issue. I had put seven into the budget for Rodney's truck. I believe seven. I think that's the correct number. So I wasn't that concerned. I figured we could do it. Okay. So. Right before I went on vacation last week, they got a hold of me. They've finally gotten the truck in for repair. They estimate that. Repair will double. So closer to 18 to 20 grand to repair that side. Definitely not great. Sorry. Definitely not good. Good news. Okay. I just trying to get some general information. I reached out to them. And got a budget on a whole new. Dump body, which is about 32. 32 five is what they came in for a budget. Maybe possibly can work them down to, you know, I told them, I said, I don't have a budget. I don't have a budget. I don't have a budget. I don't have a budget. I don't have a budget. So. Nine grand I could handle with my budget. You know, I could have found a way to. Take that extra $2,000 off of their. Budgeted amount. We could have made that work. 18 to 20. It's going to be really tough for me to. To absorb that in my budget. I think that's a really good information as far as what we should do. So here's the thing. His trucks of 2012. This next cycle of budget season, I would have put in for the truck replacement as per our. Supposedly eight year cycle, but it's kind of worked out to a 10 year cycle. Over time. So what do we put. $33,000 into this truck. Keep in mind, the truck is the least used truck during the summer because it is a standard. And it's just a lot easier to use an automatic for ditching and all the work we do in the summer. So he only has around 75,000 miles on this truck. Which is an old high amount for a truck. My worst fear is we put money into the new dump body. And then we decided to keep this truck for an infinite amount of time, which is just going to push the 2015 truck, my truck back. You know, and so on and so forth. So. I guess we're going to come up with a group. I guess we got to come up with a decision of what we're going to do. I don't, I don't have a lot of good answers at this time. Really of what should be done. I mean, keep in mind we have run into this exact same issue. With the 07 that we kept probably a year too long. The 04 that we kept a year too long. I think it seems to be a reoccurring theme. So I will defer to the board for any comments or questions that you have at this time. Right. Do you have any questions? Just to, just to recap. Martin, the total fix now is 30,000. That's about 20 raised about 20. A new body would be about 30. Okay. Correct. So, so we're going to, but if we do the repair, we're going to put $20,000 into a side, into a body that's probably worth 15 at this point. That's the issue that I'm running into. I mean, the body was in great shape. I'd have no issues doing it, but the body is. Completely junk. This was Stuart's truck. He went with Everest on this. They've had a lot of issues with their bodies over the years. And this being one. So basically it's the hinges on the side dump that have all blown out. But during the, you know, almost nine years that the truck's been in service. It's the repair people are telling me that there's not a lot to work with to weld back new hinges and stuff. That's why. So it's the extra labor basically at this point to make this repair. If you went with a new, you would not buy another Everett. That's. Everett. That's kind of what I'm deferring to the board. Two is, is what we would like to do. So I honestly think the truck has a lot of. Decent hours left in it. I mean, we put this new body on it and we basically have. An excellent truck. My major, my biggest concern is. Then we put it off and we try to hold on to the truck for. Five years. So let's say just throw out a number. I mean, it could be four, could be eight. But it could be eight. And what do we do in the meantime with the rest of the fleet? So my truck being a 2015. You know, do we skip this truck? Do we keep it for a spare? And still get, I, I mean, I'm, I'm kind of at a loss for. So Martin, as far as bodies go, is this. The least expensive option. We're putting on a new body. We're putting on a new body. We're putting on a new body. We're putting on a new average. I mean, I know we could save a couple of thousand here or there somewhere, but I think so. Body about 30,000 is what we should budget. I think so. The other part of this, the whole. There's a lot of factors in play here. So. If we went with. A new body through Everest. There are 120 days out on a body. So that's four months. So that's four months. That doesn't mean we can't have the truck and continue to use it. As we have in the past. I just don't think it's an option to go through a whole winter cycle with the truck that's. Only able to. Carry half capacity of sand. Martin, you cut out a little bit there. Oh, sorry. Yep. You said go through a whole winter. I don't think that this. So your biggest worry is. If you have this, I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing. If we have a truck that's we put this money into, and we can rather than trade it next year, save it for. And use it for another five. That doesn't mean. When your truck or the next truck is. You know, we have. We have a plan to replace a capital plan every. Eight years. I think there's some flexibility in that. Going both ways. I mean, we've seen things where we've had to replace early. But also if we can push out. And this instance, it might be by investing this 30,000. You know, another five years. But when your truck is, is, is due. We would. You know, I'm on the board. I would certainly take a look at it. It's something that is under what we. Put under that umbrella is why we want to trade in that timeframe. I would still go ahead with that. So I think we need to look at this truck as. What is the best plan for this truck rather than. What it may do. To our chronological order as far as ordering new trucks in the future. Okay. Yeah, definitely. It's a unique situation just with the low mileage in the low hours of this truck. I probably wouldn't even consider. Doing this with one of the two other trucks being mine and Sean's trucks. As they get used extensively in the summer. So we've been actually without Rodney's truck for. A month and a half now it's been down in New Hampshire. Everest was in Morrisville. So we've got a lot of new trucks out there now. Out of that shop. They're in New Hampshire. So. So we've gotten by without the truck. But we definitely obviously need it back for winter. So. I'm just. What about any of the other. Companies. Yeah, I'm sorry, Tom, you cut out a little bit there, but I would definitely shop around and see what we could come up with for the best body options. I can tell you. That. Both mine and Sean's are Viking bodies and they. Tentatively appear to be holding up much better than. Past builds that we've had through Everest and Tango. They have a paint. Scheme that they use where they're, you know, powder coated and finished also. We have started our regiment of undercoating the trucks. Every fall and this. You're. You've been cutting in a little, cutting in and out a little bit. Yeah, you can describe this last body, if you will. You're also cutting it out a bit too. Let me know if you're not hearing me correct. Yeah, I apologize if the, if it's not going as smoothly internet is an issue here. I hear you. I would not go ahead with the repair. I think I would get quotes on a new body from. The three people or the manufacturers that are available. You know, get them back to us as quick as possible in between now and then, you know, we'll need to think about this and figure out, talk to the finance committee, see where this money could come from. And. Go from there, I think. I agree. 