 Hi everyone. Good morning. It's 10 o'clock so we're going to begin. I'm Kelly Green and I'm the town meeting moderator again this year and this is Joyce Mizuko. Joyce is our town clerk and treasurer and she's great. Before we begin I have a few announcements. Man I had a lot to say but I'm just going to scrap it all because we have a really long agenda but welcome to our first as far as I know Saturday town meeting. You all voted to move town meeting to Saturday and if it doesn't work out you can vote to move it back some other time but here we are and now you know there's no conflict with Mardi Gras. I think we should have a huge round of applause for Sunrise Rotary who served us all breakfast this morning. Is anyone here from Sunrise Rotary? Is there anyone here? They're all upstairs clean in the kitchen. If anyone sees someone from Sunrise Rotary come down stand up and yell so that we can thank them. A couple other announcements. Skifford Hospital is required to update their community needs assessment for the federal government so they've asked me to ask you all if you want to fill out a survey that is in the lobby about your needs so that's out there. Another exciting announcement is that the Gear House Bike Shop and Rasta Outdoor Hub opens tomorrow March 1st. I don't know if I'm allowed to make you know like advertisements for commercial establishments but I'm gonna because it's relevant in that it's just a super exciting time to be living in Randolph isn't it? There's a lot going on this is one of the many things going on so you should all stop in even if you're not a cyclist because I was told today that they're going to be selling socks and everybody needs socks so there's something there's definitely going to be something for everyone there so so check it in check check it out they're going to have a grand opening celebration March 28th and you should come. Al Delpho is definitely going to be there. I'm already getting some some criticism here that we're dragging on. Janet Watten from Chandler is here. Janet Wave yeah thanks for um Janet is gonna give us some half-time entertainment where what Chandler does generously every year is hides hides um well we're gonna do a raffle that's what we're gonna do and it's great and you're gonna win free tickets and like a lot of people actually win because they give away a lot of tickets so we'll be doing that in a little while. When things get boring or when I'm confused as to what's going on I'll just I'll just call you up okay you know how to be recognized if you've been here before but if you haven't been here before to be recognized you just need to raise your hand you have to wait for a microphone and um someone will bring you a microphone or you can use this microphone up front. Please state your name when before you start speaking and direct your comments to me. Only registered voters may speak. If you are a non-registered voter if you're not registered here please let us know when you stand up that you're not a registered voter and I will grant you permission to speak if there's no objection and if there's an objection then um the voters get to get to decide that question. This is super important this is a state law that I have to follow and we've gotten by every year by just doing it in this sort of casual way other towns they make you sign in and you have a card it's a whole big ordeal so we've we've we've been able to do this because people recognize um themselves as non-voters when they when they stand up to speak and if you see someone uh who's speaking who you know not to be a voter please object. Each speaker gets 10 minutes per article I don't know that anybody's ever used that amount of time that's actually a really long amount of time um you may speak a second time on an article but only after everybody else has had a chance to speak so with that I will oh oh Joyce actually has some important announcements. Just a couple of reminders um please file your HS 122 homestead declaration and your HI 144 um income form with the Vermont Department of Taxes. Most residents in the town of Randolph will qualify and may potentially qualify for a tax adjustment credit which will help them with their education portion of their property taxes so I really strongly encourage everyone to please file those on time that way you don't get penalized with a penalty which will reduce potentially what you may receive as a credit um quite a number of people in Randolph qualified to have almost all their taxes um paid through that tax adjustment credit so please if you know of seniors who own property encourage you know a lot of times seniors don't have to file income taxes please encourage them to file their income tax as far as the homestead declaration and the HI 144 it really makes a big difference and I really would like to see that everyone who qualifies for it can take advantage of it. The other pieces there will be two rabies clinics held um in March the first one will be March 21st which will be held at the Randolph Regional Veterinary Hospital on Dillon Drive from uh 9 to 11 um and I will be there to license dogs also the second one will be held on March 27th at the Town Hall the Randolph Animal Hospital will be at the Town Hall to administer the rabies vaccination and we will be open that day for tax collection and for dog licensing um and I think that's it. Thank you and I apologize for forgetting your messages. Oh yeah. Don't forget your taxes are due March 31st. Yeah so thank you um so if you would all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance thank you so much um please if you have a copy of the town report with you that's great we probably have extras here the warning which is going to govern today's meeting starts on page one as many of you know articles one through 26 are voted on by Australian ballot. The voting will take place on Tuesday March 3rd meaning this coming Thursday uh Tuesday between 7 a and 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Town Hall so we've always voted on a Tuesday we'll continue to vote on those Australian ballot items on Tuesday 7 to 7 at the Town Hall. We can discuss the articles um so let's move on to article one in the past you may recall that we weren't allowed to discuss here at the meeting article one but because we have changed the day of our meeting and polling is not happening today we can discuss article one now um next year I'm sure article one is going to take up a lot of time but let's uh open the floor if there's any discussion of article one this year all right I see I see no hands and no one wants to talk about um that so we shall move on to article two some of these articles I'm not going to read to you and some of them I am I'm not going to read article two to you but it relates to the Town General Fund which is located uh the budget is located on pages 40 through 50 of your Town Report and um and um let's open the floor if there's any discussion of article two or the General Fund I'm going to move on to article three I'm speaking very slowly you'll notice because I just want to make sure you're good with moving on which is fine um I don't want to rush anyone article three relates to the Town Highway Fund and the Town Highway Fund is located on pages uh 52 through 54 of your of your Town Report so we'll open the floor to discussion of article three thank you Kristen Chandler just noted that there are um Town Reports in the hall if you need some yeah I see I see I see one hand well is this on yeah oh someone's going to get started can I um can I ask Marty Strange a little unpleasant street can I uh ask permission to go back to article two yes and if there's no objection I'll let you go back to article two okay thank you um I see in the administrative expense budget that we've reduced the amount planned to be spent for um the economic development director at the same time um I as I understand it I may be wrong that we have arranged to have that person serve as the replacement from Marty Sanchez in the planning commission I want to ask if there is not possibly a conflict of interest between merging those two positions I wonder um who would you like to answer that question does anyone have an answer to that question did you all hear did you all hear did you all hear Marty's question um Mr. Strange well my concern about a potential conflict of interest is that the person responsible for administering the zoning regulations may have a conflict of interest with the person responsible for raising economic development some product economic development projects may raise planning and zoning issues that ought not to be decided by the same person thank you I I see um our our town manager Adolfo Vailon Adolfo Vailon Randolph village um uh Mr. Strange is correct we have uh currently our economic development director serving as a zoning administrator uh that position was filled because of retiring of our previous zoning administrator I serve as the deputy zoning administrator so if there is ever an issue where there's a conflict I am more than willing to step in however the zoning regulations are very they're very black and white it's either you can do it or you cannot do it and if there is a potential conflict where we can make a change to allow a business to move into town it's not a person making that decision that decision has to go to the planning commission so that they can then review the regulation in the zoning and the land use regulations they could make suggested changes that requires a hearing so we have to notify everyone in the public then requires a second hearing for the select board so that then the select board could have a hearing so it takes several months before someone can make an action that affects a particular district or a business um but again the regulations are very they're very binary it's either yes you can do it no you cannot do it um and if it's some instances you can do it it goes to several committees to make a change there is one instance if there's one item where something is conditional or it can be done but you need extra steps uh you could also then take it to the design review uh development review board so that that committee can review the work they can determine if this project is of the best interest of the town best interest of the people is it if it affects the the district as a whole so again it's it's not one person interpreting the rules it's one person interpreting the rules if there is interpretation but then sending it to a committee for discussion which requires hearing and public notice thank you other discussion of article two Maria Paglesi Randolph a village I still think it's a conflict of interest um because we have a system in this town and other towns as well that um meetings are lightly attended and um interests that I would disagree with might go right through even though within those meeting times so I think it's a conflict of interest I'm not sure why it was done that way um whether it was just easy to do it then or to reduce costs or or what but I think there is a better way to do it thank you so much Michael Penrod I would like to ask the town manager if this is a permanent solution or is this just a temporary solution because Marty Sanchez retired and can we expect those two positions to be filled in the future by two different people Mr. Baylon would you like to answer that okay so the position was filled in this in this manner what we have now because we advertise the position for several months we couldn't find anyone to serve in the role we literally had no applicants and then we had a second round released for several more weeks which at that point we ended up having two applicants we are in the process of potentially making an offer to someone to serve as an administrative person essentially serve do the paperwork become get up to speed once they learn the role they depending on the select board decision could then fill the role of zoning administrator so we took the actions that we did to have somebody who was already a town employee serve as a zoning administrator because we literally could not find someone to even apply for the job um so rather than have a job empty not have any one of your permits for adding remodeling or adding a room to your home just completely not be approved we had somebody in-house uh take the position so that we could process these permits because if we don't have anybody as a zoning administrator no one in town could do any work on their home that requires a permit uh but yes the the goal is to as soon as we extend an offer to someone to to to learn the job be on the job for a while they would then serve as a zoning administrator and then it would be two different to people two different people thank you mr. strange let me ask first if there are other comments um about this subject and then we will let you speak it looks like you can you have the floor uh thank you um i don't find it credible that the planning and zoning rules are cut and dried so there's never any conflict been around too long and um it's also the case that the person who makes the first call on anything like that establishes the default position that somebody else has to override i don't think that person should be in a position where they have competing interests as the person who developed the project that's in the conflict and i just i just don't think it's credible moreover i'm concerned it took us a long time to get to the point where we had a full-time economic development director and now we don't and i think that's a problem as well thank you um right here in front i'm phyllis forbes and i um i live in are we supposed to state where we live i am gonna assume you are all Randolph town voters unless you say otherwise so one of the wonderful things about marty was when we did anything is that we always felt that marty was there to help us she was didn't have a different agenda she was reading the rules as best she could for us to be able to do what we do i think combining those two positions would give a sense to some people that that there may be another agenda at play here and if this is going to be a temporary we should know how long it's going to be but if it's going to be permanent i personally i think it's a it's an appearance of conflict that could promote a conflict or could promote an issue with people then reduce the effectiveness of that position thank you mrs forbes um i'm going to see are there are there other comments uh way in the back thank you for calling my name thank you my name's dick pay i live in Randolph village uh i'm less concerned about the conflict of interest uh i'm more concerned by the fact that as i recall marty sanchez was a degreed civil engineer and that qualification that professionalism is very important in the zoning field and we lose that we dilute that by putting someone into that job even on a part-time basis with the economic development director has in my opinion good reputation so far things are going well i'd like to see him develop as an economic development director and find an engineer to do the zoning work to spend whatever times necessary to fill the job thank you thank you very much see if there are other people who would like to speak about this issue giving you a minute to think about it i see someone is that mrs putney yep all right you've got me hang on let's see here mr baylon um i think you've spoken twice about it so i'll i'll ask you to hold off on this one i sure but just to clarify one was a response as opposed to me making a comment to the second one was a comment so this would be my second comment with one of them being a response to a question let's let's move on but thank you i i do see a hand up in the back there um if we do object to the jones sacks thank you mr sacks if we do object and i kind of agree with the people that are objecting to combining these two what do we do about it in terms of vote do we vote down the budget what do we do because it's kind of fixed in stone at this point it's a very excellent question are there more comments martha hafner i agree and i would wonder whether a show of hands could be done in order to get a sense of how many people think that there is a potential concern here it's up it's up to you all that's what you would like to do would you like to make a motion for a show of hands second so there's there's there's been a motion to see whether we should have a show of hands as to whether you feel like there's a conflict or not um let's let's i'm sorry uh yeah it's kind of lame right yeah i hear you but um go ahead because we could just do it the question is whether the intent of the motion is to urge if it's a yes vote is to urge people to vote down the general plan i want to budget i mean i want to make clear that that's not my intent i'm just trying to send a signal and and i'm going to vote to approve the general budget when the time comes thank you i see miss gaitley's hand up can we vote on just um at least looking into splitting the position again or changing that aspect of it without ditching the whole budget it's not warned so no you you actually can't do that here and now well on the floor is a motion as to whether we should have a show of hands as to whether y'all feel like um there is a conflict of interest or not and we have a long day ahead of us and so um i'm gonna throw this out there to you i i am here only to do what you all want to do right but so shout me down if you don't want to do this but if there is no objection i will allow a show of hands it's not binding as to whether you feel like there's a conflict of interest in having these two positions combined or not that's right no discussion this is just on whether you want to have a show of hands okay all right all those in favor of having a show of hands say i those opposed nay the eyes appear to have it the eyes do have it the motion is adopted would you like to discuss having the