 22 select board meeting at the steel community room. I welcome all the guests and everyone in attendance. I just want to remind people of a couple of things. Every time you, and including the folks out in Zoom land, if you have something to say, please have it go through the chair. It's a good protocol to do that, have information flow through that and be recognized by the chair before someone speaks. That will keep things in the morning order. And the only thing, I thought it was kind of very apropos. I don't know who's car it is, but on the back of their car, they had a little sticker that says, be nice. That's my car. That's your car. And in this day and age, I couldn't say something better. Everything happening in the world and things be nice is a very extraordinary thing. Good for you. Our first thing is we need to approve the agenda. Does anyone have any changes to the agenda? I'd be like, if we could add an entertainment permit for the music in the alley series. Underneath consent or as a discussion piece? Probably, I need to give you the dates. Okay, let's do a discussion. Can't be a consent agenda unless it's under consent. What was the name of that again? Music in the alley. Any other additions? There being none, can I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, motion to approve the agenda. Aye. Vote to approve the agenda. Thank you. Long weekend. Aye. Next on the agenda is a consent agenda item. The only item is the minutes of the May 16th meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items? I'll move to approve the consent agenda items. Thank you, Roger. Can we have a second? Thank you, Alyssa. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? There being none. Vote to approve the consent agenda item. Aye. Now, the next part of the meeting is the time for the public to comment. And the public portion of our meeting is solely for things that are not specific agenda items as if you want to comment on a specific agenda item, we will get to those agenda items at that point in time. But if anyone has something to say that's not on the agenda, we would love to hear from you. Is there being none any out in Zoomland? There being none, we will then move on. We'll move on to select board items. We'll move on to John Malter and Rukarians on the not quite independent-state celebration. I'm going to turn the helm over to Danny because I'm a Rukarian, so I should abstain from, especially because I'm on the Festival Committee, so I probably should abstain. Thanks. Would you like me to come up? Yes, please. Come on up. I want to modify your bumper sticker. It should be, be nice and recycle. See, that way I can get the plug in for solid waste. That's a friendly of those. No, that's right. We'll vote on the next item. I feel uncomfortable because this is not my normal coming to the board here. Got to up trash. Oh, so good. Anyway, greetings and thank you for having me and us, and I'm happy to report that NQID is moving along, and we've got hopefully everything, but the weather is under control. We will hopefully see that as being done as well. June 25th is our scheduled date for NQID. We have all of our traffic control and security taken care of between the, both the troopers and we have two Washington County sheriffs in support roles as well for the event. Parade is scheduled for 5 o'clock, and we'll go through on that. And then we have our vendors coming over to Rusty Parker Park. They'll be setting up earlier in the afternoon, and we have a concert scheduled from 6 to about 9 o'clock with Barbie and Bones, and we will be providing or selling beer through an application that we've made to the liquor control department that Karla has the application that will need to be approved by this August board in June. And we have additional porta-potties. We have a 15-yard roll-off for additional trash, and hopefully some recycling will occur as well. And we will be putting the fence around the park early on Saturday morning. We will be blocking some of the parking later in the evening on Friday night so that the food trucks will have no impediments there as we get started for Saturday. We will have cleanup done before 11 o'clock on Sunday. I know there's another event that's going to be happening at the park on Sunday. And with that, I would just, and then we've got the fireworks that will be happening at dark, and we have another coordination piece with the buildings and grounds department with the state. Theresa Wood's taking care of that, and the transportation agency has been informed for whatever their permit is for the road closure and the parade. So hopefully, you know, we always throw a lot of balls up in the air, and hopefully we catch more than is necessary, but we don't like to have anything drop. And I'm now open for questions. Are there any big changes from last year to this year in terms of either physical space or event? No. I think that we may have hopefully more participating parade events. I'm hoping we get more people coming out because of the change in the COVID situation. And I like to think this is going to be a great starting point for Waterbury's wonderful summer. Thanks. Other questions? Is five o'clock later than you've started in the past? One o'clock in your standard. No, we have the Green Mountain Mile that starts at four o'clock, and that we didn't have the last couple of years. And so, and we're going to have... Tammy? Don, are you an hour off on everything? Am I an hour off? No, it starts at four. The parade is at four. 45, the lion only takes about 15 minutes or so. It's not a half an hour. I was thinking of me running, and so it would be an hour. Thank you, Tammy. I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. And I was thinking, Roger, days ago it was earlier, it was closer to noon, and then there was a long break, and it was kind of a lull, and I didn't work that well. This way it compresses all of that. That's probably what you were thinking it was. It used to be, I think, noon. See, I've got the sheriffs coming in a little after three. They are going to be blocking South Main Street at about 3.30. The race, I think, is supposed to start at 3.45. Once all the racers go by, that South Sheriff will move up to DeMarra Place, and any cars that are coming north on Main Street will be diverted to go behind the coffee roasters and go north on Stowe Street or out to the interstate or what have you, so that we've got that. The other sheriff will be stationed at the railroad overpass and blocking that side. Troopers will be at Park Row and Stowe Street, and we'll have several Rotarians on Manuski Street to compliment everything else. Thanks. Other questions? Any charge for the concert? There's no specific charge. We always invite people to make donations. That's with anything we try to enhance everybody's experience. None of the things, we have several elements in the parade that are a little pricey, but I think they're entertainment that is definitely appreciated by the folks. So that's a part of the equation. We're rotary if we don't ask for donations, something's wrong. So what are we specifically approving for a motion? Festival permit for June 25th. Festival permit. So a motion to approve a festival permit for NQID on June 25th. I'll second it. I'm not making the motion. I'll make that motion. Thank you so much. I can second it. We didn't second it at any further discussion. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right. Mike, back to you, sir. Okay. Next item on the agenda is disgusted traffic control concerns on Little River Road. I know this has been kind of an on-going. Yeah, so there have been several emails to me, and I'm sure to post a view from folks on Little River Road, a couple of them are here tonight, I believe. So I think probably best to let folks from Little River have their say, and then you can ask questions and I can make comments. Let's come up. Hi. Just if you could say your name. What are you mailing? Nice to meet you all. Oh, okay. I'm Landon Willow, and I've been on Little River Road for seven years this August. My name is Allison Schleppi. I've been there for about 15 months. So we're here today to talk about an on-going issue with speeding on our road. We've been here in the past. I think it was last summer. And every summer, so far, we've had State Trooper come and drop off a speed monitor and actually park it right in front of my house, which sits kind of at a point where it's the first point where people really see, they start to speed up because they want to get there. Going in. Yep. And so I am the A-frame on Little River Road. And so right as you come to that point, it significantly impacts traffic when we have A, something kind of coming into the road, or the car, or the speed speedometer. But it's improved. There will always be speeders, like even with a speedometer. We recognize that. But the improvement that we've seen when it's there has been significant. I have two little kids, and we have collectively many pets, older kids, and often on bikes and skateboards. And we teach our kids to stay on the road. I have cones up most of the time. But because we've become a seasonal destination, not just seasonal, I should say. It's now become four seasons. The park's always open, unlocked, all winter long. We have a lot of visitors. And we're happy. We like the fact that there's visitors. We want to see the road. I personally want to see the road more beautiful. I'd love to talk about why as a community, we don't have another option for biking and things on our road. And we do. But I'd love to see even more. But it's unsafe. I can't even walk with my stroller on the road. And so we've got a nice path. But it's behind our properties. So a couple ideas we have. We've collected. We've talked to Bill. Thank you. And we appreciate your feedback ahead of coming in. We've thought about a permanent solar sign. We know they're expensive. But we know that they exist in other places in the community. We recognize that the community has a speeding problem. Additionally. We hear that. And we hear you loud and clear. I love to... Every community. I know. But I mean, we don't have the police force anymore. And... You never did that. Sure. We didn't. But even in town and other places, we lack it. And so the community needs a campaign. Really. To slow people down. Beyond just a speedometer sign. If we have a speeding problem, then we should recognize the beautiful areas that people are speeding to get to somewhere. Whether it's Blush Hill. Whether it's Little River. Perry Hill. I'm sure there's a lot of little zones that people speed. And then there's other places where the top people slow down. All around the school. And I always slow down. I already know. I mean, I have a kid there now. But I've been taught. And I think people can learn. And so where we thought about the removable speed bumps. The solar sign. Solar speedometer sign. And then we'd love to find out what it would take to get additional speed limit signs. Signage. Just like share the road. Slow down. 25 miles per hour. The whole road is 25 miles per hour. But if I walk it, the signs are, people don't know that. The second that they drive by the first one that's hidden by a bush. I mean, I'll gladly send my husband down there to weed block it. But that isn't my job. But I want to keep my family and pets and things safe. And so we want to see the road more beautiful. We want to see it used. But we also want to be supportive. And how to communicate to people beyond just shouting or parking your car or throwing things. Yeah. I mean, I never did that. So that's my piece. You want to add anything? You pretty much covered everything. The thing that I've noticed over the last 15 years as has been said in the past to me that it is a seasonal place because there are more people and little river offers so much. There's a lot of people here in COVID. People were getting out and doing more stuff in the winter, spring and fall. There is something that attracts people to little river, not only the campground. The campground, it's like sold out all summer. Boating. There's probably three times the amount of it's going into the reservoir these days. There's mountain biking, the trails that they've made over the last couple of years. Water, people flying down with their bikes, which I love because when I first moved there, I remember going to a select board meeting and being quoted in the newspaper saying it's a lawless lane because people were flying down there and not as many but doing kind of naughty things down there. Now it's just recreators and so we kind of love the traffic. We don't mind the