 Hey, it's a it's 7 30 now so if you're Interested in the seat come on and take a seat there's plenty there. No actually there's not plenty up These ones say they're reserved, so but I come on down there are some seats on the front sides of the tables or there's chairs up in the the balcony section Okay, let me see if I can lean into the microphone a little better and there we go. All right We'll go a little stay All right, is that better? All right, so thank you everyone for coming. I would like to open the informational meeting for the town of Essex this date March 4th, which is a command right March 4th 2024, thank you all for coming First item on the agenda is whether the question of whether there are any Agenda additions or changes are there any additions or changes from staff? None any Changes or additions from board members? None. Okay, hearing none. I will pass the baton here to esteem John Sonic Thank you everybody and welcome to town meeting We're going to start this evening with a presentation of the colors by Boy Scout troops 635 and the National Anthem presented by Sophia Lou They've got the evidence found on the online I Can absolutely do that And the reserve was for staff so anybody who isn't sitting absolutely feel free to come in and sit up here if you like All right, very well as I was saying welcome to the town meeting here in Essex The informational session for 2024. We are going to First open the meeting with the presentation of the colors by Boy Scout troop number 635 and the singing of the National Anthem By Sophia Lou a soloist with the Essex High School Chamber Choir It's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight For the ramparts we were so gallantly streaming Bombs bursting back was still there Oh Say does that star-spangled Thank you very much We would also like to start this meeting thanking Girl Scout troop number 61 845 for greeting everybody and Making us all a little chunkier at least opportunistically so Let's see here and the students from the Essex High School student government for serving soup to start off our evening And for all the Essex Middle School staff for their assistance in setting up for this evening and for taking it all down later on this town this town informational hearing is being live streamed by town meeting TV and So thank you all for coming here and being a part of that It is also being streamed on zoom So if you are here on zoom when it comes to Part of the meeting where you're if you'd like to ask a question at the bottom of your window under Reactions if you click on that you'll see a little hand icon click there And what we'll try to do is rotate between one person on zoom and then one person here in the house And hopefully we'll get through everybody in that way Okay Let's see. All right. So now if we could do some introductions first. Let's go through the select board members We have chair Andy Watts vice chair Tracy Delphia clerk Kendall Chamberlain Ethan Lawrence and Don Hill flurry For town staff we have the town manager Greg Duggan deputy town manager Marguerite Lad Finance director Dan Roy and We have a number of department heads with us here this evening in the audience Also in the audience joining us is Representing Chinden North district senator Irene Renner and now we have Don Hill flurry member of the select board to read the invocation of civility We are gathered together in civil assembly We gather as a community in the oldest sense of the word We gather to come together and try to make decisions about what is right and about what is wrong Let us advocate for our position, but not at the expense of others Let us remember that there is an immense gap between saying I am right saying I believe I'm right and That our neighbors with whom we might disagree are good people with hopes and dreams as true and high as ours Let us always remember that in the end caring for each other in this community As far greater than any difference of opinion that we might have Thank you all for being One thing that maybe not everybody remembers is that this is a different style of town meeting than we've had in the past in The past we would actually have motions on the floor We'd be using Robert's rules of order so that we would decide things such as the budget or any other articles that required In-person voting last year we voted as a group to Make that not how we're doing it. Everything is now Australian ballot. So that is tomorrow Please come vote here at EMS So this is just an informational meeting so you can ask questions about what is on the ballot So what we will do it like I said no no motions are necessary We'll just go through each of the items on the agenda and first We'll have a presentation from someone on the select board and then we'll open it up to questions All right, are there any questions about that? All right, well then we are going to open this up with Andy Watts doing a presentation on the budget That's not what I'm seeing Still seeing the title page One of the fun parts about doing this for the first time in a new place All right, so I think what I'll do is I'll start working from this and then and hopefully Greg can catch it Well, actually the people online can't see that So maybe I'll wait I Still have the title page up strange There we go. I'm sorry. What was that? Okay, okay. All right, I look like I'm seeing the same thing you are. Yep. All right. Here we are. Okay, so Before the budget we started working on the budget in November Staff came and asked the select board for what we asked the select board what our goals were for the the coming budget year Because of the large increase we had last year. We really wanted to not have a double-digit Increase again this year's and we in fact said no greater than five percent The municipal tax increase and so that's what we've asked for we also wanted to Maintain and improve our pedestrian and trail network With for a better connectivity through the town We wanted to increase community outreach and