 Do we have any agenda additions or changes tonight? Trustees anything? Okay no need to approve of the agenda as there's no changes so that will bring us into public to be heard. So this is a portion of tonight's meeting where if there are any members of the public who are joining us tonight who wish to raise something to the trustees that's not on the agenda, now's the time to do so. To make sure that I call on you please go down to the bottom of your screen you can click on I believe it's reactions to raise your hand that'll let me know that you'd wish to speak to the board. Now make sure to give you time to speak so go ahead and raise your hand if there's anything to bring up. Seeing no hands we will go ahead and move off of public to be heard and into welcoming of the new Village Finance Director. Hello Jess welcome to Essex Junction. Thank you. Yeah Andrew Jess just started yesterday and she had a very full day yesterday so she's better in working with you thank you for coming down work with us. So that's the trustees Jess if you want to. Sure hi everyone Jess Morris I like Brad said I was the finance director in Milton for just about five years dealt with a little bit of everything and funny enough followed Sarah into my role there as well so I'm really looking forward to you know Courtney and I have had off a great start so far the first couple days and looking forward to doing a lot of collaboration and just kind of working through this process of disentangling. Thank you Jess welcome it's kind of you to just continue to clean up after Sarah and the message she leaves behind so we appreciate you come on on over. There she is. You say that Brad and not jump on. All right Jess I hope one of the things you'll notice about this board is we're generally not that strict tend to be pretty relaxed here in hope that that continues to to be the culture or theme for those of you in the office. I'm thrilled to have you here I know George said sorry about sorry to Milton about poaching you I'm not sorry I'm thrilled so they're lost our game so unless there's anything else again welcome Jess and we can now go on to our next agenda item to interview in a possible appointment to the bike walk advisory committee with Aaron Cog. I believe I saw Aaron on here a few moments ago. Yep I'm on. Well Aaron nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys. So typically when we have somebody interested in the committee we take this as an opportunity to talk a little bit to get to know you a little bit more. If there is anything that you may discuss that may impact your appointments or other attributes of your life where you'd like to have this conversation outside of the public meeting we can have this in a private executive session if you would like. Want to make sure you know that's an option if you'd like to take that up. No I can't say any reason why. Okay great so if you don't mind starting off if you could just speak to us a little bit more than what you you wrote in the application about why you're interested in what you hope to to accomplish. Yeah so my wife and I we moved to Essex Junction we bought our house here in August of 2019 and we live out in the neighborhood behind ADL but I've been since I in my since I graduated college when I used to live in Portsmouth I've been an active like commute to work by bike as far as our family and I continue that here I work in South Farlington are one of the things that my wife and I really liked about Essex when we're looking or Essex Junction when we're looking for a house is how walkable it is and where we are that we can walk down to Maple Street Park easily walk five corners and you know do that with our two our two young children and then as far as kind of why I was interested as well like growing up I grew up down in Clarendon Vermont and both of my parents have done like volunteer work my mom used to be on the local town rec board and my dad's been a volunteer fire fire fire fire fire fire for like 30 plus years so just kind of grew up in that environment that's kind of just something you consider doing so. Thank you Aaron and so that that's all what is it you'd hope to to do and or accomplish from the like walk advisory committee or what do you hope to learn? I mean I guess just make if there's improvements people see like that you know they feel I mean one thing that we noticed when we're looking here that I thought was nice is like roads are marked with all these crosswalks a lot of that stuff just kind of continue trying to keeping Essex Junction bike and walking friendly and then maybe when there's opportunities for improvement you know like helping get that stuff done. Thank you. Trustee, any other questions? Yeah I'll jump in Andrew and Aaron I just I don't really have a question I just want to say thank you first of all for getting involved and you know the bike walk committee we put a lot of we put a lot of effort and we put a lot of energy into it and the bike walk committee has been sort of at the forefront just finding spots around the village that need improvement you know new crossing lanes or something like that and caution lights and it is really important stuff I mean it really is the character of the village that it defines it and you said the magic words you immediately liked where you live because of the access and the ability to walk down the sidewalk and get to Maple Street Park or to Five Corners so and it's that kind of energy and enthusiasm that we really appreciate on that committee so thanks for applying and by the way where do you live I live behind ADL so I'm wondering you might we probably cross paths at some point. We're on Briar Lane okay the kind of where he's into Rosewood okay right so yep great thank you George Amber your hand was open go ahead for stepping forward Aaron appreciate it I just wanted to ask a clarifying question because it looks like we have two vacant seats one with the term expiring June 30th 2023 and one June 30th 2025 I just wanted to see which one you were interested in filling it looked like it was the three year from the application but just wanted to be clear I honestly didn't know that there was more than one I saw that there that there that you guys were looking for volunteers to help fill those committees so three years it is I guess okay going anywhere whatever your preferences not gonna not gonna rope you into three years I'd do the three year honestly we have a nine month old and a three and a half year old so life is a little hectic but probably only gonna get more hectic well we appreciate it thank you so Aaron you're looking for a break for an hour and a half once every four weeks to go to Lincoln Hall for a meeting is kind of what you're saying yeah that makes a lot of sense bike walk was kind of how I got started around here thanks for thanks for stepping forward for that you see anything anything jump out at you right away after being here for a little while that like to address it's not you don't have to have anything in mind I'm just curious I guess kind of the one thing I've noticed is there's not really like lane markings in five like directly going through five corners so I mentioned I work in South Burlington so I typically come down Maple Street and then go down QA into Williston and I've had a few like cars trying to pass as I'm trying to get through the corner like on the inside and then pinched off the road a few times but other than that I think it's just people in a rush in the morning pretty daring time to try to get down that down that direction and you mentioned that your father was a 30 year plus volunteer firefighter so I think we'd be remiss if we didn't ask if you know also consider you know down the line following his footsteps for the I don't know I just just thought we'd put that out there I'm going to speak on behalf of the board I thought that the department here was volunteer I've honestly been we've been pretty busy with two young kids so I hear you I'm just saying you know if you ever never came up anyway thank you very much for stepping forward appreciate it okay thank you you may notice that once you put your hand up to volunteer for something someone's going to ask you to do something else too thank you yeah no I just was going to say thank you Aaron for putting those names in and stepping up to get involved in the community I think it's great love to hear about these stories especially being a native or moderate as Andrew and myself and it's kind of nice to see native or monitors on these boards and with a little you know you know reference from being you know down that area just in Vermont in general the history and experience so that's something you bring to the board that I really appreciate appreciate that thanks yeah thank you guys any other questions from board members I suppose just my my last question I assumed then you would be available about once a month to attend these meetings yeah just proper planning absolutely great well uh we don't have any other questions you have any questions for us no uh I mean I guess is there I was looking at the bike walk committee like that page on the site and it kind of saw like it looked like it was a little out of date what the master plan was from like 2014 or 2015 I'm assuming some of those projects have been completed and some are kind of just yes some of some certainly have at the same time would definitely enjoy some energy to help update that master plan and to help see some things forward I know with COVID that certainly puts the brakes on some some efforts especially as it took some time to get the committees up and running again during COVID but yeah I think that the the committee has had some some turn over lately and so having new members and new leadership I think will be great to help continue the legacy of the bike walk committee okay no I was just curious I guess I should have