traffic because people are getting out there and being healthy and there's more visibility and you don't feel so secluded when you're walking. But it's dangerous. I mean I have screamed so many times like I'm embarrassed but like because of fright, like coming around the corner and somebody like going 60 miles an hour and the road is not that wide. And more and more people are riding their bikes. They're riding their bikes from the beginning to get to the trails. So unfortunately I feel like something is going to happen before we get these things permanently but we're trying to be proactive because each year, and I don't think it's going to go away. It's not going to get any less crowded. So we're just here again to try it. Yeah and we'd love to hear like how do we legally, I would love to put the signs up. I'll be proactive. Like I will go do it. I will drill them in. Like but I want to ask permission but something's got to get like we just can't sit through another summer doing nothing. Okay so I'll take a look at the signs and you're right it's not your job to you know clear brush from signs that's an issue. I live on Ripley Road and when I get to the end of the kneeling flats there's a sign that says whatever the speed limit is and there's a tree in front of it. They say oh I didn't bring my saw. So I get that. I understand it. A couple things just so the board knows I have tried to be responsive and respectful of the concerns that are sent to me. Enforcement is the most critical element of speed control. If a few people get tickets that does tend to get out there in terms of board a mile and people will slow down and you're exactly right I mean we we have 80 hours of police coverage for the entire town of Wandering. It's what the town has chosen that it wants for police coverage. The village area used to have a full-time police force that had you know in its most you know back in the 1990s you know four and a half to five full-time equivalents and you know they did not patrol a little over the road on a regular basis. The town at one point in time for a half dozen years or so contracted with the village and the village did provide some speed patrolling out of the community of the village. The town canceled that policy or that contract and then the village dissolved and we don't have a police force locally anymore. I am in contact with the troopers. I talked to them you know not every week certainly but I had a conversation with one of the troopers on Friday afternoon last week. I didn't specifically talk about this area but I do I forwarded the emails that both of you sent to Lieutenant White who is the person who oversees the police department. I have asked the highway superintendent and the public works director to get over the road on the loop. We have two portable speed feedback signs. Those of you who live in the village often see it sometimes on Stow Street sometimes on Muskie Street and it gets positioned in other neighborhoods as well. There was one on Neyland Flats when I came to work this morning. It's not there any longer so I assume it's back in the shop it's going to be charged and maybe it will be put down on Low River Road. The two we have three permanent speed signs. Two on Stow Street one coming down the hill from Route 100 both in the area of North Street they're both on the hill coming that comes down from Route 100 to Tanry Flats and they both work one of them is electric the other one is solar power and then we have a solar powered one on Route 100 just before you coming from Betty Jerry's just before you get to Crossroads. That's also ours. There's no question that when people see them they do tend to slow down anecdotally and I walk on Stow Street often times I park at the parking right and then walk to work for some exercise and it appears to me that when they are all the time the people that go by every day they just kind of meld into the background I'm not saying they don't do any good but I think a lot of people just they see them and then they kind of meld into the background. I think the portable signs have been rather effective we only have two they cost I talked to Bill Woodruff last week I think they're in the $5,000 range so they're not budget busters we certainly could buy additional ones we did not specifically budget for them this year the challenge I must tell you is and I don't know for sure it will be a challenge if we order them but people have asked how come the crosswalks aren't painted where's the lines? You can't buy traffic paint because of supply chain issues and we may have the same situation with the signs We can try it I talked to Bill Woodruff today about the portable speed bump that we have we have one it's last I looked it was on Bidwell Lane over near the Stow Street Cafe we had it up on Gupton Road a couple of years ago we have moved that around our sense is that it's not going to work well on the gravel road because there's nothing to anchor it into when we had it on Guptal Road it was in a section of old bad pavement and it didn't even stay there where it is now it's relatively going to be paved it has to be there's a spike that's driven in the ground to hold it there and while certainly the bump would be advantageous to help slow folks down especially that portable one because it's really designed for about 20 miles an hour if you hit it much faster than that it really causes problems and we have a lot of complaints on Guptal Road about it and I would imagine we'll have complaints and I'm not saying we shouldn't do it from people who are traveling boats to have to go over that would be a little bit of an inconvenience but my concern is that we'll put it in and then those stakes will jostle out and the thing is going to walk across the road and then it's not going to be safe I think you both lived down there from Route 2 into where the houses are used to be paved the pavement was getting really bad the people on the road some of the people on the road complained about it other people on the road said boy it's really good for traffic control you know, the bars can't go too fast on it we chose a number of years ago to grind the pavement out and not repave that section and it was felt that you know, paving is very expensive we have lots of other roads that have much more traffic and I don't deny that it's a four season destination and we haven't asked the Regional Planning Commission to put a speed counter down there yet it's probably something that we could do to just see how much traffic it is but again, my gut and I tried down there fairly regularly is that it's certainly not as high a traffic road as say Dr. Rowe or Neumann Flats or some of the other places that we have problems so we can try to buy my feeling is that we would be better buying several portable signs and move them around the community including Little River as opposed to another permanent sign the permanent signs are much more expensive getting electricity to them sometimes is a challenge there's a bunch of houses there so you must have overhead wires that go down to the park so we could probably get it hooked in they're probably in the $10,000 range for one and if you have a solar panel it would be more expensive than that it is rather shaded there that section is in the trees so I'm not sure how well a solar panel would work I know some of you have solar panels you can use my solar panels how expensive are just additional permanent speed limit signs would that be yeah I'll have to look to see how many that we have down there and I didn't think to bring in the ordinance if it's 25 miles the full length of the road I'm surprised at that a lot of people ask us to lower the limits just for the information for the board 25 is the lowest speed limit that we can set according to state law and 50 is the highest speed limit we can have and typically all the handbooks that I have from AOT talk about don't go out there and just put a 25 mile an hour speed limit out because that's what you want the speed limit to be you should in general the traveling public typically goes around the speed that is safe to go so you can either do a test of the Regional Planning Commission and have them put out a traffic counter and oftentimes the traffic counter will show that the speed is a lot higher than you want it to be it's a safe speed for that road given the conditions but you're supposed to set the speed limit at the 80th percentile and we did this test on Guptal Road that was the most recent one we did it was probably four years or so ago right see yeah four or five years ago I think and we have people on Guptal Road wanting us to make the speed limit 25 it's 40 for the most part there and the speeds were approaching 50 but mostly we set speed limits by traveling up and down the road in five mile an hour increments until we feel that that's a safe speed and things that come into play are things like how many curb cuts there are how many businesses driveways and things like that so it's not an exact science if we've if the whole road is 25 miles an hour it can't be any longer than that and you know signage we typically have enough signs we'll make sure that they get trimmed out so people can see them and you know maybe we can put up another one here or there but typically you know that you know if you'd have you certainly wouldn't have more than three speed limit signs the length of the road and if there's two that's probably enough but three wouldn't hurt you wouldn't need more than that so if you want portable signs and as these women know this is an issue that we hear from all over the town all the time so having a few more portable signs will be helpful we don't have any more people it takes time to go out and get the sign and bring it in and charge it and go replace it and we've got highway crews that are trying to do highway work so it's a little bit of a management situation but it's not something that's overwhelming and can't be done so if you want a couple more of those we can try to get them I don't know how quickly we'll be able to get them but I would advise against the portable signs I think that they're too expensive and they just stay in one place forever and I think they lose their perspective I really feel your guys I know it's not just your road you know I go up that road as a boater and I have people all the time I'm trying to go do the right thing and they're right up my bumper and it's just it's very frustrating but I do agree with Bill is that the permanent signs are very difficult we're going to get a couple of roads we have a whole bunch of areas and they say it's partly a societal problem that people just drive too fast now and I don't know to me the only way to correct it a little bit is the officers give a few speeding tickets that's going to help a lot it's just not going to help the people, the transient people and you probably on your road you probably get a lot of transient people you know people going up to the Little River Park people even coming from Wellington going on on the reservoir and just to just to follow up on your point blank and you know we have a very you know still rather inexperienced select board most of you have only been on for a couple of years you're in the fourth year now just so everyone knows as well that due to COVID the state police pulled way back on making traffic stops they probably remember what Mike does but you know we got a monthly report from the state police they're beginning to you know it's beginning to creep up again but for all of 21 and much of 20 unless it was really egregious and weren't pulling over people because they just didn't want that contact so I will try to remind Lieutenant White okay you know I think COVID is kind of here to stay we've got to kind of try to get back so we'll try to direct them your way and don't be afraid to call that's the other thing that I try to tell everybody who contacts me about speeding is I can't issue a ticket if you call the state police and just tell them and if enough people from the same area call the squeaky wheel gets the grease so don't be afraid to call can I bring up one thing with the speed bumps is there any way of being able to drill something into the ground that can make permanent facets for a speed bump I don't know I think we need to think out of the box about this because I feel like and I don't mean to like get a little like upset right now but I've sat in three of these meetings and I hear the same thing and we're not getting anywhere like a partial speeding sign here and there is not going to really help us I understand that but Mike's kind of said the words that I would say so we're