 pictures on it and the first item is to elect the moderator for the year in suing to hear any nominations thank you are there any other nominations hearing none are you ready for the question all those in favor of Paul Gillis as the town school district moderator say aye those opposed no the eyes have it congratulations mr. Gillis thank you this is this will be the 228th town meeting we didn't have town school district meetings until 1892 so it's the 107th time we're meeting to vote on schools and we actually didn't have a separate town school district meeting from the town meeting before 1988 so it's the 28th separate town school district meeting and it is likely the last so it's a historic moment for us as the court seems to have ruled in favor of sustaining act 46 and act 49 and with that we would start with item 2 on the agenda to hear and act upon the report of the town school directors in this case we will be creating the reports that appear in the town report and if you have questions for the school board they're up here and ready to answer I think they have intention to discuss the budget under article 7 which we're now allowed to we are now allowed to vote even though voting is going on so if you could concentrate on but let's enjoy the unrestrained here ask any question you want but let's just go through the reports first the elementary school report from the board of directors is pages 4 and 5 Aaron Boyden principals report is 6-7 we have the budget we have the union school district 32 warning salary of employees the superintendent's report the other any questions yes sir I think we're going to need the amplification that may not be on the answer to this but I've heard some confusion could someone clarify exactly what the status of the U32 budget is like I've heard that we're not voting on that because there wasn't one so without asking for all the background what's going on but just functionally is there a budget for us to vote on sure thank you Matt there is no U32 budget for you to vote on today there is a U32 budget that has been built as it is has been in past years it's typically ready for town meeting of the five district towns not everyone chose to go forward with an individual town budget in Berlin we decided that we should put an individual budget before you U32 is prepped and ready to go but it's not before you for a vote because of the merger and because that board I believe I don't want to speak for them but I believe decided that they would wait and have the rolled up single merged budget which is going to be put before the voters in the coming months so this does tie in the act 46 and act 49 we expect merger to happen because of the ruling in the lawsuit yesterday merger is not going to be put on stay or preliminary injunction we still have legislative action that could possibly halt the merger or at least delay the merger but that's totally up in the air so for the U32 budget we have the numbers that can calculate into our estimated tax rate but we don't have a budget for you to vote on today you should expect that at a special meeting in the coming months either as an individual U32 budget if the legislature does something or as a combined merged budget one board one budget if merger goes forward and we do expect it to go forward so we're planning on both accounts sorry if that's a little bit confusing but act 46 is a little bit confusing I'm happy to try to answer any other questions but no U32 budget to vote on today any other questions on the school reports with your consent I will move article three till following five since it's the traditional last article any other business and it seems funny to do any other business when we still have business to do does anybody have any objections to the order all right so let's go to four shall the school district authorize the board of school directors to hold any audited fund balance as of June 30th 2019 in a reserve fund to be expended under the control and direction of the board of school directors for the purpose of operating the school is there anyone who will move this so we may discuss it in a second whoops I think if you may recall we voted this several times in the past and the town has been advised that if you vote against this that any surplus we have will be returned to the state but that's not to affect your voted in this way so if you would have uh anyone to discuss this anyone want to comment on any questions just so this relates back to the actually someone this christian's comment just a few minutes ago if the merger goes forward and sounds like even if he is going to go forward then the Berlin school district ceases to exist as of June 30th district and so what happens to the assets in the Berlin school district uh at that time my understanding is that should the merger go forward the Berlin school district will cease to exist on June 30th that we will have a single unified district consisting of the the five towns in U32 that includes pooling of all assets and liabilities so we share debt we share assets one of the questions that we've been looking at as we've been going forward is what happens to our reserve funds different schools have taken different approaches to building up capital funds and things like that what we've been told and this is nothing that's written in stone and nothing that we can guarantee is that the capital funds that sit with the towns now will stay with those towns and be spent in those towns on those buildings we've been setting aside we've been trying to be more responsible about setting aside capital funds for further improvements some of you may have noticed a little hole in the driveway on the way in that's something we've been looking at trying to redo that driveway so we've been setting aside money every year to try to build that up in order to do it without asking for another bond going out for bond and hopefully planning for the future sometimes are doing that better than others but our understanding is that the reserve funds that we have stay with the towns in a merged district any more questions discussion yes from the district clarification there is a bill that was passed out of the house that gives us a used extension that bill has gone over to the senate they haven't taken it up yet but if they do and they pass the bill as was passed out of the house we will have a years extension