 All right, 6.15, looks like, on the wall. Is the computer say that? Close enough? Close enough, yeah. All right, you're welcome. Everybody for the May 22nd, 2023 Rochester Select Board meeting, which has been posted in three public places. Correct, and on our website. And interested parties emailed. And so let's move forward with the minutes from the last meeting of May 8th. And I see there is one correction on the wording of the waiting on the word of the class two grant on Bethel Mountain Road. So otherwise, I'd move to approve as touched up. Second. All in favor? All right, all right, all right. And then we have the treasurer's report. And it seems all up and ready and good. We'll be right at one. The numbers grow as we. Yeah, we'll be right at one. It must be right. And I'll move to approve that. Second. All in favor? All right. Yep, we got that. And Frank, you want to talk about the driveway permit on Sky Hollow Road? Don't know much about it, to be honest with you. I think John's got it. He did, sir. I hadn't read it yet. And he was all set with it, I believe. So it's actually on Valley View Drive? Yeah. Right, so John had a chance to check it out. Isn't this cool? Yeah, I think it's really cool. All right, so I'd move to approve that. Second. 40 Valley View Drive. All in favor? All right. OK. And this is going to be not the special softball tournament, but the first annual, so that some people still want to go and hurt themselves by softballing it. So I'm going to get these here. My turn? Yes. OK. So I'm not sure how much you know about it, but Makayla Richardson had been doing it, I think, for the last couple of years. She has decided to let it go. He was going to let it dissolve, per se. So I've decided to take it over. Because I've decided to take it over, I'm going to be having some help through the fire department as a member of the fire department. So it's on here as the first annual softball tournament, because I'm hoping to have it be called RVFD, annual RVFD softball tournament. That way, the money will be going, will be in good hands as far as it being in the fire department, and then depending on how things go throughout the years, if there's a certain place that money needs to go to or. So like the winning team has to cough up 1,000 bucks for the fire department? No, two. Well, just like last year, each team will pay an entry fee for each team. I'd like to do it on the 1st of July, which is a Saturday, before 4th, obviously. And have it kind of talk about the field, too. Yeah, I think I have to have it go on the same as before. I do, I would like to utilize the baseball field. Last year, we currently used the softball field and made like a little makeshift field on the grass, which I think was actually very unsafe. We had someone break their leg. The baseball field is a little bit too big, and I have a couple of people that know the numbers to make the field the same as the softball field. Because it's not being used and there's no high school, I'm asking to sort of change the baseline. Not the field. It doesn't have to be changed. Just the bases need to be moved to make the field the same size as the softball field. And then both fields would be utilized. Both sets of dugouts would be used. It's more of like what the town made it for, I guess, having them both be used. But I do need approval to fix the bases. And they can always be moved back if there was. So they want to, yeah. OK, so the new configuration is not going to. No, just the base, yeah. Do you need the fields to be rolled? I have people that have volunteered already to help do such a thing. Never were never against any extra help if anybody wants to help do that. But we have a couple of guys that have said they help with some field maintenance. And it has my blessing. Caitlin. Yes. It's Martha Slater. I was just wondering, when it gets a little closer, I mean, in a couple in a week or two, a couple weeks, if you would be willing to send me information about this, I could put an article in the Herald specifically about the tournament. Yes. I was waiting to have the date and the name change be approved. And Kristen also said tonight it'll be disinformation will be in the Select Board article. But yeah, I'd like to do a specific special article just about that, if that's OK with you. So the girls here, the ladies here, have my email address and everything. I'll get it to you, Martha. So we're going co-ed. OK, thank you very much. Yes. Same as last year, co-ed. I think it worked wonderfully. Yeah. And I think the same thing via double elimination. Last year, I think there was four or five teams. I know the year before there was six. So we definitely wouldn't want any more than six. But I don't think we're going to get a big, crazy amount of people. But it's just for fun. That's all we're doing it for fun. Nancy. So I understood that, I guess, the recreation department was having to move over to the baseball field because of regulations for young people's baseball. And you probably know more about it working with Makayla. Does that all fit into it? It does. There are actually the regulations