30,000. Thanks, John. Don, what's your question? Well, I'm just curious. Is this truck at this point. And right now have any trade in value? I mean, if it's. It's low hours and low time. Don, excuse me, as soon as you started to talk, you just froze up and there was nothing. So. Start over. Okay. I was just curious. Does the truck have. Any trade in value. I mean. You know, versus repairing it. Is there some trade in value towards another truck with lower interest rate. That was happening right now. Just a question. Yeah. Did you get that? Yeah. Yes. Yes. I heard you well done on the second try. That's a great, great question. One that I have not pursued yet. As obviously we're talking here. The plan for this truck was for me to request from the board. In the upcoming budget season to go to voter approval for a new. Truck. On this, on this 2012 Rodney's truck. However, we still need to get through the winter with this. With that said. A lot of the manufacturers have been doing pre-built. But I'm not sure if you will Sean's truck. Our 2018 international was. A pre-built truck. It was already built when we bought it. So I have not. Research this. As far as going with the new truck. But I can certainly do that and get all our. Numbers together and we'll see where that takes us. I don't know if that's the answer. Quite honestly, I don't even know what a new truck is worth. In terms of our being able to put it into this cycle. But I was just curious if that's. Is an avenue we should take. Yeah, it's definitely not a bad question, Don. You know, I definitely crossed my mind of, do we just bite the bullet and see what's out there right now? Yeah. Yeah. Again, I, I don't think we like to purchase things without voter approval, but we do have this upcoming election. So it's possible. And then we just have to kind of, I guess, get the numbers together and we will, you know, revisit this. In a minimum of two weeks and make that decision then. Possibly. We, but we does have to happen. Relatively soon. Yeah. Yeah. So if we were to pursue the new truck. Avenue and. And I'm not opposed to that. You would, you would need an inch on a new truck. Probably. Yeah. And then we'll, as soon as you possibly can, that way we can talk to the finance committee. And get some recommendations from them as well. All right. Question. Yeah, go ahead, Ray. So if, if we were to pursue the new truck. Avenue and. And I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not opposed to that. Probably. Within 30 days. I would guess. And. I don't anticipate being able to vote on this. Until November. And I don't know if this is an issue or not. But. Is that going to, if we have to wait for a vote or approval, unless you have a special vote. We can't wait till November. I don't think. Yeah. The only thing I'm thinking Ray, I'm not sure if it's going to be a good idea. I've been prebuilt out there. The. Manufacturer may be willing to hold that for us. Pending voter approval. As they have. Tentatively agree to do in the past. But I have no idea because of the fiscal year's budget. A lot of towns obviously go. July 1st. or calendar year versus fiscal year. So there may be a lot of money out there that have already scooped up these trucks. I do not know. I'd have to definitely research that a little bit. Okay, Mark. And I get it now. I, and I agree with the factor on that there, I would get some more pricing and either way, clouds or trucks, we look at the both of them and see where we're at. We have to do something. Not in favor of repairing it. I'm in favor of going new or a new truck. Okay. Thank you, Ray. And then my other little piece to this is the repairing and we decide to go to the repair route. How long does that take? I mean, when do you have to pull the trigger to get that in time? Did everybody hear me on that? Yeah, broke up a little bit, little bit down there, but I think you were asking about the repair work. That's my least favorite option at this point. I really have issues with dumping 20 grand into a dump body that may be worth, you know, 15. So that is my least favorite option. Yeah. But they have the truck currently, it's sitting in New Hampshire and they are ready to pull the trigger on the repair work if that's what we decide. I doubt that. I don't think anyone's willing to be repairing it. I think it's either a new body or a whole new truck, but we'll see. I mean, if we decide on the 30,000 or whatever it'll be, we certainly do have the money in the capital reserve fund. Martin? Did everybody hear that? I heard you, John. Okay. That'd be the repair. And if it gives us 30,000, Martin, if you say it might be good for another five years, I just think that that's the route to go. Yeah, thank you, John. Yeah, once we get all the numbers, I think it'll one direction will probably be clear, but let's take a look at all options and see what's out there. And we may be surprised one way or another. Right. Callie, did you have an opinion on this or? I don't see a point in repairing it. If repairing it is gonna be a little bit more than half of what a new body would be. So either getting a new body or a new truck considering it's so close to being repaired to being traded out anyway. And there could be a good trade in value on it considering the low hours. Yeah, yeah, great point. All right, Martin, what's your next thing you have to report? That was pretty much it. I have, you know, some, we've got some work. We've recently moved on to the mountain road. As far as routine ditching culvert work goes, we've wrapped up some MRGP, the municipal roads general permit work on Lover's Lane and Longley Road. You've got to, by the way, I was just gonna mention, you got a looking for a nice email from Lover's Lane about the work done over there. Yeah, it came out really nice. The guys did and we all did some great work over there. It looks great. I'm really pleased with that long overdue and it is a low traffic road, but it is a class three road and we got the work done and we'll continue to peck away at it. We're doing pretty well, I think right now. We'll see what happens after tomorrow night. Little concerned about the rainfall amounts it's a calling for, but hopefully our roads hold up. Okay. Will you be just at home on call or are you gonna be out at some point? Oh, sure, no, I'll be around tomorrow night, probably doing a little driving around, checking the road. Stefan, obviously be in the emergency pandemic. He said he would be out and about as well. So we'll be keeping an eye on it. Sean's checking the Brook area tonight for any obstructions and culverts. And we'll go from there. Can I ask a question before we move on? Sure, go ahead. So, Kali brought up last at our last meeting about mowing and she had a suggestion and was wondering if we should be looking at maybe not having our own mower and then being able to mow when we're in a more critical time in terms of some of the stuff that grows on the side of the road. So I was just, I don't know if anybody got to follow up with you on that, since you're on the call, I thought I'd bring it up. Yeah, no, great input. Definitely something that, as the invasives get more and more structured here in Vermont, I think it's definitely something we need to pursue. Most of the towns around us have already gone to their own roadside mower. So we spend about a little over six grand a year. I mean, so just breaking the math down, the tractor probably pays for itself in the course of a 10-year span. Could we expect repairs and stuff like that? Definitely, but it just frees us up to take care of the poison parsnip, Japanese knotweed, the poison ivy, everything that's taking over on our roadside. Poison parsnip being the big one, that has inundated Addison County vehemently and we have seen a huge uptick in it in even the last three years. To the best of my knowledge, I did not notice it on our roadsides even three years ago. So it has taken over. So we have, I've noted that on our road, for sure. So Martin, I know you just started back to work, but in your emails, there's an email to you and I think it may copy Cheryl in or Cheryl in's on it, but it's talking about a grant and it's specifically for a piece of equipment for these type of projects. So if you would find that email and I'll let Cheryl in now because we talked about it again the other day about what type of piece of equipment might be needed. And I said maybe a cedar, one of those cedars that you often talk about. But this might be hydro cedar, right? But this might be something more to what we might need. So if you get a moment tomorrow, take a look for that because that may be something. And it was a short timeline and then we could jump on that. So this might be an opportunity. I did notice that, Tom. If it's the same email that I'm referencing in the emails that I saw, it was strictly for Otter Valley Creek or something. I think it was a isolated watershed. I may be wrong about that, but I'll definitely take another look at that and see. And I'm not sure that the MRGP grant will cover routine roadside maintenance. It's like the RMPG, yeah, so let's just look into it. And if it is, that might be the, anyways, the piece to look into. Yeah, I definitely will take another look at that. I'll have Cheryl in look at it as well. Okay. So I think that. Martin, unrelated item, but I did have a call from John Sumner today regarding, he's got to replace a culvert on the end of his road. And he is claiming that we have increased the drainage through his culvert by ditching some ditch work up there in the last few years. So he's kind of looking for the town to help pay for this culvert. And I, just this morning I got that call. Have you heard anything about this or is there, you think there's any thing that we could be looking at it with? I'm sorry, Ray, the name again? It was John Sumner up near his house. Okay, South Hill, Johnny Summers. I have looked at that with him. There's absolutely no ditching that we've done has increased the water flow to his property. I am amenable to doing anything that we can help that situation. But without a doubt, we have, I mean, the water goes where it goes. We have not ditched anything up there within five, six years. Okay. So it's definitely nothing new. You know, I'm amenable to taking a look at it