 Good evening. I'd like to convene the regular scheduled suckboard meeting of June 19th for the town of Berlin With us tonight to my left is flow Smith to my right is Tornals, and I'm Brad town was also as Vince Connie our town administrator Edition or changes to the agenda no public comment hearing none Special event permit application It's basically the same as last year's in the year before as well for 30 p.m. The 8 p.m On the 17th of August Application for the central from our runners as presented this evening and described Second any further discussion are they having are they posting the route or anything? They'll have signs up along the way, and they'll have volunteers again same as they've done it in the past Now they posting it before the race You know a day or two before they last year they did yeah five days in advance They said on the application Any other discussion All those in favor hi all right motion carries AOT discussion on maintenance agreement on toll bridge Yes, we have Adam Answer any questions And you do have an example of what was provided for the town of Guilford in your package I Think one of the one of the problems we were having Was our maintenance on a state structure well, I guess I won't catch off, but I mean I've got two Problems with this And the first is kind of more broad. I mean I'm just fundamentally opposed to putting it upon the towns To do the maintenance You know state structures like to chair alluded to It's you know, it's in the v-trans strategic plan and their pedestrian plan and all these action plans they have that they're going to encourage Motton all-time motorism and pedestrian access and then you know here You're taking the first good step by you know offering to put in the sidewalk, but then you're washing your hands of that I don't think that's fair in the part of each range to do and I understand that's a decision higher up than yours And I'm totally aware of that and then as far as I mean I'm assuming that our Agreement would be somewhat close to this one provided by Guilford Two things that concerned me in here Was that I Guess first part on the page one of the whereas the municipality shall be responsible for the maintenance of the sidewalk improvements So that does that mean that we're on the hook for any future Repairs that need to be made to the sidewalk in the future Okay That's good news and then the other thing that really gets me is You know just as including but not limited removal of ice and snow and to me that's just entirely vague I mean what what are the standards? You're looking for from us You know two-inch snowfall four-inch You know we go out yet the state plow goes by you know ten minutes later and covers the sidewalk up again Then we have to go out again and clear it off. I mean I'd like to see something more concrete than just this You know the statement, you know removal of snow and ice Okay Appreciate it. The other thing is is that we're not We're not set up with any equipment to do that I mean, you know, we are just we are just Snow removal with trucks. We have nothing as far as Skid steers or small tractors or anything like that And to have maintenance thrown on to us for this bridge is going to require Other equipment that we just don't have or contracting it out Yeah, but we either way it brings puts a cost up on us as the town You know that you don't do further municipalities as far as It might be time to start thinking of like a class one sidewalk program or something But the the structure you're taking down already has a side what's that configuration Open deck So the initial proposal was I'm just saying there's no other sidewalk down there People that bike can walk on a daily basis Worth the longevity of the town have them put in the sidewalk or leave a wider shoulder 5 feet shoulder 5 foot shoulder Well, I mean the the nice thing about the I wouldn't say the nice thing about the bridge there But the good thing about the bridge is that the sidewalk now is separate from the travel way. That's why I Haven't seen With a raised sidewalk Stop Yeah So basically the bridge the bridge layout is going to be the same as Bailey Street Bridge Montpelier except only one side Or one raised side One there by the high school Opened back with a shoulder in the sidewalk I personally am more in favor of the five foot shoulder as opposed to the raised Sidewalk that's just my own perspective But I do understand your concerns with the language there because it really opens up and puts a lot of onus on The town it's the option is still available if they if the board chooses not to go in the sidewalk So that option is still available choose that that eliminates having to have any agreement at all We would have to So Here in that I guess I would move to recommend To the HCO transportation that they proceed with the Shoulder by the shoulder as opposed to a dedicated sidewalk I concur I mean to send to send a truck down there with a man just to shovel the sidewalk It's not efficient for us. I think it's an amicable resolve Well motion on that All those any further discussion All those in favor So if you can go back to AOT and just see if they can revise the plan for no side no raised sidewalk put that way The two five foot shoulders Thank you very