for younger kids are actually closer to a softball field. So that's why I'm trying to make the men's baseball field in more regulations of a softball field and a minor's baseball field. Because there is no varsity baseball teams anymore that would need such a large field. It's too bad not to use the field. Right. That's why I'm hoping to use it. Use the dugouts and use the land that's out there. Is there any interest in an ongoing league participation in the future? You mean the baseball? Like the World League? The softball league. Softball league? So if she starts more. I think there's some. Some took it a little more serious. Like, I'd like it to be fun and then see if there's a few teams that want to play once a month or something or, you know, and then, of course, that would be a different discussion and a different approval. But I'm not against that. That would be great. So I did understand. I think I understood from Makayla that the bases are a different size. The bags are a different size. They're just further out in the field. The line that you run is further. So they would just be brought in. And the size of the. The look of the field wouldn't change. But there is a need for different supplies on the field, like the size of the bag has to be a different size? No, they're the same. They would just be the placement of them. Someone we would have to set them differently. And it's great. Sounds fine with me. Is that, you know, we'll formally approve that. Can I ask another question on that? How often are we mowing that field now? I think it's on a whatever basis it needs to be mowed. I think it's more like, I'm not sure he's had. He's only mowed it once, of course. One mowing this year. He needs it really bad. Right now it's grown. Well, I think that we cut them back on mowing. We did, yeah. So we should step it up before this event. Yeah. And make sure it's done timely for your event. Yeah, we'll talk with John. You might even be a participant in your event. And really, and all those guys. So, yeah, we'll make sure that's taken care of. So I'd move to give the RBFD softball tournament our blessing. Second. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Have fun. Have fun. It'd be nice to hear your sounds and play from down there. Thank you. Thanks for coming again. We'll do the same thing again. Thank you. So we have an application for use of the town park from the shelter team filed by Janice. You can. That is, she wants that one Friday per month during the farmers market. So she wants to have an information booth regarding emergency planning and looking for help and support from that. So I'd move to approve that. Seconded. All in favor? All right. And can I ask a question? Yes. Is it going to be part of the space of the farmers market? And if so, does it require a payment for a table? That's a good question. Yes, it does. I can only say that because I know the energy committee was charged $12 every time they showed up to table and they ended up paying out of their pocket, even though it was like a town committee. I would think that a committee like this that's looking to find support for volunteer effort would be. So the fee for the table, that's part of the farmers market's deal. So this is a separate application not to be part of the farmers market. Because Jan approached them and they said that she could not participate with the farmers market because she wasn't agricultural. Well, a lot of those things aren't agricultural. That was my question. Yeah. You said that. So I. You said that. So I think anything to do with the town though is a little crazy as far as if they want to. They're using the facilities of the town for nothing to have their farmers market, basically, and the vendors charge for whatever they sell there. And if the town has a use for that kind of purpose, then I don't see why we should be paying for to be a part of that Friday night gathering if that's the case. I mean, that doesn't make any sense to me. And even with the library folks there, I mean, just anybody that is a town sponsored thing and they're just there to promote whatever, like the energy part of it or whatever. This doesn't make any sense to me that they should be charged for that. Well, especially since then, again, in a separate application from us to have a presence on the park. And just because the farmer's market is there, it doesn't mean that nobody else can use the park. Right, exactly. So I would move to approve this, but I would also, I guess we need to talk with the public. They shouldn't be paying the farmer's market people to have a table there. We need clarification on that. I know that they carry insurance. Right. And that's not, but we need to have their take on what it is. Isn't anybody associated with a town like the emergency shelter people there under our insurance anyway? Yeah. As far as I know. But they're volunteers. Right, they are volunteers. You know, they're there to make money wherever the farmer's market is. They're there to make money. Right. I agree. I agree with you on that too. So should I tell Jeff? That he should just fill out a