with you and we can try to come up with a solution but definitely nothing that we've done in the last half decade, I guess. All right, well, I am gonna be in more town tomorrow morning. I don't know where you're gonna be working at, but, you know, perhaps we could take a quick trip up there if you're gonna be in the area. Sure, that sounds agreeable. What time will you be in? I'm meeting at 730 in downtown Moretown. And I expect I'll be there half hour or so. Perfect. So eight o'clock around eight o'clock, you wanna meet me at the shop? Why don't we target that? What was the homeowner, guys? I couldn't understand the name. John Sumner. John Sumner. No, Johnny Summers. Johnny Summers. Yeah. Johnny Summers. Yeah. What place? I know he has one in the village. Is that where we're talking? South Hill. South Hill. Very good. Anything else for Martin? Yeah, I just had one thing. There's more for Stefan when you get a chance. I was in touch with Phil Harrington, the resident engineer at the state. And he said the best thing to do with the attack that they left on the lawn in the town hall, the pike left was to mull it close and just to see if the grass will come back. If it doesn't, pike obviously will have to put some, come back and put topsoil and seed it. Yes, I just got your email this afternoon and I'll be working on that tomorrow morning. Great, thanks, Stefan. Thank you, Stefan. If you guys are done with me, I'll enjoy the rest of the evening. Thank you, Martin. I appreciate your help. If everyone's done with Martin. Yeah, I do. Okay, thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. So let's go ahead and move on. We have Neil Nussbaum up next. He's got some information on the time what we need, but why don't you go ahead? Does it sound okay? Sound very clear. Okay, great. We lost Cali there for a minute. Say it again, Donny, I'm sorry. We lost Cali. Oh yeah. No, I'm still here. He's here. Yeah, good evening. Everybody, I hope everybody's doing well. So yeah, I just wanted to come before the board again and ask about scheduling the meeting for more town based on the petition that I gave you guys, I submit to you guys back in March. Like we've gone over, it's a three step process. The first step would be more town having a meeting and then if 51% of the more town votes to withdraw, and at that point it would be certified to the secretary of state and there would be an election, ratification election scheduled for the other five towns. And if at that point you'd be looking for 51% of all those folks, and if they do vote to ratify, then we would be withdrawn from the district effective the next school year. So it'd be July 1st of 2021. I just looking at the calendar, I was thinking that it'd be nice if it's possible to get the ratification vote to the other five towns. This is if more town actually decides to withdraw to get that election, that simultaneous election to coincide with election day on November 3rd. So I have to confess, I don't, excuse me. I think it's, you have to do it, the warning has to be no more than 30 days, no more than 40 days with no less than 30 days. Is that right? Correct. Yeah, so sort of back planning for November 3rd, then you'd be looking at sometime in late September. And then so the warning for the more town meeting would have to be the same, is that right? Let me close the door. Are the dogs interrupting the audio? Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Actually come, I'm not sure there isn't enough time really right for November 3rd then, is there? Yeah, and I think, I know we've been kind of pushing this around a bit, but I mean, I think there needs, I haven't heard from a lot of other people since the new, I guess in the last month or so, there hasn't been a lot of, or six weeks. Frozen again. We lost you Tom for a minute. All right, well I'm just, you know, as a board here, I guess we need to make some decisions on kind of where we sit and where we want to go. I mean, we've talked about, we want to do this, but is it just this board or is it, do we need more people involved in this? Do we want to just have a organizational meeting so that people can understand what's going on and so that we can get a better feedback if this is, see if this is what people want to do. I mean, at this point, I haven't really heard, and I don't want to spend a lot of time and energy and get things if there's not a lot of people behind this movement. And I know Neil has a lot of energy with it, but I haven't, like the Peter Langell and even our school board members, you know, I'm just not sure where I'm sitting where we should go with this. Well, I think, so assuming that there would be a vote, a more town meeting where there's a vote as to whether or not to withdraw, I would certainly think that there would be, you know, well, I would recommend that the vote be by Australian ballot, and that would be so that people that are more towners that are employed by the district would feel comfortable voting. But before that, that vote, there would be a meeting, like an informational meeting, and I would go ahead and I certainly feel that based on everything that I've found that the best thing for more town would be to withdraw from the district, and I would like an opportunity to make that case. And I imagine there'd be people there that would feel the opposite, and that they would have an opportunity to speak there as well, and then we could have a vote on it. Because I mean, I've seen some of your stuff, but I don't know what's the plan, you know, all right, we vote to get out. Where do we go? What do we do? Who's running the ship? Well, so what would happen is if we actually, so if the more town, so all three steps happened, so more town votes and step one to withdraw then there's ratification vote and the other five towns ratify the withdrawal, then on July 1st of 2021, the more town school district would be reconstituted. So we would be our membership in the unified consolidated school district would end, and the more town school district would be reconstituted and then we would create a more town school board. We would be a pre-K through sixth grade district that we would send our kids pre-K through six to schools in our district, that'd be the more town school, and then we would need to tuition kids out for grade seven through 12. And again, this, I mean, obviously this would be an important part of the presentation that I would make before the photo to explain what this would look like post withdrawals, you know, if and when we actually successfully withdraw. John, what do you think? Did you say John? Yeah, John. Oh, well, Neil and I met actually two weeks ago about this. And one of the things that one of my big question is, I mean, does this save, would this save the town money and so on and so forth? And also in terms of, is this something that leaves both Lisa and Kristen are in favor of? I know that Gabe is in favor of it, but what's Lisa and Kristen's feeling? And then also the fact that everything has changed so completely with COVID-19, and they do have a tentative timeframe of going for combining the two middle schools for 2021 and then perhaps withdrawing five and six for Moretown for 2022. One of my big concerns is that with Mecca, you know, if Moretown schools is Mecca, it's, which it has already, they're looking for a building that is just another reason for them to come in and say, let's close Moretown school. So I mean, right now I'm still a bit up in the air about it. I certainly did pursue it further, but I think it's a little premature to start votes when we don't even know what it would cost the town. If it ends up costing the town more money than where we are now, you know, that might not be such a great idea. Don, what about you? What's your thoughts? Still digesting at all and trying to educate myself about the act 46 and what that means to education and students and class sizes and all, which was set out to help facilitate. I've certainly been sitting and watching or not sitting awareness of what's been going on in the last year, two years, and a lot of the ups and downs and discourse with that. So that's been challenging to follow. I did send you all the article that I read in the VAL, I reported three weeks ago, that seemed a bit optimistic about the steps going forward. And I do agree with what John just said, I'm not sure, but I would think that C-19 is certainly, we gotta get through that before I can't imagine that they're multi doing both of these at the same time, as far as the school consolidation and dealing with how we're gonna have schools this fall or this year. So that being said, the only thing that, and I also met with Neil, he stopped by last week. And as I think he reminded me, or if I understand it as well, I mean, he does have a petition with the required amount of signatures. So does that mean there has to be a meaning of warranted? Is that part of the process? And then the meaning can go where it goes. I don't even, and then one last