much Adam. Thank you for coming in straight animal holding agreement Yep, this is the yearly agreement very similar to the last years And at the end of that you'll see last year's invoice of five hundred and ten dollars in total the Humane Society Which 110 of that is for a camp no reaction mr. Chairman Well, I have to ask this what was the difficulty with the cat The cat cost less, but there was the after hours after hours The cat was after hours It was a late night cat Well, I just want to know what the cat was doing to to elect the uh The ire of the uh of the animal control officer. Um, it was wanderinglessly about um cedar drive application of any ownership of where it was picked up after hours and Are you looking for adoption of this piece or approval or I move that we Approved the stray animal holding agreement with the central Vermont Humane Society And authorize The town administrator to sign on our behalf I second that motion Can you further discussion The only discussion I have is in section f has section f changed in any way Vince Because there is a portion in there that says the town city agrees to pay cbhs a fine of 500 dollars per animal within 30 days of the animal's arrival In addition to the agreement fee listed below regard regardless of how long the animal remains at cbhs And of course that isn't In the invoice that we received this year. So I'm wondering what would constitute that Because that's a sizable amount Yeah, again, I don't I would have to get back to you on that But I don't believe that this has changed at all since for the fee rates The good news is last year. We didn't have anybody stay over 30 days I'm thinking that this is more of a Quarantine rabies quarantine type of Yeah, it's specifically talks about it doesn't It doesn't take them for rabies quarantine, but if If for some reason it ends up going that way very good. We typically use Something rescue service for those other issues. Okay, very good Well And the in that same section the first line it says domestic non-ferral And who decides non-ferral? And they stay in contact with you when they It's typically the police. Okay. So right through the police. Okay Okay, um, thank you Any other discussion on this? All those in favor Motion carries MOU for capital fire mutual aid. Yes Joe mr. Stombrough this up and asked for it to be on the agenda and conveniently He's not able to be here to talk to it tonight. This is something that we had on What more in a couple of months ago and this is about the capital fire mutual mutual aid and we we did approve the uh One-time payment of the funds previous to this Coming back on the agenda for the for the 10 years And that's that's what this is. We never get you never completed it But we did approve the funding Okay Motion for the memorandum of understanding I make the motion to approve the memorandum of understanding as presented to us this evening and described by vince Oh second Any further discussion? um, I wasn't part of the board for this, you know original discussion, but Why I don't know if you can answer this through the flow. Why is this coming to us for approval? I would think the fire department themselves could Approve it I think they brought it to the board mainly because they wanted our input because they were more volunteer As opposed to be combined with the town. So I think they felt More inclined to have our opinion on it. Would you say that's true? That's part of it, but also The the fire department did approve it, but they came to us Um as they're going as other mutual aid fire departments are going to to their towns for the funding For this mutual aid System that they're they're upgrading it putting in place. It's a 10-year funding plan I can send you the information on that if you'd like to see that after to understand it better And and the board the board based on the presentation that that they were provided By mute the capo fire The board approved that the amount for the for the 10-year funding they approved to pay it in a one-time payment Out of the out of the airport funds as well And it was an in-person presentation here to us as a board The only other comment I would make is again, I if you want me to sign it as the previous one you Authorize me or the board chair can sign it Tell me did you have something on there? I was just saying like with our department in Northfield That's the same thing we're doing We're going to the board and speak to the behalf of the capital capital dispatch now and then They're just it's mainly for radio upgrades rather off radio problems throughout The 26 towns that they cover now. Are you trying to get all the radios the same? They all are the same, but it's very dated Yeah, so they're trying to upgrade everything into like stuff and We get a lot of the back over from canada because they really don't have any Restrictions up there. So their radios are a lot more powerful. They'll reach down here No problem. So they're trying to Clean all that up and get it Get done more or less on their own towers and systems and You know, they've got I think they're up to like five towers now, but they all need Upgrading I think the biggest part of it is the the console in Montpellier is I think they said the 25 years old 20 years old which