 We put off the meeting a couple minutes so you could all join us. So here we are on August 14th, 2023 for the Rochester Select Board meeting, which we have advertised on three public places, correct? And on the website and emailed interested parties so we can legally move forward. And the first item on the agenda are the minutes from the prior meeting of July 24th. And with one typo, I think that our new member on the highway, Fran, is actually Frank. So we'll move to approve with that change. I second that. All in favor? Aye. Okay, cool. And our second item on the agenda is a report from the High School Repurposing Committee, is Catherine in Zoomland? No, she's not. Not yet, so we'll put that on hold for a few minutes. And we have an amended consulting agreement with two rivers. Rob, were you here to talk about that or no? No, okay, just checking, yep. The amended consulting agreement with two rivers. They're changing dates. They're modifying the termination date to December 31st of 23 and increase in the budget by $3,500. And this is, I think, for the finalizing of the zoning, having the zoning bylaws come up to match. Okay. Yeah. Or down plan. So I would move to approve that. I second that. All in favor? Aye. Okay. We have, so we have to sign a response to the reappraisal order. The state of Vermont has changed the parameters by which they determine whether or not a town needs to conduct a reappraisal. And I don't suppose we have any option but to comply with that. So you were saying, Julie, that the people that we would engage for the reappraisal, there's quite a waiting list? Yes. With your approval, I can go in and request for their services. And that would take, I think right now they're at 2027. So this is the same firm that has done, has been here before. Yeah. So that's. Yeah. I've been here twice before, but he now works directly for NEMRIC, right? So NEMRIC does reappraisals now. Yeah. I also have a conversation with Sandra Brodor, who is a blister in Warren. And she also recommended this firm as well. So, pick after. So I would move to. Yeah. It's going to be a while before it actually hits our desks. Yeah. It's going to be our last time too. Yes. And it's a two year process to get it done. So. It's like 2029. It's steps there in order to comply before we even get started, so it's beginning and then it's nice to get word out to everybody as well that it's going to happen. It's going to happen. All right. So let's move to sign that agreement. The second. Is that on favor? Aye. Okay. And it doesn't mean that your taxes are automatically going up, because as the values go up, the bill rate goes down. Unless you get a bunch of work in between. In this agreement, did it say that we needed to do it by a certain time? Or is it? I think the state knows. I think we can get someone to do it. I think the state, it does say to get it done as soon as possible. Right. That's as soon as possible with so many towns being asked to do a reappraisal. For all the same reason. So Catherine, you're here to give us an update on the high school repurposing process. Yeah. I thought I'd come a little earlier, but glad to make it tonight. Yeah. So in a July 14th meeting with Jamie Canarney and Lyle Smith, who's been working with BHB on the whole environmental assessment process with respect to the Brella. So the plan had been all along that the school was going to cover the cost of removing the underground tank so that the consultants could do the soil testing and sampling underneath the tank. And that's going to be paid for by Brella, right? So, and that wasn't confirmed until that meeting because two rivers didn't get the confirmation from the state that they could use their funding to remove the tank. But that was definitely confirmed in that meeting. But the school was to pay for the cost of installing an interim above ground tank. Above ground tanks require heating and a lot of other things because it's above ground in this particular climate. And the quotes came in at $175,000, which is cost prohibitive or an interim tank. So we discussed that at length and it was decided that they were going to waive the removal of the underground tank at this point, which I asked, well, how is that going to impact our certificate of completion under the Brella? And Sarah Wright said there could be an exclusion of the underground tank and then if the town votes to acquire the building, then there would be some sort of language in that agreement that when that underground tank is removed, it will be at the cost of the school. And if any leakage is found that the school will take care of mitigation of that leakage. So Brella then wouldn't be on the hook for doing the cleanup? It would all be in the language of the transfers property that the school retains responsibility for that. And Jamie agreed to it. He has removed three underground tanks in the school district this year and there was no underground leakage, including the Rochester Elementary School. And so he's feeling pretty optimistic about that. Then I happened to run into Charlie Martin from the town office recently and I was discussing this particular situation with him and that cost, which was a pretty shocking cost, that we all understand that putting an above ground tank has other aspects to it. He said that he for a fraction of the cost could put in a small indoor tank into the school. And I asked him if he'd be