thing, how do you even have a meaning? How do we have a meaning? Yeah, no, I think he made some good points. Ray, what's your thoughts? So there's so much uncertainty around this right now with this whole C19 and everything else. I think everybody is focusing on just trying to get the kids back to school or whatever the plan is, that I think is the priority. I like the idea of pursuing more town, leaving the district, but I don't think the timing works right now. There's just too much uncertainty for me. And I'm sure a lot of people have to really make a clear decision when we don't even know what our schools are gonna look like this fall, let alone next year or whatever. I just don't know. And I don't see how we can do much until we solve those basic issues that we have. Callie, any other thoughts? Yeah, I kind of agree with Ray on that, just with everything being up in the air, but I definitely think that it's something that we do need to look at. Yeah, I think, Ray, and you made good points, Don. John, I think everyone, there's no one here on this board that's opposed to moving forward and getting more information about how this would work. But I think as far as public informational meetings and things like that, that's down the road. Right now, they're doing everything they can to get kids back in school. And so this is just a distraction. I don't think anyone needs right now. So I think, Neil, I think we can continue to maybe lean on you to start answering some of those questions or coming up with information that we have kind of requested here, but what would it look like, costs and such. But as far as having general public meeting about it, I think that's down the road. And like Donnie and John mentioned, I did have a chance to talk to both of them in the two weeks since the last meeting. I guess one of the things that, one of the ideas I'm thinking, Tom, is it would be great. And John and Don can explain that I kind of gave them both the dog and pony show, sort of delay the land, what's happened, where more town sits and why I do, I think that it's a good idea to move forward in this process. It's a tricky thing. And I'd be interested to hear what John and Donnie say. Honestly, I wasn't prepared to try to give the same presentation tonight. I could try it at the next meeting. It's honestly, just because of the limits of technology, I do think it's just a heck of a lot easier to kind of get it all out in a face-to-face meeting. There's some documents, there's some video clips to look at. I think Donnie, you and I met for what, maybe an hour, no, probably an hour and a half or so. And I was totally devoted to talking about that. No, it wasn't, was it? But I think it would be great for Kali, Tom, you, Ray, to maybe have an opportunity to give you guys the spielful education as to what's, the things that I've found and share them with you. I guess, like I said, curious to see if John and Donnie would think that might help. And, or I could try to put something together more of a persuasive argument to present to you, to you all as a board. But I do think- I don't think anyone at this point, Neil, is disagreeing that we should look at things. But I think the timeline is maybe where we're disagreeing. I just don't think, and there's a little- Cut out again, Tom. Awareness, sorry, we need to have some other awareness of what's going on around us. And there are a lot of things, and there are a lot of things in our communities that really are now priorities, whereas some of these things that we've talked to may need to take a step back. And that's what I feel with this moving out of the district or looking at. I don't disagree, and I don't think there's anyone on this board that's said that. But timing is something that I feel pretty strong about. I think so- So I don't think any- And I don't think an hour- That's great. I lost it, Tom. Yeah, we lost you. Oh, well, I guess what I'm saying is I really don't think it's the time that we need to be pursuing this right now. I think it's just too much going on in this community for this distraction. I agree with Tom. I just think there's too much going on at this point. So I did come to you, folks. I think the first time was January of last year, January of 2019. And I think if I understand the way things are looking right now, well, so at town meeting, they tried to push through the 7-8s, the Hums 7-8s moving them north to cross it. And that's kind of the low hanging fruit of this plan. Then they also got the Moortown 5-6s in there. The ultimate plan, as I understand it, is going to be to close the face in school, close the Moortown school, have Watesfield and Warren via a pre-K through four school and have a five through eight middle school across it. And then the high school or part of it. Where is this information, Neil? Where does this information come from? Well, I mean, this just goes back to the white paper that the superintendent released in December of 2017. But in any event, I think the plan at this point, and this is, you can see this in the minutes and the committee they put together now, the pre-K through 12 planning committee, is to go after the Hums students, because that's, like I said, the low hanging fruit. So the plan that they're pursuing right now is that in the fall of 2021, the fall of next year, they will close the Hums school and take those kids, the 7-8s, and move them to cross it. The real point being, what's gonna happen is this thing's not gonna go away until it goes away. So we can say, and I mean, I totally agree with everybody that this is a terrible time to, there's all sorts of much more urgent things going on. But the reality is, like I said to you guys back in January of 2019, the superintendent has the more town school and her sites. And that hasn't changed. I think she's much weaker than she was back in January of 2019. But the plan has always been that plan that I spelled out. And it will kind of keep going. And so we can put it off. And when this is how it goes, so we'll put it off and then in a couple of months, they're gonna do something else. They're gonna have yet another vote about moving the seventh and eighth graders. And there's gonna be, and that one has a pretty strong likelihood of going through. It's kind of a domino thing. And they figured that, because that one really is the most, sort of on paper makes the most sense. So I understand, I completely agree with everything that you're saying, Tom, and that everybody's saying. I would say that this will not go away until it goes away. Let's put it that way. No, I think that the, I mean, they've been actually fairly clear recently as far as what they're going to do. And the idea is to move those from HUSH down to Cross-It-Brook. Rose again, Tom. I was just commenting. My comment was just about moving the seventh and eighth down to Cross-It-Brook. And I said, it may not be a bad thing, but I'm willing to listen to the rest of the board here. What is everyone's appetite for? It sounded like Ray had done a lot, but do you wanna full steam ahead with this or is this something that let Neil do a little more? Was anyone able to hear me? No. Are you kidding me? Is it blocking up every time I speak? It knocks up after about seconds. I don't know why it would be, but. Maybe that could happen again. Does it work any better without the video? Maybe not so much bandwidth used. Keep on talking. You know what I'm saying, right? Keep on talking, we'll let you know. I guess my point is I don't know, what's the board's appetite as far as pursuing this now, having Neil get more information for us and coming back at a later time? I have no problem with him gathering some more information. But bottom line is, we may find it with COVID-19, we may find that they wouldn't be able to, they'd have to social distance anyway, going forward into 2021. And there's no way that they could move all those kids into CrossFit Brook. They wouldn't be able to social distance. So I mean, I've done a lot of thinking about it, Neil, since you met with me and I just don't think that we're ready yet. But I mean, certainly spend some time to do a little bit more research. So I'm looking at the paper of data July 16th that I sent and that just, the dates that I'm saying here is on August, August 26th, the board comes back from summer recess and the administration presents the data packet to the board and make comments. And on the 9th of September, they hope to finalize the data packet. This is about all the consolidation and stuff and the cost and the pros and the costs, roots and, you know, all the stuff that's going to make a decision, class sizes and all that, right? So then, so that's on the 9th. And then going in to, they're gonna look for feedback and have some meetings. And then on October 14th, the board will vote on whether or not to merge the seventh and eighth grade students from across the board for the fiscal year 2022. And, you know, like we were just, so that's what they're shooting for. I guess we