 All right, let's call this meeting to order. Woo, how's the sound? It sounds kind of overwhelming, but it's okay. I have cold, so we'll be hearing some scratchiness. Hopefully not too much. So, welcome to the Middlesex Town Meeting. I am Susan Clark. And with us today, we have our select board up here. Phil Hyde, Liz Scharf. Come on, wave. Peter Hood. And Steve Martin. We have our town clerk, Sarah Merriman, and her trusty assistant, Marika Gillis. Yes, all right, thank you. So, we have lost several prominent town residents and former local officials this year. So, the select board asks for a moment of silence to celebrate their memories before we begin. Thank you. I think we have a couple of announcements. Let's see, I know the Historical Society is here. Wanted to have a moment. Is Sarah Seidman, feel like maybe there was also a pie breakfast person, maybe, not sure. If you are here and need to make a quick announcement before the meeting begins, this is the moment. I'm Sarah Seidman, here again with the Middlesex Historical Society. This year, we have the wonderful news that the railroad station, which is 100 years old, as of 2018, has been purchased and is being renovated by Nicholas Hecht. And that along with the flourishing of the Red Hen and the purchasing of Camp B by some entrepreneurs and the renovation of the Middlesex Country Store were really at the beginning of what I hope is a real renaissance of Middlesex Village. It's very exciting. I'm hoping that the town will be involved in it also. I want to just encourage this town to be forward-thinking. We don't have a strong history of forward-thinking. We have a strong history of being kind of dragged into the present and the future. And so I just hope that everybody will be thinking forward in every part of our community to make us flourish. Thank you. Other announcements. Is Kim Jessup here? I know she kind of is not here. John, did you have a approval announcement you were able to make about? The Wednesday, forward to the first Wednesday after the 4th of July, look on the window. John, if you're not using the mic that you hear, you can, everybody can use the mic, you saw it. I'm just going to carry it here. I'll carry it forward. Did you get the imagination part? No. Imagine that it's not a Tuesday, it's a Wednesday night. Fast forward to the first Wednesday after the 4th of July. You look out your window, it's about four o'clock, 430, almost five o'clock, and the sun is just pouring in the window. All you can see is green because there ain't no more snow, but although I can't, I'm not guaranteeing that for this coming summer. And you realize that it's time to load up your picnic basket and your blanket, leave the shoes at home, bring the sunglasses, and head down to the Rumney Field for the first concert of the 2019 Middlesex Band Singing Concert Series. Imagine that you are wondering, you forgot what the list is, but you might be seeing and hearing the sounds of the Green Mountain Jazz Band or the Vermont Jazz Ensemble or Paul Asbell's New Jazz Combo or High Summer or perhaps you might see the Mad Mountain Scramblers or the Cava Express or perhaps the return of Blackwater Trio and on and on and on. Those are just some of the groups that we're looking at for this summer's Band Stand Concert. I have to give a shout out to the committee members. Please thank if they're here. Margot Pernagrast, Mary Nealyn, Dick Alderman, Elliot Berg, Ron Sweet, Jerry Gormley for putting together another season. Hope to see you at the Band Stand the first Wednesday after 4th of July. Concert starts at 6.30. Please, we have got a great new website themiddlesexbandstand.com. You'll see the lineup, you'll see the photos and imagine summer in the Middlesex Band Stand in your bare feet with no snow. Kim, Jessup, are you here? I heard the word that you got here. Representative Kim Jessup wanted to say a few brief words before we start the meeting. I'm gonna set a timer. For letting me speak and I know you have a lot to do so I will keep my remarks brief and I do have some printed handouts which I'm happy to share with folks. I'll also post something online. I'll be staying here for dinner and I'm happy to connect and discuss whatever on your mind. So in terms of house action, one of the first bills that passed the house this session was H3 which is also known as the Ethnic Studies Bill and this legislation aims to teach students the history of all including ethnic and social groups that have historically been marginalized. There's also and it expands and disaggregates some data collection related to those groups and the goal of H3 really is to send our young people out into the world wherever they land with a better understanding of the world in all of its diversity and I'm happy to report that that legislation passed unanimously. Broadband access. I think it's really clear that state funding has not been available for last mile service in terms of cost and frankly the larger providers have not found it profitable to step in and do that and we've gone through three governors so it's not the same thing. So one of the bills that's up this year is H13 it's come out of house committee on energy and technology and the bill is currently in Ways and Means which is the revenue generating committee and this would expand broadband deployment and it would do so via community and municipal entities. So the initial focus would be on facilitating wired solutions and this would be going after feasibility studies for what is called the Communications Union District CUDs. You may have heard of EC fiber from what I hear they've been doing a great job at getting this more community based solution off the ground and they have been an important part of H513. Also in the room has been Jeremy Hanson who you might know as the chair and founder of CB fiber which is the central Vermont entity that's getting off the ground. 17 towns in our area and I think what's really great about this bill is that all of these groups rather than usual suspects are in the room and I have high hopes and optimism that this may go somewhere and there's some folks in this room who know far more about some of the technical details than I do but I think that's rather exciting. One of the issues that you may have heard has crossed is age 57. This is the reproductive rights legislation. Some people in this room have also testified at that public hearing. It was as you can imagine a rather divisive and emotional issue and so people say well why are we taking this up now? And the reason is that we've seen in Washington there has been some momentum toward change that will likely impact the Supreme Court decisions and in the last two years we have seen several states many states undertake lots of legislation that would restrict abortion and so proactively what the House sought to do was to codify current practice and I think that's really important and I won't take time now to go into those details but what we are doing is putting into statute those practices that have existed in Vermont for 46 years and again I'm happy to have one-on-ones or whatever combination of folks would like to talk further about that. That passed the House by a vote of 106 to 37 and the only final thing I'll say about that is it's really about keeping politicians out of the exam room and leaving these deeply personal and difficult decisions to a woman and her healthcare provider and I think finally one other topic that's been the news a lot of course is Act 46 and in terms of what's been happening at the state house that there's a bill age 39 that was taken up and that would have allowed all districts, school districts that are in facing forced mergers to be able to have a one-year delay so that would have gone to July 1, 2020. That bill failed on February 6th by a vote of 69 to 74. So what then happened is the House Education Committee amended that bill. What they said is that they took and they divided up districts and they did so according to whether articles of agreement had passed or votes had taken place in the communities and so forth and they allowed some to go to that July 1st, 2020 deadline and not others. Our district, the Washington Central Supervisory Union was one of those given that extension that passed 134 to 10. So thank you. Thank you, Kim, Jessup and Kim is gonna be here so you can follow up with her on these and other items as you, as you will. Once again, this year the time meeting solutions committee has arranged for residents who can't attend time meeting because they have mobility issues or they have to be away for public service to attend time meeting using phone and internet. And this year we do have three participants. So thanks to Larry Sharf for his work on this. Yay. We want to thank Liz Sharf also and the other helpers in the Rummy School of Kitchen for cooking our spaghetti dinner tonight and everybody who baked desserts, this is a fundraiser for the Little Sex Food Shelf and Rummy Snack Program. So please stick around afterwards. For those of you who do have kids here, kids in the room are welcome. Just keep them mellow so that the people around you can hear. And we also have kids in free childcare thanks to Community Connections. If you have your kids in childcare, please do remember to pick them up before you eat dinner and your kids are welcome here during dinner. Okay. I do want to draw your attention to the blue forms that are on the chair. They have information on Robert's rules. The most important thing about the blue form is if you have a question, raise your hand and ask. There is an evaluation at the bottom. So if you have feedback or comments, suggestions for next year, we'd love to hear them. There's a box by the door with that form on it and you can fill those in. And if you don't have comments, you can also drop them off because we can reuse the forms for next year. Okay, any other announcements? Okay, yep. Go like runners. I wanted to bring to your attention Nancy. The orange hats on Nancy Riley. And I've got a number of kids working this morning or this afternoon, excuse me, to actually hand my soft to people one on either side. So if you see an orange hat, we'll leave it to your hand raised. They'll be coming over to you. You can gesture to them so that you can speak clearly. Thank you. Thanks. It's helpful for everybody to be able to hear, including the folks at home. And thanks very much to our Mike runners, Logan Drury, Ace Anderson, Sam Scolnik, Kailin Hayward, Maya Elliott, any others? Thank you, Mike runners. Okay. We are asked as 10 moderators to give a brief overview of the rules. I've got eight items. I'll go through them quickly. It's important to know that Robert's rules of order are the basic parliamentary rules for this meeting, except where Vermont law takes precedence. You can't change state law here, but you can change Robert's rules with a two thirds vote if you desire. Number two, when you want to speak, please be sure to state your name and address your comments to the moderator. So just raise your hand. You're recognized by the moderator. Just stand up and state your name. Even if you have stated your name two minutes before, please state your name clearly. We might even ask you to spell it. Don't take it personally. It just really helps with the minutes. And Robert's rules those require that you address all the comments to the moderator to help ensure that we focus on the specific issues rather than the personalities. Number three, you do have to be a Middlesex voter in order to speak or vote on an article at the town meeting. The exception is if the group wants to suspend the rules, for example, to allow a person representing an out of town organization. At this time, can I just see a show of hands of anyone who's not a registered voter in Middlesex? We are welcome you and we're glad to have you and we just remind you, please don't vote. Number four, be sure, feel free to ask questions. Just raise your hand if you don't understand what's happening. If you think a mistake has been made, you don't have to be a parliamentary expert. The moderator's job is to make sure everyone gets to make their point. So just ask away. Number five, this is your meeting. The role of the moderator is to help you accomplish the business that you intend to do. So if you ever feel that the moderator is made an improper ruling, just raise your hand. Robert's rules allows for the group to appeal the moderator's decision, which I totally won't take personally or whoever else is a moderator. It's a simple process to ensure that the moderator serves the interest of the group. Number six, we can only address warned articles. It's against state law to consider articles that have not been warned on the agenda, which means we can't take binding action under other business. Number seven, you can end a debate if you want to by calling the question. If a voter feels that deliberation has gone on long enough, you can make a motion to call the question. And then two thirds of the group has to vote on calling the question in order to cease to be. In most cases, it's really not necessary. The moderator can just call for a vote when they feel that all points of view have been heard. And finally, there are different ways that we can vote. Once the moderator feels that all points of view have heard, call for a vote. Often a voice vote, all those with their eyes opposed, no or nay. Other forms are a show of hands or a standing vote. You can always request that by the way anytime, especially if you disagree with the moderator. And we can also have paper ballot or a secret ballot. This is really important option to know about if you feel that privacy is important to you on any motion. Any voter can move that a vote be taken by paper ballot. And if there are seven voters in the room that support that motion, the Artangular Club will distribute pieces of paper and you'll just write your vote yes or no on it. And they'll be counted immediately. Civil invocation, we're gonna open our meeting with a civil invocation. And this year, our invocation is gonna be read by Lucy Wood. Lucy helped years ago as a microphone runner and today she is back to cast her very first vote. She is a senior at U32. She's on the U32 Nordic ski team by which, by the way, won the championship. It's just... She's been saying that Lucy likes to run and ski and hike in her free time. She also coaches girls on the run at Rummy. And next year she'll be going off to college. She hasn't decided where yet. Welcome to Middlesex Time Meeting. We have come together in civil assembly as a community in a tradition that is older than our state itself. We come together to make decisions about our community. As we deliberate, let us advocate for our positions but not at the expense of others. Let us remember that there is an immense gap between saying I am right and saying I believe I'm right. And that our neighbors with whom we disagree are good people with hopes and dreams as true and as high as ours. And let us remember that in the end, caring for each other in this community is of far greater importance than any difference we may have. Welcome. Thank you, Lucy. All right, I call this meeting to really, really to order now. With article one, what is it? It's 10 of, you want that in the minutes, I know. Article one, to elect a moderator for the ensuing year. Is there a nomination? Is there a second? So it's been moved and seconded. Susan Clark, is there another nomination? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor of Susan Clark for moderator, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it. Thank you for your confidence. Article two, to elect a grandeur and town agent for the ensuing year. Is there a nomination? And your name? No taker if you don't hear names. So it has been moved. Todd Daylose's name has been moved. Is there a second? Okay. Are there, it's been moved and seconded. Are there other nominations for grandeur and town agent? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor of Todd Daylose for grandeur and town agent, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. And the ayes have it, congratulations. Thank you. Article three is gonna be voted on by Australian ballot. This is electing all the officers. And the voting booths are open until seven o'clock. But hopefully most of you have gone ahead and voted already. If you haven't, that's when you have until. So unless there's any objection, we're just gonna move on to the next article. Article four is to receive an act upon the reports of the town officers. Is there a motion on article four? Jeff Koons moves, sir second. Thank you, sir second. I need a breath. So moved and seconded. This is a chance for town officers. They write reports, they put them in your beautiful town report. If you have questions about these reports that won't come up under other articles. So this would not be the time to talk about the budget, for example, but any other articles? This is a good time to talk about them. I'm Lee Rosberg. I'm the chair of the conservation commission and just a brief update on last year. The big thing was we approved $10,000 to support the trust republic lands purchase of 800 acres in Middlesex and another 1,000 acres in Worcester to conserve that land, which encompasses the first mile of the hiking trail up Hunger Mountain. Thank you. Upcoming projects for this year include some work at the Shady Rill Park to do some floodplain restoration. And there's a gully that's formed across from the school here that's threatening the septic system. So we're working with some local consultant to prevent further erosion. We have our typical usual projects working on the trail in the town forest. We're gonna have that signed and blazed so hopefully you can get out there and enjoy it. Other than that, any of you are welcome to come talk to me after this. Thank you. So the what's next Middlesex, there are four committees that emerged for what's next Middlesex. And I think they all wanted to have a little 60 seconds of fame. Do you wanna go first, Liz? Sure. Hi, Liz Sharp. So I'm on the spaces and activities committee. And so for the month of March, we organized a few little fun things to do. And I hope you will all join us in this fun. Starting this Saturday, we are going to be doing the snowshoe hike to the Beaver Pond. And you'll get to see the cabin that the town owns now. We have this disheveled cabin in desperate need of rehab. And you'll get to see it, it's by a river and it's gonna be really cool if we ever rehab it by stream. And then we'll show you the start of the town hike that Lee and his group has been working on, which is a great hike that'll be perfect for families in the summer. It's pretty moderate, I would say. Gets a little view. And then we'll walk to the Beaver Pond and back and it's an easy snowshoe. So I hope you will all join me at 9.30 this Saturday for our first fun event. And then we have a couple other things. We've got some free yoga classes at the town hall. Everything is free. There's gonna be dream exploration. So all those crazy dreams you have and you don't know how to interpret them, you can interpret them at this workshop. And then John Riley is gonna be teaching an Excel workshop for beginners here at Romney. We don't have that date quite set yet. So if you've ever wondered how to add a columns or sort things, this is the time for you to learn. So thank you. And please come out and do these fun things before you start getting into your garden. We're great. Other, what's next, middle sex, yeah. I'm curious. Mark Bushnell, I'm a member of the middle sex communication team, which is another committee that grew out of what's next, middle sex. It was created because there's a real sense that we need to find better ways to find out what's going on in the community to stay connected. And we identify it as our first project trying to let people know about an existing online calendar. A lot of people don't know this, but Frontport Forum has a calendar function. A lot of people have posted to it, but you might not know, there's this whole other page that shows you what's going on locally. You just go to the home page and you click the little calendar button and it'll pop up for the month. We're trying to get the town's boards and committees to use this function as a way to publicize their upcoming meetings like this like board, the planning commission. We're hoping the fire department can do this. And we're also hoping that members of the public who have something that they want to get out and if they had a concert at the play, a sporting event, fishing derby, whatever, your yard sale, if you've got stuff to sell, get it on there so community members can know about it. We're also working with the town to integrate this with the town website so you can access it without having to log in to Frontport Forum. Future projects that we're looking at are trying to, oh actually, sorry, should back up. One thing we're trying to figure out also is how to get timely information about events out to people who aren't online currently. That's a tough one because it costs money or volunteer time to deliver that information so if people have suggestions, track down members of the committee. That'd be very helpful. Future projects include creating a community newsletter, maybe I might include creating a community newsletter, maybe a way to share photos of the community or other ideas. It just sort of depends on who shows up in meetings and speaking of which, the next one is Thursday, this Thursday at six o'clock here at Monday and you can look for announcements. Future meetings on the Frontport Forum calendar page and hopefully soon on the town website. Thank you. See there's, I think Theo, I wanted to talk about the Infrastructure Committee, is Theo Kennedy here? Oh, is he? Okay. All right, hello everybody. So I am the mere representative of the What's Next Middlesex Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee and we've met several times and it's been a diverse crew and what do you want me to do? Step forward, okay, see my lovely face, right? So listen, I think the best thing to do is to reach out to any of the members who are on the committee and ask questions after the meeting today to go and see the posted minutes from our meetings. But it's kind of exciting too and this is ahead of Sandy Levine from the Planning Commission talking to us. There's a tight timeline to try to get a town plan together. We've hired a consultant and one of the kind of outcroppings from the What's Next Middlesex process was how can we meaningfully act in ways to influence economic development and infrastructure? So we hope that folks will attend a meeting and I just have to put my reading glass and I've got to put my reading glass. Not quite old age, I'm ahead of you, right? Middlesex Village Brainstorming and Visioning is what we're calling it. It is going to take place on the 14th and we're gonna be at the town hall and this doesn't replace any of the years of work that I've kind of gone back over. There's an event there in 2006 and 2013. There have been efforts in this community to vision how the village might look. So this isn't to say that any of that past work doesn't have relevance. It's more to make sure there's an inclusive process and a participatory process as we look at the town plan revisions in the upcoming short period. So if folks can come in on the 14th and speak to us, we would love that. In full disclosure, I'm hopefully continuing on as one of the members of the Planning Commission of the Planning Commission. And the members both, I didn't think I'd do this but I think I wanna do this just so folks know both present and potentially future. Can you just raise your hand so folks for the Planning Commission are here? So you see a few of the folks and others are not here now but and then the what's next, middle sex committee that I'm reporting out for folks. Okay. So speak to your neighbors about this. Come out on the 14th, ask any other questions. There are other work that this committee has been doing but I think that's the most time sensitive one. Mitch, did you wanna say anything about the trails committee? So four committees out of what's next, middle sex trails is the fourth one. Hi there. My name is Mitch Oszeski. I am the zoning administrator and recreation director in town. I'm also as part of the what's next, middle sex forum. I am currently heading the trail committee or trails work group I think we're calling it. And one thing I will say is I am doing this on my own dime, the recreation department is not spending any money on this. And what has developed out of this is that there's been a lot of interest in developing more trails in town and it's a very vague, nebulous goal at this point. And we've done a lot of work so far to sort of just take an inventory of the existing resources in town. And without getting into a lot of detail, there are a few trails in town not as many as we'd like. And long-term what we really like to do is sort of identify the hubs or points of interest either in town or in neighboring areas like say the North Ranch Nature Center or U32 or Worcester and sort of figure out how we can connect some of those places to make it easier to get from various points in town without using the roads because you know what it's like to try to share the roads with cars most of the year. And right now sort of long-term one model that we really like is what the folks at East Montpelier have done. There's a nice trail system in town but they did that 20 or 25 years ago and at the time that they did it they basically were able to take something like six landowners and connect them and make a trail that connected most of the town and we are much more fractured than that so it's gonna be a little more of a challenge to work with people to, what we're gonna eventually do is try to identify what we like to call trail-friendly landowners and work with them to the folks that are interested we're gonna work with them to see how we can connect various places. But in the near term we really wanna get going on a project that we can sort of produce some tangible results in the short term. So right now we're looking more at public lands that we can get going on more quickly and we've been talking to the conservation commission about helping with trail work on some of the town forest trails. We will, when the spring rolls around work, talk to the folks that oversee the Hunger Mountain and White Rocks trails to see if we can participate in some trail work there and Lee mentioned earlier that the, what was called the Hunger Mountain Headwaters Project that was the acquisition of a bunch of new land that is right now it belongs to the trust for public land but they're in the process of transferring it to the state and we will try to work with them to see if they are interested in developing more trails and hopefully make some resources available to them to say, hey, we got some people that would love to help do that and another place we're looking at right now is the Walter Kelly Park down by the Winooski River. We are going to look into whether in the short term we can develop a nature trail down there because it's land that the town already owns and there's fewer obstacles. So what I'll tell you real quickly is we generally meet on the first Thursday of the month at six o'clock at the town's church office. Everyone's welcome to join us. So I'll chat with me anytime if you've got questions and I'll be glad to... Thank you, Mitch. All right. That's nice. That's nice. Thanks. I'll have comments on article four of the reports of the town officers and the other town officers that need to speak up or questions for the reports that you see. Yes. Make a phone right over here. Janet McKinstry Cemetery Commission. Cemetery Commission wrote a report for the town report emailed it to the town clerk's office. Oh, I forgot to say. Janet McKinstry put in. Yes, it's on your chair, folks. Sarah's gone. Thank you, Sarah. Suggested that we print it and use it as a handout. So she did that for us. It's on your chair, under your chair, wherever it happens to be. It's there. Commission report. Thank you. Thank you. I neglected to mention that. Yes. Marika says it's on the front page of the town website. Microphone coming at you. I'm Sandy Levine. I serve on the middle sex planning commission. And I wanted to thank the members who have left the middle sex planning commission and welcome the new members who will be coming. We're very much working hard. I'm getting a town plan updated and in place to be voted on. We hope to have our draft done by May and there'll be a series of public meetings and a vote sometime in the summer or fall. So keep eyes open for it. There's a sign up sheet out there. If you want to give me your name and your email, we'll be sure to make sure we include you on the list of updates going forward. Otherwise, we'll try to remember to post things on front porch forum and get word about that way. Thanks so much. Okay. Any other reports from committees? Oh, two, yes. Yeah, Liz first and then Phil, sorry. Just quickly about the middle sex food shelf. I just want to acknowledge that we have some volunteers in the room. So thank you. Raise your hand if you're a volunteer for the middle sex food shelf. Thank you very much, everyone. To anyone who is in need of food from nine to 1030 every Saturday, if you want to volunteer, you can come and see me. Also, we don't get a lot of people from middle sex coming and it's not that people in middle sex don't need it. So if you have, you too can come and just get something for your neighbors if you think that there's someone that could benefit from it. Please don't hesitate to just come and grab a few bags of food and deliver it to someone. So thank you to everyone for all of your support. We have a really good budget and we get a lot of great donations. So we really appreciate that. Thank you. I thought that picture might go right over, but. Phil, hey, I'm the middle sex representative on the central internet board. And although there is a report in the town report, it was written some months ago. And as is typical with technology, things move very quickly after moving very slowly, but it seems as though there's a lot going on lately. So I thought I'd give you a quick update. I think Kim did a great job handling what's going on in the legislature. We're really excited about that. And I wanted to just publicly thank him for the work that she's done on our behalf. She's been really open to meeting with us and discussing the issues that, the hurdles that we face and how we can get over them. So we're very optimistic about the bill and what that might provide for us next year. The biggest block to this initiative is funding. Being started as a municipal organization, not able to use tax dollars without zero in funding has been quite a challenge. We've raised a little bit of money so far. And right now our focus is on funding. It's kind of a three step per, maybe four steps that we're looking at right now. Number one, funding, and that's funding to get enough money to go into a planning phase. Once we have a plan, we're then gonna look for big funding, which will bring us into a design and implementation phase. So we did receive a grant, I've received word within the past day or so, and it's one of the Think Vermont Innovation Grants for $12,500 and that's to go toward planning. However, we do have to raise a match to that $12,500. So we are in fact asking for donations and I will send out a link via front porch forum if any of you are interested and or willing to donate any amount whatsoever. We will be more than glad to accept that. There'll be a memorial plaque on our website for the first day that I'll give this apple to the first person who writes a check and gives it to me today. But I'll kidding aside, yeah, it is really important to us. We have been talking to private equity investors and we do have a group who are interested in funding the entire project so that it all becomes up and running on day one. That's an interesting way to go. It's probably gonna be a very expensive way to go, which means, you know, the private equity firm puts out all of the money and signs a contract with the Communications Union District to buy