willing to come to the next heat task force meeting and literally give us a proposal so we can see if that option might be the way to go. And then we could proceed with removing the underground tank at the cost of two rivers and proceed with the testing of the soil underneath the tank. Just put in a smaller tank and fill it more often? Yeah, and he also said that we could be using biofuel for those burners. So there was a whole lot more to consider that hadn't never been discussed and he wants to come and discuss it. CB Oil has become very familiar with our boilers down at the school because even though they're primarily residential they had to literally come up to speed with commercial burners so they're very familiar with the situation. So anyway, I pass that on to Amy Wilt who is the chair of the heat task force and they want Charlie to come and talk to them. Yeah, I would think so. It seems to me that the sooner they took the tank out of the ground and saw what was going on the better. I don't think leaving that for some future complication is a good idea. Thinking put 275 into the room there as long as they're five feet away without going over, you can't have over. I think it's 550 gallons inside the building. So I'm assuming he would probably put two and burners that much. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, Terry, if you want to be part of those discussions, of course not. I did give Lyle the information that you gave me at the last time I was here about the adjacency of the water line to the tank and so they've been informed about that. Anyway, that was the thing that I wanted to say because it was a change in thinking about this. Yes, I brought it to Boyd King. So on August 10th, we received from Andrew Hoke the technical memorandum of dealing with the floodplain and floodgate. We have not had a chance as a committee to discuss this yet. It's been very busy week. Pat, you read it over? Yes. It's very hopeful news for installing floodgates on the doors of the two doors that are on that end of the high school building, the flood end of the building. They tested the walls of the building and determined that the walls were adequate for holding back floodwater even with items in the water. So it was really just boiled down to what can we do about the doors. They have mitigations for putting a special door in, special doors in. So they had between $5,000 and $25,000 worth of options for holding back the floodwaters. Some of them would be manually installed if you know the river is rising then you've got to run down there and put these things into the door. Or the more expensive model is an actual door that will hold back floodwater. So that was very encouraging news. They also, once it's installed, they will go to the state or feds, it would be the feds, to register this building as a flood proof building. Yeah. So has this been okay for receiving that potential earmark which is looking increasingly more promising? We're not making any announcements until the Congress actually passes the bill, but just to let you know. They're in the pot. It's looking promising. More promising than it was last year because we passed appropriations. We've cleared appropriations. Which is something we did not clear last year. Last year we did not clear that hurdle. No, we did pass that hurdle. This is a major hurdle. So anyway, I think considering everything, we probably start needing to talk with Sarah Wright about establishing a date for the vote and the language in the vote and all of that. We're also creating a 501C3 for the building. And that seems to be what a lot of people feel more confident in. We still expect that the town would retain ownership of the building through the whole, you know, refurbishing process, updating of it. But that, you know, there would be this 501C3 established for managing the building. So all of that is in the works right now. We're working with Vermont Law School. They've given us a substantial amount of money to work with an attorney for establishing this. You know, in this process, I keep thinking, I wish we had an economic development corporation for this valley in which businesses and various representation can be there to talk about the big picture. Because it's big picture planning that really is needed here. Like they have in Randolph. You know, I know Randolph is a larger town. It's got a hospital. But still, we have a lot of ongoing concerns and we're growing in a lot of ways. So Vic assures me that I shouldn't be looking at that right now. I should just be looking at a 501C3 related to the building. But it seems to me the building has a lot of potential for economic development in the community. And there are business owners who do not have voting rights with respect to the building because this isn't Rochester's not their primary residence. So what avenue do we have for business owners to really have a say in this kind of a project? Which is very large and complex. Just questions I'm putting out there. Not that I have answers, but you know, these are all things that we're discussing. And we'll be meeting soon again. Patty's in our meetings and yeah, there's a lot going on. But we had a very positive month. Yeah, I think positive month. Yeah, we had our first retreat on July 18th. And committees seem to reassert their commitment. And there are people working on the 501C3. There are people working on town