can see if, and Neil and the rest of the board, we can see what happens if they pop this date on the 26th and on the 9th because they've got so much to deal with right now. I just can't imagine they're being able to focus that they're not pushing this back, this decision process. I guess we'll soon see. On August 26th, which is the next, I don't know, well, to the end of the month, right? The month, yes. So just, you know, maybe that's a reason just to wait and see. I mean, or is this the kind of thing that people will get to talk about this at town meeting? Neil, I'm sorry to say something, throw it out so far, but we'll all be kind of delayed when we actually, when we have a town meeting. Anyways, it's a tough one. Well, do you all wanna task me on some specific information that you are looking for that you think would be helpful? And let's say it's a different consideration, really, than the consideration of, well, this is just not the time because of COVID-19. But if there is some information that, and that's a perfectly reasonable thing to conclude, but you're talking about possibly looking for some additional information. So is there something in particular that I should be sort of thinking about getting to you folks? Or... I guess not, but I would personally... Go ahead, Rick. Yeah. I guess what I would like to see at some point is the school board getting behind where they stand because all we're hearing, all I'm hearing from is from you, Neil. And I'm hearing all the school board agrees, but it seems like they're not into really pushing this that hard. And I think if they were, I think I would feel different. But right now, I just don't see the school board out there really saying the urgency of this. And again, like I said before, with everything else going on, we don't even know what our school's gonna look like this fall or next year or whatever. I just don't know the path of going down. And by school board, I assume you mean Kristen and Lisa. Yes. Okay. So why don't we at least wait until the end of the month and see how these meetings go. And then, if something out of those, the end of the month, that school board meeting, and we wanna get together with you, Neil, we'll at that point contact you. But at this point, I think until we figure out or how COVID-19 is gonna go, I think we're kind of just treading water here for a little while. Fair enough. So I guess Callie and Ray and Tom, if you folks happen to, and Tom, you can tell me whether this is really okay or not. But if any of you are interested in having me get together and sort of show you a little bit about what's happening with our consolidated school board, I would be happy to do it if it's otherwise okay. No, I think that's a great idea. And I know you and I have tried to touch base and it's been a little tough, but I think we'll get together here soon. And I encourage both Ray and Callie. Thank you guys. Thank y'all. And thanks for the work you've done on this, Neil. We do appreciate it. Yeah, Neil, thank you very much. I mean, I know it's disappointing and we're pushing back a little bit, but we know your heart's in the right place and you're doing good things. So thank you for your time. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. You know, it's the Chinese proverb says, may you never live in interesting times and we most certainly live in interesting times right now. So it's all about prioritizing for sure. So thank you all for- Well, so before you go, speaking of interesting times before you go, is there something you're expecting us to do with the email you sent us about the investigation or something? Yeah, thanks for asking. Yep. So yeah, and that's not- That's very confusing as well. I mean, you know, that whole thing sounds pretty crazy. Yep. So basically that's something that I've been looking into for the last two years now. And what I'm gonna do is, and it's related, but it's not directly related to the conversation we just had. I did send that out. There is definitely evidence out there. I think, so I've asked for an investigation and I asked for an investigation back in June based on the same information that I had found. I've actually since the looking into it that I did, I looked at some other things that have been more evidence of there something really kind of sketchy going on back in 2016 before our vote. I'm gonna send an email out to this, and that email that I sent out last week, you folks probably saw, I sent it to the select boards of the Four Valley Towns and I sent it to Josh Schwartz, who's the Mad River Planning Commission, the Mad River Planning District Director and to the REFs as well. And what I would say about that is, I'm gonna send an email out tomorrow. Just a minute, I'll get to it. Just offering that if any of the select boards are interested in looking at the material that I have, I would be happy to present it. The evidence is out there that back in 2016, when the Act 46 Study Committee was putting the articles together, the superintendent falsified the demographic data and gave Waterbury a veto-proof majority, which they in fact don't have. In fact, the Four Valley Towns, if we voted as a block, have a 0.13% majority over Waterbury-Duxbury. The numbers they came up with were not consistent with the census data. And it was fixed, it was fixed in 2018, but my point is it's kind of similar to what happened in the fall with our president, where he got caught and he gave this money to the Ukraine afterwards, but it still raises a question about whether or not that's somebody that you want as a leader. It raises a question of what the superintendent's interests are, which is what I said in the email. So I'll be sending that out tomorrow. And I mean, you folks as a board, if you're interested, I can make that presentation to you or not depending. So that's what that's all about. Okay. Thanks, Neil. Sure thing. All right, thanks everybody. All right. Have a good night. You too, Neil. All right, let's go ahead and move on. John, can you give us a construction update? Maybe you and Ray. John, we can't hear you at all. I think you muted yourself. In fact, you are muted. I keep getting setbacks with my back. So I was able to drive through the, Ruth drove me through the village, so I could at least see what's going on. It looks great. It's absolutely wonderful. And I might just mention now that Piazza's property looks great. I mean, he can mow it, it's fine and so on. So you can let him know tomorrow that I did look at it. And other than that, I just think, I'm very pleased. I think some of the biggest mistakes have come from Pike. I don't like the fact that they had that tack on the curb at the store and on the lawn at the town hall and that they dumped asphalt on private property. And which I noticed was cleaned up. I took a look behind the sand pit and I might just let everyone know or reiterate that the fire department does have a right of way across Garrett Berge's property. But he did call me and to let me know that some liberties had been taken and the most recent of which was the spillage of the asphalt. And so, but I'm glad that's all cleaned up and he's been very, very nice, but didn't get all upset or anything like that. So, and I might as well mention this now too. I've heard a couple of times from Gary Butler as a matter of fact, Lee Bond from GPI and I met with Gary Butler, whose house is right across from the school. And we met with him because there is so much sand left and I know it's happening with all the towns. The houses on that side of the street, on the west side. And I know that Don brought up that we should really do something for those people. And I think what we can really do for those people is clean up that mess. It's pretty obvious that it can't be done. Pike has swept it the roadway anyway. Dewboys has swept it, but in terms of sidewalk or whatever you wanna call it now, that has not been done and I think should be done. So, that's pretty much all I have on that. Hey, Ray, on that sidewalk, would it make sense to go in and have the guys of the excavator pull out what's left there? I mean, I drove down and looked at it and it's so uneven, you know, it's not safe. And I think it would be if we pulled it out and put some stay mat in there, is that, what do you think of that? I haven't, to be honest with you, Tom, I haven't been out there much the last week or so. So, it sounds like a good plan to me, Tom. I can generally look at it tomorrow when I'm out there in either the town crew or somehow if that's the answer, then they'll get done. All right, you and I, Ray and I are gonna be out there at 7.30 in the morning. So, we'll take a look at that, John. And we'll come up with a solution to get that taken care of. Yeah, no, that'd be great if we could do the statement. I know that, you know, Ray and I had talked about having Pike maybe put some asphalt there, but they can't do that because of ADA. So, but that would be, stay mat would be wonderful. And just had it packed