engagement We were interested in finding ways to increase revenue streams including making sure that we use as many grants as we can Practically apply for We also wanted to have additional tension attention placed on our capital needs and budget With the separation we did lose a significant portion of our Tax base and so we need to put some significant focus on that in coming years How to recover from that and then we also wanted to look ahead to how we're going to develop the 32 acres of land that we purchased for a new municipal center The next slide So from a highlight standpoint, we are not cutting anything. We're keeping all of the same services that we've been providing The challenges to the budget Health premiums are increasing 13 to 14 percent Inflation as you all know is is rising the cost we're increasing the cost of everything supply chains have been difficult to deal with because of recovery from from COVID problems and and other things that are going on in the world On the for the police department, we are not Defunding the police department. We're but we are not fully funding it. The police department does have authorization to hire Their complete staff, but the but we're budgeting at 90 percent. So if And this would be a great thing if they were able to do it We were with the fully staff They would have to come to us and ask for the additional 10 percent, which we would very likely give them But it's only budgeted 90 percent to avoid Having excess fund balance at the end of the year and also to to bring the budget down Dispatch on the other hand is funded at 100 percent that has in the past also been budgeted at 90 percent, but we are fully staffed and this dispatch right now So we want to we're keeping it that way and making sure we're we've fully funded that so that I actually added a some cost this year That we didn't have last year From a savings and efficiency standpoint as exjunction does pay for I think it's 48 percent of the Police budget plus another 3 percent or 3 and a half percent of overhead cost for the police department So part of our we get a significant piece of revenue from them and also One of the things we did this year to keep cost cost down or increases down this year as we we level funded the Capital fund which we will have to address in future years Next slide okay, the Budget changes also include some some staffing changes the sx free library is is increasing their Number of paid hours by 50 or under 15 hours of adding 15 hours to their weekly budget for salaries This allows them to have they have a policy that they have to have two people on duty at all times And if someone was sick there were times in the past that we've had to close the library because we didn't have enough staff to open it This will relieve some of that Also help with with Programming options that we want to put in place and that the library wants to put in place Library budget also includes funding for an assistant library director. This is a promotional opportunity for for existing staff the We also have added a part-time Administrative assistant one of the things that the select board keeps telling Greg is that he needs to delegate more Well, we we're gonna put somebody in there that he can delegate to so that he can focus on Some of the bigger picture big bigger projects and you know Now things like figuring out how to work the computer during town meeting can be done by an admin instead of by the town manager We're also adding a Part-time trails coordinator to help with that connectivity thing we mentioned earlier and I actually wanted to thank publicly Kelsey Carpenter who who really brought this up to me during one of our coffee chats that this is an important thing and Largely because of her comments around that. I've been pretty much I've been trying to push on this and so pretty happy that it's in there We also shuffled around where where some of our employees get get paid from Parks and Rec and also our the water department water sewer department They have enterprise funds were fees that they collect pay for the programs so we've moved some Pieces of people's times either in and out of those enterprise funds to to balance what the work they're doing So that's paid from an inappropriate source and also it it changes the the overall budget number Up and down by by some some amount We also with the ending of the agreement on the senior center with the city of s. Exjunction We no longer staff the the senior center there That's fully run by the the city of s. Exjunction, so we don't need that position anymore. That's been removed from the budget We've also gone from three senior van drivers down to two Partly because we no longer serve the the s. Exjunction residents, so they're no longer residents of the town And we have we have some better So anyway, we've worked for down to two drivers instead of three in the finance department separation actually wasn't a very easy thing to do in the finance department because a lot of the Effort there are a lot of the work there was was very intertwined And so we did have some extra funds and the current year's budget our last year's budget to pay for some Part-time staffing and a consultant to help us with that separation that's all completed now And so we don't need don't need those those funds anymore. So those have come out the fire department budget we've We are increasing the pay rates for premium firefighters by by a dollar an hour to better match rates that we're seeing at other places and we've also Added an incentive to have volunteer coverage on the weekends by having $40 per evening and weekend Shifts for four volunteers per shift to keep to get better fire support and also to encourage more volunteers Utilities clerk in finance had 10% of the salaries and benefits moved into the general fund from the water sewer fund That's one of those transfers I was talking about going from an enterprise fund back in the general fund there In public works again, we we shuffled a