 Good evening everybody. I'm calling that work meeting to order the first thing on the agenda is an executive session. I'm looking for a motion. I'll move that premature public knowledge regarding union contract negotiations would clearly place the town at a substantial disadvantage and further move that we enter executive session to discuss police union contract negotiations. Under the provisions of title one section three one three a one B of the Vermont statutes and invite police chief Patrick Foley police Lieutenant Josh Moore finance director Shirley Godel lackey and town manager Eric Wells to join. This is your second second. All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Opposed so we are an executive session will get downstairs for our executive session and be back up to as soon as we can. Out of executive session back in regular session. We'll go on with our usual agenda. I mean. Next thing on the agenda are the minutes of November 16, 2021. Sir, a motion to a minutes. I move we approve subject to modification. Is there a second? Second. Page one. One thing on page one under number four opiate distribution lawsuit settlement. The discussion reads. That Kenny noted many municipal lawsuits against opiate distributors are being dismissed because the legal theory is suspect. So it was good. Willis then did not join. I guess my question is did not join. What those lawsuits. But it was it was an individual. Well, we were offered by I think a law firm or somebody that came along and said, hey, we're getting a whole bunch of municipalities together to sue the opiate companies. Why don't you join. We didn't and now those those cases are failing. Maybe it should be the joint lawsuit or something like doing the joint lawsuit or something just because I didn't understand it somebody down the road. So just to add those lawsuits as the language. Other municipalities lawsuits. Under the same thing. It's a small thing, but I think distributors is spelled with an O. Oh my goodness. How the heck did you pick that up? I just have to Google it to make sure I was right. That's right. Also page one. If not. Page three. Just a small line. I'm under number nine. The ARPA update. The question I have is, is the 949 850 part of the 3 million or not. I think it could be clear. Would anybody know? It is part of 3 million. It's how it can be potentially allocated. Okay. There's nothing more on page three or page four. That's very short. So here are no other questions. All those in favor of approving the minutes of November 16, 2021 say aye. Aye. Opposed. We have taken care of that. I don't know for a public comment on any issue that is. Before us or not. Right. The audience who wishes to make any public comment. On the zoom line. I'm not sure of their names. So I, if you're listing the person with the screen in area 70 DCM 11. Can you please let change your identification to your, your name, please. Participate here. Seeing responsibility. My concern is just a zoom bomber or something like that. So. Um, if we're. Yes, she's like to make public comment, please. Mike, you might want to just see mask so we can hear you. Might, might. Better take the mask off so we can hear her. Sure. You need my name first. So do you do that? Yeah. Okay. I'm Esther Palmer. Do you need my address? Do you need an address for that? No, I live here. Okay. Um, I'm here to say that I hope that, um, I wrote a wrote a large email to people and Mr. Ferris is the one that commented back. So thank you so much for letting me know you got it. It meant a lot to me. I put a lot of effort into what I write and, um, it's hard to know if that's received or not. Um, so I, um, I watched the Burlington, uh, city council meeting and was horrified at. The lack of listening that happened, whether people agreed or not, didn't really make a difference, but they didn't even listen. Um, and that was really a sad to me because we have an opportunity in our community and in a democracy to speak. Um, so thank you all are here. Thank you for letting me speak and, um, for listening and I see all of you are listening. So thank you so much. Um, I'm here to say I hope that you will vote no on face masks. Um, when I am in the community, I see almost no one who is not wearing a mask. I choose not to wear a mask. They don't work for me. Um, I've also done a lot of research and I don't believe that's the best way to go forward with this. People are following the recommendations in this state, especially almost completely. That's fine with me. I have no problem with that whatsoever, but I want to maintain my right to not wear a mask if it doesn't work for me and I want my children to have the same right. We are two years into a pandemic now. We have Omicron now coming forth as well. Is this really the way we are going to live in our society from now on is face mask to face mask. This isn't healthy for kids. It isn't healthy for my young adult women. It isn't healthy for our adult populations either. The reality is when we live in community, we do spread things. We spread joy. We spread hope. We spread care and love to one another. When we put a mask on, we eliminate all of that because a mask says I'm not safe and neither are you. It has gotten too far over the top with this fear. The fear mongering just continues and continues. Every new cycle, they push it. Please do not vote in favor of a face mask. If you do, I know myself and my family will be going to South Burlington because they didn't vote for a face mask mandate. And I would prefer to shop in my own community knowing that I am part of the community. We can't create two different societies here. We've done it with Republicans and Democrats. We've done it with liberals and conservatives. We can't do it with face masks or no face masks, vaccines, or no vaccines. We are one community. And we've got to live up to one community. That's what democracy is. And we benefit from the diversity. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Any public comment at this point? Please just identify yourself and we can de-mask. Sure. So I take it this is on the mass, right? Came a little late. So we're talking about the face masks. You can talk about anything you want to at this point. Okay. My name is Cindy Roy and I live here in Williston on Ledgewood Drive. And I echo a lot of what the last motor from Williston said. That we're one community. And that I believe in the American people being able to make their own choices. And our freedom, I feel, is number one. And for us, we all have common sense. We all have the desire to do the right thing. And I see people around the community who are all very careful in doing the right thing. So my question would be is how does a mandate then make us do more of the right thing? I don't understand where the mandate part comes in. So I'm not for the mandate. I'm not for mandates. I feel that mandates, the question would be is how does that pair with freedom? So again, I just would like to say that I'm against the mass mandates. I believe everybody is doing the right thing that we're very careful. I see it all around in the stores and everywhere in our community. And we all want to be healthy and doing good things and stay home if you're sick and all those common sense things. So I just wanted to say my piece on that and make sure that it was heard and that we all have a chance to think through those thoughts. Thank you. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Any other public comment tonight? Any of you? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. But again, my name is Shannon Kelly. I think most of you are used to Chris Conant coming here. And I think he's on, he's on zoom this evening. I think he can't quite get to the video, but he is here with us virtually. I know you've seen him for a bit. So thank you for your time this evening. I'll try to go through this in brief. I know you have a lot to cover this evening. So we just always, as we have in your past, we just wanted to provide a little bit of an update on what's going on with the Lake Iroquois Association. I'd be remiss that not start out by saying thank you so much for the support that you've provided over the years administratively, financially and otherwise. We've had a lot going on this year. Despite the pandemic, we've pressed forward with a lot of things. One of the things I wanted to start out with, in accordance with the data provided by the, by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, we continue to see a reduction in phosphorus in the lake, which is a good thing. I think most people are tuned into the issues with phosphorus throughout the state for water quality. So that's been a good, good bit of news for us. Some highlights this year, we're co-awarding of a Lake Champlain Basin Program watershed action plan grant. Essentially, what that allows us to do is to go in, assess problem areas around the lake and within the watershed. Also along Patrick Brook, which flows in Hinesburg, some are all of you may know. We were awarded this grant in conjunction with the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District and also our sister watershed organization, the Lewis Creek Association. That's been a good collaborative effort so far and so we hope to see great things in the coming year. We also completed the first edition of a lake-wide management plan. Basically, that just pulls together all of the things that are important to the lake in terms of protection, guidelines, rules, regulations for everything, everyone from boaters to landowners. So we consider that to be a great success. We also worked with the Lake Iroquois Recreation District to apply for a grant to deal with some remediation in the Bebe Lane, which as some are all of you may know, runs the northern tier of Lake Iroquois. So we just found out we were unsuccessful for the latest grant round, but we're going to keep trying, try to keep working with LARD on that front. On the aquatic invasives management front, as many of you may know, we dealt with Eurasian water milfoil this year. We applied aquatic herbicide on June the 28th. It was a product called Procellacore, and we treated about 40% of the impacted area of the lake. One of the requirements as part of this application that we wanted to highlight, we had water quality sampling done, the aftermath of that to basically verify that there were no detectable limits of the aquatic herbicide, and that was below a detectable limit within about 48 hours. We deployed channel markers this year also to maintain a clear boat channel in conjunction with the application of the herbicide. We did not do any diver-assisted suction harvesting this year. Due to the herbicide application, we opted not to direct resources that way, although we are planning to do some next year in more of a spot treatment fashion. Also, benthic match, which is something we place along the bottom, leading out from the boats as well, we declined to do that as well this year because primarily the focus with the herbicide was the boating area. The next, I don't know if you have black and white photos, so the contrast may not be as great, but on the next slide, you can see from the summer of 2018, if you look at the lighter colored portions of the lake, that's essentially portions of millfoil. Summer of 2021, the contrast is pretty significant. We also operate the Greeter and Boatwash program, and that's supported by an aquatic nuisance control grant from Vermont DEC. For over a decade, that's been considered a model throughout the state. The resources, as far as funding, have been declining because the program has become so popular across the state that more lake associations are participating. So we have seen a decline in funding, but we've tried to press forward to see what that continues. And so essentially the objective is to prevent aquatic invasive species from entering the lake, and that's done through educating the water vessel users verbally. We also have a boat wash station for those who are willing to allow us to do so. We wash off their kayaks, their canoes, their boats to try to prevent any potential introduction of aquatic invasive species. In 2019, for contrast, about 800-plus watercraft inspected. In 2020, right in the midst of the pandemic, that jumped to just over 600, so that doubled. I went down a little bit this past year in 2021 to about 1,486. So for perspective, we run the Greeter program from Memorial Weekend to Labor Day Weekend, and that's only three days a week, Friday through Sunday. So for a little perspective, in all honesty, it's hard to gauge exactly how many boats that we don't actually get to wash. So that's a very significant number we feel. In terms of data collection, there is something called the La Rosa Partnership Program grant which allows watershed organizations across the state of Vermont to participate. And basically what I would refer to as citizen science, collecting water quality samples, we focus on tributaries that enter into Lake Iroquois to try to see what the phosphorus levels are. And so that returned this past year. Again, similar to the Greeter program, the funding is level, but more watersheds are participating. And so we had reduced funding. We sampled 10 tributaries down from 24 in 2019. We also completed an aquatic plant survey in mid-September. That was to see, basically gauge in this sense, how effective the aquatic herbicide was in terms of just getting actual numbers and plant types. And so we had positive results there as well. There was no milfoil detected in the sampling grids that are contractor surveyed. We found only one other aquatic invasive that was Hurley leaf pondweed, which was not significant, a significant amount, but it was something that we detected as part of the survey. Conservation efforts, we participate in the Vermont Center for Eco Studies Loon Restoration Project. Essentially what that means is we provide just free labor going out and establishing nesting platforms. We also have lake residents and visitors to the lake who will report loon sightings, which includes any young that are raised. And for several years now, we've had some successful hatches and some successful loon restoration in terms of increasing numbers. In terms of outreach and education, we also submit a newsletter on a semi-annual or quarterly basis. We also updated to a 2021 edition of our Lakeshore Property Owners Manual, and that's on our website. And finally, this past year and early 2021, we planned to do so for 2022. We took some notes from Joe's pond, who some of you may be familiar with, and we instituted our first ice-out challenge, which was a lot of fun. We had hoped to sell around 1,000 tickets, and we wound up selling over 2,200 tickets. So we felt like that was a pretty good success. And so half of which we've dedicated or carved out, earmarked, if you will, for some conservation efforts in terms of shoreline protection. So we're trying to incentivize some activity around the lake for shoreline protection. This year, we're considering devoting whatever we do raise to devote to the Greeter Program. We'd like to expand the number of hours and the number of days for that particular effort. It's noted here that tickets go on sale January 1st. This year, we're actually discussing trying to start that in mid-December as maybe an idea for folks to basically purchase a stocking stuff or something of that effect. So you might look out for the announcements here for coming. That's all I have for this evening. Thank you so much for your time. I'll take any questions if any of you have any at this time. Thank you for coming. Any questions from the board? Just a couple if you don't mind. Yes, sir. I'm on the first slide you had, and I'm trying to understand what the slide is telling me. Okay. And particularly you have the scores on the upper right. Good, stressed, highly disturbed. How do I interpret what I'm seeing there? So the trend score is good. I think I emphasized that in terms of phosphorus. The stressed aspect, it relates back to the millfoil infestation. The watershed score, highly disturbed, means it really is attributed to a lot of the development around the lake that's gone on over the decades. And a lot of that, I think 72, as I understand it, 72 out of the 92 properties are in Heinsberg. And that's what that references essentially. Okay. Okay. The application of the herbicide. Yes, sir. Is it possible to tell how effective it was? Yeah. So visually, if you could see these in color, visually it's very striking. The fact that the plant survey detected virtually, I say no millfoil. There's millfoil probably in the southern end of the lake where it didn't receive any treatment at all. But in terms of that, the grid point sampling that they do, essentially that is your, I'd say your qualitative, your qualitative evidence, if you will, of the effectiveness of the herbicide. And what is it? Did it eliminate it or reduce it? So we're not fooled that this is entirely eliminated. What we'll do, what our plan is for next season is to do an early plant survey to try to detect any early growth. And we'll gauge a second herbicide application based off what the results of that plant survey might be. So if you don't mind me putting words in your mouth, it's kind of too early to tell until you do the next plant survey. Yes, sir. Okay. Do you anticipate you'll do another application of the herbicide? Or you just, you don't want to say yet because you don't know? Correct. Right. Once we, once we basically get the survey results back, and I say early summer as early as possible. You know, we sometimes see it in mid to late May. And so we're trying to schedule that plant survey early so we can, if we need to do a second application, we, you know, we can do it in the most cost-effective manner and as minimally as possible is ideal. Okay. And do you anticipate doing the, what do you call it? Not you. What does it refer to as dash, the diver assisted? That will all pay. Yes, sir. And then my last question is, is under the highlight, you mentioned you received the Lake Champlain Basin Program grant. Do you mind saying how much that grant was for? Yeah, I think the amount was $40,000. I believe that's correct. So three organizations and that will encompass, and I didn't emphasize Patrick Brook, I briefly referenced it, but we'll look at the watershed area around Iroquois and then also down Patrick Brook to its confluence with a little plat. Also, we wanted to be comprehensive in our approach. Okay. So we're very excited to get that. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Good question. The board. Usually at this time, we talk about budgets for your organization. And do you have any requests for the board at this time? None, none specific other than the one I've sent Eric, which was I believe for in the amount of 15 K correct. Yes, sir. Yep. And the emphasis was on the Greeter program and diver assisted section harvesting and then a small amount earmarked for plant support of the plant survey. And in the sense of transparency, we've also asked the town of Heinsberg and a smaller amount from the town of Richmond just based off the fact they essentially have one, they have one home that touches Iroquois. Okay. No more questions. Thank you very much for coming. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. So moving on to the next item on the agenda, which is the municipal face covering rules due to COVID-19 and the ground rules for tonight on this particular subject are that we'll have first of all an overview of the the rules that we know are in place from the legislature by Eric. We'll have a public comment. We'll have a public comment. I'm at right following that for everybody to have a chance to weigh in on this, but you'll be limited to two minutes, no more than two minutes each for your presentation. And that includes people in the room and people online as well. Then we'll go into board discussion on what we've heard and what we've received in emails. This is a list of 60 or 70 emails over on the, on the subject on all sorts of sides of the issue. So I'll ask Eric to lead off the, and we'll have chief fully here to also to talk about enforcement. So Eric. Thanks, Terry. So to brief the board and everyone here and listening at home, just an overview on structure, the legislature passed act one on November 23rd and the governor signed into laws and act relating to temporary municipal rules in response to COVID-19. This act allows select boards to adopt a temporary rule that requires individuals within the town to wear face coverings will indoors at locations that are open to the public. When the select board votes to adopt such a rule, it initially remains in effect for 45 days unless repealed before that time period. The select board must meet during the initial 45 day period to reconsider any rule and vote to reaffirmedly extend the rule additional 30 days or rescind the rule or expire automatically at the end of the initial 45 day period. Therefore the board must meet a minimum once every 30 days to reconsider the rule at which meeting the select board must vote either to rescind the rule, adopt an amended rule or extend the rule for additional 30 day period. So with that saying that the first time it's adopted, it's good for 45 days. The select board needs to meet again before that period to extend it for 30 day increments and so forth. But this law expires or sunsets on April 30th of next year. And when any local mask rules still in effect will also automatically expire. So it's about a five month duration that the legislature and the governor have extended this authority to municipal. The select board this evening is asked to consider this temporary rule making authority. If the board decides to put a face covering rule in place initially for the 45 days. If the board decides it does want to put rules in place then we need to decide on specific provisions to include in such rules. And the board has some resources that cities and towns provided for towns to assist in this conversation. Any rules effective upon action to establish it by the select board. This provides the board with an option to adopt the rule this evening should it wish to take that approach. I think it's a good question. I think it's a good question. I think there's some requirements for posting afterwards that the league is laid out in the materials this evening. And finally staff to seek direction from the board on on any process. They'd like to follow up this discussion and possible action regardless. Thank you. So those of you in the room that wish to speak on the issue. Please just raise your hand and invite. Very much. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm going to start by yourself and then up to two minutes. Hello, I'm charity Clark. And this is my. Seven year old. I am here testifying or speaking on her behalf. She sent a video in that she had made. So I'll just summarize the points that she had made. The first is. She has spoken to her classmates a lot about. The school. And they feel that it's not. Fair that all the children. Have to wear masks in school and the grownups don't have to wear masks when they go out. And about in town. And the second point that she had made. Was the feeling. That it's. A lot of the children at the wills in schools have spent time in quarantine. And she expressed how. She was able to communicate with her friends and the fun at school and how hard that is. And. Also that even though we are getting vaccinated, children are getting vaccinated grownups are getting vaccinated and boosted. You can still carry the virus. And wearing masks. Helps. Spread the virus. And, and so she was. Advocating for the mask mandate in Wilson. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I saw a hand over here in the back. Or did I just gentlemen here. All right. You can be mask. Okay. Thank you for the chance to speak. I'm Mitch Kimbrel. I'm a Wilson resident and I'm senior pastor. Of Christ Memorial Church, which is likewise in Wilson. And we are happy and grateful. Residents of Wilson. And we're thanking you guys for your role in helping the United States. Thank you. Thank you. And I would like to invite the board to include an exemption if you do indeed pass a mask mandate tonight. An exemption for houses of worship. This would be in keeping with what the city of Burlington did when they enacted a mask mandate last week. They regarded houses of worship. Not as public buildings for the purpose of their ordinance. And I think it would also be in keeping with the U.S. Supreme Court case from April of this year. In the first place, I would like to ask the Board of Trustees and members of the Council of Trustees on religious services imposed to combat coronavirus as in violation of the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion. And therefore unconstitutional. I will not lead our church to be Maverick. I've been fully vaccinated and I was boosted last week. And I've encouraged the members of our church likewise to be vaccinated and boosted. outdoor meetings, when we were able to move inside in accordance with his order, we impose social distancing measures and mask requirements. And we wouldn't look to shirk any ruling that you guys put in place. I'm nevertheless asking sincerely for an exemption that recognizes our constitutional right to worship as a house of worship as we see fit. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Anyone else who wishes to speak in the room? Yes. My name is Brett Powell. I'm a Williston resident and I too would like to thank the board for your time considering this matter and allowing for a public discussion. This issue obviously involves balancing interests of one kind or another. We have a health interest that's at stake. We also have it at stake. The sort of the basic interest of people having the freedom to do things and to act responsibly. It's my view that the board should not impose a masking requirement that applies throughout the town. I think that a good way to do it is to allow people who have public buildings such as businesses, government buildings, and others to decide for themselves what they want to do and how that might affect their particular property and their particular activities. Let them have the freedom to decide. The evidence about the effectiveness of masks is inconclusive and disparate. There isn't any strong evidence that masking is as effective as many proponents claim it is and at the same time there's very little evidence or very little discussion about the negative effects of masking which are known to exist and people who have negative or unhealthy responses to it shouldn't be required to mask in that situation. So my thought that given this sort of this situation of disparate interest and inconclusive evidence as to the use of masks and as to any adverse effects of masks that we should opt in favor of the maximum freedom for people to decide this. People who are at risk or feel they are at risk are always free to wear a mask in any situation and I think that's the way the town should approach this. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Bill Burbank and I'm resident on Ledgewood Drive and I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity. One of the things I like about our town is that we're always so respectful in these meetings and town meetings that can sometimes get heated but we're always very respectful and I just love that about our town. I am here to ask you to consider a mask mandate. I think it's a good idea. I'm concerned about the spike in cases and I believe that wearing a mask is a sign of respect and love for someone else not only protects yourself but it also protects others. I think in Williston we have a unique situation in that we have a great number of retail stores unlike some of the towns in Vermont that don't have the traffic that we do. We have a lot of folks that come in from out of state, other towns, the Canadians at some point I guess and the reason I want to bring that up is that there's a great deal of other folks that come through and some of my fellow residents have said why do we need a mask mandate if we're all doing the right things? Well, I would point out that one of my family members worked in retail in Taft's corners and she found that not everyone was wearing a mask while all the employees were wearing masks not all the customers were and it created a situation where people didn't feel safe. So on the flip side of it if we create a mask mandate and everyone's on the same playing field so to speak in all the public places that we go then it's all equal and it's unfortunate each town has to do this but I wanted to point out that I think Williston is fairly unique in that way. Personally on a personal basis I would feel more safe for me and my family going into a place of business if I knew that was the rule that everyone was wearing a mask and I always wonder why you know what am I going to see if I go into a place and it's catch and catch can sometimes. So my perspective is I encourage you to consider it. I think it's a good idea and thank you for your time. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. I'm Mr. Palmer. I live in Williston. I've already spoken. I just want to comment in response to that. I'm one of the people that doesn't wear a mask. I don't wear a mask because I can't breathe in them. I have a daughter who said to me just the other day she homeschools. She's been out of the house very very little in the last two years. She said to me the other day because we'd gone to a gallery and we had to wear masks and by the time we left 40 minutes later she said my throat hurts and I can't breathe. Not everybody can wear masks. That's the fact and as some people feel safer with masks I would rather see your face and have a human interaction. When I'm the only one in a store who's not wearing a mask I do not go and talk to people. I get what I need and I leave. I'm not a risk to anyone. If you look on our site for Vermont the health department the risks are that you were closer together than three feet apart or six feet apart if you're not wearing a mask for 15 minutes. I'm not going to talk to anybody for 15 minutes in a public area. If I go in a shopping place I keep my head down. I get what I need and I leave. I'm very very respectful and I would say that I have not seen anybody who's not wearing a mask be disrespectful. I see people get what they need and leave. So I'm not seeing that people are behaving in ways that are dangerous if they are not wearing a mask in a place of business. Thank you. Thank you. Let's try going to Zoom if there's anyone on Zoom which is we'll be back to you. I want to try going to the Zoom first. Yeah I've got three folks are hand raised on Zoom and I'll just take them to order they raise their hands. So Dave you're first I'm going to allow you I'm going to unmute you and you'll be able to speak with the board. Hi my name's Dave Schultz. I live here in Williston off of Shirley Circle. I have been in the beverage industry before my current job for almost a decade out exposed in grocery stores. Worried every day for my wife who's immunocompromised. She spent this entire pandemic here at home. She's had the advantage of being able to be here at home and keep herself safe. But she can't leave the house without fear of being exposed to a myriad of variants that we don't know enough about to keep her safe. She's been vaccinated. She's been boosted. I've been vaccinated. I've been boosted. And we wear masks wherever we go. And we are super conscientious when we go out to a store, a market anywhere in Chippin County because we don't want to have the risk of exposure for her. It's not about the limited initial symptoms of COVID be it Delta or Omicron. It's about the long term ramifications of what these diseases do. So much of what we're seeing outside of the nation outside of the United States from Israel and England. We see impact of viral mediated diseases in long COVID. And even though we may not be addressing them in the same way, the data is out there. And we talk about freedom where it's freedom for people to not wear masks, but she's not free to leave the house. And I think we need to take a really hard look at ourselves as a society because we are going to be judged by history and by our peers as a community and as a nation of how we take care of the people who are disadvantaged through disabilities, through access to services. She's had to postpone medical visits, crucial medical visits because people haven't been wearing masks because these variants breed and change in people who are vaccinated. So I really would hope that the Town of Willowsson would make it so that there is a level playing field of accessibility for everybody. Please vote to put this mask mandate in place and make it so that my wife can leave the house safely. Thank you. Thank you. So next hand I have Pam Cohen. Pam, I'm going to connect you on Zoom here just a moment. All right, my name is Pam Cowan. I went to the Department of Health website to look at the data because people are concerned about the upticks. And what I found was that among the vaccinated population, the danger is such a small percentage of the population, amongst the vaccinated population, I think two tenths of one percent, that's what the death rate is. And so while I would never want to be in a situation where I would support an environment that encouraged anybody's death, I think we have to weigh when you're restricting people's rights. You really have to weigh is there a societal risk, really? And the other thing is, is that amongst the vaccinated population, very few people actually get hospitalized. And so the other thing is, is Chittenden County only had 10 percent of last week's positive cases. And they said that the biggest rate, the biggest threat, was international travel. So I think that while I sympathize with folks that are afraid, I think that I would agree with the other callers and that is, is that I think we can trust the good people of Vermont and the good people of Williston. To be the grocery store without a mask, if I see a person with a mask, I make sure I stay six feet away. Because I want to respect the fact that they, that they're afraid and I don't want to scare them. When I work over a daycare, I put on my mask every day to go up those stairs because I know that parents fear for their children. So I can be trusted to do the right thing and I think that we can't continue living in a society where we don't trust anybody. And I think that looking around that Vermont's done a great job, I'm encouraging and being careful about this and I think we should be careful to not let fear override fact and that's really all I have to say. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. I've got two more hands on line right now, Terry. Leah, you're up next, so I'll meet you right now. Hi, yes. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Selectman Keg, I also have emailed the select board my thoughts but this public comment is an opportunity to share my thoughts and my feelings. This has been a very upsetting listening because as a person with a disability it is not fear, it is science. I have a disability that is from a post viral mediated illness. I am extremely limited by my disability. The disability is where you actually see real lack of freedom and this pandemic has shown that we are uncared for and that we do not see any disregard for our safety, our health and it is important for our leaders to support our most vulnerable population, our immunocompromised population, our small children, our people of color. This is an issue that needs leadership as you can see from the comments tonight. It is important that we take action to support those that are most needed of care and support and I want to convey to my fellow citizens that it is an emotional personal issue to not be able to leave the house for fear of your safety of your health and that is what true lack of freedom looks like. Thank you. My name is Brian Weill. I've lived in Welliston for five or six years. I'm one of those people who can't wear a mask. I did for a while and it made me very sick. I ended up with a lung infection and had to lay down in bed for two or three days before I could even work, which was way worse than when I had COVID. With that said, I mean you've already limited me from fully participating in civil discourse by forcing a mask mandate in the town hall and I fear that eventually I won't be able to go to a grocery store and get food without putting on a mask on and causing harm to myself and that's not a choice that any American should have to make. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Two more folks online. Tara, do you want to stay online or go? Take care of the other two and we'll go back to the room. Okay next I have Zoe online. Zoe, I'm going to connect you right now. Hi, my name is Zoe Erdman. I've lived in Welliston for 28 out of the last 34 years and I'd like to thank the select board for taking up this issue. It's unfortunate that you have to deal with it and that it's not being addressed on a statewide basis. That being said, we are where we are and I'd like to ask you to vote for a mask mandate and one of the reasons is to support the educators in our town and also to support the retail establishments and the retail employers. As a previous speaker noted, we have thousands of people coming into our town every day especially this time of year. There's a new COVID variant that will be in Welliston or be in Vermont. It's only a matter of time if it's not already here. So we don't really know where this is going yet and as far as it would this maybe we wouldn't have to entertain this issue if everyone was vaccinated and the reality is that we're living at a time when while the majority of us have chosen to get vaccinated and can get boosted, it's not enough to create herd immunity. So thank you again for your time and I hope you will support a mask mandate. Thank you. And Michelle, I'll connect you. We'll just need to unmute Michelle. Hi Michelle, are you there? We can see you're unmuted Michelle. It might be a like something going on with a microphone here. I guess maybe we'll try to go back. Did you have your hand up? Hi my name is Sharon Quinn. It's born in Montpelier so I'm a native and have been in Welliston for 10 years. I do appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I like that the town of Welliston does allow public comment for different topics that you're board meeting. So I wish that you would vote against the mask mandate. I feel that it infringes on our rights and our freedoms. I know that COVID is real. I in fact had it in January. I just think that the fear that people have for many it's real. It's valid. Yet I think a whole bunch of people jump on the bandwagon when some of the facts of science have flip-flopped in the last almost two years. So I for one go out of my home. I enjoy my life. I have no fear. I won't talk to strangers. People I don't know. I go into doctor's offices and in the hospital for appointments and that's required. Many businesses yet don't require a mask and I appreciate that. I think it's a choice and I choose to only wear a mask if it's mandated by the businesses I go in. I strongly support no mask mandate in the town of Welliston. I know some towns have already voted. Some have passed it and some haven't. So you have some responsibility on your shoulders. Thanks again for allowing me this opportunity. God bless. Yes. Hello. My name is Aiden Palmer. I've lived in Welliston my entire life and I just wanted to talk for a minute just about nature because I think throughout this entire pandemic we've kind of lost our place in nature and I've done quite a bit of research as someone who loves being outdoors and loves taking care of our precious environment and I've come up with a lot of data that shows that masks are actually polluting the environment and I'd like to just say that this goes beyond just trash in the ocean which is a huge issue. It actually goes to polluting our water systems with copper, lead, and antimony. So I would like to just say by instituting a mask mandate I think you're going to encourage quite a bit more pollution and I think that is not a great thing especially given where we are with climate change and living in a state that promotes being caring to the environment. So I would like to encourage you to think about not instituting a mask mandate on the grounds of taking care of our precious environment. So thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Good evening. For the record I'm a resident of Wilson. I am opposed to a face covering rule but I'm going to take a little bit of a different track and I did provide this feedback in email so I'll be succinct here. I'm most concerned or most interested in hearing the discussion that the select board has this evening amongst yourselves specifically around a couple things. What are the qualitative and quantitative measures that you're using to inform each one of your decisions? Where does information come from? Obviously it's not going to be exhausted but a summary of that information would be extremely helpful. Additionally what are the most important metrics to each of you and whether you're going to vote for or against? I think that's interesting for the community members to know. And finally what does success look like? What does failure look like? So what happens in 45 days if and when we have the same conversation on the same public forum? Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else who wishes to speak to the room? Yes. I am Sam Sheikher as I'm a resident. I wasn't planning on speaking so hopefully I'll be brief. I guess I just wanted to voice my support for the mandate primarily because my twin sister works as an attending physician in the ED here and across the lake in Plathburg. They are seeing patients mostly in the waiting room because there are no beds they're not allowed to admit I see anybody to the ICU or trauma they're not allowed to accept trauma and then across like in New York you're not allowed to diver either so ambulances just line up. We're seeing like our resources stretched generally. We just don't have the luxury to assume that we can be admitted to the hospital anymore. So I think it's just important context to consider especially as we're going into the holiday season when we saw upticks the previous year in cases due to travel. And I'd love to spend time with my family just as everybody else would and I do understand that we're at mask wearing is difficult for many. My partner is deaf and it means that we don't communicate well if at all while we're wearing masks. So there are a variety of reasons why it's difficult more or less difficult for some but I do want to voice my support and just offer the context that we don't have sort of the regular level of resources available in terms of healthcare right now. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. I'll be quick because I spoke earlier but it was during a different I guess part of the agenda. Again my name's Cindy Roy from Ledgewood Drive. I'm requesting that the board votes no for mask mandates. The studies on masks are inconclusive. You can see studies on both sides of the aisle way good and bad without even getting into detail they're inconclusive and I think personal freedom us being able to there's no dress code in the Constitution we we should be able to move about we should be able to live our lives go to the grocery store be careful stay home if you're sick be mindful of other folks be careful all those good things but I'm asking the board to vote no thank you very much thank you for your time. Any connection back on the Zoom? Yep and then Michelle I'm going to try to connect you again just a moment. Hi can you hear me now? Yes we can. Thanks I'm asking for a variety of reasons that you vote no to a mask mandate as the mother of two children with special needs one with Down syndrome one who's hearing impaired with a single kidney and stage two kidney disease and I myself have stage four kidney disease. We've dealt with people all of our lives telling us that all we had to do was expose ourselves to develop a health immune system we needed to expose ourselves to various viruses whenever we would stay home during the winter during cold and flu season. I had COVID in February of 2020 was debilitating I have long-term ramifications from it I had the Delta variant with my daughter and my husband my 22 year old daughter and my husband in July and it was basically put us down with a really bad head cold and a really bad headache that we for three or four days and we were exhausted my other daughter sat there were all vaccinated my other daughter the one with Down syndrome she has she had a very mild cold symptoms just a week and a half before Thanksgiving and we thought it was just a cold or allergies she had a sniffle she had a headache and then she got a stuffy nose that's all she had and then we found out that someone in our church had tested positive everybody's wearing masks um somebody tested positive and I tested her and she was positive for COVID as it presented as I said a very mild cold viruses mutate that's the fact of life that's science I have a daughter in grad school if I was to get my first vaccine she was to get her second and you were to get the third it would all come out of the same vial they haven't changed any of that stuff with the vaccines on every box of masks that I have bought they clearly say they do not protect from coronaviruses or viruses the only way that they work is when you're in a sterile setting in a hospital and I mean very sterile when you're insurgical and other they don't work out in the real world they're not stopping anything we went from 14 days to flatten the curve to not don't wear a mask it's not going to help then wear a mask then get vaccinated and it feels like we're going backwards not forwards we went to get our hair done today and I honestly first went to get to the dentist and we had a three hour we had cleanings for three of us I had no idea that I was going to be stuck wearing a mask for that long for most of the day and I get very overheated with it and get headaches my daughter who's hearing impaired can't sit there and read lips and can't hear with her hearing aid when somebody is wearing a mask it's very hard for her and she's in grad school for pharmacy I know that you guys have a really hard decision to make but if our lawmakers aren't making this a law a mandate's really not enforceable we're all vaccinated for reasons so we could have the freedom to go out I know what it's like to live with an immune compromised person I've done it most of my daughter's 19 years old and the other one's 22 we have done this a very long time I don't believe in it that we should have a mask mandate any more than a vaccine mandate and I just ask that you would vote no on this thank you thank you so anyone else in the audience wishes you to speak right yes yeah hi thank you for allowing me to speak I appreciate it Cindy provost I'm voting no for a mask mandate for many of the same reasons other people had stated there's really no conclusive evidence that masks work and in many cases they are harmful especially to our kids I also feel like in getting to the if you want to everything's been so politicized everything's been so hyped up everything's been so the detriment of scaring people over something that really as Americans we should have the freedoms we should have that within the Constitution which is the freedom to choose and I think we're all smart enough to be able to do that on our own and I feel like just a few people in this room shouldn't decide the fate of everybody walking around the town I feel like that's ridiculous and I also feel like if I look at other states in this country that have not imposed a mask that mandate and all they're actually in a better place than we all are that have economically health-wise and the like so if we really want to look at something realistically look at the facts look at the numbers look at what's truly factual and real I think that it should be very apparent that masks are not necessary to carry on our lives to walk around in a hospital in a doctor's office maybe but to think that we have to wear one going about our daily lives in a store anything and even if a mask mandate like she said it can't be enforced even the OSHA thing was shot down it's not constitutional it can't be upheld even if there's a mandate I will not wear a mask if I'm in the store it's just not okay to impose that upon people they should be able to make up their minds and people that are afraid you're masking you're vaccinated you're protecting yourself there you go so that's kind of the way I look at it and I feel like people really need to understand that this could be around for a while we all need to live our lives and the people that are afraid protect yourselves and that's what you're doing when you choose what you choose and whether you're vaccinated or not vaccinated you can pass it the COVID to anybody it doesn't matter that's it just doesn't and people just need to understand that and stop just look at the facts instead of being emotional about it thank you thank you yes hi my name is Kailin McCamp I didn't come here for this issue but I feel like the sentiments I've heard just don't represent what I understand the population of Williston to want and I would be very supportive of the mask mandate and just wanted to say to share that thanks thank you yes one more online comment okay Debra I'm gonna connect you on online just a moment hi there can you hear me yes Ben hi thanks this is kind of a last minute comment I wanted to just share I live in Williston I also studied public health I teach public health at UVM and I'm quite disappointed at the misrepresentation of the facts around mask wearing that I'm hearing tonight the science is quite clear that masks protect us and the science is also quite clear that it's our responsibility as a community to care about each other and to protect those folks that can't protect themselves and those are folks that can't get vaccinated those are folks that for whatever reason since reprocessing issues can't wear masks and it's our responsibility to bear that burden and to create a barrier around them and we do that through getting vaccinated and through wearing masks and making our environment safer for the folks that are more vulnerable thank you so at this time I'd like to close the discussion with members of the