park use permit? Yeah, he'll be, he's at the meeting anyway. Oh, Jeff. He's not, he's not, oh, sorry. I guess he's not, usually he shows up, but he's not here tonight. Okay, I'll suggest that to him, because I know they were paying out of pocket. Yeah, yeah. And we weren't aware of that. It wasn't aware of it. No, I wasn't aware of that. No, but they shouldn't be paying out of pocket because that's ridiculous. All right, so we move to approve this one to be voted on that? Second. All in favor? Aye. Good. If we did. If we did, now we do, for sure. And then, speaking of the park, it's a popular time of year for that, we have Pierce Hall Community Center asking to hold their annual ice cream social with free ice cream for all historic car show and family games, and that's free. And that is on June 25th, that 12 noon, set up at noon events from two to four. And so, let's move to approve that one. I second. All in favor? Aye. Yep. Sounds like fun. And we have Pierce Hall and Ridgeline Outdoor Collective that have an application for use of the Riverbrook Park. And that is for their 5K run walk event, which will be a registration table and some banners. Parking not in front of the fire station. Yep. And they put that in there. And fundraiser for Pierce Hall and the Ridgeline Outdoor Collective, and I moved to approve that one. On July 4th. I second. Yes. July 4th, seven to 1030. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Yep. Well gee, look it, here's another one from Pierce Hall Community Center. Also for... Same day. Same day, in 4th of July, and this one would be on the main park. And this is for their July Chicken Barbecue and 50-50 Raffle. And that is from nine to two-thirty. And I moved to approve that. I second it. Is it nice to be having 4th of July again? Yeah, it seems like it. Yeah. All in favor? Aye. All right, this is more interest, maybe to some of the other folks in here. I mean, parties and stuff on the park are fun, but this is our fiscal year 2023 to 24 pay rates for the town employees, which was decided and approved at the Budget Committee, but now this is our official adoption and approval of that. I second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you for your service. All right. All right, and then we have the, we have some discussion on modifying the town's procurement policy. And that was the proposal was to, up to now we've had to anything we spend more than $10,000 was requiring, we'd go out to bid for that. And there's a couple situations that have come up and also in conversation with the VLCT, they think that's a little bit onerous to have to trigger that process at a relatively low rate. I guess when they started this policy it was probably $10,000 was worth a lot of money. A lot of money. And that was nothing. And so the way we have those major purchases calling for delivery of goods or services and the amount of $50,000 or greater would trigger a requirement to go out to bid. And regular purchases or leases which would be calling for delivery of goods or services and the amount of $10,000 to $30,000 that would be, so that would just be an ongoing, ongoing expense. And incidental purchases, calling for delivery of goods or services less than $10,000 would be not, those are the definitions of what major, regular or incidental purchases. What about purchases between 30 and 50? Well, that's where we're pushing this up to. To 50. Look to 50, yeah. So it needs to be changed between 10 and. Do you have some input on that? We did the financial policies, the master financial policies, which is attached. So I think the major was up to 30 and we didn't go as high as 50, but we went to 30. We did go up from 10 to 30. To 30, yeah, yeah. Nice one. So I just wanted to point that out that that's also been approved by the government. So we would have to go back and re-approve it if we went to 50. We just amended it. We just amended it. Also written into the policy is an option for a waiver off of the policy. So if we did have a one-time event where we thought that it was non-conforming that we approved of it, we could exercise the option of voting in a waiver. Which that kind of covers it right there, isn't it? We would apply to anything we deemed necessary. Yeah, yeah. Without changing the whole policy. So in this situation, and what has triggered this conversation is the offer from an unnamed individual to pay for a new roof on the library. And they have, how many bits have you got? Four. Four. So they've already gone through a bidding process that just wasn't officially awarded in papers. It would have been by invitation, it would have been by invitation, not public notice. Yeah. And that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, no problem with that. So could we just vote to enact a waiver on this in this situation? I think that's the best way to go right now. Yeah. Yeah, are they sealed bids or? No. Yeah. I don't know, how does that fit in with our policy? Well, with that, by adopting, choosing to, Right there where it's expressed what the waiver is. So we're covered with that. I mean, you guys feel happy about that? Okay. Yeah. As