going to put them everywhere in time right and I totally understand that but I feel like we need to do something and it's like the speed bump the bumps like I know that they'll shimmy if they're unscrewed but I mean there must be some kind of way I'm not sure that we're going to be able to put an anchor in a gravel road and keep it there I mean but is this something that we could research and see if it's possible to actually make that happen I'm sure we could look into it see what's why I just I think the problem is we're not in Florida so with winter and stuff like that and that's what but I think as Bill's point was he doesn't know if they'll be successfully anchored, if they can be I think it's something if we have a way to do that I would love to be able to maybe research that and find out who would be the person to how about some traffic cones just the last point I'll make we had a hole and on the road and they put a cone on it people slowed way down we'll definitely take the hole back with the cone but our traffic cones permitted during high traffic season like on our drive on our properties like is that something that you shouldn't put anything in the right of way in the right of where the road probably goes outside of your lawn the road typically you would go to the center line of the road and measure 25 feet in both directions and that's where the town right of way you shouldn't be putting things in the right of way you can park your car there there's no restriction against parking there I know and we can think about it a little bit you know there's I'm not suggesting that we should pave the road again or pave all of it but all the houses really are right together right so we could potentially and this can't happen this year but we could think about maybe paving the section through where the houses are and then narrowing the traveled lanes you know there are optical illusions if you will that are often done now on roadways where even with painted lines the lines are going parallel like this and then they just bring the lines in and then they go back out the traveling public sees that narrowed painted line and they typically slow down you can do the same thing with a curve and again I'm not promising that we can do it but we can think about it we're going to be repaving Stow Street this year the state is supposed to be doing something so to me pavement would make it up to me it would make the problem worse well if you paved it if you paved it and if you paved it and then you could put a speed bump in there or speed table in there right in that section where the houses are I'm sure they're most concerned about nobody wants them speeding further down the road either but there's no way we can do this the populated area I think in the perfect world we would have a path that the community could use a bike lane or something we have an amazing street it's such an asset to Waterbury I know that's not going to happen this year but I feel like that could be a part of the consideration is that there are really dangerous curves we have bikers at least I'll be happy to sit there and click a whole day and we have this Steve and I have been working here in the community for a long time back it probably predated Steve but certainly when he got here people have been asking can we have a community path from the village up to Waterbury center and we have pieces of it here and there but we haven't been able to do the whole thing there's a lot of demands in the community and they cost money and we have to balance that with what the select board wants to have for a tax rate and how do we balance the municipal tax rate against the school tax rate so there's a lot of considerations and please don't think that I'm saying there's nothing we can do I think we can look into it but there's no quick and easy fix the possibility I'll talk to Bill again about the speed bump maybe we can try it but if it starts to chatter across the road it's going out I can't risk the liability of the town for something like that because if somebody hits that and then they're going too fast and then they hit a person or a vehicle and we're going to be held to that so we can look at things but if the board wants more portable speed signs even though it's not budgeted you should tell me that I can't do it myself I think we've heard that loud and clear from you know there are we all know the troubled places and there's no secret and yes I think the permanent ones don't seem to be a more portable one so we can move them around you know that we can have them there I know whenever I see one of those portable signs I immediately look at my the permanent ones work I'm not saying that they don't work at all because people do see them and slow down after they're there and you go by them every single day I think you get a little bit used to them the difficulty with the permanent signs for me is that hey they're just they're too costly to make them usable everywhere but if we had a greater amount of the portable ones I think that makes a lot of sense because that way we could get it on a little river road more often than it probably has been and that may help you know again it just gets in people's minds when they see those signs start flashing that you're going fast and our road is it doesn't attract people that go there every single day they go there to recreate so it does kind of startle people even if you go down there three days a week to recreate it's not an everyday I'm going to work I have my coffee I'm waking up and thinking about other things and they want to put their boat in and they're a little late to get there would this be a possible use of ARBA funding yes but I think that I think that there's enough capacity just in the general fund to be able to deal with that I mean we're going to not tonight's meeting but at a meeting in the relatively near future within the next couple months we're going to talk about ARBA I think that this is you know ARBA money should be bigger picture larger bigger structure than this I mean it's and I haven't done a budget review I mean it is a challenging year budget wise we may have some capacity on from the side of personnel I'm getting ready to advertise for the community service officer position I'm hoping that because it's a full-time position and because it has benefits that there will be people that are interested in that position it was funded from July through the end of the year we're probably not going to have somebody ready to go for July I'm hoping we get applicants because when we tried a couple years ago part-time positions with a pretty good pay rate we had zero applicants but the challenge for our budgets this year is all on the fuel oil side things diesel fuels over $5 a gallon I'm not sure we're quite paying it yet because we have diesel fuel dropped in our own tank but gasoline is way up other consumables are up when we start to haul in sand and gravel from the pit and we have to hire people who drive Mack trucks they're paying $5 a gallon or more so we are going to have some pressure on the budget but I think that given we have an over $5 million budget you know we can probably withstand $10, $15,000 $20,000 hit and figure it out it seems to make sense to want to move forward potentially with so we want to make a motion to spend x number of dollars for a purchase of x number of signs well I don't know the exact cost of the signs so if you give me maybe we can leave it until the next dollar amount well we can say up to a certain amount right and what do you think makes the most sense to signs or to plus if we were going to spend up to $15,000 I would buy at least if we're going to buy them we can have five all together so get authorized up to three signs and if I find that the price for three signs is $50,000 I'll probably buy two signs and come back and tell you but if it's exorbitant you know I'll delay the purchase until we talk again but if you authorize three signs I think you can probably figure out a way to take them and we probably have about five critical areas that probably need signs I'm not saying it may still because there are some other areas we might have to move a sign here but maybe there most of the time we move them around but we have five if we have five we'll be able to put them on lower river road more often is it both directions that are problematic both in and out because people stay too late on the reservoir they go a little longer and they're like my wife's going to kill me I've got to pick up my kid they jam it right at the end they want to hit the road they get literally to our houses and then it's like right there but the sign the one that the state police have does stick out a little bit and so it narrows the world they put that up they have so even if you only see the speed limit or your speed on one side there's still something in the road on the other side it does stay down a little bit because it narrows the road it makes people look it makes other people slow down coming at it but then you have a blind spot coming from the lake so I do think it's both ways I'll move if we authorize the municipality to purchase up to three movable signs I'll second can I just say I support this, thank you for coming in I just have to say I slow down every time I go by so sweet maybe it's because I've only lived here four years but I think the permanent ones I understand they're more I didn't know the price of any of them prior tonight so thank you I support this motion I'm going to vote for it, no question my two other questions were if they are just the speed limit signs I think, and again I know that doesn't have to be part of this motion but to me that seems like a low intervention point I drive down and there's this stupid stick saying sorry not stupid but damn thing here the water can vary really rapidly like every literally 100 yards and we don't necessarily want more litter on signs but I think the point of that is seasonal visitors and folks who aren't here I think an extra reminder of the speed limit the nominal price for an aluminum sign is worthwhile and again I think the portable is a strategic investment clearly it can be used in town we'll look at the speed limit signs too and even if not speed limit just slow down or whatever other cautionary signs might be being really noticeable the road signs are helpful there's no playground but a number of years ago we were directed from the state and they said you should not put up playground signs you should not put up children playing signs that because the research was that they didn't work and they were confusing to people so we had a lot of signs around the community that said things like that that we had to take down but the share of the road signs are good we can look at that I'll look at the speed limit signs Alyssa to see to make sure we have enough and then we'll go forward with the portable speed limit signs I'll encourage the state if they have it to put theirs down there from time to time as well because that's just one war in the community that can be helpful and we'll look into this the speed bump thing just a question because we were looking at at first talking about a dollar amount versus number of signs as to Bill's point if they're $50,000 I think three is I think that's a good motion because if you give me a dollar amount and then I can buy one in a tent so you've said three and I think you can trust me to decide boy we can't buy three because it's going to be too much and I would come back but and I guess my last point would be I support clearly if three is your recommendation I would go along with that if we were just looking at this issue and not the town holistically I was going to say is it two when you kiddie the 5k to be half the cost of a permanent one for the next year again it sounds like this is a better overall management so I support that there's a budget season every year we have a motion and a second I assume there's no further discussion there being none all in favor say aye aye we have a couple extra thank you thank you motion passes next item on the agenda is report to the subcommittee we have a motion and a second I assume there's no further discussion they're being done is report to the select board results of the RFP for the Hope Davy and Ice Center park study and hearing recommendation for award and contract okay thank you absolutely so we're making very good progress on the IU from the two park study but it's the Hope Davy park and the vicinity of the Ice Center I'm also hoping that out of this process we'll come up with a good name for the park area around the Ice Center not that I have anything