is in radio life. That's ancient So that's mainly where all that stuff's going. This is just the I mean there's 26 towns And I also think I'm pretty sure I have a copy of the presentation So I'll file from the meeting and I'll reset that to the board Just to have the information to refresh you Refresh what it was was given Because it does show the other towns and the cost of how we compare and such as well in that I just don't want us to be seen as us trying to micromanage the fire department or anything like that They're the ones that run so they brought it to the boat And it was Joseph Allsworth that did the presentation Good try very much so Any other discussion on this all those All those in favor Sign on behalf or as the board comes signed Oh, you can sign Let's you get away with everything All those uh favor, uh Okay, so we're all set there Municipal ticketing Yes, so that's something that's been kicked around for a while that we've talked about I dug into it a little deeper No research and I've got a big stack in there if anybody cares to read it about the whole process with the state and how it works Um, the questions that came up in the past where you know, do we have tickets? Is it in our zoning? Um If nobody knew the answers to those So again, I dug into it. It is in our zoning And we do have tickets and the tickets belong to the police. They've changed the ticketing system It's it's a multi-use ticket that they have Um, and the people that fill it out have to be authorized to do that for the The civil stuff in here. Um, and they are so if we wanted to start tomorrow basically, um Issuing municipal tickets. We need all the requirements to be able to do that Um, what we don't Meet is the knowledge to be quite honest um What for me the next steps If the board wants to move in this direction would be to get Tom the zoning administrator and the chief to sit down and talk about Uh, the process of how we're going to manage this because we just gave the senate police officer right up at He doesn't know the requirements and stuff. So how do we how do we get that information? To them in the proper manner to have them be able to do that Right, um, that's that's the question. It's good because again, we do have the tickets This is in your package and we do have you know, all the requirements in the in the zoning That they're referred to as well. And again, this is just The law as it says in a nutshell on on how it needs to be done and we can do that The the fees are even in the enforcement procedure in Arizona regulations as well the fees are there So Really for What we're looking for what I'm looking for from the board tonight is do we want to proceed to put this in place? Should I sit with the chief talk to him about it talk with him and tom about it to come up with How we're going to apply this Right, it's going to be more work for the police as well or the other option to that is we can We can appoint the board being the we being the board can appoint Someone else to also be authorized to do this and we have to register over the state just like the police Have to register to do those take do those tickets. So that is an option that is out there Either way that we go Still need to Train somebody right so if if we're going to have somebody else do the tickets for example, tom zoning officer If we're going to have him do the tickets He's got to learn from the police There's going to be some cross training there on how to do the tickets because he'll have the zoning information If we go with the police, they're going to have to do some cross training with tom to understand the zoning regulations And how to fill out the tickets for that as well Boy this form looks very familiar That's beside the point Has tom been approached about this what his feelings are that's exactly my question in both regards tom has been approached about Municipal tickets. He thinks it's time for us to move forward. He doesn't want to write it. Okay um, I seem to remember I was off the board at the time But when chief wolf was still around That he approached the board about this very issue Do you remember mr. Chair why that wasn't My my understanding at the time was that may have been before the regulations zoning regulations were updated Because they were updated. I think in twenty-two 2019 And amended by the board in twenty-two and they didn't No requirements were not meant to be able to do that Prior to this provision this last revision of the zoning regulations I'm in favor of this, but I would recommend that the police issue the tickets With the training and the knowledge or the cross reference with tom Yeah, that's how I remember the discussion was with chief wolf that The police department would issue the You know the ticket And if it went to a hearing, you know, they would call the zoning administrator as a witness Um, and I think that's probably the way to go And I will make that motion. I think that's the conducive way to go about it. Mm-hmm It's a lot Uh, it was the motion. I don't know. Um, that we proceed with the Um Utilization of the vcvc form for zoning Valations, um issued by the police department Utilizing Expertise of the zoning administrator Wouldn't want to be taken in the Motion there when you want to take