 Call the meeting to order at 6 30. Do we have any additions to agenda? We do energy committee and It's basically an agreement for the level 2 energy assessment. Oh, okay I just received it today. So 12 came in late. That's the only thing you have. Mm-hmm. Okay. Anybody else have an addition? Okay Let's review the minutes from October 2nd. Motion to accept the minutes. Oh wait a minute. No you're making a motion to accept the minutes. Okay. Yes I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. That's written? No. No. Then just open the discussion. Yeah, then you have to change it. Then you have to turn around and then you have to amend the motion. I know. That's the way he wants to do it. I think you're all right. Yeah. Okay. Do we have a second on motion? If we don't, that's okay. I'll second it. All right. Any further discussion? No. Any further discussion? Who did the meeting minutes? Carl. Okay. He's going to have to do them off the recording this for tonight. It was, or Gina's going over. I'm not, all depends on what. How much talking there is. If I think I can get them done, I will. You don't have to, you don't have to write down everything in the set. All you have to do is get the nature of what was discussed. That's right in Robert's rule of the word. Minor, a lot greener than the address. I am with you. Minor, a lot cleaner. Yes. Brevity is the action. Very good. And brevity would help our town administrator take our minutes if we don't blah, blah forever, because she's going to refuse if we run out of it. All right. Any further discussion on the minutes? No. Zoe. No discussion. I don't see anything to add or change. Awesome. Do you have your glasses on? They're tiny little glasses inside my eyes. Okay. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have an adjournment. The minutes are passed. Public comment. I do. Okay. A citizen came up to me and we had a conversation about, shockingly enough, the revolving loan fund. Oh. And it was a little disappointed that we were giving the money back. I explained what the situation was. Yeah. And she wondered whether we could somehow put something out on front porch forum to the, with some sort of wordage that the first couple of years that the revolving loan fund agreed to is that would give preferential treatment to East Montpelier residents and get the word out. It's in the minutes. So I don't really know why we would need to do it. You don't want to put it on front porch forum? I think that's just going to invite a lot more questions and inquiries. It was in the minutes and it was stated in the minutes. Yeah. That was part of Carl's motion. Yeah. It was actually part of Carl's motion. She didn't know anything about it or the individual and was not able to attend the last meeting and is not able to attend this evening's meeting. So just really wanted to emphasize that we got some sort of publicity that this is available and I'm just bringing it to this meeting. We've been kicking around the revolving loan fund for the last 10 years. I understand. We haven't done a guide yet. But now that it's changed and went back. I can tell you nobody knows about it. Change? Oh yeah. Change to what? I think it just gets tough. My personal opinion on this is I think when we keep communicating outside of the meetings there's a reason why very limited people then participate in the meetings. So we start to circumvent the importance of the select board meetings. So that's my information out here. Well exactly. I think that's where things get complicated. In my brief tenure here we've run into a lot of issues with that. Oh I didn't know. I didn't know. I don't know what to find the agendas. I don't know where we'll by continuing to use front porch form is our main means of communication. I think that we're just perpetuating this challenge of people not. I mean it's in the minutes. It was clearly part of the motion. So although I don't know if anybody ever reads the minutes but I'm bringing the attention of the select board. Well they must. We spend hours working on the minutes. I work smithing to death. I'm not trying to We should maybe emphasize that the information is available in the minutes every week and that's where people can look for their information maybe instead of front porch form. I just also it seems like not everyone is connected to front porch form anyways but the website is up for everybody. And I'll just point out that nobody is going to go on the website to read the minutes from a select board meeting. Then it must not be that important to them the revolving loan fund. But but but but they will see that it's a by the way. I think everybody reads front porch form or me. I don't read it. You don't read it. No. I get so tired of front porch form. Oh I rubber tires for sale. It takes three. I'm like I know. I read every single thing on it takes two minutes a day. Okay. I'll bring it up. All right. Thank you. It's reflected in the minutes. That was a done deal anyway because the state was going to take it back. We didn't that's actually my concern is I think it's going to get residents upset about something that frankly the town was put in this position. Frankly the state is going to take the money back. So we wouldn't have had any concession for any of it to be used in town with the exception of what we did. That's not the conversation. It's just conversations. Somebody wish they had more information about it or no. They want that. Hey by the way it's given back and you've got a couple years to apply before it goes before it's totally dispersed. You can still get it anyway. We're never in the newspaper anymore. I'm so sorry. Well let's make some news today. Well just a reminder of that conversation we have with Downstreet. It's just remember this all just happened. We just cut that check today. It's in the warrant. So they don't have the money yet. Part of the conversation that evening was to work with Downstreet. Downstreet will be getting marketing collateral out to East Montpelier residents to solicit for residents. So I think we need to wait for that information but that was again part of the meeting part of the video that any resident can watch from the meeting as well when the Downstreet representative was here. So watching that video and honing in on the section when Downstreet was there may be helpful for a resident to actually hear Downstreet and that was something that she said. Yeah all right thank you. Yeah so your resident had a concern and actually addressed it. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'd like to move to the next item you're done with the public time. I have nothing else to add for the morning. Discussion on 2024 employee health insurance options. Yes. What's your charts there? The gist is the costs are going up 12.2 percent. Yep. So MVP consistent with prior years is once again well this is better than the 20 percent last year. So MVP is once again the lower cost option. It's hard to talk about it. It's interesting to do some comparisons. Usually they're so close it doesn't make that much difference. They really are. The coverage is exactly the same. There's no difference between the plans that they offer. Yeah. The only real difference between MVP and Blue Cross is some potential difference in the doctors that are signed up with the two different. If you want to stay on your network. Yeah so similar to as we have in the past you we've the town has been offering the MVP Platinum plan for the employees. The employees have always had the option to use to opt for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. They just pay the difference between the two. So the town's offering essentially a fund of MVP Platinum and we have one employee that is currently on Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Right. That's correct. Yep. So MVP is still cheaper. Correct. Okay. Yeah MVP is still the more economical plan. Yeah. And obviously the stipend is a calculation that's 50 percent of the single. So that math that's of course going to go up. Oh it's 50. It's 50 percent of the single. Okay. And this was actually consistent. I think I told you at a meeting a few or more meetings ago that I had received information that this was it was within this range. I can't remember what the range was that they provided that. But this is right in line with it's in line with what we expected. Ask some questions on this page here about the current plan offering. Which one are you looking for. This is what. Okay. So Blue Cross rates are on the right on the bottom and MVP rates are on the left. What's the what's the difference between one's 135,000 one's only 33,000. Is that a mistake? I am guessing she's calculating there. Oh no that's actually you're looking down the bottom. It's actually that's what that is is based on what the employees currently have elected. Oh okay. So they're showing you that one employee to Blue Cross is currently on a on a family plan and then every the blend of everyone else. So who has selected single couple family. So that's what that is. So one family plan is 33,000 a year now. 38,000. Holy off and horse feathers. That's a lot of money. 33,000 that's the premium. 38,000 now it's going to be next year for that one. Holy cow. I know that's what I'm saying. That's for Blue Cross for a family plan. Correct. For MVP the family plan in 24 new. It was $23,000. I love Hardwick and I can't believe what it is now. It's crazy. It's going at 13.9. That's why a lot of people go to work for benefits. Wow. Absolutely. Other things but this is just huge. Huge. Bernie huge. Oh this is terrible though. I mean I don't want to. As well we need to be very careful. Okay. So if if you are comfortable with status quo the select board can issue a motion as comfortable as we can be. I know. I'll make a motion to continue the plan for the MVP continue with the option to go to Blue Cross. So anyway everyone's does have still the option to go MVP or Blue Cross. They do. They have MVP. No I know but they have the option. They have the option. But the town is funding the MVP platinum plan. 100%. 100% correct with the site and at 50% of the single rate for MVP. I mean the change that we could make is if the employee if we said all the employees got stuck. Now we're going to go outside and now it's going to cost you 10%. That's what we did on there. You know the we're paying 100% of the MVP. They go to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They have to pay the difference. Right. Correct. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Oh yeah. They pay the full difference of that. So once this this motion is set tonight I have a memo that with their next paychecks all the while I go meet with the road crew but everyone else I mean with the people here they get a memo that lays all this out. So they know that they can MVP platinum is covered. Right. They can opt for Blue Cross Blue Shield and here is the cost of doing that. Yeah. And then also or you can opt for the stipend if you prefer. Yes. But the option that we could do that we haven't done in years but we used to do was the employees paid a certain amount. They paid 20% or whatever. What are they doing harder? They're I believe they're at 15% when I left. Right. So that now I think other towns other towns do that. I don't know. I'm not sure about that but I'm personally. The state does that too is 20%. Yeah. And I was trying to work hard to get up to 20% but we never got there. Yeah. So that that is an option that you know we could do and just saying. Well the option could be not to even make and pay for 100%. But then they would leave. Well that's my point. We were trying to. Yeah. I think in a difficult hiring environment. Yeah. That was going to be my speech. No, no. I'm not advocating. But yeah. I'm just telling you that. I was going to call out pays 100% plus hundreds. I mean I have a couple of employees myself I pay all their insurance. Yeah. And then what's not covered and I have some employees that don't want to have insurance for whatever reason. But then I pay a lot of their medical expenses. I just pay that pocket. Yeah. Yeah. I think the health insurance even if even if you're paying 15% or 20% it's still such it's still such a benefit that I know people who used to work for me who went to different places they were paying a couple of bucks more an hour. Yeah. But they said they said hey have fun go ahead. You know and every day came back and said we're not going to leave because you know because $2 an hour is not going to cover our insurance benefits. Yeah. Just so you know another