rather than working like crazy to make the june deadline so we're hoping that that goes through all the senate's eyes thank you anything else on this article four i'll read it again so it's fresh in your mind shelly school district authorized the board of school directors to hold any audited fund balance as of june 30th 2019 in a reserve fund to be expended under the control and direction of the board of school directors for the purpose of operating the school all in favor say aye opposed opposed no the eyes have it article five shell the school district authorized the board of school directors to borrow money in anticipation of the receipt of revenues for the 2019-2020 school year who will move this yes sir and second discussion questions this is another traditional article and if you're not going to talk about it we can vote it are you ready for the question if so shell the school district authorized the board of school directors to borrow money in anticipation of the receipt of revenues for the 2019-2020 school year all in favor say aye those opposed no and it passes we are uh have a presentation i believe on the budget and i would turn the microphone over to chris menders this time thank you um paul would it be okay for me to speak to article six yes i'm sorry i probably should oh i wouldn't endorse i'm not going to endorse a candidate okay go right ahead i'm going to beg for candidates so this this is my fourth year on the school board and my term is up and i'm not running again dearer frazier is the only one who is duly elected to the school board the rest of the folks here are volunteers who've filled in for vacancies and i want to say thank you to them to nicole farrier dearer who's elected peter showbird and carl parton who stepped up and filled vacancies over the last year and you'll notice on your ballot that there are four openings on the board so those vacancies those three vacancies vacancy appointments plus my ending term means there are four vacancies on the board we have one candidate running which means after today we'll have two members on the school board and unless there's a write-in candidate we will have three vacancies which means we won't even have a forum so i believe on thursday night the select board is going to entertain the select board has to make that appointment to the vacancy to create a forum so on thursday night they're going to entertain folks who are interested in being on the board to create that forum once we have three members a third member appointed by the select board then the school board can appoint those other two vacancies so bottom line is this we're looking for volunteers for people to carry this forward this board still exists through the end of the year actually even if we're merged on july 1 there's still business that this board like business not the typical monthly business that we have but like business for this board to take care of all the way through the end of 2019 so this is just my plea to you if you're interested in uh short term stint on the board please think about it and um we'd love to to have some applications and some folks to bring forward to the point to those vacancies um so now on to article seven if that's okay the the budget itself we have a brief presentation a 12 minute youtube video that i'd like to play and then perhaps that'll answer some of the question that you might have and if you have others after that i'm happy to try to answer them about the budget thank you and tuesday march 5th is town meeting day so we call this shall come out and vote in your local berlin elementary school budget between 10 a.m. and 70 m at the school there is going to be a public hearing on this budget at berlin elementary the night before on monday march 4th at 6 p.m. with this berlin elementary budget and the estimated budget for d32 appears to be online for our taxes we're going to see a net 2.67 increase in spending over the last year's budget and when that's combined with the increased tax impact from the d32 budget we'll see a projected education tax increase of 0.003 cents or $3 for each $100,000 of assessed property value before we begin this budget presentation i just wanted to say that this is a really unusual year for a berlin school district we're operating under the assumption that we will be urged to do a state order and that a consolidated budget will be proposed all over so the five towns in a few months and it's possible that this budget and vote will be replaced by that merge budget but until then we as a board we have a duty to present the berlin voters with a local budget because there is a lawsuit and pending legislation that might halt the merger we felt we needed to go forward as an independent school board as we currently exist and prepare for both tracks the budget that the members awards would most likely be the very same budget but it would just be rolled up as one of five six county 32 budgets for both the entire district your school board asked for a level service budget this year maintaining the same level of educational services as the previous year and we're now asking you to approve that budget that includes as i said a net 2.670 increased inspector over last year and here about the budget process the components of the 2019-2020 budget and the task impacts between the four factors including our local budgets the state tax rate the property yield and the common level of the budget these are some of the convenient pressures when we're determining our budget for the curriculum decisions and contracts economic pressures to require student services educational quality political pressure revenue protections federal mandates and benefits tax burdens and test scores these are all some of the things that we take into account when we're developing our budget in developing our budget we first got a draft from the principal superintendent and business administrator and the staff including we reviewed multiple budget drafts and gave feedback our local wanted to say including or not including its own needs in an open session with our regular school board meeting to discuss the budget and soliciting community input eventually we came up with a budget that we helped through and now we move that forward to you the voters that helps have this year is a total of three nine six hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and eighty seven