 meeting of the town of Essex select board for Monday, April 15th to order first recording in progress on the agenda is addition agenda additions or changes a reminder that if you'd like to pull anything off of consent this would be the time to do it first we have any changes from staff none from staff I do I would like to call attention to the agenda we added that if anybody has from the public has comments about the consent agenda does bring that up during public to be heard any changes from the board I would like to request it we pull item C and item E out of the content okay anything else one like to make a motion moving on to a motion yes okay second second okay so item C and E from the consent agenda you have any particular place you'd like to put them as possible I would consider putting them as K and L under business motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay motion carries 5-0 we have approved the agenda I guess we just did that together to save time public to be heard is the next item on the agenda if you're in the room obviously you can raise your physical hand if you are online you will have a reactions button at the bottom of your screen if you push that button it will pop up and you will have the option to raise your virtual hand as Greg mentioned if you would like to comment on the consent agenda please do so during this time or items that are not on the agenda so at this point in time is there any public comment we will move along to the remainder of the items on the consent agenda Madam Chair make the motion that we approve the consent agenda as amended thank you Don is there a second thank you even there is no discussion on this so all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay motion carries 5-0 and that brings us into the business item portion of our agenda up first presentation of life-saving metals to Essex police officers and at this point I will turn it over to Chief like is this going to be okay over here on the other side so I just wanted to say thank you to the board for giving us a moment just to these presentations public safety is is what we do in saving lives is is what we're charged with every day but unfortunately we don't often get the chance to actually know that we save the life and in cases that we do I think it's important that we recognize those folks that do that and in the most public way possible so that's what I'm hoping to do and I'm gonna I'm gonna call folks up here I have two two awards to present and I'm gonna call folks up here one at a time if that's okay and just I just wanted to read a little bit about what these folks have done to get where they are and I just wanted to say that even though I am I am very proud of our department every single day that I that I work with these folks I cannot be more proud of people who go out there and do the job that they're asked to do and save someone's life there's nothing more important that we that we can do and hopefully these folks that that were that were saved will live long long lives because of what our our officers did on the on these days I did attempt to make contact with the families to see if what they would like to come to tonight's ceremony but I wasn't able to contact anyone unfortunately all of the methods that we had including visits to their house were were a negative so first I'm gonna call Corporal Karatza up so give me one second here so I'm just gonna read portion of the of the nomination letter that was submitted so on March 3rd 2024 the officer who who made this recommendation was Sergeant Michael Chastellini and he had just arrived for a shift and Corporal Karatza was heading out the door Corporal Karatza informed him that he was headed to a residence just off from Maple Street to assist with a medical call for an unresponsive mail the residents he then responded to the scene shortly thereafter and he found members of Essex Rescue Essex Junction Fire Department Essex Junction first response in the police department all were involved in the medical care what had happened prior to him arriving was there was a male who was found to be not unresponsive and not breathing with no pulse and Corporal Karatza immediately began CPR and because of his efforts of of doing that the gentleman is now alive these today Essex Rescue were arrived there and we're able to transport him to the hospital and today his family still has him with him and what what the prompted this was Lieutenant Greg who is a fire Lieutenant with a with a city fire department had also prompted a letter and what he said about Corporal Karatza because he was also on scene was that his actions were of direct meaningful aid in saving the life of a pack of a patient in conditions that were not dangerous to the rescuers involved so Corporal Karatza I'd like to present you with the EPD life-saving award and now if I could have Officer Koshlaev join me up here so Officer Koshlaev is also a member of the city fire department so he has got some more training than many police officers but he on this day he was performing his duties as an EPD member and it just to read a little bit about this this this recommendation came from Corporal Wooten who is in the room but he says on March 22nd 2024 at 23 22 hours which is 11 22 at night Officer Koshlaev and himself were called to another unconscious mail call at autumn pond when we arrived with rescue dispatch updated that CPR had already started Officer Koshlaev and I entered the apartment and found the mail on his bed in the living room it was clear that CPR had not already been started so they immediately removed the mail from his bed and onto the floor and then check for pulse after finding no pulse Officer Koshlaev immediately began CPR the two of them continue to to work on the individual until rescue arrived and subsequently got this the person back and today he is still alive with his family as well so two in one month this is unbelievable so if I can present this I'd like to present you with the EPD life-saving award and that is all I have I again I know you have a busy schedule so I appreciate everyone being here and I see members of the public and members of our community advisory board members of the City Council I appreciate everyone coming to see this well thank you for sharing that with us thank you you're very welcome anytime that I can share something like that I will definitely do that thank you and thank you both for your actions and your service with that we will move along to business item 6b interview and possible appointment of volunteers to serve on the Housing Commission first just in order on the agenda I have Carolyn Ellenberger if you're in the room if you would she's online hi Carolyn hello so for the Housing Commission we do have two vacant seats currently we have two folks before us this evening so Carolyn I'd ask you just to start tell us a little bit about yourself why you're interested absolutely hi I'm Carolyn Ellenberger I live in Essex I actually grew up in Essex Junction and went through the school system here and moved away for a while came back about two years ago and I'm now a homeowner here in Essex and I feel very very fortunate I know it's a luxury to have housing these days and I'm very concerned about the housing situation the crisis we're all hearing about and I'm looking to see how I can contribute to improving the housing situation here in my hometown in my community I'm giving others the opportunity for that I don't have a lot of housing experience aside from being a homeowner as I said I've been a homeowner for for quite a while other places as well I also serve as a board member on my condom association so I'm interested but I am a project manager and I'm very organized and I like to get things done and very results focused so if I can help in that capacity I'd be happy to but what are some things that I know you touched on them so it's hard to ask a question that you've partially answered but what are some things that you have in mind that you could bring new ideas or contribute to the to the Commission well I have seen a lot of people suffering from lack of good housing so I've seen that aspect of it my heart goes out to them and I have a lot of compassion for that and I feel like I can channel that into getting something done and you know one thing I'm not totally clear about is exactly how much of an impact the Housing Commission has you know what what sort of influence they have but I'm curious to learn more about that and how we community community members can make an impact thank you I'm usually in that seat so weird so Carolyn thank you for for stepping forward my question is what is your understanding of what it means to be a public servant my understanding and I will be completely honest is that I do not have that sort of experience but from my perspective I see it as you're putting the community needs and wishes and above all else above your own you're thinking about what does the community need what are the people what do my neighbors need and and how can I help make that happen Carolyn I guess I will ask the question turn it back over to you do you have any questions for the board I do not read some of the the minutes I feel like I have a good sense of at least what the last few meetings have been like so no I do not I guess this was a interview we do have two openings for two positions as I mentioned they have been advertised for some time I do anticipate that we'll probably talk about this we'll make the decision later on whether we well we will make the decision after the the next interview as far as whether we appoint now or discuss later but after this meeting someone from staff should be in touch with you great thank you very much thank you for your interest our next applicant Anna brulette go ahead and introduce yourself tell us a little bit about why you're interested sure hi there my name is Anna brulette oh I'm not supposed to be close to it okay I'm not used to Mike's hi there Anna brulette I also grew up in Essex and have recently returned in the past two years after some time away for graduate school and spent some time in Austin Texas as well working after grad school I currently serve as the policy and program director at Building Bright Futures which is the state's early childhood state advisory council so we really focus on families and young children prenatal to age eight and all of the needs that they have including housing but also really focus on child care policy nutrition mental health etc I was interested in joining the commission for similar reasons as Carolyn have had a lot of different experiences with our current housing system and I'm certainly aware both personally and professionally of the stress that housing in Vermont right now can can cause it was really challenging for me to return to Vermont from Austin and pay the same amount for a lot less space I have been a renter my whole life until this November I had the opportunity to buy a home through Champlain housing trust shared equity program so I am familiar with that process and what an incredible opportunity that can be for folks who are currently unable to buy and kind of the open or traditional housing market and had an incredible offer incredible experience working with that team and now live over in the Fort the officers row condos thanks to that program so I'm really just interested given both professional and personal experiences both as a renter and now as a shared equity homeowner as well as my interest in really serving young children and their families as in housing as a priority within that work yeah any questions from the board if you were appointed to the commission and they want to do something and you did not agree with that how would you deal with that um that's a great question I think that I would continue to pull in any you know evidence or stories any types of data that I had to continue to advocate for my position but if as a whole if there was if if there was some type of consensus that I was not a part of I would support my my fellow commission members in that but I think I would continue to present my my perspective until that was no longer serving serving the group thank you I don't know if my question still works I'm gonna try I I slack a little bit so I tried to use the same question for both of you but I have a little bit more of a question do you have a pretty well understanding of the makeup of the housing commission and to the other side of my same question is you have any general ideas of things that you could ideas you could bring to the table to solve some of the problems that were yeah I it's a great question I think from my perspective it's really about understanding kind of the the levers of change that something like the Essex Housing Commission has which is the Vermont State Legislature or the federal government so I am given my professional experience and fairly well versed in policymaking and kind of those different spheres of influence and think I could add value to it because of that but kind of fast-forwarding I think my question for you all would be like what success for the Housing Commission looks like from the select board's perspective so perhaps I'm turning that question back on you a little bit but yeah those are those are my thoughts if that's helpful yeah thank you so what is what I'll ask the same question I asked before what is your understanding what it means to be a public servant yeah I think that I think that Carolyn did an excellent job with this question I professionally and really and really committed to being in a mission-driven role and can't see myself in any other type of work I think it is very much about putting one's own you know kind of bias and personal lived experience aside when that is what makes sense and really looking out for the the greater the greater good and then the well-being of one's neighbors and communities and really and and using one's position of power and privilege to bring bring voice to those that don't have it and I that speaks to my my earlier answer and kind of commitment to doing