public and go to talk to or have chief fully talk to us a little bit about enforcement and what we can do and what we can't do in town Chief good evening everybody and it was good to hear both sides of the conversation here and before you you have two recommendations from our liability carrier Vermont League City of Towns on the mandates I would recommend not force and what we went through in the original pandemic it was we created a serious liability issue not only for the police department but for the town we went back numerous times to people who were violating the the governor's mandate and it seems like more of a harassment and all that and I think this would turn into the same thing obvious from the conversations we're hearing tonight you know it's it's a mix of a mandate or no mandate I think you know common sense dictates the businesses in this community can regulate who come in who comes into their business and who doesn't they believe in mandates I wear a mask when I go with all the businesses it's for my own self-awareness and more to show support to those businesses but I think to try to enforce this especially the way the the court system is running right now where 98% of the people who are being charged being diverted to the diversions of community justice programs being released with no bail or all that it just going to overwhelm the the situation here in the community my feeling is is that if the governor and the legislators felt this was a serious issue then they would have dictated it that every community in the state of Vermont be required to have a mask wearing if you notice in the last week it's a mix you know some say yes some say no some said these type of buildings public buildings no but you know town owned buildings so I think you know if we're going to recommend it then you feel that mask wearing is is necessary then do not put the enforcement component and leave it up to each individual choice and the businesses thank you chief any board members questions for the chief chief when you say 98% of the cases are going through diversion and being delayed and such that's that's not true for the judicial bureau is it I think it's just the the court's not fully open so if you follow the paper while the people are getting charged even people with serious crimes they're being released on lack of cash bail no no incarcerations a lot of our retail thefts and that's the majority of cases we're dealing with it's a revolving door well yeah I think there might be a different reason for that one but um well again but again we're seeing that and we're being told where to uh recommend these people get placed so if it becomes an enforcement issue the majority of the people that are going to probably get charged with these offenses for not wearing a mask will be sent to our community justice program or to our diversion and they're overwhelmed all right so but it's not going to be a criminal charge it's going to be a civil violation that go for the judicial bureau but still you know what's the situation there you know so again it's just I'm just concerned about getting us into liability issue you know with the last one with the pandemic you know it took five six times before we got feedback or a letter written from the AG's office to the the defendant and you know um one one of the businesses that it seems like we kept going to just decided to say enough is enough he felt he was getting a pass other question from the warden chief I I think I have two questions the first is what is your what is your opinion of the impact to the police department if there was a mass mandate and do you have the resources necessary to enforce it if um the enforcement has proposed not I shouldn't say proposed but is in one of the documents that VLCT provided it wouldn't be a priority uh we are down three positions right now with people taking time off and on we're running short shifts a supervisor plus one and on the day shift you have myself my lieutenant and my uh comfort dog officer that's filling the uh the void there um people not knocking down our doors to become police officers there is anti-sediment towards law enforcement so who would want to come in and try to be a police officer okay fair enough um the next question is is I'm trying to understand the difference of if there is a mass mandate and there isn't a mass mandate you have a retail operation store that prefers to have no math prefers to require math maybe even has a sign outside the door what is the difference to that store when somebody goes into the store and disregards that store's preference that must be worn the property owner the business owner could ask them to leave and uh tell them they don't want them in there and if they don't want to leave then they can call us up and you know we would support the uh the owner uh issuing a trespass notice against that person okay would a mass mandate make that situation easier to deal with that i.e the person in the store who wants doesn't want to wear a mask is refusing to leave uh for the police to enforce again you know it's it's we try to educate more than enforcers so again i think depending how the word is is expressed here in the community uh you know we haven't you know had any of businesses call us up and say i have a mass mandate and somebody's in there not wearing a mask i want them to remove you know i think you know common sense that they know that they're going to be calling law enforcement they'll leave you know some people will challenge you again you've heard some comments they're right um so again it's a judgment call you know we we spent a lot of time during the original pandemic of trying to educate with you know flyers and and and all that and got away from you know serving trespass notices or removing people but again it's just one of those things you know there's one person that will will challenge the authority and do we want to get in a situation like that especially when we're short-handed okay good thank you there are questions for the chief if not then we'll open up the discussion for members of the board to determine whether or not we wish to consider a mass mandate in the town so i think the best way to do that is to have a strong vote as to whether we have a majority that wish to discuss a mass mandate so those of you who are interested in discussing this tonight raise your hands looks like we have a majority so we will do that and um pet has authored a proposal for us regarding a mass mandate for Williston and perhaps uh said you would like to talk about that well first of all i edited it a bit uh since the version that i sent out but this this is nearly word for word the um uh proposed language that the league of cities and towns recommended if we do in fact do this it it tracks what the legislature and what the governor signed into law that allows the town to do it lasts for 45 days and then it will automatically expire unless we renew it for another 30 and then it'll keep doing that there are a number of exceptions but the requirement is that all individuals in the town of Williston shall wear face coverings that cover the person and i added this to cover the person's mouth and nose while indoors at locations that are open to the public face coverings are not required for children under two years a person with a disability who cannot wear face coverings or cannot safely wear a face covering for reasons related to the disability the person for whom wearing a face covering would create a risk of workplace health safety or job duty is determined by the workplace risk assessment any person while eating or drinking inside any establishment that serves food or beverage and i added this this was not in the proposed language a person who temporarily removes his or her face coverings to communicate to a group of people such as a participant at a public forum a leader of a religious service or public or public presentation leader of song singing choir members or the like provided however that such that that person's face covering shall immediately be worn again after said communication is completed it did have a section in it for enforcement where it's not a crime it would be a civil violation like a parking ticket where it doesn't result in a criminal record the first offense would be a $50 fine with a waiver of $25 if you didn't contest it and that's required by law in the state of vermont which is a little odd almost i don't like it it feels like it's a bribe that you you to go contest to go contest something and say i didn't do it if you lose you have to pay more than if you just gave up i don't like that but that's what the law is second offense a hundred dollar fine with a waiver amount of $50 and a third and subsequent offense $500 fine with a waiver amount of $300 the the rest of it does indeed talk about a separability so part of this is held to be illegal for some reason the rest of it would not be and again it would be a temporary measure i would like to actually comment on why i would be in favor of that if you if i have that a lot of people have been talking about the freedoms tonight and that seems to be the the number one thing the second thing that why people would be opposed to this and i want to i want to be clear i heard everybody i listen to you i respect what you say i i believe it's sincere and and i i wait it i just i just have other factors that have to be considered this is only a mask while you're inside a public building it's not a mask while you're at home it's not a mask while you're outside it's not a mask while you're at a friend's house or you're having christmas dinner at your your mother's it's only while you're in a grocery store or this town hall or any other building where there are people who are going to be congregate freedom has to be balanced i'm free to swing my arms as much as i want that's nothing illegal about that not hurting anybody until i get close close enough to somebody else where i'm going to break their nose then i don't have the freedom to do that anymore um i keep coming back to things like you know when we talk about freedom and putting a cloth covering on for maybe 10 or 20 minutes or maybe even a full hour somewhere the federal government instituted a draft in world war two that ordered i looked this up 10 million americans into armed service and that was a dress code and it was constitution um and those people did it they they said you know the greater good requires this they actually left their homes got on buses got yelled at by drill sergeants crawled under barbed wire stormed the beaches at normandy they didn't refuse to do it because they said it was infringing on their freedoms it's just a face mask um public health vermont set a new record today for the number of covid 19 patients in hospitals that number is 84 the state with more than 83 percent of the people have gotten the least one dose of the vaccine but the people who have been hospitalized two-thirds of those people have not been vaccinated that is not a coincidence the number of covid 19 patients in vermont icus has reached a new high on today as of last week 22 state officials say these figures are projected to remain high for several more weeks those are the empirical numbers that i would say when those numbers start going down that'll be a measure of success um we've had seven hundred eighty eight thousand americans our fellow americans have died from covid 19 seven hundred eighty eight thousand the number of americans who died in world war two was four hundred five thousand three hundred ninety nine we're almost double that and we'll go over to double that which is talking about a face mask somebody said that there's only two tenths of one percent of a chance of death if you're not masked up and you're and you're fully vaccinated well if someone told me hey ted walk into that room oh by the way if you walk in there you're going to have two tenths of one percent chance of dying a gasping horrible debilitating death but it's only two tenths of one percent i wouldn't do it it's it just wouldn't be worth it i'd say i'm not gonna do it if somebody said well you know you can you can nearly eliminate that risk if you put a mask on i would do that um a couple more things the um i did a pastor i heard what you said about roman catholic fadiasis of brooklyn versus quomo and and thank you for your presentation by the way that was um wonderful um i do think though the holding in that case was in large part because the state of new york didn't obey the minimum requirements of neutrality that were required because they they limited the number of people who were actually allowed to be in the buildings and they did it differently for churches than they did for public uh other public places which was just ridiculously stupid um i don't think this does that i think this does in fact have neutrality involved in it um i guess the only other thing i would say is that the intern i did look up of the science on masks um i i found a number of things one the um proceedings of the national academy of sciences the united states of america our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of widespread mask use as a source control to reduce community transmission non-medical mask use materials that obstruct particles are a nest of the necessary size people are the most infectious at the initial post infection when it is common to have few or no symptoms the available evidence suggests a near universal adoption of non-medical masks went out in public in combination with complementary public health measures could successfully reduce the r value to below one meaning the number of people you transmit the virus to thereby reducing community spread of such measures were sustained economic analysis suggests wearing masks mandates could add one trillion dollars to the u.s general domestic gross domestic pro uh profit journal of american medical association february 10th 2021 mandating masks was associated with a decrease in daily covet 19 cases and death growth rate within 20 days of implementation um i also looked up a number of other medical peer reviewed things that said basically the same thing so my my position is that the mask mandate is is very minimally intrusive it is intrusive there's no question about that it's nothing that i want to do i don't like wearing a mask and for a while when it looks like we were beating this thing i was really happy to walk into stores and not wear um it fogs my glasses up um i'll be honest there are times i don't like the smell of my own breath um i don't know if anybody else is i guess i'm the only one but uh i i do think that this is something that we have to do and i don't i don't enjoy doing it but i i think it's required the board members tell their comments on the other document i agree with with ted very much i i um have have been um masks have never been an enjoyable thing for me but my children and my myself and my family we have continued to wear masks throughout this pandemic um and and we live by the mantra that i wear a mask to protect you and you can wear a mask to protect me and that is as a community member um you know what what we do for each other um i think our children um have worn especially this school year and inordinate amount of the burden for this pandemic and they have continued to wear masks in our school system alone we have seen um positive covid case after positive covid case luckily they have recently implemented test to stay allowing our children to continue to be in school but but the children will not reach full vaccination for for many weeks of those that have initially been vaccinated um and so this is another step that we can take to relieve them of some of the burden of missed school of parents of missed work um and i i truly believe that while it is uncomfortable and while it is burdensome and i don't think that there is anybody who would who would disagree with that that it is a necessary step for our town to take at this point with an increased population of uh 20 000 during the daytime in our stores and our businesses um those are people from outside of our town um you know so we do not know their their their status their vaccination status we do not know um you know what towns they're coming from what states they're coming from um and again you know this is something that we can do to protect our community members um i don't know if you know i'm an educator myself so i'm i'm forced to wear this every day that i that i teach i don't like it i know my kids don't like it um i i guess i i do this um for for other folks i've heard both sides of your issues tonight i think they're both sides are correct they're compelling arguments um but i also know that we're we're trying to evolve fields like guess we're regressing we're going backwards but i you know it's a sunset rule it's 45 days we've been in this for two years now i don't think