the project back essentially in five years at a predetermined price. So there's a lot of negotiation to go on there. We've also had some discussions with investment bankers who work strictly with municipalities and big technology projects like this who focus on public sector funding. So they're really very aware of monies that are available at the state level and at the federal level and that's something that's very, very interesting to us. So those are the main things. We have also had some discussions with construction companies who specialize in building networks and in with technology companies that design networks, all really important and very expensive things to do. And timing-wise, we really aren't sure yet how we're going to approach this. I think our feeling right now is the EC Fiber, which has been a very successful project, has been building out for 13 years. We feel we don't have 13 years to build this out piecemeal. So we really do want to look at a solution that will get us to hit the ground running and get the connectivity to homes because I think it really is a huge economic development issue in not just our area of the state, but in all the areas of the state. I think the most optimistic thing, and this happened within the last couple of weeks, is that we are in discussions with the Board of Directors of the Washington Electric Co-op. And that's a very, very important piece because the Co-op serves customers in most, if not all, the towns that are in the communications union district and they own all of the polls. And so getting access to those polls can sometimes be very, very difficult and costly. So a partnership with Washington Electric Co-op. And again, because they're a co-op, the philosophies I think are similar with the district. So that's where we're at as things change. I'll try to send out updates, but for now we're hoping to move forward and I'll send out a link in if you can donate something to help us match that grant. That would be great. Thank you. That's where the column runners. Thank you. All right, Bill Hahn, just have a quick question for you. Is there an estimate on the amount of our town that does have access to broadband versus dozen? And is there any kind of map that shows that? There is. And I can't cite that data to right off the top of my head, but we do have it. It is available, should be available on our website and we're now using cvfiber.org, I believe. Yeah, we've surveyed or we have existing information on all of the towns. And Middlesex is not really an anomaly. It's not different from all the others. There are some parts of our town that have good internet provided through Comcast. There are other parts of town that have DSL through consolidated, which is for the most part, terrible. And there are other parts of the town which have no internet access other than dial up. So it's, and that is not unusual throughout all of our towns and something we're faced with. And our goal really is to serve first the unserved first and then the underserved. One of the interesting things, and I don't think Kim mentioned this, is that the legislature is looking at setting a new standard for what constitutes broadband. And I think, Kim, is that part of the omnibus bill still? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think this has been rolled. There's all these different pieces that have been rolled together in an omnibus bill. And if that passes, DSL will no longer be considered a broadband technology, which is important in a sense for us in terms of getting federal monies and also some state money because the bar actually has started to be set higher. And any of you who have consolidated or Fairpoint or whatever it was, Verizon, Yelp Telephone, DSL know that it's just gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. So yeah, that information is available. We're following up on that. We are going to be doing a survey. We have an online survey that's about to be released and we're going to analyze that town by town. Anyone who's not online or has an answer online will get a visit from some people who are going to go door to door and actually input the data for those people who are just not online or don't like to take surveys that way. That'll give us a much more complete picture when we get that done. But I think the planning phase here is going to be at least a year for us to get to that phase. And then after that, I think we'd look to move fairly quickly. We need to vote on the budget, which is at 515 unless there are additional comments on Article 4. Okay, so I will ask you to vote on Article 4 all those in favor of receiving and acting upon the reports of their town officers signified by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Thank you. And so by our warning, we are going to skip Article 5 and 6, we'll come back to them. We're going to move right on to Article 7. To vote a budget of $1,187,891 to meet the expenses and liabilities of the town and authorize the select board to set a tax rate sufficient to provide the same. Is there a motion on Article 7? Chef, thank you. Is there a second? It gets you in the minutes if you second. Everybody have a second. Yes? Second, Steve Melvin. Steve Melvin? Melvin. Thank you. Okay, Article 7 has been moved and seconded to vote a budget of $1,187,891 to meet the expenses and liabilities of the town and authorize the select board to set a tax rate sufficient to provide the same. Any discussion on Article 7, Peter? Thank you, Susan. I would just call everybody's attention to the select board proposed budget report on page 16, which gives a very nice one page analysis of what's going on with the budget. The budget itself starts on page 26 and the budget committee report, they work with us very hard to develop the budget as on page 23. And we'd be happy to try and answer any of your questions. Sarah Seedman, make a phone call. Hi, Sarah Seedman. I'm wondering if the select board could talk a little bit about giving us back $40,000 to reduce our taxes and I'm raising the back up again with $10,000 for the building fund. Shouldn't we be putting more in the building fund or why don't we sort of take him with money and then give him back for the other? I'm sorry, I had a hard time understanding you but the question is the $10,000 in the building fund? You took $40,000 out of our fund balance to reduce our tax burden, is that correct? Yes. And then you're putting a new line item in for $10,000 for the building fund. Correct. I wonder if you could address the pressing needs of the building fund versus giving money back to reduce our this year's taxes. Versus using the fund balance. So we have an ongoing discussion every year with our auditor about what an appropriate fund balance is for the time to maintain. And the auditor has been gently and sometimes not so gently pushing us to have a lower fund balance. The idea being that fund balance is basically a reserve fund and what's an appropriate amount. In the old days, we needed a fund balance because our fiscal year started January 1st and we didn't even approve a budget until town meeting in March. And no tax money came in until July or August depending on when the grand list was finalized. That is going away now. Our fiscal year starts July 1st. We collect taxes almost immediately. We have an approved budget when we start. So that heat is no longer there. So we do our best to keep the fund balance at an appropriate level. But that really has nothing to do with our putting $10,000 in the budget for town buildings. So our town buildings are, just to remind everybody, what we affectionately call the new town garage which is no longer new in fact is in desperate need of some renovation and repair. The old town garage, which is the building on the same site that's right on the street, our new fire department, our old fire department and our town hall and our little recreation building here which is outside the school. Almost all of those buildings need renovations and repair. Renovations and repair. Depending on how you look at it, it's renovations or it's repair. This year we had the opportunity due to a short-term reduction in our debt service to keep the budget in the range we were hoping to, between two and 3%. And at the same time put aside $10,000 to start to work on some of those needs. So that's the idea we'd be happy to go into more detail. We have a vault problem at the town clerk's office. There are issues everywhere on those buildings. So we felt like this was a year to put aside some money to start to work on some of those projects. Will we be able to do that every year in the future? Maybe we can and maybe we can't but we've got to keep our buildings. Yes. A defensive look at the tenants needs to be public buildings. And as part of the what's next, no sex process is looking at that. We're definitely looking at it also. And for instance, does it make sense to renovate the town hall or would it be more cost effective to build a new town office? No, the town office, who knows? I mean, those are things we're thinking about. We're trying to deal with the old fire department. We've been unsuccessful in abolishing or eliminating that building, which was our original intent. And also we've been unsuccessful in terms of getting anybody to rent or utilize that space. So the road crew was using it to store equipment in. We did put a little bit of money into that building last year. And our intent is to basically keep it up so it doesn't fall down, paint it and paint the roof. But we need to figure out what to do with that. Other discussion on the budget. Question back here. Is the microphone sneaking up any rate from behind? I notice some of our owners like to carry their hats. I see. Amy Whitehorn, one of the listers in town. And Peter, you mentioned what's next, middle sex with regard to taking a look at the town buildings. But that group is not an official public body. So back to our select board, who is responsible for taking a look at our public buildings, public resources, what are you all actively doing in your positions? Not forming it out to people who are interested in doing good things generally for our community. We look at the town buildings every year. And in the past, we have allocated a relatively modest amount of money for much needed upgrades and maintenance of the buildings. You know, it's an ongoing process and a struggle. What meets the needs of the town at the same time keeps the cost down. We're paying for our new fire department now, which is a big bite. And that was the town-wide decision. And it was a big step for us. So the answer is yes, we're definitely trying to pay attention. But at the same time, we're trying to listen to not only what's next, middle sex, but residents in town and anybody else who wants to talk to us who has ideas. We had quite a few people approach us initially with ideas for the old fire station. But unfortunately, none of them came to fruition. Do you want to have a follow-up question? So I want to specifically ask you to take a look at the town hall with regard to ADA accessibility. We have an elevator that is the only means for folks who are unable to climb the stairs for whatever reason, wheelchair or otherwise. And that elevator was out of service on election day. Creating quite the hubbub, as you can imagine, in making sure that people were able to participate in our democracy here in town. So things like that seem to be of pretty big importance. And fixing or replacing or whatever, ultimately, in your wisdom, you suggest to us in town. The elevator, for one, I can imagine is certainly going to be at least $10,000, just to guess. So I'm with Sarah with this fund balance, rather than saying, well, shift $40,000 over here to reduce or keep within a certain budget. And then set aside $10,000. Why are we looking at actually taking the monies that we have in our fund balance and actually using them proactively to do some of the things that we do? We could certainly do that, because that's the will of the town. I mean, I would be, so just to back up a little bit and address the elevator. That elevator for the last couple of years has been a problem. We've had people come in and repair it. They've told us it's good. And then it seems just like when we need it, it fails, like you said. And it's a problem. But again, there are two critical problems at the existing town hall. One is the elevator, which just to replace the existing elevator. And it's really a lift, not an elevator. Any of you have had the pleasure of riding it. It's not the most user-friendly device in the world. That's at least a $25,000 bill just to replace that and have another lift. The town vault, I encourage any of you, if you are in the town hall, to look at that vault. It is just about at the max. Or if you talk to Sarah, she'll tell you it's over the max. I keep trying to find more space in there. But that's a big expense. So if we're going to spend that kind of money on the town hall, that's a pretty big commitment that we're going to stay there and stay in that old building, which also has other issues and problems that need to be addressed. So that's exactly what we're trying to work on and figure out. It's not an easy decision. And obviously, if you create a new town office, I'm not saying hall, because I don't think we would build a hall, where would it be? Would it be over here next to the school? Would it be would we demolish our existing town hall and create a new space there? Those are all things we have to think about. The fund balance issue, many of you have been coming to town meeting for a long time. There have been years when we really struggled and we had unanticipated expenses, trucks breaking down, raiders breaking down, things like that. We need to maintain a healthy fund balance for that kind of emergency. Because there are things that come up that we can't plan on and we can't budget for. Other discussion on the budget? Can I have one more follow-up question? Thank you. So if we're public meetings here at the school now, which we seem to be doing, and not holding public meetings at the town hall, could we undertake a comprehensive renovation to the town hall that would bring the town offices upstairs and also free up other space up for the historical society? Or other? The answer is yes. The answer is potentially yes. But if you're going to have a vault with access on the second floor, that's a big expense of a fireproof vault up in the air. So yes, but is that the right thing to do or not? Mark Bushnell, I had a question about the emergency management committee. And it says that you're looking to secure an agreement for an emergency shelter location for residents in need of evacuation. And I know that when we voted for the bond for Romney, one of the selling points was this could be a location. I'm wondering if that's what the thinking is and how that's going. Right. So I'm on the emergency management committee, Liz Sharp. And so originally, when the school went under the renovations, there was sort of this idea that we would become a Red Cross certified shelter, which at the time Red Cross was sort of giving away supplies or there was money to have cots and things that you would actually store here. And that wasn't available by the time that this renovations were done. And then when the emergency management committee looked into it, it wasn't available through the Red Cross anymore. We decided that what we wanted to do instead was just have the school available as a shelter in the event that there's a day or two that people are unable to be in their homes for whatever emergency reasons. So the short answer is that this was all sort of based on Red Cross guidelines, which we're not using anymore at this time. So really, what we've done is we've talked with the school and had it be where this is a place that people can come to if they need to, because there is a generator, there's a kitchen, there are showers, and there are bathrooms. But really what it would look like in the hopefully very unlikely event that we would need to do this, it would have to be bad enough that one school was not in session and two, that people