few people around police department the We didn't shuffle the people around their jobs are the same Which is where the the money that pays for them comes from different different places Police department budget includes the elimination of a seasonal records clerk and and the records clerk dispatcher will continue will Become solely a records clerk. So we've we've consolidated some some Functions there and and eliminated the position the Stormwater interns will be paid for the general fund instead of out of storm water and then 10% of the GAS Coordinators position is moved into assessing because about 10% of their work is done to support the assessing department so just to make sure it's it's Funded from the right place and in and in this case because the city of Essex Junction is still paying us for assessing services The city of Essex Junction is paying for a portion of our GAS service now Next slide so One of the things that we're doing is we're using $398,100 of fund balance fund balance is money that's left over from prior years It's under spent money from a prior budget The select board has a policy that we have 15% of Unassigned fund balance for emergency purposes as came in handy like during storms like it when a road gets washed out We can we can repair the road Without having to borrow money. So we have that you know, we have those funds already in our pocket to do that So that's what that 15% is for And then anything beyond that The select board annually assigns where that where those funds should go and we have in past years and Largely because we knew separation was going to be a big issue for us last year we designated a Chunk of money to offset this year's tax increase That's where that's what's happening here is there's $325,000 left over from from that we designated last year We're also be designating it this year to to offset the 2025 tax increase There's a $40,000 in there for an economic development report $25,000 for a first responder study so that we can better understand what our first response needs are and then there's 8100 for a couple of IT expenses we list those out. These are one-time expenses that that Aren't continuing expenses in the budget that's this year only so we're spending money that we had left over from prior years to do it Rather than adding to this year's budget Adding those funds to this year's budget next So in summary the challenge the changes Personnel costs including benefits are going up just under half a million Insurance is going down About a hundred thousand. That's we had a we had a good year. We didn't have as many or any I don't know what the numbers are was a safer year with regard to workman's compensation So our insurance rates went down went down the sand salt gravel fuel and gasoline that's inflation hitting us there and My computer is asking me if I want to leave the meeting. I do not okay. I will try to ignore that Okay the professional services I mentioned already mentioned the first responder study and the Economic development reports We have an additional vehicle purchase we're making this year and that was one of those supply chain issues where a car wasn't available in the in in the In the right year, so we're having to to buy it in a in a later year technology subscriptions and licenses keep going up Our summer construction services are increasing that's mostly paving and then the net of all the other increases hundred and forty thousand so there's overall a increase of seven hundred five thousand two hundred and sixty nine dollars Figure out how to there we go. Okay So in summary the total Proposed budget is sixteen point one million The change I just mentioned from the previous slide was seven hundred and five thousand Increase that's a four point five eight percent Budgetary increase we estimate that we will need to collect five point zero three percent more tax revenue than we have in the past or more But with with a projection of a conservative point seven five percent increase in the grand list We're estimating that the the tax rate change that that you will see is four point two four percent Which is below the five percent we had asked for okay, so if We typically use a two hundred and eighty thousand dollar home as an example for what the dollar amount will be That's the two hundred eighty thousand of your assessed value not to your market value I know everybody's market value is probably much more than there is probably more than their their assessed value but the Expected increase for the typical home two hundred eighty thousand would be eighty dollars and thirty six cents a year you can take this These numbers and to use your own Assessed value and scale it to find out what an approximation of what your Dollar amount change will be The assumptions that are here. They're used here is a again a point seven five percent Grand list growth the use of three hundred ninety eight thousand one hundred and fund balance again That's money left over from prior years This tax rate that's shown the the estimated tax rate for twenty twenty five is point seven zero five three That does not include the three cent capital tax that was voted last year It was voted to increase from two two cents to three cents last year And also includes the local agreement rate, which is point zero zero two cents that includes Tax breaks that are given to the veterans the you know, I think a break on the first forty thousand of their assessed value and then it also includes the Tax agreements that we have with with businesses, which we'll we'll talk a little bit about Later on one of the other valid items Okay, is that a great oh Okay, and then it is pie chart. This is where your your dollars will go general government Which is the select board management economic development and finance is is Look at it right. I think that's the biggest the biggest piece and then Public works and police are also pretty large culture and recreation. That's the library and parks and rec and then Fire is the next