data-driven work whether it be telling the story of folks that aren't at the table or bringing kind of statistics to to illustrate you know the impact of of a given policy or problem or challenge all right thank you so you already asked one question mm-hmm I'll answer that not on behalf of the select board but you know the housing Commission was recently in in past months gave us an update on what they were doing they are still doing that work success to me looks like continuing to do that work in concert with the housing Commission and other partners and essentially bringing back a path forward whether it be through inclusionary zoning or or other methods to move those conversations forward and do you have any other question great no that was really helpful thank you all right and same thing we will decide right after this whether to a point or discuss later you're welcome to stick around to hear what that answer is or if not well I should say and you would also be hearing from a member of staff after the meeting great thank you so much thank you for discussion would we like to first let's discuss the the staff recommendation is to wait I guess in case there are other applicants before the because these are we're not these are these seats that are expiring that we're fulfilling that they've been open for a while so I think these are might have just used our standard language in their direct to appointments I think if you're ready to point tonight that's totally fine okay so it's not it's not for seats that are ending in June is for seats that are already open they are two vacant seats now okay and they've been advertised for over six months they have had housing Commission has had some challenges with quorum as are down to people with that I would like to make a motion to make the motion to appoint Anna Bruley and Carolyn Ellen burger to the housing Commission for the two vacant seats with remaining terms ending June well with a new appointed term July 1st 2024 to June 30th 2027 second motion has been made and seconded clarify yes is there a way to point them now until June 30th 2027 I say that you write that down you know I mean that's what threw me off is like we might as well point for now and then does that make sense right because the two open positions go through 2027 I think I think they correct they are they are vacant now the remainder of the term does end on June 30 2024 because just a question for the board whether you would like the individuals to be back in a month and a half okay no one is that right they would right from starting now until 2027 is fine with me okay discussion I mean I would just note that you should appoint them for the remainder of the term and have them come back in or have them submit the application and re up again for a proper term we're just 10 we're tended to get into the habit of when we get folks we appoint them for the remaining term and a whole new term necessarily a bad thing but there's still three months somebody else I don't know what the future is staff wise for that yeah there's no real policy in place for a minute number of years we were just appointing people as they came forward for a three-year term or some cases a four-year term because of the turnover and when we weren't tracking which terms were over we were running into issues where we'd have years where nobody was for reelection appointment here's where there were you know four to five members were up for reappointment so we've started to stagger the terms that's why we have the recommended terms in there it gets come up recently they're probably largely by coincidence that just some of the vacancy have terms that are ending in a couple months so we've adjusted rather than people come back in a month or two later this is what's done there's no policy in place it's just been recent practice I guess I would just know that I would be more comfortable personally if we appointed them for the remainder of the term and then not require them to come back in the appointment they mean if you point somebody now and they want to get off in a month they're the wrong person just the matter because there are going to be some seats any other discussion hearing none all in favor of appointing these two individuals through current through June 30 20 27 please signify by saying hi hi I oppose nay motion carries for one congratulations Carolyn if you're still here congratulations thank you and moving along to our next business item business item 6c interview volunteers to serve on the ZBA to note there is one seat eggs that also expires on 630 2024 and I'm just pulling up the first on our list Trevor Williams hi I'm I'm already on the zoning board it's I think it's my term is expiring I've just been on it for a year and I just thought I would reapply and I'm also on the planning board too so but and so my background is that I I'm a retired professor of civil engineering at Rutgers University and I found it very interesting to be on the zoning board and the planning board but so I don't know what else I can tell you I spoke a long time when I was here last year so I keep it briefed tonight so yeah what is your experience been in working on both boards well it's it's interesting it's been good my background you know I know traffic engineering highway engineering and certainly that that's helpful for the planning board and the and in particular when you know various cases come up before the planning board and you know they talk about those things zoning board I find very interesting I didn't have I don't did not have as much experience with zoning as as I did with planning but I can see that it's it's it's it's important that the zoning laws get upheld so that I could I could see now for my year there's possibility for a lot of you know sort of development or things to be done that that are unsightly or don't fit in with a neighborhood and things like that so I've come to believe that both the zoning and the planning it's it's it's very important to see that the various regulations are followed and you know it's the US people want to do things and develop things but I think it's good that the town of Essex has these various laws in place particularly things like scenic overlay and things like that which I think are great and you know keep the quality of life here very high thank you have you found yourself in any disagreements with the zoning board and how did you come to a conclusion well the zoning board really hasn't had many cases in the in the year there's really just a one or two in the past year and the ones that that I've seen it was a pretty the cases there was a consensus it was obvious what the what the right thing to do was so I I found it easy to you know everybody agreed on the zoning board about what the decision should be so I think it's good I think the people who serve the you know on the zoning board now are really good people add on that a little bit how did you guys come to your conclusions well the one that that got turned down it was one that got turned down that sticks in my mind was that we're looking for a zoning variance and the reasons for wanting it were not that strong and then the thing that really solidified it was the fact that there was people in the neighborhood who objected to it as well so the the fact that the reasons were not very good like hitting cars in the garage and then local people people right next door worried about runoff and things like that that I think that made it clear that it was something that shouldn't get a variance and you know I mean of course you realize you know you'd like to accommodate everybody but you can't sometimes particularly where this was in a development where the houses are closer together and you know it's not the country that particular thing would not have been as important understood actually what is your you sort of answer this but do you prefer the planning commission or the ZBA well understanding that the ZBA is transitioning to a DRV right probably with my background the the DBA is more appropriate for me although I will say that I like the planning part of the planning board as well so but but if I had to pick one I guess it would be the DBA the DRV right okay okay because we will be you know going through a change sometime before I believe it's January 1st 2025 to make that transition okay yeah and do you have any questions for us um I don't I guess this is I guess my only question this is a three-year term is that well it's all gonna get right yeah as long as it takes yes okay no that's my only call have that discussion when we have a transition plan in place okay thank you thank you so much no thank you in the same holds true we'll have a discussion after this and you'll either find out this evening during the meeting or someone will be in touch great thank you thank you next up we have Stephanie Bixby come on up and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested hi I'm a resident of Essex I purchased my home in 2020 with my husband I currently am the rental assistance director at the Burlington Housing Authority so I deal with codes of federal regulation on a daily basis and that is my job to implement those is to read those laws and those regulations and implement what the housing authority has set up for its rental assistance program I have to make those decisions and look at each case based on its merit it's extenuating circumstances and what the regulation says that we are required to do under the program I've been looking for something to be more involved in my community I looked at the ZDA and said that kind of suits what I do I enjoy reading federal codes of federal regulation and interpreting them and then discussing them and implementing them so I thought my skillset would lend very well to this board and be able to expand my horizon a little bit more than just housing if the applicant came before the zoning board and you did not agree with the rest of the board how would you deal with it I do with that on a daily basis you know you're respectable you you're respectful you state your case and if that's just not the way the wind is going you just you respectfully just go you know you say your piece and I'm not a big proponent of being disrespectful or rude everybody has their their say it's a collaborative and that doesn't always mean consensus is the best route to move the ball forward so you try to sway people and if you can't you read the room and and you go along with well you don't go along but I guess what I'm trying to say is is I stick to my guns but in a respectful way and if that's the way that the board sees it I'm not gonna hold a grudge and and we gotta move forward but you would still voice your opinion I would still voice my opinion I don't think it it does nobody any service if you don't voice your opinion and I always feel that it's always good to have a devil's advocate in the room even if that's not really how you're looking at thing to be the person to say have we looked at it from this perspective because if we all just agree that's not always the best approach either thank you I was gonna ask how she would form a decision and a contentious matter but I think she knows the answer sometimes you have to like just you know take a beat and take a moment and really review what what it goes over you also just have to go back to what the regulation states like the end of the day you have to take out in some form your personal feeling about something if you're applying if you're on a board that's applying a law and that is the law that has to be followed so I don't always agree with with the federal regulations of my rental assistance program that's not my job my job is to apply that regulation consistently and fairly based on the merits of the case that's the perfect answer for the ZBA have you had a chance to review Essex I have not done that I look forward to doing that if I am you know chosen to do it that's you know when you take that I'm going to take that time and review it I have 600 page manual that sits on my desk every day it is my Bible and I I kind of enjoy looking through so one of those things where you don't memorize those regulations you look them up you learn how to use your manuals and your tools to answer those questions right so we have an approved charter change which moves us from a Plenty Commission and zoning review board to a Plenty Commission and a design review board roles kind of shift around in there it's about what eight months away seven and a half months July or January 1st of next year given given that the ZBA would be going away what are your thoughts about where you might want to end up you know I'm open to change I'm open to doing something different I the reason I wanted to join the ZBA or join some form of town committee I can't really run for anything in what I do there's strict regulations on what I do for a living I can't run for any type of office I can only volunteer so I would be interested in in the challenge of what that that would look like and seeing if my skill set could be of help in it so I'm I'm intrigued I think development and review is something that we hear a lot in the news I'm in housing I hear all the time about Act 250 and zoning laws and development and planning and what that looks like so I am I very much have an interest in it and in what this community will look like in the future thank you you have any questions for us what are you guys all looking for and the person to join the ZBA and the DRB to transition to somebody uses the regulations to form decision and for a little more detail Andy mentioned the the development review board so currently the planning commission not only does the planning but they hear applications for development the ZBA handles just appeals to variance is simplifying conditional uses things like that the the approved charter change planning would focus solely on the planning the DRB would be with the application arm of the planning does now so that would sit in a different body basically you're looking at the application and applying the regulation to make sure that whatever