thing that we do that Michelle and I started doing Michelle and I discussed it and it was something that was done in Randolph at her previous employer is she gives the staff a statement that actually outlines their total compensation. I think that's all I have. Which includes and I do that with new hires. Here's what you are actually receiving. Yeah. Because it is an important distinction to be made and it honestly is a selling point that we have as an employer that we pay for this fully. It's something I really tout when we are recruiting people because that to your point John that extra couple bucks an hour they may make somewhere else we are paying for. We're just paying for it in a different way. So it is important. Oh yeah. I outline everything including the life insurance that we pay for. Obviously that's not but I show. So it's I try to give employees and Michelle creates a statement for them as well. I think she's been doing it like maybe every quarter ish or so. But certainly when we redo these benefits in January she will do that. Here's your new compensation which outlines what it's not the lowest level of insurance you know. It's the highest level. That's my point. Yes. That's my point. I mean at this point with the hiring environment the way it is we're probably just going to keep it where it is but it is something that may need to be revisited. Yeah especially as costs escalate it's going nuts. I mean 20% last year 13% this year that's crazy. Yeah I mean I have one employee I'm paying as insurance it's over $1,200 a month. I'm paying the one single. It's crazy. It's nuts. Anyway all right so we don't have a motion but I think we did make a motion. Oh you made the motion but no one's seconded I don't think. I'll second it. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. The ayes appear to have it. They do have it. Okay almost like they had a schedule. Oh gee. Update on ARPA funds. So you have another schedule here. Essentially the just with ARPA is you know as you all know we received $762 just under $763,000. Obviously we have expended to date 405 of that. I have some items that I believe the select board is kind of okay considering ARPA town garage design right now only have that estimated at the cost to draft the RFP and the wetlands consultant. The four-corner school house I think is something that could come from ARPA town office repairs. I put $10,000 in that's more of a guesstimate. In fact I'm going to guess it's going to be a little bit higher because for any of you that walked into the building today there's more wood rot that's kind of being found as as we're working on repairing the building. I think they're doing quite a job on here. Doing very good work. Yeah. Doing no no no I don't mean in a bad way that there's some ban to be addition costs. I think it's understandable and I think it's good that we're taking care of the building. Of course. I think it's it's not a bad thing that we're doing what we're doing and then we've already kind of discussed that the fiscal 24 ash tree management project would be a good use of ARPA funds. So on your next page I just want to point out to you something that chair Gardner said at the last meeting which was the fire engine chassis. We do have some items that if you wanted to call these ARPA you could. And essentially that would be turn these expenditures as a use of ARPA funds as opposed to the use of capital reserve which would then free up funds in the capital reserve that were earmarked for these items. One would be the fire engine chassis and then if we wanted to go back the 2024 Mack truck the build costs of 99 648 were incurred in this fiscal year. So you don't have to make a decision on any of this tonight. I just will need to know before basically March 31st because I have to report to the federal government. So if we do want to reclassify some of these as ARPA I will need to know that before I report to the federal government because once I report we can't go back at that point. I can't see how there's any negatives to it. There isn't. What it is it gives us total choice on how we use the money that we save. You're essentially turning the funds from a restricted ARPA fund to an unrestricted fund. Right. Yeah if we want to use that money for the town garage or whatever. Absolutely. You're freeing up funds in the capital reserve. We're freeing up the deadline. The deadline is no longer looming on us. So one other discussion as you recall from the last meeting was to put a post out to local nonprofits to see what need there is in the community. So I drafted a kind of draft of a front porch form post. There is a bit of a debate as to whether an amount should be included in here or not. I kind of drafted ish what you all got to last time. But you all can make the decision tonight if and what you would like that statement to say to front porch form. And as we had discussed I would reach out to Twin Valley Senior Center as a follow up to their visit from over a year ago if they would like to make a request. But otherwise I think a general front porch form post. And you can adjust tweak this as you can tell me what you want me to say on front porch form. And I will say it. I'm just wondering if we should say it more generally. Not. I mean. I'm against this. Yeah. So let's just. I don't want to know in there. That's what I'm thinking. Oh yeah. That's fine with me. That's why I said that's why that's why I could specifically. I want us to discuss what I kind of like that almost gets you in trouble. Like well it's obligated. I don't know if it's not proper. Yeah. Or it doesn't fit what we think is a benefit to the town. I think we should kick that out. I'm with Scott. So what do you say there though the Eastmont Police Left Board has not allocated as agreed to support. No. Eastmont. Well for the Eastmont Pillar Select Board is entertaining or something to the effect that we or will review potential request. If someone says no we go ahead. Oh no. I was just trying to fill in maybe review potential requests. Yes. We'll review potential applications or or we'll review you. Yeah. The Eastmont Pillar Select Board has is accepting or okay. Right. Yeah. Accepting requests from Eastmont Pillar nonprofit organizations for the use of our for the use of our potential use for