show of hands further would you just like to do that let's just do it show of hands please raise your hand if you feel like it is a conflict of interest to combine the two positions of economic development director and zoning administrator raise your hands high hands high now put your hands down and raise your hands high if you think it's not a conflict all right we're not counting this vote but thank you um you kind of have a sense of what the room is uh well it looks it looks like slightly more people felt like it was uh a conflict of interest all right so we are still on article two and now we're going to have lots of conversations but we've got some new people who want to talk and we'll start in the back of the room and i've i can i can see your i can see your hands she'll a clerk we just recently moved back to randoff and we will be having some work done at our house and i would really like to be able to get zoning permits done so i guess i'd like to see uh zoning person stay thank you i think that's uh probably everyone's sentiment right hand right up here patsy french from randoff as a former elected official and the spouse of an elected official currently anyone who has strong feelings either way talk to your all your select board members let them know how you feel tell your friends to talk to their select board members as well thank you mrs french thank you so much that directly addresses mrs sacks's question and that's very helpful yeah you should contact the select board for sure are there all of all yet all select board members right yeah right yes point taken um all right article two we are going to move on to article oh point article two hang on wait for a um microphone and um remember to state your name hi i'm synthia quillichy i live in randoff village um and uh just kind of looking over the general expenses and revenues there's three categories that seem to have just leapt up enormously one is the fire department expenses have seemed to have gotten up like 30 over the last like four years uh and recreation also seems to have uh doubled in one category and again gone up like 30 and my perception of us the general situation going forward is that we are in a period of really economic degrowth and while i realize there's a lot of contractual issues and state things that kind of drag the entire budget in a certain direction i'm wondering how many of these optional things we can really uh afford to increase at that rate going forward and that's just a general concern thank you very much for your comment other remarks about the general fund article two tim angel just to address the fire department i believe that i'll most all of that is because some of the items for the fire department that we're in capital budget are now in the general fund thank you mr angel for your comment thank you yeah other comments about article two christin chandler christin chandler i i serve also wait first thank you for the microphone you're welcome yeah um yeah yeah that's huge a long day people um i i actually uh volunteered for this because i did it last year but i roped into in christin gauge this morning to do it so i think she ought to get some recognition christin gauge yes um i serve on the recreation committee and i my understanding is part of that recreation budget going up it's because of the pool uh expenses in repairing the pool which is enjoyed by uh lots and lots of youth here and and adults i should say here in town as well as uh lots of other activities at the recreation uh department has brought to town that we never had before or that we have brought back to town that many many residents are enjoying thank you so much those are great explanations to a great question so thank you yeah article two can you hear the panic in my voice we could stay all night i got no plans there is a boys basketball game at five o'clock there is a boys that i there is a boys basketball game at five o'clock and there's a concert here and they're going to set up at three right here all right so let's move on then to article three which is about the town highway fund again the budget for that is on page 52 to 54 i'm giving you a minute to think about whether you have a question or comment because i misread the room the last article but seeing no hands oh mr. strange is struggling i'll give you a second to think if you want to comment comment this is it this is this is our meeting marty strange and i've already talked more today than i have in any other town meetings you're good you're good i see that um there's a pavement pate patching line item here and lord knows we need some patching i pulled a small dog out of a hole today thank you um but i think that this really comes up on the capital budget is that not correct well i'm not actually experts that i saw i saw an i saw an expert hand go up right here in the front holly sanders chair of the capital budget committee if you look at the capital budget committee report a number of items have changed from the capital budget committee to the budget mainly because they are operating annual expenses not capital improvement expenses unfortunately potholes come into that category so therefore they the rate that they are paid or come under the budget committees purview not the capital budget committees purview anymore thank you so much article three i'm looking for hands about article three and if i don't see any we'll move on to article four oh i see a hand for article article two oh okay don't take us back we're not going back again article four relates to the library and um there's a couple places the library budgets on page 50 and 51 and then the library's report is on page 78 and we have um we have a trustee here who would like to speak i'm sally penron do i need to turn around you can do it i mean like you can come up front you can no no no no first of all before i say anything about the library i want to point out that in the table of contents of your town report there is a mistake it's a big one brought row it says okay it says proposed fiscal year 2019 budget if there's a typo anywhere sally penron we'll see it put that in the minutes okay i want to talk about the library and somebody said earlier isn't it a great time to be in randolph it is and great things are happening but they're happening at the library too we have with everybody's help in town we have decided on three super priorities for the next couple years and amy's been handing out a flyer i turned away amy's been handing out a flyer and there'll be more around i hope you'll take it but i want to point out that our three strategic priorities are youth engagement events and programs and the building needs now that's a lot and we were given an incredible gift by todd mcnear and we've decided the trustees and the staff we've decided to divide that in half keep half of it in reserve for future but we're going to take half of what we're going to use and divide that in half so that one quarter of the bequest goes to youth engagement one quarter goes to events and programming and half goes to building needs and exploration of how we can meet the needs of the community coming forward we have committees established there at this point very small but we need people from the town to come in and help us decide and how to do all of this now also on this sheet of paper is your library value calculator for fiscal year 2019 the town allowed sorry the library budgeted for that year two hundred and ninety two thousand dollars in change the value was nine hundred and twenty four thousand seven hundred and seventy two dollars more than three times what you actually spent that's pretty fantastic and what's not really seen in here is that what the value of the children's books checked out was two hundred and ninety three thousand seven hundred and some dollars more than what we paid for the library it's a fabulous resource and i know most of this use it but please join a committee and help us help us go forward thank you thank you very much article four kimball public library comments i see a hand up mrs sacks i think i chose the wrong side of the room christin jones sacks i just want to say that the library is one of our most precious assets in this uh town it's simply wonderful i've had people from other towns of vermont tell me how great it is so please appreciate and help with this library it's a wonderful asset thank you article four kimball library discussion we're going to move on to article five article five article five um has to do with repayment of sewer debt to the general fund and um i'll open the florida discussion of article five i'm not seeing any hands i'll give you another second to think about that and we will move on to discussion of article six i'm gonna read article six out loud to you and then open the florida discussion it says shall the town voters authorize the sum up to four hundred twenty thousand dollars to be borrowed by the town for the purchase of two ten wheel tandem trucks to replace one six wheel and one ten wheel truck in the highway department annual payments for each ten wheel tandem truck will be included in subsequent annual budgets until the payment schedule has been fulfilled any revenues generated by the sale or trade-in of the six wheel and the ten wheel trucks will be used to offset the sum of four hundred twenty thousand dollars someone did a nice job drafting that except there's a typo sally in this uh discussion about article six right over here christin gauge to the rescue tamer morgan east randoff i just have a question about what a ten wheel tandem truck is and what they're used for it's a big truck it's a it's a longer truck all right so who who here is the resident expert on trucks come on someone someone here is who wants to answer tamer's question no one i know there's someone i know there's someone else besides mr valand he's got other all right go ahead i you i don't want to exhaust you okay i'm here all day or until three o'clock right so we can shut down the ten wheel trucks are the the the large utility trucks that the town uses to plow to transport sand and salt into the to the town for winter operations or when we have to do ditching or debris removal we actually just to let everyone know we we put the amount up to four hundred and twenty thousand just to make sure that we were covered we did receive proposals earlier this week that are far below the four twenty so we are expecting not to get to the four twenty but that's what the trucks are for it's to keep bringing material in and to keep the roads clear as best we can thank you we have two two folks here we'll we'll get to them both hi michael penrod as a member the budget committee when this issue came up i went out to the town garage and met with the guys and looked at these trucks there's no doubt no doubt at all we need to replace these trucks we were spending more repairing them than we would would be spending to buy a new truck my understanding is from the guys that work out there we shouldn't have any equipment that's over 10 years old 10 years get rid of and move on so this is one of those things where literally there are holes in the truck from hauling the salt and everything they're falling apart we need two new trucks unfortunately i feel like there's a hand in the back someplace no article six thank you mr penrod for going out and examining the trucks yourself tim angel again i don't question the the need of new dump trucks what i question is going from six wheel trucks to 10 wheel trucks i live on the end of clay white road and the plow truck drivers had troubles getting around um with a 10 wheel truck so the past two winners they've been plowing it with a bucket loader but lo and behold one snow storm a couple weeks ago a six wheel truck came up zipped right around like nothing and i'm afraid that if they go to all 10 wheel trucks the drivers might say well it's not safe and they might stack closing down more roads like they did 14 of them last year because they can't plow them thank you for your point i have i see a hand uh right up here miss gage who has some right up front here you had did you have your hand up ah got it sorry i'm sorry raised hand false alarm false alarm anybody else want to address article six maria paglisi who chooses whether it's a six or ten wheel truck is that is it flexible the question is if this passes is it flexible and um i don't know i don't know the answer to that it's kind of a technical question how much or how much how much leeway does the town have to change what the voters voted on mr ranken this is a good opportunity to introduce you to cliff ranken who's our new what is your title budget i'm the finance director in town the finance director cliff ranken say welcome everyone big crowd here today i'm not used to speaking to so many so in regards to the question on the truck we discussed this at length and one of the things that we do um we've got a fleet of trucks we've currently got two ten wheel tandem trucks which means it's a double axle in the back so there's eight wheels on the roads the six wheelers the smaller trucks are a seven yard truck the big ten wheelers are a 14 yard truck and when we're hauling a lot of sand and gravel to um stockpile it in the yard up in the village and up in the center that's capacity and if you're hauling what a seven-yard hours for personnel twice as many hours on the trucks um we're trying to balance the capacity of the trucks so that we've got some smaller trucks that work well in some of the smaller venues and the larger trucks that we can use to haul on the open roads and the interesting thing is that the bigger trucks have the same fuel economy as the smaller trucks thank you oh you got it you got you want to do both what are you multitasking here all right article six further questions we're we're cleaning up some water up here that's what's going on spill on aisle four all right that's terrible all right moving on to article seven which relates to the police district budget which you can find on pages 54 and 56 oh article seven is open for discussion if there is any Kevin McKinch Mr. Bailon uh so the voters uh and the select board uh voted um over a year ago to establish a contract with the sheriff's department um the issue of the police district goes back to the town's articles of merger 1984 85 where the voters then decided to merge the village with the town but only the the then village with the which is now considered mostly the police district was required to only pay for policing and so now that the town no longer has a Randolph police department and now contracts with the sheriff's department the police district continues to pay for policing because they choose to and the sheriff's department under that contract patrols the police district area the state police does if called in for a major issue we've had some you know one or two over the last year or two the state police will come in to support the orange county sheriff's department but the primary law enforcement agency in the police district is the orange county sheriff's department through a contract with the town thank you phyllis forbs if the contract is with the town why is only why are only the people in the police district paying for this it's not a contract with the police district it's a contract with the town so the police district itself cannot enter into an agreement um again it goes back to what the voters wanted in 1984 1985 um they wanted to maintain the Randolph police department or they wanted to maintain policing within their area the remainder of the town back then did not want to pay for police services and so both both groups in the mid 80s came to an agreement that only the police district would pay for policing so that that was a decision made by by the voters at that point not not by anyone else and so now we we are continuing with that because only the voters can vote to change the existing police district both the the district itself has to vote to change the borders of the police district the town itself has to vote to change the borders of the police district um so it's not a decision being made administratively it's all a decision made by the voters over 30 30 years kelly i believe um sonny halt has entered the room from the sunrise very thank you so much sonny are you here uh just on behalf of all of us thank you for breakfast it was really great i love it everybody was really grateful and if you would pass out on hi john pennant all east randolph it's my understanding that the police are only patrolling within the village itself and not in the east randolph area or or other outskirting areas of randolph is that correct i can answer that question because i was on the committee the people in the district pay for police services and receive police services people outside the police district don't pay for services and don't have them except for you know when there's an emergency and you call 911 the state police respond i'm gonna recognize choice the orange county sharers do also have a separate contract with the town that does speed control outside of the police district there's two different contracts one contract is for the police district which covers the policing for the district and then there's a separate contract that provides basically speed control within the outskirts of the police district so that when problem spots appear they can get it under control thanks chris rachia randolph tater hill road joice you just raised that which i did not realize it was a separate contract so then that kind of raises the issue of is there um when did the town voters outside the police district vote on that contract um because i for one find that to be an annoying contract but just saying my understanding is the voters never voted on that specific contract right it's just in the general fund is that fair to say mr ranken mr pennrod how much money are we talking about here in