pounds that's an expense change of three point four percent over last year we're looking at responding to the special education the net impact on taxes is the increase of two point six seven percent over last year proposed education spending per equalize is seventeen thousand six hundred thirty three dollars last year it was sixteen thousand eight hundred and ninety two for that equalize spending change is four point three nine percent higher than the current year you'll see on your ballot you can come out to vote the number four point four one percent higher to close calculations are changing all the time in this slideshow is based on the most recent information we have for the agency of education but again that's not four point four one percent increasing spending and spending per equalize the actual expense change is a net impact of two point six seven these charts show you a little bit more about how we spend our money ever in a mentoring school as you can see a large part of it is direct instruction of students in a special agency other categories either around operation of the building the assessments from central office and administrative costs you can see on this slide some of the budget change hires we have salary increases and benefit changes from negotiated teacher contracts we have staffing changes also contributing to an increase in expenses due to some teachers coming some teachers going depending on the experience of those teachers that we hired negotiated items that salary increases benefits and staffing is one hundred twenty two thousand two five hundred and forty dollars that's three point four nine percent of the budget that's really close to the increase that we're talking about the expenses from last year as far as non-salary items go we've actually cut spending just a little bit i have three thousand four one hundred and seventy nine dollars last year for a total combined to one hundred ninety thousand three hundred and sixty nine dollars for that three point four percent of the budget we talked about it we have additional revenue so special education of twenty five thousand five hundred and thirty one dollars for a net impact on taxes of two point six seven percent over last year this budget enrollment ended up being low from last year again we don't get those numbers from the agency of education so we relate to the process and it really changes each day as you're moving in and out of our town our pre-king for 12 enrollment is projected to be low the next five years and has been relatively steady on the last decade a little table to help put in perspective the spending for equalized people in Berlin has compared to the other towns in our supervisory you can see the expense change for our proposed budgets and the net tax impact here looking into five towns in our supervisory and as you can see Berlin has had three cents or three dollars or every one hundred thousand dollars of the sense of property look at the tax impact there are four factors to affecting the total tax rate the common level of principle the statewide education tax the property yield and the Berlin elementary can be 32 budgets we really only have control over the fourth method the common level of appraisal for CLA is an adjustment to the education tax rate to account for the gap between appraised value and actual value of the property the 2018-2019 CLA for Berlin is 102.14 percent which is down just a little bit over last year's 102.45 percent this results in a very small tax increase the statewide tax rate has a February 20th this year recent calculations where all the statewide education spending is put together into a pool and redistributed amounts into the towns the legislation counts up with this rate and subject to negotiation perhaps veto or approval of the governor this is some information about those tax rates and this is one of the factors in determining what power local tax rate is going to be this slide shows you a little bit about the tax rate impacts for 2019-2020 for Berlin and for the other four towns in the city of Latter-day which you can see here the you know residential tax rate is three dollars per 100,000 of the CLA the non-residential tax rate is five dollars per 100,000 of the CLA it's important to note that these rates don't reflect the income sensitivity adjustments which are available to most homeowners with income to less than 136,500 dollars per year this is a little more information on income sensitivity 57 percent of the Berlin residents who receive support for their property taxes from the income sensitivity so we won't see the same tax rate of three dollars per 100,000 of the CLA 43 percent of the Berlin residents will get more information on property tax adjustments just showing how many folks in the former have that income sensitivity adjustment rate it's over the Berlin Elementary Board is proposing a budget of three million six hundred and thirty thousand two hundred eighty seven dollars that budget is at 3.4 percent increase over last year's expense budget when you include special education revenues this amounts to a net impact on taxes of 2.67 percent passing both the Berlin Elementary School and the U32 budgets more so in a 0.37 increase for both folks in tax rate that translates to an increase of three dollars per 100,000 of the CLA our tax rate is projected increase in part due to the change in the common level of personal and estate wide education tax formula along with what we've chosen to spend on a local budget we think this is a responsible budget balancing fiscal constraint with student needs and we ask you for your support a public hearing will be held at the Berlin Elementary School on Monday March 4th at 6 p.m to provide information to be voted by an Australian ballot in town meeting anyone with questions can contact me Chris Winters through the Berlin Elementary website you'll also see some of those some front porch forum without this if you're not there can register your vote please do you can contact the Secretary of State's office through their website you can register online you can go to your town clerk and register there you can even register your vote on the same day you can come in for a town meeting thank you for your support and hope to see you at the polls are there any questions about the school budget as a result of the film or anything else yes sir i want