that's unattainable to to give this shot it's not something that's long lasting you know hopefully we turn a corner i i don't know i know science can you can find facts out there to support both sides and i've heard them tonight but i i do feel with you know the acceptance that are put into this there are people out there that's that can't do this or disability or other reasons or the like and i you know i would definitely support those folks that can't do it but i also support the folks that are trying to do things for themselves their families and other people and that's something that you know i respect even though i you know would love to not wear this at all but i need to work i need to go and work with kids each and every day you know i i think this is it's a really hard decision sometimes we get these issues where there's no right one but i think you know the 45-day peace it's it's something to consider and take a shot at so i would be in favor of that tonight a couple of comments regarding the the document and one i had written a note to myself before we started discussing this under the exceptions uh the pastor mentioned i would put in places of worship and under the enforcement i would remove the enforcement proposals and penalties entirely at this point i think this gives even though it says that the discretion of the select board will enforce it i think this would give the the populace false expectations that we're going to be able to enforce this anyone else i can't add much to the discussion so all i'll say is that i believe the benefits of mask outweigh any liability or law system in terms of personal freedom i do want to talk a little bit about the exception and i am going to support enforcement although i would like to have a conversation about it even though i understand it will impact our police department uh perhaps significant so what i'd like to talk about in terms of the exceptions is the church that was raised houses of worship and also folks who be not necessarily because of a disability but cannot wear a mask and if there is a way in which that can be a common anything else um but any comments regarding the recommendations um going in reverse you can't wear a mask but you don't have a disability what would that look like um i don't to me a disability is um different from uh i forget the man's name who you know said he got a lung infection from wearing a mask i'm not sure that was a disability he had but he certainly has a it sounds like he has a pretty sound reason for not wearing a mask i guess i i guess i'm a little bit hesitant i've just attached to that is i think it's a little bit more i'm a little hesitant to impose a requirement on somebody where it has a significant negative impact on their oh i guess my my problem with that is that that it would be a loophole that might eat the entire rule because anybody can come in and say well i i don't like them i i get emotionally upset um or i you know lung infection i understand that but it's easy to easy to say something like that um i i guess yeah the fact that it causes me acne shouldn't be a reason um let me let me try to think of something about that um the places of worship i i tried to address that by allowing the language to say that the leader could do what we do here and take your mask off while you're conducting the service or when people are leading song or something like that but reverend do you think that would be um it'd be too difficult to figure out who's who's leading versus who's singing versus who's in the choir versus etc i mean no that wouldn't be clear to us anyway who's pro-gene who's it's more an area of spheres in our mind and the talent ability to say to house of worship uh what a lot and a lot not to go along the side and we think that with the talent the basic knowledge of the weather attack has worn into a similar exemption wouldn't seem all of the world's and falls okay i would i'd add places of worship as an exemption um i'd be in favor of that that um jeff's uh jeff's issue it's gonna i need to cite around that for a minute if i can i would i would support as well adding places of worship as as an exemption i i import i do not support though adding um you know uh the the the ability for someone to determine you know i think i think it is as ted said a slippery slope i do think that there are medical reasons why some people can't wear mask but uh but i think that's documented you know um within um within within other areas and and would would fall under disability um you know if it was if it was a major medical reason other than again um their their preference not to and i guess we won't have any further discussion on enforcement enforcement yeah i'm in favor how about the person with a disability or documented medical conditions who cannot wear a face when covering that would cover somebody who may not mean disability disability is not defined in the proposed language first of all so this does not mean disability is defined by the social security administration or something like that um so that's that's kind of a nebulous thing in the first place but then documented medical condition would i think allow people to not wear a mask if they you know i don't have asthma or prone to lung infections or something but not cover people who say well i you know i don't like it so does that work for others i think i would support the the houses of worship i'm i'm also i don't think i'm in support of the fines i think that's putting a lot of pressure on the police department to enforce it how they're going to enforce it when and where and how it's going to be followed up we've already heard about the backlogs of various different things um i i know that probably might mitigate like the importance of the ordinance but i just don't know how that's feasible to ask our department to do that now i guess my my thought back on that is that they're um first of all there's the the teaching power of law um and that's i don't think that's to be underestimated um but secondly the it's one tool toolbox to one thing in the toolbox i don't like i'm pretty sure there's a um i know there's an ordinance a leash law on the on the bike paths but i don't know if there's a fine or a penalty associated with that if there is i've never heard about it um and if they're but that my point is that there can be i mean i'm thinking more like this would be an egregious situation third time somebody's you know not refusing to leave a store and on and on i mean there is there is an issue with criminal justice in chitnain county right now where a lot of the um smaller criminal infractions the broken windows type things are not being processed um it's not the police they're doing that um but this would at least be something you know in in an extreme situation at least they could say okay well you're gonna have to go to the judicial bureau and talk to the judge there at some point but well again yeah that's what i was trying to get i understand the silver arm these things you know you know you get my ticket in the lap but the what it's you know somebody's gonna challenge you know the business person does not want them in the business and we have a lot of businesses here that we deal with day in and day out and where we try to be hit by we try to be educated you know to remove and uh but again it sounds like there's a mix feeling in this room and if somebody wants to challenge them they're gonna switch the envelopes as far as they go i'm not gonna leave this it's gonna have to arrest you know i'm not gonna accept that you know all that you know so you know and the what is like a you know new issue and they come before you they don't show up because it's not gonna pay to you know i'm gonna say take them for again you know education is good uh but we try to understand what it means you know they should you know in the state and we still have issues where it was the same person every day and challenges yeah well one of the one of the problems with that was the executive order that was issued by the governor didn't actually say what the consequence was um and so that was that was pretty bad um and i agree a huge amount of it is education but i just still think it's i'm i i think what i'm expecting chief and you know i i'll say expecting um like it's a dictate i mean i guess what i'm imagining is how i should say it what i'm imagining is that there would be a lot of prosecutorial discretion on the on the side on the um for every officer on you know that i wouldn't expect these tickets to be issued very often and you know when we went down uh we bought it was only certain cases that we would respond to crime and the other ones were you know when we get to what we get so what the community get is understand is that we're not full strength and a lot of agencies around us are not full strength and you know if it's not a felony and progress or like the death they might have to wait like how they can get to that why they're already left you know so again i don't want people to get the misacceptance that also means that my store does not hurt a man i'm going to call the police nine or one and they're going to come and move this person and give them give them tickets it might not happen to me so i don't want them with the full sense of you know i'm going to get to you yeah but the same thing could happen now when they say i have a store policy and it's well there's signage out front that says you're not allowed to come in without a mask this person is saying they have a constitutional right to come into my private business i guess and and uh and not wear a mask and i want you to come and get them out and it may well be that your resources don't allow you to respond to that call either in a timely way or at all so i don't think this is creating more work i think this is giving you one more tool if you do get there well people feel that you have a mandate and it's those people wear a mask and don't wear my business if you don't wear a mask i want to be able to pick up that phone and get that person to leave i want them to have that full sense of you know wondering why i have a half dozen floor once this goes into a fact that you're not doing a job because i had people my store not wearing a mask we could revisit we could put the penalties in place now and revisit the issue at the next select award meeting stopping says we have to do this for the sake of the students can be amended at any point in time one thing i'd like to add is at least in my opinion a rule or an ordinance without enforcement you know really becomes not a lot more than a recommendation so i i i have a hard time if we believe in the concept of the mass mandate we should believe in the enforcement aspect of i guess i'm going to make a comment about the the church even though i know i i i raised that issue i didn't raise it because i supported it or i didn't support it it just i heard in thought we should discuss it i actually don't understand why we would exempt churches who else should be exempted as a public place that to me is a little bit of a slippery slope um so i believe it or not even though i raised it i don't support it what are you saying i shouldn't raise it oh just say it's always tough when there's an engineer that's part of any group that is probably true and we aren't good lawyers and then the other one last thing i want to raise is at least one of the ordinance or i'm sorry it's not an ordinance it's a rule that's actually a question i have what's the difference between an ordinance and a rule maybe we shouldn't have that discussion right now um is the concept of requiring uh public places to notify to place a sum upfront yeah this doesn't have that it does not i know i just was raising that i've seen it in other places and wondered if that was something we also wanted to consider i think in this case the burden would fall on the town right to to to publicly advertise and notify that and warn that we've made the mandate um i believe in in the review that you know it's treated as as an ordinance and we would need to publicize it within 14 days or so within the publication of records so we need to i would place an announcement of observer and staff would do um outreach on channels i imagine putting out a press release and the news has been picking these things up um try to get the word out the best that we can Greta i'm not a betting person but i'd be willing to bet two pizzas in this case that it's become going to become very public oh i i am sure the minute this meeting can't be before the meeting is adjourned it will be well known um i i don't think we should put something like that in i'm concerned um i can leave with that it was a time for a motion well yeah i'd make it but i'm curious like how do we have edited this it's not for everybody i don't think we can do that with the language that we have here we all have an interview on what language we're putting in this motion yeah so um i think to start it and then we can we can start amending um i would well can we can we get copies of this printed if i send it to yeah the e-mail it's me tit i guess i just just are you going to to are we in consensus that we want to add the religious house of worship exemption or are we going to i think it's a four to one consensus right now okay yes and that's fine it's up to me to say yes yeah no which puts me a lot of us she has his hand raised here let's choose you start with on the fines you know i would be in favor of the first violation there's no no fines that more is a a warning and then if we have to deal with them a second time then you impose a fine on the uh on the ticket or whatever you know we come up with but again you you're going back to the educational concept is that hey you know this is a warning you know we want you to put the mask on we have to come back and deal with you again then the next step of the process is that we're going to issue a ticket a municipal ticket and then you're gonna have to pay a fine or appear before the board to contest the ticket but police officers give people warnings when they could give them a ticket all the time but it doesn't have to be even you can do that already right and again i'm kind of expecting that's what's going to happen um i will i will share with you that about a year from up before the pandemic so like three years ago there was very young wilson police officer that pulled me over can't remember why but i didn't have my insurance card with me she gave me a warning i thought maybe she knows i'm on the select i don't think she did actually gave me a warning but she told me i had to come to the station to show her the card within 24 hours so i emailed a copy of it too so i just do you have something he's getting so this what i'm proposing and it can be obviously amended and rejected and edited is that this this would have the exemption it would continue the exemption for people who temporarily remove mask coverings to communicate to a group of people etc that would cover things like school board meetings and select board meetings and for that matter churches which isn't really going to be required because i also have places of worship as an exemption as well the penalties are still in there and again it goes for 45 days and that's that's what so i could you read i'm sorry could you read that last exemption the one that talks about temporary removes his or her face cover yes it's uh it's now the next the last one because the last one it's just those places of worship as an exemption but oh but this one says a person who temporarily removes his or her face covering to communicate to a group of people such as a participant at a public forum a leader of a religious service or public presentation leader of song or singing choir members or the like provided however that that person's face covering shall immediately be worn again after said communication is complete so with the language now in front of everybody i'm mr. chair i would i would move the the option of the proposed ordinance regarding uh rule requiring wearing face coverings indoors in public spaces as detailed in the three page written proposal now before the members one second i'll second sir discussion on the motion uh i i i oppose the places of worship exemption but i will both favor this because i think the the benefit of this will certainly pathways my concern about that so any further discussion i will probably support this as well but i i i do oppose the penalty piece i still feel um that's putting a lot of strain on our pd department right away without giving them the the option just you know of that but i would support it for this procedural question for the board this can be effective at any time that the board deems it effective as the ordinance you know in your discussion is for staff's assistance would you want it effective as of tomorrow or a different day later this week the language