they're applying for meets what the law in that area of the town would right it's sort of a differentiation of duties so you know planning and then the enforcement not enforcement but application of that code in a separate body not anything that I am not not used to I operate six different federally regulated housing programs with their own unique wants and needs right thank you for your time we're gonna have a discussion here in just a few seconds about what we do next you're welcome to stay around even if we go into executive leader welcome to stay around to see what the with the result of that is regardless someone will be in touch with you thank you as a reminder we have one seat open expires 630 that's the board's pleasure this is one the seat is filled right now the term is coming up to an end the staff would recommend where you do this one open you don't make that appointment doesn't have it filled immediately if any other applicants come forward over that would include reappointment yes there's still two seats open though there's one see there's one seat that's going to be open okay this is a question of this is a question whether to reappoint treffer or to appoint somebody else effective July 1st so not to fill the port this those see that's expired to see the currency is Trevor's seat and that doesn't expire until June 30th the staff's recommendation is to keep it open until it's closer to the vacancy date of July 1st there is no wait yeah there's no opening right now no it's just one seat physically we're entering interview season now for that June 30 so that you don't have to interview everyone on the one meeting right before June 30th some of these are just coming in a little earlier because to help spread around the love of the interviews so that's what this one is are there any current openings I'm planning one but I find out curious yeah I guess I'd like to discuss later eating it in the sugar okay I think I've ever heard that thing before okay so absent emotion and hearing that we will discuss in executive when we get there up next volunteers to serve on conservation and trails we have Paul Davis hi Paul come on up tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested I'm Paul Davis I moved to Essex from Wilmington North Carolina July 2022 Chapin Road now it seemed like within a couple weeks the month is in this room I'm planning a commission meeting because they were talking about having a development just down the road from it and I wanted to keep with the scenic resource overlay so I got to know the place a little bit and I've always had an interest in in climate change and conservation and with that and it's mostly consisted of me worrying and reading articles and not doing much decide the individual actions wanting to get involved on a community level for some time it looked into the different committees I saw there's an energy committee and a conservation trails committee and went to the CTC first one first meeting was probably about a year ago and I kind of just kept showing up as a member of the public probably went to three or four went to Indian Brook cleanup and I just would like to like this and on questions from the board and you bring any special skills or experience to the conservation trails I wish I could say I had special skills or experience in that particular area I do have curiosity and interest I'd like to know especially about the in the last meeting they were talking about open lands and the tax get an incentive tax adjustment word for it but programs that incentivize conservation of large amounts of land don't plan on developing it don't want to develop it I'm interested in that and seeing how we can promote that more and I don't know maybe there are adjustments that can be made or more programs like the added to further promote that kind of behavior here being that you've been attending the meetings regularly what are some ideas you have for or change your action so again I'm kind of new to this but I'm curious about like there are towns that have land trusts curious about what those are and how those differ from just having conservation funds that aside for an acquisition or using the open land tax incentive so I don't come with knowing much about that but I'm thinking my role I would like to sort of follow up other towns see what they do understand that in the last meeting they were talking about making a sort of a flyer or hand out to make the open lands tax keep I don't have the quite the right word for it but the tax incentive easier to understand and I would like to get involved in that because I want to understand it better because I I don't think it's something that a lot of people know about you had a chance to review the conservation easing it I reviewed the 1989 package it was assembled by grad students at the University of Vermont is recommendations on what to do to preserve open lands the 2008 document that was also talking about the different open land in the area read the I haven't read every word of the town plan but I went through it and read the interesting parts and skin through the tough stuff and so I've been through the town plan as well there's the documents I've been through mm-hmm all right what is your understanding what it means to be a public servant I'm luckily I got to prepare for this question because I was listening in but it made me think of a public servant made me think of Vermont and billboards when people ask why we moved to Vermont one of the answers random answers I like to give is no billboards and the to me the mentality there is a billboard benefits very few to the detriment of me no we don't need to do that and to me a public servant is human version of that concept it's how can how can I benefit people in general or the people of the community in this case and not think short-term and thank you ask question do you have any questions for us Greg I see that this the terms there are three seats they all expire 6 30 2024 so is this the same recommendation to interview and hold until we're closer to correct there wait there is one opening that's available now on the conservation and trails committee that six years in 2025 they do not have the quorum issues that the housing commission has had for scheduling as far as I'm aware I also do not know if there's any other applicants who applicants who have applied this I was going to be my question because I understood it better this time than before but yeah there's three more seats that are gonna be and we had the opportunity for members who are currently serving to either reapply or not everybody okay without waiting for more interviews the same as last since the there is one vacancy but we have three seats whose terms don't expire until 6 30 so not appointing at this point and waiting for more applications to potentially come in right here in June July closer in in June likely in June yeah so Paul thank you for your time and we'll be in touch in probably about two months thank you at the latest I just just the point aboard Greg said that there's a term that's vacant now that expires and I wouldn't have three moral yeah he said that he doesn't sure if there was more applications currently maybe more applications than there are seats available but if it's the will of the board to a point this evening I think that we can definitely do that the yeah I think the concern is that Paul was able to attend tonight there may be other applicants that weren't having haven't yet been able to attend right and the other question I didn't I don't know if the opening has been advertised for the requisite number of days that we prefer to have things January since January okay okay so I guess it has but yeah I guess the question is if there's more applicants then it would be unfair to I don't know I should have mentioned that the housing commission appointments those the only two applicants we've had nothing well if it's openings and posted since January I would say but there might be but they said there might be other applicants that's the other three seats that are open-handed there's none for this one missile than this applicant though I don't know that I have to get confidence the housing commission there were no other applicants that was part of why the office comfortable pointing those and the housing commission is also having issues meeting quorum yeah I know that was a little more time sensitive I didn't see anything in the memo that says that there's an open position on the committee I only saw the three terms ending June 30th and it says 2023 it's supposed to be 2024 it's in the issue you volunteer for a vacancy we can we can look to clean up some of the issues and I didn't know there was an opening at all I thought it was just vacancies or expiring parents you know anything for the board do we still want to hold off okay I think we still hold off because there may be other applicants and if you know if it's appropriate we can find out if there are other applicants we can revisit this in the next meeting if there are no okay next agenda item interview volunteer to serve on the economic development commission there is one seat expiring 630 2024 are there any other vacancies or is it just that one believe it is just that one let me double it looks like there's just the one seat that's open opening up okay okay so Tanisha are you online welcome Tatsunisha go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in the position I've been on the economic development I think this is I was renewed last year and it was just for even one year so my seat is coming up for vacancy or whatnot so I was reapplying we're doing a lot of work from the previous years but we're getting it done now so I still wanted to serve and complete the work that I was started as to why and I don't talk to Nisha I love you but last year the appointment was for one year because you are a village resident I was told I was told that I couldn't apply but then I got an email this was stating that I could apply so I applied again yep sorry somebody want to explain that yeah so last year took up the question as far as whether we wanted to in place restrictions around who could serve whether it just had to be town residents and we landed as we landed at an individual basis there wasn't any across the board decisions made as far as whether we would only consider residents of the town so what you were gonna so in talk to Nisha reached out to me and asked if she could apply yes the board had decided that residency was not a requirement any questions from the board what's the most impactful or meaningful accomplishment that you've been a part of since you've been on the board so I'm doing that work now we have a packet for residents and for business owners that we have set up there would be issue now and getting complete and I'm working with Jean on that for a couple of things for them to have information and knowledge of things in the area what's closed what schools what other businesses are there so we're trying to basically get the businesses the new businesses that are out there you know get word that they're there because some of the businesses we don't even we didn't even know they existed thank you I did have one question other than my usual do you have any questions in your application you indicated that you wanted to expand on increasing the community's involvement how do you foresee yourself doing that so we had we just had a little thing for your we were at the select we're at the school so we had a lot of people pass our tables so I wanted to do more of expanding just letting people know about the EDC when we go to different places we're showcasing businesses right now so we kind of want them to get involved as well so we've been asked some questions about them being involved and on the seats or whatnot or given their opinion about different things so that's what we've been doing okay last question do you have any questions for us no I asked them when I asked Greg because I was I was unaware that I could apply so I was happy all right given that this one seat doesn't expire until 6 30 does the board wish to take action or hold until closer to the term start date I will also notice note that the vacancy has only been advertised for 30 days as of today I like to hold okay okay that's an issue when it gets closer you will hear from somebody okay thank you thank you for applying item 6 f consider the appointment of representative and alternate to the Chittenden solid waste district Alan I come on up Alan go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested hey I have been serving on the waste district board for either 20 or 22 years we couldn't find somebody when I was on the select board so I was on the select board and also on the waste district back in those early days I'm a civil engineer by trade and I think that that provides a little bit of background and training when issues come up that are part of the waste district I'm also the vice chair and have been the vice chair for a number of years of the of the board and it's something that I enjoy doing and for a while I was both the junctions wrap and the towns rep until the separation and they appointed somebody other than myself but just enjoy it and hope you reappoint me questions from the board I was gonna ask him if he enjoyed it or just does it for this long because nobody else steps up he said he enjoyed it so I'm happy with that answer do you have I have do you have any concerns with their future plans and financing um yes and no I guess it's the same with you know any municipal organization that needs money you know where's it gonna come from and and you know we've gotten and Sarah's gonna be talking real later tonight about the budget we've run into some issues with the cost of the recycling facility and I think they're looking through alternatives right now with respect to with respect to that the price of everything just seems to be you know going up if it's you know from steel or concrete you know the equipment that needs to be in it but the the board is fairly conservative and we you know discuss