known that things had kind of been slowed down because of COVID so uh no no worries so if there's nothing else um unless anybody had any other concerns I would certainly entertain a motion to appoint Aaron Todd to the bike walk advisory committee for the term ending June 30 2025 the move I'll second thank you Dan thank you George any further discussion on that motion hearing none all in favor please signify by saying aye hi hi anybody opposed that passed unanimously Aaron congratulations you're on committee and look forward to what you what you can bring to the the committee I appreciate it thank you guys I am gonna jump off it's bedtime with you young kids so go enjoy okay thank you thank you all right and we next have the second budget workshop including discussion and use of our performance in the operating budget and hello Sarah hey guys good to see you all likewise I want you all to know and Brad that Jessica has my phone number so if she finds any messes she knows where to find me that is definitely in the record oh good yes make sure that's reflected in the minute please so we are back on budget tonight I always lose your faces when I share you should be seeing um the agenda yes all right thank you so we've made um just a couple changes from the last time we were talking about the budget on Jan back in January is that the right film we included $325,000 in ARPA funding to offset the increase in property taxes proposed for the FY 23 budget we removed $40,000 for the IT contract and then we reduced the amount of funds for the manager search by $10,000 my memo says $2,000 from $15,000 but in the details we pulled that down to $5,000 and we added in $4,100 for the annual maintenance on the new website the net effect of that is approximately a reduction of $10,000 the other big outstanding item was to look back at the way administration fees were being charged to the village enterprise funds if you recall those line items were going up somewhere in the 50 to 60 percent range which was quite a glaring increase even knowing how much we were staffing up in the general fund the reason that was happening was the formula to calculate the administrative fees was based on 50 percent of the cost of staff and the administration costing center and the finance costing center the two costing centers that are increasing and staffing the most in FY 23 in reflecting on that formula it seems to me that a more reasonable approach in this year and possibly next year until we have a chance to reevaluate what the best way to charge administrative fees to the enterprise funds will be is to take the bottom line increase in the general fund expenditure budget and apply that to those lines as well so they're all trending in the same direction so we did that this year which is an 11.9 percent increase that's much less than a 56 percent increase over last year that has pulled down the projected change to water sewer and sanitation rates it did bump the projected tax rate up a little bit even after we use the ARPA funds but I think we can all agree that that's a more reasonable approach to that particular item the bottom line is where we stand right now the total expenditure budget is 6.3 million which is an 11.9 percent increase over FY 22 driven primarily by new staff the total tax levy is 3.94 million which is shy of 200 thousand dollar increase or 5.2 percent over last year and the estimated tax rate is going up about 4.8 percent at this point which would be about a 44 which would be $44.52 set increase over last year's level the impact to the tax to the utility rates as a result of the change in the administrative fee structure we've made no other changes to those enterprise fund budgets is an increase of about 6.36 percent or $34.62 a year on the average user that is where we stand on all the overall budgets I did chat with Brad earlier today about possibly about a discussion on whether or not we want to use additional ARPA funds to offset that tax increase now that we've shuffled things between property taxes and administrative fees and then I would be open to any questions or suggestions that the board has or Brad or Jess and I have the workbook open here we can make some adjustments on the fly all right board uh George go ahead want to take it off yeah Sarah um I'm sorry I I had I had wrote my I've written myself a wonderful extensive note and I don't know which PC I put it on and clearly it wasn't this one because I've been desperately trying to find it so can I can you go back over I'm going to let me lower my hand for a second here I don't like that thing up here so um I want to go and just ask you about rolling stock and let me tell you what I know which is probably completely wrong and then you can correct me and then we'll go from there so we we for the for years and years we transferred somewhere around 200 to 200 somewhere around roughly a quarter of a million dollars into the rolling stock fund and then we stopped last year because we transferred that to the public works budget which was then going to be transferred the whole lock stock and barrel into the town public works budget so there would be equitable sharing of public works and paving and everything throughout the community uh now clearly that doesn't look like that's going to continue I'm going to guess um when we become a city the town this town is probably not going to want to continue to give us millions of dollars every year to pave our streets so my question is and right in this budget right now what happens to rolling stock it looks like there's part of it part of it is transferred into public works but I'm just throwing it out to you and the board do we want to reactivate the rolling stock fund uh and and that's sort of where I am and I'm wondering if you're asking where should we spend a little bit more money I mean that would be my humble opinion that would be a good place for an additional 50 or 60 thousand dollars and I'll stop there and now you can tell me all the things that I said were up that that I missed no I you you pretty much got it all George last year we divvied up the line item in the transfers in miscellaneous costing center that was going to rolling stock for both fire and highway and we put them in their respective costing centers right is part of a larger agreement with the town that then we would the town did away with the town outside the village highway tax and the rolling stock component of the village highway budget was then paid for by the town budget so it was it was almost it was like the last piece that was lingering in the highway discussion and so we did that I guess in the FY 22 budget and so you should be seeing on my screen at this moment the highway's costing center of the budget and as you can see we have this transfer between funds to capital it was a hundred and forty thousand dollars last year in the FY 23 proposed budget there have been no changes okay the existing highway or stormwater agreements and so that planned change in that line which was planned in the larger rolling stock budget to go up to a hundred and forty five thousand seven hundred dollars for highway is right here in the highway costing center it's counterpart just so that we're not we didn't go from about 250 to 140 we still we have the counterpart here in the right oops sorry in the fire budget the 108 in the 113 so those two combined are going into rolling stock to fund the replacement schedule of those vehicles those are still like they still exist and they are once again in their respective costing centers okay okay that is your question yeah it does it does I mean I'm just wondering I'm looking at the I I'm looking at I was looking at long term the rolling stock plan which goes to 2032 and it looks like we're going to need to be contributing a lot more to the rolling stock plan in the coming years and I'm wondering if we're looking for if we're thinking we want to spend an additional 50k from the aqua fund to lower the tax rate putting it into rolling stock and trying to catch up somehow the rolling stock might not be a bad idea but I would certainly defer to your recommendation on that but that was just one thought I had when you when I've got Brad's late note saying hey maybe we should move a little bit more arpa funds into this budget to lower the tax rate a little bit I it seems to me that would be not a bad place to think about certainly so if we put 50 000 of arpa funds into the rolling stock it would not change the current tax levy because it would be that would be like a new expense that we're adding in well I think what Brad was suggesting is increasing that 325 000 that we pulled in for the provision of government services up to 375 just to pull back down that tax rate increase to a more tolerable range while we await the decision from the legislature well why why can't that be transferred I don't I don't like why can't that be transferred to a capital or rolling stock so right now we're putting 145 000 from highway into rolling stock why and that's all coming over from the town budget so if we wanted to add to that that would be additional village tax dollars okay did I explain that all right yeah you did all right sorry okay and Sarah just while you have this rolling stock fortune up uh unless I'm missing something it doesn't look as though we run a deficit in the rolling stock fund uh the rolling your I would have it doesn't look on this screen that we're going to but what you don't see between now and 2028 are the replacements of the latter truck and the two pumper trucks right and so those are going so in 2029 we're looking at 1.5 million for to replace the KME pumper and as you can see our bottom line at 2028 is 634 so so we are going to be looking at that point I'm sure to lease financing some fire trucks um so those are some big those are the big hits that aren't they don't quite meet the timeline for