and have it for all of Municipal infractions. Well, that sounds even better, mr. Chair And I second that on the municipal ticketing decision. I I can't make a motion Somebody else has to Okay So moved second Any other discussion on this The only thing I would say about this is Vince and I had talked some and about hiring a Jack of all trades do the lawnmowing maintenance And I'm wondering if we can get enough work together To hire another employee to take this off of the police department It'll be something I'll have to look into we can't do it anytime soon Well, I guess my question is how much Um activity to expect from this Right now there's probably There's at least three Areas that could be inspected and looked into Right now that we believe at least three that we know We see my thing would be is that if you have somebody who can do multiple multiple things everything from mulling lawns to You know sweeping the yard or whatever If you have them trained To be able to do this At least then you have the possibility they'll move into the police department If there's an opening and you can hire somebody else who was I mean, this is definitely an entry entry level job At least the lawnmowing is part of it But if we can take it get somebody who would be willing to We also we also talked about that individual being a shared labor force between the highway and the public works group Now certainly in the summer that personal have More than enough plenty of work to do just between public works and and highway Crew labor work winter Obviously the public works side will probably slow down a little bit But the the thought was that they could Shovel Shovel bridge Back up on the on the plowing as well. You can do the pickup plowing, you know up to water worksway And those type of things in the winter That was the thought behind it had Given a lot of thought into this but I guess what I'll try to do If the if the board wants to move forward with this just as a backup I'll I'll try to get a summary of hours and what that would look like for another employee But in the meantime, I'll work with tom and the chief to figure out How to best apply it not overload the police as well I'm in favor of the concept Sorry, I'm in favor of the concept of another employee to do the yard work the mowing cleaning errands that type of work But I'm more inclined for the Municipal ticketing to be through the police department. I think it should be separate of that But I think the position in the concept is a good one for all of the other Other areas I would be more concerned about the additional workload on the zoning administrator As it'd be up to him to Gather and document all the evidence and be prepared to present it If the officer itself will You know just really be just filling out this form and and serving it and yeah, and some departments Do it computerized And that brings up a good question if the police are serving serving the ticket Would they actually be the one that would be to go and testify as opposed to tom That's my impression I believe so too But tom would do much of the background the research the investigative you'd have to make sure of the the right sections of the zoning violation Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. All those in favor Motion carries Apple funds update There's a one-pager in the document that diana prepared that we have reviewed Um, it tells you the amount that's been paid to date and what's still obligated under future And then the balance down at the bottom so based on what we spent and what we have Obligated there are still a hundred and ten thousand dollars In funds And when does that have to be obligated? December of 24 that has to be obligated So a year and a half from now and I got to double check that I saw notice come out the other day and made I don't believe it it has to be spent by them But it may maybe but I'm pretty sure it's obligated, but I will double check that and make sure We always the only thing I worry about is if we hold if we hold the balance I can tell you there's one item missing on the list Um That diana did not oh no, she's got it. There it is down at the bottom. Okay, so it's in there. Okay, so we're good You know the I worry about it is the congress for some unknown reason changes the rules and shortens the period Yeah, and along those lines. What is the date obligated by december 2024? What is the date for spending the funds? Uh, it has to be spent I believe by the end of the following year. So by the end of 2025 Just to make sure I don't the other thing just to throw out there. We're talking about the funds and the use thereof um at the next meeting There's going to be an update on the amount of grant work that that top has been working on um, and and a complete list of A very long list of of projects that are accounted for dollar-wise what we've gone after for grants and what what is 100 percent and what we would also have to pay 20 percent on and Based on the numbers Most of this could be consumed as a payment towards some of those grants Our participation there's about and this isn't all the projects yet If my memory is correct a little over six million dollars worth of work Have there been recent approvals of grants as well? Uh, there's not