education campaign. And the next thing is going to be a fundraising campaign. But we can't really start. We can get commitments to it, but we can't start really raising the bucks until the vote. Because we have to decide whether we're going to acquire the building or whether it's still going to be the school building. The school is not eligible for this grant money. This grant money and the earmark is under the municipality. And I don't have any definitive news on that. So we're not making some grand announcement. Not until we know. Because I don't want to bring people's expectations up and then have them dashed. So has there been any evolution of thoughts about what the building would be used for? The proposal that we had submitted at the time of the feasibility study a year ago is still the proposal that went forth to the Senate. And it gets a lot of very positive response. We've spoken with Eric Law from USDA because it's a community facilities account that this would go under. And he fully understands that things evolve and things change. He said we're not going to be tracking you to see whether you stay to your original proposal. Because as long as the building remains an asset and a usable asset, he said then it's been accomplished. But under the community facility grants, we have to have X amount for community access, X amount for business, they're different proportions, community services. And we have to align with that in order to even get the earmark under his account, under USDA. Anyway. And so that grant money would be required. It would have to go to the municipality owning the building. Yes. It's the town that applied for the earmark. Right. And it would be the town that's awarded the funding. And it was under the USDA community facilities grant. So then if the town were to then to sell it to a 501C3 that's going to run or own the building, does that throw in? That's fine. Everybody kind of assumes that that would have. We would decide to distribute funds to them as needed from the grant. I think the money goes to the town completely. Right. The money goes to the town. And then we would decide whether to hand money over to the 501C3 profit. Right. So there'll have to be a project manager. All kinds of things. And as you well know, because you just refurbished the building, you know, every aspect of the redevelopment would require different expertise. So really truly, if the town acquires, then the select board needs to be very much involved in the process going forward. The planning, this group of the repurposing committee will have fulfilled its purpose. Whether people on that committee go on to the next or become a part of the 501C3, that's something I, you know, that's yet to happen. There'll be other people interested will be seeking to develop a board that represents various skills and abilities as well for such a big project. Excuse me. Can I ask a question, please? Sure. I just wondered, I don't know whether it would be you, Jim, or a cabinet to answer probably, Jim. There is a mention of having a town vote on whether or not to acquire the building or not. Do you have any estimation of when that might be this fall or next spring for a town meeting, or do you have any idea when that might happen? Well, we know it's going to be, I should not say I know with certainty about it, but we were not going to have the vote until all the information from the environmental study was available to the voters. So this summer has been the whole environmental process of testing and sampling, and after that report is received, it was my impression, Pat, if you would agree, that was when we were going to establish a time to vote, because we'll have gotten everything we needed to know in terms of risk factors about that building. Physical risk factors. So we haven't, no, there's no date set yet. No, because we didn't hire the consultants, two rivers did, so they're managing that. So it's not anything that I could say it's possibly this fall, or I shouldn't say that? No. I shouldn't say that, and quite frankly, I hope you don't mention the earmark either, because like I said, I want to manage expectations, and I know I'm on video and whatever, you know. I wanted to say that to the select board, because I think it's a very important piece of our, you know, our progress. The reason I mentioned is that you mentioned that, so because I had someone ask me a question, they said, oh, you didn't select board meetings. Have they mentioned anything about buying the school building? And I said, not, you know, there's no definite date or anything. So that's why I thought I would ask them to mention that. Probably sometime in October, November, I mean, really, truly, I don't think that you're hoping it'll happen this fall, couldn't it? We're anticipating a fall vote, but we were anticipating votes earlier. I guess we're really depending on the more information, the better for educated. There's a lot of the process that we are not in control of, right? Right. And so we have to be patient and wait for the environmental process to conclude. And that's basically what we've been doing. We now have the, as Pat said, the very good news from DuBois King engineer about the mitigation for the auditorium. I don't know whether anybody here saw that incredible drama camp performance on Friday night, but it was so moving to see the stage full of those children. And even before the