potential use of our funds. Yeah. If those funds meet the requirements of the offer program. Yeah. You can't just have people come in here will you only say anyone buying cars and stuff. Technically I know it's pretty wide open. Similar to when Four Corner Schoolhouse came to you with the Mole remediation project. Yeah. That's that's the type of thing that you're looking for. That's actually a really great example of a situation that came up. Yeah. And the local organization came to you. By putting the onus on the applicant to try to follow some of the restrictions because we're not we're we're not going to fund compensation employee compensation. I think what you're trying to avoid is someone coming in and just saying I want ten thousand dollars. Right. You would rather than say I want ten thousand dollars because I want to do this project. Or you're trying to narrow the field. Yeah. Or at least let them do some research and see what is acceptable for ARPA funds instead of. Yeah. Exactly. I need to get some phone calls because I want to because I want to hire somebody. Yeah. It would be too restrictive to say that projects that do not meet ARPA requirements will not be considered. That might make someone think twice about putting any request out there. Yeah. I think you just say that meet that. It gets sticky because because we elected the way that we did. Yeah. With ARPA pretty much the rule is anything the select board decides wants to spend money on is ARPA eligible. Yeah. So in other words it's a pretty wide. It's really. It's very wide. Up to you. But you need to spend it. But there are but there are U.S. exchange are requirements with the use of that money like you have to spend it within a certain period of time. Oh. And you know but you don't need to list them off. It's just say they must meet the requirements of the program. If there are any if there aren't any. There really aren't because in this case you're going to authorize. No you should say it anyway. Yeah. It makes people think. Yeah. You say money will nearly to not. You have to they have to spend it down for a certain period of time for ARPA eligible expenses. And then if people call and say can you I mean let's face it we don't have 150 organizations in town. So if the few that see this call and want to ask about that I will encourage anyone to please bring what project are you looking for. Yeah. The board is going to want to understand what you're using this money for. Yes. So that's I would encourage someone again to just not come and say I just want 10 grand because yeah for no reason you know. You all want to make sure the funds are going to be used and actively used in the community. Right. So did you want to read that that we have just because. So I think the East Montpelier select board is accepting requests from East Montpelier nonprofit organizations for ARPA eligible expenses. And then if you're are an East Montpelier organization. ARPA eligible program support. OK. I like that because it's a little better than just expenses. Yes. I like that. And I like program support because that is I had started to put in here. Do you have a project. Do you have some but then I don't want people to you know that that gets defined project. You know it gets real sticky. Yes sir. Does the in your second line if you're East Montpelier. It should be an organization or no organization. Does it have to be. It has to be domiciled in East Montpelier. It doesn't have to be. But you all were very specific last time about wanting it to be East Montpelier. But the question is yeah. That could be our criteria. Right. But the question is if the library comes to us and you've got all these residents using it's not in East Montpelier. I guess we can wait when we see what comes. Yeah. You were all very focused on it being an East Montpelier organization. So that's why I kept saying East Montpelier. We have an agreement on that. We have. Yeah. Totally agree. If you're an East Montpelier nonprofit. Is that what you were trying to say. I meant to say I was going to put organization but I could put nonprofit. The library may get funding. A ton of funding from Montpelier. Well keep in mind a lot of these organizations most that you would probably name off and come up with. I just emailed a whole bunch of them today to remind them that they have application through on Friday for funding. So like the library comes to the select board directly. But so hopefully we are already actively reaching out to those organizations separately. So if you say you're an East Montpelier nonprofit. Yep. No organization in East Montpelier knowing support shouldn't say that. If you're and you know you already said it. If you are an East Montpelier nonprofit should say. I can also say. I can also get rid of or no organization. You said nonprofit in the previous sentence. Okay. If you're an East Montpelier or if you're an East Montpelier. An East Montpelier organization just leave it at that because. Okay. If you're an East Montpelier organization. Or an Oven organization. Okay. All right. And then I targeted the November 20th select board meeting because that gives people fair amount of time month. So you're going to put this out. Okay. Great. Do it tomorrow. Yep. With revolving. I guess confusion. Yeah. That's why. So what. Oh. Did Gina say that Twin Valley had not submitted a request this year. Twin Valley came to the select board. It's well over a year. At this point. I'm going to guess it was shortly after I started with the town because they knew ARPA funds was out there and they made or they came to the to the select board to ask if they had some projects they needed done. So they were wondering if they could kind of get in line for ARPA funds. And at the time it was all brand new. Everyone was still trying to figure everything out. So the select board told Twin Valley. You know we're not sure yet what's going on. Please come back at a future. You know once we figure it out. So that's why Twin Valley is an organization that I would specifically reach out to because they have already approached the select board once and we're told to wait until this was better defined. Now we're defining it. Now is a good opportunity to reach out to them. Thanks. Are we done with the discussion. Yes. Okay. And then one