down, it would be better than what's there because it's a mess and it would look much nicer as well. Right, yeah. Obviously, there's gonna have to be some re-grading there. I mean, it's gonna be a little more than just, I think, from what I've been looking at than just re-grading, there'll be some, I mean, just putting some stain mat down. It's definitely gonna have to be some grading. Well, you would, Don, you would re-grade when you take out the sidewalk that's there, you would grade it off at that point. Now I understand, but yeah, some of those spots that doesn't have sidewalk or we have to just meet, we, you know, it's just gonna take some finessing for sure. Yeah. Well, I think it's worth it to take a look at it anyways. Oh yeah, definitely. And to what we can do. It may not be the best solution, but I think anything's better than what's there now. Yep. Yeah, and one other thing is the next to St. Patrick's. And I know that there's been some back and forth on that too. Pat Travers for some reason came up with something other than what has been suggested from day one, which was a precast concrete structure. It just needs to be a shallow catch basin. So we don't need anything elaborate. And I think that that's all been straightened out, Ray, correct, and that's gonna be occurring soon. What happened was Lamarone Dixon, they did their survey and then they came back with this six foot diameter structure design. And I looked at that and I said, that's crazy. Yeah. And so they came back and said, well, just put in whatever you think you need to do. And so kind of, and I was gonna address this more tomorrow with them. I mean, they're the design engineers. It's rare, again, not up to Du Bois to sign off on the plans. I usually just say, okay, put a two foot square structure in and we'll do that. I just don't wanna put something in there. His plan shows a six foot round structure. He sent me an email says, well, go ahead, do what you wanna do. He's got to put that more formal. So we're all clear on what we're doing. That's Lamarone Dixon. It's not Pat, it's Lamarone Dixon. Will they be on the job tomorrow, Ray, so we can explain that to them clearly? I don't know if Lamarone Dixon will be, but definitely Lee or Pat will be there tomorrow. And we can certainly address that with them tomorrow, we hope, yep. Yeah, I would doubt Lamarone Dixon would be there because if they came back out for that, they would probably wanna charge us. Okay. You can get him on a call. Yep. Again, they just came back on that on Friday and I was pursuing other things and didn't have a chance to do much on it today, but I will tackle tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get that in and that's the only big hurdle left. We're doing cleanup, as John said, and touching things up and everybody says it looks nice. I'm looking forward to driving down through there tomorrow. Okay. All right. They'll be lose John. I was on mute. I missed something. When are you guys plan on moving out? I think, Tom, that it, I don't, it doesn't sound like we're gonna completely finish this week, but it's, we're close, we're getting close. I would say we got another, no later than about one more week left from what I'm hearing. Good. All right. Any other questions for Ray on the, Ray or John on the construction? I was also wondering how we, on the, that survey, Ray. The survey. For the, for Brown, for Brown O'Claire. You're right. Well, that's the one I was talking about. They, they did their survey and came up with this six-foot survey. All right. That's, okay. So that was the survey that you said from Lamarone Dickinson. Okay, good. Exactly. I was in response to that. I wasn't aware that it was because of the survey, but okay. All right. So if that's, all right. Does anything else with the construction? Otherwise we'll move on. All right. So Ray, I'll see you in the morning and then you're gonna move up to Johnny Summers' property after that, I guess, right? All right. So reports, Sasha, what do you have for us as far as reports? Okay, Sasha, are you there? Yes, I'm here. I'm sorry. I was trying to figure out the mute button. That's okay. The only thing I have is Linda Vantyne had called and wanted to know was going on with her abatement and I'm getting the impression that she's not gonna have any more information for you guys. All right. So we had requested from her, we wanted financials from her kids who are on the title of the property and she's not able to give that to us. Yes. All right. Do you guys wanna discuss this now? Sure. Is that a portable bait? Does anyone know, was that the hard decision, Tom? No, because of the COVID, it's now passed on to just us as the select board. Okay. All right. Make that decision. And we had looked at it and I brought up the fact when I was looking at the title, her kids are on there. I don't know, her kids are on the deed. You know, I don't know. And we asked for that information, their financial information. And I... We lost you again. But you know what? You asked for information. You get cut on your taxes. You should provide the information. Yeah, if they're on the deed and we requested that information, they should give it to us. I don't see how we can make a decision without the information we requested. Am I lost now too? No, no. I agree. So I guess I'm in favor of taking no action until we get the information we requested. That's my, I guess that's my decision. And I agree to that. I agree with that as well. No decision means basically that she can just chill out for a while and not worry about that. Basically, what do you think? While we're waiting for the... I'm sorry. How much time? Do you know what we're asking? Yeah. Okay. Give her a month. A month? Let's put a time on it. And I would tell her it was very unlikely the board would find in her favor without that information. Okay. Any other communications, Sasha? Nope, that was it, Tom. Thank you. What about, go around the tail of here, John, any communications announcements that you have for the board? Nope, you're muted. That's all I had from before. Thanks, John. How's your back doing? Very slow. I was actually better. I was actually better off two weeks ago. I was going to have the stitches out on Wednesday with an X-ray and so on. It's just one of those things where I might have just tried to do a little bit too much, too soon. No, that's you, but we'll get well, take your time and take care of yourself. Okay, thanks. Ray, any other communications for the board? I have none, thank you. Kelly? Stefan and I talked on Friday because he had gotten the email with Pykes and the asphalt and he was going to go down and check on it. So it sounds like there was some miscommunications somewhere with something with that. I guess that's, he's taken care of that, I think, or Martin said that he had already taken care of that. So I think that's done, which is, was it? No, and I certainly didn't mean to blame Stefan for anything. I didn't think that he had given permission to anybody. I just wanted to let everybody know that it had happened. And I think we kind of forget sometimes of who has right, right of way and so on. And this is just a case where people just assume that that property can be be used. I mean, people go that way to do that to go soon and the river and so on. But thanks Stefan for looking into that and also for taking care of the mowing. Appreciate it. That's not a problem. I just, I wasn't sure that night when I got the email, I didn't see that everybody else was in the chain with us. So I was like, I just, I gave him permission to get water. I certainly didn't say anything about asphalt or anything like that. And I was under the impression that because Du Bois had been allowed to use it that it would be fine for Pykes to use it. I didn't really know anything different from that. Okay. Stefan, did you figure out the booklet piece too? About getting the new ticket book in? Oh yeah. So I'm with my fire ward and stuff. I've been back and forth with the boss. I have John Chirko from the Vermont State Park Service. They're reissuing ticket booklets and they've had some issues with them. So I currently couldn't issue tickets if I wanted to, but at this point I don't have any, any outstanding things to ticket, but the ticket books are null and void currently. I don't think you write a lot of tickets or do you ever write tickets anyways? I have yet to write a single ticket. All right. Well, that's good. I hear good things the way you work with people and that's the way we like to hear it. Don, what did you have for communications or announcements? I'm kind of smiling at first because I was kind of wondering why you waited for me for a lot. Let's see. I wanted to get to see what we could have on the agenda. What? It's best to last. It's Wexler. I'm sorry. Wexler. There you go. I like that. Perfect. I was wondering on the agenda, if we could add on the bottom in old business just so we keep it in our headlights is the Mad River Valley Ambulance. You know