 All right here. We are at 615 and We have posted the agenda in three public places right and on the website and emailed interested parties so we can go ahead and legally conduct this meeting so To start out would ask if anyone has any additions to the agenda tonight That that what's on there Mason you do yes US Forest Service Anybody else Columns that were Around the Barriers on Bingo Road. I just happen to look out my window and saw him going up by my house two or three of my top of a car couple on the foot and They went back now now And then they came back up in about 50 miles an hour I got slowed down a little bit anyway And so that's where the combs are it's a blue stand With a bunch of two little punks in Okay, all your poems All right, no license plate just a blue sedan Not could I don't know if Cooder's gonna make it in tonight or not. I don't think so but anybody else Well, I just said now it now is when we make additions to the agenda then we can go on and talk about it Okay, so update All right, so then We've got those we've got the meetings from the minutes from the last meeting on August 12th and only Correction I saw that in the discussion of the tax rate in the school tax rate It didn't there was a request to Wave the penalties and interest for the or that was a discussion of waving the penalty and interest and we Decided that we're since there's no penalty until after the fourth payment that there was no sense in Waving that it was really not a big deal So we should probably include that and then I've moved to approve the minutes with that correction All in favor And then so Harlan you already kind of a gave us explanation of that so we'll go with that I guess Keep an eye out for Yeah, whoever is driving the blue sedan, I guess you know, you don't know where they where they came from I So that would segue right into the Forest Service issues and Mason you want to talk about their Proposed new policy. I understand today was the final day for public comment on that. Is that right? I 26 today's 26. Yeah, okay yesterday was it. Yeah, I just was curious what the select board Was this the first time that you heard about this through the newspaper? Yeah, I didn't did you guys hear about that at all? No, I've read it in the paper. Yeah, I heard it on the radio Yeah, so our relationship with Forest Service was one that as a town We heard it through the news not through right. I think that I mean to you to say we're gonna potentially have a new policy Right. I don't know how Recently the local Forest Service even heard about this But I don't know we haven't had a conversation about that and you all three of red I Not in detail, but yeah, I have the general gist Opinions as leadership in our town are related to it that's such a word you concerns might be or Could you tell us what this is about because I swear I have not read about this I know I'm sorry This is a bit for them to share it with you since they you know in a nutshell Forest Service is discontinuing public input to any of their projects Basically No, I don't know do they agree is that what I think that's what That's basically in a nutshell. Like you said. Yeah, I think it's probably the largest landowner It is Yeah I called Well, I'm speaking for myself. Yeah, you could have a large effect. That was a surprise that we didn't get any official You know Reach out to the town actually Here in the news on the radio Well, I guess we could follow I guess we don't know well how quickly they're gonna make their decision there I don't think it's Communications If transparency is the issue here Well, we'll do that If they have enough to to say we could Could do that or as what you've requested was for us to report on a conversation with them, you know, I Know I think this is not something that that originated in our local office here. Yeah Yes, yeah, I was surprised to hear it, but well surprised but not surprised seen as the way a lot of rules are being tweaked lately and the political world All right. No, that's a good point. It's worth Making a fuss about Harlan. Thanks for being another person to call up and register your opinion. I guess I don't know I don't either but but you got to try right? Yeah. Yeah all right, so That segues right into the future of Rochester doesn't it and and and the Envision, Rochester Movement so would you like to To give us a little update Gave us the okay to attend the recent leadership summit over in Randolph, so we wanted to thank the board All of you for that because it was a tremendous summit. It was hosted by the Vermont Council on rural development and That's a non-partisan Organization that is really interested in what we're doing here in Rochester are very supportive and they've Encouraged us to come to this life or we will do formally at the last the next meeting They've encouraged us and asked us to come to the select board to For two things one official endorsement if you're comfortable doing that for Envision, Rochester and the outcomes of the community facilitation process and then also if we could if the select board would officially request a Partnership with the Vermont Council on Rural Development and We can give you Information about that before the next select board meeting so you guys can really sit with it So there's no decision required here. This was just tonight. I thought I'd come just to Give you a heads up about Some of the momentum since last spring At the last meeting alone. We had 22 people