long as you guys feel the same, I mean, that's fine. You can do waivers as often as you want. Or if you'll fit. Third limit on that. How many waivers were there? I don't know how high of an amount. Well, the waiver would be outside of the policy. We're just moving the policy aside to deal with this. Which that came into play, I think, a few times during Irene and we were just like, don't waste time on the policy, just take care of what needed to happen. Probably several times. Yeah, probably several times. We were under a state of emergency then, which I think was true. Well, yeah, it gives you emergency powers at least, I would say. So, let me get this. So the waiver feature, is that included in the new policy, or was it? I think it's on page two right there. Yeah, okay. And that wasn't included in the old policy? No. The old, it might have been. I fully... I think it was, but it might have been. Because I basically copied, except for changing the amount on the major. Yeah. So it should be in the old, it should be in the current policy. Yeah. But it's in the new one that we're talking about adopting. So I would move to approve that one. The waiver. The, well, the new policy. The new procurement policy, basically. I still think it should be at 30, but you can go ahead and vote. Yeah. So you want a second? Yeah, a second. One favor? All right. Okay. It's good. It's nice to not have to be totally unanimous all the time. Really? It's foreign. Except when you wrote the one that doesn't read. I like that. But, now, this doesn't preclude the fact that if there was something that was less than that and we want to go out to bid, we can still go out to bid. But it doesn't mean we can't go out to bid for something. I do think we need to be careful when we do this, though. And, you know, have an idea of what we're looking at in the meantime. And if it does look like it's a conflict in any way, we should put it out to bid. And I think that's the way that we should be looking at it. And I think you have to have leeway. Well, just with the policy, the way it was, John, even with his plow, this winner, almost topped out at $10,000 to try to get three bids on his snow plow was almost impossible to get. And it's just those kind of things that kind of tie your hands. About $30,000 would have covered it. You're absolutely right. And I just think that when we're placing bids out for jobs, we want to stay as competitive as we can. So we can just, somebody could just say, I'll do it for $49,995. And that would be under the threshold. And we wouldn't really know how competitive things were. Savings, the competition saves the town money by going out to bids. And I think that's up to, with board discretion, I think we can do that still, even with a limit of $50,000. I think this, the $50,000 gives us a chance if there is an emergency to just do it. No, we would have to vote on it to make sure the contractors don't come back and say that our policy was violated by going out to bids. Right. Well, we need to also... I think we can still go out to bid if we choose to. Right. It doesn't say we can't go out to bid. The other option would be to do a hard-coded contract for everything between $30,000 and $50,000, at least. Yeah, maybe we should look at it that way. You have to anyway, right? I mean, that's fine. Well, without having a contract without going out to bids, somebody could say, yeah, I'll do it for $35,000, but then you get a bill for $45,000. And there's no, there's no, there's no structure. I mean, it's a lot of money at that point. Right. Well, it is when you only have so much, right? And also, the subject of the budget. Well, what this does, though, is it gives us the freedom to ask for bids invitationally and not have to go through the hole, put it in the paper, and wait another two weeks. As long as the road foreman understands that if he's going to write a check for $49,000, he's got to check with us first. Yeah, right, yeah. And I think that we can rearrange that. I think that terminology should be rearranged a little bit next time we visit this. Because he's going to be amended. I mean, it's important, but yeah, I'm ready to do that and amend it. Have you guys, do you know how much it's going to cost? The bid that was accepted by the trustees and the donor was almost 30. It was 29 in change. Yeah, so 30 would have done it. But I think we're going to have a policy. Yeah. But there is additional work over and above the roof that will be included. So that would have been over 30. I don't know if the donor is willing to. The donor wants the attic inspected to find out why the ceiling on the second floor is sagging to see if there's rotten wood and also to remove any wet insulation and put in some dry. So those things aren't included in. Thank you, whoever you are. But yes, they are donating this scope of work. And it's my understanding they will be paying the roofer directly, so that we won't be commingling donations and checks and all that. But it will be Heather Turnbull doing the work. They all have to be under the insurance policy, too. Yeah, I'll have her stop by