how we have those items listed on the bottom of the agenda. So if we could do that. No, that's fine. I wanted to ask John or maybe this is the little, he was going to check the bridge work and talk to them about something you had a chance to talk about the signage or what they were going to do with any signage. Yeah. Thanks for reminding me about that. I've had some emails going out. Jennifer Zorn and I at first and then Phil Harrington and I've got another email out there to Phil and haven't heard back and we'll disappoint him although it's only been three days. But my big thing was, number one, we have almost $11,000 that can be used you know, for sheriff and so on and so forth. That was a grant that we got back in February. And so in terms of that, in terms of Pony Farm Road, there really isn't much more there. I did definitely mention that there's got to be some signage right at the exit that says, hey, if you get off here, you're not going to be able to turn around. And I mean, I reminded them that he said there will be signage about having to turn around. But that didn't really answer what I had specifically requested. We need something stronger than that. So I hope I'll hear that. John, he did say that the emails that I've read, they were going to have that on the sign and also that they were hiring the Blue Light to be at the projects or at that Pony Farm to turn those trucks around. Oh, okay. I didn't hear that. Yeah, if you read through that. I don't know, but where I think it might be, that's where the sheriff may have to use some common sense because if they get through town, it's going to be too late. But if you look through one of your emails that you were requesting the signs, that was one of the replies back that they on the interstates were going to have that. And then there were also going to be a blue light at the project would address those type of situations. Okay, to me, the blue light, I thought he just meant that there would be a parked sheriff's car there. Well, when I read it, it said that he would turn around to anyone that wasn't supposed to be there. So, we're going to take it for that. I saw that, but the point is, if a truck goes through, there's no way for him to turn around. Well, that's when I said the sheriff, when we may need to speak with the sheriff and talk to them, and if their point is to do that, they may use their common sense and get on the other side of town and stop those vehicles coming in early. I mean, he said that he's going to have it at the side of the bridge, but they may not have been down there and understand, all right, if we're going to actually make this work effectively, he's going to have to be on 100B near Stevensbrook Road, or even before that, there's really no places to turn around. So that's where, if they're going to do that, and they said they were going to, we'll have to give them some direction, or the first time it happens, then they're going to maybe say, hey, this does not work that well, we'll need to move down the road. Maybe have them be down by the swimming hole. Yeah, I think that would probably be... That's a good point, yeah. Where they could still turn around, and I mean, there may be some trucks going into the Moretown General Store, and then they can just let them know, but we'll hold them to their word that this is what they've said. I know, so far, we have not heard back, and Sasha, you can correct me if you've heard anything since this afternoon, but we have not heard back from the Sheriff's Office directly. He was supposed to, and he being the deputy in the Watesfield area, was supposed to reach out to the board. He hasn't, we've called, and they've been, I guess, less than real helpful. They didn't want to give us any rates, and really talk much about the project because we don't have a contract with them. That's correct, too short. So, that's where we stand, as far as with the Sheriff right now. So, being that my proper name is Donald, that's actually how I campaigned when I was running for the select board that we needed to build a wall all around the board. And if we had gotten a wall built, we'd be able to keep those trucks out, but be that may it is, we just didn't get the funds for it. But anyway, in the sign venue of the money that we have, which I'm sure some of it's been allocated to get the road fixed up and put the control. Yeah, hopefully we can spend more on the road than we can on cops, but go ahead. So, I'm just wondering in that, and I was actually gonna come with, give you an idea how much the sign was that maybe we could just buy a couple of signs that say something like, if you lived here, drive as if you lived here, we could just put a couple of those up on that road. Cause I know the state, and I agree with when I went to that meeting, they're trying to not, you know, they're not showing Pony Farm as a detour and they're being, you know, they're showing the detour to go around route 100 and all that, we all get it. But I don't know, might be a nice gesture to the folks out there if we bought a couple of those signs. Are you talking the size of like the campaign signs that we see or what are you thinking? Sometimes, you know, you've been through some neighborhoods where you've seen those kind of signs, yeah. Yeah, all right. Sasha, is that something that you could look into for us? And I know there's, you know, go to the banners and signs. I know there's places in Essex that do it. Yeah. Rowlington, probably all sorts of places online. I'm sure you can get them next day online. We'll check into that. Yeah. Also, Corey Stephenson said that her kids wanted to do some signage too, somewhere along the lines of what Dawn's talking about. Yep. So, you know, we have a couple of variations to, you know, people sometimes react better, might be their animal or something. So, you know, maybe work with Dawn or something to get some catchy sayings for these signs that we could get it up and get done. Great. Yeah. Also, I was suggested that I coordinate with the town manager of Watesfield, town administrator there, and I can't remember his name, but anyway, I haven't heard anything from him. Have you, Sasha? No, I haven't, John. Okay. Well, maybe I'll try and figure out how to reach out to him there. That would be good to work with Watesfield on. Sasha, can you look into that? That would be great. Yeah. You said the town manager of Watesfield? Yeah. Well, I think that's who it is. They just said a name and it sounded like he was gonna be reaching out to us to coordinate since it involves Watesfield roads as well. Right. All right, Don, do you have any other communications or announcements? Yeah. So on this little signage thing that we might look and do, we might actually find that we might wanna, there could be some other places in town where people are really impacted by, you know, excessive speed and can't really, you know, be on their roads and walk, you know, their dogs or walk their grandma or whatever. But anyways, yeah, my only other thing is Tom, you wanted and maybe we can get to it this next coming week. We were gonna talk about the town hall committee. Yeah. And I was thinking that and that's something that we should, I'd like to do either to do tonight as a board. And again, it's one of those, so I've been thinking about this and trying to get some more people involved that have had very little luck called a couple other people in town who I thought might be good for it. And I'm not getting very, I'm not getting any kind of help with it. So, and everyone's mentioning to me, is this the time you wanna be really looking at this? And so again, with our priorities, I mean, I think we're all wanna do something here. I know they're in there for another year anyways. And we don't wanna just keep kicking this can down the road, but how can we do this without appearing, you know, optic wise, you know, as where is the priority should be? You know, there's so much going on and you know, how can we meet? How would it be, you know, I just don't know how to do this. I agree, how can we facilitate it? It's a tough one. I've heard from a few more people who are interested, but still, how do you have a meeting except by Zoom, you know, maybe just to lay some groundwork and you know, really, you know, it's just to maybe plan and come up with a timeline. So, you know, I know about, you know, five to six people, seven people right now have expressed their interest. And you know, maybe you do a Zoom meeting and people just kind of do some brainstorming just to see where we can go and when we can go there, you know? Of course it all depends on what's gonna happen with the pandemic, you know? What it's gonna look like this fall or winter. You know, we can be, all might be all pretty hunkered down. Right now we can at least be outside having a social distance to bear with some. When the winter comes. So anyway, yeah, it's the rest of the board, whatever you guys and folks think. I mean, you know, I could work on getting a, tell you