this particular presentation right right totally understand that and in the past like with the latter truck we we financed that we didn't save the 2.3 million dollars yeah and I think that's a a good way to go it's a nice balance of pay as you go financing and intergenerational equity about you know benefit who gets the benefit from the vehicle that they're paying for right right uh board members other other questions if not I think there's quite the direct question to us about the use of ARPA funds if we're ready to go into that conversation and whether we want to contribute more than the approximate 10 percent um of 325 000 uh to something higher to uh whether we want to do that um I admit I'm I'm personally a little lukewarm on the idea I understand that lowering that tax increase is definitely a and be a beneficial thing um at the same time I also think of the things that we may also need to use these funds for such as changes to to link in some of the others so I I say lukewarm I can certainly be swayed uh but just want to to share and love to hear other thoughts from board members so and I'll jump in once go ahead Amber Sarah can you just run us through what the impact would be if we did use those funds absolutely so where we stand right now we have a 5.2 percent tax levy increase and we're looking about at about a 4.9 percent projected tax rate increase using the three-year average grand list growth if we add another 50 000 to the proposed ARPA funding drumroll please we go down to a 3.9 percent tax levy increase from that 5.2 and our tax rate increase is projected at just shy of 3.5 percent or 32 dollars for your average assessed value home in the village immunity though sorry about that um what I'm just going to say is in the past we have tried to reduce the increase in our budget in the village so that it's somewhere comparable with the cost of living that um adjustment that's occurred throughout the region and uh so we're not going in excess of the cost of living so it's you know comparable I just something to think about if you wanted to do something like that I would bring it down I think the last year's cost of living for the northeast was 4.6 percent or something 4 percent yeah go ahead George yeah I kind of agree with Dan I mean um you know here we're going to be talking about using ARPA funds to get masks masks for COVID um to hand out to people who village residents who can't afford or unable to get masks and yet at the same token we're going to hit them with a 4.9 increase it seems like we're going in two directions here I mean if we one of the ways we really want to help people right now would be to try to keep the tax increase down a little bit um it's a it's a pretty big it's a pretty big change um and I I do see a lot of need here but I don't know I I don't have really strong feelings one way or the other I'm kind of with you Andrew I you know but I I I always like to see our tax rate increase as close to the cost of living increase as possible and not much more this is I I I'm not very good at math but I do think it's $12 difference roughly for a household which I think is a significant difference um and so my thought is is for the the amount of money I think we've we've laid out that we do still have a significant amount of money left for ARPA funds to use for to Lincoln and other projects um and we do have the economic development fund um so my my vote would be to add the extra ARPA funds and reduce the tax rate do you remember go ahead Ron yeah I guess I guess um well how much Sarah maybe you know how much is the town's projected increase this year I knew I know you know come on I didn't even look it up myself because I figured you'd have it I'm gonna have to look it up okay I'll do that I'll do that but I I want to say it's not insignificant it's like five or six percent it is I was gonna say five percent which which is probably 50 or $60 already for a village resident maybe higher um so there's that there's the water increase there's our increase so we're something we're probably somewhere over a hundred dollars hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty dollars already for the year um for village taxpayers I guess I'm I'm not opposed to using the ARPA funds I'd like to kind of pivot for a minute to what using like returning for a minute back to to Lincoln and and what the needs are there and how we might want to use the ARPA funds for that before we have a final if that's okay before we have a final determination on how to use them to bring down the the tax increase does that make sense or is that I'm just having a hard time remembering where we've been on that conversation of of how much we need how much is legit to use for that um and where else we might use the funds um because I'm I'm looking with Bradson earlier and I mean I if we're covered in other areas I'm fine with going even a little bit higher if it brings the tax rate down especially because as I remember that the town one is going to hit us pretty hard too yeah I have it here it is a 5.1 percent change on the tax levy projected 4 percent tax rate change which is equal to just shy of sixty six zero dollars per year on the average two hundred and eighty thousand dollar property so that's yeah it's about a hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty bucks somewhere in there with water and sewer so that's that's pretty significant um so anyway I don't know if it makes sense to to pivot for a second to what else to use the ARP we might need the ARPA funds for before we I guess that's my question I mean my so my rationale for saying that I recognize we'd have about 2.9 give or take a little bit a million left over 2.8 something million left over after this for ARPA funds and if I recall correctly that's still over what the renovation costs were pretty significantly so um or to Lincoln so we should have enough still uh I want to say it was around one point something million but I'm I'm blanking on that exact detail so I think I'm reasonably sure again that we would have the resources for that but in terms of how much we can use that I don't have an answer to and I don't know if if Sarah you've had time or others have had time to really dig into the multi-page rags that came out the day before the last time we met yes I've actually spent quite a bit of time over the last week reading the final rule um it's alarmingly broad we can use all of it up to 10 million dollars which we did not get 10 million but anyone receiving you can anybody can use up to the first 10 million dollars for the provision of government services which the final rule basically says anything your government normally does is a government service you make a one-time standard election and then you write a paragraph about what you did with that money in the reporting form and we are encouraged to be detailed and specific that is about it and my my auditor senses are all on high alert but uh I've scoured it I was on the phone earlier today uh with Fred Dupasti of Sullivan and Powers and in Katie Buckley at the league and just that's what we're all reading from it so great it's having overseen various federal grants over the years that's alarmingly unfederal you can even use it to match other federal grants except for Medicare and ships and that's right see that's that's what I said too because that's like the number one no no right yeah all right uh I think George your hand was up first yeah well I first of all these are like this this this is these are like the funds that happened back in 2009 these are like stimulus funds and if you want to stimulate the economy you don't come down with heavy restrictions on it because you're defeating your own purpose um but since we're we're straying a little bit from the subject matter I was going to bring this up later but I I do think it's relevant to this conversation besides the Lincoln Hall renovation which is something that we want to do and we kind of have to do one of the things that we really really have to do we shouldn't we needed to do it like 10 years ago is some kind of renovation of the public works department which is in of all of our facilities is by far wins the prize for the most and highest need and I'm hoping that there will be enough you know the problem with it with that renovation is that it's sort of in the sweet spot it's over it you know it's estimated to be well over a million dollars which is hard to budget for but not quite enough to take out a bond for um as so many other projects are uh and and you know I would invite every of the trustees if you haven't been done to the public works department go take a look and see what they're what those guys are putting up with day in the day out so to get back to the conversation um I'm hoping I I would like to see probably a little bit of money come into this budget um as agreeing with Raj because we have to look at it holistically what is the town's increase going to be what is the water sewer increase going to be I'm going to guess that there's going to be a great big school tax increase um so I think if we can keep it as low as if we can bring it down that would be great as long as we can find you know I'm not totally clear on where we would put this additional 50 or 60 grand um but and I obviously wanted to go somewhere where it's useful but I think I'd like everyone to keep in mind when we're thinking about the ARPA funds and how much money is going to be left over we have high need for those funds not just for renovation of Lincoln Hall but for renovation or at least to get started on some kind of a renovation of the public works department. Thank you George I'm just real quick Sarah in terms of where this money goes the only place it goes is in that general revenues line is that right? That's correct so I think of it it's in my mind it's the same mechanics as when we use fund balance right