performance started to hear all their excited voices in the auditorium, just, it was just such a demonstration of the need and use of that space for youth and for other things. But youth too, and especially maybe. Do we know when the next hurdle for the federal money is, with appropriations needs to approve it? When does that happen? We should be hearing later this month or September. Okay. It's about Congress now. It's about them passing a bill. Yep. Oh, the bill will get along. There's a presidential election here, so it's kind of chaotic down there. Thank you. All right. Well, that's a lot of news. Can I ask a question? Yes, you can. So is it possible for you to make a kind of a timeline that says, you know, there's a vote. The vote is yes by the building. The town buys the building. A non-profit entity is created. Does the town sell the entity? Does the town completely disassociate it from responsibility once it goes to the non-profit? Well, it is possible to do what you're asking. And part of the education committee is actually a big question and answer thing to try to give the town all the information that they need. And input from you would be great on that process because I think you ask good questions. That's now in process and development. We want to have that out ahead of the vote. So the town acquires, let's just say, the town acquires. And we go through this process of renovating the building. However long that's going to take. The replacing of heat and electricity and roof and exterior doors and windows and all of that. Then it's tenant ready. And the town owns the building? Yes, the town owns the building. But the process is being managed by the 501C3. In conjunction and completely in union with the town. But we're not trying to put that work onto the town. So if the town decides that it wants to keep owning it, that's the town's option. If the town decides it wants to transfer ownership, that's also the town option. And by the way, those kinds of questions should be part of the kind of feeling out the public. So what I'm trying to find out is, because it sounds kind of complicated, as I'm sure it is, that for how long is it? Because money has to be raised during the time. I mean, there's a whole fundraising that has to happen before you can fix it. Well, that's what the earmark is about. Sanders put us in for more this year, 2.3 million I think. And then in the fall we're going to be applying for an implementation grant because I think we're now qualified for an implementation grant through Josh Hanford's agency. The same agency that did our feasibility study. And we're going to put in probably for another million. I don't know. You can ask, you can make a big ask, but you're not in charge of what they decide to give you. So anyway, we're pursuing all kinds of grant opportunities, including to cover the cost of the floodgate. So I think probably the biggest concern for everybody voting right now would be, okay, if we acquire the building, so does that mean that we're in charge of heating the building while this upgrade is happening? That would be a very good question to really sort out. Another reason why I'd like to speak to Charlie about other options and certain actions have been taken by Lyle. He's put in three circulators into the school now so that the heat should be even. The heat, the committee, they're volunteers from the committee who are working with the school to monitor the heat on a regular basis so that nothing is wasted. They just closed a deal for heat to something a gallon as opposed to the nearly $4 a gallon they were paying this year. So things are looking positive when they took out the underground oil tank from the elementary school. They put all that oil into the high school tank. So we're starting out kind of in a good place. Yeah, I'm just trying to be very complicated. Once the vote happens, then the town owns the building. The town owns the building until it's completely, all money is raised, it's completely fixed up. And then at the end of that time, they decided to assign it or sell it or whatever to this non-profit. Is that right? Is that higher? That's what we're more than likely. And then so the town is completely just then has no responsibility for it. The town wants no responsibility and it transfers to the non-profit. That's a possible scenario. It's also a possible scenario that the town starts acquiring income from building and decides, well, we're not ready to quite get rid of it, but we still want the 501C3 to manage it. We have to see how it goes. But it's also possible that the money won't come through and it'll take longer and all of it. Everything is possible. So there's a sunshiny view of it and then there's a more difficult view of it. There's a false sunshiny view because I don't have all the answers. But we did go through the feasibility study to vet the proposal and we know that it's challenging but it's doable. And we seem to have a lot of interest in this project as not only from locals, but from people who are second homeowners and who have an investment in the town. So I have a question. Is the earmark money is that dependent upon the town having taken possession of the building or can we know whether or not that money is a go before the town votes? So in every grant that I've written, I have said the same thing that it's owned by the high school property, by the high school district or