the seven or six or seven people who are interested and we could just wait till another couple of weeks. He was going on with the virus, the school, and stuff. Yeah, why don't you get those names? I know Sasha has a couple. And then I'd like, I don't know, Ray, John, you're doing too much already or Cali, whether that's something that you guys want to be involved on would do. And John, what are you laughing at? And No one wants to be involved on, so. Oh no, John. So the board said that I was expressing interest to being on Denise Johnny Summers Paula, you know, maybe for the first Paula Wood for the maybe the first couple of meetings. Karen once said that she would maybe sit in on meeting or two. John Smeltzer said, you know, I don't know if I could go on the long run, but I'd be happy to be on the first meeting or two just to help brainstorm and see what direction we could take. And who am I forgetting? I think that's it right now. You know, and then maybe whatever, and then maybe Sasha might have some other names. Oh, and then of course, the couple of trustees from the library. So what is that? That's enough people right there. Anymore than that, too many at this point, just to have a brainstorming session. See where we might wanna go and how we could get there, you know, with the advocate town consensus, you know, gonna do a committee is not gonna make any decisions. They're gonna work on presenting, you know, ideas and getting them out to the townspeople, you know, and that's gonna take some doing and some time for sure. Anyways. So, you know, my feeling is I certainly wanna be a part of this, but until we get past the COVID thing that we can really meet as a group and talk and get our ideas together without getting muted out and whatever, you know, I just get really frustrated even tonight. You know, we're trying, we're trying to do our best to have this meeting here, but you know, we're catching bits and pieces around and you know, it's, we suggest be pursuing what we have to pursue and we're just gonna have to wait on a few things until we can actually meet and go over this stuff live, you know, that's the only way we're gonna get things done live. Well, I agree with you, but this might be the new reality, but we can certainly wait and see, you know, where it's gonna go. All right, well, let's maybe keep that, that's on our old business pending, but Don, why don't we see in the next couple of weeks, get those names to Sasha and then you and I, I know it's been tough, but you owe me a beer, so I'll make you pay that beer and we can go ahead and figure out a format of how we wanna get this started. So at least there's a framework and then whether it's all right, this is what we wanna do, but you know, we'll next meet when we can sit down together as a group to raise point. And that keeps with my belief too, that, you know, during this time that we shouldn't be really pursuing a lot of these other activities because I think it's a lot of people locked out of it and it sometimes just gives the bad taste in their mouth. They're like, you know, this is going on and they're slipping this through type of thing. And that's the last thing I want, you know? So we need to be very cognizant of that. I agree. I agree as well. And so I know. The last item, you know, okay, I'm sorry. All right, I know. Last item. Cause I even heard John mentioned in the raid or, you know, the actor access to the river. Right, I was gonna address that. So we were gonna meet down there. Why don't, I guess it's no point in us Ray and I are to go down there to meet the piece of property. You guys can see what it is going and Cheryl in can give you the deed on it. So you know what it is. And the square reporters, I get it from the Listers. And then let him come up with a plan. We can't tell you only that there's gonna be, you know, a few things you can check with Martin as you know, constant. There's gonna be 5,000 yards of sand there. So where's that gonna go? You know, four plows. And then I think that would be the best. I think he's just probably wasting our time to walk around and tell you, you know, he's gonna come up with a plan. So, and there's some covenants on that property as far as egress and ingress or entering as far as they gotta stay where they are because I was billed people on either sides, made deals, all right? The entrance is gonna be here, the exit's gonna be here. But that doesn't mean like between us and Ellie Ferris, there could be a fence or things like that. I mean, I think the lot could be done. And I look forward to looking at that plan. Okay. So I can get that information from Cheryl Lin or Sasha. Yeah, or she'll direct you. It'll probably be the Listers where she'll direct you as far as they can give you the boundaries. Yeah, yeah, yeah, perfect. Yeah, great. Okay. And then you'll be ready to go. Sounds good. Anything new, Don? For us. No, I'm glad to know that. Thank you for your time. Should we? I didn't realize you like to be formalized with Donald in your political life. No, no, no, no, no, no, that's good. That's good. Yeah. As far as other old business, I don't see any. Does anyone else have anything in old business that they want to bring up? Yeah, I have a couple of items. Conservation Commissioners is down there on the list in the bottom. And Justice Ray was suggesting with the town all committee is, I spoke with Steve. Steve, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Regarding that and we agreed that we would definitely need to put it out there and get a full committee and that it's probably a little bit premature because we really can't have face-to-face meetings. The other thing is from Dave Westerman. I've asked him to donate a slab to the town office and from the lone pine. And he actually received an anonymous donation of $200 to construct a bench that could be placed on the porch of the town hall. Oh, nice. I believe Michael Brown, who's one of our listers now is, he had offered to help with his services on that. So I've gotten that information over to Dave about that. That's awesome. So far, I guess $400 has been raised for the library. That's awesome. That was great. The board leading up against his house right there is beautiful. In town, there's a board, right? One of those big boards right by the store. Store, yep. Yeah, it's nice. They are very beautiful. I don't know if you've seen it, John. No, I haven't actually, but I definitely like to, yeah, take a look at that. You'll see it tomorrow, maybe. When you're down in town. And certainly thank you to that anonymous donor for, you know, providing the funds to have the bench made. That's awesome. That's really nice of them. Yeah. Of course, Dave said, Dave, Dave said, because I don't have a clue how to go about building a bench. Can you recommend anybody? And I said, well, let's, you know, get in touch with Michael Brown. So. Yep. Sounds good. So if there's no other. I do want to go back and just approve the minutes. For July 20th, 20, 20. Thank you, Kelly. All in favor vote aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. And moving forward as far as one more thing, we'll business to be on the lookout. For a meeting invite. It would be something like this. Just to set a tax rate. We're still waiting on the state for the school, but the listeners have placed the grand list. So that's all set now. We're just waiting for the state. So as soon as that comes, I'll let you know, I'm going to approve a tax rate. And then the next day, Cheryl Lynn and Sasha will get the tax bills out. So we can start being a revenue machine. Is any other new business. Tom, you would ask us to maybe. I guess we took to look at the budget, you know, review the budget. Yeah. Yeah. So when we talk, talk about it, we could maybe come up with some suggestions for savings and stuff. Right. Yes. So yeah, when we, when you. Well, I'd like to add with that meeting when we set the tax rate, because there'll be some opportunities there. That we can move some things around. And now that we've got this new wrinkle as far as the truck, or possibly the body. And I'll be working again with Cheryl Lynn to help present that. Hopefully we'll get some stuff from John, the finance committee. As far as recommendations, but what we might be able to do. With that, as far as the tax rate. And whatever savings or if you guys have looked. As well. Fair. Good. And so if there's, is there any other business anyone has this evening? I'm also happy. All right. So I would move to adjourn. Second. Well, step up. It was step on. We've got part of me. Let me hold. Thanks for the second. And I do want to say something step on your on the line. Was there something that you joined and wanted one to share with us? I'm sorry. I didn't. See you earlier. You fell asleep. Yeah. I guess he fell asleep. So I guess there is nothing. So I'll accept that. Right. All in favor. Both. All right. Thank you, everyone. We will talk to you all soon. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.