approvals, but um, acceptance acknowledgement of the applications and and such great and a lot of conversations Going into details great So tom is trying to make a 110,000 into six million Not really We're trying to make some money into six million. Yes, okay as close as we can get anyway in grants So anything else on this vince? No, again, it was just an update. If you if you look at that and have any questions after just send any email and give me a call I'll give you some answers. Thank you vince and thank you to diane too Okay, uh proposal for phase one environment. So we have kool-ass trail right, so we've got uh I think it's a seven acre parcel That would cause trail of town property That we don't know what we're going to do with yet. Um, there's potential out there Like we just talked about there's a lot a whole long laundry list of projects and things as the town grows and develops that we're looking at That's a a decent piece of property up here and uh So it's it's 4500 dollars to do this initial Survey to see if there's any issues with that property Um, so at some point down the road should the board decide that's a great place for something. Um We're a little ahead of the aplomb If we look forward with this We've got this done now While we still have some funds If approved how soon could they do it vince? Uh, I don't recall seeing the date that they could start Um, so the proposal's good for like 45 days. So I would You know make an assumption that it's probably uh Probably be late fall with the way scheduling is it really is But I could check as well How does this relate to the work that the economic development Committee is doing? I know they're looking at Overall needs space needs for the town Moving forward this kind of dovetails in with that because they know about the property But we don't know if we could do anything with it or what the cost would be to do with it This would be the first step to determine You know what we can do with that property if it's going to be if if there's heaven forbid Contaminated soil down there or whatever that changes the cost of having to Do something down there or what we may be able to do with that Where if it comes back clean and it's good and ready to go It's a lot less costly to move forward with that. So kind of dovetails with its information I can feed into the economic development to say, you know, we've got, you know, seven acres down here That's that's clean and ready to do something with as well to consider Take some of them, you know, maybe we can maybe we can't out of it. I'm just a little bit concerned. This is a fairly simple amount of money for An unknown Potentially I guess I would move that we table this discussion for until our next meeting to let the other two Board members of chance to weigh in I agree Really tired of it on this I've got uh, I think it's 35 30 days. Okay 45 days 45 days to get it back. So Okay, that's All over favorite tabling I Okay table that um Town and picnic policy So I I sent this out to you. I uh, I made the changes that were recommended and that we had talked about Sent it back out. I don't know if you've got a chance to look at it Again or not I think there's any more comments if you like it as is if there's More things that we have to figure out or have questions on Including the Chance comments are incorporated in this provision as well But I don't have any uh feedback from him on this this revision yet Do we have an identified properties right now that would need to be cleaned up how many To that I do that I know. Okay Uh, there may be more and again, I can I can find out please there may be more but I I well, there's actually probably more but some of them are in use now again as well Just to that. I know that they are probably not in use Okay, so this is um Something we need to get on fairly sooner sooner than later um Does there have been any word from case department? Um Um With the changes to the motel program any additional There's that so I'm not as high as expected. Okay See what they've seen. Okay. I know one business had somebody sleeping on their property Friday night along 302 So if that's related to it or not I'm still concerned with the section of removing the encampment and bringing it back to the town office building to be stored for 30 days I understand the importance of giving individuals time to Pick up their items if they still wish But I'm concerned about spacing and ability to Store that here at the town office and I'm open to discussion about that further Yeah, I'm I'm a criminal. I don't like the idea of us getting into the Business of storage business. I'm just concerned about There are constitutional protections about government taking personal property and I you know And this is potentially everything that these people own um, I'm I just I'm leery about that. I I I don't want us to do it But yet I'm not I'm leery that we have actually have the authority to do that to dispose of it immediately The best best we can do for storage is Probably one of the containers that we have sitting out there. We could probably the best we could offer for that If we if we go that route I also note the verbiage on page 12 with 13 says disposal may also include donation of the items Right, and I would just