the RSUD district, the school district, and the town will vote to acquire. That's why probably they're waiting for the vote too. Because you are named or the town is named as the prospective owner. I mean because that's the truth of it. So I guess that's my question. The school will not be eligible to receive the money. I understand that. So I think that answers your question. Well my question is will we have a yes or no on the receipt of that funding before the vote or does that funding depend on the town finally owning the building before a decision is made? It's already passed appropriations. It's already passed appropriations so it's been approved for funding. But whether that funding is going to come through in the current Congress, we don't know. If they don't pass the bill, there's nothing we can do about it. It made it to the budget. Now the budget has to be approved basically. Yeah, I mean so we're dealing with the federal government and we're dealing with state criteria and federal criteria, HUD criteria. And we have played the waiting game with a lot of people. Not everyone is very available. And now of course, you know, Montpelier is dealing with flood medication. I mean we've learned to be very patient with all of this. But the vote I think is going to happen very soon. And once that vote happens, we'll know where we stand as a town. But if the town voters vote not to acquire, Rochester still has responsibility for the building as the one of a two-town school district. We don't get away from this building. So if the vote is no for taking the building, does that money then go away? The money that the town has applied for will go away. Yes. And the school will have to figure out what it wants to do. And does Jamie have a plan or a plan for a no vote? Well we've talked about that no vote. We've been talking to him on a regular basis because we're trying to be prepared whatever happens one way or the other. And I have been very happy about our work in partnership with the school district. A very positive relationship has developed in all of this where the committee has done things that the school never expected us to do, like raise money for the heating, clean out the school at the end of the year to get ready for Green Mountain Suzuki Institute. A whole group of people came in and did that. And we just keep trying to say, hey, this is the thing we're in together. Rochester's concerned one way or the other. Rochester's involved. So we're trying to just build that relationship with trust and honesty. And also it's very important. Like I said, with the last two school performances that happened in that auditorium, it has brought even Stockbridge parents happy to see their kids up on that stage. The school is an asset one way or the other. I'd love to see personally the school be an anchor tenant for that West Wing. Because we do need to have anchor tenants to make it work. But anyway, nobody is committed to that. And so I probably even shouldn't say these things under the video because I'm speaking my opinion. We'll leave it at that then. Thank you. But I've been working at this for several years and so of course you have dreams and ideas and hopes. Thank you. Can I ask one last thing? As you know for years, I've been making a big stink about money being in the foreground. Money and risk being in the foreground of the conversation. I would suggest that there be at least two open informational meetings. At least two with some time before. And that it not be, and I say this with respect and affection and love, but it not simply be a sales promotion for the idea, but that we tell the people of the town what the real risks are, what the real costs are, what the possibilities of failure are, what the options are, what happens if it's a no vote, what happens with the school, all that kind of stuff should be open for conversation and in my mind out in front. I completely agree. The committee agrees. We certainly don't want to be giving some false positive that then people come back and say, you let us down a path that was not straightforward. I don't want to do that. At the same time, if I feel optimistic, I will phrase it by my opinions, but I want to put facts out there as you want facts. And we'll have facts that we know, but when you're dealing with the future and you're just at the point of development, because this has all been a community development project, you can only state facts as you know them. They're speculation based on feasibility studies and those kind of things, but even feasibility studies aren't written in stone in terms of giving you a guarantee fact. So yes, I think the acquisition vote should be fully informed by what risks there could also be. I would say also in keeping with this, you know, in the town report, you guys wrote four pages, a massive amount of information. There was one sentence in there about how it was going to be paid for, and that was grants. So in a communication sense, that's a whole lot of information in one area and a little bit of information in another area, and that's the kind of, it's this other information that really needs to be up front. I'm not accusing you of anything, I love you and I respect the work that you guys have done to this thing, but I also know it's in your heart and you really want to be positive about it, and God bless you for it, but I think these are other things that really need