is immediately this rule shall take effect immediately upon the approval thank you plenty for the discussion if not all those in favor of the motion say aye aye we oppose we have taken care of this week night uh so thank you everybody for your yeah participating we're running a little late tell me if they're going to be home at bedtime so let's go to the plate barn estate storm water maintenance agreement with pristine dory welcome pristine good evening select board members pristine dory the storm water coordinator with the department of public works i'm here before you today with the request for um authorization to have um the town enter into a storm water maintenance agreement with slate barn estates um this agreement is very similar to the request that we brought out for a couple weeks ago may and month of the show ago for bittersweet again this is a requirement by the state for us to be a co-permitee and the agreement really defines the the roles that the town will have as a co-permitee as far as maintenance upkeep and and responsibilities between the two groups this is this is in essence similar to what we did before that's correct yeah any questions for pristine on this i was actually going to be my only question was that how really cool we've done before so emotional suggested way before you do pristine sir what uh two quick things one is that thing thing we've done it at least once before with one of our homeowners association okay uh in your memo it talks about February 14 2021 dates that's supposed to be 2022 i apologize yes it should be 2022 yes yes and then the last question and this is just do you concur with my synopsis basically what this agreement does is try to put the town in a position where it has the smallest liability if you will i don't know if that's the best word i don't i wouldn't agree with that now i believe what this does is this really um you know solidifies our posturing in the past and and really this is a division not necessary really about ownership and where our rights in in our current um access to the rights we're looking at right of ways the infrastructure located within the right of way we don't have these men's we don't have operational control over other portions of the property where the other portions of the systems are located so we are really just defining the fact that we are going to take the responsibility over these portions of it and this is more or less a protection and and and really the state won't divide this for us the state we already have a permit for our roadways in the town of willis then that's already part of our ms4 permit for some reason the a and r will not allow that to stand um and give us our authorization to discharge because there is a co-mingling of the surface water and so in order to be able to clarify our responsibilities as far as maintenance and upkeep costs go um this agreement is is needed to make sure that that's clear for all parties involved for the state the homeowner association and for the town okay and then that was my last question as the homeowners association they've agreed to this they have okay any further discussion if there's no further discussion then all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Aye. We got a weak vote. Can I move? Yeah. All in motion. Please. I'll move to operate the town manager to enter into a storm water system maintenance agreement for slate fire and estate homeowner association. Second. Thank you. Now is there any further discussion on the motion? Hearing that all those in favor of the motion say aye. Any other bullets? Thank you. Thank you Christy. Thank you. Thank you. All right moving us to the town staff position to work toward energy plan goals. Eric has written us a memo on this and if you would be so kind as to give us your presentation. Sure and just before I forget Terry I'm going to circulate a copy of the mask really you just passed your signature so I can put that on the website. Good thank you. So a topic of discussion over the past year has been a town staff position to assist the community in working towards the goals and I just want to start by by saying draft budgets been transmitted to the to the board and I'll give a presentation at this evening. Due to many budgetary items in this draft budget I haven't included the position for that reason based on the initial release. I'll say I'm not opposed to this type of position for the town. I think there's a lot of different approaches to it to look at. Just for the basis of the draft budget I didn't include it based on the initial bottom line. So throughout the discussion look for the board's correction throughout the budget process on on this piece of piece of the budget. So I certainly believe we can find creative strategies and resources to invest greater time and energy related work in the coming year whether or not we have a person on staff who has a specific role in in that piece. So we did some staff research. We found that Brad Elbrough and Hartford are the communities in Vermont that have established a position with this type of work. One thing I plan to do is I'll have some more capacity in my office once the assistance of the manager starts. Next week we'll let her feet under her a little bit here but I see some capacity to do some more project work and my intention is energy as part of that work for that position whether there's additional resources or or not to support it. We also have a committee that we've the board's begun appointing folks and I've gotten a number of additional applications. I hope there'll be time on the agenda either later this month or in January with all the all the other pieces the board has before it. I've finished standing up that committee and it will it will begin meeting. In looking to start this work it's challenging to gauge the exact administrative needs and the capacity of the current town staff to meet those needs and I swear I can see the energy committee will help answer those questions and help formulate future planning as it develops its work plan. So in thinking about a potential position I chatted with planning director Matt Bologet to assess what configuration would make sense with a new organization and meet department needs should the town add a position at some point. And we talked about greater depth in the planning department for general assistance as an answer to duty to this position would enable the current staff in the department some additional capacity to focus on some growing complexities for the volume of the work the department is faced. Our staff suggestion for consideration would be a position that that takes a lead on energy related work inclusive of the committee support energy policy analysis and plan review, solo net metering project facilitation, energy efficiency of the town buildings data collection and community engagement. This position could be a member of the planning department could also be called upon for general planning tasks. We look at its classification following between the role of planning technician and planner and the thoughts we also had in addition this position could be tasked with affordable housing work within the planning program to provide additional capacity to assist in that goal. It's hard to gauge the amount of hours that would a new position would have solely towards energy work just at the at the inception here. So our thought is a position with depth to assist in other planning department tasks would fill in that gap with hours assigned in the inception and certainly modification could occur over time but it provides some capacity for for that depth. The last thing I want to be faced with is is trying to fill somebody's day just not knowing what that's going to be to start here. So the next steps the look for direction from the board as you review the budget. Think about this tonight. Do some further research on budgetary costs for such a position. Various types of hours were as interested in that discussion. If the board wants to not have a discussion further at this time with the budget we'll continue to get feedback from the energy committee over the next year and continue to think about this and structure for the board to continue discussions. So I'd be answering any questions. Also could have Matt speak to this one when he's presenting the next couple months on the budgets and certainly for direction from the board on this topic. Thank you. I think the appropriate way to handle this tonight is to first of all decide whether we wish to discuss this proposal in the budget discussions that are upcoming and if we do so what more information do we need from staff. In my mind if we are looking at including this in the budget we know that there's already problems perhaps with the budget that will be presented to us as far as the amount of taxes that would be needed to be collected and this would certainly have an impact on that if we were to include it but that's a discussion for another time. So your thoughts about whether we need to go forward to discuss this further. So I think I made my opinion on this pretty clear before but I do feel that the energy coordinator position is imperative to our energy plan for our town. I was actually hoping that we would get it done get it the ball rolling at FY22 rather than waiting for FY23. So I mean I'm in very much in favor of discussing it in the FY23 budget but again I would my preference would still be to do with this fiscal year. I see it as on par and as on as necessary for our town as adding additional firefighters. I think that that you know the things that we've kind of done to you know increase our town's safety to increase wages across departments to you know they have been imperative for our safety for our operation for the future of our town really. I believe though that the energy coordinator is is akin to that that you know this is not just for our town for our country for our state for our world you know this is this is us doing our part. I do like the idea of putting it within the planning department and the having it rather than specific to energy having a sustainability or environmental sustainability coordinator. I think you know could be you know a feasible feasible workaround but again I would like to see us talk about it even sooner. So this does not this does not preclude us from asking for a whatever position we want in the current fiscal year. But we need to figure out whether or not we can afford it in the next fiscal year in order to have it effective this fiscal year. Yep. Yeah. Oh boy. Well first of all what you know great job at expressing that you pretty much hit the points have. The way I look at it it's similar to what Redder was saying in that we know there's a bunch of I'm going to use the word critical positions we need particularly in the fire department and I don't look at those positions as any more or any less critical than this position. We're already behind the ball. Now we had you know I don't know I guess I should just leave it at that. My preference would have been we already acted on this and we were in the process of either figuring out the job position or hiring somebody. So in terms of the fiscal year 2023 budget absolutely it should be part of that discussion. The point I would make though is if we are going to discuss about adding this position in 2022 this current year fiscal year which I highly support we do we have to do that with the understanding that that means it will be funded in the next budget. I am in no way in favor of moving ahead with the position in one budget year and leaving it sort of open ended whether we will fund it in the following fiscal year and that's any position in town that's not just the energy coordinated but certainly applies to the energy coordinated. So I think we should analyze it as part of the upcoming budget. I think I'd like to see what the numbers are. I do I do think this is an important position. I don't think that there's going to be a want for tasks for this position to do and if there is then there's other work to be done in the town anyway. So I'm probably going to be in favor of it. I would say though I know this is sacrilege to some people but I think it's a very important position. I don't think it's as important as the fire department getting fully staffed and it's not that I don't take global warming deadly serious. I do but you know you gotta you gotta put your seat belt on before you can before you can drive the car and it's a few of the fire department is the seat belt. But that being said I think this is I think I would be in favor of this but we're we're going to be asking the taxpayers for a big increase in their taxes. That's my concern. I'm definitely in favor of the upcoming budget putting this into that discussion but we're you know where else do we have funding because I you know I think of not only the current generation and younger but the older generation in town and and property taxes and height heightening that and I would echo those importance just as much as the fire department but I also want to make sure we're finding the money somewhere that's not going to impact everybody. That's what the next few weeks you're going to be about. Yeah don't mean no one. So it sounds like we had consensus to move forward with the discussion of this. I think what we need to see along with the budget information are some job descriptions for both a energy coordinator and the staff recommendation for a different type of position and the costs of those to discuss that during our budget discussions. Could anything else we need? Could there be also a none this is a real question recommendation but would it be prudent to see if investigation could be made as to whether the position whether there are grants that the position could person in the position could seek that would save the town money overall both possibly in funding the salary for the position but also in terms of energy savings for the town. You know if we hire somebody I'm going to make numbers up here because I know they're not going to be right but if we hire somebody for a total cost of $80,000 but they bring in grants that pay for this and that and we've got $100,000 in savings throughout the budget then that might that might be one more thing for us to consider if we had that if that information is even possible to get. I can certainly look at that and see see what might be available. I know it would only the offsets may only be for a period of time but it would smooth the initial impact in the other trouble with grants is they are just so uncertain you know whether you there may be not there but yeah through the crap sheet whether you're going to be able to convince that entity that you're a high enough priority. I don't mean just grants I also mean like the possibility of budget budgetary savings from energy efficiencies and things like that which again I think it's going to be ridiculously hard to quantify but there might be a might be something out there. The one thing we can get some numbers on is our net metering credit offsets are pretty significant for our electricity due to our solar panels and good to see if we can we might be at the threshold or we're maximizing that but there might be some additional space that that we might be able to take advantage of so things like that come to mind as a sustainable offset. Any other suggestions for information needed? Well I don't want to I don't want to forget that and I'm very glad to hear that there's support with concerns about the budget impacts on the energy coordinator for fiscal year 2023. What about this fiscal year 2022? Well we can't decide that until we figure out what we're doing for 2023. You can't hire a person in this fiscal year and then say well sorry you're gone July 1st. Right if we decide to do it in 2022 we've made a decision we will fund it 2023. That'll be part of our discussion. I guess my point is I'd like to have that discussion now as part of 2022. Well we can't do that until we know what we're talking about for 2023. I guess I disagree. We could do that we may choose not to but we could. Well we do that as we'd be splitting our wheels because we don't know what we are going to fund for 2023. I guess my point to that would be we're just going to figure it out sooner as opposed to putting it off to the next budget season we would do it now we'd make it a priority to do it now. Well the next budget season is like it's here right now. I don't think it's fair to hire somebody and say by the end I don't think we're going to get good candidates for some of job this is hey you know what we haven't decided that this position is even going to exist next year but do you want to move to Vermont and you know. That's not at all what I'm recommending. Well that would be the result of it though. That would be the concept. We make that decision now about what would the position