clarification on the possible oh sorry if this budget passes today and the merger goes through do we have to have a special meeting of the Berlin Elementary School district to avoid that and create the new one and the second question is what happens with salaries and benefits to all our current teachers back at the merger I'll do my best here if merger goes through the Berlin Elementary School district ceases to exist so any budget passed by it and the boogers of the town has no legal standing anymore so we will have to have a special meeting and special election to vote on the merged budgets and it would subsume with replace whatever we do here today but what we're doing here today is hopefully to put something in place in case merger doesn't happen and then just to reiterate something I said earlier which was that our expectation is that this budget is the one that gets rolled up into the merged budget there won't be any more jiggering with all of the town's budgets they've all basically set their budgets in place they're just going to roll them up into one so when you vote on a special election for the merged budget you should see the same numbers that you're seeing today from Berlin with respect to salaries and benefits and contracts and all of those things I don't know that I don't feel qualified to answer what kind of effect it's going to have will be one district and have one set of contracts with an understanding one set of negotiations that we do that to some extent already so I'm not real sure what the impact will be after merger on those teacher contracts but you know there is some uncertainty right now because we don't we aren't sure we're going to have a budget in place for each of the five towns and for U32 there's some uncertainty right now about how we go about dealing with those teacher contracts so it's it's messy as you all figured out so will there be an averaging of the taxes because I noticed that our taxes are going up at different rates from other towns will those all be averaged together at that point so again kind of a kind of a difficult question but as one district and one budget I think will depend on how many students you have for equalized pupils you have in your town that's again the agency of education calculation I believe so you know when you look at the tax rates post merger the the projections that I've seen so far would show East Montpelier's taxes going down some Berlin's going up slightly middle sex going up I think a small amount and Worcester and Callis going up a little more significantly than some of the other towns a lot of this is a function of the debt carried by those towns we know East Montpelier has a sizable debt Berlin and middle sex have recent bonds as well so some debt Callis and Worcester have very little debt and there's also the factor of how much those towns choose to spend on things like educational services so it's not just that it's how much they choose to spend in their schools as well so all those things will be pulled together will all be responsible for that one budget across the the five towns I'm sure that didn't quite answer your question that's the best I can do anything else on the budget the last item is actually the third item I remember I got out of order it's to transact any other business that may legally come before the meeting and both binding articles but if you have something to say let it out Josh I've been in Vermont for a couple of years I wasn't around with the legislature was forced to change this makeup from one representative per town to a one man one boat kind of concept but I understand there was a quite a debate in the legislature and some of the small town legislative small town representatives got up say to the town of victory and said well down the last person probably better seat in the town of victory who was the representative so don't forget about victory I'm not saying that merger which looks like it's going to go through is going to be permanently forgotten but it certainly won't mean that the school board we see right here won't be existing anymore and so and when you take it to the town report the town report that he has decided was this year it won't be a school but a school report we're going to just have the town report it'll be a school meeting but it won't be helpful it's not going to be helpful some other place some other time I suspect where you get together to get a chance to go talk about the school budget so having said that I would just like to thank the school board for not just this school board but its predecessors in time for running an excellent school town of Berlin and the town of Berlin for supporting the school thank you that sounds like a vote of approbation for what he said and if you are comfortable with that and let it lie there or we could call for a formal all right fine anybody else anything to say I think we could all agree that there's yes Carl I'm standing before you with a bit of a heavy heart as somebody who I believe has fought injustice since 2015 and justice of act 46 for a lot of reasons certainly one of the reasons is because I care about my neighbors not just my neighbors in Berlin who I don't think should have to pay debt that they did not vote for from other communities within the district but also for my neighbors in callus and my neighbors in Worcester who have small schools act 46 the purpose unstated purpose of act 46 is to close small schools in the state of Vermont without our elected representatives getting the political blood on their hands so make no mistake act 46 has a lot of stated goals but one of them is to close small schools and make it the kind of political capital of the elected school board so at some point Worcester and callus are going to come before that newly force merge board and the money's not going to be there they're going to have to find a savings and that savings is going to be closing those small schools so that was the purpose of act 46 under not written but certainly underlying so I fought against act 46 for that reason but also here in Berlin I care about my neighbors who have invested in this school their time their effort their volunteer hours and their tax money this this school this building this property was donated to the town of Berlin to have a school on and likely it will have a school because of our geographic proximity to the other