we just have a non-tax revenue line item it's not a recurring revenue source but it goes to offset the cost of the budget and lower the tax levy so this run right this line in general revenue for ARPA revenue we're basically budgeting for using grant revenue goes up which pulls this property tax line down to create a break-even budget. And it doesn't then have a corresponding $375,000 expense? That's correct it goes to the provision of government services so I would say I know George is killing me a little bit too but it would I would say payroll off the off the cuff I would if we had to identify I would say it would go to fund all of those new positions. All right. Ross go ahead. This is going to sound like a stupid question so I'll ask it but this is it right for ARPA funds there's no more allocations we expect from the federal government this is. That's correct we have about what is it Brad just not 3.2 million overall coming in we've received the first half of that in cash we'll receive the second half already not already but soon sometimes this year and then we have until December 31st 2026 to spend it although it has to be obligated by the end of 2024 so whether that's just a resolution saying we're going to keep spending it on government services or we're going to construct and fix our public works garage which George the second you said that I was like oh yeah they definitely need some stuff do we do we have an idea of what that is going to be yeah public works the the building assessment the facilities assessment that that Dennis Lutz did when they looked at everything it was kind of it basically if you just rebuild and renovate what's there the estimate was around a million and a half dollars but they also projected like well if we could make it what we wanted it to be and increase the size and have more buildings and stuff and it was around three and a half million so but it was it was you know they just had it it was a very algorithmic way they they had a sort of an algorithm that they applied to each facility and I don't want to get too far away from the budget discussion but I think it would probably be move us to have another to have just our own take our own look at it and I was going to suggest you know Ricky and Rick and Robin starting off just just putting their heads together looking at it and getting an estimate of what they think a reasonable approach would be I kind of assumed it was going to be in the higher end because what a budget discussion yeah when you're when you're looking at something like that you want a future proof but you're not filling something for 15 years you know so I assume it'd be more excuse excuse me I assumed it would be more in the higher end you mentioned um so the impact of having a $750 million left over really is more to get to get it started and try to find some grants to match it to get the engineering done and to get I mean that that isn't going to make a huge dent in the overall building part of the of the process well I'm not going to say it's not going to make a huge amount of money it's just right it's not quite half of the project is what I guess right but it it's it's a couple of buildings and so they have they've got a garage they've got the administrator little office administration repair building so you know you might be able to say what's the what's one they need to do the most and then when the more funds come you you switch over into the other one or something like that yeah all right bye Brad yeah right just to address your question about the overall scope of our what what I would advise is that you guys settle on an amount tonight for for the FY23 budget that we've already allocated up to 40 000 for masks and then we just focus on to Lincoln and do not touch the rest of that money until that project is done you know the highest estimate we or we have in hand was a very very preliminary and it was at 1.5 million for two Lincoln rehab and so we know once we get into that building it could very well be a bit more so you know we have until the end of 2024 to allocate this money I would I would say once we get through this budget process we embark on the two Lincoln project um and allow that entire project to to be constructed and built and cut the ribbon and open the doors before we start talking about what's left and what we're going to do with it so for uh discussion purposes Sarah what if instead of adding 50 000 what would 25 000 do all right so just to recap we're at 3.9 percent on the levy 3.4 percent on the rate which is about 32 dollars and if we cut that in half we go to 4.5 on the levy 38 dollars on the rate so that was about another six dollars on the rate which is right in that 12 dollar midpoint who at amber you said that was good math he did well so what would a 100 would get us down to about three a little under three percent correct though an additional 100 000 so to go to a total of 425 000 of arpa money to offset this budget gets us to a 2.5 percent tax levy increase and just shy of a 20 dollars on the average home so that was a doubling from a 50 to 100 so another about another 12 dollars off so just under 100 total for water sewer in town I know I'm sorry water sewer town in village so 60 20 36 yes okay a hundred and 10 in hearing this um I'm of a preference of sticking with the recommended 50 000 trustees thoughts comments concerns yeah I I I think I would go with the 50 000 I think that's reasonable I think it's um it's a nice compromise yeah I guess I'd concur with love to get it lower but yeah yeah I'm good with that Andrew so it sounds like the total of 375 it is perfect so I'm just we all see 375 right going once good yes the auction year has won it at 375 and I do appreciate all the work that was done to kind of figure out the wastewater the water sewer you know that all of that because that was disturbing from the last time so thanks for all that you're most welcome it just didn't pass the race of all this test when you look back over it I don't think all right any other comments on the budget any other last things we'd like to tweak or change before we talk about warning the public hearing I think we're ready for it all right I do see on the agenda there was an item to adopt but I don't think that we're ready for that we're going to do the public hearing and then the adoption will be after that so in um how convenient I didn't put a date in here so public hearing uh the request is that the trustees uh weren't a public hearing for 22nd the 22nd of February thank you rad the trustees I can make that motion I moved that uh the trustees won a public hearing on the FY 23 village budget for February 22nd 2022 at 6 35 p.m. I'll second thank you Raj thank you George is there any further discussion on that motion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye anybody oppose unanimous thank you all right thank you all very much it's good to see you we'll see you again on the 22nd take care sir thank you so I think uh yep so then I guess the 5d would have gone away so we just considered the warning and now we're on to 5f on to the discussion of next steps for the city manager search and hiring committee yes so um the memo is in the packet it is page 61 I will get it up on the screen momentarily as you will see we received 11 uh applications from interested community members to serve on the city manager recruitment and hiring planning committee uh sorry it's a mouthful but I just want to continue to be clear that the the role and purpose of this committee is to create a plan for how we are going to recruit and hire the manager and I would think that somewhere within that plan there would be some community interviews or community presentations or whatever this committee designs and so it may be it may likely be that different community members who actually serve in those capacities this is just for the planning purposes but we do have 11 folks three of them are youth uh has just denoted um and so really your job tonight is to just have a conversation about what you would like the next steps to be and then we'll take action and get the ball rolling thank you brad and I do think that that clarification and extra air time to make sure that people understand this is developing the process this is not finding and hiring the person uh is is an important distinction to make because it certainly was referenced a few times or alluded to a few times uh from interested residents that they would like to help appoint the next person uh so just or help to hire the next person just want to make sure that that was again clear in terms of next steps from here typically like with all committees we do what we just did have them come in talk with them uh and make a decision at either that point in time or later on in in the meeting um we could do that we could do something different we could look to have people submit some other type of uh documentation whether that be in any medium so choose that they so choose so that way we don't necessarily need to interview all of these individuals at the same time interviewing someone does allow for of course the opportunity to have some back and forth um to further dive into something uh the amount of time to interview 11 people and make that decision it takes some time so with all of that i i'd be curious what the rest of the board thinks go ahead george thank you andrew um i i'm not sure oops i want to get my hand down here um i i'm not sure uh how we're going to go about interviewing 11 or 12 or more people to be on this committee i i think that's something we have to do but i'm already thinking what what exactly am i going to ask them and how am i going to decide who gets on and who doesn't but that's that's beside the point the only thing i i do want to mention um brad and andrew is in looking at some of the letters and some of the dialogue around this i i really hope at