couldn't make it to the current Red Cross shelter in Barrie. And at this point, what it truly would look like is you're bringing your sleeping bags for the case, because that's where we are right now in that process. And we're working on just various other scenarios of disasters in terms of what procedures would happen in the event of flooding versus ice storm versus road closures, whatever is going on. But so at this point, is there a school board member here? Yeah, Chris, do you want to speak to sort of the shelter piece of it from the school board perspective? Chris McVeigh. So a meeting or two ago, we did have discussion and voted to have the school as an emergency shelter. There is a agreement that is being worked out that would address that. Just a little clarification. It wouldn't only be if school was out of session, which would basically be the suffering for the winter months. It would, what it would do, though, is if there was an emergency need, school would not be in session. It's a plan. So this is absolutely right in terms of it's a less resource. And it would be school would be closed for the duration of the emergency shelter was needed. And basically, it would be if not sleeping bags and cots and things like that. So the finer details about supplies, where the supplies would be located, have not been worked out with Paul Gauthante, who is the manager, emergency manager. But as school board policy, the school is officially an emergency shelter. And we got to do it because there was a, they had to look at capacity of what the school could support. So that actually became policy about one or two meetings ago. And the Red Cross piece of it, there's been a huge turnover in the Red Cross in terms of they're unable to keep an executive director there for very long. So there's been some, a lot of the communication between the Red Cross and Paul has been a little bit difficult. Did you want to say something, Jeff? Liz. I'm calling people. Sorry. She's such a take charge. By the way, she's also cooking dinner. I just want you to know. Jeff, I'm also on the emergency preparedness board. Another problem with the Red Cross piece is that if we're a Red Cross shelter, the Red Cross can say, middle sex open up your shelter. We're bringing in whoever. And our members have decided that that's not a road we want to go down at least at this point in time. So that's we're using the Red Cross checklists kind of to keep us flowing, to have a standard by recreate the wheel when there's already one out there. But as far as working with the Red Cross to say, yeah, we're a Red Cross shelter, we're going to be a middle sex shelter. Thank you. Other comments or questions about the budget? Jesse Barth. Sorry, can you see any leverage? Jesse Barth. Thanks. Is Paul or somebody from the road crew here tonight? Well, a couple of years ago in the last year, West Hill was on the schedule for some maintenance on West Hill. And that was never done. And now it's not on the schedule. What's going to happen? Yeah, well, Steve, our schedule has really been thrown out the window. And we're trying to get back to some of that, some of those road projects. But we have to get back to some of our maintenance. And that's what we were doing this past season. And we will be doing that pretty much this season. So I can't answer your question exactly when that is done, but it will happen. Thank you. You're welcome. Other questions or comments on the budget? Are you ready for the question? To vote a budget of $1,187,891 to meet the expenses and liabilities of the town and authorize the select board to set a tax rate sufficient to provide the same. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No? The ayes have it. Article 7 is passed. You have a budget. We are going back to Article 5 now. Shall the town voters authorize payments of all property taxes to the town treasurer, as provided by law and without discount in four installments as follows. The first installment will be due on or before 4.30 PM August 20th, 2019. The second installment will be due on or before 4.30 PM November 20th, 2019. The third installment will be due on or before 4.30 PM February 20th, 2020. And the fourth installment will be due on or before 4.30 PM May 20th, 2020. Acceptive postmarked by the US Postal Service on or before the aforementioned dates accordingly. Is there a motion on Article 5? Chris McVeigh moves. Is there a second? Can you say your name? Eric Benedict seconds. Article 8, sorry, 5 has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on Article 5? Peter Hood. So as many of you know, we've had discussions over the years for many, many, many, many, many years. Our taxes were due at one time on one lump sum in November. A number of years ago, we changed to installments. We have heard over the years from quite a few people that they would like to have quarterly installments. So we said, OK, let's put it out there and see how everybody feels about it. So the question is, how do you feel about it? If you think that's a good idea, you should vote for the motion as written. On the other hand, you want to go back to the system we're on now with two payments. We can vote to amend the motion. But we wanted to put it out there in response to public input that we've had over the years. I think it's a great idea for installments. I mean, if people want to pay in two installments, they still can, just because people have the option of paying in four. We're not happy to accept money any time. Other questions or comments on the other side? Michael, it just begs the question, is there any financial administrative additional cost that we should factor in, or is it a complete wash? I mean, there's a little cost, but it's money. Work the treasure a little harder. She's saying no cost. Good. Thank you. That's an idea here. There is a consideration which we looked at in that, obviously, we're delaying the receipt of town funds that we need to spend. So there's another reason we need to have an adequate fund balance just in case. But we deemed it not to be a problem. Our expenses, as much as we can have extra expenses for winter road maintenance, our expenses are pretty much spread out throughout the year. So collecting the money throughout the year shouldn't be a burden. Hi, David Barnes. So just a quick question for clarity here. I mean, right now, people can play in 12 installments. They want to. But the statement was just made that if it were changed to four installments, that we could still pay two installments if we wanted to. And so is the question just setting up a change in automatic withdrawals? Because it's different. Paying more installments than the deadlines is different than paying fewer installments than what appear to be deadlines. But if they're not actually deadlines, then what is the deadline? They are deadlines. OK, so then you can't pay before or you can't pay after. Right, but if there are four deadlines, you can't then only pay two without incurring that. Sure, as long as you do it, as long as you do it, as long as you do it before you get installments or do it. OK, that's one way of looking at it. We're not trying to confuse people. We're trying to make it easier for people. That's our intent. Sorcha Anderson, does this mean we'd get four bills a year? You'll get one bill, just like you get now, but it'll have four. Thank you. Installments. Other discussion? Five. Just as a reminder, you can do it automatically so that if you're worried about not getting your check on time, you can have it automatically taken out of your bank account. I think there's instructions on the bill that have it come out. Sarah, do you need a microphone? I'm sorry. I'm going to hurry me until it is taking minutes. Do payments not become delinquent until after the May if you haven't paid in full by the May 20th? They would incur a minimum payment by the quarter. They would incur a half a percent interest. They would not incur a delay in 10. Could everybody hear during that? No. Let's take it up to the mic. During the crowds or treasurer? Right now, we're charging a half a percent interest for any payment that is laid on the. It's doing two payments. So if you miss the first payment date, you incur a half a percent a month until that's paid. You don't incur the 8% penalty until February when the total amount is deemed late. So if we go to four, if the first payment is due in August, you would incur a half a percent on that first payment. And then the second one, you would still, until you've paid it in full. If you miss the May deadline, it'll be an 8% penalty plus the accrued interest. Is that clear? Sarah, it was to follow up. I'm Sarah Merriman. I'm a town clerk. I wonder if we should modify this article as possible to make that motion to make that clear that the delinquency would occur after May 20th or after, yeah, after May 20th. Just so that there's no confusion among anybody. So do you want to, the amendment would be delinquency would occur after May 20th? On all unpaid balances after May 20th. Is that the next article? Does it say May 20th though? If that thing may, not what I would think, that would be the place to. I don't see that in the next article. Half a percent, I understand. I just want to be able to make, I just think that maybe we should modify this to make it clear that the delinquency will keep the, it's an 8% penalty instead, which Dorinda's treasurer is a depleter of the taxes and your statute is allowed to collect. So that doesn't have to be in the morning. But I'm just wondering if we should just modify the motion to say that delinquency would occur on all unpaid balance after May 20th. It's up to you guys, just throwing it out there. So the motion is delinquency with an 8% penalty occurs on all unpaid balances after May 20th? Is this a significant balance? So, so okay. It's printed on the, it's printed on the tax bill correct? Yeah. Okay. So what the minutes show, Sarah Merriman, that you changed your mind. Yes. And went through the amendment. Yes. Hi, Susan Sussman. So Dorinda, let me see if this is, if I got this right. So the 1.5% interest, if you want to pay in two installments, you would have to pay the first by the first quarterly instead of the second quarterly. Is that right? If you want to avoid the interest? Yes. Yes. So say you had a tax bill of $400. You would have to pay the first date. Otherwise you would incur the 1.5%. And then you would have to have paid at least $200 by the second date or you still would continue to approve the average percent. You could pay it. And you can, we welcome, we take money at the town hall anytime. So I had somebody in the office the other day trying to figure this out. And he says, well now you're limit, you're making me spread my payments out more and I can't collect it on my income taxes. And I'm there, well yes you can, you still can do it, but you have to pay it by the end of December if that's the luxury you want. But you've got to choose your option. All right, any other discussion on article five? Hearing none. Ready for the question? Shall the town owners authorize payment of all property taxes to the town treasurer as provided by law and without discount in four installments? Unless there's an objection, I'm not going to read all of these. We already heard them. All those in favor of article five, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes care to have it. The ayes do have it, and article five is passed. Article six to see if the town will charge interest at the rate of 0.5% per month or fraction thereof on overdue tax installments from the applicable due dates. Is there a motion on article six? Eric Benedict moves. Is there a second? Julie Moore seconds. Okay, article six has been moved and seconded to see if the town will charge interest at the rate of 0.5% per month or fraction thereof on overdue tax installments from the applicable due dates. Any discussion on article six? This way here, where's our microphone? There's three right here. Just a second, right after. That's what it is. Oh, that's what it is. Oh, we have to do the second. Yes. Greg Wichert, since 8% applies after the fourth due date, would this half percent be added to that? Yes. So the eight. Yes. Yes, like a hundred percent, the eight. So just a question about the eight percent. Does that apply to the balance that has not been paid up until the time the final installment would be due? Whatever is outstanding at the time of? Okay, Chris, my understanding is, so whatever is late, you pay the half a percent up. Up until the point. Then when you get to the final day, fourth installment, if the balance isn't paid in full at that time, you incur the eight percent penalty. And I believe it's on, yeah, but it's on the whole amount, isn't it? It isn't, it's just, what is it paid for? Okay, it's just on what hasn't been paid. Okay, but you do not add the half percent interest, top of the eight percent. The eight percent is a standalone. And is there no, eight percent is a separate issue, but you get the half percent also. Right, up until that point. Correct, okay, correct. And just another clarification. Is the eight percent on the balance due, and is the balance due including the half percent interest, so you're getting the eight percent on the interest that is accrued as well? Or is it just on the base amount? Okay, great, thank you. Can we just give the microphone to Dorenda and you can just say that so everybody could hear it, Dorenda, that's right. So the half a percent stays with your bill until it's paid. So at the end of the final period, when the tax, the full amount is due, you are then penalized eight percent only on the unpaid portion of the taxes, plus the half a percent interest that has been accruing throughout that time period. Any further discussion on article six? Oh, yes. Janet, hang on, Janet, thanks. Dorenda, it says half a percent per month, so if you don't pay the August installment, you have September, October, and November. You have three half percents added to it, not just one. It's every month you get a half. Any further discussion on article six? Question from here, and then we have one of the... Is half a percent just a number that has let Dorenda settle to mine? Can it be more, can it be less? And if it's 0.5, why 0.5? It can be more or less for a period of time that held me out, someone I believe was one and a half percent for a long, long, long time, and we reduced it a number of years ago to half of a percent. But yes, that's at our community discretion, not the select board's discretion. So if the community chooses to change it, yes, it can be changed. The eight percent is state budget. There was a hand up at the back quarter. The unfortunate event that I just stayed doing. Oh, my name is Jane Dudley, thank you. In the unfortunate event that taxes were still unpaid a year later, is that eight percent a one-time charge or would that be again charged a year later on that same amount from the previous year? No, it's a one-time charge per year. A half a percent keeps rolling until it's paid on any of the new balance. Any further discussion on article six? Hearing none. You ready for the question? To see if the town will charge interest at the rate of point five percent per month or fraction thereof on overdue tax installments from the applicable due dates. All those in favor of article six say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it and article six is passed. We're now on article eight. You see how that works, right? And okay, so article eight is, shall the town eliminate the position of trustee of public funds effective March 3rd 2020 as their motion on article eight? Jeff Coons moves, is there a second? Dave Smith seconds. So article eight has been moved and seconded to eliminate the position of trustee of public funds effective March 3rd 2020. Any discussion? Yes. Evelyn Gantt and I belong on the Cemetery Commission and I want to talk about the trustees of public funds. What is the trustee of public funds? It's somebody, it's three people that oversee the funds that aren't in the budget so that they are used correctly and invested properly. It's in the account of middle