five districts they're not going to really set close Berlin to send kids to those other five districts but this property will be sold to the new unified district and under the law it's going to be for one dollar I guess that still is indirectly in our control but less directly because we'll have less oversight less community input and less say in what happens to this building so I guess if I wanted to speak out and ask you to do something and take action I would like you to contact your senators it's vital right now that we talk contact other senators throughout the state but certainly the three senators from Washington County and let them know you would like the one-year delay because there are things that we may be able to do as a town to protect our asset this school you know we've discussed a lot of them it could be something like turning over the land surrounding the Berlin elementary school to the town of Berlin I suggested other things such as leasing the school and the property to the newly unified district but we need time to do that so I suggest you and I beg you to contact your senators and let them know that we as a community support the one-year delay that the legislation that's in front of them right now that they're considering that the house has already passed you know we can do something fast which act 46 did or we can do something right and that extra year may give us the opportunity as a town and a community to do this right thank you anything else under article three other business if not I'd entertain a motion to adjourn the town school district meeting lips the second all those in favor say aye those opposed no you are adjourned we'll take a five minute break so that the boards can change and you can flip over your book and return to page twos for the town morning below the line and the first article is to elect the town moderator for the year ensuing are there any nominations but any second uh we'll turn over to our chair okay any other nominations of hearing none call the question all those in favor of calling us as moderators say aye those opposed motion carries congratulations thank you um I don't know if it's uh in your if you would agree but we have our representative from the legislature here and if we could take them out of order would anyone have any objection to hearing from Ann Donahue and and Ken Dosan Ann hi good morning um we lucked out used to be that I was like having to juggle and be at Northfield and then rush over here and one time even you guys can finish by the time I got here but Northfield is on a three-year experiment doing town meeting on Monday night so it's great because I get to spend the whole time here and listen to concerns that come up and also of course I usually stay for lunch anyway so feel free to come and ask about things and so forth um Ken and I both did vote for the delay or act 46 you know to me it didn't even matter whether act 46 was you know going to succeed constitutional challenge or whatever the point is decision in November that's not fair expect people to have to put together a whole new district and work all those articles of agreement out and make it fair in the amount of time so I hope that the senate passes that bill that we passed and I think it was good advice to say call your senators call your three senators because um they're they're looking to hear for input and there we go um there isn't a lot happening yet in the legislature I think in part because there was so many new members this cycle so a lot of committees are new or had to spend a lot of time just learning the issues and getting up to speed I'm on the health care committee the chair and I are the only two members of that 11 member committee who have been there more than one prior term the rest of our committee four other members it's only their second time their second time around on the health care committee and we have five members brand new legislative members so we need to spend a lot of time hearing health care is a complicated topic obviously but there are the family me pay family needs act is active in the house it's not out of committee yet but it's active and the senate has sent over to the house a minimum wage increase bill the tax and regulate the marijuana bill increasing the smoking age to 18 a couple other major bills so we did put out Ken and I put out a survey that you'll find on some of those issues that we expect to see coming up so that we have input from you that way and obviously also talking today that's that so that's those are the major issues and in terms of what's coming up for for voting so questions and so forth are really welcome your inputs welcome and turn it over to Ken to introduce himself so hi I'm Ken Goldstein I am your newly appointed representative I appreciate your support and your trust for me to do the job uh and as well school down there I'm on the learning curve I kind of uh put it to I'm in an experience like I went right to college and I never went to high school it's just mind boggling and I take things very serious and I really want to do a good job for everybody I mean it's not just Northfield and Berlin it's the whole state what we're trying to do and there's a lot to it last night when I got the zooms on at 46 I mean I fell asleep with my phone just looking to try to see all the different stuff that was going on so so hopefully better prepare myself for here although I kind of do I don't want to take up a lot of your time here now you have a meeting but I am going to be around I'd love to meet uh meet people and uh I really appreciate your uh support and uh want to get to know you and you already made it thank you thank you you share we're on a big power committee which is a bunch of lawyers and uh public defenders and uh all that good stuff and uh I'm not a lawyer thank you all thank you call 26 to hear the reports of town officers for 2018 is where I go through the report and hope to simulate questions and ideas and town manager on the border here are willing and able to answer them so as we go through we have the minutes last year we have the select quarter for pages nine and ten we have the budget uh and then we have the audit and that takes us to page 71 the assessors report remember we used to have listeners now we have an assessment and the annual report of the town clerk list of those who were born those who passed away