this separate town contract and what line item is it covered under does someone have an answer to that i think joice is mr balon probably knows that thank you the item itself is found on page 43 under the executive budget it's listed under orange county sheriff it is a $20,000 a year or this year it's $20,000 and much of it is really when the sheriff's department has the capacity to perform the work there are a lot of reports of speeding on especially on 66 right before it turns to 50 miles an hour right before ridge road in that area there's patrolling there and there's patrolling in other areas that are frequent speeding problems thank you hi synthia quillich a Randolph village a question about then revenues from the ticketing that goes on with that because a lot of towns will have a police force and there's an expense but then that's partially covered by the income coming from tickets so when someone does get a speeding ticket in those areas where does that money go let's let's have mr ranken answer on page 40 under miscellaneous revenue third line item down is sheriff department ticket revenue it's budgeted for $5,000 for fiscal 2021 thank you okay article seven gonna move on to article eight momentarily we'll move on to article eight now article eight is about the water district it's a similar idea to the police district i guess but um the budget is found on page 56 7 and 8 actually why don't we combine discussion for water and sewer article 8 and 9 they go hand in hand article 8 and 9 any questions about water and sewer operations oh i see a handout i sub in various schools and i know that in Bethel there's a concern i'm sorry martha hafner and i'm not going to stand because i just got an injection of my knee sorry no no problem no one has to stand um so in Bethel there is a concern about lead that's appearing in the water inside the school i'm curious to know whether there's anybody that can comment on lead concerns and water in this area did anyone like to talk about lead in this area may not be a question or a problem mr billon make a general comment just uh following conversations that i've had with our water superintendent just on the function of the water department lead is not a concern in any of the randolph schools um uh did you know like to qualify that by saying that randolph schools are a part of a bigger district that includes other towns but as far as randolph schools lead has not been a problem for for us thank you kelly can i just hey seph are there hearing uh enhanced devices available with these so i just want to point out that we do have um if you have any trouble hearing at all we have enhancement devices if you need one happy to pass that out to you just raise your hand if you'd like one yeah here we go yeah that's thank you we're gonna we're gonna work on that yeah yep so we'll get that device to you and in the meantime we'll take another comment i'd like to know what the magnesium issue is has that been clarified did you did you all hear that would you repeat that question yeah yeah um so just repeat hold that microphones parallel to the ground and the manganese issue was an issue last year in the year before can we get an update on it we can and um mr belan can give us that i will try to be as brief as possible this is one of my soap box issues over the last two years um i will start out by saying that manganese has been in the news and the state has required the town to put notices in your in your in your water bills i would like to point out that we took the state to court we won we the court ruled that the town's position was correct was that the state was not following state or federal regulations for one for two what we pointed out to the state was that folks in randolph would have to drink nearly 40 cups of water to get the amount of manganese that you'd taking your multivitamin every day so that was one of the issues that we also raised to the state and said well if manganese is so bad why is there so much of it in multivitamins and the state had no answer for it um so the issue with the manganese is is that it provides it has a distinct color and an odor to it you know not arguing that point that is distinct color and an odor to it um but it is not dangerous i can i can tell you that it's not dangerous you drink it you eat it in leafy green vegetables you drink it in your multivitamin in almond milk if you drink almond milk i know drinking almond milk in this area is taboo we all drink regular milk right here but um i do do want to just stress that we have since continued our challenge with the state the state seems to think that they are correct even though we've told them they're not the court has told them that they're not they're not following state and federal regulations as they as they should um but like with any bureaucracy it even with the town you've seen you work with the town sometimes we move slowly the state moves much more slowly than we do and the federal government moves way more slowly than anything we've all ever seen um so it'll take some time the the notices in your bills will likely change very soon and we'll not talk about the manganese thing but we also want to move as slowly as we should to not antagonize antagonize the state because we also apply for uh state grants through the agency of natural resources and if we you know upset someone up there they could just take it out on the town and not grant us a grant so um yes manganese is still in your water it does sometimes stain if you have a you know a white sink or your your washing machine um we do have materials in the water department that we can share with you to take some of the stain away we are working to move ourselves away from the manganese well uh what we're we've applied for a grant we we got it it was $450,000 for that grant we're going to be going out for another grant that's another half million dollars and so we're building these grant opportunities so that we don't pass another loan on to the users we understand it's expensive to live in town we understand we're working to try to make this change as painless for you because we we certainly go out tomorrow and take out a bond if the select board said yes um but we don't want to do that because then that bill is paid by you so we want to get as much free grant money as possible and that unfortunately takes time for the applications and everything else so uh but to make a short story a little longer uh I do want to just stress that this manganese issue is is one that was created by a state agency that was not following federal and state regulations and the amount of manganese that if you were to drink 40 cups of water again of manganese of water from randolph it's just as much manganese in those 40 cups combined than in your multivitamin centrum whatever it is that you drink so thank you hi green shaffer uh randolph i just want to state that there's no manganese in my vitamins it's magnesium that's in my vitamin but now no manganese thank you water and sewer article eight and nine oh i see you and we'll we'll get right to you go ahead hi there can you just take your name is this on yeah my last please state your name my little cutler um i'm just on page 57 can you clarify uh down at the bottom there's two lines for rf3 drinking water and route 66 water project for over 75 000 that's not in previous years of the next year can somebody clarify what exactly that is thank you can someone yep mr ranken if you would wait for yeah here's a microphone yeah go ahead if you'd let us know at the bottom of that those are principal payments on the bond debt and in the water and sewer district principal payments on bond debt are not really an expense they go directly against the liability which is not part of the budget and that's why it's shown as a zero line item for fiscal 21 it's shown in fiscal 20 because that's what you all voted and it was in there thank you my name's marie kittle Randolph vermont uh regarding substances and water i'm interested in hearing more about the pfoas that might be in the randolph system thank you is there someone here who can address that mr baylon um i think it just a bit of a correction i think the issue may be related to an article in the herald um uh we don't have pfoas in drinking water uh the issue is mostly about the processing of leachate from the landfill at the wastewater plant um it's it's a normal process we separate the the sludge from the water we treat the water before we release it and release it into the environment per state regulation so uh there is no pfoa in your drinking water uh i just want to be very clear with that uh it's it's two separate issues uh um one is pfoas in a leachate which is just a dirty water that comes out of the landfill that we process is the wastewater plant and make sure it's clean before we release it into the environment thank you for that question other questions about water and sewer patsy french and just to follow up to marie kittle's question when the water goes from the sewer plant it's been cleaned and goes into the white river are there any pfoas in the water that goes into the river uh my understanding i'm not the water superintendent so i'll try to answer as best as i can um my understanding of the process is no there is there are no pfoas we test the water on multiple occasions before we release it once when we put it into the system once while it's in the system and again before it goes out into the to the environment so there are multiple testing locations each one of those tests are shared with the state so they are aware of what we are collecting and then treating so uh no we're not we're not releasing us thank you for that follow-up question one minute we'll get right to you thank you jones sacks round off center i'm confused um the leachate isn't that in the landfill and that's not near the sewer treatment am i correct about that is there a sewer treatment from from the leachate in the landfill isn't that where the pfoas were where were you 15 minutes ago okay chris rekkia and now i'm confused i should i gotta stop listening to everybody so adolfo the landfill didn't get a liner in the recent uh past did it i mean it's got a cap but it was never a lined landfill which means the discharge is going to the ground water are we collecting leachate by pumping it out of the ground and putting it in or is there a portion of the landfill that's lined that i wasn't aware of okay but there's still a portion that is not lined correct yeah okay thank you because um i i interpreted it as coming from the groundwater wells and that's where they were measuring it but you're saying it's from leachate okay thank you for the clarification hi cindy acuiliche uh randolph village so i wasn't aware of this leachate uh sort of transfer continuous is that something that's just going to go on continuously into the future at infinitum and what's really the annual cost of that going forward do you think mr bail on you've been answering these questions can you answer this one you may you may or may not have i don't have all the answers i i can mention that um there is annual testing the the state has mandated time frames for when we have to test so uh you know 20 30 years uh we do have an annual testing amount budgeted in the uh in the budget i'm trying to find it maybe cliff has already found it on page 61 page 61 under the landfill closure fund we've got a line item called leachate expenses and in fiscal 19 which was last spring um we had quite a lot of water running through there and so our leachate expenses went went up we generally uh we show a liability on the books for monitoring the landfill which is a 30 year process mandated by the state we've got 10 years to go into 30 years um and we don't know what the state is going to do when we get to the end of the 30 years whether they're going to continue to require an ongoing monitoring and we're watching that pretty close thank you maria piglesi i think that the costs of the leachate should be covered by the by the revenue that was made initially from having that landfill and having much of remod come and bring their their garbage there so i'm assuming that's working out evenly of the landfill closure fund is made up from the revenue that we collected when we had the landfills there was over three million dollars i believe originally back in 1997 98 which was invested in a variety different ways some of the money was split up for other different uses but a large chunk of that was set aside specifically for law at landfill closure um there was a shift of funds probably i want to say about seven or eight years ago where we shifted some more funds from what we called the landfill filled depreciation fund which basically was uh excess funds that were being set aside to be determined how we would use them in the future so there was a shift from i believe we added another three or four hundred thousand into the landfill closure so the the fund originally was around three hundred four hundred thousand we shifted an additional three or four hundred thousand i believe the fund now is about nine million nine hundred thousand so that because there was a change in the number of years that we had to monitor monitor the landfill originally it was 20 years it shifted now to 30 years like cliff said we don't know they may shift it again and make it an additional 10 or 20 years so we've been monitoring it we have shifted funds when we felt that they looked like the need was going to be greater so there is sufficient funds right now to cover the costs for um the monitoring right now and for the expenses for uh you know testing the leachate and whatnot but you know like cliff said you know the the town is monitoring that closely because uh you know the state has very specific requirements and so you know we're trying to be sure that we adhere to them we're on article eight and nine it is 1115 which is good that's all right and um i think what we're going to do next is take up special appropriations all at once what we do there typically and i think it works well is to have uh if there are people who want to speak from one of these organizations to speak first once we're done with special appropriations i think we should have our raffle and then we have a lot to tackle from the floor are we on article eight and nine water and sewer no okay hang on i just want to just make sure we're all looks like we're all done with article eight and nine so let's go ahead and and move on with special appropriations just um make sure you state your name kelly i'm benet law and i i feel compelled for the first time in over 32 years law la w wait benet are you a Randolph no that's what i'm here to explain i'm i'm sorry but i uh feel i need to apologize that i love and live in uh lovely bethle gilead if there is no hang on benet hang on for one second if there's no objection i will let mr law speak go ahead mr law i'm just here because i do have information about article 18 which is a new appropriation request this year from the friends of the historic playhouse theater um that is a nonprofit that was established specifically to support and sustain the playhouse theater um i think many of you know who patronize the theater that it sort of ekes out its existence at this point it makes enough money to cover its operating expenses but not really money to cover maintenance or any kind of upgrade and we are confronting some maintenance issues right now so uh i just want to remind everyone what a treasure it is to have a movie theater in town our our teenagers our seniors are not having to drive 30 or 40 miles to go to montpelier or hand over 11 on to come to a a movie i think it's part of the continued downtown revitalization that you have in this community uh Randolph i don't i imagine you know this is sort of blessed to have everything you know the hospital the the Chandler and it goes on and on and on and the movie theater is a part of that so i'm here to encourage you to uh vote yes on that appropriation thank you thank you very much thank you other uh people from organizations that might like to speak first on an article before we open it up to just about anyone hi i'm jennifer guarino uh randolph village and i'd like to speak about the orange county restorative justice center which used to be called orange county court diversion so it's evolved a bit over the last year or so and its goal really is to provide alternatives constructive alternatives to the criminal and civil court systems excuse me it serves the whole county and i think up until uh up to this year every town in the county has provided an appropriation for this center so that the center is very proud to serve the whole county in this capacity and in many cases they provide alternatives for people who have kind of come to the end of their options it's a very community-based approach i'm a volunteer for the center i work with their circles of support and accountability to help uh ex-prisoners reintegrate back into the community and i'm also on the reparative justice panel as well and i can tell you it's a very meaningful role for me to play as a volunteer and i see a lot of healing that happens uh on the part of the offender and the people who have been offended so they're asking for six hundred dollars for their appropriation and i think it's money very well spent uh it's a it's a small investment that will make a big difference so thank you thank you so much anyone else from an organization that would like a chance to speak first then let's open it up let's open it up generally oh we have two hands here right here go ahead no go go ahead thank you martha hafner i'm just adding a ps to the comments that have already been said on restorative justice program don't know how many of you are terribly there are a number of people in this area that are involved as close of people and and thank you for all your work that you do because you are