after that and then there's smaller pieces. And so this is this again is the pie chart showing where where Text dollars go. I think that's the end of the budget perfect timing Sure So tell me you might need to let me back into the meeting or somebody Not picky. All right. Are there any questions from the floor? There are no questions from the floor. All right. If somebody else in the zoom meeting could see if there are any raised hands There are no raised hands online really people no questions about the budget. All right Apparently Andy just does a bang-up job. Mr. Lawrence. Yes, sir. Oh She's saying that she does not hear us well, so we need to Irony of ironies. Mr. Lawrence not a question. I just want to say thank you for your service I think you've done a great job of Putting together this budget holding the cost down in a difficult time. So thank you. All right, if there are still no zoom questions We will move into a presentation once again by mr. Watts Shall on the question of article 2 shall the town of Essex adopt the proposed 2024 town plan All right, so so Once the town establishes a town plan Statute says you really need to update it every eight years and so we're at eight years And that's why there's there's an update here update being done here. So the question is Article 2 on the ballot is shall a town adopt the proposed 2024 town plan And next slide So the town plan is a visionary guiding document It's really what it's what is used to define what the zoning requirements are and zoning and development regulations are So it it really does say in there what your neighbors can build on their property Kind of thing and so we did spend a lot of time over the past many months collecting public input on this and so That's that's that's what it is. That's what that's how we've gotten here this the importance of the plan as it provides a Clear picture of the future makes great places will make aesthetics a great place Establishes a transparent and predictable public policy meaning you can look in the town plan and see Where regulations came from and you can understand that it was voted on by the town and that's what the town agreed to and that's why the regulations are the way they are and Then it does also promote wise investment and help manage future costs Because we have a town plan we be we can use it we can point to it for grant during grant applications and and those Things that need to happen to make a town grow and move forward And So in our case the town of Essex does require an Australian ballot to to approve the town plan not I don't I guess not every municipality does it that way and So are there and oh yeah one thing I wanted to make sure that the door there were Three public hearings previously on this topic One by the planning commission and two by the select board, so it's been discussed in many meetings and Over the past several months, so Just say are there any questions The contents of the town plan were reviewed during the public hearings that were held And I do believe that they're available online the proposed changes and all that yeah So if you'd like to see before you vote tomorrow, you can go online and they're available there All right, if there is nothing else then we shall go to article three, which is an advisory opinion Which means that Someone circulated a petition and got enough signatures to put a question on the ballot for tomorrow It's asking for a particular Step to be taken it is an advisory opinion only so it sort of it'll give the select board the sense of the town And then they can choose to to act on it as they will Article three reads as follows Shall the voters require the town annual report to list the location of commercial properties that received a municipal tax Stabilization benefit within the report fiscal year the amount of that benefit and property owners And did you have something that you want to do for this All right, sure on the tax stabilization thing I mentioned earlier that's that's that 002 cents of Local agreement tax is is where that these these funds would fall we currently have two one is with blodgett and one is with Glavale Orgolavel at Glavale Glavale, right and I guess the the question here is right should we put them in the If any of the well, I guess every year put somewhere in the The annual report just a listing of who has those and what what the what the amounts are that they're The benefit that they're getting from the agreement Again as John said this is an advisory Or yeah advisory vote and the select board just want to make it clear that the select board added that word advisory just to make it Make it clear to the public that it's not a mandatory thing We're not saying we're not going to do it We're just saying just want to make it totally transparent that it's it's a future select board or this select board could choose not to Do what the question asks we are required by because of the number of signatures that we received We are required to put the ballot at the question on the ballot, but there's nothing that actually requires The town to to do what the question asks just I'm just making that clear I'm not saying that we're gonna not gonna do it just want to make it clear that it we're told transparency Is there anybody present who'd like to talk about? About this at all maybe the rationale behind it what they think the benefit of that would be Yes, ma'am. I Think it'd be best for the people who are on the zoom meeting Thank you Can everyone hear me I was one of the petitioners For this and I just wanted for you please introduce yourself. My name is Lorraine Zaloum. I live on center road I've lived I grew up in Essex Junction left now in back But one of the reasons I wanted to do this was to add transparency and increase engagement Also out of concern too for some of the businesses that we're giving Tax stabilizations for to make sure that they're bringing good jobs and we're paying attention to that as well I believe gravel had to give some money