 We will call the meeting to order. So first on the agenda is to approve the agenda. We have anything that needed to be added. One thing I just wanted to add was the, a quick executive session at the end to talk about personnel, mayor increase. I don't think last time that we finished talk about that. So if we could do one at the end, it shouldn't take very long other than that. Anybody else have anything they wanted to add? Is there any more on the BRTS? Not until, in the next week, we're two weeks, we just got the purchase and sale agreement. So I've looked it over, talked to the lawyer about it. Chris is gonna eyeball it. And then I'd like to send it back to the BRTS lawyer tomorrow. And then I'm setting up a meeting with, Victoria and I are gonna meet just to kind of see what we need to do here for the end of, when we're gonna do the break. I'm not sure it's gonna be clean at June. It may be, I think they want to try to take the employees the beginning of July and that sort of thing. But I think some of it may just come down to timing and stuff. So hopefully you will sign the purchase and sale on the 27th. I hope I have a little bit of information though. Yeah. So no, we're just, they just got it to us and we out of it and I met the talk with the lawyer last week. Thank you. Okay. Need a motion to approve as amended. So moved. Okay, all in favor? Aye. All right. And just before we get started, I probably, everybody heard of last week, unfortunately we got the sad news of, Carl Russell had passed away late last week. For anybody, I'm sure a majority of people in town know who Carl Russell was. And for anybody that doesn't, Carl was pretty instrumental in the changes here at the town after Irene. He was one of the go-getters and get on the board and want to steer the town in a better direction. So, and his sheet of endeavors is very, very long when he came to be in a vital community member. He had his hand in just about everything. If it was school related or town related or private farming related or those types of things. So I know for me it was an honor to be on the board with him for a few years. I actually came on when the board got to five, which they said, Beth will never be a board of five. We'll never be able to find five people to fill those seats. But here we are, seven years later, we have five people. So yeah, I always appreciate Carl and always kind of looked up to him as a leader of the community. And it was very sad to hear that news late last week. So I just wanted to throw that out there to everybody in case anybody hadn't heard. Please send his thoughts and prayers of his family and at this time, so. I did get some information that, yeah, I put it in my agenda. I think it was June 25th. They'll have a celebration of life for Carl. And they're pastor at their family home on Macintosh. All right. So we have two appointments this evening. First one is Cecil. So Cecil representing the Cemetery Commission. And we had a couple of things this year that we've been trying to update at the cemetery. One was, at one point was the plots and the pricing of the plots and kind of a lot of the same things that we've done with a lot of pieces of the town is a lot of our policies and cost structures were really outdated and didn't match existing towns and things like that. So we had the first phase of it was going through, you know, looking at the plots and the pricing of the plots and things like that that we took care of a couple of meetings ago, I think. And then the second one is just kind of the upkeep of the cemetery. And, you know, I think that... Sure, yeah. So, you know, I think... Well, hold on, hold on. Everybody will have plenty of time to talk with us. So for anybody who doesn't know, Cecil Washburn is our cemetery commission. And for anybody that's on any type of committee or commissioner of something is it's basically a volunteer, you know, volunteer, you, it's all your own time to do this endeavor. Does not come with a, you know, comes with a budget, but, you know, your time is not budgeted in that time. So the next piece of this was, you know, Cecil had brought up in regards to the artificial flowers at the cemetery in regards to the upkeep and, you know, and how can we make the cemetery easier to work in and around. So this is kind of where we had come to that. So I, I don't know, who do you want, Jared or Cecil want to start or? I can say the, so Cecil, when I talked about it, and of course you have the plastic flowers. Some people are obviously very good about putting artificial flowers up and taking care of them and put them down. And a lot of people aren't, and they leave them there and they fade and they fall over. And then we're dealing with them getting caught in weed whackers and mowers. And there's a whole, it becomes a whole maintenance issue. And we did rebid the cemeteries this year and it's getting harder and harder to find companies that will actually bid on maintaining cemeteries because it's so much work. We'd whacking around all the stones and all that. And we looked at other cemeteries nearby and a lot of them have the same signage which says no plastic flowers. We interpreted the cemetery rules to say that, you know, to give us the authority to say that the flowers just didn't need to be placed there. So, but a sign up said no artificial flowers and then at the time there weren't any. And then after the signs were placed, a lot of artificial flowers came up. I asked Cecil to hang on to them so we have them at the town office so that if anyone could spend significant money on these, we had them so we could return them to their rightful owner. I know some people were, we've received a couple of calls and people were upset that we hadn't notified people but we don't have a list of addresses and who owns the, and sounds crazy, but we don't a list of who owns the plots and how to reach people. So that certainly was, and we had talked about it. And so certainly that is something that if we'd had, we should have done, but we didn't have a list. So to contact people. So yes, we did receive a couple of calls about people that were upset that flowers were taken down or not allowed anymore. The cemetery rules are clear. People can plant bushes, they can plant bushes or shrubs and trees with permission of the cemetery commissioner. They can plant real flowers. You can put real flowers in