before she starts work. Yeah, I mean, that all has to be approved, right? Back into the main thing else. Nope. And work should start in two weeks. Two weeks. That was part of the donor's stipulation. It had to begin now. Yeah. The donor paid, and then that was all. Can you send me the information so that I can get that into the contract? Sure. OK. Yes. For a worker's column and all that, just not that she has it, but that it will. Yeah, I need the wording just to make sure I have it, right? Of the job description and. OK, I will send you over a copy of her estimate. That's all I've got. It's the one piece of paper. I think a little more time on tonight's thing good. I will send her to your door. Well, I think I can get before that. Next, we've also got another investment policy for the trustees of public funds. It's another background on this. Well, it's all part of our updating all of our policies. Right, right. That's basically all. It's part of that master financial policy. In accordance with 24 BSA 2431 funds held behind the town and trust for any purpose, including cemetery trust funds are under the charge and management of the town's trustees of public funds and the trustees of public funds have the power to hold, purchase, sell, assign, transfer, and dispose of any of the securities and investments in which any of these funds are invested as well as the proceeds of such investments. So that's basically an opening paragraph, and I'm not going to read the whole thing. I would move to approve this. And as we continue to get more in line with the appropriate policies. The never-ending policies. Yes, my second. I. Hi, sorry. And Doreen Jones, representing the Rochester Public Library, is asking for use of the park for a retirement party for Jeanette Bear. Jeanette, thank you for all your service. Yeah, 20 years, 19. And this is going to be on the 17th of June from 2004. Have you guys made the decision to lose the replacement? Yes, we have. Yes, what's her name? Carol and something. Come on, Carol. Carol. I think probably everybody knows Carol from my hardware. But she, although she's never worked a library job before, she's got extensive work history doing librarian-type things for different art collectors. So I think that she definitely has transferable skills. And I think she'll be excellent. She can read? Yeah, she knows her ABCs in one, two, three. It's a very fluent French as well. Oh, all right. Well, thank you, Carol, for taking on this job. And thank you for doing it for so long. And I move to approve the application to throw you a party. Second. All in favor? And she's always cleaning. Dusty and clean and sweeping. Hopefully she won't have to be doing the mocking. And the roof is leaking. She will, though. Yeah, she will, yes. So speaking of the library, any reports other than that? Big news? Big announcement? Those are the two biggies. Two biggies, they kind of covered that. Everything else? Excuse me. Oh, sorry. Yep. I'm sorry. While you were just still doing park, I wanted to ask two quick park questions. Is that OK, or should I wait? Well, go ahead. OK. Is it? I wanted to ask the town crew to put the picnic tables on the park. This is the time when they usually do it is around Memorial Day. They're going to do it this week. OK, so you, you worry about taking care of it. Yep. My other question was Jerry LeBlanc took a picture today that he sent to me of you, Frank and Nancy Woolley and Lois Bond planting some trees on the park. And I can't remember where the trees were coming from. It was discussed at a previous meeting, I think. Could you just tell me where the trees came from? Worth it a donation or? They were not. They were part of a grant that we wrote. You can call me. They came from Kabul Creek Nursery in Monkton. And there are six of them. And it's a grant, a two for one grant. So we got $5,000 from the state. And now we're looking for in kind. We had in kind to some of it to plant. And we'll be spreading mulch throughout the park around all of the trees. I've got a break down on that here coming up. And Frank will talk about that. But they came from Kabul Creek Nursery, which is a wholesale nursery. Thank you. Sorry to bother you. No problem. Terry puts the scene with the septic field down there behind the school. We'll talk about that later. Yeah. Got a broken hydrant that I ordered a new one. Somebody broke us Friday night. Any idea who hit that? None. But I'm not going to replace just the guts and stuff. The whole thing is 40 years old. So I'm going to replace it. Because even if I replace the top part, it's not replacing where the valve is. So I can't see spending three quarters of what it cost to put one brand new one in. What does it cost to put a new one in? They didn't give me a price yet. They didn't give you a price yet. They ain't going to be cheap. I think hydrant's probably going to own 2,500. Yeah, I think we were valuing them at $3,000. Yeah, they're still going to dig it up and replace it. But it's too corroded and too, it would cost us a fortune to clean it up good enough to reuse it and do all that work on it, it's stupid. Is