an integral part to that but i want to also make make comment because what it's costing us as taxpayers is close to i don't know why the difference seven thousand dollar seven the thousand dollars per female who is incarcerated and fifty five thousand for every male that's incarcerated but with the restorative justice program those figures are dramatically reduced and it's reintegrating people with it making it so that um the chances of recidivism are much greatly reduced so thank you for all of you that have been close to volunteers and the six hundred dollar pledge is nothing compared to what the services you're providing thank you uh tamra morgan i was gonna um before you spoke i was gonna say perhaps you should um ask for more next year because i do think the work you're doing is amazing and and i think it's well worth that little amount and i think it's worth more thank you other comments about the special appropriations i'm edward jelhagen randall i'd like to make a comment on stagecoach um the services that stagecoach has been providing are extremely valuable in recent years there's been a commuter line a set of commuter lines between here in montpellier that have been added to the many different routes that they offer and it's a a tremendous asset to folks who have to make those long commutes it's very cost effective it's a courteous professional service there's a great community of people that ride buses back and forth and for folks who are worried about things like climate change there's an opportunity to have a direct impact so i'd just like to offer my support for stagecoach thank you i've heard it's super fun yeah kelly can i be recognized on um of course uh where is it article 14 the claire martin center um christin chandler um in my regular job i work with the mental health emergency crisis teams around the state as well as law enforcement around the state and training them to work together and we are really lucky here um in randolph to have the claire martin center and i want to make sure everybody's aware that um every year one law enforcement officer in one mental health crisis worker get recognized for their collaborative efforts and this year uh claire martin uh emergency worker nominated uh an orange county sheriff captain scott cluott for his work here in randolph um and around the county in being collaborative and uh captain cluott won this award uh that's recognized just once a year for one law enforcement officer so they have a great relationship with the police and with gifford and working together and trying to get people to the best place they can be so we're lucky to have claire martin here thank you so much hand in the back mary lewis web um town of randolph i've rode the stagecoach for years down to the va is a commuter and it's a wonderful thing i'm supporting that and i hope you will and also there were times where we um we would take a spouse of an elderly spouse of a patient who was at dartmouth hitchcock and the um dartmouth coach i mean the stagecoach would take that um spouse down to um dartmouth medical center i'm also a member of the co-op for the movie theater here in town and i just want to make a pitch um that that that is part of the arts and arts are important for human spirit they're also a part of the quality of life and they make life rich and sweet and to have a movie theater in our town is so important versus those of us who are moviegoers and i know there are many of us in this town that are because i see you there um we're not having to go to montpellier or or up to burlington or um down to hanover um to watch movies we have movies here and they're bringing good movies so i really hope you'll support that and i was also on the diversion program years ago with bediets and so um i know what they have a new name now it sounds like they do great work um so vote yes on them all thank you special appropriations if there are no other comments i'm going to give the floor to janet watten who is um it's time it's time for our raffle and and we always have time for that and it's also time once a year to thank all of you guys you own this space it's your hall and we continue to be grateful for the community for in 2000 i think it was nine appropriating us a big chunk of money so that we could make this place more uh comfortable for people uh more accessible and give ourselves a little bit more room backstage so we're not also cramped so we are delighted to have you come here once a year for me to tell you that uh this is not actually a raffle um i'm we used to put numbers under your seats but this time i i have randomly and this is going to be a problem probably randomly chosen a plop and so and if you are sitting so notice where you are sitting and um i will call out a seat number and if you are in it voila you get tickets so seats seats are numbered one through nine and then it starts 10 through i think 19 right and then 20 to 27 or eight or so all right so you need to know your numbers you need to know your alphabet we started a down here it goes bcd and so forth a lot of you can probably see your number by looking at these feet in front of you and i'm going to have to make up the last because there's nobody in the balcony this year the first lucky winner is a six and if we don't have it exactly we'll go closest to yeah a sick closest who's sitting closest to a six yeah c 15 nice work f is in frank 20 14 d is in dog nine it does win every year that's that's incredible j five all right h 13 lucky number 13 20 premises this time c 22 select board and now off the top of my head um our game and please open up your envelope figure out what to do and come and see some of our wonderful wonderful shows thank you i just want to give him a shout out in absentee you see that the town report is dedicated to him and he's he's an amazing person who's been working really hard you can you can read about him on the inside cover um he's uh he's he's one of many many many volunteers who keeps keeps our town running so all right article 27 is to hear and act upon any reports of the town officers and committees now the town officers and committees have supplied in the town report many many uh many many reports and so i ask um do any town offices or committees seek to supplement the reports that we already all have in the town report okay so there are no no one's supplementing their reports so if there are no objections i will accept the various reports of the officers and committees and move on to the next article i have a question steve webster from the the village i have a question to the trustees of public funds near the bottom of page 34 in the middle column it shows that the grant park veterans memorial the value of the um fund went down about a quarter 25 percent in the playground village also went disappeared so i'm curious about those changes thank you i wonder is is there a is there a trustee of public funds here mr ranken can you address that question i can sit down okay um part of the reason for that steve is a lack of transfer of funds over the years and so that was caught up during fiscal 19 which is why you show the decline those funds owed money to the town short and succinct the way we like it thank thank you for that question and i should actually ask if there are questions about any of those reports this is this is the time to act to talk to ask them i just want to say thank you to our town officers every time we go in for whatever we are going in for we always have a wonderful experience so i just i don't know when the appropriate time is to do that but i really want to thank you no time like the present i'm marty strange i live in pleasant street um i see that in the capital improvement plan there's um once again um long overdue plans to invest in improvements in maple street long overdue and i'm glad to see it but it's i wonder if the select board has a plan for dealing with it has apparently been a problem for a long time with maple street and that the right of way that the town has there is not adequate to do the improvements up to current engineering standards and legal standards there's been talk from time to time about turning it into a one-way street maybe doing the same thing with highland going the other way i mean i suppose there are other solutions you can you can take property from adjacent owners or you can build something that's illegal i hope the third choice is not one of the ones that we're going to take so i'm wondering what the plan is if we vote this money is it going to be used i was on the capital budget planning committee for 10 years and we always had maple street in the budget and it always kept getting pushed back another year because this problem couldn't be solved so i'm wondering what the plan is now mr rylan i i can't mention that uh mr strange is correct this project has been in discussion for for some time um the issue of it being one way versus two ways is also it's an issue the select board asked that we perform a traffic study because we the select board wanted to make sure it heard from residents on highland avenue and the neighboring communities that may potentially be affected if maple street were to become one way so before we got to that point we had to perform a traffic study which we have received since and the traffic study wasn't necessarily i'll just say it wasn't driving with what we were hearing from residents on maple street so now we're left with a traffic study performed by a regional planning commission they stand by the traffic study we have comments made by residents on maple street which do not necessarily you know connect very well with with the facts as presented by a regional planning commission so what's next to do is to hold community meetings with folks on maple street folks on highland street to make sure that if a plan is pulled together that the community decides what the plan is so they are all aware that it will either be one way or two way that it will affect highland avenue may affect fair view um everyone's going to know where we are as we're moving forward as opposed to just the town pulling this um you know a fast one putting new concrete on the road and putting new lines on on the concrete so we do have public meetings planned we will share the data with uh the residents that choose to attend the meeting again we could the only thing we could do is promise to hold the meeting promise to invite you to the meeting we can't force you to come but we would like for you to come if you live in the neighborhood once we have the public meetings and once we notice them thanks so much um it probably will have some some rules and some formats the folks that would be directly affected would probably have the initial say similar to town meeting where everyone has the ability to ask a question make a comment and then we maybe spread out at that point knowing that it affects everyone we're all resident of the town but we want to make sure that the folks that are directly involved directly feel affected by this change will have a say and then everyone else will also have a say all right so then if there are no objections i will on behalf of the town here accept the various reports of the officers and committees and we will move on to article 28 thank you so much okay article 28 has to do with the budget committee and i'm going to read it to you it's long but many of you haven't read it until just now and so i think it's important that i read it out loud to you i might even have to do that so some of them i don't read but we're going to be voting on this one and or not depending on what you choose to do so i will read to you article 28 shall the town voters authorize the following changes to the budget committee hence forth then there are 10 changes listed the budget committee shall consist of five legal voters of the town of Randolph none of whom are serving on the select board or employees of the town two members of the budget committee will be elected annually at town meeting for a term of two years and a term of three years the committee shall at its first meeting following town elections elect from its membership a committee chairman a secretary and whatever other offices a majority of the committee members feel are necessary committee officers shall serve until the next town meeting and shall be eligible for reelection to subsequent terms the committee shall also at its first town meeting at its first meeting following town meeting establish its rules of procedure for the coming year should a committee vacancy occur the select board shall appoint to membership on the committee any legal voter of the town who is willing and qualified to serve and who is neither a member of the select board nor an employee of the town the newly appointed members shall serve on the committee until the next town meeting one member of the select board shall be appointed annually to be the liaison between the select board and the budget committee the appointed liaison is not a member of the budget committee but is charged with keeping the committee and the select board informed of the deliberate deliberations and activities of both groups the budget committee will receive monthly reports on current budgets and spending from the town director of finance and will request and receive from the director of finance and or the town manager any other reports or financial records that the committee deems necessary annually the committee will receive the proposed town budget from the town director of finance will review it and will report its findings under recommendations to the select board the budget committee will meet with the town director of finance throughout the year to review current and proposed budgets such meetings to occur no less than quarterly the budget committee will report to the select board as it deems necessary or as requested by the select board is there any motion we have a motion here sally penron i move that we accept this as written okay so i i'm hearing you say that you uh you move to authorize the following 10 listed changes okay is there a second jones sacks i second it's been moved and seconded that the voters authorize the 10 listed changes and i'm not going to read to you again right now we're going to just refer to them as the 10 listed changes it's uh the the article is now on the floor if there's anyone who would like to um comment or speak about the article holly sanders uh from randolph center uh do we know what uh at what point these two new members will be elected because in the budget we have one person listed in this report do we have a separate election for that and when will that take place i if this motion passes so first of all there is presently a vacancy that um this group can fill if it chooses uh and then there will be if if this article passes today this group can then fill those two additional vacancies today if you mean the group can nominate somebody to people to fill those vacancies today yes so again there is presently a vacancy you're very used to that we do this every year there's always a vacancy on the budget committee and we always vote um so we can we will do that today if you choose and then if this article passes there will be two additional seats that need to be filled and you may take that you can fill those today if you like but it is your meeting and you don't have to do any of this that's the truth um christin chanler i believe there are a couple members of the budget committee currently present here today if you could just explain um for everybody the need to hit expand the budget committee from three to five michael pennrod again um mr pennrod would you um really speak up on that microphone now can you hear me yes okay i've been on the budget committee oh god more than 10 years i believe and it has always been three and it's become more and more difficult because a quorum is two so two of us can't talk because of the open meeting laws and we felt that we needed more of a representation of people in the town because this is such a important committee it's the only committee that represents the taxpayers that is elected by the taxpayers that advises the select board and their takeaway on the the current and proposed budgets the budget committee looks at the current status of the taxes on a on a monthly basis cliff sends out a report we can ask questions on that so we really keep an eye on the budget throughout the year and then we assist the tan manager and the financial director to prepare the budget that is given to the select board so we are an advisory committee we can't pass laws we can't we we can just talk to you as taxpayers but i think it's very important and the five is really the driving force of the changes that we're suggesting in this to this make it more efficient and uh more viable i hope you support it thank you mr penrod is there other discussion of article 28 thanks christin patsy french and i apologize this is a really nitpicky question but in some sentences it says shall and some say will is it the intent that they have the same meaning thank you she should have been a lawyer definitely not don't do that to yourself other remarks or discussion about article 28 i'm not seeing any hands but i'm just going to give you a second here to just think if you want to say something before we move on to the vote all right it looks like you are ready for the question the question is shall the voters authorize the 10 listed changes to the budget committee when i say the 10 listed changes i mean those right here in the warning as written all those in favor say i those opposed nay the eyes clearly have it and the article is adopted i was like up all night worried now it gets um you know fun so um article 29 is to elect and fill any vacancies on the budget committee and so um the first thing that we're gonna do so that now we have three vacancies and so the first thing that i'm going to do is um i am