the delinquent tax list public works board board of civil authority and board of abatement highway department zoning administrator planning commission police department cemetery commission conservation committee and recreation board development review board in emergency management team and then the fire department and after that there reports of of the people you're voting on the funds for their charities so uh I didn't hear if I overlooked someone who wanted to ask a question raise your hand again and go on to the next article uh article 27 shall the town collect its real and personal property taxes to defray the expenses of the town for the period july 1st 2019 through june 30th 2020 in installments one fourth of the taxes to be due by delivery or by us postal service postmark no private postal meter postmark postmarks honored before august 15th 2019 one fourth of the taxes due honor before november 15th 2019 one fourth of the taxes due honor before february 15th 2020 and one fourth due honor before may 15th 2020 with an eight percent penalty and a one percent interest per month or portion thereof to be charged for a late payment of any installment who will move this so we may discuss it Bob and wibbs what would you like to know about this article or what would you like to say about it any comments questions anything this board wants to say about it are we in mourning for the school district if you are ready for the question i will you'll have to hear me read it again and then we'll vote and shall the town collect its real and personal property taxes to defray the expenses of the town for the period july 1st 2019 through june 30th 2020 in installments one fourth of the taxes to be due by delivery or by us postal service postmark no private postal meter postmarks honored before august 15th 2019 one fourth of the taxes due honor before november 15th 2019 one fourth of the taxes due honor before february 15th 2020 and one fourth due honor before may 15th 2020 with an eight percent penalty and a one percent interest per month or a portion thereof to be charged for a late payment of any installment all in favor of the motion say aye those opposed no the article passes this leaves us the last item of business as with the school district to discuss any other business that may legally come before this meeting this is your chance to say anything or comment anything or question anything yes sir come right up to the microphone introduce yourself i promise this will be quick my name is guide age and i'm a volunteer at the local library and i just want to say thank you for those who have supported it one of the things that people don't realize about this library is that folks who are trying to put together job resumes who are looking for jobs the library is a very valuable asset it's an asset it's a link to the internet that they otherwise might not have and the internet is how you get jobs these days so uh just want to thank you very much for for your support guy are you a resident oh i'm sorry yes i remember i never did do the uh if just in case somebody here isn't a resident wants to speak i was assuming no one has any objection yes please come up i think actually the other person who's been in the audience today but a lot of towns around Vermont today are passing resolutions related to climate change and it's a very real problem that i've seen within my short lifetime and i would like to bring to your attention the fact that these you know other towns around the world are passing resolutions and i do believe that Berlin should join them in the future thinking about things like transportation within our town conservation of our resources really looking at different ways of looking that are going to be a lot gentler on the earth um i know that you know it may be a little shorter to do something today but this is a very important issue and it's a little bit uh intimidating to be the other person sitting here feeling like you know in my young people on many of your minds but please for the future it is our future um this is something that is important to the town that we need to be finding solutions and resolving to find solutions to climate change some others also and as usual i have a few announcements to make i want to make sure any of you who don't already have a handy dandy brochure with lots of information about the town and so on my path there we're not on the phone book and this gives you not only contact information but information about it's a climate attack um a lot of people are on my revenue to no list it's an email and i said that a couple times a month if you're not on it there's a place out there where you can put an email address in the box to get on that if you're a facebook user there's a Berlin Vermont page where information is posted besides meetings and all that happened some of the events that get mentioned are things like concerts not art shows here at the school you certainly don't need to have a child out here to come over and be part of what's happening they even had a wonderful big go fundraiser recently that was a lot of fun there's monthly potlots down at the range and a lot of music and other events that fresh tracks and other breweries so there's a lot going on like it's mentioned uh it's the animal time to licensure dogs please come in if it's easy to the tap clerk's office if it's easier that can be done through the mail the deadline's April 1st it's just $9 if your dog is favorite dinner $13 if not and whether you come in or do it through the mail we'll need to have a current rabies vaccination slip off file. Coming here at the school is the Vermont State's class 30 chess tournament for grades k through 12 it's on April 6th that's a Saturday. Students come from all over Vermont and spend the day playing chess. The Burnley Volunteer Fire Party brings us lots of tables and they have done food for us in the past I'm not positive as they are this year Rochester chess comes in from New York with chess box and both set up um novelty items to sell there's a grand master chess player if you're a chess player you should come in the morning of the event this guy is at a table with multiple kids and adults playing chess against them it's really fantastic to participate or you just go watch for a little bit spectators can watch the high school matches matches available certificates are given along