some point that we all look at what it says in the s-exjunction charter about hiring a manager because it's not a completely open-ended process um it's pretty it's pretty restrictive it up in terms of who does the hiring and the criteria that we have to hire upon and so i hope that there is going to be a conversation about that um and i'm not making any assumptions but i i i just i'm going to wander a little bit of a field here and i'm not kind of trying to make cast any um have any uh judgment but i note that wanouski um this process is what seems to be modeled a lot along the lines of what uh what wanouski is doing and as of today i haven't checked today but as of the beginning of this week wanouski still hasn't hired a manager uh is that unless that's happened and i would also note that wanouski if you look in wanouski's charter and what it says the city council must do it's almost word for word exactly what it says in our charter so i think just grounding everybody in what it says in the charter would be helpful and that's what i hope we can have that conversation when once we get to get the committee going so we all have a framework for how how this is supposed to happen thank you george and i happy to to touch on this a little bit from my own perspective uh the our charter is very clear that the trustees appoint the manager we hire the manager we evaluate the manager and that is our purview personally it's one of the most important things that we can do as a within this role is to hire a point and evaluate the manager so yes i i do believe that that still is something that we will do that this board will do in terms of the process of how we get to that point though that's what we're really looking for this committee to do um similar to when we hired uh when we hired evin there was a resident panel we would i assume do something similar to that uh wanouski they went as far as to do some initial interviews and further dwindle the list down for then the city council to make the final decision and to make the final hiring we could go that route um but regardless that final decision yes it sticks with us and and forgive me i just want to add that it also said not only says the elected board makes the decision but it says the the decision is to be made solely on the basis of administrative and executive experience um which is is the good news about that is it says it doesn't say we have to hire someone who's already been a manager um unlike hiring uh an attorney uh or an engineer that requires very specific qualifications it broadens the field but it does have a pretty high bar in terms of the experience and what we have to wherever we hire has to have had that kind of experience in municipal government so that we can judge their performance and get a sense of how we're going to fit in here um and so those that's important wording as well executive administrative experience that's that's the criteria where that's the primary criteria we're supposed to be using thank you george trustees other thoughts on in terms of how to move forward with selecting committee go ahead dan well i would agree uh when you said interviewing 11 12 who knows what number of people um for the position on this panel uh is a lengthy process and whatever way we could expedite the process be it uh maybe some other online you know format that uh we can review and submit our choices to say you or somebody so that it's you know handled quicker i'd be happier i whatever way we can do to expedite expedite the process i'd be happy would there be an interest in having uh two trustees do let me okay so i'll save that for later go ahead roge no go ahead um so we we have i think brad you had originally suggested in the that this was a nine person nine person effort with one of those being a youth seat so right now and this is this is just me talking this through right now there are eight non-youth members non-youth applicants and three youth applicants we could do you know some of these names are known to most of us right and i in fact most of them are known to me and i would probably have no problem appointing them to this committee i'm not familiar with any of the youth members i'm going to i'm going to guess that they came out of the government um course at ADL which i think is fantastic so one of the things we could do um is you know say look this was out there for three weeks um or whatever it was um maybe we can have a group conversation with the adult applicants um based on their submissions and their letters if they if they seem acceptable and interview the youth members to pick one to round out the original intention of a nine person um group um as an as a way to expedite this and of course if if you know in reviewing these letters any of us feels like now we that's probably not a good plan we don't have to use it but that's just one thought um that's not to imply that the youth members uh need extra scrutiny or more scrutiny than anybody else it's just um the original intent was to have a certain number and and we're not we're not quite meeting it so that's that's my only reason to suggest to do an interview there and that would reduce it to more of a half an hour um endeavor as opposed to two hours or something like that so that's just thought as far as the other the other topic i don't i don't have a problem with um having members of the community you know take on the the work of coming up with the process and and getting us underway and confident we'll make the final decision based on the merits and then we'll be able to guide them in what we're looking for specifically thank you rosh any other thoughts so another option that we could do is we could also look to having a subgroup of us so just two of us uh do interviews or window this list down and either have the rest of the board uh go along with the decision of that subgroup and or have that subgroup come back to the trustees with a final recommendation um just as another option go ahead george yeah andrew i i i agree with you i i think that if um a subgroup of trustees wanted to interview these i think those of us who aren't uh in the subgroup wouldn't trust your judgment um so and it's not because and i i want to make clear it's not that i'm not interested in meeting all these people and is right and i know a lot of these folks as well and i and i it's not that i don't i don't want to have to commit the time but um you know it is it is tight we do a kind of a tight window um for getting a lot of this stuff done and i'm not sure that having five people interview these candidates brings a lot more value than just having two of us interview them and i also i mean if you one possibility is just to expand the size of the group if we've got three youth members why not just let them let them all participate and then you've got um you've got eight other adults so i mean i don't wouldn't have a problem with that if if the other trustees don't i i i think that's great i mean if we've got three three youth members that are willing to come in and put the time and i think it'd be a great experience for them and i don't i think they'll bring something so sorry the other yeah the the other portion that i wanted to raise um we didn't necessarily say this but whether any trustees would also be a part of this committee we had talked about the committee certainly getting input from the trustees i was under the assumption that's there may be one or two trustees who would be a part of this committee that would be a part of the nine so yes there would be that expansion um but just to make sure it's explicit that then may mean a committee of 13 so just want to throw that out there as uh yeah amber why don't you take it off of there i was actually just going to say exactly what you said which was the original proposal was to add two trustees so if we go down that road again not very good at math but that that would be 13 people on this committee if we just take everybody and then add two trustees i think that's i think that's a little much so i i'd like to kind of see it stick to the to the nine but in the same regards if if i'm i'm totally in favor of a subcommittee interviewing these folks but i think that subcommittee should be the same subcommittee of those two trustees who are going to sit on the committee so it's consistent so it sounds like why don't we get two two trustees to uh be willing to do the screening i'm assuming then again the desire would be for our next meeting on the 25th to have interviewed and have a recommendation from the group of two back to the full board for the full board to agree with what the uh the two trustees have to to say and right here from here everybody here from amber just the desire that whoever those two people are are also the short straw i mean the lucky people who are then on the committee go ahead brad sorry andrew could i just clarify are you suggesting that those two people just interview the three youth or interview all 11 i was saying all 11 okay great and i just want to you know i don't i don't think it's ben said but i think you all appreciate um to have 11 members of your community volunteer for a committee in three weeks um i it's probably unprecedented i don't i don't know as though i mean you talked about two vacancies on bike walker earlier um there's vacancies all the time on these committees so again you you have a really enthusiastic uh community who's behind you in this effort and i just am very pleased to see that kind of that kind of response from folks one of the things that personally impressed me most about this is the number of names on here who are are new in the sense of that are not already on a committee and or have been in the relative in a relative short term it's impressive and it's great to see it's nice to not just see the same people at everything so who wants to do this well the amber hiding it was amber's