monetary issues you know the cost I think you're also going to hear from Sarah tonight the cost of the solid waste management fee has been stable for 12 years and the board and the full-time staff are looking to raise that in the next coming year but not a lot I mean it's not going to be a significant but but you know I always worry about you know where money is going to come from I always try to when there is an issue that I think is contentious I try to come to the board here and get into public to be heard you know just you know see what's what's there and try to you know keep you informed of those things that appear to be fairly contentious thank you other board questions before how many years have you actually been on it's either 20 or 22 I think you would indulge me a little bit notice that the waste district charges the employees a percentage of the salaries for their health insurance that's rather unusual that was that contentious no I think I was on the finance committee back when those things were being discussed or we discussed at the end one time it was the general manager who felt that you know he ought to pay more money than somebody working as the drop-off center and we discussed that in depth and it worked fairly well and it seems to have worked continues to work so it gets program into the budget every year and so the general manager pays more money for her insurance than a person at the drop-off center then requires the same coverage and it seems to work very well the board would indulge me for a follow-up question as a past select board member you could compare the two did the district have to make up more money on the premiums because it right now the employees pay a percentage of their premium percent yeah percentage of the salary yeah well your employees pay 3.5 percent of their salary so there's there could be a discrepancy there I just wondered if there was a big discrepancy well if the general manager is making you know a hundred thousand dollars and the and the drop-off center person is making forty thousand dollars there is a differential there between you know what they're paying for health insurance and the board the board budget makes up that difference the the annual budget makes up the difference between what the employees pay and what is required by the insurance company and I think we'll get into that with our next agenda item as well thank you I was just gonna say aren't we interviewing rather than yeah so yeah I think the the budget is on the next the next item so as a little and I see right we're getting into it I'm trying to sit on my hands because I don't sit there anymore did you have a question I do want to thank Alan for as many years of serving because it sounds like that's a challenging job to have yes Alan do you have any questions for us no I just you know I guess one of the things that I tried to incorporate when I was on the select board is we try to get an evaluation of our you know volunteers and they could never get you know three people to agree with me you know on that but you know if you are having issues with me I would love to hear it and you know know what to change and as I said when there are controversial issues I try to come in and run them by it because really I just represent you guys and you guys represent town so the one other thing it's kind of I think is helpful is that we have members on the board that are new to government and everything else and I always relate how I relate to the Essex select board always a good perspective to have you coming back to the board this will expire on May 31st so a month and 15 days from now vacancy has been advertised since March 15th what is the will of the board I'd like to make a motion that the select board appoint Alan I as a representative to the Chittenden solid waste district and we also want to appoint our alternate I'm happy to serve again Alan makes it very easy like a point my great lad is our alternate second okay motion has been made and seconded any discussion on the motion that's for two years yes they do it by vocabulary alphabet and in the end years hearing no discussion all those in favor of please signify by saying aye I was in a motion carries 5-0 thank you may I sit here for the presentation sure yeah looks like Sarah is online in our next agenda item Sarah you are online so we will turn it right over for you for the CSWD proposed FY 25 budget welcome thank you very much I appreciate your time I would give permission for Jen holiday I like to share her screen because I've been experiencing some technical issues with some freezing so if for some reason I freeze and go away Jen will be able to to move forward so as Alan mentioned and thank you again for repointing Alan he has been a remarkable board member for us he's been really instrumental over the years and presenting a great point of view on a multitude of issues and I really rely on his his guidance for a lot of things so thank you for giving me access to his resources for another couple of years again my name is Sarah Reeves I'm the executive director for Chittenden solid waste district and we are a municipal district created by our member towns the 18 season towns in Chittenden County to manage the solid waste that has generated by our residents of businesses institutions and our guests experts a little bit more of who we are really what I like to do on this slide is show the different buckets of our revenue and this is our example from our fiscal 23 on it says unordinated but that is the audited version of that chart and we receive our revenue in three main areas user fees or tip fees so those are the fees that are paid directly to us by our customers at our drop off centers at our organics recycling facility materials recycling facility to manage the waste that they bring to us another section is our solid waste management fee that is the fee that is charged to haulers when they bring material that needs to be disposed at the landfill they are charged a per ton rate for that waste that is being disposed and then material and product sales and that is the revenue that we receive for the recycling that we market for the compost products that we produce and for local color pink I also based on some past feedback from the different councils and slug boards like to talk about how we're doing again this is fiscal 23 and like to point you over to column number three that that is the amount that was actually landfill all of the waste that was generated in Chittenden County and fiscal 23 just under 120,000 was actually disposed in the landfill enough that about half could have been further diverted and that's where we focus most of our attention we focus to focus on waste reduction but really it's how can we get the material that is currently in landfill that can be recycled or composted or otherwise diverted diverted so that is the challenge and that's where we are putting a lot of our activities our fiscal 25 income in a snapshot against just under 16 million and again showing these buckets the majority of our revenue is coming from tipping fees or user fees so always management fee revenue protected at about 24% and that sale of materials that does tend to fluctuate the bulk of that that percentage is from the materials recycling facility and that revenue fluctuates because we simply do not control the markets so we don't we can't dictate what price we receive for the material and we also show our expenses in this format as well to show kind of where the bulk of our expenses are you should not be a surprise to the select board the payroll is a large expense for us it does continue to grow but materials management is also a very very large expense and that is when we talk about materials management we're talking about the fees that we pay to companies mainly to haulers to move materials move solid waste recycling etc to ultimate disposition to the landfill or to to market so that's what and that also incorporates the fee that we pay to cancella to operate the material recycling facility on our behalf our bottom line this year looks a little bit different than in past budgets that I've brought to the town here we are showing a deficit we're showing a shortfall and I will explain a little bit later on in a few moments how we're going to address that next place a quick snapshot compared this year to next year so this current fiscal 24-25 you're seeing that we're not anticipating we're not budgeting or a large increase in revenue just a modest almost flat revenue change the expenses are what is driving this budget and the large a large portion of the equipment and fleet increase which is that 66% increase in that line item is directly related and tributed budgeted to the current materials recycling facility I will explain more about that in a moment as well so how we're going to manage the shortfall is by drawing down slightly on reserves that is of course only if everything goes according to budget as drawn out so it if it does then we will be tapping our undesignated reserve to cover the shortfall however as Allen mentioned we conservatively budget so we conservatively under budget certain income we conservatively over budget expenses we again because we don't have control over what we receive as far as a per ton price for the recycling commodities we tend to be quite conservative there although we did adjust our our projection upward based on feedback from our finance committee they felt we were being too conservative so we next it up a little bit to reflection of that feedback we're also actively sourcing additional tons for both the materials recycle facility and for the recycling facility to make sure that we are operating as efficiently as possible and maximizing those facilities on the expenses we can we always tend over budget on the wages and benefits particularly on the benefits side and that is because whenever we have additional folks budgeted in at the district before we hire them we actually don't know who they are so we have to budget for for example a full family medical plan that is as you know the most expensive plan that you can get but because again we don't know their circumstances we're going to assume that they would have that highest level of need it doesn't always come in that way but we have to plan for it one of the items that we routinely do not spend fully is that community cleanup plant and that is something where we want to spend that fully we want all of our communities to fully utilize the annual amount that they have in that fund for their projects locally I know Alan has worked on that diligently over the years to find projects and to search projects to use those funds next place so as I mentioned included in this budget is an increase to the solvents management fee we have not increased this fee since fiscal year 2013 we are going from $27 a ton up to $30 a ton so a modest increase given what all the increases that we've all experienced over the years the impact per household if we were to spread that out over all the households in Shannon County would be under 30 cents per month and we took that at the per pound the house per cabinet generated on an annual basis per household and multiplied that by the persons per household a way that customers can mitigate their potential exposure to that increase you can really kill that in the drop-off center so that's where our customers have the greatest ability to manage any potential impact the impact the increase is included in the price of bags the drop-off centers but if you're not generating as much waste and you can reduce the number of bags which actually you generate and have to pay for then you are therefore reducing your impact to that fee so the the revenue generated by this fee we need to help supplement our closed landfill reserve and I'll talk more about that a little bit later as well the materials recycling facility is also seeing a modest increase we are currently charging $85 a ton increasing to $90 per ton and this is going to bring the Murph tip the closer to the average regional tip fee which is in about that 90 to 120 dollar ton rate we're still on the lower end of the region and we're talking the Northeast region in Northern New York this is directly related to the needs of his aging facility just about everything in the Murph is at its end of life and so we we knew this was coming we had hoped to have the new Murph up and running by now but delays due to COVID really put a wrench in that so had everything gone according to plan we would be in the new Murph now and we would not be seeing these expenses however not everyone according to plan so we're anticipating needing to spend we're budgeting about $250,000 in that equipment line specifically for this existing facility next please some good news for the organic recycling facility we are not increasing the tip fee there it's going to stay at $70 per ton our inbound tons again we're being a little conservative here we are actively seeking additional terms well specifically food scraps to come in and working with folks on and diverting some of their food scraps to our facility we did increase our prices on our compost and compost products they were on the low end of the regional average so we are still just about in the middle of the average for those products still a little bit low on a couple of items but the sales have remained strong so the market is bearing the increase in that price and we are set to our board will be actually voting on the contamination policy this month and we are implementing a new contamination policy that is similar to the existing policy with the materials recycling facility and this will help us to help haulers address ongoing issues for some unwanted materials that we're seeing in the food scrap deliveries it's another tool which we want to both CSWD and horror haulers. For good news there is no bag increase at our drop-off centers so we've also added another large extra large size contained within that bag pricing the budget also is reflecting additional hours with the Milton and in Burlington we are looking to