with some trophies and medals it's really point of the day everybody else wonders why the park is so full when they go by in April if you want more details you can go to vtchess.info where you can speak with white Starsford the tournament director and again that's Saturday April 6th you're welcome to stop by and speaking of chess there is a local with Central Vermont chess club that's been meeting over at the mall Wednesday night it's six to nine all agents no keys um I'd like to cut off our current historical society hat for a moment out in the lobby there's a display there's a video that's going through with five different clubs which is which is interesting I last 13 minutes I put a couple stools there you can sit down if you want to watch and many thanks to my husband Michael for putting that together for it to work I picked the clubs he made it happen a couple of upcoming programs we have on April 23rd Paul Gillings will be coming in to talk about his new book which is called the law of the hills the judicial history of Vermont and then on Wednesday May 15th we'll have our annual talk over at the Berlin Congressional Church and then Howard Kauffman author and historian will be talking about the remanters in the civil war and we thank the Vermont Humanities Castle for making that program available all our meetings are free open to the public and there's lots of interest in history available on the tabloids like we go to community and the historic society and last but certainly melodies I just wanted to say how fortunate I think we are for all the local agriculture and foods that are available in Berlin and I sure hope people are making an effort to support these places to make sure we continue to have such great items available there's a listing out on the table if you're not sure but there is hopefully if you could find it there thank you so much Mike good morning my name is Phil Gentily on the conservation commission and out in the lobby we have a little signboard about the commission and we are presently seeking new members seems like through nutrition and retirement we're finding it harder and harder to get people to participate we meet four to six times a year and you instead of listing of all you can see on the board what we've done in the past what we'd like to do in the future what we're really interested is getting some young blood on board and as I look around the room here I think I estimated there are about six people under 60 and it's it's a sad thing because it's hard to get young people involved in face-to-face kind so if you know of any young people in Berlin or if you yourself I think we're down to four members would like to have six seven so please spread the word and information is right in the lobby I think I left a sign-up sheet there but that does that's not very effective and if you have any ideas other than front porch form and coming to town meetings please let us know but once again we're looking for members thank you good morning I'm Mike Spragsburg that looks like we have a little bit of time before lunch so I hope you don't mind adulting me for a couple minutes to share some memories of town meetings past my very first memory of town meeting was 1976 I was a student here for the elementary school I think I was in sixth grade in fifth grade but sixth grade and so my parents me and my two brothers and two sisters up and brought us up here to the school they packed for a day trip smartly to do so because you know town meeting was a little different than you didn't spend the day so I recently had a copy of the morning and the minutes from 1976 I just like to take a couple minutes and share some of the interesting tidbits from that first town meeting that I attended the agenda was quite different back then because of course most of the items were discussed on the floor there's only a few items that were Australian ballot and some of the items were quite specific this was one of my favorites on that particular day article 16 will the voters of the town authorize the select to have a street light installed on the power pole across from Edward Hartman Drive fairly specific so the meeting as a tradition gave the order at 10 o'clock a moderator was elected followed by a 15-minute recess and then they started right in at 1030 with article two which is a similar article it's to act and you have here an act on the the town select or reports that was very very different than what we just did today we took about two minutes you know to sit through and they were no questions back then each report by each committee and each department was discussed and sometimes amended before it was voted on and finalized and so we see a word considerable discussion in the minutes over and over again there was a considerable discussion about highway funds in which roads they were spent on there was considerable discussion about things like the deletion school report and why someone's hundred and forty dollars was on there and they should have been evaded and that was actually amended voted on and changed in the town report on that that process took all morning it took them all the way to lunch to go through the reports of the directors they had lunch reconvene at 115 and then they started on the budgets and the budgets were the good discussions you know they talked about the the school but interestingly enough there was a proposal made to increase the school budget to four hundred sixty thousand dollars your proposal had been for four hundred and eleven I had a discussion that was withdrawn they didn't actually vote on it through that discussion though we learned that there were three hundred and sixteen students here in the school a hundred more than they are today that didn't even count preschools they didn't have preschool back then and two hundred and twenty two at the high school after all that considerable discussion a final budget was adopted of three hundred and ninety six thousand dollars a little less than they had been proposed at some point in the afternoon they finally get to that article 16 when I mentioned about the streetlight and they had more considerable discussion and in fact um a dr. Burns made a motion that when town funds are being spent to the benefit of an individual that individual should be announced in the warden unfortunately no one seconded his motion so that's passed over especially