sex, it is only the account that has to do with the North Branch Cemetery. The North Branch Cemetery was given to Vermont in a quick deed that was issued in December of 2004 and it was recorded in 2005. Along with this cemetery came this entailment fund, that's how we got it. In minutes formed the select men on February 2nd, 2006, which Peter Hood and Mary Jess Skinner and Cindy Carlson and Walter Kelly was in. They discussed if the Cemetery Commission should be appointed or elected. And it was confirmed with them and it's written in this notes with the city, the league of cities and towns that the commissioners are responsible for the endowments, the income of the lots, perpetual fund, cemetery funds and additional maintenance of the cemeteries. According to the state statues of 18SA 537, it says cemeteries are over the spending of the budgets of the cemetery. The language is very broad but clear. It suggests that once the town votes to have a cemetery commission, votes to have a cemetery commission not appointed. These commissioners take place of the select board in regards to care and supervision of the cemeteries. It states when a town votes to place the public burial phone funds under the charge of cemetery commission, it shall elect separately a board of three or five commissioners who should have the care and maintenance of such burial grounds and exercise all powers, rights and duties respect to that care and maintenance. All responsibilities on the part of the select men now should cease. Why I'm bringing this up is three years ago you elect me as one of your cemetery commissions. So as your cemetery commission, I was to oversee the public fund that came with that endowment fund. It's my responsibility to you to take care of that endowment fund and to report to you when something happens to that endowment fund. So I am reporting to you today that as a cemetery commissions, we were in charge of investing, our names were on the Edward Jones account to invest that money properly and to see and pay the bills from that account. This year, because of political upheavals and we're not going into long story, we're not going into all that, I am looking to the future, that's all over with. That our names on the cemetery commission were stripped from the Edward Jones account by the select men and the treasurer and a Helen lead was put on to that fund. And this was done without our permission or the knowledge until it was over. I don't care what's happened before, why it's happened, it's all been settled, the egos have all been taken care of. And it was, how they've done it is, is because they changed the wording. Okay, they said now that this is fine is not an endowment, it is now a donation and it's separate. The people before this gave it to the town as a donation, not as part of the cemetery. So, can you just explain how this ties, help me out, tie this up to the chest here. Let me go, let me go. Okay, so it's like calling, okay. So now it is called, before it was called a tomato. Now the fund is called a tomato but it's still the public funds that belong to the cemetery. So, if the trustees of public funds are in charge of overseeing these funds, I think we need somebody to oversee these public funds. So there's two parts of the question now. Right now, the trustee of the public fund is the treasurer and she and her name and Helen lead are on that public account. That public account shouldn't have gone to there. It should have stayed with the Cemetery Commission. That's what the state statues say. So, the two parts of the question, yes, eliminate the treasurer as part of the trustees of the public fund. But the treasurer, yeah, and I don't think this move should have happened and I think it's, I'm not a lawyer, but I think it's illegal for it to happen. The Cemetery Commission should be put back in charge of that fund and they should be designated as the trustees of that public fund because they're the overseers of that fund. Response or comments from the comments? The town received legal advice that it was the responsibility of the treasurer, not the trustee of public funds, but the treasurer to oversee and disperse monies from that account. That account is held in trust for the North Branch Cemetery and the North Branch Cemetery only. So, we took the step we did based on what we believe to be good legal advice. In terms of the trustee of public funds, you're exactly correct. The law says we should have three trustees of public funds. In fact, as long as I've been in town and I think as long as basically forever, we've only had one trustee of public funds and typically it's always been the treasurer. It doesn't have to be, but in my memory it always has been. So, this is just an effort on our behalf not to change anything that's going on with the cemetery but to eliminate the petition, excuse me, the position of trustee of public funds because basically there's nothing for that trustee to do that the treasurer isn't doing. Much like years ago, we did away with fence viewers and other town officials we had who had no longer had any function. The other thing I would remind everybody is we have a CPA audit of our town funds every year. So in terms of making sure that the money is being spent and distributed correctly, we have a professional auditor overseeing that process. And the last thing I would say, which really isn't germane to the article, but since we had this issue of the cemetery is yes, the treasurer is taking control of those funds just like she controls all other town funds. Select Board doesn't administer the funds, the treasurer does, she dispenses money, she submits an order to the Select Board, the Select Board approves the order or remends it and then the money is dispersed. The same process happens with the Cemetery Commission. So, I'd be glad to answer any other questions. So we're doing how much money we're talking about? 125,000 or 118,000? 118,000. So what prompted the solicitation of a legal opinion about the control of the cemetery funds? It sounds like according to what Ms. Gant was saying that the commission of the cemetery commissioners were in control of these funds and you said that you had a legal opinion that said it should be the treasurer. So historically, as a cemetery commissioners and switched to the treasurer and if it was, what prompted that action and what prompted the request for legal opinion and who provided it? So, unfortunately, I really feel like this is in germane to the article we're discussing but I don't know what to do with that. People have questions, it's okay. I think people have a question about that. The select board had a disagreement with the Cemetery Commission. Cemetery Commission puts in a budget request and we vote that in our budget and those funds are expended. Okay, I'm sorry. Okay, Janet. We're Janet McKenzie Cemetery Commission. We're actually talking right now of two different things. It is true that there's money in the budget for the car and village cemeteries which the town has owned forever and a day. That budget is $6,900. There's, that's plenty of money because the car and village cemeteries are maintenance only. Covers mowing, covers stone cleaning occasionally, covers brush cutting. The North Branch Cemetery Investment Fund endowment is not in the town budget. It is a fund of its own. So, what has happened since 2006 when the Cemetery Commission began to be elected on a regular basis because we had gotten our nominating petitions in on time. We in our organizational meeting and other public meetings on toward May or so would say, well, we probably need to do this with North Branch Cemetery so we probably need $5,000. So we take it from the Edward Jones Fund and it was the Cemetery Commission and the town treasurer because we needed to do orders to the treasurer to move this money. And we've always done that. Plum arose in 2018. We needed to do a different agreement. I forget what the form is. With Edward Jones to take Cindy Carlson, who was our previous town treasurer, off as a signer and put Dorenda on. In April of 2018, I had the paperwork from Edward Jones to do that. We had our organizational meeting in the middle of April. Dorenda was not available to attend. I did let her know it was a warrant public meeting. She was just answering the question of why we got a lawyer involved. I don't know why they got a lawyer. I really don't. But I am worried about the discussion. This is a discussion on the position of the trustee of public questions. So I just want to picture. But one other point, the Cemetery Commission has a financial, with Edward Jones, we were asked, it's a document that instructs from us to Edward Jones how we want to manage the account. And it clearly states, it was signed in 2016, it clearly states that the Cemetery Commission and the town treasurer are in charge of these funds, investment policy. And it's recorded in the town office in the town records. Okay, thanks. I think that we're borderline on the germane-ness here. So I think that if people have questions to focus in on, I know you need to vote on whether to eliminate the position of trustee of public funds. We've raised a lot of interesting points here. If people have questions that help focus their thoughts, Greg, how does he end up first? You've already made one change, I understand. And now you're asking us to vote on whether the position itself should exist. How has the function for the citizens changed? Historically, the trustee of public funds has had no function whatsoever. The treasurer has managed the town monies and dispersed the town monies and the trustee of public funds has had no function. And this has nothing to do with anything to do with the cemetery. It's just we're eliminating the town position which has no function. Sarah, Marilyn, can you bring the microphone over to Sarah? I just wanna clarify that the reason why this article is appearing is because in the course of all this brouhaha, actually it was Dorinda who found the statute that said, do you know that we're supposed to have three trustees of public funds? So it was my task to go to a select board assistant to research when we went to one trustee of public funds which has always, always been illegal and useless. I mean, it makes sense. You should have three people overseeing the town's money, not one person overseeing the town's money. I went all the way back to 1933 when the town records, when the town voted to create one trustee of public funds. And for reasons that I cannot figure out that was never modified, I did not go to the statute in 1933 to see if you could get one trustee of public funds. But for all my research says, we always should have had three trustees of public funds. Having one trustee of public funds, it's like having a one wheel, well I can't say one wheel bicycle, but you know what I mean, it doesn't work. So that's the only reason that this is article is appearing on this morning. Are you ready for the question? I'm just seeing some. One hand up here. Microphone to Chris McPhee. Oh, there's, see ya. So I'm still interested in- Nice and loud, Chris. I'm still interested in what prompted the request for a legal opinion, what the legal opinion was in regard to these funds and who provided it and, if Sarah's correct that we should have more than one person overseeing the public funds, we should have three. What three do we have right now? We've never had three. Okay, but should we have three? That's the question, should we have three? Should we have three people doing it? I mean, because she's probably right about one person controlling the public funds is not great and no offense. But just if the idea is to have redundant oversight over the public funds and not just one person, then it does make sense if we should be adding to this position, not eliminating it. So let me just back up. So I apologize for not answering your question about the legal opinion. What prompted the legal opinion was a disagreement with the Cemetery Commission about how these funds should be. So we saw the legal opinion and who gave us the legal opinion, sorry. Rob Halper. Getting back to the question of oversight of public money, cemeteries and all the other town monies, we have a very redundant system just to be clear. We have the treasurer at the head of the line. We have the select board who has to approve and sign orders for any and all expenditures and the Cemetery Commission who needs to sign orders for their expenditures. Then we have a professional CPA who audits our town books at the end of the year and we also have elected auditors. So there are a lot of folks looking over and being careful that the money is spent correctly. So the trustee of public funds is in the view and recommendation of the select board an unnecessary position. And as it turns out, we've been operating in an illegal manner all these years because we don't have three trustees of public funds. So it's the select board recommendation that we do away with the position. We are very comfortable that the town funds are carefully looked after and collected and dispersed. Just a second, I have to be called on. So it has been moved and seconded to call the question. Sorry, what was your name? Michael James II. So what we need to vote on now is whether to end a debate, a move to call the question is a move to end a debate. If you're ready to end debate on this question, you will signify by saying, I. All those in favor of ending debate, say, I. I. Opposed, no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and we will vote on article eight. Article eight is shall the town eliminate the position of trustee of public funds effective March 3rd, 2020. All those in favor of article eight, say, I. I. Opposed, no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. Article eight is passed. So those are heard. And as we move on to the rest of these money articles, please note that on page 24 of your town report, we have a chart that the teachers prepared. It indicates how much of these articles is gonna cost you depending on the value of your property. So for every $100,000 or $150,000 or $200,000 that your property is worth, there's an amount that each article will cost a taxpayer. So we are on article nine, shall the town voters appropriate the sum of $5,000 to the Middlesex Conservation Fund? Is there a motion on article nine? All right, Susan Sussman moves and second. John Julio. Article nine has been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? I know that the Conservation Commission spoke under their reports. So any questions or are we ready for the article? I'm looking right. All right, shall the town voters appropriate the sum of $5,000 to the Middlesex Conservation Fund? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. We are on article 10. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $600 for the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation? Is there a motion on article 10? And can you say your name? Alison Cormill moves. Is there a second? Mr. Chairman, all right, Jeff. Seconds? Okay, so $600 for the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation. Any discussion? Peter. So for the last, I don't know how many years, at least 10 years, I've been on the board of Central Vermont Economic Development. We are an independent nonprofit organization funded through membership dues, community contributions, and a state grant to promote economic development in our region. We are requesting the same amount we requested last year, $600 to support that activity, and I'd be glad to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions about Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation? Ready for the question. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $600 for the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. The ayes have it. Some noes are heard. Article 11, shall voters authorize expenditures of $4,050 to support Central Vermont Home, Health, and Hospice? Is there a motion? If they move, you should say your name, by the way, when they move in a second. Help us out. Julie, more seconds. Just because you know my money, no, you're being. Just temporarily, sometimes I don't know my husband's name. So. Just have it. Mark Bush now. Mark Bush now, thank you. Article 11 has been moved and seconded. Is there a discussion on Central Vermont Home, Health, and Hospice? What are we here for? I'm Mary Neville Hood. I'm on the board for Central Vermont Home, Health, and have been for about 10 years. About a year. Oh. Nicely. Okay. Is this better? Thank you. And I call your attention to page 63, and I think most of you are probably looking at that or have quickly read that. And that's the report from Central Vermont Home, Health, of the people they served in Middlesex. Say that 47 Middlesex residents- Right, of course, to your member, okay. As expected, that 47 Middlesex residents will receive over 1,000 home visits in 2018, skilled and high tech nursing, physical occupational speech therapies. And then they expect the breakdown to be as follows. 1,065 home health care, 173 hospice, 486 long term care, 15 maternal child health care. And in addition, they have flu shots, blood pressure screenings, foot care, et cetera. And we don't know the numbers on the people who live on those. But we are raising our request by $300. We haven't raised it in four years. And we are hoping that that will be okay with you. And if there are any other questions that you have, I'll try to answer them or if I don't know the answer, I'll find it. Okay, thank you for your discussion on Article 11. Shall the voters authorize expenditures of $4,050 to support Central Vermont Home, Health, and Hospice? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Oppose, no. The ayes have it, so noes are heard. Article 12, shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $3,000 to support community connections? Is there a motion of Article 12? Sorry, nice and loud. And seconded? Bill Ross-Messler. Bill Ross-Messler seconds. Article 12 has been moved and seconded $3,000 to support community connections. Any discussion? Mary Jo LaMelle. I'm a resident of Middlesex and I actually also work for community connections in the Washington Supervisory Union and have supported this organization for since the inception. And today we have the director here at Romney of Community Connections, Chris Malone. I asked the permission brand to speak. He is not a resident of Middlesex. Is there any objection to hearing from Chris Malone? No objection? Then go ahead, Chris. All right, thank you very much. Chris Malone I'm the site coordinator here for Community Connections. And we are asking for $3,000 to support the program. It's my understanding that that's the same amount that we've been getting typically every year. We serve more than half of the student body with our program by providing morning care, after school care programming. I think it's a great program. This is my first year as a site coordinator so I'm still kind of learning all about this. This whole process here is entirely new to me. So please point me in the right direction if you see me going one way or the other. If you have any questions that you have because you try to answer them. Questions for the site coordinator of Community Connections. All right, thank you, Chris. Site you're ready for the question. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $3,000 to support Community Connections? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. The ayes have it, some noes are heard. Article 13, shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $1,500 to support Girls and Boys First Mentoring? Is there a motion on Article 13? All right, moved by Liz Sharth. Is there a second? Laura Lyle, it's seconds. This is $1,500 to support Girls and Boys First Mentoring. Any discussion on Girls and Boys First? Wendy, microphone. Hi, I just want to thank the town because you have- The awarding? Oh. Wendy Freilich and I run Girls and Boys First Mentoring. For the past 19 years. And I want to thank Middlesex for supporting the program for almost 19 years, probably more than 15. We used to get federal funding. I have 10 mentees of the program right now that range from third grade through 12th grade. And I have one mentee who's not from Middlesex from Montpelier who's from an immigrant family who just was nominated to become a presidential scholar. So I just think the support of the mentors really make a huge difference in the life of the kids in our community. I have a bunch of either former or current mentors in the house this evening. And I just wanted to let you know that in addition to raising money, I am always looking for mentors. And it has become much more difficult in the past several years for some unknown reason to myself. But there was a wonderful article in today's New York Times that somebody sent me early this morning. And it's by Jane Brody in the health section of the Times. And I just wanted to read a tiny little quote from that just in case you might think that you might like to be a mentor at some point and not just support the program financially. And so the quote is by a man named Mr. Friedman who is the founder of Encore Organization and Experience Core whose programs are dedicated to helping older adults find purpose later in life and he calls himself a social entrepreneur. Ask what it takes to be a mentor, he said succinctly showing up and shutting up, being consistent and listening. You don't have to be a charismatic superhero, you don't need an advanced degree. It's more about the relationship than imparting stage advice. The key is not being interesting, the real key is being interested, being present and paying attention. So thank you for considering the Funding Request and if you have any interest at all in helping support the kids in the community and helping improve your quality of life itself, see me after the meeting. Thank you. Any other discussion on Article 13? All right, ready for the question. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $1,500 to support girls and boys at first mentoring? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it. Couple of noes heard and onto Article 14. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $29,801 to help support the Kellogg Hubbard Library? Is there a motion on Article 14? So move Jennifer Murray. Jennifer Murray moves, is there a second? Say your name. Kimberly Hagan. Kimberly Hagan seconds, thank you. Article 14 has been moved and seconded. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $29,801 to help support the Kellogg Hubbard Library? Is there a discussion on Article 14? Hello, everybody. John Julio, I am your middle sex representative. I'm the trustee for the Kellogg Hubbard Library. I'd like to thank you for your support over the years and for that support, I just wanted to point out some numbers about middle sex usage. There's a blue sheet that's out on one of the tables in the hallway if you'd like to look more carefully at some of the data and the usage of the library. It really serves this community and over the years this community has really stepped up with their belief that there's really no greater symbol in our civil society than a free and open library. To that point, middle sex users, there are 521 library card holders in this town, so that's about 30% of the town population. The circulation in this town alone is 14,000 plus items. That's about 30 items per person throughout the year, so the numbers are really great here. Thank you for your support and the library is serving you. I also wanted to point out that in today's modern era, the library is more than just about books. It's a place to gather. Many of you have children that spend there after school time there. There's free Wi-Fi, there's computer use. Some of the numbers are quite stunning. There's an average usage of 303 computer sign-ons and there's 1,105 Wi-Fi sign-ons. This is weekly usage. I'm always impressed with the amount of a variety of programs at the Cali Cup. So if you're not currently using the library, if you don't have kids there, if you don't need Wi-Fi access, you should know that there are over 500 programs every year that range from gardening to literature to humanities to how-to, to film groups, to discussion groups, et cetera, et cetera. This is really a promotion for the use of that space and I hope you will enjoy things like free museum and park passes and free and reduced price passes to like the Echo Aquarium and the Shelburne Museum. It's a high value, there's great use and I encourage you to use it more, bring your children, bring your friends and once again, thank you for your support. Any other discussion on Article 14? Yes, right here. Thank you, Whitehorn. I appreciate your comments, but you open with saying that the library is a free and open library, it is not. We pay, you're asking for $29,000 again this year to have the privilege of a Cali Cup library card. I say this as someone who for a long time was a dedicated Cali Cup library patron and for many, many years held a library card there, checked out lots of materials, used the resources, but over the years it has become more difficult to access the library, it's closed at prime times on the weekends and in the evenings. Parking is impossible in downtown Montpelier and is getting worse, especially this time of the year. We talked earlier about an article where we're supporting before and after school programs here in our own community in our own elementary school and gave just a few thousand dollars to that program. Our kids are here and if we're gonna use daycare services and have before and after school services, we should do that here in our community. Now I don't want you to hear me as saying that I do not support Cali Cup, that would be false, I do. If I want to get a Cali Cup library card, I can go in and pay $40 and have the privilege of being a patron. If I'm a senior citizen, it only costs me $35 and I have access to all the different things and with regard to the free and public programs that they offer, those are open to the public but some of them do have little charges, miscellaneous charges associated with them. So the important point that I want to underscore here is that Cali Cup isn't free. We, middle sex, are paying a lot of money, more money, 521 people to have a library card than it actually would cost for individual members of our community to go into Cali Cupboard and get a library card. And while I really do appreciate the resources that they offer, I myself have taken to patronizing the Waterbury Public Library, where I paid $10 to have access to all of the same library materials because they all use the same networks across Vermont and other surfaces, electronic and physical books, $10. They have great hours. They have public meeting spaces that are open and free and they have great parking. So I bring this up because I wasn't able to make it here last year. And last year is when Cali Cupboard increased the request to our community significantly. And had I been here last year, I would have talked about this more then, but I was quite ill. So I'm bringing it up now because we've talked about aging buildings, including the building we're in, which is our elementary school and hub of our community, really, not the Cali Cupboard Library. And I want us to really think seriously about the money where we're spending it. I totally would support a smaller amount to Cali Cupboard Library. But 29,000 rounded up to 30, that's a lot of money from our community for 521 folks to have library cards. You want us to pay for 521 library cards at $40 a pop? Let's do the math and give them about 20 grand. Did you want to amend the motion? Potentially, but I guess I would like to hear if there's anyone else interested in this notion, because obviously I'm the only one standing at the moment. So I will pause, I guess, hand off the mic, and if there's other interest, certainly I would put forth an amendment for that. Okay, other comments? My name's Lucy Wood, and I'd just like to point out that if you reference page 24 in this book, it's really not that much money per household that we're putting toward the library. For example, if you live on a $200,000 property, it's actually only about $27 over the course of the year. When you're not just paying for your library card, as a kid, when I was younger, I actually used space after school, and I know many other kids who did. And I feel like it's just really important because this is such a community resource, and it's really not that much money if you break it down over the course of the year, and I think we all need to remember that. Other discussion? Mary? I'm sorry that you have to pay for that. Can you address these to the? I'm Mary Hood, I live here. And address your comments to the moderator. Oh, sorry. I'm really sorry that someone has to pay $40. I don't understand why you have to pay $40. I have a free library card. Are you talking about the amount of money that your capita is? I think that what you're saying is that's how much you would pay if we voted not to pay any money. I think we voted to pay no money. No money. Did you hear that? It's okay. Well, that was my concern. I didn't understand. Thank you. Any other discussion, comments on Article 14? Just a second. I just want to make sure everybody gets a chance to speak. Yes. Who wants to? Hi, Wendy, I know that the library also has public meeting spaces that our program uses for free. And I know that children's programs used to be held in there when my kids were little also. But I really appreciate when I can use that space. It's a lovely space to have available for different kinds of speakers and activities. Mary Jo LeMell, I also know that the library sends representatives out to our school here at Rumney. There's one of the people that works at the library comes out and has children's groups right here at the school during the summertime during the months in the summer. I know they go to East Montpelier and Berlin, Calis and they advertise their events and it's open to anyone that lives anywhere really but they do offer it right here at the school. Kathy Shapiro, I just wanted to note that for some families paying $40 for a library card may well not be an option and the beauty of a public library is that it provides services to everyone in that town for free and that's what we're paying for. No, it is not free but people who could not afford to pay for those services and from without paying. Thank you. Further discussion on Article 14? I would like to... Sorry friend, I didn't call any of you. But I am happy to have you speak but I called on you first. I'm sorry. Are you wishing? Okay, great, sorry friend. Go ahead, she's waving her hands away so. Back to friend. Agree with her, put it more in line to what it would cost for people to go and actually get a library card. Or if we subsidize those 540 people that would be a profit of $20,000. I think that would be a little more in line. It makes more sense to me to do that. So I would like to make a motion to fund some $20,000 for the Gallard Hubbard and go from there. All right, so you're moving to amend the amount from $29,801 to $20,000. Yes, that would be more in line with what it would cost to actually fund everybody that uses a library card in the town of Wilson. Okay, is there a second? Yes, what's your name? Jessica Clark. Jessica Clark, okay. So Fred McCullough moves Jessica Clark seconds. The motion to amend Article 14 to change the number from $29,801 to $20,000. So we're now discussing the amendment. It's the discussion on that amendment. The urge that we vote down this amendment because the library is, it's a public asset. It's something that has served us all well over the time. It has in the past, it will in the future. And when we start funding public assets like the library to our narrow self-interest, then the public asset potentially goes away. And so this is a broad-based resource for all of us, something that needs to be preserved and enjoyed and used if you don't use it, stay there if you wanna use it. So I think we should vote down this amendment because telecarbon, and it's not telecarbon's fault that they're in one period and going to a park. But it also is an attraction because you're in downtime on period. And so you not only have access to the library, but you have access to everything else in one period. So I would urge us that we fund the request made. It has been stable for many, many years and we all enjoy it. So, thanks. Jessica, should we bring it in? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Jessica Clark. I love the Kellogg Public Library. I was a page there, it was my first job, and I was 13 for a year. I've been a reader since I was three and spent lots of time in the Kellogg Library. I grew up in Montpellier. And it is wonderful to have a public space. But I think it's fair that the town of Middlesex pay not more than what an out-of-state would pay for a library card for a fee number of people that we have that are patrons. Also, I happen to know that the Kellogg Hubbard has a large fundraising arm, and if you want to give more, you are welcome. Thank you. I have a question. Oh, a question. Call the question. Oh, you called the question. I'm sorry, I wasn't calling on you. There's something behind you. And then, David and I will call on you. I would prefer that you vote down this amendment because the library is used by U32 students on their way home. Some parents pick them up there instead of picking them up at home because it is more convenient because it's on their way back from their jobs. Sorry, can you state your name for them? Ben Carlson. Thank you. So, the students from U32 do use this facility. It's used by people here, even people that do not have library cards from Middlesex go there to use the facilities. It isn't just people that have library cards there that use it. It's people from Middlesex who don't have library cards that just go there to use the Wi-Fi because Middlesex doesn't really have internet. So, it's not just people that have library cards that go down there and use it. It's people that just don't even normally check out books so they don't even bother getting a library card. And so, the whole library card as an asset value of how many people actually use it in Middlesex is not a very good indicator of how many people from Middlesex actually use the library. Because you don't have to have a library card to actually use its facilities. You can just walk in there and just press agree if you want to use the Wi-Fi. You don't have to have a library card. You don't even have to have a library card to log into the computers, which is can pass for guest pass. All of these features are paid for because you're a Middlesex citizen and it is allowed for everyone to walk in. You're not just paying for yourselves, you're paying for who can't afford these things. And if you don't know, recently because of rollbacks, there are other things that are going to be raising CaliCover's expenses. So, just because it seems expensive now, they may collapse just because they can't get the funding made. Fundraising is a very chancey thing. It does not provide a consistent influx of finances. It all depends on how people feel about the fundraiser. So, it just doesn't seem right to cut the funding to a resource that anyone can use. Anyone in Vermont can walk in there and use it if they need it. It provides a service, a public service for everyone. Not just the people that live in Middlesex, but people that also live elsewhere. So, it's not just, you're not just helping yourselves, you're helping a lot of people. Thanks. Did you, yeah, Adrienne? I called the question. Adrienne, the media calls the question, is there a second? Give me your name again. Okay. Right? If you're ready to end discussion, what's that? On the amendment. Yes. So, if you vote yes, thank you. If you vote yes, you are voting to end discussion on the amendment. All those in favor of, yes. So, you want a show of hands. Is that what you want? A division? Yeah, okay. All those in favor of ending discussion on the amendment, please signify by saying aye. Opposed? No. Okay, so we have ended discussion on the calling question passes. We will now vote on the amendment to reduce the number from $29,801 to $20,000. If you would like to reduce that number, signify by saying aye. This is the vote. Yes. I'm calling it now. This is the vote. All those in favor of amending Article 14 from $29,801 to $20,000, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. No. The noes appear to have it with a healthy percentage of ayes. So, the amendment is, fails. And we are back to Article 14. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $29,801 to help support the Kellogg-Hubert Library? Yes. Okay, the question has been called. Is there a second? Emily Smith seconds. Article 14, the question of ending discussion has been proposed. If you are ready to end discussion on Article 14, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? No. The ayes have it. And we are ready to vote on Article 14. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $29,801 to help support the Kellogg-Hubert Library? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it with noes heard. Article 14 passes. Thank you for your help on parliamentary procedure also. Article 15, shall the town vote to raise appropriate and expend the sum of $5,500 for the support of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center to provide services to residents of the town? There's no motion on Article 15. And a second? Lisa Carlson seconds. Article 15, $5,500 for the Montpelier Senior Activity Center. Any discussion on Article 15? Move to this motion. Nope? Okay, yes. Thank you. Any discussion on the Montpelier Senior Activity Center? Yes. I'm Hugo Liebman, live on Garand Hill Road. The report of the Senior Activity Center is on page 67. That state says, this is the same amount they asked last year. It also states that 76 residents participated in the program at the senior center. I myself participate in three activities there. It's great. My wife participates in two activities. It's a marvelous, welcoming, refreshing place. And I hope we support this Article 15. Thank you. Any other discussion on Article 15? For the question. Shall the town vote to re-appropriate and expend some of the $5,500 for the support of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center to provide services to residents of the town? All those in favor say, aye. Aye. Opposed, no. And Article 15 passes with some notes from it. Article 16, shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $10,000 to support the Waterbury Senior Center's Nails on Wheels program? Is there a motion on Article 16? Just shout your name right out. Okay, Lisa Carlson moves and Bill Ross Messler seconds. Article 16, shall the town voters authorize $10,000 for the Waterbury Senior Center's Nails on Wheels program. Any discussion on Article 16? The poll is closed in five minutes. If you haven't voted, now is your last five minutes to do so. Discussion on the Waterbury Senior Center, $10,000 for the Nails on Wheels article. If you had turned to page 68, I'm completely unclear what they're asking for. If you read that paragraph on 68, it says first it says they served 12 clients in 2018. Now it says the money that they're asking for, $10,000 will serve four residents, $2,500 a resident. So, I don't know if we can get clarification. Is there anybody here who could speak on behalf of the Waterbury Senior Center and answer those questions? The four residents refers to the amount that they're asking for covers meals for four residents, even though there are more than four residents who receive it, so, and they're getting multiple meals, right, that's, so we would need 20,000 to do eight residents and 30,000 to do 16, if they were receiving all year long. Yeah, all year long. Another discussion on article 68. Hi, Mary Hood again. We have someone from the Waterbury Senior Center who is the chairman of the board, and, but he's not a resident of Middlesex, so we would have to okay him speaking and he could answer some of the questions. Are there, I mean, I think that question did get answered, but if there are other questions, is there any objection to having the chair of the board of the Waterbury Senior Center speak if you have additional questions? Does he want to make a statement? Is that a request or is he just here to answer questions? Any further questions or comments on article 16? I'm seeing a lot of shaking. Shall the town voters authorize expenditures of $10,000 to support the Waterbury Senior Center's Meals on Wheels program? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it, if someone has heard. Article 16 passes. Article 17, to see if the town of Middlesex will appropriate the sum not to exceed $4,771 to support the following organizations. Unless there's an objection, I'm not going to read all 20 of these organizations. Sorry, what, Fred did you, yeah, Fred, what did you say? I do have an objection to mother of. Oh, okay, yeah, I just wanted to check to see if there was an objection to my not reading them all. Oh. And then once it's moved and seconded, you can check it all you want. You're going to go down through each one individually? No, but you can name them individually. So we'll just move in second and then we'll get on to the discussion, yeah. So article 17, $4,771 to support the list of 20 organizations in the article, is there a motion? Is, shout out your name. Hugo. It moves. And Susan Sussman seconds. Okay, so now I'll entertain discussion on article 17 and Fred, you had your hand up first. Okay, the only one I see any issue with is mother of. I have a problem with it as it's a political action committee and there are article 18 disproof in the putter. I don't think the town has any business giving money to political action committees. That's my objection to that. So would you like to amend this to have mother of not getting money to send your suggestion? Yes. Is there a second to that amendment? I'll talk about it. I'll move and second it to approve article 17 with the amendment of taking mother up $250 out. So that's an amendment. We're now discussing the amendment. Yes, Charlie. Can I just double check, Charlie? Yeah, I was going to ask for permission. So my name is Geraldine Botana and although I am your resident, I have little sense. I have been for the last 13 years, I am not. I'm a citizen of the US and so I cannot vote. And you technically can't speak unless we give you permission. That's correct. So I'm in for permission. Is there any objection to Geraldine? Charlie. Oh, no. Thank you. So I am the local organizer for mother of and it is not primarily a political organization so what we are primarily a group of parents in central Vermont, middle sex, Montpelier, East Montpelier and other communities who gather once a month and what we do is we create community of parents and families who want to talk about climate change and climate crisis and what it means to parents in the context of our climate crisis. And we also take action but not we don't vote or we don't promote political candidates. And so we take action locally and at the state level to promote basically moving forward without fossil fuels and in a way that will help hopefully solve our climate crisis. So technically we're not. However, we are a part of 350 Vermont and 350 Vermont does not either back political candidates. So I'm going to clarify. There are discussion on the amendment to remove mother up from the list of funding articles 17. Okay. So the amendment is to remove mother of the $250 or mother up from article 17. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed to no. No. The noes appear to have it. The noes do have it and then the amendment fails. So we are back to article 17 to see if the time of middle sex will appropriate or not to exceed $4,771 to support the following organizations in the list of 20 organizations. Other discussion on any of those organizations with the article 17 to see if the time of middle sex will appropriate or not to exceed $4,771 to support the list of 20 organizations listed under article 17. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed to no. No. The ayes have it. We have noes heard. And we are, the moderator has lost her voice. Here we are with a page and a half of article 18. Shelter Town of Middlesex approve the following resolution. Whereas extreme and erratic temperatures increasingly severe storms and the rise of tick-borne diseases and threats to farmers and maple sugar makers clearly demonstrate that climate change is one of the most urgent problems facing our state nation in the world. And whereas the state of Vermont has a goal and the comprehensive energy plan to achieve 90% of its energy from renewable resources by 2050, yet is making insufficient progress toward achieving the school, now therefore be it resolved for two parts. The first part, Shelter Town of Middlesex urged the state of Vermont to A, halt any newer expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, i.e. transmission pipelines, electrical generation plants, and or industrial storage facilities. B, commit a 100% renewable energy by 2030 for all people in Belong with firm entry deadlines. And C, ensure that the transition to renewable energy is fair and equitable for all residents with no harm to marginalized groups or rural communities. Part two, Shelter Town of Middlesex request the town to do its part to meet those demands by committing to efforts such as A, protecting townlands from fossil fuel infrastructure, denying easements or agreements for any pipelines crossing townlands, B, weatherizing town buildings and schools, C, enlisting state support to install rooftop solar on town and school buildings, D, other initiatives to improve residents' quality of life while helping to reduce overall energy use, E, encourage landowners, municipalities, and farmers to implement practices that build the soil, carbon, sponge, to cool the planet and mitigating flooding and drought, F, form a town energy committee to work toward reducing town emissions and meeting the goals of the comprehensive energy plan. And there is a third part, if this article passes, a letter shall be sent from the town of Middlesex to our state representatives and senators, the Speaker of the House, the President pro-ten of the Maud Senate, and the Governor, including the count of votes that support and oppose the article. Is there a motion on Article 18? In your name. And is there a second on Article 18? Craigwood Church. Article 18 has been moved and seconded. Is there a discussion on Article 18? Yes, sir. Jeff, I personally believe that we should vote down this amendment. This article, my glasses on, so I can see it earlier. First off, Middlesex itself is not very friendly to ditch line windmills, which is one of the renewable energy sources that people look at. There's a large statewide opposition to solar farms. There seems to be no incentive here to require parking lots, which are already paved over to have them have solar panels. Adding to newer existing infrastructures only reduce the cost and lower the use of fossil fuels to deliver to end line customers. Pipelines are much safer, although I doubt anybody's going to go through Middlesex considering our geological structure here. In my experience is that hauling by the trucks or any other means, I get called to more of those accidents than any pipelines. 