other question for you all. Four Corners is beginning the work for their mold remediation project. So they reached out to ask how we wanted to get this 30,000. Michelle and I both agree. Easiest thing really is to just give them the check a check for 30,000. That's what their estimated costs are and they can facilitate paying their vendors and moving forward with the work. So do we have any accounting at the end of the project? No, we don't need to. You're making again. This is our battle. Well, you are able to just you've authorized this fund. These funds. What happens if the cost only comes to 28,000. We're giving them 30,000. Yeah, it's over 60,000. We're only paying part. We're paying part. They got a grant. It's a 50-50. I remember that. Okay. So that's my question. Okay. We just thought this was easier for everybody to. Sure. And a good thing. Okay. I just wanted to make sure before we did that. We didn't have mold until they made it weathertight. Okay. Before the wind just blew through it, everything was fine. Oh, no. Okay. So we're updated on our funds? Yeah. Okay. Town Treasury report. August 31st, 2023, monthly financial reporting package, delinquent tax collector update, update on investment town funds. Okay. I see. Town Treasury report. Say normal monthly report. Nothing really exciting in there. I mean, it's two months of the fiscal year so far. And then these are the notes Michelle gave me. So I'll let you all read that. Doing pretty well actually. Okay. And she has been working with the town attorney on tax sale or really collecting delinquent taxes, I should say. Yeah. She's been working with. You got four landowners, it looks like. Property owners. They had a tax sale. They're really still doing really good. I mean. They are. I mean, it's $58,000. Yeah, that's really helpful. She's, yeah. She's doing really really good. I mean, that's a half or. That's a third of. Half. 20. What's that? Yeah. And she has three people set up on a payment plan. So hopefully that helps. That's really good. Yeah, it really is. She's made a lot of really, really good progress. I can tell you have any discussions we've had in the past. And you'll notice that under the Treasurer, the Treasurer's report that the $1 million invested is going to bring in about $54,500. We were getting some interest, but that $1 million will give us a annual basis, $54,000. That's a lot. From two years ago, we've been zero. Last year, we've been almost zero. That's $54,000. Well, a lot of us, because of the interest. I mean, the investment is better. Well, it all is. I mean, my point is, yeah, this is going to our bottom line. Nice job, Scott. Yeah. That's an out of boy. I've been pushing a little aggressively. I hate that. Wasting, not getting something the opportunity, but not the opportunity that we capitalized. And there'll be more of this, too. This is the start. This is just the start. We could have a couple million dollars. It could be $100,000 through a free cash flow. And it will be accessible, so it will help the budget. I might defray some of the health insurance costs. Yeah. No idea. Thank you, Michelle. Yes, I will. Much, much appreciated. What's the minimum on those CDs? I see you got a quarter of a million in those. You can walk into the bank for $1,000 and get these numbers. And this is also, this is comparable to T-bill money. It's basically the same. And it doesn't matter to us because we don't pay taxes. Otherwise, we'd be investing in T-bills rather than CDs. Well, in T-bills... You don't pay Vermont tax. On anybody? No. Any government... No, how about an individual? Any government paper invested by anybody, you yourself. If you buy a CD at five and a half percent, you will pay Vermont state income tax. If you take that same and buy a T-bill at five and a half percent, you will not pay Vermont... Oh, really? Oh. So if it's the same, you should never buy a CD. Right. Unless you like paying taxes to Vermont. Nope. Okay, great. Okay. I'm very happy about that. That's how much it is. Yeah, everyone shares pretty good updates between taxes and the investment. Yeah, darn good. I can't believe that Lincoln tax is down that much. That's the lowest I've ever seen. I know. That's the lowest I've seen since I've been on a select board. We hadn't done tax sales for a while. We've done some though. When did Bruce do last when he did? 2020 was the last time. 2020, it's not that long though. It was 2019 or 2020. In 2020, the Lincoln tax was $148,000. But in that case, maybe that one person was costing us $90,000, right? Yeah, I mean, there was the estate that just got settled, which has probably helped a lot. Oh yeah, that's helped a lot. And we carried that for a while. Yeah, yeah. And then there was a major tax, what's that? David Rodgers estate. Yeah. And of course that's been dragging on for years. And he was the Lincoln too for a long time. The other funds that were invested in those CDs, like the cemetery fund and that kind of stuff. Is that sitting and earning nothing now? They're still sitting where they are. We would need to look into some of those because some of those were very... Even if it went into a savings account, you know, or some... What's that? At least one of those was basically based on a will. So we would have to... There's other information here on the money that's sitting in the cemetery fund and other stuff. And those CDs, probably at a poor interest rate, have matured. And a lot of times if you don't tell them what to do with... But sometimes they'll roll... Like Bank of America will roll them over at zero, which I find that usually. And I was just concerned that... They don't roll them over at zero interest? Depending on what the rates are. Anyway, I'm just bringing out the attention of the treasure to manage whatever funds. So I don't know where those funds are right now. Like you're talking about the cemetery... North country... The perpetual fund, perpetual care fund? Sir? The perpetual care fund, do you mean? Those... They're listed in here. Yeah. They're listed online. There is information on where each of those CDs are. They've come up before at select board meetings and we're just like, oh, just roll it over. Yeah, what page is this? Oh, it's on... Right here, this one? Yeah, right here, I've got it. Okay. The... No, you