going to alert uh jasmine west ruth lutz and pat french that i might need your services to help count votes but we might not but so just don't leave the room for a minute while we do this okay so there are now three vacancies on the budget committee there is the regular one that we um that that is vacant and um mr penrod maybe you know how what what um length of term is the is the vacancy that we've had all along the current vacancy the current vacancy is three years okay and tell tell me about the other two vacancies one is for how long one is for two years well no no you don't have to do so one is for two years and one is for one year one is one is for three years one is for two years and one is for one year and this one year term will become a two-year term at the uh 2021 town meeting okay all right so the first vacancy that we're going to fill is for the three-year term um and if if you choose to do that but i'd like to open the floor then to nominations for that three-year term on the budget committee i'm sally penrod i nominate jerry ward he's not here but i know he's willing okay did everyone hear that jerry ward has been nominated and he is not here but you have spoken to him and he is willing unfortunately jerry is stuck in costa rica but i do have an email from him stating that he would be very happy to be a member of the budget committee i second the motion are there other not we don't even actually need a second but are there other nominees for the three-year position okay it appears that there are not any other nominations for that three-year position and so mr ward is running from costa rica unopposed this might be why he is running for the three-year position um so uh i think that we can handle this with a voice vote frankly um so uh let's do that um i'm gonna ask you to vote uh now uh all those in favor of jerry ward getting the three-year position on the budget committee say aye those opposed nay the eyes have it and mr ward is now uh on the budget committee for three years let's take up the the two-year spot now there is now a new positions two years long and let's open the floor to nominations if you would like to do that you got this all planned out that's good i like when someone has a plan for two years i nominate tamra morgan okay tamra morgan is here sitting over there ms morgan um would you like to speak you don't have to hi all um i'm currently a trustee of the board of the library i've been here for 20 years um um i am perfectly happy to sit on the budget committee because i know that um volunteering for town is very important and the budget committee as an advisory committee is very important um and i'm happy to be nominated and serve thank you i'd like to recognize joey's next i don't want to create problems but oh no part of the article that we just passed said that the individual would not be an employee of the town or um and even though she's not technically an employee she's an elected official serving for as a library trustee for the town of randolph so i don't know if that creates a conflict or not i just want to point that out thank you is there other discussion actually are there other nominations let's get that first all right there are no it doesn't appear that there are other nominations does anyone anyone like to say anything i am not your attorney unless you hit someone with a baseball bat i just want okay is there an attorney in the room who can adjust that address this question no attorney worth their wait and salt would do that but you know the article 28 which you just passed says two members of the budget committee will be elected i'm sorry see this is why you don't want to ask me but it says the budget committee shall consist of five legal voters of the town of randolph none of whom are serving on the select board or our employees of the town the only um potential conflict would be in tamras any oversight on the library's budget itself the rest it would be it would seem to be independent so um thank you uh we're gonna i saw a hand up no you've changed your mind there's a hand uh over here in the back peggy whiteneck east randolph my understanding of the term employee is that it's a paid position are the trustees for the library paid so it seems to me that's a moot point i have a comment um just would ask miss morgan if she'd be willing to recuse herself in any budgetary matters that affect the library if you were to serve on the budget committee is there other discussion i would just like to point out that this is an advisory committee it can advise the select board can't pass laws can't pass ordinances or anything else the only power that we have is to which happened once many many years ago when the budget committee disagreed with the select board and ran a column in the herald and the budget didn't pass that year that's the only authority that the budget has other discussion so um miss morgan is running for the two-year position unopposed uh two-year position on the budget committee and so i'm going to ask you to vote on that now all those in favor of miss morgan taking that seat say aye those opposed nay the eyes have it and miss morgan is elected to the budget committee for two years there's one more position that you may fill if you would like and it is a one-year position and um i see uh it's just uh a voter is there are there nominations oh yes hello my name is rachel putney and i am i guess nominating myself or asking for someone to nominate me for the one-year position on the budget committee i'm currently a randolph resident i was born and raised here and i'm currently doing master's education courses for public administration certification thank you thank you miss putney are there other nominations let's no thanks tom eris brook street and um presuming that rachel if she could not nominate herself i would wholeheartedly uh nominate her yep all right are there other nominations for other candidates other nominations i'm not seeing any hands all right would you like to discuss this or shall we vote all right so um um miss putney is running for the one-year seat on the budget committee all those in favor of her being elected to that position say aye those opposed nay the eyes have it and miss putney is uh now on the budget committee we're moving right along thank you all article 30 is to fill any other vacancy now there are many many many vacancies in all kinds of committees we require a lot of volunteers who put in a lot of time to the town the select board appoints many of many of those positions and you should all apply holly sanders uh chair of the capital budget committee we have one vacancy on our committee um that has been vacant for a long long time it's a one-year appointment and it's very helpful for the same reason mr penter i've mentioned about having enough people to come to a meeting if somebody can't make a meeting we can't have a quorum and therefore we can't conduct any business um we would like to have somebody come on our committee um it doesn't have you don't have to decide right now it can be you can talk to the select board by the town manager and they would be happy to have you fill that position if you're interested um the purpose of our committee is to review the capital expenses of the town and this is a budget that we work on for five years looking forward so we're not only talking about what you do next year we're talking about what you do for the next five years in an attempt to keep the expenditures of the town level so that we're not having high tax rates one year and low tax rates another year so we're looking for a person who would like to fill that position and join us on the committee we meet about six times a year mostly in november and december and um with one meeting in the summertime generally uh it's a very short meeting it's an hour long each time and we review the capital budget as proposed by the select board and town manager thank you thank you so much kelly yes um so i'm christin gauge i live on fish hill and i heated the call last year a town meeting when there was a desperate plea for committee members and it's really been great um if it's not something that you've considered doing i joined the rec committee um and the rec committee is doing some really fun stuff yeah um the rec committee i would say that joining a committee in general you're gonna meet your neighbors you're gonna be involved people are gonna stop you on the street and want to talk about cool things um it really is an important way to serve the town we show up for town meeting but there's so much more we could be doing throughout the year and it's not an enormous time commitment um so just consider it um especially for younger people it's a great way um to integrate yourself so thank you so much the rec committee is really amazing right now we are really doing yeah yeah yeah thank you all right article 31 article 31 reads shelved town voters authorized the select board to borrow money up to but not exceeding the anticipated tax and bond slash grant revenue for the ensuing year is there a motion thank you mr webster thank you miss hafner article 31 has been moved and seconded and uh is there a discussion i'd like to say thank you to whoever edited article 31 down to its concise meaning who did that thank you this genius really no i hate it this is all that needs to be said anyone have any actual discussion are you ready for the question you look ready for the question okay the question is shall the town voters authorize the select board to borrow money up to but not exceeding the anticipated tax and bond slash grant revenue for the ensuing year all those in favor say aye those opposed nay the eyes have it and article 31 is adopted thank you article 32 um i'm going to read to you article 32 article 32 says whereas extreme and erratic temperatures increasingly severe storms arise in 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 and the world and whereas the state of vermont has a goal in the comprehensive energy plan to achieve 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050 yet is making insufficient progress towards achieving that goal now therefore be it resolved number one the undersigned voters of the town of Randolph urge the state of vermont to halt any new or expanded fossil fuel infrastructure commit to 100 percent renewable energy for all new infrastructure and energy uses by 2030 within vermont with firm interim interim milestones ensure be ensure that the transition to renewable energy is fair and equitable for all residents with no harm to marginalized groups or rural communities number two the underside vote undersigned voters of the town of Randolph urge the town and its officials to do its part to meet these recommendations and those within the town plan by committing to efforts such as a protecting town properties from fossil fuel infrastructure denying easements or agreements from any pipelines crossing town properties be weatherizing town buildings and schools and other initiatives to improve residents quality of life while helping conserve current resources and reduce overall energy use see enlisting state support to install solar power on town and school properties D encourage landowners municipalities and farmers to implement practices that build healthy soil which increases carbon storage to cool the planet and mitigate flooding and drought E support the recommendations from town commissions and committees relating to climate mitigation and prepare an energy efficiency action plan aimed at reducing town use of fossil fuels should this article pass a letter shall be sent from the town of Randolph to our state representatives and senators the speaker of the house vermont house the president pro tempore of the vermont senate and the governor is there a motion this is sacks is there a second is that marjorie reyesson marjorie reyesson has seconded the article so i will not read it a second time but it is the article is is moved and seconded and it's a long article i think what the article requires is for the select board to send a letter to our state representatives and the other people urging the state to do the first three items you see under one one a and b and requires the town and its officials to do its part to meet the recommendations of the state's comprehensive energy plan and our own town plan by committing to projects such as the the ones listed uh is there a discussion okay let's see uh shannon hance randolph randolph resident um i was just wondering who's going to prepare an energy efficiency action plan um it's just not clear who's who will be responsible for that so just wanted to put that out there is there someone uh yeah thank you is there someone who um helped draft the article that would like to speak generally about the article first if you would please state your name john pennant all east randolph uh to answer your question directly there is an energy committee here in randolph who would who would be part of that um this resolution was placed here for discussion by a group of folks from all over town who gathered about 225 signatures on a petition active in that group gathering signatures were students from randolph high school who are also here today and would like to speak to you about this resolution as well 55 other towns in vermont have already passed a similar resolution to date even here in randolph we have begun to see impacts of climate change and eventually it will affect every part of our lives i could go on and talk about the the the different sections but i think kelly has already talked about those in detail and if there are further questions we can answer them but in general not recognizing the dangers of climate change and not taking action to reduce it and not taking action to mitigate it will leave our younger generations a world with few of the opportunities and none of the possibilities that each of us have had growing up so i urge you all to pass this resolution um get this on on the town's agenda for discussions and you know by burying our heads in the sand about climate change we're not going to solve anything by by by meeting this head on addressing things as they come up and talking about it we can come to a a solid plan to mitigate the effects of climate change here thank you thank you hi uh good afternoon again chris rachia from tatra who wrote um bear with me for a minute because a couple of different points one is that uh i was with the agency natural resources went in 2011 for the first time we did the 90 renewable uh goal by 2050 and uh then was commissioner of the public service department when it was renewed five years later and really concentrated on addressing the areas that we were unsuccessful so far at addressing as you probably all know we have pretty high level of renewables associated with electricity but not in thermal not in home heating not in weatherization and not in transportation and i think that is because we were effective at being able to regulate the utilities to go in this direction but obviously we don't regulate your individual homes and nor would you want us to so point number one is we have a lot of work to do in weatherization and transportation and this is really important point number two i i in terms of the need for this i think i like using this uh this analogy or metaphor so bear with me if you we look up we look up in the sky and we think that the atmosphere is unlimited because we don't see any boundary to it so i want to take you for a second put vermont on its edge so we got the massachusetts border up to canada that is the full thickness of you are in outer space if you go that 270 miles whatever up there but the breathable atmosphere and the and half the atmosphere would be between the massachusetts border and putney so it's really important to realize we've got about 12 miles of air that encompasses really all of or most of what we're talking about here it's not unlimited and the thought that you could take 100 million years worth of carbon from all the plant debris that caused the formation of coal and stick that into that thin atmosphere in 150 years and not have there be an effect is the real fundamental problem in our thinking now we're the big brain people uh well we're the people we're the big brain animals on earth and we should be able to deal with this the last thing i want to say is that even though this is a is a non-binding resolution to the town and then to the state i can't emphasize enough the need to incorporate your individual action here the state cannot do this we can't do the state cannot do what you are asking it to accomplish without you doing everything you can so what it means really when i read this resolution is within 10 years you all need to be carbon neutral how are you going to do it think about it work on it um i do support the resolution because i think that we need to start paying much more attention to this and our leaders need to do more but we as individuals are the ones who need to make this change so thank you thank you very much um hello i'm ilian drave uh i live in brookfield i am ineligible to vote and i am asking permission to speak uh if there's no objection i will give you permission to speak do you do attend the high school uh yes would you stand yeah go ahead all right i l y a is that enough um first of all i would like to thank all of you for everybody who's already been showing support for this movement it really means a lot to us over at the climate inequality pbl where we all um group together the students um first of all yes uh right uh pbl stands for project-based learning um and we're a group that's we're a group of students that are trying to you know solve the problems of climate change here in randolph um your children grandchildren and family are all growing up in a world that needs you to take action and take a part in this movement we all want earth to be a safe place for our future