against the Ice Center but so we set out a request for proposals we got two proposals and they were from the SE Group out of Burlington and New England forestry consultants out of Springfield Vermont and Danie and Alyssa Nick and I conducted the interviews via Zoom about a week ago so out of the interviews we're recommending that the town contract with the SE Group out of Burlington they're very well qualified recreation planning and design is really their bread and butter they have offices in Burlington and Colorado and Utah believe it's called the SE Group yep so the contract amount the budget was $50,000 as you know the basic proposal was $48,969 and then they had an add on for the Arborist Company Tree Works out of Montpelier to do some work at Oak David Park with soil compaction in the forested areas they have a meter they do this type of work on a consulting basis it would really give us a good idea of whether certain areas in the disc golf course are having an impact on the wooded areas so that would bring the total up to $50,169 talk to Bill about it really think it's a good idea I think it gives us a fuller picture of the of the project there are other sub consultants are Arrowwood Environmental they would be doing the wetland delineation and then Harkin Associates which is an archeological firm that's done all the archeological work down at the ice center over the last 15 plus years the $50,100 gets us SE Group plus the consultants it's not additional for other consultants that's a complete package with all of these sub consultants so it's a complete study they presented the project they're with these sites so as I say this group that did the interviews is recommending that we contract with the SE Group to do the project they submitted a schedule which has the project finishing in mid December we did have some conversation about scheduling and they actually have a new staff member or landscape architect who lives in Waterbury who may be involved in the project so I think we'll have to have some further discussion in terms of the contract but it's clear that I explained about the budget we're on calendar fiscal year we need to spend the money this year and if it went into next year whatever remained in the project would have to be re-budgeted so they understand the constraints can you just say a few things about the other Sure New England New England Forestry Consultants is a firm out of Massachusetts I believe that has the office in Springfield the forester's name is Ryan Gumbart he's the one that we interviewed young man lives in Weathersfield he's a tree warden there quite involved in conservation their strength is really forest planning and the examples they gave were of forest work that they've done in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and they're good at that they do not have very much experience with active recreation facilities there was really a concern I think that all of us had about their ability to work in the public process and really elicit good input from the public come up with design that would be more specific for new facilities especially at the ice center so they're just very limited in the experience in that realm we didn't feel that the hours were really adequate it was a much lower dollar figure but we really didn't feel that we would end up with the product that we needed with the detail we need whether it's wetland delineation or other aspects of the project capacity just seemed a lot lower with that group and worried about like Steve said, the well-roundedness of the proposal but also just capacity they had the staff, the representatives they had people with expertise and the sub-consultants and that just made a huge difference and is the public input budgeted in to this figure? Yeah, definitely budgeted in we're going to have a couple of public meetings SC Group developed a Frank this year who has worked with them with the Department of Forest Parks and Recreation they did a planning toolkit for Town Forest I was in contact with the Department of Forest Parks and Recreation that was done fairly recently two years I believe and they're going to employ some of that technique they're very much geared to being inclusive having like an open house style public meeting where people can drop in there's a lot of interaction people who might be shy in a larger group setting can have an opportunity to provide input on more of a one-to-one basis and so they built in a pretty robust public input process and they do a lot of it and they're good at it they use technology they use a variety of means to try to get good input Are you satisfied with the mid-December product delivery? I am I think like any situation that we could potentially get into some delays but we're going to have to have a conversation with them I had one conversation with their principal Adam Portz about this issue and I think a lot of it for them has to do with staffing I think if there's some flexibility we talked about this local new staff member who I think would be excellent he lives right here in our area so he may get involved as opposed to one of the other staff people So what I think it might be helpful Roger to your point I mean we're hoping that they're able to meet their deadline on December obviously the sooner we get this information the better it is in terms of thinking about how we might implement something next year but if we get the report done by December it's still early enough to include the process for whatever the next steps are Steve talked to me last week and I recommended to him that we have the SE group actually draft the contract and get it ready they work with a lot of municipalities they work with the state the contract that they have rather than us spend a lot of time with a lawyer to put a contract together and give it to them So what would be helpful would be the price $50,100 $109 $169 I would ask the select board to authorize staff to sign the contract we know what the price is we'll get the contract back as quickly as possible if it's not here before the next select board meeting I'll bring it here to give these projects and these contracts are fairly performant so if we don't see any big red flag in the contract if we have your authority to sign it and then give them a notice to proceed so that they can get going I think that would be best definitely someone would like to make a motion I'll make that motion the select board authorizes our top manager and our planning director to sign a contract with SE Group for $50,169 and if you could add that we authorize the town staff to sign it okay we have a motion we have a second to the motion we have a motion and a second discussion if not all in favor say aye aye motion unanimous great thank you Steve we'll keep you right here okay next item is consider appointing members the steering committee for the park study including selecting one at large member alright so Mike did they give you three? I printed everything okay so here's three more to go that way and I've got a couple extra copies if anybody wants them so so we've been working on formulating the steering committee for this project also trying to be proactive so we can really get started and so if anybody else needs to copy there's some copies right here so in our request proposals we identified a steering committee of approximately eight people maybe nine with two staff involved and so the first page identifies the different groups that are players here the water area trails alliance capital soccer water very skate park coalition center change disc golf the ice center and then recreation committee Phoebe Paukey has been designated to be their representative staff would be Nick and me and then we'd like you to consider appointing a member at large from the community at large are we going to include a select board member as well? yes we can certainly do that that was my oversight for not putting that name so that will boost the number a little bit but we would like to have a select board member I'm sorry I forgot to put that Melissa I know you volunteered to potentially be that person unofficially we discussed as a board thank you Danny for reminding me about that so there are five emails attached we put out an ad on front porch forum for a member at large for the steering committee who posted it and so we got interest from five people Jane Brown on the call Dan Potter Dan's also on the call Dan lives in the Knowles development there in Moulton Farm and is a planner Tom Thurston expressed interest Elizabeth Danu Elizabeth lives on Maple Street and she's interested and has lived there for quite a long time in use of facilities and then Brenda who's been involved in recreation over the years so we asked all of these folks to provide like with their interest level and some additional background so we got some detail from Jane Dan and Elizabeth so beyond that I don't really, it's not my job to make a recommendation so I do know I don't think all of these people but anyway before we go further Steve could you just talk a little bit for public knowledge about what the role of the steering committee is because I just want to be clear we are certainly soliciting participants for a steering committee to help inform the process but I just want to be clear that everyone is welcome to provide input throughout the process the steering committee is just a group of local liaisons who can help participate but I don't know if you can elaborate further on what a steering committee is and what its role is in this process sure and I think you said the steering committee is the group that would work most directly with the consultant along with staff would have periodic meetings once or twice a month we'd have a kickoff meeting with the consultant and then the public but we definitely want to have opportunities for wider public participation that's going to be a really important part of the project so we're not discouraging anybody from participating it's just we want to have a group a core group and we did this with the community center project most recently we had a steering committee that was representative of the key players with the community center it worked very well we'll definitely involve the select board we'd like to have represented from the select board as well so it's really more the steering committee is more in the details and actively involved on a more frequent basis but we would definitely want to have a broader public input and there's going to be a lot of opportunity for that okay just as a note I know I've spoken with Steve he's definitely an outstanding nine person group as a steering committee anything much bigger than that probably becomes a little awkward so we do have to the one thing that he did mention as much as I know Jane put in a fairly great resume for what she wanted to do but she's on the recreation committee and I guess the rec committee already appointed someone so we both of us felt we want a double dip having multiple recreation committees but that's all of our pleasures if we want to go elsewhere but you see the recommendations of folks if you have kind of any questions you know point someone from the select board and a member at large that would bring the total up to ten yeah if there's two staff involved which I think there probably should be you're right I don't think I'm saying if you had a steering committee of fifteen people that might get a little awkward ten tops I think we could deal with one extra member well I'll start by moving that way it doesn't lead Alyssa as our select board representative I would second that any further discussion on that as long as you're good at that I assume if the folks didn't know I'm a planning enthusiast exactly okay all in favor of appointing Alyssa as our select board member to the committee aye okay so all in favor now in terms of if we're going to have ten person well I would definitely recommend we have a member at large I think that's really important that someone who's not affiliated with an interest group and can look at the community more at large I think Dan and Elizabeth would be the two top candidates Dan is believable he could probably speak for himself he's here so I shouldn't speak for Dan hello thank you Dan we appreciate hearing from you yeah thank you for your time tonight but as I put my email I am a former planner well I still plan just in mostly in the energy space nowadays but I worked at the Mount of Scutney Regional Commission formerly the Southern Ranger County Regional Regional Commission for a number of years they represent ten towns down in the southern Vermont area in the Springfield