to, and this can be whoever's doing the informational package, they need to understand that this isn't a sales brochure they're making here, so they shouldn't be thinking of it in that way. There's not. It has to be an informational thing. They're not. But you know, in that town report as I recall, there's two aspects of the funding. There is the funding which is what principally the earmark represents for the repurposing of the building. All the items that I listed and that came to a 3.1 million price tag with a 35% inflationary post-COVID thing, hopefully some of those costs are coming down. But that, the major part of that is what we are hoping for grants, okay? Then there's the sustaining the building after it's repurposed, right? That was a whole different kind of financial thing. So there's two different things, right? And the sustaining the building is not going to be done by grants. The sustaining of the building is going to be done by rent revenue. So I mean, I'm not saying there won't also be, you know, terrible funding in some grants, but for the most part, it's got to pay for itself. But that means it has to have a system which will pay for itself. That's right. If you have two anchor clients and one of them goes out of business or decides you don't like it, then who's on the hook for that amount of money? To me, these are all very important questions. Including the $50,000 capital fund account for anything that goes wrong in the building, which was part of that 3.1 million. So because as Peter Fairweather said, if you want reliable tenants, you need to show evidence that if something goes wrong, you have the funds to fix it. So, yeah, it's a big project. It's huge. Yeah, it's complicated. I hate to see that building go to waste. There are lots of people who have said to me, I hope it would become a school. Well, is there any school like, you know, coming forward wanting to put themselves in the building? I haven't heard of it yet, but if you know of one that wants to, you know, it was built to be a school. And in some ways, you know, it's laid out to be a school. It's also possible, the way the proposal is working, that there could be tenants coming in with some minor adjustments because it was an open classroom design back in 1974, that tenants can actually have their businesses on that north wing or east wing, and we can still have classes in the west wing with the shop and the auditorium and the art room and all of that. That can still be a viable concern. I would love that piece of it to have a school as an anchor tenant. But, you know, that's another conversation, and that's, you know. But it's possible. It may evolve that way. It surely may evolve that way. But, you know, if there's a no vote, then it's going to be up to the SU or the two towns to figure out how to make use of that. There would be motivation on them to use it in some school-based. I mean, my view is that the problem was created by the school board of decades of never fixing it up, and then it was the school board that decided to close the high school to have the merger. It's the school board that has essentially, in my view, created the problem. I mean, of course, the school boards are really the two towns. So, I think the school board, it sounds like they are, be a real active player in this. They are. Because there is a possibility there's going to be a no vote. And if there's a no vote, then what? And I think that's a really big question. That's also to be a very big problem for both towns. Right. The school would also be happy to lease part of it back to a 501, 3C entity for their use. That's right. So we are talking about that possibility, too. Now, I don't think you should be blaming the school boards and the entirety for the work that was maybe deferred maintenance. Yeah. Well, I... They were doing a lot of that to help everybody in these towns, this town, their town, whatever. I don't think the school boards who volunteer a lot of time to the work of that should be the only blame. Blame the wrong word. It is. But the voters also decided what they would pay for and what they wouldn't pay for. Well, it was the Rochester school board. Right. It wasn't the unified school district. Yes. It was the Rochester school. Stock would have nothing to do with it. It was the Rochester harders who voted the budgets. And budgets are, you know, they always tried to do a doable budget that would meet their contractual obligations. Some of them was out of their control. The supervisory budgets were always so important to me. Anyway, it just... I don't mean to blame... It's complicated. All I'm saying is that the school board has an investment past, present, and future in that building. And that if a no vote happens, things are going to need to be worked out. That's all I'm saying. I'm not suggesting we, you know, lynch the school board over what's been done. I worked with those folks. And it's a really hard job. And, you know, every year they come up with the same set of problems. But here we are with this issue now. And I just think that the school board, both the SUM and the combined system here, they're a big part of that. They have an ownership of that, literal ownership, but also a kind of moral ownership of that. That's all I'm saying. I'm not blaming anybody, or I wasn't blaming anybody. Okay. To be continued. Yes. And as developments come about, we would like to still be