idea and pretty sure it's her turn to volunteer for something yeah sure it is you know you know Raj and myself there we go seeing that he he volunteered me i get to volunteer him it sounds good i mean that's that motion i'll second that i'll second that motion yeah i had a chance to talk about it fully i did this emotion on the table Raj i don't think we can discuss it any further yeah Robert's rules hi Dan we have a chance to volunteer i do want to make sure when we are when we are appointing someone you absolutely have a chance to say no it's just you've got about 25 seconds and a clock started 10 ago i i guess i would be concerned i'd be fine with the interviewing but i'd be concerned about carrying through with the with the rest of it to be honest how how about for now it's just interview yeah and we can come back to be a part of that committee another time at that 25th meeting that'd be great i'm not going to say no i just the concerns me a little bit time-wise yeah understandably so uh so in all seriousness though Raj amber do you feel that you would have the time over the next two weeks to interview 11 people and come back to us with your recommendations it sounds like two or three sessions i think we could probably pull it off figure it out sweet somebody can just send us the contact info for folks other than largus i guess we have emails but we have phone numbers would be great yeah i'll reach out to both of you and and work on that process right so does just to formalize this does somebody want to make the motion to appoint amber and raj as the city manager of recruitment and hiring planning committee committee so moved second thank you george very bad part of discussion i think that seems extreme but okay there's a committee on a committee it's never a powerful committee it's never ended well great any further discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying hi congratulations amber of raj it was unanimous and of course thank you to the applicants we are now on the discussed placing cannabis on the annual meeting ballots yes robin are you here i see you on there robin can you unmute so i'll give a brief introduction just that this is a continuation of your last meeting and discussion on cannabis as requested as you continue to debate whether or not to put it on the ballot in april so there was a little bit more information here in the packet for you that discussed some of the things we talked about last time in terms of zoning regulations and maps and schools so that is a very brief overview but otherwise it's up for your discussion as to what else what other questions you have what other information you need and how you would like to proceed this does need to be decided by your march 8th meeting i believe so you do have two more meetings before you make a final determination yeah that was the only point i wanted to to make sure to clarify is that really that 8th is when we must make the decision so if there are any other questions or concerns now we're getting to that point where if you don't speak now you better hold it go ahead rosh no i was going to say i had two things really i think we're probably going to need to put this on because the town has it and they're going to control if we don't so we might as well have the opportunity to control our own uh area that's one two i want to see how the community meeting goes which is coming up that um the town seems to be spearheading or so i don't know who's spearheading it but that's being that's taking place i want to see how it's attended and how what kind of information is put out and three i'd like to get myself with the zoning process and see where the planning commission is in there in their work and kind of get a better understanding of what the timeline is so we make this decision the community decides one way or the other if they decide for just need more information not right now about you know what does that timeline look like i know with i've said this before i know with some other um topics like alcohol tobacco and there are more there is more leeway on what you can do for zoning it sounds to me like the cannabis control board has shut the door on some of that but none of their rules are final i don't think any of their rules are final yet um and only a couple if i'm correct are still in public comment so there's just so much we don't know um but i think we're going to have to put this out there um just like i said because the town is going to end up probably approving it and then they're going to control what happens in the city the village so it's my two cents there thank you roge i would agree with you the other thing that we can do um yeah just i agree with you i think we ultimately are going to need to put this out to both uh regardless i have not been following this issue if it's at all come up in the legislature as to whether they're looking for any kind of implementation delay given that there are no finalized rules at this point um i can always reach out to work delegation but does anybody hear heard anything about whether that's at all on the table no but one thing that i think has changed and i'm trying to get more information on it because it seems that the cannabis control board did suggest that the state make available some of their excise tax portion um for municipalities so it wouldn't just be uh local option tax income as the only contributor back to the community that's hosting so i you know again that's just something that the cannabis control board may have put forward but who knows where that's going if at all but that would be something if you know part of what i think is and this is me just trying to remember something like a 13 excise tax on cannabis sales if some of that were to be able to come back to the community that's not nothing then then again then it wouldn't be the only thing that the community saw as a as a tax benefit um they wouldn't have to have a local option tax for that but again i only saw a brief on that i haven't seen any more info so i'm not sure thanks ross hello rovin hey i had problem i'm getting there um i actually did uh a q and a um for the february 16th uh kind of forum greg asked me to do it i sent it to him the police chief out of a few things to that uh roger's right um because we would like to say you know we're flying the plane and putting it together at the same time there are some things that are set if you're an opt-in municipality and it says municipality it doesn't say time or city so whether we're merged separate whatever the trustees as a miss as the you know the electrician municipality can have their own vote if the time vote's known the village votes yes then we can have retail cannabis we're only voting for retail cannabis and the uh legislature and also the state cannabis control board were very specific we cannot treat retail cannabis any differently than we do at any other business the one exception was the the the area around retail cannabis and how close they could be useful i think it's in this man with the the village uh panic mission did vote on december 16th and if the time or the village became opt-in that there would be a uh a thousand foot buffer uh between any school and a retail cannabis facility once we vote for retail cannabis we have no control over the integrated the approval of an integrated license the possibility of that happening in the village is very slim i mean perhaps i mean generally needs a larger area would have to be some open land i guess someone could have them could grow it on the roof of the building but there's not a lot of opportunity for that that would more more likely than that happen in the time thank you robin um i don't have any other questions uh the only comment i want to make it was the same one i made last time is that this cannabis buffer zone to help depict what that thousand foot uh compared to 500 foot buffer zone means this document doesn't allow us to click on it so if that could just be emailed out to the trustees that'd be appreciated that was put together by ccrpc so they will get it to you and it'll also it'll also be part of the presentation on february 16th at the cannabis forum which is a hybrid maybe it's been changed to remote now i'm not sure it was advertised before the change came in so trustees are there other questions other things that you would need to know in order to make a decision either at our next meeting or the meeting on march 8th about whether to put this on the ballot or not not seeing other hands going up so i'm going to make an assumption not so i think we are all set with this agenda item at this time and that's robin is that a new hand and yeah it's the same one i just put it back up again um one thing to remember is there isn't uh a sunset date on opting in so if you choose not to do it you can do another time it must be on a ballot it must be voted on you must get a majority of those voting but there isn't a sunset date for that it i don't know your decision would seem to me if it's on the time ballot you'd want to put it on the village ballot if you want to be in charge of your own destiny great thank you robin thank you and that moves us to business item 5h and update on the mask purchase initiatives how'd you want to go first uh sure i guess um there's not not a thunder report um i'm left feeling like i wish i brought this up three weeks sooner um between the date between the time i had the idea and we managed to get the conversation around it cdc recommended everybody go out and get on 95s and pretty much um you know they become very difficult to find so the supplier i um was pretty jazzed about using um i think uh has probably just become overwhelmed i'll just be optimistic for them become overwhelmed and is unresponsive and from what we hear not not really keeping up with with customers so that's kind of what i know we're we're working with um