be and whether we want to fund it as part of 2022 and and if the answer to that is yes yes we have to fund it in 2023. That's my feel it may not be the you know the remainder of the select board's feeling but that's my feeling what we should do that would be what would be prudent in terms of the energy coordinator position and I think the position is it's going to be bigger than the energy board but let's do the work now and and get somebody on board sooner. I think I see I think you know I think they can be concurrent and I think it's a matter of doing some of the legwork in in order to put pieces in place so that if we do decide we're going to move forward with an energy coordinator in FY 22 we have the pieces in place to get it moving immediately. So you know defining a job role potentially and and things like that you know that's I don't want to put words in your mouth but some of the pieces that I feel like we could be concurrently with talking about putting it in the FY 23 budget so that we could again get moving in FY 22 if that's what we decide we want to do. As part of discussion next week I've been working with the fire chief and Shirley just on our planning for those positions and we can share the timeline we're looking at there which you know we're accepting applications but we're going to let people know we wouldn't make job offers to anyone until after town meeting day to you know we'd endeavor at the board's direction you know for the 22 impact but we want to make sure the builders support the 23 budget so it could be a similar trajectory potentially for for the style. Yeah yeah I mean town meetings in March which means there's still three months of the fiscal year to go. Yeah so that's you know we have to go to budget approved however in March. Right right. One of one of my concerns is that you know with the amount of tax increase that we are inevitably going to be asking for my my first meeting on the Wilson school board when it existed was the meeting after the budget went down from the second time in history and one of the difficulties that we had was trying to figure out why it went down and and some people were even coming in saying people voted against it because you didn't spend enough money and then other people most people were saying no obviously it's because they didn't like the amount of money that was being spent but then it was a question of you know cutting extracurriculars and cutting you know languages and things like that that were terrible decisions to have to go through if our budget does not pass in a town meeting then we don't have we're going to be in that same position and if we've hired somebody or I don't know if we could possibly hire them by March but worst case scenario we do and then and then we have to tell them up by the way we got to choose you know whether to keep you employed or not I don't I don't think we're going to get a good candidate with that circumstance that would be a very difficult situation I get that and I mean but that could happen anytime when a budget gets voted down you know what positions might get cut I can't guarantee that the positions that would get kind of the energy coordinated positions have to be taught and then the other piece of it is as we're going through this budget process and I this is not going to be a fun chore at all but I'm going to be evaluating what is what serves williston for lack of better words the most that that may not even be the best way to put it is it nine firefighters and no energy coordinator or is it some less number than nine firefighters and energy court so we we have options for figuring out how to integrate an energy coordinator into our task I agree and I want to do that my my difficulty is I can't I can't make a decision about 2022 given that we have to weigh those factors for 2023 and we can't do that yet I guess my frustration is a little bit along the lines of I feel like we've waited on the energy coordinator position to a point where at now we have no ability to have something happen in 2022 and I guess I'm just a little frustrated about that so maybe that's showing through a bit tomorrow so stay tuned for the next six weeks I think we're ready to move on to the next segment and that becomes the budget transmission and the introduction by air yep and I put some slides together this afternoon get these and I know it's getting late so can't hear you well we've already decided we're going to take it up during the budget uh time so it'll be a time to speak on behalf of the uh the proposal on the budget this is not a public hearing it will be there will be a public hearing on the budget yes and that'll be I think the in january january the fourth and there's always public comment at the beginning of the meeting anyway so um budget transmission sure you can you'll pretty much jump in surely so we've distributed the the budget binders this evening I staff you know the budget season starting when you actually pass out the binders they're they're in your hands this evening I transmitted um initial executive summary and the summary sheet on friday and it's a surely and staff to get all the all the detail information together um but I just take a take a high level look here it's just retapping part of my executive summary I transmitted to you over the weekend we'll just round up you a few topics this evening so some some general themes in this budget um it's continue to look at service delivery during covid-19 and beyond we're trying to see these ancillary effects of the pandemic um for example the tight labor market we're facing and those effects um inflation that we'll speak about in this budget and the future of service delivery addressing needs for services and capacity of the existing resources that provide those services and and think about plant community growth and meeting service delivery needs um you'll see as part of the executive summary as the planning department to try to take a look at the projections for adding new residential units and then what the size of those units may be over the next five fiscal years and I'll have Matt speak to this more when when he's before you over the next month but um our growth rate the last decade was 1.9 was 1.64 percent annually this estimate growth rate could be a little bit higher the next five years planning estimates it could we could add as many as 1200 new residents that's that's an estimate a point in time we have growth management and we have the current state of the economy and the economy could change as well so it it's a possible number it's not saying that's a certain number but I think the takeaway is we've steadily grown over a couple decades here and that's um we're confident that's going to continue moving forward so as we continue to grow with our with our residential base and and people who visit us on a daily basis it's the board to evaluate how we deliver services and ultimately what what the board allows the taxpayers to to support to uh to fund those services so just have a recap of discussions and some some impacts forthcoming that are built into this budget per the board's direction this budget has the addition of the nine firefighter FTE positions on the consultants report that that you reviewed over the last couple months has the addition that their dispatcher in the police department that was authorized last July so that that hits this budget for a full year the last quarter of FY 22 budget has a recreation parks department a recreation coordinator position this was deferred from FY 21 then then built into to come in the last quarter of the FY 22 budget that that was approved last town meeting day also as the market factor wage adjustment applied to the public works positions the board authorized last November in discussions and town staff working to recruit and retain police officers in the tight labor market and that dovetails to new collective bargaining agreements being approved for fire and up for possible action for the police department so whenever you put a budget together as your as your fiscal spending plan policy you have your force to make some assumptions it's uh at the best point in time right now where we can make these assumptions and hope that we're we're doing the best we can based on the information we know right now inflation is as i heard the highest it's spent since the early 90s we we use a two-year formula that truly calculates i admit i don't always understand the calculation that goes into it truly is well versed in this but it looks at uh 224 month periods november as a stop point in the period um we're looking at 3.3 percent right now and this was past the end of october when we get the november numbers probably next week we we think that's going to go up um maybe to 3.5 percent based on based on those factors additionally beamers increase and i should back up on the cost of living contractually it's stated in our collective bargaining agreements but for non-unionized staff the personnel policy as discretion by the board to establish that COLA as part of the budget process certainly the board's look to align that with the collective bargaining agreements but that the board has discretion on the elements of the of the budget beamers which is the system for retirement for municipal employees their their board has recommended a half a percent increase in the employer contribution um i believe there has to be a final vote on that but they advise mr. Powell used to build that into their budget this round and speaking with bill him in our assessor his conservative estimate is the grand list to grow three quarters of a percent when the grand list is finalized that spring bill feels that that may increase to around one percent or so in my written document i have a listing of the grandest growth over a extended period of time for for the board and one of the things we tried to we took a hard look at is our local option tax receipts and based on data we have from the past few quarters where we're budgeting to look to return the pre-pandemic levels um ring south brollington's budget transmission another community that has local option tax they've taken a similar approach to us that was the whole me to see that uh other other towns are looking at it this way but as it has been it's a volatile revenue source which is part of why our fund balance policy is is higher than the towns that don't have it to help pick up those those gaps here but we'll run into those numbers a little bit more as we go through the the revenue parts of the budget in the coming weeks we'll look to the board's direction as well and how we plan the budget so it's the numbers i know you see them over the weekend we are looking at an increase of 1.4 million in the on the operating side of the budget still over 12 and a half percent in this initial draft taking these these factors and into consideration and i'll have another chart in a moment here that looks at how our revenues and expenses and operating areas of the budget are divided but primarily this increase is driven by wages and benefits for for the personnel parts of the discussion here you see our local option tax revenue for 22 we budget at 3.1 million we're we're looking at an increase of about 330,000 there based on so the analysis staff is done right now to balance this budgets and the part of it is the fund balance use and the fund balance policy and we're trying to be careful on how we look at that and that'll be a point for the board's discussion as part of this process of how to leverage that and what's your what's your comfort level and in our best estimate of where it's going to fall within the policy range but if you look at this to balance putting the tax rate up about four four seven point four sorry it's getting late i'm just so important to have a sense as it's rounded it increases the tax per $100,000 of assessed value about $50 per 100,000 so try to get some more context for that and what i put together over the weekend i had the median home value high i confirmed it with bill hymnman today when he was in our median home value assessed value in wilson is just over $300,000 so if you looked at that if that rate was what ended up standing through this process and the board's approvals that would be about $145 more a year for a house of that assessment you could think about it $12 a month someone hasn't taken it out on escrow but given that's that's the median the median price to give you a sense of that maybe on the tax this is the visualization and this is in your written document as well in the first section of your binder but it shows how our operations are spread amongst town departments in this initial draft budget and then i think the expense by object is an interesting piece to always look at i didn't run the comparison to last year but this will it's likely a little higher on the wage side with adding more staff but if you look at our wages and benefits and training cost center areas that that makes up about 70 percent of our municipal budget i can run comparisons to where we're in past years i don't recall those surely but it's a snapshot here on how we how we how the funding goes into operations and then finally the how you balance that with your revenue it's essentially similar to how we've how we've had this in the past property tax picking about half of the revenue local option tax everything else fees collected by departments fund balance grant dollars other other pieces that make up our revenue side to the budget so we get the final couple numbers i was i was waiting for today but this will look at tax rates throughout chitin county ranging from this is the current fiscal year ranging from a dollar and 14 and a half cents to a new ski to 20 cents in charlotte wilson's maintained this second lowest position for quite a few years running right now at point 2721 currently i i highlighted the towns with asterisks that have a local options tax and to give some some context there but you know wilson's benefited from local option tax for a number of years and it's been able to offset the property tax rates and looking for example in our current budget what we bring in a local option tax just over three million is offsetting the tax rate by about 15 cents that's being coming in from local option tax so eric what what would it be with the the rough numbers that you've come up with now it would um yep well it would go to about 32 cents flat but about it would be the equivalent of saint george but under south brong yep okay not that we can't get the energy coordinator will be above saint george you don't want that that's how decisions in this government are made so that gives you some some thought of where some illustration where it is right um grant all these other towns are having the same conversations you'll be having the next couple of months and i believe south brongton's reappraisal did hit last year i recall 21 budget numbers i saw they were in the 50s so i think their lower rate is the effect of their reappraisal same with brongton as well their reappraisal's hit so that that makes those that makes those rates can shift down when the valuation goes up with the after the appraisal so we're on capital budget so we try to be really thinking about how to blend all these elements together how to smooth things the best it's possible in this draft we've increased from the general fund about eight percent and that's a combination of general fund and some strategic use of fund balance towards capital as we go through that that component and as part of that i have in the proposal using some arpa funding for some of these capital projects 23 this was falling to lost revenue category i was looking at this as a way to continue with these capital needs but lessen the burden on the general funds with arpa as a as a bucket of funds the board has its at its disposal to to decide how to proceed with certainly it's part of a larger conversation of the three million and this is part of the $950,000 up to we can use that are general government operations but in the board trying to think how it wants to proceed and balancing this budget and revenue sources i feel this is one that the board has on the table to think about and there's certainly trade-offs that you didn't want to use arpa funds for some of these and and replacing with the general funds then comes a balancing act on the revenue side more so certainly part of the policy discussion moving ahead with with that pool of money and and how to maybe strategically use it to i'll say advance capital objectives and also smooth some some overall increases it where possible we don't have any new debt proposed in fy 23 i'll bring some some positive some good spending news i guess without adding adding an expense there you will hear a proposal for a potential article for short-term financing for ambulance replacements um i'll the chief speak more of this