generations and we need to start somewhere and randolph is a start all of it can be with your vote you have all lived through some of america's toughest times and we are pleading you to not throw that away to support us in our movement to create a better future for the next generations to come thank you thank you very much is there further discussion uh i'd like to speak with you today both as a resident and then also as as employee of the select board vis a vis your public servant um people over the over the last two and a half years have come to me and have presented proposals things they'd like to do and we typically try to help as much as we can to make them happen especially if they're things that the town can help with um there are a number of instances we could talk later about those uh but in this case i also want to point out that your tax dollars pay me to ensure that we try to steer the town clear of any trouble that could be coming because of something that happens through a vote or through a contract um although i applaud the the efforts of the committee i just want to i want to ask if they would be willing to potentially table this so that we could work on the language it's not committing the town to do something that could be violating the land use regulations or is very vague in what it's directing the town to do for example um encouraging landowners that you know how how would we encourage them um we don't want there to be any any avenue for a landowner to say why didn't really feel encouraged someone told me to do something but i didn't feel encouraged so if we worked on the language that made it very specific on certain points oh for example uh a it says that the town is the voters here today are directing the town to not approve certain type of projects well if the land use regulations allow certain type of projects in certain areas we wouldn't rightfully say to a property owner or a business no you can't do this you know because our land use regulations say you can so that could potentially create a legal issue where land owner or a property owner or a business owner can sue the town so i'm not saying that um that this isn't a good uh proposal for you to consider i'm just saying i'd love to help by making the changes necessary so that it'd be specific so that the town doesn't get into trouble um in trying to help uh this this this you know i think the past Mr. Raylon are you making a motion to postpone this uh conversation this article as a town resident i understand i have that authority but this is your meeting i'm here as your employee so i'm not going to make that motion and i will leave it to the voters to decide i just want to make sure that you can make the best decision with all the the available information thank you we'll get to every hand don't worry about that for sure yeah hi i'm jeff tevus randolph um i would like to make that motion um i think it is dangerously vague and um puts serious limitations on the town that we shouldn't do it this time okay um could you would you just tell us your name again thank you so mr tevus has made a motion to postpone discussing or taking any action on article 32 uh is there a second and mr hafner has seconded that um this motion is debatable it's can be discussed by the group discussion on uh postponing indefinitely an article can also include um debate actually about the merits of the motion itself so is there discussion or debate about the motion now before you which is to postpone indefinitely um you know postpone um this article if we could let's uh okay christian channeler's gonna help me out here for sure you guys are on it go ahead i'm patsy french and i would oppose postponing this i think we've been postponing action on climate change for far far too long and i would remind people that this is only advisory to the town this is not in any way an ordinance or anything that someone could sue the town over or the town could get in any trouble for it is totally advisory now i have great interest in this because i have an adorable four-year-old granddaughter and an adorable two weeks and three days old grandson as well as an niece and nephew or 13 and 10 and i want them to have a world to live in and if we keep postponing and postponing even to tweak language for heaven's sake we're not going to get anywhere and so i really really urge people to vote this down thank you hi i'm aiden right i'm uneligible uneligible to vote right now i'm from brookfield may i speak um if there is no objection we will let you speak hi folks i'm a part of the environmental inequality pbl same as my friend earlier here do you attend the local high school i do i'm a junior i heavily think you all should support this action this advisory because this is your future this is our future i love vermont it's a beautiful place i've been all over this country i've never seen it in place that has the green hills that perfect snow well perfect and annoying but still and i want to keep that i want my my children to see that i want your grandchildren to see that i really care about the environment i really care about vermont and i think that if you guys all really do care about vermont please support this bill or advisory i'm done thank you i'm sorry i didn't hear i don't think that can cannot be interrupted yes i think we're going to take further discussion on whether to postpone indefinitely the article yes my name is david white resident of randolph i was just going to say something similar to patsey that the way i read the article 33 is that it's non-binding it uses the word urge not require so all of the concerns i've heard expressed against article 33 so far i don't think are credible thank you thank you we will we will thank you we've got more folks chris go ahead i'm robin russell from randolph center i'm just wondering to um the point of the language and um maybe the authority are we granting authority to the energy committee to be the representative of the town in drafting this letter um and if john might be able to speak a little bit to um mentioned other towns of what other towns have are there examples of what's in those um urging urging language thank you so the way the way the i can actually answer some of that the way the article is draft is is is that it says the town should send a letter should should be the one sending the letter and speaking with mr pimentel about the article uh it was his intention that that come from the select board um maybe the town manager would help write it but that that was his intention so the point of information is well taken and um miss gauge thank you my name is kin hafner um um i've had a career over the last 40 years or so of working to promote conservation of natural resources and protection of our planet um i see in the article we're talking the state already has a plan to deal with this by 2050 with talking about encouraging folks to do this by 2030 that's 10 years from now how many folks here um plan on replacing their furnaces within the next 10 years to something that doesn't lose fossil fuels um a few okay a lot of us have or have put them solo panels we had done that at our home as was previously stated we're doing real well in that area um i think we need to postpone this decision uh we till we have a chance to look at see what's out there that's available to us that's affordable to us to be able to reach these goals that's why i think that the 2050 is a more realistic goal 2030 it sounds great but i just don't think we're going to be able to do it thank you uh i just what i'm what we're going to do here is we're going to alternate um between the two christians picking picking speakers what the most thank you the motion before you is whether we should uh postpone taking up the article correct yep yep so christin channel you have a speaker for me okay hi emily louis um and i have a question on this this part as i read it i also as some people have stated i read it as that it is not binding it is simply urging however what would be what would be the next step to encourage the town to go through and actually come up with specific ways to change either town language or to um make this a reality rather than just an urging by the members of by the community thank you for your your comment the the article certainly doesn't address that next step christin gauge go ahead choose it you got it thank you uh tamra morgan um i'd just like to point out um to mr hafner's point about it being 10 years from now is the commitment to 100 renewable energy for all new infrastructure and energy use by 2030 that does not mean we all have to replace our furnaces by 2030 it means that any new infrastructure going in from the state needs to be energy efficient which it should already be in my opinion thank you each each person gets to speak twice but only before everyone else has had an opportunity to speak so sorry uh camden walters randolph center i'm on the planning commission been on there for a couple years where we actually do have to deal with concerns rigorous concerns over language the shouts or the urging and all that kind of stuff which does have a real world um legal consequences here this all these questions over over language and nitpicking whether we're urging or 10 years or 20 years or whatever it's completely irrelevant to the situation here and what we should be considering because as other people have pointed out this is all just kind of an um like an advisory kind of thing a non-binding a non-binding thing i think the main thing that this kind of uh uh work here accomplishes is adding randolph's name to this growing list of towns and municipalities and groups to slowly gradually you know it's taken forever but slowly you know putting pressure and showing people and leadership that there is more support for this and work on these fronts needs to be done so just you know waste a bunch of time here waffling talking about language and how are we gonna set up a task force or you know all this kind of stuff it's completely irrelevant and it's just obstructionist basically so we should we should just pass this thank you hi my name is loretta thomas i live in randolph and i think that putting a um a halt to this uh postponing it indefinitely is terribly wrong i think some of the things that are needed is to help the landowners business people um to see if there's help available for this town in this town to help each other to to reach these goals you know i mean renewable energy has been on they've been talking about it for what 30 years and not much has been done you know and it'll kill us all eventually you know um i'd rather go out another way let's put it that way you know but i think it is so important for the earth for the people for the next generations to continue with this and plan to discuss it you know not to postpone it indefinitely you know it is just written to start the ball rolling and not wait another 10 years look how much has changed in the last 10 thank you hi there miles super route 12 north um yeah i think we should just go ahead and vote on the uh on the motion that's at hand so we can put that to bed and we can vote on the real motion which is to uh adopt article 32 thank you okay i i see one more hand here i know that we're letting you know folks speak but we also want to move things along but go ahead uh tom airs brook street and i know that sometimes is the easiest thing to do to parse words and to kick cans down the road and postpone difficult decisions but this is a can that's been kicked down the road for far too long already and in that regard it is a non-binding resolution it simply sets a template for further public action on the critical issue of climate change for the town and the only word that kind of mandates anything in the resolution is the word shall write a letter to our state officials all it needs to be stated in that letter is the will of the people of randolph there's nothing in it that's legally binding and i think we should put aside this issue of postponing vote on it now and get to the topic at hand which is protecting our environment for all of our futures okay thank you so the motion on the floor is whether to postpone taking up article 32 i'm just sort of testing the temperature of the room to see if you want to go forward with that vote postponing the article would mean that we would move on to the next article um you know refusing to postpone it would mean that we would then actually have an opportunity for more speakers to talk about article 32 before we vote on it so we'll see if there are any more comments here about whether about regarding postponing indefinitely first miss tanners i think you've spoken already and so we're going to see if there's any there are any new speakers anybody who hasn't had a chance to speak mr french thank you pat french i think i'm the only residing select one here today maybe i'm wrong but we usually set up front so i'm not speaking for everybody on the select board but speaking for myself i would like to deal with this issue many people have said that we've waited way too long i agree with that i think we can come up with something if the select board wants to do that based on this vote i think we can come up with something that's strongly worded and would tell our representatives and our state officials that we want to go forward and make some progress if that's what people vote so i'm not seeing additional hands at this time and i think that you are ready for the question the question before you is whether the voters um shall postpone indefinitely any further discussion of article two oh sorry article 32 voting yes will cut off debate and we will move on to article 33 right so the question before you is whether the voters shall postpone indefinitely the discussion of article 32 so voting yes we'll um we'll end this conversation now and we'll move on to article 33 voting no we'll put the main motion article 32 back on the floor for discussion so the question is shall the voters postpone indefinitely the discussion of article 32 all those in favor of postponing the discussion say aye those opposed say nay okay the the nays appear to have it the nays do have it and um the motion is lost which means that article two is now on the floor um i'm just i'm just thank you it's article 32 is is back on the floor so um you can continue to discuss article 32 the merits of it if you would like and um go ahead thank you i'm christin chandler i do i just want to acknowledge that we had two high school students here we have one who spoke a while ago who took his saturday and came down here and the first person to respond to him suggested that we table this motion which i found very disappointing and i just want to acknowledge you too i'm sure this isn't where you want to be on a saturday so thanks for coming to town yeah it's a good time it's a good time it's hard but it's good the friend can randolph center this is a passionate issue we all carry very deeply about our environment that's why we live here i love this place i love the greenery i don't want to say that words matter commas matter there's a company in main that will tell you for the omission of an oxford comma it costs them a million and a half dollars okay that's the extra comma before the end okay word it correctly i think it's really important be specific thank you so i'm looking for i'm looking for speakers who have not had any opportunity yet to speak on this and we'll we'll get to you it's so pay attention to that if you won't don't mind i'm marty strange from south pleasant street um commas do matter but they don't always matter and they matter on matters of great importance but this is a sense of the town's feelings it's not anything that is going to be taken into a court where a comma is going to be resultant some disastrous consequence for us this is us standing where we stand and saying what we believe in and that's all this is about and we can put all the technical stuff aside because it doesn't matter green chaffer i live in randolph i would like to add my comments to the young people i am possibly the oldest person in this gathering at age 91 and i wish you the same environment that i've had in my lifetime and i feel very responsible for my generation and what we've done to our environment unknown probably as we went through life however this needs to be kept in the forefront and this is just something that is going to the people who represent us and urge them to finally take a stand and do something for you and your your children your grandchildren so i'm supporting you totally and thank you for coming um good afternoon victoria legio randolph um i start by saying i support this completely um with with a couple with a couple with one question it's a serious attempt to urge our people in montpellier to get their behinds off the ground okay but more importantly if it's very serious then you shouldn't i don't think we should be including things which are less serious and maybe cut into to it so i'm looking particularly at two-way protecting town properties for fossil fuel infrastructure denying easements and agreements for pipelines crossing town properties does the town have any reasonable expectation that it could have any meaningful input to such a question should it come to the point where there's either a uh a state or a federal or a transnational initiative to push you know whether it's frat gas pipeline or a high uh high voltage electric or anything like that under randolph property i really question whether that's a serious you know that's a serious expectation on the part of the town so if it's going to remain a very serious piece of work to send to the state i think we should eliminate something like that which sort of cuts into the seriousness that's all thank you very much other speakers who have not had an opportunity to speak i see a hand over here up against the wall peggy whiteneck again from east