back I might be incorrect about that because they didn't meet the requirements of the stabilization. I Hope if anyone has any questions to them around they can ask So so one thing I think I neglected to say is that the information that's being asked for in this question Is already public knowledge you can ask for this information anybody can can ask it's it's and we would gladly share the information, you know if there's a there's a public records request Process that you could certainly initiate and and the information would be shared just to make sure that this isn't Something we've been trying to keep secret and that's we're suddenly being asked for it It's it's always been public information to anybody who who wants it could could ask for it at any time and we would share it and It is true that that We do follow up on that these the tax agreements that we have with businesses and you're right. Glovelle had to did have to Return some of the money because they did they didn't Generate as many jobs as they said they were going to All right. I don't see anything right now on zoom. Are there no further questions or comments? Then we will move on to a conversation about article 4 Shall the voters require the town annual report to list the names position titles salaries and benefits of all town employees Within the annual report fiscal year. This again is an advisory opinion And and again, this is this is completely public information anybody who who wants this information can ask for it again We're not it's not something we've been hiding. It's it's always been public information No one has asked for it in a number of years But again, it's it's a it's a similar situation where it's an advisory vote and Make sure that we're transparent about that Any any comments or questions about in what might be the most exciting bit of the night We have someone online who would like to participate Sharon Zuckowski I am unmuting you. I hope I don't know We can Go ahead Yes, ma'am decades and as it Being easy to get this information. I know that other people have asked for it even select board members and it really hasn't been received to them in a way that's readable or Possible to even understand so I think that may be the reason that The petition was put forth So thank you So Mizukowsky, I'll try to all right this and if I miss anything Please feel free to say it and I'll say it again to the ground who's here She said that in her opinion It has been difficult to get the information in a way that she thinks is easily readable and And searchable and so because that has been a difficulty She thought this would be a good way to make sure that it is less so in the future Is that a fair representation? Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. Very good It's true There are other municipalities that do that do publish this every year and in their and their annual report and The select board hasn't actually hasn't had a discussion about whether we want to do this or not So I can't say whether the select board would or wouldn't choose to do so in the future with regard to the The I think the request that Sharon is referring to I'm aware, but I'm not going to spill the beans as to who this individual is that a Request was made in the past and and the response they got they were unhappy with I will I will guarantee you today that if you asked for that question that that information today You would get it in a very clear Format with exactly the information You're looking for and so I can't I can't atone right, you know, I can't account for what past select boards or administrations have done But I think today it would not be a problem if you were to ask for this sort of information Come on up Lorraine LeBrain's a loom again center road again. I'm one of the petitioners for this as well and I wanted to do this because as a female and having Been slighted in my salary in the past I've worked in male dominant fields for most of my life and have just made some discoveries that were very Unpleasant that were based on my gender. So we'd like this to also help protect our staff And we also many many municipalities Publish online we checked the state also Publishes all the state workers online have been doing so for years if there's concerns about room on The town report certainly we could have a link that could be online as well if it's about saving printing money I have no problems with that, but I really want it for transparency and to understand How competitive we are as well? Certainly the fire department. I think we were probably underpaying and I think that's important for us to be able to check that out as Citizens and in terms of requesting the information. I think it's Easier and less work for our staff if they don't have people having to request information as well So it's to reduce staff time too. I hope people support this and I hope the select board will consider it. Thank you Is there anybody else who would like to speak? I think we're good Sharon your hand is still raised is did you have something new? Oh, no problem. No problem at all This is the life I lead All right in that case we will move on to article five Which is the election of a moderator? And a one year a one there's one vacancy for three years on the select board So both of those are I don't think we really talk about this. We just mentioned that it's happening No politicking during town meeting All right, next we are at the public to be heard. Is there anybody who feels like they would like to be heard about something? Come on down please make sure that you say your name into the mic and Speak so that everybody can hear you please Francis Raymond I'd like to know if we're considering a 1% sales tax in Essex Everybody around us has it First started I was totally against it, but now that everybody has it. We're just missing the boat as far as I'm concerned so Taxes are going up. The school is looking to 18 to 22 percent I just wondering if the select board has brought it to and