expand the Milton site and we're looking to reopen Burlington to trash hopefully by the end of this current fiscal year is reflected in the next fiscal year. Just a very brief look at some capital projects the big one being the new materials recycling facility we are aiming to award the construction contract next month June at the latest and then we'll be hopefully breaking ground by the end of the summer or the September and then if we happen to have another mild winter then we'll be able to work on the construction all year next year fingers crossed and then hopefully be up and running about 18 months from now. And on that down on fund equity again all of the reserve funds are actually funded with the exception of the closed landfill reserve. We're in about year 28 29 of a 30 year closure period so it's not unusual that the fund would be dwindling down at this point. What is unusual is the need the new need potentially to further treat leachate that is continuing to be generated in that by that landfill. This is coming from the EPA. So you may have seen the news about PFAS being regulated more strictly particularly in drinking water. We're anticipating something similar coming down the line for wastewater treatment plants we've been working with the folks at Essex about that as well as somehow treat PFAS leaching. So we don't know what that is going to look like yet. We don't know the costs. We do know we don't have enough money in that reserve fund to fund that kind of a project. So in the bulk of the increase in the solvice management fee will be directed to that closed landfill reserve to build that reserve up over the course of the next couple of years while we all learn kind of what the expectations will be for the need to treat that leachate. Next please. And as usual our charter our legislative bodies of the member of the municipalities are asked to go to approve the district's budget. Every city in town has one vote. It's not weighted by population. So you all have equal votes. And with that I would like to open it up for questions. Member board. Andy. Hey Sarah you've got it. You've I know you had a preview of my question. One of the things that we hear from some of our residents is concern over the number of trucks that pass through town. And if you sit out here on route 15 you can often times see up to three or four tractor trailers of trash headed to Coventry. And then if you wait a number of hours they turn around and come back. And it's constant all day long trucks going by. And I know that there's a limited life to the landfill up there. And there's also focus from the legislature to try to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I'm just wondering if CSWD is involved in trying to lobby with how we deal with the fact that we haul all of our trash the entire state's trash to the far end of the state. And and or as my question is is there any way to redistribute those trucks so they're not all going well I guess they're not all coming through Essex not every you know so there are there are multiple ways to get to Coventry. But the closer you get to Coventry the fewer options there are. And we do seem to have a lot of trucks coming through here so just. Wondering what your thoughts are on that if there's anything that that again and that CSWD is doing working with the legislature or whomever you need to to resolve that. Yes, thank you for the question and and you're right this was you'd ask this last year too. So what I did last year after our meeting was I Jen who's on the line as well. Jen and I spoke with Ann are with folks there and we had this similar conversation saying you know this is not just CSWD staff members thinking this is an issue. We're hearing this from our member towns and we want to tell you what they're concerned with. So we had a couple of conversations and then I gave a presentation to my board in September about the landfill about our landfills that we manage and out of that presentation a request was came from my board to ask Ann are to give the board a presentation which they did in December and I meant to send Greg that link to our minutes earlier and I realize I just sent too late but they're the minutes are on our website and it was a very robust conversation good discussion. So I would ask Greg if you could forward that link to those minutes to the select board and I made sure that the notes in the minutes were very, very detailed so that anyone could get a really good sense of the conversation and the questions that were asked very good questions by our board and to really ask some difficult questions of Ann are Josh Kelly from DEC and to get a sense for exactly what you're talking about Andy which is you know is anybody even thinking about this is anyone talking about this who can have an impact and who can make some changes and so some good news is that the state's materials management plan is is being discussed now the draft is out now and in that draft there is a a requirement that the state can be in a stakeholder process to discuss disposal options because if you read the minutes you'll see that Josh does say you know one of the alternatives is to ship everything out of state. So that does not do anything to take trucks off the road and it does also you know if we would to rail it out of state that would further burden the rail infrastructure in the state which is not which needs some help as well. So you know a lot of my board members did not feel good about that actually you know basically sending our problems somewhere else and there are a myriad of problems with that. So it was it was a good conversation a good discussion and they acknowledged the need to address this now rather than waiting 10 years 15 years. The current open area of the landfill has approximately 18 years left of love and if any new landfill were to be cited anywhere in the state it's a minimum that we started now would be 10 10 years. So we really have to have the conversation now about alternatives and options. They've heard that they know that this is a key consideration for our members for Chittenden County and they have promised to engage in a stakeholder process. So we will push to be a strong voice in that process and that is one of the comments Josh had was what he feels is needed in in the discussion are strong municipal voices. So I'm going to say you'll say that to you as well that strong municipal voices are what is needed particularly at this point in the conversation. So there's a long long answer to your question. But yes we are on it and the activity really was spurred by your question last year and so I thank you for doing that and we will stay on top of it. Thank you sir. Your questions questions. Just ask you're implementing a lot of new credit cards. We're going to be able to take credit cards. Are you charging the 3% We charge credit cards. We are taking them at all of our facilities except for Burlington at the moment. But when Burlington comes online we'll take them there too. And we charge 3% on the credit option. If you use a debit card there is no there are you still there. Did we lose you. Oh there you are. Can you hear me now. I did have a I did have a quick question. It was on page nine but I think it was just because I'm super curious. How do you identify materials that could have been diverted from the landfill. So that is it. Yes. So that's in the the waste composition waste composition study of a characterization study that's usually done by the state and they just did a new one. So this the last one was 2018. They've done a new one in 2023 and the results are not out yet. They should be out hopefully by the end of this month. But that's part of that. That study is on to identify what portion of the waste is actually recycling is food scraps etc. Jen you've been involved in our previous waste studies. As far as if you want to add anything because you actually dug into some of this stuff. Yeah. So we CSWD has done numerous waste composition studies in the past which is essentially the consultant sorts through a sampling of ways that's landfill bound and categorizes it. And so the state has I think over 70 categories of materials. So they'll have every type of recyclable food scraps yard debris batteries household hazardous waste. So it's quite interesting. And as you can imagine very informative for CSWD where sort of our our objective is to get people to divert to divert as much as material as they can. So it really informs us in what we can focus our efforts on what is actually being landfill. So it's great information. And we also receive reports from actually you know going through everything they do thing that goes through. They dump a truck on the ground and sort through it. Any other questions comments from the board. With none I will go ahead and open it up to questions or comments from the public. I see Lorraine Zalomi your hand is up online. Thank you. And thank you. I'm one of the people that suffers from the trucks. I live right under 15. It's untenable. It shakes my house. It's caused issues internally inside of our home as well as leaks in our bathroom. Like I don't think people believe that it's that bad but it really is that bad for our setback is very close to the road. The homes in old home is built in late 50s. I'm wondering and I couldn't by the way there I couldn't download the material the agenda. I don't know why but that was an issue. There's an error. I can read but are there plans to the other issue too of course is diesel and the findings that we're seeing around toxicity and dangers and lethality as well as the sound and noise interaction have major impacts on health and heart disease to diabetes and so on so forth. And the more we learn the more I see other states start to phase out the diesel trucks and the larger trucks in terms of dealing with noise. You have plans for electrifying or reducing the size of them. And also to piggyback on what chair Fiat said asked you also measure if you're reducing the amount of waste in terms of metrics in terms of conserving so that we don't have to throw as much waste. And then how is that done. Thanks. Thank you for your question. We don't actually haul any material up to carpentry. So no CSWD trucks are contributing to the trucks on the road. However what we can do and what we do is advocate for alternative fuels and for alternatives to diesel. For the trucks that we do use we are we just bought a Ford Lightning which is an electric pickup. We have gone to electric screeners at our Compass facility. So where we can electrify our fleet we do. But you're right. We for the long haul trucks the semis we don't actually own any of those. Those are mostly Cassella vehicles. But you know there are others going up there as well and the I and a lot of transfer trailers. So I think our best thing that we can do is to continue to advocate on your behalf to further electrify the fleet. That does get into concerns with the ability of the grid to handle mass electrification. And I'm sure folks in the council have heard about that issue as well. It's infrastructure. But we agree and where we can electrify we do. As far as waste reduction that's one of our primary activities is first to educate and inform and help people realize new ways to reduce the amount of waste that they're generating in the first place. That is the goal. We're one of those entities that actually wants to get smaller. We don't really want to grow. We want to get much smaller. And so that is the first line of defense is wherever anyone can reduce their impact. We want to help them figure out ways to do that. And that means different things for different people. But I will continue to bring and Jen will Jen works a lot with our delegation at the state house to bring this information them and to provide additional incentives for electrification particularly for those larger vehicles because they do have a significant impact. Sarah any other questions or comments from the public either online or in the room. One comment the solid waste management is going up and as we become better at recycling the amount of solid waste gets reduced and therefore the amount of money that we bring in because of the reduction in the solid waste is less. And so it's a we're you know and in Chittenden county is by far and away the best recycler in the state. I mean it's nobody comes close to what they're doing with respect to recycling. Any other comments online or in the room from the public seeing none I'll bring it back to the board. Any further discussion. At this time I like to make the motion that we approve the CSWD proposed FY 25 budget. Thank you Don is there a second. Ethan discussion on the motion you okay Ethan. Hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carries five zero. Sarah thank you so much for being here. Alan thank you. Thanks Alan. Thank you for your service. Thank you. You're welcome. It's fun. The next item we have on our agenda discussion potential action on assignment of fiscal year 24 national opioid settlement funds. Greg do you or Marguerite want to give an opening. Yep so this is we had this come up last year. These are the funds that have come through the opioid settlements at the national level and then through Vermont and the town has opted to receive these and and specifically for this fiscal year 24 we have approximately ten thousand dollars that have come in through these funds and they are currently it's up to the select board to decide how you would like to spend them use them and in that of course there are some you need to stay in line with some of the stipulations the most easiest way to say that is that it needs to deal with abatement and remediation and then within that there are specifics within that that we can all look into if there are other things that come up but that is the goal of these funds and so for tonight I have put in this memo some ideas here that the select board could consider and one of them you'll see at the bottom is if it is a topic that the select board would really like to discuss more in depth or spend some time or