randolph the letter that goes to the authorities at the state level does not require this resolution as i read it does not require that the wording of the resolution itself be sent to them it requires that something be sent to them that expresses again as somebody put it the will of the the voters from uh from from randolph so you know the the wording of that letter is is not prescribed precisely here so that i don't think we have to spend a lot of time talking about word smithing okay thank you i um some people might like to speak a second time and you're you're you're welcome to do that i'm okay if what let me make a bargain with you because that involves a whole separate vote let's have mr pimenthal speak one last time since he helped organize this just a couple take the temperature of the room clarification this this resolution in no way imposes any requirements on homeowners there is no expectation that homeowners do anything differently 10 years from now than what they do today um the it refers to infrastructure which has nothing to do with homeowners uh heating systems number two is you know not knowing whether or not there's a fossil fuel pipeline on the horizon for us is no reason for us not to say today that we don't want something like that in our own backyards or running through our town by the time we find out that there's something coming through town it's going to be too late we need to take a stand in advance and in state that we don't want anything like that running through our town thank you a point of clarification okay because the actions taken by the voters here today will undoubtedly land on the desk of the select board and my desk to resolve later especially crafting of a letter if it's required i just want to be clear i'm hearing from from the supporters of the group that language doesn't matter that this is advisory only that they're not directing the town to do something i want to make sure that i understand the the group that's supporting this this um this article so that when the letter is drafted at some point in a select board meeting someone doesn't say well no we were serious we want x y and z i will then in front of everybody here i'm committing and i'm saying well no at the meeting at town meeting in the minute reflect that everyone said this was advisory only that it is the specific words don't necessarily matter and it's more of an advice given to the select board so i want to be clear if this is a general advisory or if this is a serious you are demanding x y and z from the select board and for me so that i can later on go with that i'm very much a there's a goal i need to get to that goal and if someone leaves things open to interpretation people may not like my interpretation because those are they vary by different people so i just want to be very clear with what everyone's asking with this letter thank you for thank you for your comment i mean the article is on the floor people can vote it up or down the article as exactly as written will go before um the select board they'll have that language to to figure out what the next step is mr priman thought you've had two opportunities to speak and you only get to um yeah my old super uh i think quite simply we're asking that it be known in montpelier to our representation and to our state government that randolph is keen about finding solutions to address climate change that's what we're talking about here today we want that it the sentiment to be known in montpelier that people in randolph feel this way that's all thank you we'll let ms morgan speak and then ms carothers and i have blown off a request to call the question which i'll have to take back up uh tamar morgan east randolph um i would argue that in terms of language it would probably be perfectly fine to send to the state which is what the letter who the letter is going to um the two first paragraphs whereas extreme and erratic temperatures and whereas the state of vermont has a goal um and part one a and b be the letter because the rest of it is addressed to the town of randolph and we don't necessarily need to send a letter to ourselves we've already addressed this in town meeting just a thought ms carothers jose carothers east randolph um adolfo they'll be people to work on that uh issue um to work with the select board to work with you um so i i understand your i understand all of your points i i honor your points um and i think that this is uh nothing in this resolution today indicates that there would be no uh no cooperation in the production of this so uh this is democratic town we can all keep working together um and um i'd like to move the question okay let's see um oh we have one more um hi ilia andrae of again um i just wanted to uh show a slight disagreement with mr. hooper is it um while we are trying to send a message to montpelier it we are also trying to improve situations here in randolph um one of our goals is actually to uh insulate the school um it's a pretty simple goal um but it will be a very a very good uh long term decision um and yeah thank you okay the article we're on article 32 and i'm sensing from the room that you would like to now take up and vote on article 32 um so article 32 i'm not going to reread it to you um but article 32 uh is asking you um to you know a vote yes or i will adopt article 32 a vote nay will um ask that the article be lost okay do you understand that all right so all those in favor of passing and adopting article 32 say i those opposed say nay the eyes appear to have it the eyes do have it and article 32 is adopted we are going to move on to article 33 article 33 says shall the town voters authorize an exemption to the randolph center area fire association from real estate taxes for a period of one year get go ahead um if if those of you that were here at last town meeting remember uh this issue was discussed and the select board and and administration was asked to negotiate with the randolph center fire association um which is why this issue is back on the ballot this year so um it's it's here because the the voters asked us to negotiate with them to see whether uh or not we would acquire the the fire station um we have not really made it very far with the negotiations for a number of different reasons which is why this one article is back on the um as an article uh but only for one year other discussion about article 33 actually we have reached an agreement and that we signed the lease with the town the town is leasing the fire station i don't see the association turning over that uh property in the foreseeable future i'd like to uh offer an amendment to the motion i'd like to amend it to five years instead of one so this doesn't have to be brought up every year there is a motion to amend article 33 to replace um the phrase one year to five years and i think that motion is germane that amendment is germane um is there a second who seconded that mr siloes seconded that so um on the table now before you now for discussion is is whether to amend the article i have a number of questions in this regard but let me try my memory is not fresh on this so i'm going to turn to some that may have better information here but i know that there was a bond that was taken here to be able to rebuild the fire station and it ended up being it was done with the expectations that there might be some left over to to be able to consider doing some other things with if i'm correct and i know that in the process the randolph center one really was not kind of out of the loop on that center on that piece so i'm wanting to know is this request to consider having the taxes abated for at least this year and maybe five related to the fact that the randolph center really did not get any any improvements related to the building that was just rebuilt here so i want to be clear i do oppose the amendment um i feel that this is a bigger part of the ongoing conversation with review of fire operations um as far as improvements to the randolph center fire station the town cannot make any improvements the town does not own the property it doesn't own the structure um and using taxpayer money to make improvements to this building is is you know it's putting it very loosely would be similar to making improvements to my home with taxpayer money we don't own the property so it's very challenging for us to make the case to improve it the other challenge there is we do need fire protection in these fire stations is proof that we lost one fire station due to fire we didn't have fire suppression in it we almost lost the second one two three years ago because we didn't have fire suppression in it and if we don't have sprinkler systems in the fire station and something is to happen we lose all of the equipment in there um and in the case of randolph center we do not own the building so we cannot use your money um as we would to put a sprinkler system in a in your building in this building for for example so uh the town for the most part owns everything there are still issues with with um who owns one of the trucks or who owns one of the other trucks so it's not as clear as in the town owns all of the equipment um tim is here he can specifically he's a fire chief for randolph center he can specifically point to some of the fire trucks are not in the name of the town so now they are competing issues with who's ensuring the truck who owns the truck if it is to burn uh is the town going to be replacing that fire truck if it doesn't own it um so that there are greater issues which is why you all asked us last year to negotiate with the group which is why i'm i'm suggesting that we keep it one year so we could keep the negotiation ongoing because if it's a five-year tax abatement you know for all we know no one's going to want to talk about this until year four and a half right before town meeting so um there are a couple hands up i saw your hand up mr pender there's two people in the back that had their hands up first and what i'm going to ask you all to do is to and you're doing it but just to the extent you can keep your comments about the amend the proposed amendment from one year to five year but seems all this this conversation has all seemed relevant to that randy clark all's i can say is when that tone goes out for a fire we're not going to pick and choose to come into your house we're all going to respond to knock it down as fast as we can so stop the net pick and figure it out and get over it thank you there's a hand behind you my name is rant nancy writes from Randolph center and i just want to say that this article is really authorizing an exemption to the taxes for a period of time and it seems to me these um comments about prices of fire trucks hold hold that microphone right to your mouth it seems to me we should be voting on the issue of it um giving Randolph center fire association exemption from real estate taxes not going into all the weeds thank you i i think miss gauge had a speaker here uh michael marshall um so i am in favor of the one year exemption but i am not in favor of the five-year exemption as the town manager stated um this is an issue that's been going on for over a year now and i think if we extend it um this issue in this debate will continue for years um it's putting our town in danger um it's holding up things for example the village fire station which burned um it's four and a half years later and they still haven't replaced all of their equipment that's on hold because there's a study to find out what goes on with the stations so that needs to be taken care of in east randolph a tanker truck is very old constantly in need of repair that purchase is being put off until this whole situation can be taken care of so we really need to get this issue taken care of so that all three fire departments can be providing the adequate protection and we're not pushing off capital purchases for years down the road while we deal with this issue so again i'm in favor of the one year exemption but not in favor of the five-year exemption because we need to get this straightened out taken care of thank you uh mr pennrod did you have a question about the amendment or a comment yeah about the about the amendment um this is procedural when this my understanding of this article on the ballot as it's written not the amendment was a revisitation of the issue from last year and being an independent group asking for a real estate taxes exemption they would have to gather signatures to get it on the ballot that has not been done so i'm not in favor of the five-year exemption okay i'm not seeing uh any other hands a question on that because last year it was warned as a five-year exemption and it got changed to a one year so why why did that work last year but it can't work this year the other um the other thing is that the discussion of who will own the randolph center firehouse is not holding up the fire service study the fire service service study is holding up the discussion on who will own the firehouse the other thing is that this fire service study was supposed to have been done by now and it just barely started two months ago after they finally got people appointed to it they're supposed to meet every two weeks it's it's supposed to be done within six months and they they've had one meeting well two meetings a second meeting i think only four people showed up and i don't see this study being done within the next year so i'm we'll probably have to bring this up again next year unless we go with the five years oh yes i'm sorry yes please this question about tax exemption for the randolph center the randolph center fire association the fire station building in randolph center keeps coming up every time we have a vote to exempt the taxes on it this has been going on for a very long time i've been serving as town clerk for 22 years we've done this every five years for the past 22 years last year we voted to change it to one year because the idea that it is an independent group that is actually owning the building and looking for a tax exemption was a question that you know what why are we giving them a tax exemption why are why don't we give taxes exemptions to other people so i think we need to as a group as a town decide you know once and for all okay this is the fire association they are independent group if they're going to ask for the exemption under the statute then they will need to follow the same rules that other third parties have to do in order to request either a special appropriation or whatever and that is to get out of petition get the required signatures and then that will put it on the back on to the town warning we have traditionally just put it on the warning because it has been used as a fire station for the benefit of the town but i don't think that it ever was voted on the way that it probably should have if you really look at the statute and look at the way that questions are if it's from a third party it's supposed to be added to the warning so i think we as a town need to decide okay are we going to you know treat them like everybody else in which case then they need to go through the petition process and then go through that but for right now i myself am in favor of just a one year hand we have a hand up in the back we're getting hungry aren't we people um i have a question if we decided to vote this down would that provide um our town with any leverage for resolving the ambiguous status of that center uh mr belan has his hand up uh as part of our very long and ongoing uh meetings with the random center area fire association we as tim pointed out eventually after several months of talking came up with a lease agreement at the request of the fire association they placed a sunset date of the end of this fiscal year june 30th i will ask him to ask why he he insisted on placing that in there i could only mention that it was put in there so if the voters today chose to not give the association a tax exemption that they would choose to potentially not operate anymore because again they own the property they own the building so um i can say that if the voters today chose to not grant a tax exemption the issue would then fall to the association on whether they want to pay the tax and continue to operate as a fire station or if they chose to just ask the town to take its equipment out on page 31 in your annual report your town report stabilization of taxes i assume that's what we're talking about because randoff center fire station is at the top at one year does anybody else remember giving an exemption by vote here at the town meeting for freedom foods or randoff senior citizen citizen center or gifford medical senate medic minig or led dynamics i don't remember voting for those things why are we having this kind of a discussion when it seems to me that either the town manager or the select board has seems to have the authority to grant these kind of stabilizations can anybody answer that for me i'm gonna direct uh this joey's might be able to answer that for you some of the names that you listed on there are based on tax stabilization agreements that the select board has made with freedom foods with the led dynamics we voted on last year on the senior center to provide the exemption for five years and the senior center did provide us with a petition to in order to do that the one for gifford was a settlement with a tax appeal where the nursing home was to be they they claim that it should not be taxed the town's position was that it should be we reached an agreement that for the first few years there would be an exemption and then over time they will begin paying taxes on it under the statute there are certain groups that fall under the statute that can request to have the exemption i don't remember exactly i think it's in title 32 hang on hang on can we yeah um so i want to keep the conversation as much as we can to the amendment at this point right and we have um miss