Scutney Weathersfield region and projects like this are really exciting you know I was planning in that area when Scutney Trails Association first started taking ownership of that project in Scutney and we helped them out with some grant funds towards demolishing that the old ski lodge so they could get that out of the way and start fresh at that site and I'm also you know a member of the community as Steve mentioned I live at the Knolls subdivision which is right next to the Hope KV Memorial Park I've got two young kids we frequently go over there use the facilities I'm also a mountain biker use the Perry Hill facilities and I think these sort of diverse experiences would be valuable to the steering committee I guess we don't have Elizabeth with us but we you know have she the number she the telephone Elizabeth I I was on the telephone yeah so Elizabeth has been active in the community group for quite a long time and I think her email really speaks for itself she's been active with Girl Scouts active with her church and familiar with the ice rink with her her daughter's figure skating and free skating and dog park and so on so she's very you know I know her not well but I'm certainly she's certainly engaged in coming from the board of a potential at-large candidate diversity without having anything really from Brenda or Tom I feel like you know I'm looking between Dan and Elizabeth unless anybody has a different Tom yeah Tom Thurston is Tom that's Tom Thurston yeah Tom did a follow-up email he's fine if you end up pointing somebody else he was interested yeah if he was here to talk to it would be great but I don't know yeah he followed up he didn't have time to put in any more detail but of course he's a great recreation we use steering committees at work through the community visit process I would say one piece we think about is outreach partners and people on the steering committee helping being champions and leading outreach so I would say folks with I know I have no connections to the school system and don't have kids or a young family in town and I also don't live directly adjacent to either of these parks so I would echo Danny's leanings just in terms of having folks who could do direct neighbor-to-neighbour outreach or connect more to the school certainly we all can work to do that but I think having those perspectives as members of the community helps further I think the fact that Dan took the time to participate in today's discussion is significant you guys have a question this is James I'm asking a question yeah so if you ruled me out as a candidate for this committee asking if we ruled her out as a candidate for the steering committee I talked with again the position Steve thought was we already have one recreation committee member appointed that it was kind of be double dipping but well I'm disappointed I understand you're very well qualified Jane I'd like to say one thing about I think it was a great selection but the landscape architect who lives in Waterbury was part of the six person team that came to that is promoting the ice center the ice I'm sorry the skate park near the ice rank so I think he would have to have a conflict of interest for that part of the study and maybe could participate in the hope Davey part but that seems like a conflict of interest to me we haven't really had the further conversation I think we want them to submit his qualifications they haven't done that yet so I just was kind of indicating it has nothing to do with this qualifications he's a part of that group and so it seems like a conflict of interest to me he's very well qualified I just want you to be aware of that that's good to know thanks not about a point Jane we'll take that into consideration I'll move the way I'll move the way you point Dan Potter is the number of large for this part of the study steering committee I'll second the motion we have a motion and a second any further discussion thank everyone including Jane and everyone else here for applying and say that at a minimum what SE Group has outlined I think has three public meetings this open house and two presentations to the select board so just thank everyone who is interested in participating and you'll probably see from porch forum posts from me and the committee and everyone moving forward about how to participate so thanks for being interested and even if you're not in the steering committee we would love your input throughout the process can I say something can I say I was just going to say can you repeat that before you vote can I say something sure I've made this point already but I think this is an opportunity that I don't think should be missed I think someone from the disabled population in town who would like to use the facilities should be in the conversation and I think the steering committee is the perfect opportunity to make a statement as a select board about the process and it doesn't have to be me I think it just should be asked that if there is anyone that's interested that they be given an opportunity didn't they have an opportunity Tom to put their name in as a member of the public well Bill I mean I I asked numerous times about the process of the steering committee had a long conversation with Mike about it had a conversation with the the rec committee about it so in terms of applying there were various statements made about who was and who weren't wasn't going to be on the steering committee so I don't think it's as public as you're saying and I think if you want to just shut it down and take the vote then go ahead I'm just making a suggestion that's all yeah Tom as I think we have discussed I think there are a number of folks that are on these different areas that may have backgrounds in disabilities you know so they it's not like they're not representing that disabled community and again I would as I think said you know anyone in the disabled population or disabled organizations are welcome to participate in the public part as well as the select board meetings that will eventually happen so I I hear you and I think this disabled issues will be considered by members of that committee and I you know I know from a few people who are you know subject to being on that committee do have some sensitivity and backgrounds with disability issues Tommy I just want to chime in I hear two main points one is that you didn't feel that the ask for applicants was as public as you wish it was I think we did what we could in the time but knowing that going forward I know the SE Group is going to work really hard to make sure that the public knows how and when to be involved so it will be even better than that first process and then second that you want specifically you want specific outreach to folks in the disabled community to solicit them specifically to give input and I think we can I think we can do that and I think we can work on that with SE Group to make sure that we're asking for specific voices from different communities so I do think going forward we can we can be more intentional about that yeah that's fine you know there's so much talk in the town about being inclusive so I think this is good opportunity to be inclusive we all I think we all agree with you Tom okay so we have a motion and a second if there's no further discussion all in favor say aye motion passes okay great thanks thank you Steve thank you all next item on the agenda a report on downtown transportation fund grant for Randall Street sidewalks and Rusty Parker park improvements Bill yeah I had asked Steve to make a little report but I think I can do it and Steve can continue to stay here because we've got other things that he's going to talk about just to remind everyone the town did apply for a downtown transportation fund grant this this round we budgeted in our infrastructure budget $240,000 of expenditures hoping to receive a $200,000 grant from the state to support that $240,000 for all of our multiplicity of projects Steve was going to tell you today that we had been awarded the grant but we haven't had a grant agreement yet the grant agreement did come this afternoon actually I have it here so the total award that the town got was the $200,000 grant $200,000 grant the expenditures are $240,000 so we have a $40,000 local share and the $200,000 I mean the $240,000 is going to be spent on lighting in the Rusty Park, Urban Memorial Park installation of period lamp posts there installation of flower brackets for some of those lamp posts trash and recycling receptacles that will go into the park six of them you know pricey receptacles $4,600 each so almost $28,000 for trash cans they're beautiful they're not going to blow the metal in I thought they're not $55,000 the trash cans are $400 more expensive than the lamp posts and for unit basis the lamp posts are more expensive and in that addition to those items that will be done in Rusty Park for Park there's $106,950 budget for sidewalks on both sides of Randall Street and then $21,000 almost for sidewalk from Park Road to Randall Street we had to make that connection from the park from Main Street actually to Randall Street the construction project must be completed by April 25th of 2024 so that's 24 months from the award date even though the award date from our perspective is June they made the decision to issue the grant in April so it's possible that all of this work does not get completed in 2022 you know the sidewalk work on Randall Street and Park Road right now this budget assumes that town staff is going to do a highway department staff if we hire a contractor to do it it will be much more expensive than we did it done for the amount of money that the grant would award so we'll do our best I'm sure we will get some of this sidewalk done our hope is that all of it will be done this year but it's dependent on weather and other things that crop up I'm not even going to talk about the bad things that can happen over the course of the summer so anyway we have this grant and I would ask if you would make a motion to accept the downtown the downtown transportation fund grant in the amount of $200,000 and authorize me to sign it so moved thank you thank you any further discussion sorry for the annoying notes for this planning and former RW staff note that I believe we were eligible for the downtown transportation fund because we're designated downtown so just to say when that comes up we're getting this grant for downtown it's a good planning thing there's always designated downtown for how long 2006 I think is when we first got it village centers don't get this grant no we've got lower railroad street we did a period light post and sidewalk there and then as part of the main street project we did got funding for light posts other amenities some of the signage that was all funded so we we've taken advantage of the opportunity to apply for grants we've been relatively successful and have done good things with it so this will be a great project when it's all completed I cringed the other day when I was at the concert last Thursday and I saw somebody against one of the light posts and they all went so anyway their useful life is coming about so it would be good to get these anyway thanks did we vote? no I was just saying we had a motion to second we just had a discussion all in favor say aye aye everyone in favor motion passes next item is retail sale of cannabis cannabis control board so bill asked me to stay and give some additional information on this and I think as all of you know we opted in for retail sale of cannabis the state is now curing up for licensing as you've probably heard in the news we're doing licenses for retail sale for growing operations for manufacture processing and so on distribution so I attended a actually Neil and I both attended a webinar that was put on by Vermont League of Cities and Towns that was on May 24th that was on regulating cannabis I was presented primarily by the state cannabis control board it was very knowledgeable and we learned about a number of different aspects including the option that municipalities have to have a cannabis control commission so instead of calling it a cannabis control board like a liquor control board it's called a cannabis control commission it is optional we don't have to have one but if for some reason we would want to have our own licenses for retail sale or growing or manufacture and processing we'd have to have that commission it could be the select warrior like your liquor control board of course but it's optional we do we will be regulating cannabis operations through zoning right now the only operations being considered for exemption is growing on a