have staff look at some other things we could potentially talk about it on May 8th during your priorities and planning for the next year or years out just given depending on the scope of what your discussion is tonight the other thing to just consider as you discuss that is that there is no timeline to spend these funds and I did include in here the projected allocations that came through the national opioid settlement folks at the national level and this is something that you could wait for each of these receipts every year and then spend it at the end of it you could spend it in the middle there is no timeline so that's just something to consider in your discussions about fiscal year 24 and what we are currently discussing the 10,142.74 cents discussion I have several so in reading your opening for discussion it was my understanding that we were transferring that original money to the police department to help with the Howard mental health services that was my understanding of where that money was going to go but in here you're saying it was used for towing and shredding and translation well I guess translation expenses would fit but I'm a little confused there is that how that helped with Howard met with our mental health services yeah let me clear that up no so that went to the budget line that includes all of those but all 37,954 dollars was paid to community outreach which is the Howard center and so and that would increase the community outreach budget so they could help us more than they right if yes and is that happening that I would have to speak to Ron to in the sense of fiscal year 23 they can only help as much as they're available is my understanding they did we increase the amount to them or that was the amount we paid them to get the service that was our contract based on the amount yeah so we added to that line oh we had Ron speak to how the usage of that could be a play out essentially does that make sense yeah so there so they have a community outreach has a contract with us for I believe it goes for at least another one or two years and they set those those amounts ahead of time okay these funds were allocated to pay for that contract with community outreach they have increased their services just in the last six months they've increased that from just during Monday through Friday they're now covering weekends as well so they have increased the amount of services that they're providing us okay I still don't understand where towing and shredding come in and that though so sorry no no problem so so what what Marguerite was saying is professional services for us is the line item and that includes community outreach that's where we pay for community outreach under under professional services also under that line item is towing services and other services like translation and that kind of thing so it's all under that same thing if if you look in questica now the that's we've had that split out for since we started using questica we've had that split out so that way those things are in a separate subcategory and look at it yes those are in a separate subcategory of professional services okay and community outreach I believe has its own we're given that and when I came this evening I really would like to see this money put towards having a forum involving the town this and city Essex wester school district Essex PD and maybe Howard mental health you have a community forum to do a presentation on the drug issues here in town do a presentation on Narcan I'd like to see more Narcan available in different spots here in the town I'd like to see especially for parents training as a parent I have no idea what fentanyl would look like or what I mean I know it kills I got that part but I think we need to get more community outreach out to people to let them know what's happening what could happen what to tell your kids about and I just think this money should go towards that this time and instead of where it went last time because I just I believe we've really got to get the word out there because it is an issue people are dying that's what I would like to see happen others and we just ask if the funds that we are putting towards community outreach additional funds plus a regular contract plus we also I don't know about the one percent that they apply for I'm not sure if they are one of the if they're one of the applicants for that Howard Center I'm not sure if they're one of the applicants for that they are okay I'm not on that committee so I don't know that I would tell you we get our we get our money's worth from them and how they are overworked and underpaid and they they come to our rescue a lot our our officers depend on community outreach as much as they depend on anyone else they are partners with us they work in our office they respond with our officers to to calls and they they do the things that we shouldn't be doing you know we we dispatch calls directly to community outreach we've done that for the last two years where our dispatchers actually will dispatch a or send a call to community outreach instead of having a police officer answer that call so I would tell you that they are they're invaluable and I think every other chief in in Chittenden who's who has their services would tell you the same it's my my opinion for what it's worth is that you are the front line operators that this money is most effectively spent there if I can offer my opinion on that I would tell you that that the in my estimation the the payments that were made as a result of this settlement were made because of the effects that were that were caused on the American people by the drug companies and some of that money is coming back to the taxpayers now for money that they have that they have spent over the years to for Bateman and that type of thing the reason why we gave money to community outreach this last time was because they're in our in our opinion there is no more effective way of actually getting assistance and assisting people who actually need it I can't say that I disagree with a community forum I think that that would be a positive thing to do I'm not sure whether we could spend ten thousand dollars on a community forum I didn't mean to spend it all I just or assign it to that I think a community forum would be would be a good thing and I'd be more than happy to to share some of my knowledge as to what drugs look like and what the effects are for that I think that would be a good thing I don't know if if assigning this money to that is is a is where it needs to go but certainly if that's what the board decides to do with it then I'm sure there'll be there'll be ways to spend that yeah I can certainly get behind the community forum thing but I think we need more information about what it would what it would entail and and given that there's no timeline for spending it I think that's that's something we can take some time to to figure out as far as the Howard center community outreach thing we fully funded that for for the coming years or is this money needed for that or is it well it I mean it's it's already budget it will I assume will be in years to come be budgeted funds for community for community outreach those funds will still be there at least I hope so so this money would go to if we were to use this money it would supplant funds that we're going to go to community outreach and those funds could be used for other for other things maybe community forum or whatever that is the can't do that you can't do that okay that's why we have finance right that's why we have find it no it would have to supplement which is what we've done you'd have to add to that budget line you could not touch the budget line which is what has happened though the budget line has been raised it has stayed the same so you'd want to make sure you don't do that and that you supplement that fund okay exactly and I mean I get exactly you know what you're thinking so in that sense I think it would be wanting to make sure that we could get the use of community outreach to to have that impact but again there's no timeline so I do think you could be something you could watch we could see you know we could figure out if that's right you know what that would look like or how that might look in the future years we'll probably won't be the only ones having this issue around us either it and also I would say that the other option that Marguerite gave to you in the in the memo was to return the money back to the state and the state is is really the state of Vermont and the Department of Health is really the hub and the actual experts at opioid abuse abatement and and treat and treatment they they provide us with our Narcan and most of the facilities that are getting Narcan come that comes through the state that's paid for by federal dollars or state dollars so these funds can be returned back to the state and they can be used by the state for for those types of things as well I would tell you that the police department certainly certainly doesn't and in my estimation I don't think the town has the capacity to run our own you know Narcan program or something like that we would be buying or we would be getting those you know Narcan from the state usually for free yes I'm just looking for some clarification on what money is actually available because I think it says here in the memo that we've already anticipated 81 86 for FY 25 so we've already as essentially assigned FY 25 money miscellaneous revenue currently to our to in our in our budget so that that money isn't the money that's available it's FY 24 money that we have not yet allocated that word right we will have to we haven't gotten the FY 25 yet so right you know I was expecting to work with Dan a little bit on that once that comes up and bring that forward depending again also on maybe the scope of what the select board decides it would like to do but right now we have the 10,000 and it is you know sitting there and it's not in you know a revenue line specifically as we knew when they we did the budgeting for fiscal year 25 we had seen that that was going to come in so we did put it in the revenue line for miscellaneous revenue so I do want to make sure that that as we get there is handled correctly for that money right okay okay right as you can stay I'm so good with figuring out more what a what a forum might look like what it might cost you know and a schedule that could go on I know the school board is probably struggling right now with trying to get their budget in line that's so maybe but certainly can reach out to them quick question chief you indicated that Howard center added more more days more hours would that stay under the current line item or do you suspect that those hours would sort of revert back to what they were should these funds not be supplemented but I think they're going to stay where they are at least I hope that that's the case I do suspect that it that when this contract that we currently have comes up and I believe it's in 25 I don't hold me to that I believe it's in 25 I would imagine that that number is probably going to go up to to reflect the people that they've had to hire since then because they've had to hire at least one or two more folks here in Chittenden be able to give us that extra give us those extra hours thanks any other questions or Andy I just I just just want to make sure that we're whole for this year right are we whole for this year we for for FY 24 yes so are we using FY 23 money to no we spent all of the fiscal year 23 supplement settlement funds for community outreach in fiscal year 23 the 37,000 went to community outreach so right now we just we have 10 and I have let me look at the menu but we budgeted enough for FY 24 without them adding hours I'm not sure what it looks like with additional hours does that make okay okay so we may still be short of what we think we would really like to have and maybe that's a balance we need to figure out is is there any additional that could be used for a public forum okay okay that's more information yeah it would be helpful community outreach or Howard Howard mental health hasn't indicated that they were going to increase any increase anything in this budget year they haven't they haven't informed us of anything like that okay so if there are no other questions or comments from the board I'm going to ask for public comment questions I see Lorraine's alums hand up thank you chair just a few questions chair I'm trying to understand because the memo was just because it's the line item includes a number of other things and professional services do you know what our total cost of the I and the other confusing thing is community outreach we have a community outreach officer so that's confusing if the community outreach is actually just Howard center is community outreach just Howard center first call in the first okay thank you and then so did we spend do you know what the total was for community outreach when we allocated that thirty five thousand thirty seven point five thousand was for community outreach and do you recall what we had allocated before the we added the opioid settlement funds so we didn't add to the funds we supplanted funds so we supplanted funds that's what I thought so the other question from my map in my head the way I understand it is if we had already allocated thirty seven or we had allocated forty two or whatever it was but we had allocated then we could have then when you're drawing that down that should be adding to the calls not not just eleven thousand more whatever it was you know that's the way I understand supplanting but maybe I'll ask the legislative council because I I did national services though that's not just community outreach it's where right so I mean right with an all in one line item and wasn't that professional services ending up at a hundred nine or whatever it was a hundred and three hundred and three because it went from sixty five ninety six to a hundred and three fifty but the the my understanding the way I read it was thirty seven thousand dollars was used as the community outreach my name because that we