100% renewable energy basically is just not obtainable in our current situation. There's no storage capacity or capability to run 24-hour service. For those of you who think Tesla's battery walls is the way to go, I looked into that and almost did the bullet on that one with green mountain power. However, the mining for lithium batteries, especially, tears up the environment. Take a look at China. But the other thing is those battery packs have to be inside. And you can only have them for up to 15 years before Tesla takes them back. And then the big kicker is that Tesla won't take any responsibility if they burn your house down. And being a firefighter, the last thing I want to do is go into the house with lithium battery pack. Because we basically don't have the equipment to put out lithium battery packs. You just have to let them burn out. And then for a Tesla battery pack, you don't use the green mountain power deal. You're paying over 5,000 per pack. And again, the last 10 to 15 years. And then having more electric would require more electric infrastructure. And I've gotten called to over 60 to 70 electric power infrastructure hazards since I've been on the fire department. So I know that's only going to increase as we try to build out an electric infrastructure. Changing out current systems would be very expensive for those people. You'd have to change the heat pumps. And heat pumps aren't going to help with the winter like we've had this year with the cold temps. Another thing on the lithium batteries, if you haven't heard in the news, unless you have a garage to store your electric car in, you're going to lose about half of your charge overnight with the cold temps. That's requiring more electricity. And then the environmental damages on not only lithium batteries, but solar cells, which are mostly produced in China. And where's it going to come from? Right now, Vermont takes 31 cents a gallon for road tax to help deal with our roads, which tend to break up this time of the year. And electric cars and hybrids are getting by without paying anything for this. Based on about 12,000 miles a year and 25 miles a gallon, electric cars are getting about $150 free pass to use the roads. Hybrids a little bit less. So why aren't electric cars having to pay for the use of the infrastructure that we have here already? And basically, with our dirt roads, electric cars are not going to hold up. It's just the fact of life of living on dirt roads. Fuel infrastructure should be allowed to be used and increased because it helps reduce the use of fuels so we can get out to the end users. Additionally, not only would we have to replace all of our heating systems, we'd have to replace everybody who has a gas stove. You'd have to replace those as well. And now we're creating a lot of trash for unusable heating systems and ovens. And adding another committee who doesn't have any clear way to hold people's feet to the fire is just creating another layer of bureaucracy that really isn't going to help solve the problem. And for these reasons, I believe we should vote this article down. Another discussion on Article 18, Fred, getting you some batteries, speaking of energy. Is there a second? Yeah, okay. I did a little bit of research on this. I think they're looking for apartment tax and looking for other different things to mitigate this. I'm not against moving away from fossil fuels. I don't think that's a bad thing to do. I think we have to, I think in not in my own narrow special interest, but I think in the interest of the Vermont people and the townspeople in rural areas of Vermont, it's a very, very expensive thing to do. I see people moving out of the state all the time. And it's because of things like this, mandates from the top down. And it's just, it's getting sad. I mean, I have, some of my best friends are leaving. They've been here their whole life and they're leaving. They will not be able to retire here. And they know it. And these mandates are adding a lot of money, a lot of money to the bottom line here. And so I did a little bit of research and I found out that we have 4.5 million acres of forest land in Vermont. And according to, oh, it's according to our research group, it's an environmental group, each acre can sequester and take care of up to 18 species. Citizens, carbon footprint. So with that math, one point, actually it's 81 million, 81 million people could be taken care of by our own forest in Vermont, according to their math. It's on Google you can look it up. It seems like these things are really extreme when the sequestering of carbon can be done by our own forest. We can actually import people and we would not emit net emissions of carbon because we have the forest. I just think that it's crazy that we're doing this kind of thing. So, and I urge everybody to look into that. I think you look into this fact. Our carbon footprint in Vermont is the lowest in the United States. We account for 0.02% of the carbon footprint in the United States. It's just absurd to think we're gonna go through and stop anybody, like if I wanted to put a new fuel tank at my shop for any reason, I couldn't because of this legislative, if this went through. That's about all I gotta say. I just think it's terrible for people over in Vermont at this point in time. I think there's other things we can do. There's a lot of other things we can do. A ton of other things. I could listen. Let me just see. Solutions would be, instead of a green up, a tree up today. Plant a tree. My hemp tree, utilize hemp tree that will sequester a ton of carbon. We could start a charity for tech centers. We could do a lot of different things. This is top-down management and I see it as a very freedom-squashing way of not going up about this. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Other comments on article 18? Yeah. An article can be amended. Run. Need a microphone, right? Oh, working on the batteries. I think I can be all loud. No, I think we should wait. Here you go. In general, I'm interested in, I agree with a lot of the comments that were made. My comment is, I think it's section C of when the transition to groups of rural communities. I suggest that anything like this involves, we have to expand rural communities to the world. For instance, a lot of, most of the, I found out that that lithium batteries, in addition to Lewis and lithium, use cobalt. About 78% of our cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lithium, any increase in lithium may be coming from the Bolivia salt flats. And it's probably displacing environmental stuff and people. For the magnus, for the modus, a lot of neodymium as used in those S.O. magnus comes from China. So wouldn't they worry about not affecting other people? Would you really have to worry about not affecting the only people since most of this stuff is not coming from the U.S., you have to affect, and I suggest where you amend that, to affect, not affecting people in other parts of the world, either living or even their political persuasion. That's my comment. So the wording on that, you feel that the term marginalized groups and the rural communities, you're worried that it doesn't include people outside of the United States. So you would want to say, including people outside the United States? Including people outside the United States. So your motion is to amend Article 18 to add to Section 1C, add the words, including people outside the United States. Outside the United States, especially in producing countries. Sorry, I can't hear you. To, with no harm to marginalized groups or rural communities worldwide. Worldwide, that's a lot easier. So we are now discussing the amendment. Actually, is there a second? Okay, yeah, okay. So moved and seconded, then tell us in seconds. To amend Article 18, Section 1C to add the word at the end of worldwide. Any discussion on that amendment? The amendment is to, on Section 1C to add the word worldwide. Yep, run moves and then Carlson. Are you ready for the question on the amendment? All those in favor of adding the word worldwide to Section 1C, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The ayes have it and has been amended. Further discussion on Article 18, John Julio. I appreciate all the comments and I wonder if I could offer a couple of amendments that might soften the article but still get to the intent of it. Seems to me that we're looking at an intention to mitigate the long-term harm and to make it a little bit easier on us as we move into the future here. So I propose these amendments not to argue details about what batteries are better or what, you know, I hear you about problems going into burning, but those are details that can be worked out. I don't think this is holding us to the fire. Some of the key language here is that we're urging the state of Vermont to for these things. And perhaps if we, so number one, A, instead of saying halt any new core use expanded fossil fuel, fossil fuel infrastructure, could we just say reduce fossil fuel infrastructure? That would be one change. The second change would be one B and say commit to as close as possible 100% renewable energy. And the last change that I would offer would be in number two, shell the town of Middlesex, request the town to do its part to meet these demands by encouraging efforts such as, as opposed to saying committing to. What this does, those changes suggest that we're in favor of the things that are suggested here, but we're not committing to specific actions. They're urging, it will show what this community is saying. We need to address these long-term sustainable problems and we can work out the details as we move forward. It would include ideas like growing more trees and sequestering carbon and things like that. It would preclude those, but it softens the article and would suggest our intention to move in this direction without saying that we're committing to such things, because I don't know that the select board could commit to such things necessarily, but they could encourage people within the town to head in that direction. So again, number one A, reduce fossil fuel infrastructure would be the first change. One B would be commit to as close to as possible 100% renewable energy. And then number two, the town to do its part to meet these demands by encouraging efforts such as. So that's an amendment. I'm gonna consider that a package of an amendment. One amendment that has three parts. Is there a second on Jean-Paulio's amendment? And seconded. Is there a discussion on that amendment? Yeah. Oh, there's a microphone coming up. Same, instead of halting new infrastructure, if you say reduce infrastructure, that actually becomes more draconian. That means we have to remove infrastructure, not just all new infrastructure. I don't think that is a well-ordered amendment. This new, despite John's good intention, I think the resolution as it is, is the way to go because it just urges that the state of Vermont take these steps. There's no mandatory language here. The word commit is an intentional, you should do this, it's not shall, which is more mandatory language. So I think it has that sense of urgency to address a significant problem without actually saying you shall do this because it doesn't do that. It actually urges that these actions be taken and then we commit to these goals but it doesn't mandate them. So I think the softening is already in the proposal because it doesn't mandate action itself. So thank you. What? Number two. The halt. But again, it's committing and committing is not saying you shall halt, which is more mandatory affirmative language. It's committing to do it. Any more discussion on this amendment? Yes. Kathy Shapiro, I agree with what Chris just said. This is really a statement urging the legislature to take action on what I think most people assume is a climate crisis. I think what the gentlemen suggested about adding worldwide makes sense and it shouldn't be. That already passed. Oh, that passed by itself. I think we're combining it. Okay. All right. Thanks. We're going on. I think we do not only need commitment but a serious commitment to do this. And I think this article is the very most relevant article of the day. Vermont by 2015 was 55% behind our CO2 emissions goal, which is very serious. And it's not only that we're behind, but we are increasing our, instead of reducing, we're increasing our CO2 emissions. 38% of the total energy that this state consumes is consumed in heating. And 90, between 70 to 90% of that heating is wasted in the air because of our buildings, are very poorly built. 38% is more than 35% that we are using in transportation. So the building industry is a very serious contributor to the CO2 emissions and climate change problem. There is enough evidence that the fossil fuels are creating fires also. We see in the news explosions of pipelines, of gas pipelines. We see houses and buildings blowing up. So I don't think that the argument of having electrical or batteries is more valid than the combustion of fossil fuels. We really need, I think the article is not only relevant to the point, but it's even missing one additional point, which is missing in basically every part of the addressing of this problem. And it's the new construction. We are addressing weatherization of our buildings. And that's the biggest challenge that we have at this point in Vermont. The weatherization is a colossal challenge because our building stock is extremely inefficient. But we are, the building code at this point is allowing us to construct and build new buildings that will require a deep weatherization program. The very day they are occupied, new. So we are adding more to the existing burden that we have in weatherization. So whether you see it from one point or the other, I mean, the only thing that is causing climate change in CO2 emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. We have to address deeply and aggressively this problem, otherwise we'll never be able to control it. And unfortunately, the only way, I mean, or one of the solutions is addressing the building structure that we have. And that if we can reduce, as it is proven in many projects that we have built here in Vermont, that we can reduce between 70 to 90% the consumption of heating demand. Then we could be reducing by 34% the total energy that this state uses. These are serious numbers that are causing serious problems and there are ways to do it. We should not be thinking twice on addressing this problem and acting now. We are too late. We have only 11 years to really do something. The present, there is an act in the legislature to amend the building code. That act is going to take six years to reduce only by 20% the consumption of energy. That means for the next six years we're going to be building buildings that according to strict standards that we have proven here in Vermont can be applied will be 70% behind the target. Thank you. Thanks. We are addressing the amendment. Yes. The question on the amendment has been called. Is there a second? Several? Yes, Dorinda. So we will now be voting on whether to end discussion on the amendment, the amendment which would change in section 1A, change the word halt to the word reduce. In section 1B it would add the words as close as possible, commit as close as possible. And in section 2 it would talk about middle sex, request the town to do it's part to meet those demands, encouraging efforts such as. So if you're ready to not talk about those anymore, if you're ready to end discussion on that, say aye. Aye. Opposed no. The ayes have it. And now we'll vote on the amendment. If you are in favor of the amendment and I just read, say aye. Aye. Opposed no. No. The amendment fails. And we are back to the original article 18 as amended which is that we added the word worldwide. Are you ready for the question on article 18? Yes. Are you ready for article 18 again? Shall the town of middle sex approve the following resolution as read before article 18. All those in favor of article 18 say aye. Aye. Opposed no. No. The ayes appear to have it. It does call for a division. Okay. We also need the vote count. Sorry. Ask for the vote count. It did ask for the vote count. So what that means is that we'll say, what do you say? All those in favor, I'm going to ask my select, are you guys all JPs? Yes. No. Okay. I'm sorry. Right. VCA. I'd like some help counting votes. Yeah. Okay. So what I'm going to ask you to do is if you're in favor, stand and we will count you. All those in favor, please stand. If you're standing just to stretch your back, it's not a good time. Okay. All those opposed, please stand. All those opposed in the room, please stand. Okay. The ayes have it by account of 65 to 27. An article 18 passes. Is there any other business besides dinner? Okay. I just want to remind you then to fill out your blue forms. If you have any comments and if you don't, we still want your blue forms back so we can use them next year. We want to thank our microphone runners, Logan Jury, ASAP Center for the School of Children. Thank you.