brad brad i think has some info too you know we're working with a group a nonprofit called project in 95 which interestingly has has some sx routes and connections um and on finding a good supply we might pivot to a slightly different style of mask also excellent in protection and actually regulated as opposed to the kn 95s that we were looking at before um so the the question there as far as i understand it is you know price point and availability um so i think that's that's the short story brad might have some more updates on that because he's been you may not so i'll let you go after that brad that's all no i think that's a good summary raja we're just um we're we're in a holding pattern you know where we had a conversation um i don't know early last week with raj uh we thought they might be like arriving this weekend and we would you know get the distribution rolling it's just not the case at the moment so we're continuing to look um and have a great connection um but at this moment don't have a don't have a link to a good supply there you know there are options for instance i know uvm who i work for is providing them and i've you know they've used a couple different suppliers now and i've i've got samples of both one i was given out of staff the other one um i got a sneak peek at to try out and they're you know i'm a medium-sized person with a medium-sized face and they're too tight the the air straps just don't work and i hear that from a lot of colleagues that at work so we could get them from there and that that's sort of how it how it rolls you know you you don't want to go out and make a purchase like this without getting samples or trying them and trying them on a few different people and and so the options we've had just haven't been worth chasing down at this point so it's a little frustrating things are improving you know i still think this is a good program to follow through on and um you know we potentially might be looking at slowing it right down um you know getting you know continuing over this first what we'll call a first phase of getting getting some stock into some vulnerable populations hands um and then seeing where we go maybe we're not doing this as rapidly as we think if things come down for a couple months um but if things come down for a couple months and supplies open up we're probably going to end up in a position again where sometime in the next three to six months we're going to be um we're going to be wanting these again so i still think it's worthwhile to pursue um i wish we had better news but like everything else for the last two years it just feels like um things dried up rather quickly thank you rauch and breb appreciate the the work on this and the the effort so far hopefully the future will yield some good results trustees any other questions can now go on to the declaration of inclusion next agenda item sorry for the brevity in this memo time was not on my side when i wrote this uh basically the goal of this conversation uh brad if you could go to the next document between this here from the town of milton and the guide for the uh the suggested declaration the question i'd have before the board is what other statements would we like to include in this i believe our board has already done a relatively good job as far as i can tell of ensuring that the community at large understands that we do want the village of exception in future city of extension to be a community that is is an inclusive environment and this is an effort from i forget exactly where where it had originated but to have more towns within brahmats to help children this is a welcoming community the welcoming state um the governor has had a declaration similar to this and many other communities are doing this as well um so my intent here is to really try and get other topics that could expand this i'm happy to take the conversation and put other topics into into this declaration to them have it come back to a subsequent meeting um i offered in the memo some some possible topics that could be added in but would be curious if there are others that the trustees have and just uh some other overarching thoughts i do see that on our next joint agenda we're going to be having a a report from sx best uh raj you sent me an advance i think you sent me an advance a draft of this uh of this report so far um and so there may be some materials in there but in terms of overall uh involving sx best in this effort i really wanted this to be from the board as we it's our role set the direction um and to really set the tone and as such we want to make sure that we do so that it's within our purview to do so uh at the same time um if there are ways that we could get other input from as opposed to that go ahead raj i'm really appreciative appreciative of you bringing this up um and i think it's something we need to do um i sent you the my only my only comment um i guess would be and the reason for sending you the sx best um final report um was that i think what they've found and what all of that work has has kind of brought is will be useful for all of us to to to look at as we try to fill this out because we don't do this all the time we wouldn't want to come back in three months and do it again or add to it so i i really do think that um the last few months for that committee has been slow trying to get a draft report group written and group edited and then a final report out and now they're you know doodle polling into march for march 13th or something for their for their final meeting so i i don't want to put this off but at the same time i think i can if i can get permission from for us to to also read the report sooner i i did make a mention to the group when they were drafting the final that you know they were talking about how do we come and report out to both boards and you know it's a 12 page 14 page report and our our packets and it's pretty dense and our packets are usually pretty lengthy so i asked them to give us quite a bit of lead time probably like three or four weeks of lead time so that people had a chance to look at it and think about it and look at it again um so i i agree with andrew i think this needs to come from us i don't want sx best to write our statement of inclusion but i i do think the contents of that and what the community has kind of included in the village community has kind of said that they're looking for um or or or they want to talk about would be good background information for all of us to have as we develop this so i i don't want to delay what you want to do i'm just delaying what you want to do i guess so just own it and um i i can ask if uh leadership minds us because the report won't change so if if i can get it to everybody we can discuss this maybe having read it at our next meeting um i don't know that we need to report out from them um marguerite just raised her hand and she's very involved with the group probably more than i am so i'll stop talking marguerite um yeah actually um raj i for everyone i'm happy to send out the report that's going to be in the packets we do have it um i'll just send that out tonight to all of you to go forward so that everyone if you want can get a jump start on it that is no problem at all there might be a few word changes between now and then but nothing significant i don't think to to throw that off um i think it would be a good idea maybe to just run by what you think but that doesn't mean that you could delay sort of talking about what you want in your statement here or something like that or at least kind of you know coming together with a draft of some sort um i think raj touched on it a little bit the you know one of the big topics um that sort of came up in all of that is you know making sure that we do these statements and they're not performative and that we do follow through on all of the you know stuff that goes along with it and i that is i don't think that your intention is not to do that i think that's you know running it by the group can help just ensure that there are some frameworks in place and that they know what you're thinking so that they can you know understand better and make sure that as a community group that they're gonna be able to help do that you know with you all and that kind of thing um and i also think that when you review some of the recommendations from the report it might help influence a little bit of how you're thinking or what you want in your statement to begin with it might help you build that out a little bit just in thinking about it so um i will be sure to i'll send that around tonight just so that you can all have that that's no problem and um and i can i'll be in touch with the co-chairs um of the group if you want raj and i can bring up um that this topic and just let them know so that you know we can talk about it at the march meeting or that so that it's on jody and um tatanisha's radar even um if that's something that you would like yeah and i emailed a couple times with jody today to get permission to to share share the report and um and which was given freely and which i appreciate i think you you made a good point you know making sure that there's some you know some framework to to how to measure are we getting where we want to be how do we know if we've if we've succeeded in what we've said we want and i think that's the that's the big hard part with all of these with creating something like this um you know how do we come back next year and and decide you know did we succeed did we meet a benchmark if not um what do we need to do do we do we want a declaration of inclusion and um and sort of a five-year plan i mean and that's kind of where i think asics best can come in and help us out you know like what where and that's a lot of what they have in the report you know where are the areas of work that have been identified for the community and should our declaration of