farm outdoors for under a thousand square feet of area S188 is a bill and I'm not sure if it's been signed by the governor yet but that would exempt those small growing operations on existing farms so retail sales exempt them from zoning not through a license so they still have to get a state license so I'll just give a little bit of background and then you can certainly ask some questions from a zoning perspective our understanding is that retail sales of cannabis currently under want of rezoning it's retail sales so we don't differentiate between cannabis and any other product an indoor growing operation if it's in a totally enclosed structure we consider that a light industrial type use so that would be allowed in any zoning district where light industry is allowed or industrial district or the two primary areas and same with the manufacturer processing that would likely be a light industrial type of use bill adds some conversation about growing if it was in a greenhouse we'd likely permit that as a greenhouse in most districts I think allow greenhouses so that may very well come up in the future so bill I've had some conversation the state as you may have heard is a very elaborate licensing process it's complex and a lot of qualification side of it so you may just not want to enter into that whole realm of having to create a local commission and the licensing process yourselves that might be seen as duplicating what the state already does there are some basic requirements that for separation of cannabis facilities such as can't be within 500 feet of a school it's called a buffer zone that's for retail operations and may include other operations as well so that's really all I have I don't profess to be an expert but staff's recommendation monument steams is that you should allow the state to do the licensing as opposed to trying to create our own commission all of the all of the regulatory issues that the state would have to address you'd have to replicate here I think it's a matter of capacity we don't have a lot of capacity through this so I think from our perspective the regulation through the zoning process we know there are there are businesses out in watering already that are kind of gearing up for this Steve mentioned the opt-in we voted in 2021 right or 2020 2020 to opt in to allow this retail sales growing in watering when it comes to fruition in October I believe that's correct, the licenses will be kind of effective so to try to put a licensure commission in place to do everything that's necessary between now and then would be a little bit of our Herculean task and I think as Steve said it would be duplicative and there's no real reason for us to do that here so the zoning perspective and then on the agriculture Steve they'll still need a license and they'll also have to have an agricultural designation for the state that they are a work in the fire that's my understanding hey Bill Mike can I have a minute here this is Glen Anderson just go ahead so just so you guys are aware I've been attending pretty much most of the CCB meetings since you know the fall I think I missed this mornings today well I know I missed it long story short I just want to clarify that I know we've been chatting about things and as far as the retail goes I think there's some that want to use the process of zoning to ensure that there's some locations that can actually retail and I just want to clarify because I know I've shared this with you that you know we're looking to have it's not just the Vermont or it's not just us but Vermont growers association and many others have been advocating for you know farm stand retail sales and though that didn't pass in legislative form I just want to check in with you guys and see you know there is a way that through the select board agency of agriculture farms that are designated you know we're currently you know as you know at the Davis farm and we have you know a very large hemp farm that has been very successful for three years and it's something that we'd like to invite our community too to enjoy to appreciate you know it's really fantastic in the fall with the the terpenes and smells long story short it's great for the economy we all know this but what we're trying to accomplish is a more streamlined path maybe to get retail happening from the sale similar to the way they're maybe licensed for milk sales through the milk parlor for raw milk you know directly off the farm I think that model of getting to know your farmer is super productive and useful in this conversation so I just wanted to share that hopefully we can you know use zoning to move that that's what my concern was with you know previous farm plan changes and I think to your email Steve you know I had looked back and I guess it's a map layer that's agricultural soils and so I was looking through that and so it may not have been designated as agricultural zoning but I think because you know we were this 1800s hillside farm here obviously you know the Davis dairy farms multi-generational I just want to make sure that as we think about if there isn't a local commission which is fine you know I think we can look to the CCB's licensing as kind of the authority to bill's point and use zoning to the point of you know I think on a local level controlling where it's most applicable but I think at a certain point you know and this is one of my concerns of Monteliga cities and towns and I've been very forthright about this you know there's a notion sometimes that farmers are an afterthought and I think we need to start rethinking that in this conversation because it's not always just about creating downtown mechas for people to come party and recreational is going to happen but we don't necessarily want to exclude people that utilize cannabis for a lifestyle and not just medicine and not just recreational parties there's far more shades of gray and I think we need to be able to create you know a space where people want to come to to recreate but also so that we have multiple flavors of hospitality available if you will and that includes getting to near a farmer off the you know directly off the farm so I'll leave it at that I'm hoping that we can make some changes in zoning to make sure that you know those of us it's similar to what New York has done in their social equity attempts you know they really looked at the hemp farmers and said how do we streamline them into their cases for cultivation but I think looking at quick question for you just to try to find this you don't think that having not having a commission having the state do its thing and having the select board make minor modifications through either via zoning or whatnot wouldn't work in our community I think it very well could and but I'm just advocating that we really look to farms as a means for having effective retail you know I'll give you a perfect example I live right here at Mount Hunger we have a trailhead of you know 20 parking lot you know sanction parking lot or cars in the parking lot and and that cycles two three times every Saturday every Sunday sometimes you know throughout the week now and you know these are people that could you know essentially get to know our brand to know what we are developing and producing here locally and in Waterbury I mean we have light industrial solar and waterworks as you know up here you know so I think we're doing a little walk walk walk walk walk well I think to your point Mike I think what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't just have to be you know a downtown retail though I do advocate multiple licenses and I think the CCB is hearing that as well so yes to your point I think the CCB process is very effective of creating sanctioned professionals but then on top of that if the select board can utilize zoning to you know look beyond the sort of standard and that's what I'm advocating for as far as farm stand sales so thank you appreciate it. Thank you for your input Clyde. Okay. Are farm stand sales regulated by the state through the CCB? Well no I think retail sales of cannabis is my understanding it's a commercial it's not an agricultural use like a farm stand might be it's a this is a topic the planning commission could specialize from yeah it's not an agricultural sales So just to be clear my recommendation or staff's recommendation that we allow the state to do this doesn't preclude down the road the town deciding that it wants to have a commission it's just that October is just a few months away we're not in a position to be able to be running at that point and the state has been working on these issues and you know I'm supportive of everything that Glenn said except it's not the town but it's the state that will decide who gets the licenses to sell and we'll have the ability to regulate by zoning so I agree with what Glenn is saying is that we should not be overly restrictive on the zoning part of things that you can only do it here you can only do it there but it's a two-prong thing it's zoning where it will be allowed and then it's the licensure which the state controls and the state's licensing regulations are going to supersede anything that happens you could allow it in a particular zoning district you can say we're going to allow retail sales cannabis here and there in this district or that district but then it's the state who will ultimately give the business owner the license to sell so just because we allow it doesn't necessarily mean the state will give somebody a license they have to meet all those state requirements Bill that is correct but I just wanted to add though that you know as far as getting the license you know and I'm very involved in this because we're actually automating the compliance licensing process and we're doing it for a couple of reasons but ultimately having the location is critical for the CCB to then say yes you're allowed to do this I understand Glenn we understand your point certainly I am not advocating for overly restrictive zoning regulations but that's really the planning commission's the planning commission will adopt the regulations for zoning and then they have to select board and be approved so that's a process that happens but Bill I was just suggesting as we look at that planning process knowing the October date is coming up if there's a means like so we have one location in mind that we want to bring a retail location together with the local person to do the license and that's a member of our collective and so it would be a place where we can bring our farm produce to market if you will you know here at my location but the point is you know we would like to try to fast track those people that are in the Vermont Agency of Agriculture you know a place where we have a barn for instance a location that's on a farm that could effectively be retail so that's all I'm asking for we understand Glenn yeah I did thank you so I just want to clarify something you mentioned like the regulations of like distance from school those kinds of things those are coming from the state yeah that's great perfect thanks for clarifying I'll move that we decline to take any action and setting up a cannabis control commission within the municipality of Waterford do we have a second yes I'll second it we have a motion and a second any further discussion if not all in favor say aye aye the motion passes unanimously thanks for that thank you Steve and the last item on the select board is the search committee update and discussion of input of the top issues of Waterbury I know we're behind so I'll try to keep this fairly brief the thank Alyssa for subbing in for Danny on the selection committee we had a good meeting with the consultant Rick McGuire we're moving forward we think like we're doing well on a programmatic Rick's gotten a lot of input from Bill on stuff that we couldn't provide in terms of salary information as well as other information in terms of staffing organizational I know some information is still needed to be providing I know I've been away a little bit but we'll probably sit down a little bit yeah so just a brief update on that I did put together a couple page kind of list of duties it was not a job description Rick sent to me today a job description that was based on the list of duties that I had written I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but before the end of the week I'll do that I did take a stab at drawing with a ruler and a pencil an organization chart I sent that off to Rick and to Mike and to Skip today and I think Rick said that somebody at the LCT could probably put that into electronic for it and it makes sense to me in terms of how the