then where they're going to go because it would be a vote Thank you So we haven't had an official discussion on that, but I do believe that it will be on the table We will be bringing it up, especially since we bought 32 acres of land It will need to figure out how to put buildings on it at some point So I think it and also in order to address our capital needs. I mentioned earlier that with the As extension leaving the town we lost 41% of our tax base So we lost 41% of our our capital tax revenue. That was largely why we asked for a 1 cent increase in the capital tax last year I know we all know that reassessment is is happening as well And so everybody's it's likely that many property values will change Probably not in the downward direction and so that will affect how much capital revenue we get and so I think once when we're in a once we're in a position where we we Have a view of where we're going with the new property and where and possibly where Assessment puts us from a revenue standpoint I think it will be on the table again. We haven't we haven't Had a discussion about it. So there's no official position on that yet. Is there anybody else who would like to speak? Come on down Good evening Bob Lueing here. Thank you for coming guys and Supporting us the trails that you were referring to are those ones off of Sand Hill Road the trail enhancement thing about our We're looking at the entire at the entire town So that we're gonna we're hiring a trails coordinator who will yes look at the in the you know all of our trails Also, we're where there are opportunities to connect to other towns So it's gonna be a completely comprehensive Yeah, so I'm here to encourage that because that brings a lot of traffic from all over the country To our little town to drive bikes and do their Athletic stuff. I have several neighbors with the fat tire bikes and I hiked the trails a lot and lately with the development that's happening there. They've cut my access off To get to some of these trails So I applaud whoever's putting that together to continue with that because that is an excellent way to promote good health and stuff for our towns and Then although short thing about the 1% having being a retired business person We got to be really careful. We don't push employee hers out of town Though in Williston's created their 1% thing or increase If I have this right IBM had to ship their whole shipping department from the Williston section the Essex To avoid that tax so they could you know, it was just another nail in the coffin We're pushing IBM out for example So I agree we need to spread that out with all industries to be fair. We also have to be careful that we don't Handcuff our employers from bringing more people and along with the trails So that you know that all goes hand-in-hand and I appreciate you balancing out our budget With us going on. Thank you All right, come on up Do you say your name? Into the mic so everyone can hear yeah, I'm Bruce post one Cindy Lane Andy you mentioned the upcoming reappraisal houses What is your schedule for considering a policy about that because as you know closing prices have been rather dynamic in the last four years my Income retirement income hasn't been quite as dynamic. So I mean it you know, we could tax all that increased value and get a Nice windfall, but it's going to come out of my pocket So I'm just wondering about the philosophy you're going to adopt or whether it's you haven't even thought about it yet So when a reassessment takes place we it doesn't affect the budget So we currently have a 16.1 million dollar budget that we have proposed and it's it's being supported by a 10 and a half million dollar or so or is it 15 I forget the grand list if that grand list then becomes 28 million You just you still divide by 16.1 million and so the you know the the Anticipation or the way that it's it's revenue neutral Your you know your your assessed value would will go up, but the tax rate will go down Except for the capital tax, which is three cents So the capital tax the amount you pay on capital tax will scale directly with the change in your assessment That's that's that's one of the reasons why we didn't What we want to know how? Reappraisal is going to affect us because we don't know how much additional Capital tax will gain simply from reassessment because that that's going to be a straight line Increase for everybody one was the last time we did a reappraisal or reassessment 2007 And at that time we adopted the revenue neutral power So I hear you saying that's your intent here, and that's fine with me Thank you, but we'll stay tuned Is there anybody else? Don't see anyone online. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, please come on up Paula Duke Regarding the 1% tax, I don't know if people know but if you are buying Something large that's being delivered to your house You can tell them that you live in a town that does not Have that tax and they will remove it from your bill Thank You Paula Just to piggyback on that it is also true if you use the last four digits of your zip code So your zip nine a lot of times because of the way that they generate tax and they calculate the tax revenue They won't add it in the first place, but thank you that that's a great point So I gotta tell you a story my wife and I got takeout from Sukho Thai the other night and They contracted with a third party to do their online ordering and Their online ordering added the one cent tax And so I went when I when I picked up my food I complained about and they said Well, that's a third party. We can't they they they took the money. We don't have it We can't refund it to you, but I'll get it from the state eventually But there are still businesses out there that don't understand or especially if they're online If you find them, please let town staff know and or the state Because I was surprised that this far along. I'm still finding that the people still do turn over That that extra extra penny and it's it's a