that insurance? I'm checking. You're checking? Yeah. OK. Just a nice fit of my car insurance. I got a piece of the car down there, but I've asked several people. Nobody seems to have come to light on what it fits. But somebody's got some front end damage. I would think so. Who do the next locker game? Also, I got a fire truck that's in the hospital right now. I have no idea what it's going to cost us. They changed one solenoid and found another one that's bad. So I'm hoping it just pays that to be within reason. Which truck? The tanker. The tanker. We need to have that back. If I get back with the dump two weeks now, I got an idea it's going to be another week or so. Where is it? Down at the freight liner down in the lead. That's the only place we could find that wanted to work on it. Yeah. The agent. It's not a freight liner, it's a custom cab. So it's not like you can go anywhere to get fixed. No more by the end of the week. So we have mutual aid standing by? Yeah, I said that was a job before. Soon as I knew there was something wrong. So as far as that goes, it's not. We don't have any problem with the coverage. We're in better shape sometimes. Since we just went to a fire in Granville last week to a truck fire because there's no response. Yes, I hear that. I was monitoring. So when they come down and thinking about a suit in an ambulance, how are they going to do that when they can't get two or three people to run the fire truck to the scene? They're working on improving that. They ain't going to. They just don't want to have it. You can leave it there. I don't buy what Matt tells me. So I realize what it takes to do the ambulance and what it's going to take. And it's a lot more than you're getting led to believe. Other than that, I guess everything's good. And Jeff's not here tonight? Grant updates? I just have a couple of little things. We received our final reimbursement for the Howbrook of 3100. So that part of the grant is all done and closed out. And we also received notification that we are good to go to begin work with our grants and aid for this year's award. It was $27,000. And we'll be working on North Hollow and Cooper Run. And those grants are to clean up and shape stone line drainage ditches. So Kuta received notification too that he's good to start any time on that. And that's all I've got. I've got a couple of things that have been done. The EV chargers are now operational down here. They are up and running. It's only set up for two cars at a time. The two chargers are different connectors on either side of each charger or different vehicles. So those are up and running. The bridge at West Hill, the clearing started up there. They're probably pretty well done clearing. And then they'll be working on the approach to put the temporary in. And John had put some gravel down at the Lions Club Park in the driveway, which I asked him to do a while ago. And he got that completed. The trees we planted on the park, Nancy gave a rundown on that. And on June 3, which is a Saturday, we're planning on getting 40 yards of mulch to mulch all the trees on the park. We're going to be trying to get a bunch of volunteers together for mulch to spread the mulch. I'm trying to look for five or six pieces of equipment with an operator to at least transport the mulch from the Parkhouse parking lot over to the trees. And if we could get 10 or 12 folks with a shovel or rake to just spread it around the trees, that would be good. I'd like to list some fire department folks, if they would be willing. You've probably got something going on that day. I know, but this is in the morning. Hopefully we could get it done. Even library folks, people that use the park, farmers market folks, anybody that's willing to volunteer, that would be nice if they could call either me or the town office and leave word. That would be good. If not, we'll just have to pay somebody to do it. So it'd be nice if we could get a bunch of people together to do it. I wanted to do it before Memorial Day, but there's just not time enough. And the last thing, I did talk to John and asked him to put the benches and tables out this week. And I talked to the fertilizer guy, and he said after he gets 10,000 acres done at Porn, he'll get to the park. 10,000 acres. So that's about it. Any one-on-soon, anything we want to talk about? No, it's pretty quiet on there tonight. Yep. And I think we're moving to- Oh, Martha's waving now. Martha's waving. Quick question. I noticed that you're going into an executive session with Terry Severy about water and sewer. So obviously, I can't attend that, but what I'm wondering is, do you expect there's going to be something that when you come out of the executive session that you would be, that I should include my article? I doubt it. OK. I was thinking I could call the town office tomorrow and just check with the ladies and find out. Is that OK? Sure. If we come to any major decisions. OK. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. Thank you. So as Martha mentioned, we're going to conclude this meeting and then go into the executive session. Thank you all for coming.