updated when you have it. Oh, definitely. Even if you were just handed over to me, if you can't make it. I think you'll probably be seeing more of us in the next couple months. We hope to see more of you in the next few months. Yeah. My family would too. Okay. Thank you. Moving along, we have an engagement letter for the Vermont State Retirement System Audit where they go through and pick a few towns to audit and to make sure everything is retiring as it should. So I've moved to sign that engagement letter. I second. All in favor? Aye. It seems so silly to have such a quick item after a long conversation about something like that. Yeah. That's not that big of an audit for you guys, is it? No. It's done. Okay. Okay. Softball Tournament. Yeah. Caitlin's not here. Okay. So you're on. So the fire department is looking to do a fall softball tournament on Sunday, September 10. And we were reaching out to, I'm just making sure that that's actually the date. Yep, it is. And we just wanted to reach out for the slack board's approval again for that, if that's okay. Right. We discussed it at our last meeting, but we were requesting insurance? No, that's a different one. That's a different one? Yep. That's for Renee. And I don't know that she got back to you, did she? Okay. No, that's an entirely different one. That's like a, Okay. That's a legit week, like a seriously. September 10th? Yes. Okay. Yes, it is. Yep. We've currently got a couple of new teams that are interested. Yeah. The date after the harvest fair. Yes. Yep. And is there insurance issues with that? Well, I don't know. We have a form where everybody just signs a release, like if you get a boo boo then that's your, That's your boo boo. On you. Yeah. Right. And this was sponsored by the fire department. The fire department. The fire department. Yep. Yep. All right. And excuse me. Excuse me. I just want to ask something quick. Kristen, it would be great if we could have a separate article about that at some point, maybe a couple of weeks ahead. Yep. If you email me something to put in the paper. And I think this is great. So I'm assuming it's down in the same field where you had the 4th of July. Yep. So do we have to vote on that? Thank you. Thank you. Do we have to vote on that? To allow them to use it? Sure. My move we say play ball. Play ball. I second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We also have a request to use the town office parking lot for the household hazardous waste day on September 30th. So much more fun then. So much more fun. So much more fun. Yeah. And I think that's been a useful thing to allow it to happen. Yes. Thank you for that. Everyone bring your hazardous waste day. I second it. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Yep. Yep. Bring your paint. Old paint. Guys, are there anyone on Zoom from the library? No. And the highway, the boys are off on vacation this week. Two of them are. Yep. Yep. Terry, you've got some issues with delinquent utility bills. Yeah. I don't know how many we're down to now. I don't know if the list is in your pile somewhere. So I don't know, but maybe we need to send the, maybe look up the state and see what the formality is to say we're going to disconnect it if you don't start. I don't think you can. Yeah, you can. You've got to give them quite a period of time. Correct. And you've got to do it right now because you can't do it in winter. So, do we have delinquents from, let's say, 2020? 2019? You've got your town report? No, we'll be. It'll be in it. It's only three that are on there. The others have no payments. Okay. Or are making payments? All these are on there. Is that on the year-own? Yeah, I think they do. So there's only three down to three then? Yeah. So you've worked on that list pretty good then? I didn't. Julie did. Julie did. Carol did. I don't know whether we try to send them another letter. There was funding available to the state. It still has a program that's going to be in effect until September 30th. So I sent that out with all of the delinquent letters and one responded and that's all working through that. Are they serious delinquencies? Yeah. Well, I guess we'll have to see how it plays out. We'll check into it until I'll make a couple calls. Yeah. But we still got our sewer problem. No way I wound up having some fault. And it's still flowing heavy? Wicked. We're going to have to go door to door. Both of the guys are out this week. I'll check with them. I'm thinking we're going to have to... It's only on site three and site four. Does that limit the number of houses that it could be? Yeah. Well, each system... Well, I was pretty much home town. Site four takes in three quarters of the town. And site three is a small one. But no way is owned up to it. So I mean we're going to have to go door to door. And I just think we need to have two guys go. Yeah. And nobody's going to be happy about this. And you should go after a big rainstorm. Don't even have to. It's pumping every day. Water table's up there and I'm getting... double the readings right now, what I should be getting in each of them. Like down here, I'm saying down site four, we're probably pumping actually 8,000 gallons a day. So does that mean somebody's pumping it out of their basement? Yeah, some pump not going out onto the lawn, but into the sewer. Everybody got lettuce. There's more water going out than there is coming in. So supposedly if water's