don't have that. Miscellaneous trust fund. It's this one. It's this one. Oh, it's that one? The bottom? Oh, I got it. Oh, yeah. I got it. I got it. Okay. I mean, it's not a lot. It's still $154,000, which is... You know... That's only getting $1.15 or $1.5 or $1.5. Right, $1.5, that could be making $5,500 total. That's right. That's part of the trick banks do. They have your CD, some of your CD will come due. Yeah, I know. And the next seven months will be 1%, but if you put it on a six-month, it could be 5%. Yeah. Oh, really? So that's my concern is that these are silly interest rates for, you know, three another three grand. For these? Now, I don't know when these are going to get drawn upon. I guess that's my only concern about tying it up. They have been investing in CDs though. Yeah, they have. So what that as part of it is trying to find the historical paperwork on how these were set up and what the stipulations are, because that's some of the challenge. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Town could always come up with money and not take it out to, you know, have something to take care of and tell you when to take it. Kind of lend them the money until it's... Yeah. Right. Yeah, no, no, he let this grow. Yeah. Okay. So I'm bringing up the point of trying to figure out what... I mean, the money could all go in one CD actually, even if you just have categories on the CD that said XYZ. But it should not be invested. And as you can see, these all came due already. Yes. The maturity dates. So how long are they though? Or are they sitting in non-interest value? One year. One year? I don't know. Okay. I can't remember. I'll bring the attention of the treasure. Don would bring it up. I'd be happy to. Yeah, Don would bring it up to us. Nobody want to do this, want to do that. So they all have it right now. They all have it this year. Yeah. A-14, 7, 8, 5, 22. I will send Michelle a. Oh, we don't know if they're a year or six months or two years. They all... Right. Yeah. They may be sitting there. And the other thing is, when do they get drawn upon? What are they used for? Right. To try out the Smith funds. I'll just put my hand right now. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So are we done with the town treasury report? I think so. Thank you. You are. Okay. Good job. Nice job. Thank you. Very good job. Very good. I learned a little bit. That's nice. Discuss you on town engineering services. So what's happened here is we had a few meetings ago discussed hiring Chase and Chase. Yeah. To help us engineer highway projects. Unfortunately, the engineer that was working with Chase and Chase is no longer there. So Chase and Chase cannot provide that service. Oh, geez. So... That's too bad. Both Guthrie and I have been reaching out and asking various contacts for any list of potential engineering firms. I have not reached out to any yet because I wanted to have the meeting tonight. So these, I've just listed the five names that have come to us or that we've heard of. And these have come, I ask FEMA ironically enough. And then Guthrie also asked his state contact, the stream engineer. He works with a lot. So and then I think he called Marshfield or Cabot. So I have this list of five. The question is how would the select board like to proceed with this? What's the most local one as a bunch? I mean, none of them are... Revenues in Waterbury. Yeah. I think like two are Waterbury. I can't remember exactly where they all were. There's Stantec. There's the ones that ran it off. Yeah. So we could do an RFP for this, but really it's not for any set project. It's not... And really all we're really looking for is hourly rates and info about the firm. So I don't really know that it's useful to do an RFP for something like this. I think the proposal would be requested for qualifications. That's it. Who's qualified here? Who wants to? Yeah. Why would it call me? But the other thing is the local aspect is also important because sometimes you have, you know, you need the guy to come look and you don't want to pay 100 miles away. And I don't know who of these... He's not around anyway. They should be showing you from... Yeah, exactly. And I don't know who of these that I would call may say we're not taking any clients. So these are just ones I've listed because these are the names that we've heard so far. I think they love to work. A lot of them love to work for municipalities. And we do have some projects, as you all know, with FEMA that, you know, we're going to need post-storm, that we do need some engineering on. So... Yeah, we have no idea how much money we're going to be spending on this stuff today. Not really. I mean, that thing up on... Up in the corner of the moon, or say in the circle, what's that? I don't know. Structural, too. That's the thing we're going to pay for. It won't be. They're right in Montpelier. Hm? They're right in DeWolfe. And the owner, the original owner there is Ludwig Kallus. Yeah, DeWolfe. So would you like me to... But they're engineering? Yeah. I thought they're... They are? Yeah. I mean, their office is right down here in the very mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do we... What do you want? Well, I was going to say, I can look up where people are, but just email all of these individuals and just get info from them. Yeah. Did you want me to say hi? And then, John, if you have any specific contacts that you can think of that... Well, I tried DeWolfe. Yeah. Because I know their office is right down here. Because they cover a wider range of engineering services. Some are just like folks on water and wastewater. There's a couple engineering firms that do that. And then they struggle to do roads and stuff. You want somebody who can do the road stuff. Well, let's stop shopping. They would be... Because we don't have water and wastewater, so you don't need those people. And have to hire two or three firms would not be... No. That's the interest of everything. I tried DeWolfe. What is DeWolfe's full name? No, it's DeWolfe and what? It's right here. It's DeWolfe is DeWolfe Engineering Association's PC. He sold the business. Oh, he did? Yeah. Yeah. He's with the school with my kids. They did the fire station. Yeah. Yeah. So we should... So they would be good to talk to, see how