inclusion address some of those um at least or or at least address that that there is this plan much like we have a heart and soul you know we have all of those plans this this could just be one of them and the declaration of inclusion would would reference that so we would have something to um to go back and and decide if we're if we're succeeding or not no that was rambling sorry but no thank you raj and thank you barker i do appreciate that i think that that makes sense uh and in particular i like the sounds of uh incorporating some type of an action plan into this in the sense that i wouldn't want i don't want this to be some kind of a a report or checkbox kind of thing of all right we did this we can go on um so that's that's not the point so uh trustees are there other thoughts other statements you'd like to see included on this to come back at us at a later meeting you don't have any now you can always email me go ahead george now i just agree i think if this group has been as express has been deliberating and discussing and um and pondering this stuff for a long time you should take advantage of um with of their work um so i i think uh that's a valuable thing to do and i would support that i don't have anything specific to add and i think anything that i could add would probably pale in comparison to what they could add well sums up the way i was feeling george thank you all right so trustees if you have any thoughts ask them on by them otherwise you'll see this come back at a another meeting in the near future so our next two agenda items are going to be an executive session so we will go past those and on to the consent agenda the consent agenda second thank you amber thank you raj all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye anybody oppose great pass unanimously thank you and into the reading file with board member comments go ahead george yes sorry sorry to keep bringing this up but i do want to go back to the earlier discussion we had about the public works uh facility um i you know it really has been years uh and i would like us to set sort of make a commitment that we are even if it's even if it takes two or three or four years to get it done i would like to get a real good honest assessment of what's needed over there not a wish list of trying to build something for the rest of the century but i i think it's in such a bad i think they're in such a bad state right now that even if we did something that was only a 10-year fix it would be necessary i mean you just think of it you've got you've got significant pieces of equipment a road work equipment that are just sitting out exposed to the weather all the time um they're not they're not in a garage um and you've got a staff over there that is in a building that i think is 1950s or 60s vintage so i would really like to have some more formal discussion at the board level about this um so that and and i you know what i had in mind was just having a couple of staff members ricky as i said ricky and rick hamlin and maybe robin get together and just go over there and meet and talk and just get a sense of of how dire the situation is and come back to us and give us a report so we can maybe set a course of action um that you know ultimately we can anticipate if we have to take out a bond if we have to borrow money or there's arpa funds available but i would really like that to be some action on that if we could to have that on an upcoming agenda in the not too distant future um thanks thank you george just to think it back on that for a moment i do recall uh early in the capital program review committee uh once we had prioritized the initial list i think it was year two or three of the committee maybe maybe beyond um but we went on a tour had a meeting actually at the the public works facility and it was very eye-opening um especially doing it on a colder day when not all the equipment was able to be in the garage and if one of the the hose is blue on one of the vehicles uh it would not be uncommon where staff member has to try and fix it as it's open to the elements so you know snow rain whatever falling on top of these are trying to fix a piece of very heavy machine not quite the kind of facility i think that our community thinks our public works staff have um certainly nothing to the extent that i believe it's williston has where you can bring any of their vehicles into their facility put it on a lift spin it around 360 degrees if you want um to work on this nothing to that extent so i hear you in total agreement george okay thanks appreciate it go ahead ember diane asked me to just give a shout out for her request for uh help for town meeting day um so she needs some help either free town meeting especially would be right in campaign um or if you're able to help on town meeting day at the polls she is looking for help and if you need her contact info let me know i'm happy to share it thank you ember uh the only thing that i had that i wanted to mention i just wanted to clarify so uh at our last meeting we talked about i brought up regulating short-term rentals my understanding from that conversation and the takeaway from it was that we were going to staff tap or we were going to task staff with coming back to us in either june or july 26th i don't remember which uh but coming back to us with initial research into um the short-term regulation of for the regulation of short-term rentals uh we did not task the planning commission and we did not task the housing commission with doing this task and i just wanted to make sure that the other trustees here have the same understanding you don't mind giving me a thumbs up a head nod something to let me know that you all have the same understanding unless it was something different okay thank you i appreciate that um there was a bit of a uh frustrated uh planning commissioner who had um expressed an understandable dissatisfaction with uh reading in a local newspaper how we had asked the planning commission to do this work um and their frustration that hey why didn't you talk to us uh so just wanted to make sure that i was of the same understanding as the rest of you thank you for that trustees any other comments questions concerns well i was going to just um just uh express some of my neighbors uh thankfulness of my own i thought speaking of public works this past storm i thought they did a phenomenal job i mean everything was as good as can be um good good as can be expected they were around my neighbor quite a bit seemed like every time i turned around um they were taking care of stuff the sidewalks were cleared quickly i just um must have been an all hands on deck situation and uh that's not really easy right now so i just wanted to put out that it was uh certainly noted by at least a dozen neighbors um and um so yeah really appreciated well done one one comment um just i don't know exactly what our ordinance is pretending to uh solicit solicitation loitering or uh anything on the roadways but at the intersection of susie wilson road the move to team on a daily basis is one two or more homeless people i assume in the center median strip begging for money with signs right near traffic during heavy traffic times terrible weather it's an issue i really think needs to be addressed and uh some way to prevent something bad from happening um these uh people are a traffic hazard and uh may end up getting seriously hurt or injured in some four years four weeks after the chief stand and let him know and uh take that up and i'll forward any response thanks go ahead amber uh brad i was actually going to say i mentioned that to the chief uh several months ago and had some dialogue with him on it um those folks my understanding is they're residing at um former motel there on susie wilson road um and so there has been some communication with howard and other um organizations to try to encourage them to use services um versus doing what they are doing um and there was a short period of time in which they were not doing that um and now they are back to the almost every single day i agree um even at eight to 30 at night when i'm coming home from the gym they're out there um so the chief is aware of it i don't think they're i don't think there's any ordinance that that preclude them from doing that um but he is aware of it remember seeing no other hands up from trustees we have reached the end of our agenda at least for the public sessions and so we will need to move into the executive session uh brad would you mind oh look at that you're awesome now we're just going to move all your faces hang on a second i'll go ahead and make the motion of the trustees entering to executive session to discuss the potential sale of sewer capacity to the town of wilson in accordance with one vsa section three one three a one and to include unified manager uh brad and margaret's i think that covers everybody there is wendy coming oh sorry i didn't see wendy was on here uh wendy as well okay and cheers i had to come from the inventory if she needs if she wants to come i'd rather invite people and if they don't want to be there they can opt out okay i'm here i don't have the link um well i just wendy i just know that that sewer sewer capacity is one of your favorite subjects that anyone i just like it when it flows you know so george thank you for that friendly amendment um is there a second to that motion second thank you dan any further discussion all in favor signify by saying aye hi hi post great pass unanimously and i will further move that the trustees enter into executive session to discuss a personnel issue pursuant to one vsa section three one three a three and to include the same people i mentioned before second thank you dan any further discussion here ain't none all in favor signify by saying aye hi we post also pass unanimously hey do you have a breakout room are we yeah i'm gonna tend you all