needed forty six thousand dollars and there was only eleven thousand dollars from the taxpayer we didn't take thirty seven thousand out it was never budgeted that way was budgeted to use what did we budget before we got that money so we budgeted more than we use but we didn't reduce the budgeted line item by the settlement which would meet the definition of the plan is that correct so the yeah I think if you want to answer that I'll go to the state and I'll ask that's all right I'll move on the other question is in terms of understanding what it is that we're trying to do do we have metrics because the only thing I can find online compared to like Burlington Burlington has a very robust system for showing if what we're doing is working or helping or reducing do we have a way or do we have any type of data collection or any type of dashboard or we have any plans for a dashboard so like Burlington so that we can actually see if where we're putting the money is actually helping reduce harms from opioids Burlington if you look has a fire department that's reporting I believe I I have a hard time believing that our fire department can also do some reporting locally I keep being told to go up to the county level I have that's not my job I want someone from our town to tell me what it is I don't understand how to tackle problem without quantifying it first and to understand where to throw money at it without knowing if what we're doing is helping so are there any plans to like break dashboards or at least kind of reach out to Burlington and see because Burlington actually is seeing a reduction and the opioid overdoses and I hopefully that we can learn from them too and also our mental health is struggling too as of March I don't know if people saw the reporting but they were really struggling with staffing as well so in terms of relying on them I want I want metrics to be able to understand our return on our investments Steve do we have metrics from PDE at least we we can pull data and we have been doing that and I think I've provided it to Lorraine a couple of times here at least once that I remember in regards to our number of drug calls calls involving drugs overdose in those types of things we don't in-house we keep data as far as as far as like how many overdoses that we go to and how many deaths that we have to verify those we have to go to the state level we have to go to the medical examiner's office in order to be able to get those those that data for sure when it comes to and what she's talking about is correct what what she's talking about is getting medical data and that type of thing we do not have access to that that has to go to the state level and the Department of Health keeps those kinds of statistics it's it's difficult for us as a town to be able to obtain those other than having to call them there is no metric there is no mechanism for us to just be able to pull that up easily so what she and and what Ms Zulum is talking about in Burlington is and what they're doing is is working down there and they're keeping their own data and that type of thing honestly I do not believe we have the same problem that Burlington does so I'm not sure whether we would have enough data to even to even make that worth worth the effort I'm not sure I know that we do have issues but I'm not sure we have the same issues that Burlington does so understanding and I I do understand that we're in public comment at this point I'm going to take a minute here it shouldn't come as a surprise that like I'm a pretty data driven person understanding that you can't report on the outcome are you able to report on suspected overdose understanding that you can't classify it until it gets to the Department of Health but is there the potential for that currently in the system that we were using which is called Valcor we do not have a mechanism that allows us to say this was this was a confirmed overdose we don't have a way of checking a box or something like that because there's lots of other things that factor into it sometimes we don't get called to a medical call that might turn into an overdose it might be one that we didn't realize so there's a lot of variables that go into that as to whether and again whether that's a medical issue that's caused by a drug or whether it's caused by something else our officers aren't trained to be able to do that so it gets difficult for us to be able to try to track those statistics I think what Burlington is doing is they're using they're combining some of the data from their police department and some from the fire department to try to do that but they have a full-time paid fire department as well I'm gonna hold and go back to the public so I do have other questions or comments Gina Hi first I appreciate that this is on the agenda I think that is fantastic I think it's something we have to face as a community and we have an opportunity to do this with settlement funds that does not it won't come out of our taxpayer pockets so that is fabulous I agree with Don that I really I don't think he would cost $10,000 I don't know what kind of meal we would also put on with a forum but we can have a forum I would like to loop in the junction and see what they're thinking the school board once the budget settles down because my huge concern is as things are happening in the south the country and moving up I'm seeing stories in Texas where fentanyl is getting into weed kids are buying drugs off Snapchat I know my kids get solicited on Snapchat where people can pull right into your driveway sell drugs go in their bedrooms and do whatever they think they bought which might not be what they think they bought I have a friend someone I know grew up in Essex she now lives in Wisconsin that's exactly how her daughter just passed within the last year they were watching TV and their daughter died in the bedroom if they had so if I would like to have some sort of awareness where we have a forum we talk about what does an overdose look like have Narcan on hand that if anyone wants it we can reduce some of the stigma and everyone should have it no one can Narcan themselves someone has to administer it especially if you're a parent you're going to want that and you're probably going to want more than one you're probably going to want three or four in your house in case that happens by mistake we have been handing it out at ant dots and we have not had one single issue nothing has nothing bad has happened in fact I sat in the office with a client he said to me with tears in his eyes that it saved his friend's life so I know we saved at least one life from handing on Narcan that makes it worth it and for so that's that I do hope we have a forum and I have people I can reach out to state senate you know senator legislators there's people in the school that were interested there were other community leaders very interested in doing that so hopefully we can get that together for the finances I sent margaret I sent you an email back just with the specific questions about I would like to know what was the remainder because it said so the total of that line end up ended up being a hundred and three thousand um we use 37,000 of it plus 11,000 I hope we paid Howard mental health services 48,000 but then it said it rolled the remainder into the general fund so I just I sent an email with specifics about totals if you could reply to that that would be great and I hope we move forward with this thank you any other public comment either in the room or online green green sorry just a circle back but I just for clarification I'm confused because when I look at the police log every week there's been an overdose almost every week and some deaths I don't understand if we can put that in the police log so I'm not comprehending why we can't why that isn't just part of a dashboard then in terms of what you're saying and certainly because my son went through it I know there's a lag time as well in terms of toxicology but that came back after a month a month and a half so it was confirmed so you know there is certainly ways that we can collect that data and I just think it's super important that we can see quantify the issue because maybe like you're saying Chico maybe it isn't that big of an issue but certainly people some of the high school kids waiting for the bus seeing needle someone shooting up at the bus center there's other issues like that certainly an autumn pond I see some regular issues down there I would like to see that we work with some of the landlords as well that have some regular issues with drug traffic in and out of their apartments is some of them are supported by our tax dollars as well whether we can work on maybe getting landlords so we'll be a little bit more responsible as well to reduce some of the police impacts and maybe even require them to put cameras in their common hallways or in there pointing out to the pointing out to the parking lots and common areas I think there's ways that we can help also reduce some of that I also part of the reason I want to make sure that we're reducing the impacts of the opioid crisis which most of the prices started because of prescription drugs not because of drug use that where it was illicit I worry about the impacts on our police officers as well because it's traumatizing them too just that has a lot of impacts all around that I want to make sure that we're measuring what we're doing and figure out how to measure that and making sure to put that out to the community so we know and we're not guessing if there's a problem or not that's I just I want data so and I think that we could probably do it if I see that we're already putting overdoses in the police logs I'm just I'm not understanding that thanks thanks Lauren can I answer a couple of things there so when we when you when you see that in the police log the title of the call comes from the initial guess of what the dispatcher takes the phone call so when they they take the phone call they're listening to the person and what they tell them is the problem they title that in the case as to what they think that it is so if they say we think the person might be overdosing that's what it goes in there as if the officer responds or medics respond and it turns out to be something different that still lives on as as that case title so what we want to do though is and to have most accurate data is to actually verify what that actually was that's where we have the issue with our with the systems that we have is that we have to go back in there and recode that and make sure that we're updating it and there is no quick way for the officer to just be able to to say that it was you know drug drug cause the best way that we've been able to do that and this is what I've tried to share with with the Lorraine is is to be able to pull out data from calls where the officer said this type of drug was involved and there is a mechanism to do that and the officers are good about doing that so we can pull call numbers as to how many drug cases that we've had that the officer actually said there were drugs involved so that's that's the most accurate way that I've found so far and I've been trying to provide that so thank you seeing no comment from the public I'll bring it back to the board do we feel as though we're ready to take some action or you know we identified some items that we would like to see more information on I'd just like to say that I've heard it now from the from the board and the public about and our our police chief about how important the Howard Center is it would be very reluctant to pull any of these funds from them and if we do I would plan on putting them directly back in from the general fund because I think if we're gonna plan something else great but I don't think taking money away from the Howard Center is the answer I just wanted to leave that comment Nathan you're not really taking it away though we haven't spent it yet we haven't given it to anybody yet this is new money right they operate on a certain amount each year no no I get that okay other comment babe I don't have enough expertise I rely on the experts Nathan I haven't already said okay so it sounds like to recap we'd like some more information on the dollar amount what would be envisioned for a community forum as far as time collaboration with other entities it would be nice to understand the amount of the Howard Center costs that are already in the budget as opposed to you know what more would get us as well as I'll throw a plug in Don you mentioned more Narcan would it be possible to get a cost out for I know they have like machines to house them just for informational purposes and then I'd love to dive down the rabbit hole of you know metrics and data and systems line thinking but I don't think that ten thousand dollars is going to cover that so worth a conversation but Greg Margaret do you what you need as far as what needs to okay the only other question I have is would we like to continue this discussion at the strategic planning meeting next select board meeting whenever it falls on an agenda either way whatever works yeah okay I know I was made a bit of time I said enough didn't have enough time to get that information but okay we will see that on a future agenda and we will move along in our current agenda discussion on fiscal year 2024 general fund budget actual for March thank you Ron thank you and welcome Dan and that gentleman that interviewed for trails conservation trails I think left his jacket all right good evening everyone within this week's packet is a summary of our general fund activity through three quarters and a three page memo kind of proceeding the actual numbers that were in our system a couple of weeks ago representing the end of March generally speaking we've spent eleven point two million of our general fund budget through March out of fifteen point four million so that's right around 73% which is pretty much on target for our spending since we're three quarters through the year I can kind of walk through each department if you'd like I mean it's I know it's outlined here or I