question, you know, all of that particular portion if that meets with um Proper legality. Well, and that one in particular though If you if you back up to page 11 that that isn't at that point It's determined unclaimed property because the town's held it for 30 days. So then it becomes unclaimed Um, I do like five five section five part b Um, giving authority to the police chief fire chief or town health officer May order the immediate disposal of any item removed that is illegal or represents a risk to public safety I think that that is a good inclusion in the policy Do you have a copy of this Washington County survival guide? Do you have electronic? I have a hard copy and I also have provided 10 laminated copies to the police Okay of that. So we have it in hand and we have the ability to laminate more as needed now How Thick how big is it? It's uh, it's a eight and a half by 11 double-sided I wouldn't mind having a copy of just uh, yeah, I've got one on my desk just to uh Make myself aware of it. Yep I also didn't see it in the policy But if we are going to bring it here and store it for the 30 days It might be wise to have some type of an accounting Of what the items are Etc. Well, they'll have to be a log of exactly from and and then what's there and so on for sure. Yes Yeah, I think that was one of my comments wasn't it? You know, I think the initial thought was pretty good in their evidence room, but that's that's a non-starter for them They don't have to roam it too. That's not a place for it to be right Do you have any idea or have you heard of it anybody saying what the item you be? I'm just wondering about If there's any perishables Again, I don't uh, I'm not even sure we see a case. We've seen a case where we would be doing this at this point Right most of the time Police have a pretty good relationship with these people. They ask them to move on They grab their stuff and they move on What we do see is When when they leave an encampment It's always just the trash that's left behind right the torn tarps the needles You know that just the nasty stuff that's left behind that needs to be cleaned up I don't think I've ever Discussed anything with the with the police yet of any abandoned property that's Many value the tents the sleeping bags and those type of things You know the lanterns the the propane stuff that all goes away With them they they find a way to get it And move it again. They're maybe at some point But uh, I'm not aware of a situation like that. Yeah where they would want to take the stuff And we're looking at Herman contractors to the physical cleanup. Well, that's what we talked about at the at the last meeting Right with potentially that would be you know, somebody that's familiar with hazardous material cleanup Or you know town's gonna do it should we do For a lucky employee, he's gonna have to be trained and how to handle hazmat material because You know every site that they've told me about has needles and and Nasty stuff blood one path. Yeah Yeah My question along those lines is if it got to that point as opposed to hiring a contractor in in that respect If it got to that point as described just now Could we or would we reach out for assistance from the state and hazardous in their hazardous expertise Even though we realize that it's our town and our responsibility in that in The ultimate They have the expertise personal feeling on that from Previous conversations With the state early on regarding this unless it's on state property Not a chance And I think it would be at best limited to consultation And advice Not actual I think that would be very beneficial because of the expertise that they have It might be Might be worthwhile to have that conversation again to see what could be done if anything The else on this and I'm not even I haven't even began to explore A contractor yet to see if there's even anybody out there That's willing to be qualified I'd be inclined more down the road For that if it was needed To go forward with whatever we determine is necessary as far as a necessity for cleanup on the quarter As you had it from Right, I know which one Any taking their dog down there and such that Of concern The else on this Excellent, okay Um, approval licenses permit vouchers and applications I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 23-26 for payroll from june 4th to june 17th 2023 Paid on june 21st of this year in the amount of 65,978 and 25 cents Payable warrant 23 g 23 with checks 23045 to 23082 for payables in the amount of 182,953 dollars and 98 cents Second Any discussion on this? Hearing none all those in favor high motion carries um Approval of june 6th 2023 minutes I haven't had a chance to read them in their entirety. Have you toured? Uh, I did. I don't have any problems with that. Okay, excellent I moved to approve the june 5th 2023 minutes as uh presented excellent and I'll go ahead and second those Any discussion all those in favor high high motion carries Round table floor nothing this evening. Thank you tour. Uh, nothing, sir I don't have anything to say, Mr. Chair. Uh, any executive session expected? No, sir Motion to adjourn I make the motion to adjourn tonight's regularly scheduled select board meeting All those in favor high We are adjourned