signed up to volunteer on different teams and Business owners, young people older folks retirements, and we've had a series I think Tony you were at our first one at the library and we've had four now We've had lots of new faces at each meeting. So the words getting out people are interested They're they're eager for Sort of a unified approach Our goals to support the town select board and the town plan for the future So we're looking forward to reading the final draft and seeing where we can you know Give public input when that's appropriate So we're looking forward to reading that and that was actually one of my questions for tonight On behalf of our group, but also my neighbors It will there be like hard copies available or mail it out to people if they're not there will be a raise Yeah, I think yeah Yeah, and I think at a request could get an email of the Yeah, it's not it's not quite It's not quite ready So the town the new town plan Yeah, that's being updated Yes If copies So initially you said when you went you went to the meeting you said they were interested in what we are doing at Rochester Can you elaborate? They are and what are they interested in what we're doing? Sure. Sure. Okay, so the steering committee of The Rochester invited Jenna Kaloski to come and that was two and a half weeks ago now and we gave her an update on On What our group in the community has been doing and sharing ideas business people thinking about their plan and their strategy based on some of the new tax information and Opportunities that are really bubbling up from the town plan revisions because we're sort of opening things up in a new way You know looking at things a little bit differently, so she She was interested in finding out exactly what are some of the results that came from our community gathered So we share them with her We can again we can give that in detail to you before next Slapboard meetings For you know for your matter there's a whole community Facilitation process that this organization works on along with other consultants to your OC in the wrong way But this group in particular Has been working very closely with South Royalton Randolph our neighbors in the Valley, so this group is very interested in doing Modified version with us because we have already jumped through several hoops In getting the community motivated talking networking really put in our thinking caps on and so That's that moving that first head ball. That's half the battle So a lot of communities really We're ahead of the curve on this okay because we started this earlier So they're pretty excited about some of the things we've already been able to achieve We're having folks talk to each other who really never knew each other before having felt comfortable talking about certain things So it's it's been a good process so far, you know There's some folks who may not necessarily buy into that community facilitation process But for the most part We've gotten terrific feedback from people and there's some action It's been from our council on world development Senator Leahy opened it and the governor closed it and it was a terrific day a lot of workshops Really good hands-on Community development Programming so thank you Good yeah, yeah, so and a lot of our new partners were there Arnold Blath The folks at a Bethel and some other familiar faces that people working with you know through the steering community So I mean there's more things that I think you can do to us I'm sure these folks But it sounds like they will have stuff on the agenda and at the next meeting to talk a little bit more about that Thank you Joan How are you envisioning Rochester tonight? That's mainly what my updates are And I've been attending the equally construction meetings that take place Monday mornings to sort of catch up on what's happening talking about the change orders and how the project's going and getting into the committee reading details of getting the project going Keep it going as of this morning the project I was considered to be on schedule Some of the highlights are it was the culverts that have been installed so far. We remember had 21 or being started today There's something more than a dozen that are going in along that stretch of the road. So they're Getting further along there Several of the major geotechnical sites and the geotechnical sites refer to the areas where there's drainage and erosion control structures On both sides of the road on the upside up hill side as well as the down hill side So if you walk up the road at all when the structure is not going on it seems big stone areas And things that are being dug out. These are what they're calling geotechnical areas That's where Several of those are finished and Both on the uphill and the downhill sides and You walk up there. You also see that there are a lot of concrete board in place Clover both inlets where the water comes in on the uphill side and on the downhill side They're called head balls where the water is coming out from down the side And originally there was going to be a combination of the life cast in place Preform concrete but because of the slope and other conditions that are kind of difficult to do Precasts they're all doing the casting place So those are moving ahead as well The bottom line in terms of the schedules that definitely by the end of this week will be on schedule so Work so far as doing well for looking towards a mid-October completion lots of things can