the the article did fail they didn't insults the streetlight location five o'clock the mallets boxes closed but that was not the end of the meeting the town meeting was still going on in fact after that time they got to article 23 at which point the zoning board of adjustment was abolished in favor of planning commission uh there was a considerable discussion about whether the members of that commission should be appointed or elected by the voters that amendment eventually failed so they are appointed not elected the meeting finally adjourned at seven forty p.m. yeah um so that was the point by you know family gathered of our belongings and drove home in the dark from town meeting so that by friends is a real town meeting and that's that's the way I remember unfortunately with the ruling yesterday it looks very likely that 46 is going to go forward or no longer going to have a local school board we're just going to have a couple of members representing us on the district board our budget instead of being home-made threat here in this room is essentially going to be a slice of someone else's pie and that's what we'll get and you know town business we're not going to discuss where a street light goes or any other details like that you know we've grown to the point where those decisions are made in committees they're made by boards um they're they're done and there's essentially crossing by people that we elect so there's really not much to do here anymore um so I I think it's likely this may be my last town meeting um there's you know we've always been in a circle on the second Tuesday in March everybody in my office knows well Mike isn't going to be here on that day because he's always at town meeting the next day I'm going to work all right next year I'm sorry I'm going to work I'll show up and go to the polls like most do but I have to tell you I'm I'm really going to miss a real town meeting sounds like a quota but Paul years ago we started the fund for the recreation board and it was like a path or walking path down the railroad to us and I haven't heard anything about it for quite a long time this this fun thing like if there is stuff going on I'm kind of interested in and so I just wanted to bring that up to see what's happening yes Paul there are two funds one being the recreation fund and the other being for the bike path the recreation fund has been active and as fact they just purchased a new snowblower out of that fund for the argument so that fund has been very handy for recreational purposes also they have provided for swim lessons for young children in the summer months the bike path about 18 months ago so the town donated a certain amount of money 3,000 thousand so I don't hold me on that for the Vermont cross-country bike trail that's going through a portion of Berlin so in the annual report on page 59 you can actually see the current balances of both the recreation and parks fund the as a non-major fund towards the bottom and the bike path fund you can see those amounts on page 59 anything else what you want to go first Joe good morning I'm Joe stop so after the meetings done and you are wanting to visit with your friends and neighbors or whatnot the fire department is serving lunch you can get a sandwich soup a dessert and a drink for $6 it's a it's a great deal for hanging out and having a little conversation with your neighbors which you don't see very often and if no one else has said don't forget if the dessert is not enough that we're serving the girl the girl scouts are selling cookies out of the hall and if you don't want to eat the cookies buy it for your neighbors all right Jeremy Hansen I want to first recognize Pete Kelly and Wayne Leverton Kelly Wayne Leverton for their service to Berlin's blackboard they're not running again I'd like to give them a round of applause for just a moment. I also wanted to mention something that we approved a couple years ago was the capital city range which is in Berlin we gave them a just given them a tax away work as a nonprofit and well let you know that Berlin residents have taken advantage since that time they've taken advantage of holding free events there it's 76 times over the last three years so we're suddenly over two events a month there it's been definitely being used and there's still capacity to continue using it so for those of you that don't know if you're a Berlin resident and you want to use that space for whatever it is freely available for you provided they don't have something else scheduled there. Last year you approved Berlin to be part of a group called Central Vermont Internet which we're now doing business as CV fighter. We are now 17 towns in Central Vermont including Washington County, parts of Washington County, Lamoille County and Orange County. We've sat in our 17th town just one week ago. We have $5,000 in the bank. We recently got a $12,500 grant for doing a business plan and a feasibility study to hopefully begin our pilot project at the first handful of miles of fighter-to-cremacist by the end of the year. In order to meet that in order to get that full $12,500 grant we still need to raise about $7,500 of private contributions. We are a municipality. Those contributions are tax deductible. If you're interested in contributing I would love to hear from you. We will then take those all take that money that we get from the grants and from the donations we're going to use that to go after a further $30,000 from USDA World Development to go and actually do the proper design business plan and make sure that the economics and finances work out so that we can start building a real 21st century Internet into Central Vermont which we don't we don't really have here. And I want to again reiterate what Joe said stick around before the fire department launch. This is a pretty major fundraiser for them and eating lunch here cuts down the bill that they ask for on the balance next year. So just say it. Thanks Jeremy. Anybody else? I would entertain a motion. I'm sorry. My name is Charlie Palatier and I've been a Berlin resident for over 50 years and I would just like to give a thanks to Tim Davis and the Highway Department. This has been a long, hard, and costly winter and I think that they have done a nice early job maintaining the roads. A motion to adjourn town meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed no. Thank you.