organization is structured and I told them if whoever's making it into an electronic form has questions about it to call me so I've been trying to provide what the committee has asked for I think I'm up to date now that I've given everything that I was asked to do so I just want to commend Skip Flanders for really he's been the chair of the committee and I've asked him if he could do that so a whole bunch of things that I have to deal with so he's done a really good job otherwise I think we're heading toward where we're going to be putting together advertising materials and going out to advertising we discuss sources of advertising we added regional advertisers that in addition to the ones recommended is being the Times Argus and the Waterbury Roundabout because they are our papers of record which is really important and we'll probably be moving forward so we'll start putting out the advertising within what was I didn't get a copy of the minutes so I don't have the minutes or the materials they were screen-shared by Rick but I think maybe if you or Skip or someone on the committee could forward those around that would be good I know Natalie was going to be doing the minutes I think the main things were reviewing the draft from Skip as you said there was some discussion of salary range and other benefits and pieces like that to put in and the timing piece as you said search committee meeting was scheduled on the 16th at 7pm and I think the idea was EFUD is going to have a similar discussion to us just in terms of updates and their perspective on some of them that 16th date I think does give time for that final description to come back to the select board one topic of discussion was also the name of the position it was Town Manager then there was discussion of Town and Utility District Manager was that too long I'm going to draw the vote no final determination was made Municipal Manager on my nameplate on my desk it says Town and Village Manager and when they gave that to me after I worked here for a year I said you say Municipal Manager we've been hoping to merge for a long time but they said wow you're the Village Manager one question I know Rick did say he said Municipal Manager is kind of an old fact it's not an involved term anymore it's Town Manager it was kind of you know I guess I don't get hung up as much on titles so the next select board meeting is on the 20th so that's going to be a few days after and that's why we scheduled that before but today one of the things that we did need to decide we talked about you know probably having four or five you know big global issues that are facing Waterbury that in the description to the potential applicants you know when they get a community profile they'll know some of the things that you know we talked I know we've talked about before we've talked about infrastructure we've talked about housing as being an issue we've talked about do you have the list because I know I didn't take my I wrote my own thoughts but I guess I would just say one I found a date so June 15th and just saying that was on schedule for advertisement July 4th so following up with after that meeting on the 20th so that could start going out I have my list of what I wrote and I'm not formally on the search so I was not at the previous meeting but the understanding was again this profile piece has some basic data metrics information about the town and one thing is issues this discussion that happened at the search committee meeting was around soliciting broader public input on that too certainly we as a board can have a conversation about what we think the top issues were and the discussion at the meeting was around both maybe us wanting to have that conversation but also some sort of straw poll maybe if Lisa was willing to put something in the round about just to give folks an opportunity recognizing we as the board are going to have the ultimate decision on what is listed as the top three to five issues again EFUD is going to talk about their top three to five issues at their meeting on Wednesday but I guess it was the question for us one do we just want to have a conversation but two if we were doing this piece of public input that's why it's on the agenda for tonight because of the timing thought I mean I think if we could get something out to solicit public input it can only help I mean it's it would be useful I don't know how we if we can do both and have see if there's something we could do with the papers see if there's something we could do on the bridge forum and maybe you know how we've done public input before like if there's a collective email address if it's a google form survey um so I think the question that I would have about that is are you going to try to frame the topics or are you just going to ask the public because if you just ask the public you're going to get five different things so if you if the boards can frame you know okay here's six or ten different issues that we think are important then it might be helpful to have the public provide some input to that but if you just ask the public what's the most important thing facing probably the highest thing will be you know taxes or two options No I think framing it and having options that way it's a lot easier to assess the data and at least have a broad overview and just to be Yeah Yeah I mean I think it would be helpful too just to let the public know where we're at with this because I was just talking with some people over the weekend and they had no clue that the bill was retiring this was an input that was a thing so I think just getting more about that would be helpful as well and try to come up with some things now when what's the deadline for framing this one that is 16 you kind of want to in some ways you want to approve it here but I know that might I think that the 16th is okay I think it's actually going to work it's generally a piece he sends to candidates as they apply so assuming we have it by July 4th which would give us the next meeting but I think the idea of framing is key I was just going to say versus like soliciting public input what are ours Let me ask Lisa can the reader round about produce a survey kind of poll I don't know if we should be the ones producing it but we can certainly share it we can post it on our website we can put it in the paper for example I was just going to suggest the new superintendent that's coming in to describe he just wrote a letter that we posted on the website I'm going to put in the paper this week where he just created a one page survey it's like three questions I can send you the link to it if you see it it's on the education page on our website but he's you know starting his job on July 1st and he basically said what's on your mind what do you think are the important issues and it was an open into question so I mean you can easily do it as an open into question or you can sort of throw out some topics and then have another you know who did it as a Google form or a survey where people have the opportunity to like type in something that they don't see on the list or something but yeah we can easily put a link on the website you know to you know have a post that introduces it with the link that they can go to your survey and then we can also put it in the next paper. Chris for me between the paper and the electronic you know electronic version to me that reaches the most people you know as much as I know a lot of people value the front porch forum there's well it doesn't need to be either or we can put it in the right you can do it both. And that might be a good opportunity like you said Roger to have an intro as where we are why we're doing this and then have you know six to ten options or what have you. Sometimes it's easier to have one person sort of be the collector and compose around and try to do this for. Does anybody love Google forms if not I'm happy to create a draft that I can share and receive feedback. Not a problem. If you can do that I really appreciate that Dan. If you don't want to take Google forms I always have a problem. Yeah it shouldn't be a no I think they use it you use Microsoft right. So it's not they don't have Google right but you don't have to sign it so it would be. Some of them you had to require to sign in so you'd have to have a Gmail but we would make it open ended so that anybody could access and we were doing the building. Right. Update so I'll create an intro with a little update and then you know multiple choice that we can feed you. Send thank you Danny really appreciate that no problem. We're going to review that in the next meeting with a plan for how it's being distributed. Can we send individual edits like if I sent it to each of you individually you could write back with your feedback and edits and then I can edit it and have a like a final draft for the meeting to be approved and submitted. We just said it's individual so it's not. No we're we're good. We're ready to go with a plan of things that will go in by means this search committee meeting. No the 20th is that today? Well that's what I'm just thinking. You know we just send you input I trust you to sort it out and get what you need for and I have no problem sending the same email four times. Thank you. Okay anything else that we can cover Alyssa? We're all in place target date from higher I think it was November before. Right? As far as we know you know we haven't heard anything saying that it's not going to be done. Okay next topic music in the alley. Right so with the Albright she owns active gallery and frames shop has requested three summer nights June 17th July 22nd and August 26th to have music in the alley from 6 to 9pm classically trained musicians performing within the alley this is something that she did up through 2019 and then had to stop so it's happened What's the third date? August 26th I think they're all Fridays. In 2019 the board approved it and they put a condition that the noise level shall not exceed 85 decibels. String time 6 to 9. Okay we'll add it 9. Is there any equipment that they have to bring in other than basic classically trained musicians they bring their own. So bring their own it's not like amplified music and stuff probably maybe amplified the decibel right it's going to be low not going to be the rolling stones. Too bad. Is there like food sales or just anything like that I can't recall what the they do have ice cream chaisacal I don't know how they partner with black back selling for instance there's alcohol license also apply I haven't received any years They're going to do that outside You have to approve that So not on the plan so far Do we have motion to approve the music in the alley? I'll move to a group Are we including the 85 decibels Yeah I think we should have that as a condition 85 decibels We have a motion and a second Any further discussion? They're being none All in favor say aye. Aye. Move on to manager's items. Yeah so very briefly this won't take too long at all I just want to know that there's an opportunity to serve the LCT policy committees one of its main functions is advocacy for municipalities at the legislature and since January will be the start of a new biennium this is really the time that the LCT will start to develop its legislative policy for next year and they rely on municipal officials both elected and appointed staff to serve on committees there's five committees right now I think these are old committees the FAIR committee which is finance administration and intergovernmental relations there's the transportation committee which obviously puts forth policies and legislation to deal with mainly highway infrastructure but buses, rail all things transportation there's a public safety committee we've heard a lot of talk about speeding tonight and how things like that are dealt with obviously we don't have our own police department but public safety includes both FAIR, police ambulance and other elements there's a quality of life an environment committee speaks for itself and there's a water quality committee I think the quality of life committee is going to be morph into something different you can go to the VLCT website, vlct.org and get some information about this if you're interested in serving on a committee and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has time to do it the committees usually meet two, perhaps three times usually in the summer the policy committee the policy committees help draft the legislative policy for the league those draft policies to submit to the league board of directors usually in September and then the board of directors tweaks it and then it's voted on by the membership