still happen They're predicting that by September 13th all of the downhill and the uphill drainage structures. So geotechnical sites will be completed So that's that's a great deal still to be done that they're Pretty confident as of this morning that that was possible to do Please continue to encounter unexpected conditions on the downhill side More slides than they expected originally thought partially because it wasn't all fully surveyed by the Good boys and came through and so sometimes you just have to go out there and stand on it look up at the slope and realize The slopes about like that. So maybe it's a little too steep to have painted structure go there So they have to sort of do some Resurving the field and reset the state figure out how to direct the water downhill. So it doesn't become a fire hose So that's all what happens on a day-to-day basis over there addition they're Encountering because of the steeper topography they're finding places where there's more erosion and down slowly from the bait thought so they're making adaptations in the plans and the designs to Feel that and also in some places there's more ledge than anticipated and there was top possibility of whether Blasting would be necessary right now that we're going on going to the rock Major change order having to do with what we've been calling site to which is upper Bepple Mountain Road There's been a lot of discussion back and forth flying around between all the agencies and Du Bois and King and the contractor about how to deal with the work that's required And as of this morning what's been agreed between all the parties Tatro and town and municipal assistance for and the transistor for is that They're going to incorporate a portion of the upper part of Bethel Mountain Road Into Tatro's contract with a change order and so that's going to move Tatro's Contracting responsibilities up to where the T intersection is We're lack of a better term calling that site one B and Tatro will take care of that and it consists mostly a stone line ditching and some painting repairs over the work The part from the T intersection on Bethel Mountain Road how to The town line not clear that there's work as far out as the town line Whatever there is to be done District 4 is going to work with the MAB to get that done also in the same time frame There's been a lot of back and forth about what the scope needs to be there And what they've decided is in order to be able to get it done in time So that time to get the maximum reimbursement from the feds And to have it done by winter is they're going to scale it back instead And the scaling back consists mostly instead of doing the cross culverts never needed They're just going to button it up for the winter basically and work strictly within the town right of way because another way of Extending the length of time the project takes is to go beyond the town right of way on the private property And then you start to deal with all the private Ownerships there get their cooperation to allow it to happen. It has to be a lot of surveying done It has to be documents prepared Desmond sign that sort of thing. So we're going to leave that for next year under a different regime So what they'll do this year is focus on the stem the town a still line ditching and whatever painting is done and shoulder work And that'll make it safe to travel through winter and then either this October when the next round of better roads Grants come out and that's a state program Or else there's the class 2 Missful road program which is in April either one of those the town is encouraged and will be applying For a grant to complete the work that's needed up there next year between the cross culverts And the may be assured us we've been very successful in getting those grants within the past few years But they may be sort of made a special point of saying we will make sure you get funded Finish that work. Yeah, and it will be a lot easier because even if we have to do work outside of the town right away to do that stuff Doing it under the state rules for working outside of right away are a lot easier to deal with than the federal Methods so I think that's a really good solution to What was a problem The other part of that is the process that they follow is called an ID IQ which stands for It is indefinite delivery and Which means instead of doing a very detailed form No, that's right ID IQ, I'm gonna use that Needs that instead of having to do a very detailed kind of big process where you break out all the different materials and all the different steps involved The state will just invite Pre-qualified bidders to bid on it and they can then provide a bid. That's just a lump sum amount These are companies that have worked extensively on the trans projects in the past So that the sort of known quality in terms of what their qualifications are And their ability to get the job done on budget and on time So they will take care of all the bidding process. They will deal with this limited subset of contractors and the state and Sign them up and get them to work very late. So we'll hear more about that in the next couple weeks as they move ahead with those plans And they'll be able to use the plans that Du Bois and King has already prepared Don't be scaled back so marked by a century. They don't have to start from zero in terms of the design So that's the highlights of the mountain road Water quality work at a project at the town garage Moving