it's an odd thing that it becomes important if we enact our own to make sure that that penny is going To the right municipality and so it's it's really actually been fortuitous that we didn't go and lock stuff with the junction Because there could have been plenty You know Lowe's firm for weeks insisted that they were an S extension and we finally convinced them that they were not and so So anyway, if you find places that are still charging that The state will go after them and get it get it corrected and there is an ugly Process to get that money back and in my case it was like 36 cents But it would cost me a whatever a potion stamp cost now because it's a paper form that you have to file to get it So cost me more than it was worth to get the money back Yes, sir, feel free to just queue up behind there so that you don't have to to wait on me My name is Shubi Norton And a couple comments of Andy reminding me of something and I've mentioned this is zoning or the select board before that Now we have the town of Essex. It's it's important to know when people come into the town of Essex So there is signage that needs to be done at the entrances to the town several places on like on the River Road To a etc There are people that live within the town don't really know where the boundaries are like the folks that shop At Lowe's okay, so anyway, so that's that's why another thing is someone could someone give us an update on the status of the Charter We all know about the fickle Legislature and whatever That what are the implications if the Charter is not approved and or if there are changes that might be made So last year there were five questions on the ballot. They they were all approved by the town They went to the legislature One of the changes was a a reorganization of the Charter and that turned out to take a long time to sort out to document For the legislature so that they could could review it so it didn't make it on to Into a voting situation last year. So it was taken up this year We did there was testimony provided to the house gov ops the house Passed it unanimously I believe Hmm. Oh just for sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yes. Thank you for reminding me that one of the changes was to to give the select board the authority to establish a Just cause eviction ordinance that was left out of the What was approved by the the house Largely because the house would prefer to have state-wide language rather than doing it municipality by municipality And in fact ours we simplified so much that all we did was include the authority to establish a Just cause ordinance we didn't include Any of the language we figured we'd have to figure that out later or the legislature would tell us what it had to be so anyway Is the four of the four of the questions with the exception of the just cause evictions question were approved by the The house unanimous unanimously Testimony has been given to the Senate gov ops Tracy Delphia and Greg Duggan have both testified. I was in Florida. So I didn't I was traveling that day and so It's Oh Go ahead Greg or Tracy do you want to comment where you where it is? One thing I learned is that I don't think I'll ever testify in front of the legislature on zoom again Testimony went well The Senate gov ops was very appreciative of the thought in time That not only the select board, but the charter change committee put into Identifying and developing the language. We did so we voted on five separate Particles last year for the exact reason so we we could show the level of support or not For each of those questions each of those charter change I got the sense that Senate gov ops was overall supportive Of all of our charter changes. However, they did want to dive a little bit more into just cause eviction You don't know how much detail to go in but if if what the house passes and what the Senate passes First from each other they need to go into a committee of conference, which means you need to come together hash out their differences and Come to an agreement between the two house and Senate on what that language would be And the last I knew and it gov ops was still trying to decide what they were going to put forward to vote potentially out of committee to the full Senate I testified about And so my testimony was I answered questions about how those I've posed out of the Hard to review I'd propose for Questions I was told Odds there wasn't a lot of indication in one way or the other I had I worked with the questions I voted Hi, Ken Signorello I want to stress how important it is for folks to take a look at the town plan if they can tonight before they vote on it tomorrow, it is a Rather important document is going to set the stage for eight years possibly a more important vote than your budget Which affects one year? If you were to read it, you would notice I just heard Mr. Norton talk about Signage necessities that is one of the action items that the Commission that I serve on the Economic Development Commission put into the action into the Town plan as an action item So that's the kind of thing you'll see in there if you jump to each section and read through some of the action items These are relatively short long-term and medium-term goals that our various committees and commissions have set and put into the town plan They could have a huge impact on the town in the long term So please take a look at that town plan. It's a long document. I know that Focused on a section that you're interested in is my suggestion and then you'll be able to vote a little bit more informed about it, I think Very quickly on the local option tax. I want folks to remember we have seven neighbors three of our seven neighbors Have a local option tax What's attractive about assets is that we don't and The reality is Municipalities such as Williston that get a tremendous amount of people buying things there from outside of their municipality They end up paying the bulk of that local option tax. That will not be the case for