coming in, it goes out. But when that gets out of balance, someone's probably pumping out. I don't think I got infiltration that much. You know, when we did spring walk around and I flipped some manhole covers, that's hard to tell. You know, you got to hit it when it pumps on. Yeah. You know, it's a hit and miss. So I think the only way you can do it is to go to all the houses. I kind of hope in some way to say, yeah, we've got one. I'm sorry you didn't know about it. You know, go down there and help them out, try figuring out an alternative route to it. But nobody's owned up to it. And it is quite a fine if you wanted to introduce it. I mean, not only that, it's putting our septic systems in big jeopardy. Yeah. You know, we spent over a million on that one and we just spent $350,000 on another one that's marginal now. Yeah. So, you know, how much does the town long spend there? I think we just got to clamp down on them and go in. You're going to have to look at all the sewer lines and make sure they haven't cut a T in it somewhere. So when you think of... I'm hoping to do it the next week after this when the help gets back. Yeah. How much water are you talking about? The lower one, the one you go into, I'm probably pumping an extra 4,000 gallons a day. Geez. So that's double what we normally pay. We're pumping like 8,000 gallons a day down there and I'm usually around 3,500 this time here. And then site 4, which is the main part of the town, I'm pumping around 16,000 gallons and it's usually 8 or 9. But could one house do that? Produce that much water? Could. Could. Some pump will pump, putting in 70 gallons a minute. And the water table, you look at that water that's just coming out of the road by the town garage and that's just running 24-7. Yeah, it hasn't dried up. No, it hasn't dried up for what? A month, but it's flat. Yeah. So the water table's up there. I just, you know, hey, I feel bad for these people, but I mean, call us and we'll be, you know, I'm more interested in coming and helping. But, you know, if you're trying to hide it, then that's not the way to be either. Because it's going to bite everybody, you know, what else to do. I mean, that's where we're at. I really kind of hoping, I got my theories on where to look, but if we don't go in all of them, then I'm going to be called a lot of things. We'll go around. We'll go around, yeah. Okay. We shouldn't let it go on too long. No. I don't plan on it. Thank you. Do you have Jeff? Jeff, get part of there? No. Oh, another thing. Yep. Yeah, Trevor Mears helped us lose a hydrant. He did a real good job and he's interested in helping Cody, something with the sewers and stuff. Yeah. So I'm thinking I'm going to hire him more and get him some shots that we'll pay for. Will he need to take classes? Huh? Will he need to take classes? No, for sure. Okay. Okay. And he did a real good job. I mean, he's done hydrants for when he worked for another guy. He did a really good job because this last one, I mean, Cody was a learning experience for him and Dana, both, neither one of them ever done a hydrant. Yeah. He's interested and he was... That's good news. Real good and he's young and I don't see him born anywhere. So if he's willing to work with them, I think it's a good thing. Yeah, I agree. And you said neither of them have had their shots? So I get after them when Cody gets back so they can get their shots down here. I can stop in there and tell Dom because it's a three-shot series and I tell him we'd pay for it. Yeah. All right. Jeff's not here. Grant updates? Not. I just have a... We reached out to FEMA and opened up a claim with them, an initial claim. Today we were assigned our delivery, our FEMA delivery manager. We have an initial exploratory call with him this week just to go over really quick like the basics of our damages where they were and to even help us decide if we need to do a FEMA or not. So he's there for that. So we'll have that call hopefully this Friday. If we do decide that we do want to pursue this and report to FEMA, then we'll have an onsite visit within the next 21 days after the call. To start the process. And I am meeting on Thursday in the middle of the day with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and RCS. It's a federal program relating to water flow and rivers. And we are looking at two properties that are affected by high water, Dean Mandel's property and Top of the Haines property, both down to 100. And I don't know of any other people that are having a problem with a river or water flow. So we're jumping into that program. They're going to take a look at it and get back to us whether something could be done federally. Excuse me, Pat. I couldn't hear the Natural Resources Council. Who is it that you're meeting with? Natural Resources Conservation Services. Okay. And this is, I'm sorry I'm having a really fuzzy connection this week. You're having a meeting with the Natural Resources Conservation Services to discuss these two properties. Yes. This Thursday, and it's Dean Mandel's property and Top of the Haines property, both under 100 south in Rochester. Okay. Thank you very much. Sure. Any public comments in the room or on Zoom? Zoom looks to be all set. Go ahead once, go ahead twice. I think that's it for tonight. Thank you all coming out. Thank you for bringing the camera. Enjoy the evening. Yeah. I move to adjourn. I second. All in favor? Aye. Okay.