can focus on public key areas either either way is okay for me what are the eight what are the most areas you're most concerned about so they're really not too many areas of great concern most of the departments are within range seventy seventy five percent spending I think you know public works has some flexibility since we've had a little bit of a lighter lighter winter and we have the opportunities maybe to get into summer construction and make some choices in that area you know Erin's provided me with kind of a quick list which I refer to in here just briefly to talk about traffic control sidewalk maintenance summer construction items so I think that's you know one of the key areas where it'll have the biggest influence on on the budget going forward and how we land at the end of fiscal year 24 there seem to be some concern about the maintenance issues in public was it public works or was it the fire department ahead over under budgeted what they needed for maintenance or repairs for equipment I think not it looked like it looked like it was more unexpected repairs needed that had budgeted for wherever I was reading it I think that was in fire the way it might have been in public works too it's you know budgeting is an estimate we start 18 months before the fiscal year starts we try to look at basically just talking about data we try to look back towards the past few years and you know what are we spending what's the average do we have any any projections that we're going to need to spend more this year or less this year on whatever category it is you've all talked as a board before about is it time to update the vehicle replacement schedule in the capital plan that's a that's a large conversation about are we funding capital properly what's the right replacement schedule what's the you know the costs of spending more upfront for new vehicles versus putting money into repairs there's not a quick and easy answer to that don't have a specific answer you for fire that's okay I just I thought I I saw that there was a concern somewhere but go ahead I didn't mean to yeah yeah there was a bit within the fire department you're right there's a repair and maintenance overage in there I think kind of generally speaking you know parks and recreation is really on target there are some items that are fully spent but that's based more on kind of seasonality and now we have to turn around and open the pool again so there'll be things that are quite seasonal there you know my department shows a little bit over but our insurance payments for VLCT which are about $55,000 quarterly are fully expensed in there already so that's that's a piece that you know shows up in there you know there are other areas where it looks like it's overspent a little bit because of for example county and regional functions we just when we make disbursements we pay out a full year or full half year at a time so we're paying you know things in advance they're just going to show up in our books as as fully spent you know runs from the police department has said all his vehicles are in so usually that's been a tougher issue to handle the management in terms of the the shipping and the expected delivery times in those areas so those have had influences on our budget and our final number of spending as well that might have been more IT and subscriptions seem to be up too yeah uh subscriptions you know I think we've we've been trying to manage where some of those land IT takes a bulk of those technology subscriptions in their department I think you know over time we've been trying to figure out if if some of those belong in different areas but yeah in general their their budgets you know overall still underspent by a decent amount as well thank you I just had a comma I'm sure everybody knows what it is but vehicle rentals are already higher than expected in public works to clarify any equipment or vehicle so yeah but it's really equipment and vehicles yeah it's the rental of vehicles and equipment line in within public works so I did do a little bit of digging around to see what types of expenses we're driving that I see there's been a couple instances of a chipper rental an excavator you know a couple weeks worth of a of a lift I mean I don't know the details of you know when or why it was implemented but those you know those are the cases that that I'm seeing yeah I just wanted to bring attention to the pattern that I brought up during budgets mm-hmm yeah but um I did have one question for you and I was curious as to since this is budget related but how are the money markets that we're using now returning I was happy to see the request for the Vermont Federal I'm just curious as to how the money markets we're using now returning yeah so to kind of I might have missed it no I wouldn't be in here because this is really an expense focused piece but the basic information on our interest income for the year is that we've allocated $274,000 of of that interest to the general fund overall we've earned about $535,000 for the year with some of that obviously going to Water Sewer Fund Capital Fund and ARPA Fund when I had more money allocated you know before the November purchase of land so you know those those elements are will help to offset any overages that occur here even though generally speaking we're not on pace for any type of very dramatic overages looking at a department level awesome thank you two things I had written down any other questions or comments yeah I just want to thank Dan everybody for the report your synopsis is great because you can look at it and to give you a good picture as a board member we're right about three quarters so you could see if we had made your expenses and anything we could see it so great and you've provided all the details so if somebody wants to dive into every line item and it does push me to hope that the board will look at the fund balance policy some point in your future good thanks okay with no other board questions or comments I'll turn it over for public comment seeing none Dan thank you for coming in okay awesome thank you thank you our next agenda item update on select board fiscal year 24 strategic planning project so this is looking back on what we did last year and progress made over this past fiscal year Greg Marguerite do you have any updates or sure sort of just to check in similar to to the finance was going to get in the habit of sort of doing some quarterly updates I think most of them will probably just be written in the reading file getting into the third quarter we wanted with finance and with the strategic plan work plan update to present it to you in person have any discussion that's necessary but no I think we're in good shape we've accomplished quite a bit from your your work plan last year also a chance to think ahead to the meeting and what's next how do we build off some of this stuff what's what's off the table that we don't need to you anymore some of the stuff is is not complete yet but it's in progress AFSCME negotiations for instance are on that list we're we're in negotiations now and happy to answer questions about any of the stuff but otherwise it's it's a demo and hopefully good the representation of what we've done and how we've gotten there it's a good way to remind us board member questions or comments being none any questions or comments from members of the public on last year's strategic plan and that brings us to the end of what would have been our business items but we do have consider approval of manager re-appointment of Elizabeth King to the cemetery commission and I just wanted to make the comment and all the appointments kind of showed it through the meeting is that we should develop a policy for the time frame and we're going to extend our appointments but the only reason I wanted to bring this up is that great that the residents are volunteering and I think that they should be noted in the meeting by itself as opposed to consent Speaking of Elizabeth and I guess Kendall to your point we've been doing stuff in practice but I don't I guess it hasn't been written down in policy as to happen to re-appoint folks this is in keeping with practice the re-appointment of Elizabeth King it's a town manager appointment because of the charter yeah and manager's appointment with approval of the select board Ms. King that so the cemetery commission it's three year terms those terms are actually they expire at the end of March so her term was up kind of slipped through the cracks in this case to advertise sooner so we wanted to make sure that 30 days went past King had applied and I spoke to her a couple weeks ago nobody else has applied so very comfortable recommending her for re-appointment she brings a great background great perspective to the cemetery commission how they can handle things with a focus focus so fully confident to to re-appoint her and it has been posted for those 30 days and it's not it's filling a term that is currently expired for re-filling her re-appointed so it's in keeping with practice I just think in in these days when it's hard to get volunteers that when somebody volunteers to serve the town like the individual recognize and suggest that consent at this point I would entertain a motion if someone is so I don't I don't really I don't really I don't really I don't really thank you Kendall is there a second second thank you Andy any more discussion being none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed nay motion carries five zero additionally we have consider re-appointment of tree warden Kendall same exactly the same exactly the same okay that's the volunteer position and how long has he been you don't have the number for you I've been here for over 10 years and Chuck did Mr. Miles Chuck Bile has been here for that entire time I think he's been here for a long time before that so I would I would say he's going on he's he's a relatively younger individual no no no no not at I'm not sure of his age but he's he's um I believe he's retired from a uh a career with the just the Vermont Department of Forestry and I'm not sure if he's worked elsewhere as well but he's okay well that's good I'm glad I asked that question he's he has been great he knows his stuff he's a resource he falls upon he shows up when caught upon if I would suggest that maybe we start thinking about a deputy warden my point on the tree warden is that it's one of those positions where it's never a problem and it's completely smooth until all of a sudden you decide you want to take down a tree that has issues so it's and that experience that he has it would be nice to have somebody learn Kendall at this time I would entertain a motion thank you Kendall is there a second I'll take it thank you Andy any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye oppose nay motion carries five zero at this point our last items are for executive session so we will move forward to the reading file board member comments I will make one comment around the select board strategic planning session um as Greg noted in the memo really want to think at the high level the macro level be down into the micro level we want to be thinking like five years out at that macro level and basically then fill in the gaps with the individual items on work plans have some comments on water and sewer budgets Kendall I noticed that there's an AC line to be replaced I was surprised that that's not out because the state program that they actually make it extra water lines I would just look at that maybe there's some funding of that I'll note that they talked about replacing some of the hydrants and I would just hope that those are town hybrids that they replaced not private hybrids and as far as the Ford Ethan Allen that should definitely be on SRF eligible but I would also I've mentioned it before and it kind of was off my radar but now it is a lot of places are getting congressional appropriation can't tell what we'll get a congressional appropriation without asking for it Virginia's got 1.2 million do their way spot I know it's another application for the path but I think it's something that you can find some projects specifically water sewer I do believe that we'll have a deeper discussion on those items as well on May 6th so yes thank you and we'll talk about the next time too I know it's not a business item but I was just curious if this is the current date for the GMT I know they had problems where they were delaying this is this is the new date this is the most recent one that I'm aware of awesome I appreciate that and I did actually go and download the app so the app is available okay awesome yep the app is there in the store so that brings us to the end of the reading file will we be well let's cover the executive session motions first I move that the select board make the specific finding that the general public knowledge of pending or probable excuse me civil litigation to which the public body is or may be a party would place the town at a substantial disadvantage thank you Ethan is second thank you Don all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye oppose nay motion carries five zero I move that the select board enter into the executive session to discuss pending or probable civil litigation to which the public body is or may be a party pursuant to one VSA 313A1E to include the town manager and deputy manager thank you Ethan is there a second second thank you Andy all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay motion carries five zero we have one more because you wanted to talk about housing commission right yep okay I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss the proposed public official appointment in accordance with one VSA section 313A3 to include the town manager and deputy town manager thank you Andy is there a second second thank you Ethan all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay motion carries for the record I didn't vote but I'm voting yay so motion carries five zero sorry and it does look like we will be coming back after executive so we will do the set up here and be back after we're done