Essex Pat not having a local option tax. I think is an attractive thing for businesses and for people as well So let's keep that in mind as we consider a local option tax Every municipality is different and how that local option tax and who pays it and how much of that family's income goes into that Local option tax varies based on the municipality and its makeup and the people that are buying things there Thank you Well, I'm Mary post and I want to speak to everyone here including the public about something that's very important to me I'm interested in Indian Brook You know our Indian Brook Park and the fact that Dogs are allowed to run free and This really bothers me because I remember I think was a couple years ago people went to the select board to talk about How what they thought about Indian Brook and there were several of them that said That they were afraid to go there. They couldn't go there Because they had one man was a brittle diabetic There are elderly that if they get knocked over they're afraid they're gonna You know break a hip and they don't dare go to the park because there are exuberant dogs That will come and maybe jump on you or if they go running by you because they're chasing each other they can knock you over and Then plus there are Dogs like we always I love dogs. We've always had dogs But we've had some dogs that if they are on a leash But other dogs aren't and the other dogs come up to them Then there can be a fight because they're they get stressed being on a leash while the others aren't you know There's all these problems. So the way I see it is right now We have a whole group of people in Essex that are not gonna be able to use the park the dogs get to use the park off leash and The other people that are healthy and not afraid of dogs They get to use the park But anybody that has a health problem or is afraid of dogs or has little tiny dogs that have been pounced on I don't think anybody's been attacked, but you know, they're afraid to go to the park So right now you've got one third of well not a whole third, but you've got some of the population that can't use this park if dogs had to be on a leash in the park Everyone in Essex can use the park just by having those dogs be leashed So I really would like everyone to get involved in this if you're interested and We've got to do something to have I guess it would be the rec department pay attention I believe that it's a decision of the rec department and I really would like it to be a decision of the community and I would like to see you know They're doing a lot of work on trails now trying to make people get outside and enjoy this community and We still have a group probably the most important group that needs to get out because a lot of them are elderly They're alone and if they can go out walking with people I used to work for a service for a while where I would do that take people out for walks but that would be a place that couldn't go and So I just think it would be really nice as a community if we cared for every single person in this community Including our dogs and we all can enjoy the park. Thank you Thank you ma'am Betsy done and live on Cindy Lane The other thing to segue right on to Mary's conversation is that when dogs are off leash You don't know that they're pooping that poop doesn't get picked up and that phosphorus goes into our legs and We've had for the first time in the last couple of years where we're seeing algae blooms in Indian book This is a problem and I think that no one minds holding their dog It can be a nice length leash, but I think that it's important And I wish that when they made these new rules for the park that they had asked us all about it. Thank you Bob Luang again, I wasn't planning on doing this twice tonight, but You know, we all loves dogs and it really isn't a dog problem is the dog owner problem and When they defecate all over the property and that bacteria goes down and then the kids can't swim in that That's really what concerns me most so I I completely agree with all the other comments I've been there a lot of you know, I get the season passed every year and we enjoy it And I put my boat in and and I've been run over by the dogs and this and that and it's rather rude I think when dog owners bring their dogs and don't control them But it isn't that it's not the dog's fault and I want to make that really clear because I love dogs And so I it's it isn't I'd like to put it. It's really a dog owner problem versus a dog problem. Thank you Thank you Yes, ma'am Good evening Irene Renner To follow up on h518, which is the bill with the charter changes. I believe I had the good fortune of being in Senate government operations on Friday afternoon I was there for another reason but they took up the bill that we've all been waiting for with the charter changes in it They did pass it out with a very minor amendment. It doesn't change the context or the content really at all It was just about a funky date thing about something ending on Starting on June 1st and ending on July 3rd June 30th. Anyway, they took out five words. We won't know the difference It is on the notice calendar for Tuesday March 12th meaning we will vote on second reading on Wednesday the 13th and with Good luck. We will vote on the third reading and pass it out of the Senate on Thursday, so It is happening. Thank you All right, thank you for that excellent timely update Is there anybody else who is present here who would like to make a comment? I'm just double-checking online and it does not appear that we have any raised hands there And so I would say that I have it on very good authority that Mr. Watts would be happy to entertain a motion to adjourn Yes, it sure does. Thank you Don. Is there a second? Second Second. All right. Thank you. Adjourn is a non-debatable Motion all those on the select board in favor of adjourning, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. All right, we're adjourned. Come back tomorrow to vote. Thanks so much