ahead, I think I sent you an email already to remind you at the next board meeting on September 9th Someone from whatever partnership will come and give you a little bit of technical information on what's going to be happening at the town garage our consultants the watershed watershed consultant associates Earlier are doing the final designs that are probably going to be done this week and The main thing that's going to happen there is something called a swirl Swirl separator and that's an in-ground piece of equipment that will take a lot of the stormwater runoff and Separates out all the silks and Stuff like that, but you want to keep out of the river and it'll accumulate in the separator and allow them water to flow through People turn through the ground and go out eventually and again from the river in much cleaner condition than it is now So that is called the defender Defender, do they have any idea about how often that will need to be cleaned out? Every few years a few years Recommended methods for how to do that. It's essentially And So we did have a site visit there It's going on three weeks ago And who there was there as well so we talked a lot about other things that would be done At the surface to redirect the stormwater as well. We had a lot of discussion about what to do with the salt shed and That's not fully resolved yet Go over the salt storage rather And that just might have to be a separate design exercise and a separate Separate project because it's kind of a head scratcher at the moment What to do where to put it how to design it in a way that you can limit the amount of seepage that goes into the river, right? There will Could have the option of having his crew do it. It's about a two-week Process of just one person nearly on the next day and he decided to fit it out instead so Right your partnership with us on that. In fact, they're going to put together the big package. It's pretty simple it'll be in the arrow next week and Hopefully we'll be ready to paint the project in mid-October Pretty much it and then only the last thing what I mentioned is The 23 or 24 or 22 or so human projects that we have We sort of I think I've mentioned this before but Julie and Becky and Puder myself are all working Taking care of various tasks associated with that Putting together. There's a lot of information that has to be assembled on how much work has been done What it's costed us to date what percentage of completion it is on these projects with projects don't need to be bit out What's the description work to be done in each one of these sites and there is a meeting coming up on Wednesday, it's the next kind of second meeting in person So that's where it progress is that all Thank you Yeah, that's I'm moving forward. That's great sad Any um special news from the library? Well, let's see tomorrow Gail possibly doing a workshop on hand lettering at a clock in the morning and Thursday Summer Our next trustee's meeting is early of the news all over the east of them a third And you get all of this information in the herald What time does the Howard coffin seven? That's the hazard of too many meetings Yeah, thank you Yeah, yeah, yeah Terry is not in tonight, so we're Moving right along. I guess the new business. We really covered most of the new businesses and Bethel Mountain Road and the upcoming Informational meetings and really you guys have anything else that you wanted to chat about Ask about Joan did enough of a summary on Bethel Mountain Road For anybody in the town that's concerned about truck traffic The project has six weeks left, but the trucks are estimated to only need about three or four more of those weeks to Continue roles. So we may get a reprieve of two weeks earlier for the trucks So I'm gonna bring any piece of good news that we can Yeah And the under all them businesses just this Broken record of the missing book, which I don't have any updates about it Anybody Cleaning out different areas looking as I'm cleaning And there you have it 47 minutes no no 30s 30 32 minutes. That's not bad. Oh wait. Yes, I saw thank you. Yeah, that's how you Stick it out of the back of your truck Yes Yeah, yes On the new taxpayer Can you explain to me the recent article in the Herald about the potential of a 10% tax property tax increase because of the reduced amount of children at the school We have not got any updates on that basically what it is as there was I Guess the supervisory union modified the student count for unknown reasons there, you know their own formula and and that was What they communicated to the town to use for the tax rate was not what the town of Rochester or Stockbridge had voted on not what we understood from our numbers and there's And there are who's been brought up and I'm anticipating that they're going to Martha do you have an update on that But the minute stated they would they discuss that for quite a bit The head of the school board right has been Working with the state obviously trying to get things I They appealed the penalty, but I don't know what the result of that it's still all being hashed out The guys on vacation. No somebody's on vacation. Yeah, the guy that made the Determination he made that determination and they went on vacation. I guess So yeah, everyone's kind of interested to see how that shakes out because it's Yeah Great job All right, unless anyone else has anything else to say we're gonna Call this meeting done. Thank you all for coming out. Thank you. Sorry