potney who has not spoken on this article i was just responding to michael penrod and what joey's was saying that if you look on page 14 the minutes from last year article 31 and it is the authorization exemption for the random senior center and it's vermont statute 32 squarely symbol 3840 okay and i have the statute here and it says when a society or body of persons associated for a charitable purpose in whole or in part including fraternal organizations volunteer fire and ambulance or rescue companies own real estate use exclusively exclusively the for the purposes of such society body or organization such real estate may be exempted from taxation either in whole or in part for a period not exceeding 10 years if the town so votes upon the expiration of such exemption a town may vote additional periods of exemption not exceeding five years each which is why each time it's now five years or one year depending on what you put it for okay um our future is leaving the building yeah yeah bye guys the question before you is about um amendment and mr angel you've had you've actually spoken twice on this so i'm not going to let you speak again um we're going to see if anyone wants to continue discussing the amendment all right you're ready for the question the question is on amending the main motion by changing uh the last clause from a period of one year to a period of five years so that if the amendment is adopted the main motion shall read shall the town voters authorize an exemption to the Randolph center area fire association from real estate taxes for a period of five years those in favor of amending the main motion to state five years say aye those opposed say nay the nays appear to have it the nays do have it and the amendment is lost what that means is that article 33 as printed in your in your report is now still up for debate discussion and um and and if there's none we'll vote on it give you a minute to see if there's anyone else that wants to discuss article 33 just clarification as far as the lease agreement expiring at the end of june i just felt it would be a lot simpler if the lease agreement corresponded with the fiscal year i don't see any reason why the lease won't be extended the other the reason we did the lease agreement was for the insurance company to make sure that all equipment would be covered in the case of the fire so there's no question now about whether or not ownership has nothing to do with whether it will be covered thank you i have one more hand jean and angel my husband's fire chief i have a son on the fire department my son a lot was also on the fire department i just want you to remember that this is not a good old boys club these guys are on call 365 days a year 366 this year that's right they also put in a lot of time they without getting the minimum pay per hour that they get for meetings and attending fires i think we should support our fire department we need them when we need them not when it's convenient thank you so much okay article 33 it appears that you are ready for the question the question is shall the town voters authorize an exemption to the Randolph center area fire association from real estate act taxes for a period of one year all those in favor say aye those opposed nay the ayes have it and article 33 is passed the last item on our agenda is to do any other business proper to come before this meeting and i actually have just a short little one which is to say this going forward into the future i i think it is absolutely amazing when citizens go through the petition process and get stuff on the warning i think that makes a lively town meeting and i think i think you should do more of it you actually have significant power and you can use it i am available all year not just on this day but i'm available all year to help you draft articles so that they get done whatever it is that you want to get done so in advance of taking a petition to the town just look me up and i'll help you do that that's absolutely part of the job and that also goes for the select board and whoever else is writing writing the warrant is that in advance i would love and i've always asked to get a draft so that i can catch typos and fix things i don't make or would never even suggest to make substantive changes i don't care about the substantive changes but to make the articles be as easy and efficient to discuss as possible that's my other business are you done yeah i'm done okay thank you kelly she's fabulous i have one request of everybody i wear a bunch of hats tonight on the house manager here for the concert when you get up could you please put your seat up so we can avoid having to do that and put up seats that you see that are down that are around you thank you we do have somebody back here who wants to speak jessica taffett walters randolph center i want to speak regarding a switching town meeting from tuesday to saturday it seems like there are less people here than in previous years and our family is actually one that benefited my husband hasn't been able to attend town meetings in past years um on tuesdays but it does seem that there are less people so i don't know if we want to continue with this new actually it's about the same number oh it is okay never mind then you know there was also there were there were also people as of like yesterday telling confused people as of yesterday were like oh it's tomorrow you know so one thing would be to do is to give it some time and to spread the word publicized town meeting because we want that we want numbers to go up i have one comment about the police district whether we whether this group should create a warrant for next year in terms of the additional outside of the police district that the sheriff department is uh taking care of and we're paying into it you can't do that today but you can do that anytime you want if you want to come up if you or a group of people in town want to come up with an item for the warrant you can get together call me and um draft something to petition uh okay hang on let's do chris engage i know joice has a comment too other business we're going to get to everyone yeah go ahead hi i'm anla pearl and i live in randoff and i just wanted to let everyone know that this is joice's last term wait what and no no no no what yeah she's leaving in uh march of next year and i'm yeah yeah big round of applause for joice i gotta say i just also want to say real quick that i am the assistant town clerk and assistant treasurer for the town of randoff and it's been my absolute pleasure to serve as your assistant and i'm gonna miss you very much and i hope yeah i hope that uh you enjoy your grandkids in retirement thank you yes i'd also like to real quick mention a couple other people that have left the town after long-term service that have not been recognized you know marty sanchez was here for 20 years you know 26 wendy tucker who also retired last year was here for 34 35 you know and um pat who left a couple years ago now but you know it's um rory fivefield who served in the water sewer department for 29 years right they weren't mentioned in the town report which was unfortunate and i think they should have and i think the town should show their appreciation for the long years of service to this town right absolutely thank you does any does any does anyone want to say anything first about that that that's huge right when's the party for joice that's what i want to know uh this christ i wasn't going to talk about this subject but as long as you've asked i will say can i make a motion that's for retirement be denied yes no i'm not going to do that yeah that's right when you're ready though kelly i have something else real quick please go ahead okay so thanks um chris reckey again take your little road um as some of you may know i'm now managing director of valley net which is the operating company for ec fiber we build design operate the ec fiber network actually believe it or not after many many years and being signed up um we are building in randolph this year we expect to be done by the end of the year there are cards out in the alley but we're actually doing a raffle for for people who subscribe anew um we're doing a free upgrade uh of the internet service up to 800 megabits per second very fast and uh free installation so please take a card look at the things this is your community's fiber network it's owned by the 22 towns 23 towns that are operating it so um this is not a sales pitch as much as it is a support your local organized internet to get rural broadband to every single home that's on a public road so thank you kelly thanks very much thanks for your patience i won't belabor this but i have cards here too if people want to pick them up thank you um so town meeting is not over i know some people want to leave and i would say sneak out right now really fast it'll give you 30 seconds but then you know we're going to continue here with other business a lot of times there's super important stuff that comes out at other business like these two last announcements marty strange from south pleasant street i think the nuances of all the discussion around climate change was very important go beyond the mere language that's in the article 32 and i have to express a little bit of uh concern that there's so few select board members here to have heard that conversation this is the fewest select board members i think i've ever seen at a town meeting i don't know if the change of date uh has affected their attendance but i think it's a big wound to our system if they're not present i mean obviously anybody can have a problem and not be able to come i i understand that but four out of five is a big number and uh when it comes time to drafting that letter that goes out to state officials about our position on climate change we want a really well informed select board that has the nuances of what the discussion was here today in place and we're not going to have that well one good thing that we do have is that this has been videotaped today and also i know that joice records the meeting um for notes partially records okay but we do have we do have a a recording and um it's perhaps someone can write to the select board and and suggest they review a certain segment of that video part of the problem is school vacation gets scheduled during this week because there's a day off horrible it's me again i would just like to point out to the handful of people that are still here that winter fest got more than 2000 people to come out and play games and drink beer and have a good time which i think is absolutely fantabulous for this place but look around how many empty seats were there here earlier okay i think this town needs to figure out a way of having the town meeting be the winter fest uh many of you in this room have stopped by town hall uh different occasions to ask a question to share your views i just wanted to continue to encourage you to do that um i just want to be very clear that i'm very old school politics so that means we don't have to agree to get along as a matter of fact uh disagreeing a lot of it is is is how we learn you know i don't know at all even though i tell my mom i do and she thinks i'm right at least that's what she tells me but i just want you all to know that the door is always open again even if it's a tough issue that you are concerned about bringing to me or if you don't think people see it your way it doesn't it doesn't matter it's your view and we want to hear it so please please come in we don't have to agree if we don't agree i will tell you why and if i don't know the answer i will tell you i will get you the answer same thing with the select board i'm sure but please stop by please ask the question please use your town as a resource you pay our salary so uh please come in ask questions and to tell us what you're thinking um in a nice way just want to say that in a nice way anyone have not have a chance to speak yet at for other business mrs forbes i think oh mr french i'm sorry i'm sorry thank you um matt fordham is leaving the select board this year after helping the town for a couple years here and i just would like a round of applause for his time on the select board i don't know that this requires emotion or anything but this is a really beautiful town report and particularly the cover in the back and the dedication so thank you all for that but i think something that would be handy we used to have it in the in the randolph um telephone book uh there was an insert with all the names of the people who are in our government and who represent us and their telephone isn't in there i didn't see it great thank you that's it back page miss hafner okay martha hafner and couple comments i know one of them may have some explosive kinds of concern the reaction to it but um one i do want to just support my husband we often we sometimes don't agree on things i want to just let you know that um but but i do support his concern on potential we lived in a setting where they wanted to bring in huge amounts of infrastructure into the an island that didn't begin to have the resources and it was going to be on the shoulders of the people that live there and that kind of concern similar to what could be coming with concerns on our home heating arrangements etc i think is well-merited um and he is he's an environmentalist and he very much is in line with all of your concerns about seeing things go forth in a healthy community minded and globally environmentally minded way so that piece i do want to re-emphasize second um there is coming a time soon when there will have to come a decision and in this community as to whether or not we have a retail outlet for marijuana and i would like to right now encourage that there be a forum for discussion on that that the concerns that are emanating from colorado need to be aired our press is not really doing a good job of that people need to be informed on it before they can truly make a good decision on that and that's as much as i'll say thank you other business mr eris uh tom eris brook street and i just want to uh second pat france is uh thank you to matt fordham for his two years of service uh on the select board um many people may know uh barring any unforeseen intervention by the russians or the ukrainians i am running unopposed for for the select board on um on tuesday and that was a joke i didn't mean that seriously uh for those who might not have gotten it um and i i just want to assure um mr mr french and mr strange excuse me and others that um uh well crafted wordsmithing will be attended to on the climate change issue uh so yeah thank you thank you mrs west if you would state your name uh jessemen west uh i just live in the village i just want to say two things uh one real quick as i'm a member of the conservation commission along with ian blackmore we have an opening if you are interested in climate change e things and want to have an effect uh in that area we mostly take care of the town forests do public programming and some other things uh talk to one of us if you're interested in serving and to martha hafner's question there are towns that are going to have to deal with um marijuana in retail i've seen it roll through massachusetts it's been fascinating i want to give a plug for your public library uh your amazing public library as a place where you can actually get carefully curated information about these things we've got books on the shelves that can speak to you know marijuana in general marijuana in retail marijuana in comic books uh we've got it rochester over the mountain has a really good collection as well as well as public programming so if that's a topic that you're really interested in learning more about that's a great place to go do it thank you okay the skating rink is closing at two instead of three but it will be open tomorrow this is your plug from the recreation committee i believe it's the last day given the weather it may be the last day it's open very quickly does the town have a role in the whales tails do we mow the grass or put in the culvert or should we that's a question because we have gotten more press out of these two tails and i think the town ought to be contributing to the upkeep starving starving patsy i i just want to say i wear on my jacket still your vote is your voice so don't just come out today be sure you vote on tuesday or i think joice can they still come in on monday and vote absentee or not you can vote absentee right up to 4 30 p.m in the office okay you can same day voter registration right at the polls on tuesday okay so your vote is your voice thank you for your voices here it's all up to you kelly here i am in the back okay thank you i just like to add a couple of comments tying in with the climate change issue cross figures that show that the average carbon footprint for people in the united states is 16 and a half metric tons the average worldwide footprint is five and the target to combat climate change is two metric tons and so i'm glad to see that the town is concerned about this and i also want to add that the u.s military is the single largest institutional consumer of hydrocarbons in the world and has locked itself into weapons that consume those as well for years to come and recently there was a defense authorization bill in congress which out of 535 votes only had 34 against it and um that money 750 billion even uh i mean it's used to oppress and kill other people but that money could be better used for helping with the climate change issue and um i'd just like to bring that up so people can ask their representatives speaking of your voice is your vote your vote is your voice uh let them know that 34 objecting to that huge budget is unconscionable um so i just wanted to add that because i think some of this is little known information thank you okay i think that if there are no objections we shall adjourn the meeting for today