next week but you know there's a long delay we've made the order for for the ambulance since the long delay when it will get delivered so that debt payment wouldn't hit to fy 24 is our harassment right now so you'll hear about that in the capital plan but that's why it's not reflected as a new payment in 23 and then i asked the department heads to look at electric vehicle and equipment replacements as part of their capital proposals so that will be addressed by departments and some is a lot of it's going to be monitoring and seeing what's out there how to implement one thing we'll hear from the police is the technology for police cruisers is certainly advancing quickly part part of the projects are looking to renovate our our parking lot out back just found a list for a number of years so part of that element we'll be thinking about potential charging infrastructure for future police fleet and how that all fits into and then our we'll go into more detail another night but i know it's late but we've tried to estimate where the fund balance is starring this year where it's going to end this fiscal year with a number of elements coming and going and then our proposal for the fund balance is about 780,000 for tax reduction in capital and if that was used and we get to the end of fy 23 and that's everything came as planned in this budget it would put our fund balance at about 16.7 of operating with this new bottom line the town's policy is 10 to 20 of the general fund so part of this discussion is the board's comfort level and where that reserve falls given a number of factors here and understanding if that's the town's reserve and the rainy day fund and where the board wants wants that so another another policy component of this and the local option tax is that driver we try our best to estimate it it's been over budget for a number of years but if it falls under budget and we're trying to project where things are going the fund balance essentially has to pick that up if there's no other record that picks that up another year and it's also a combination of expense where you have under spending so it's surely done a great job here trying to project where we might be but it's it's always a best a best look at it so it becomes a fiscal policy comfort level for the board that's what I was just talking about I will say our first quarter of fy 22 for the local option tax that we just got back was the town's third highest quarter in the history of the local option tax being in place 836,000 and it proceeds it was about 130,000 more than we had budgeted for that quarter in fy 22 so that's part of our positive variance trend I hear different things on the news every day I think inflation is coming to this to some regard but I read in New York Times this morning too that disposable income spending for Americans is starting to become lower than what what it was with other parts of the pandemic it's it's hard to quantify how that would affect Williston and part of these receipts people doing projects like at home depot and getting goods there but things we have to think about and try to try to project here as we go next steps we've got hearing scheduled through the month we've got the public hearing on January 4th of Liberations in January and general timeline to finalize the warning around January 18th town meeting is February 28th this year Monday and then Australian ballots March 1st we'll talk more about town meeting we have reserved the room at the school part of that discussion will be what articles if any would be from the floor with the uncertainty there and last year everything was on the ballot so that will be another discussion for this board and then I think I hit on these but policy considerations certainly all line items the revenue streams property taxes that fund balance use ARPA for capital needs I will mention ARPA could be used to potentially offset some operating budget increases it has that discretion for the loss revenue component or just has to balance how it wants to use those funds whether for capital projects or initial smoothing for tax rate impacts but that's an only that's only a one-year potential use for that so it's going to come back eventually and it's trade off is not using for a capital asset in that circumstance but their policy levers and tools you have at your disposal as you as you work through this month that's all I prepared this evening but I'm certainly answering the initial questions I'm sure myself any additional questions for Eric not a question but this does build on what we were talking before I just want to make sure I understand one number and that is the at least the way it's projected now the increase in the property tax rate the 18.4 percent that that would be reflective of the four and a half cents I know it's a big percentage yeah yes it is and then the only other question I have right now is what day is the I'm showing down is that March 1st yep March 1st okay hoping I got my calendar yeah 1st if there's no more questions for error and we can move on to the personal policy update on OSHA that we've talked about this a couple weeks ago maybe more than that but there's a couple of options that the staff has recommended us to take a look at Eric yep bring back to the board this evening this is the OSHA emergency temporary standard that was passed it's being litigated it's going to the now the sixth circuit of appeals as they've taken all the other appeals and put it to one circuit court I believe that's coming up probably the next week week and a half last news report I read that could be appeal going to the Supreme Court but the standard it asks it requires employers to enforce a mandatory COVID vaccination policy unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing and wear a face covering at work this would apply to Williston in checking our threshold of employees and state of Vermont's interplay with the federal regulations I spoke with our attorney on this she she recommended preparing for it if it is upheld so staff can can start doing procedure work and drafting a policy for this board's consideration the draft rule has the effective date for these two roads to go on as January 4th it's hard to say whether that that date will stand if it's upheld but if the board has some direction this evening for staff we can we can start drafting what this might look like and thinking about if it is a a testing pathway how we would accomplish that that component of it it's really not to make a decision tonight as I know it's getting late just to bring this to your attention it's a as an employer it's something that's coming up on us so we had two two options to look at in order to implement what may be required yep the first option would be mandatory vaccination for all staff second option would be requiring employees to choose to either either be vaccinated or if they are not vaccinating undergoing regular COVID testing and wearing a face covering at work anybody have any preference tonight on that my preference is option two are there are there other vaccination requirements for either the fire department or the police department um nothing that I'm I'm aware of I um so this OSHA requirement would would cover all staffing if they're unionized or not but I can check the cheese but not nothing that's been shared to me I don't believe it was last question I have and you may not know the answers to staff haven't I haven't heard I've just shared that the department head level um prior to the the board conversation um we are voluntarily asking staff to share their vaccination cards um we've we've made a second request for that um yeah we'll be able to get any fine details but I don't have a particular percentage I can share of our of our course that that is vaccinated right now if we did implement the mandatory vaccination I assume there would be some sort of um exemption obviously for people who were unable to be vaccinated for some sort of medical reason obviously yeah the OSHA rule allows allows those exemptions to be in place I will say personally it's it's I'm very torn because um while I very much support um full vaccination we are struggling to retain the employees we have currently um and to hire new employees um and so um this I could see this being detrimental to that however I still see it as a matter of public safety um and so I'm leaning more towards requiring full vaccination well keep it in mind because we're going to need to make a decision on a couple weeks I'll I'll start drafting language for both options so we at least have it have it available we can start the staff good let's move on to errors and omissions the grand list we have one that was picked up uh in the last since the last meeting so Eric just want to give a brief explanation yep this is just one that was it was an oversight by the listers um it's another solar array as I as I recall there's no impact to um tax taxes collected um but we would need this correction to be considered before the end of the year as has implemented implications on the um education tax collection there's a motion suggested for you any questions for Eric excuse me there is a motion suggested move to approve the correction of the 2021 grand list as proposed by the listers is there a second a second sorry discussion on the motion what's in favor of the motion say hi hi hi any opposed all right moving on to personnel policy update for domestic partner insurance coverage and truly so I'm going to start with just a little history to what this is all about and how it became a thing so in 2009 all right maybe 2000 Vermont passes the civil union law and in 2009 Vermont passes the same sex marriage um but the Vermont rules don't necessarily follow what the internal revenue code allows in terms of what your dependence your legal dependence are so um this um so between the civil unions but this domestic partner rules um the federal government also does not recognize under federal law a domestic partner to be the equivalent of a spouse um so that creates and that gets back to they're not um under the internal revenue code they're not legal tax dependence so it creates tax consequences both to the employees and to the employee earth so what that means is if i take myself as a married individual who is claimed by my husband so when i um apply for health insurance to the town i get a pre-tax deduction for my share of the premium um that same thing is not true with a domestic partner there's a way you have to do a calculation to value that benefit um and then it is considered imputed income which means just goes in the payroll system it's this amount out there that is subject to federal and state taxes both income and payroll taxes um so um some of the rules around domestic partners is that number one we have to have a policy in writing about in a written policy to cover domestic partner so we have it in the personnel policies that says domestic partners are are covered but we don't have any of the policy that goes with that so that's where this comes in um and the other piece um is that it has to be in our summary plan description and our plan documents but for MVP we are considered a small group and they do not address the domestic partner issue so the towns or people who get coverage under the um the small group policies have to do our own policy and procedure around domestic partners so hence um we we have a different form so what we have been doing is having them complete the form and affidavit saying they're a domestic partner but we weren't doing any of the tax piece so this is really getting us in line with what the internal revenue code requires us to do um so um it is a little odd because you are asking someone to certify that if you are domestic partners whether you can take them as a dependent on your tax return if they can answer the ask that question then they're tax like any other individual or family or um spouses who have an insurance plan if not then this imputed income calculation is derived and that's again like i said it's added to their income it's not cash they get it's just a dollar amount out there so that the right amount of federal taxes can be withheld and somebody's payroll yeah interesting isn't it yeah so this this um you know i'm not above stealing so i i did just that because the state's policy was great and then eric had it run by legal um i have been working with sally sally mckenzie from pickawkin boardman on this in terms of our open enrollment um statement is as well and had her review through it as well so this also has sally's blessing and she's just a wealth of information and a great resource for the town so my request is that we we do have some individuals who fall under this domestic or who are domestic partners and we are in open enrollment for f y 22 so we really do need to have a policy in place so assuming that you are good with this policy you will adopt it um i should say an amendment an appendix to our personnel policy in those words right as an appendix to our personnel policy so that we are covered we have covered ourselves under what the IRS requires for policies around domestic partnerships so any questions for surely mine this is just a in the interest of us being a town that that's promoting diversity and equity and inclusivity it's actually just a language kind of question um in in under um the the tentacles and the policy on coverage and so forth uh multiple times it refers to partners of the same or opposite sex or refers to his or hers um i'm just wondering about the the feasibility of changing some of the language to include potential for you know non-binary folks or people that that have alternate pronouns um so just something to you know we could do that Julie the only question i have is there anything about this that you haven't explained that i should know any liability or anything like that i can't see that but our liability right now is that we're not treating it right it's kind of what i figured okay yep perfect any other questions emotional has been suggested move to approve an addendum to the town's personnel policy concerning domestic partner coverage offered through the town's health and dental insurance plans i'm sorry very discussion of the motion proving it's been preclude changing that language or changing the the pronouns want to make sure i think that'd be an administrative thing that she okay good yep here we no other discussion all those in favor of the motion say i i may oppose uh moving on the collective barring agreement with the police union that we discussed in uh executive session not sure that there's much more to say about that tonight but there is a motion i'll move to approve a new collective barring agreement with the new england police and everyone association local 409 and authorize the town manager to sign the agreement on behalf now zero second second discussion of the motion all those in favor of the motion say i i i be opposed all right managers report let's see how quick i can do it here this is getting late i didn't have many items in my written reports um as i mentioned during my my budget presentation the local option tax reports included um with the agenda for for your review there um and we did have a very high order last quarter um my recrossing open last friday i drove over it in friday night so i'm excitedly took my wife there's i did it for a ride over there so i made you go that way yeah um but just hats off all the work then and all the people involved in that project to make it fall right on our schedule here so a job well done um same on uh same regards to lamp light first told me it's uh one of the best projects has ever been involved with for how it was managed for the contractor and everyone involved so um another other big project we undertook this year and our noise monitoring station is operational um you can go on that website and see the data from williston now um it's pretty neat to look at to check out the other day and then a reminder our meeting next week we have a 6 p.m start time for the budget would be next next tuesday that's all i have to see in the other business we have a catering permit do it's for a just came in the other day somewhere bear with me a moment here we go it's for um it's from mill river brewing company um for a company holiday party i know it says near dry let me look at a 320 tire near drive um there would be 35 people attending from 2 to 5 p.m on 17 with the bar service and food service for this holiday party seemingly it's not not anything outside or for a large concern staff any questions i'm looking for a motion so moved second second i said uh any uh discussion on the motion follows in favor of the motion say hi hi any post any other business to bring forward tonight very none thank you for persevering anyways had a long meeting but the fact productive meeting tonight and thank you all and we are adjourned