they have it. Yeah. Obviously. So I will look up... Yeah. Thank you. Where these people are. Yeah. Reach out. I don't know what we're looking for. If they can please just give me back some info. Hourly rates. Yeah. And then we can... That's really... That's... All this is going to be by the hourly rate. Yeah. Some of these, as much as Sander Circle, yes, needs to be engineered, it's not incredibly complicated. No. We've kind of already been told by the state what we think we need there. Yeah. So... But we need someone to do drawings. We need someone to do it. Don't they do a high dollar study on there or no? Not yet. Not yet. That'll be some of what? Yeah. We'll have to have all that done for female purposes. Yeah. Okay. But I just want to get at least... Somebody. Somebody, exactly. Yeah, so we need to... Get somebody on board, and we really need someone going forward as well, similar to how you had Doug Newton in the past. Yeah, yeah. Or have... Great. We need somebody. We have on contract that we can call upon when we have a situation that arises. Well, you can call these five, and I'd call it the wolf, because they are local, and we have dealt with them before. So... Yep. That's all I know. Absolutely. Do you have anybody else, John? I'm just looking, because I can't remember the names of all of them, but I had the wolf, Dufresne Group in Granier. Graniers and Waterbury, Dufresne Groups in St. John's Bury. But I think they did do roads for us. They did a road for us in Argyll, like a big road, a whole restructuring of the road. And then, yeah, so the wolf, Dufresne Group, Granier, and then there's one right in Randolph, and let me just... I just need to figure out who they are. I can't remember for some reason. I haven't dealt with these people for a while, so... Okay. Okay. Sounds good. I'll find it, Tom. But when you find it, you can pass it on, but we'll keep going in the meeting. Okay. Yeah, keep going. You don't have to wait for me. So the next item on our agenda is a town garage project update, and we don't really have much... Kathleen, Jent and I emailed back and forth, and we're trying to get John to respond, but he was not responsive. But this week, we're going to try to do a meeting and get the... Now, the only other thing is we have to reach out to Andy, I think, and he's not around until the 17th, which would be tomorrow. Yeah. So Du Bois and King is another one. Oh, Du Bois and King, right. They're in Randolph. They do roads and stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So they're all over you. Yeah. They're all over you. Yeah. Connor doesn't do that stuff. They're just building... What's that? Connor, they're just... They're just building... Yeah. They don't do this kind of stuff. No. No. I mean, they have plenty of people on staff. Right. But yeah, no. So that's the update on Town Garage. We'll have a meeting as quick as we can to get the RFP out the door. You know, and I'll find out if it's going to be an issue, but I, you know, maybe I'll make it Thursday night too. That's your birthday, you said. Yeah, I know, but I'll figure out what's going on. Yeah, I'm just worried about Wednesday night because I know that we're going to try to do a little bit more cropping myself, and it might run into the night. So, I don't know. Sometimes it's tough for me to get to a meeting when I'm in a field up in town, you know? You don't have a, do you don't have a, like, Wi-Fi in your tractor? I should. Yeah. You're way behind the times. No, we have it in one of our rigs. We're thinking about putting in another one, but... We have a GPS tracker. You can get Amazon Prime on it, so... Yeah, well, we're not hooked on that, though. Um, let's not discuss any more sensitive matters because you realize this is going to be the paper tomorrow. Uh-oh. Because we're going to play it, oh, okay. Okay, so... It's big news. It is? Curb-cut application is the next item on our agenda. I just realized I forgot to print it in your packet. Oh, okay. 23. That has the original. Do I have one? It's in front of, with your warrant. It's the first. Oh, okay. Oh, over here. Yep. Oh, here we go. I have another one. Yeah, I have another one. Rebecca M. Hill in Essex Junction, Vermont. The property is Zero Tricking Road. Yeah, it doesn't have an address yet. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but... Is that the house that's being built up there? Yeah. Oh, okay. Because that's on Chicken Road a little way. It's up there. Yeah. Okay. It doesn't appear to be any 911 address for it, so... And clearly we're able to... You think people want to get a curb-cut before they start a building because the house is already out? Yeah, well, confused by how this one... Yeah, the house is up in the roof. It might even be on it, actually. Yeah. Yeah. To me, it's a new type of family house. You've got the last couple years in these no-pillars. Yeah, there's been a few. Yeah, there's been a few. There's been a lot of permit for one, too. There's been one in many groups. There's new units. It says no culvert needed. Okay. Yeah, it's fairly easy access. So, we need a motion to approve the permit number 23-037. So moved. Okay. Chloe, what do you say? Do you want to second it? Sure. I was too slow to make the motion. I know. I was looking, so... Well, you made the motion. I mean, you're making her second it. Okay, now... Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it or do have it? And then we all have to sign it. Yes. And today is 10-16. And I'll pass this around. Here. Those signatures. Oh, awesome. Thank you. Here, John, you want to sign that? Thank you. Okay. So, while we're signing that, I'm going to move on to the warrants. Am I moving too quickly? You're doing great. I don't care what Scott says. I'm going to follow you very closely. Okay. The warrants. October 9 is a special expense warrant. And since we're already over that date, this is a retroactive one. So, that's what I expect is correct. This was one set I'd texted with you about. This was... We've had quite a bit of work done on the building and the vendors had some payments that they needed processed. And obviously, we try to help out our vendors that have been taking such good care of our building. So, we had a special warrant to cut those checks last week. That's not in here. You just... I signed that one on your behalf because you approved that. Yes. Yes. Yep. It's all coming back. So, it's just a copy of it. I saved him a trip to the office that day. That's a good thing. And they are doing really nice work on the building. Yeah, they're happy with it. I know it's dark so you can't see it now, but it looks good. I can tell you, when you're painting an old building, it's always more than once. It's like the tip of the iceberg. Chiseling. Chiseling a little bit. And... Well, that's what happened with the front porch. He came in and he's like, there's quite a bit of wood rot. So, yeah. Well, and Seth looked at it as well. So, he's in regular communication with Seth. So, Seth came by and took a look at it. Well, a good thing is we want to write it all the way down and replace the posts. Everything is rotten. Well, you do that. Yes. So, it isn't just like on the face. It's done. All the way the posts started to rot, we replaced all the rot. So, it's a good job. Yeah, that's true. And I know it's not done, but it looks really good. Oh, yeah, it looks great. Putting it back together. Yeah, it'll last a long time. So, yeah. I think it was a good call to kind of get the rotten stuff out. The painter's doing a good job too. We'll just have to see some of this made delay. Well, we've still got some time to paint, but... Yeah, it's getting down. It's not drying very fast, so... No. Yeah, it's getting close. Well, yeah, the weather is... Uh-huh, I know. Drawing upon us, I've got a lot of concrete to pour. I'm like, man, I hope I get that done. Because I don't like pouring when it's cold out and the ground freezes, and you've got to cover it. Anyway, so that's the warrants. We'll pass those around. And then the town administrator report is... So, we do have the new zoning administrator at some point in the future. So, Mikayla did accept the position. Oh, great. I'll see. Yeah, but it was at a higher price than we had discussed, actually. It's at a... So, we're working through the background and reference checks, and then she and I are actually going to talk in the morning to hopefully nail down a start date. Tyson was in today, so we talked about that we have someone coming in. So, then I'll work with the two of them on the transition plan. We had two new zoning applications. Thank you, since the last meeting. I know, new house. An ADU and a new home. That's why I said it was funny that you were mentioning that. Well, the reason I read it, and that's why I brought it up. Yeah. Are there two more things I supposed to sign? You know what? Can I just sign one? Do you want me to sign one? I think you got, yeah. Okay. There it is. Yep. You did. I know you need three. That's what's working. Yep. You did. I will be out of the office Wednesday through Friday. And the only other thing is, I just wanted to point out that I tentatively scheduled your second February meeting for February 26th. Yeah. February 19th is President's Day. Yeah. So... Yeah. If that was okay with all of you? That's... Yeah, I gotta look at my schedule too, but I think I'm gonna make this work. November 7th, I'm headed south for a few days, but that'll work out well. Yeah. And if you need to tweak, that's why I like to put the future date. So if anybody... I think the schedule of December looks really good. January, I can probably work around it. January 8th might be a little... So that's instead of January 1st, right? The 8th. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Well, we've got a little time to think about February 1st. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to just have all the future dates out here, because I think it helps all of us to see them, especially as we... Well, especially as we get into winter season with any kind of travel schedules... Yeah, I buy all my tickets for the winter ahead. So this is useful, you know? Yeah. Bring this home, actually. Because I like to get them when I can get them in there at a lot less... A lot less expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is it too early for me to make a motion to adjourn the meeting? We have one addition. We have an addition. We have one addition. Zoe, you're trying to... That's my job. And I have... We have an addition to do. We have one. Oh, no, mine is the... The addition that Gina has on this. Yes, what's that? Can you... I was reading the last... The last... The East Monculeur to Buildings Assessment Agreement. Yeah. I mean, I read that and I asked Amy, and she had no recollection of that. Can you explain to me what that means? This is the energy efficiency grant that the Energy Committee applied for. So, this particular assessment is essentially the highest level assessment that kind of can be done on your buildings. And the hope is that this helps you unlock funding to help you then do the... Essentially make the buildings more energy efficient. So, this is a memorandum of understanding, basically, or a memorandum of agreement, in this case, with Vermont and the town. That we're going to... Yeah. Really, the Energy Committee is taking the lead on doing all of this. Thank you. I was trying to figure it out while I was... But they sent this to me, but I said, I can't sign this unless the select board says I can. So, if the board is comfortable with it, then I can sign this agreement on the table. Yeah, we'll just have to see what happens. I mean, this has been audited and they did do a lot of work, but whatever. We'll just see what happens. Insights, explanations. I'll figure out while the third graders are jumping around in East Montpelier. Okay. So, if you are comfortable... We'll make a motion. Yes. Can I make a motion to authorize the town administrator to sign this agreement of the memorandum of agreement between the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services in the town of East Montpelier? I will second that. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have or the do have? Okay. Sounds good to me. Can I make another motion to adjourn the meeting? You're making a motion to adjourn the meeting? I'll second it. All... Any further discussion? Oh, I don't have to say that for that. You said this is not... You can either vote yes, no, or... All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have or the do have?