at FAIR which usually happens in October in Killington this year I have served for a long time on the quality of life and environment committee and I've served as its chair I've been on the board of directors at the league so if you're interested look at the website I looked at it before the meeting and I'm not the greatest person for interactive websites and I said okay, I couldn't find it I typed in the search policy committees it popped up and the first thing it told me to do that I had to log in and I said you get the key I haven't had a login number so I went somewhere else and I got the five committees if you're interested you can look at BLCT.org but Karen Horne if you're just K Horne at BLCT.org if you're interested in serving on a committee just contact Karen and tell her that you're interested if you have a preference tell her what which one you're interested in and I'm sure they'll find a seat for you it's a policy committee sometimes it's a pathway to being elected as a member of the board of directors again it's a for me as a staff person professional it's one of the reasons why I decided staying in one place the size of Waterbury was worth doing for 35 years because I've served on the BLCT board of directors I've served on the board of directors of the BLCT insurance trusts that has given you know much broader horizons than just sitting behind my own desk in this little town which is an honor in it of itself but having that additional exposure is helpful so if you have any interest at all it's not a huge time commitment because this summer usually the staff is really good over there they do all of the drafting you basically sit around a table they give you a lunch and you talk about things that are important so if you're interested I would highly recommend it so there thank you Bill as a separate aside I think Mike and I attended the training and then to put a link to I guess it's a different committee BLCT also has a diversity equity inclusion committee everyone there wasn't a better time I applied and got appointed so I am a surveyor in that committee is obviously that's not a policy committee I also couldn't find them on the website and I searched today she said email I think we all would have gotten it and I got the other email about I searched my email but that was all the passive and the separate the trust boards I think just today she said and again if you're interested in the trust boards for the BLCT Board of Directors there have been people I don't know if any of you know Rebecca White who's in the legislature she was elected as select board member in Hartford in March and she was elected to the BLCT Board of Directors in October and then a couple years later she ran for the legislature which kicked her off the BLCT Board of Directors because you can't be on that one so okay thank you for bringing that to our attention what board what committee did you sign? Diversity, Equity and Inclusion I think they added belonging to that too and ours has a secret BLCT.org slash DEI it brings you right to the page working on a toolkit their staff is working on more advising that committee is dealing as the name describes it's about diversity, equity and inclusion it's not a policy committee it's not something that will be going through the legislature but anyway and then B is just a follow up Ted Brady who has served in many capacities in politics and government in the state he was on Senator Leahy's staff he worked in the agency as he knows about the role of development Ted was hired as the BLCT Executive Director a year ago now a little more than a year ago to succeed Mara Carroll who succeeded Steve Dreffery who was there forever Ted is trying to meet with as many select boards as possible I saw him at a managers conference a couple weeks ago asked him if he'd be willing to come here and he said if I'm invited I will absolutely come so I took the liberty last week of sending him you want to come on July 20 I mean June 20th, July 5th or July 18th if he would like to invite him he said he's available on the 18th so on the 18th of July because I know I just spoke with him on Friday and he said he wasn't available for our next meeting right, he's not available on the 20th he's doing the Lake Champlain fishing derby yes, I heard that which I'll be doing too and then on the 5th it's too close to the 4th so is it okay for me to invite him on the 18th yeah, that'd be wonderful great, thank you that's it on the parking lot I would expect sometime this summer that we really should have our W come in and present the housing study Steve and I have a meeting thinking about a week and a half with people from Downstreet and Josh Anford who is the commissioner of Congress and Community Affairs and and I had reached out to Downstreet and Commissioner Hanford and I can't remember who was the commissioner building some general services right now anyway, I reached out to them and said you know, we'd really like to see a housing project happen at the former Watson Stanley Hall site the villages 51 South Main Street is also in the mix and I tried to push Commissioner Hanford I said when you talk to the commissioner of buildings and general services remind her that the legislature already authorized the sale of the Stanley Watson site to the town it was for this building when after our meeting we first we actually had a blind vote to build this facility at that site and I said they've already indicated a willingness to give it to Waterbury they just kind of re-initial that agreement and of course the answer from building general services well that authorization by the legislature was for municipal building which will have to authorize it for housing project so it has to go to the legislature next year so anyway we should get our W in to talk about the housing study and then I'll be able to report on the meeting that I'm going to have with some of the state people and some of the people with Bow Street so sometime later this summer maybe we can get our W in I know Alyssa kind of mentioned it with a little exasperation in her voice a couple of weeks ago but with very classic tones EFUD did reject the whole ARPA $600,000 in exchange for the UDAG fund so we really need to move ARPA discussion because you know 1.5 million or so that we're going to get from ARPA we have 775,000 in the bank we've appropriated 100,000 for the ice center which has not been paid to them yet by the way I did tell them I said it's past 30 days it's okay but I'm not going to pay you $100,000 and then have to go out and borrow money to operate the town you'll have to wait until we get some tax money because we've been we didn't have to borrow an anticipation of taxes this year because we had that $775,000 sitting there but it's running out we're down below $300,000 in the bank right now and I have my fingers crossed that we'll be able to get through until we start getting tax payments in July so that money will go out and then we did have I can't remember it was $100,000 it might have been $90,000 so that was just kind of going to go to the highway budget so of the 1.5 maybe $200,000 is committed if I said no so the $600,000 that was going to go to them is not going to go so the town's going to have about $1.3 million of money to figure out what to do with when we did the budgeting process I thought we were going to have about $700,000 to figure out what to do with and I'm not presuming to say anything now but we should take it off the parking lot and start having discussions amongst ourselves and then with the public long before we get to the budget process can we put it on either the next meeting or if that's too full July 5 does that make sense? yeah one of those two for the preliminary discussion and then what about for RW would 718 be too earlier do you think we should have it on for 718 that should be fine just to start putting some things on that I'll reach out to Karen and see if she will mark or both of them can do it on the 18 that's fine I do, thank you is the state police I know from our state police reports are they planning on presenting to us again well not yet I mean when probably sometime in July I'll give you the reports for the last couple of months but we had them just a couple of months ago maybe we should maybe plan for October and November as we go into the budget process from next year I mean we have a three year contract with the state so our budget is really set for the next two years as far as the fact that the state is going to be providing this service things that you want to talk to them about the target service is more your work at this point and how do we you said so supposing we've already shared the emails from guests that spoke earlier this evening do you get any feedback in terms of whether they are going to act on that yeah I mean there should be another we're just into June now so usually the third week of the month we usually get the report for the last month so they're just kind of updates this is what we've done they don't always tell us where they are they just will say we had 20 traffic stops or what have you I do have the contact information for the two troopers I do try to recognize their chain of command I was told when the contract was signed that I should communicate with Lieutenant White and here with the staff and then but there are opportunities like I can't remember the name right now the trooper that he called me last week about a particular issue with regard to some issues that they're dealing with some homeless person who's been rather aggressive with some members of the public and when I say aggressive he's not threatening anybody but he's kind of in the people's face I got some comments about that anyway I do have the opportunity from time to time to speak directly with one of the troopers so I'll mention this again to them as well and just like we spoke about you're going to be here on I should be there but I know I'll probably be late coming back from or well dumping all the stuff and getting here so I might be here somewhere between 7-8 o'clock yep a problem also in future I heard from some planning commission members potentially interested and I said to contact other people but just to say that I mean it came up tonight with the can of miscontrol and whatnot but they were like oh could we meet with the sector and I said I don't know I'm not speaking for them but just to say and I know I probably should have addressed this at the beginning of the meeting when we did the agenda can we have a very short executive session before you do I don't know if that's illegal because we did amend the agenda you don't have to amend the agenda you can what's it for personnel so what you should do well I'll tell you in a second so Alyssa just backing up to what you just said planning commission members so you're all on the select board Mike is the chairperson but you have equal opportunity to put anything on the agenda as any other select board members so if a planning commissioner talks to you and says we come to a select board meeting it's okay for you to just say if you think it's something that you believe would be helpful for the select board to hear just make arrangements with the planning commission when can you come and then just get the information to Carol or me and we'll be happy it doesn't have to come here you know I mean it doesn't necessarily hurt to come here and have the select board say okay yeah I would like to talk about this but if it's an issue that's important to any one select board member it's okay just to say I'd like something on the agenda it doesn't have to get permission from anybody else certainly not us it's the board's meeting I concur only any of you who really feel strongly about something feel free to bring it I requested the lower speed and we did and we have two satisfied constituents I'm going to executive session for a personnel related issue just make a motion that the select board would like to go into executive session to discuss to evaluate a public employee and that's what that's what your motion is to do I make a motion that we move to executive executive session to evaluate a public employee I'm just going to do a second I'll sign it alright just give me a second and I'll leave as well all those that are still on I'm putting you in the waiting room because the board is going into executive session okay somebody will pull you back in when they're done okay we're out of executive session 931 we didn't take any action in executive session yes no action was taken and any further business motion to adjourn I'll sign it thanks all in favor alright thanks all have a good night