a vase and things like that that have been done there in the past. And, but for us it was just really became a maintenance issue because all the, while some people are excellent about taking them down, a lot of people just leave them and then it becomes a nuisance. So anyways, so people had called and asked if maybe, I spoke to Mrs. Hart and of course, could we do some sort of a change, like have put them up at a certain time and take them down, but that's kind of hard because that's the maintenance cycle of the, that's when they're the biggest nuisance because it's, that's when we're in the maintenance mode of the taking care of weeding and mowing and stuff, the cemeteries, so. So what I'd like to do so that everybody does have an opportunity to speak on the item is, is first have a discussion amongst the board and then, and then after then, then we'll field questions so that everybody has it and so I kind of, you know, not really knowing much about cemeteries. I just started doing my homework. So I looked at, I looked at like a lot of the neighboring towns, you know, in around four or five or six neighboring, you know, out towns like Hartford or Windsor or Royalton or Rochester and, you know, of course some of them are tough because, you know, they're all maybe cared for under a different identity, so trying to figure out a webpage isn't always easiest. So what I did find is for the most part on every place, it comes down to three options. By far, a majority of the cemeteries, it just states that no artificial flowers are allowed. And then there's a toss up between some cemeteries we'll talk about that you can have artificial flowers but you can't have them during a certain time period, what they call the growing season. So that's usually like May to September. I'm just telling what's out there. So if it makes sense or not, I'm telling you these are things that you can go out there very easily and go knock and find them. And then the other ones just don't allow it, I'm sorry, or the other ones are like Bethel currently where it just talks about our policy is to be removed by the cemeterie property whenever it becomes unsightly. So, and then I guess, you know, then the definition would. And then I think at that point, it depends, you know, the definition of that and what it means to each person is probably a little different, right? So I think what we're trying to do is, I think the goal for all of us is to, you know, want to, you know, remember our loved ones that have passed away, but at the same time, we have to understand that this gentleman spends all his free time to do this. So how do we best make it work for everybody? I think the challenge that we have currently is with the artificial flowers, we have two challenges. The first challenge is the growing season and the mowing season, right? So when, you know, as Paul knows, when we get a mow the cemeteries, that there's a lot of the smaller work that has to be done. So there's not a lot of people that want to do that work. And then the second piece is what happens to the flowers? You know, I'll just make, you know, let's say relatives from Connecticut come up to visit somebody's grave site, right? And they leave flowers not to return again. Who maintains those, right? If the next week there's a storm and they blow around the cemetery, what happens to those, right? And the thing is, is poor Cecil's got to go out there and take care of all that. Well, hold on, hold on. No, no, no, no, we're not going to interrupt tonight. So we are going to talk as a board. And then I will give you guys all the time in the world to talk afterwards. So we have to remember, Cecil gets $600 a year. No, $500 a year. For 12 months at, you know, 10, 12 hours a week of work. So that is probably what, 10 cents an hour. So we got to think about this one where we're putting this to perspective for him. Unless we have hands saying anybody else wants to be a cemetery, we'll go through that. That would be helpful. So at the board level, I mean, what does the board feel in regards to the current policy, which is, you know, unsightly versus the, you know, elimination of artificial flowers? Where my folks are, cemetery, my folks are down reliable. And they don't allow plastic flowers. They do allow potted flowers. They don't allow shrubs and trees, anything like that. But there's a defined time period because they know especially around the holidays like Memorial Day and dates like that. There's going to be an abundance of flowers and flags. You know, the VFW comes in and puts flags on all the veterans sites, but then they have a certain time period that that happens and it's posted that everything is going to be removed by such or such a date. So what plastic flowers are not allowed. This is a big cemetery. This is, you take all the Bethel cemeteries and put them together and it's probably half the size of this one. I mean, it's just the work involved. It's the work. It's the hours of cutting in around the markers and that is a big impact on it. I have an idea of a percentage or just a big guess. How many graves have grave markers that stand up versus that are flat on the ground? Probably more vertical than horizontal. I don't know. The reason I ask is just the ones that are flat, you could mow over, you don't have to, you could mow over. Well, you still got to turn them around. Unless, well. On the inside. But even those usually have some sort of way for a container to be kind of screwed in to them. So the question is, could we have those flowers but not on the ground but in a hole where the tag is to the headstone which would handle the four period of time taken down after X number, X period eight where that would allow people to do that with counting the maintenance issue. I mean, I don't know yet. I mean, it's still the maintenance issue if someone has to clean it up and I'm not sure that cemetery couldn't afford the cost of installing those sorts, those if they even could be installed into all the stones. They certainly couldn't, the cemetery fund could not afford the town and the cost of installing all of those. It would be, it would be, it'd be so expensive. It'd be like you'd have to hire someone to do. So obviously the thing is we have no staff for the cemeteries. We pay for the two contractors to mow and then Cecil digs the graves and does the maintenance in terms of the trees and the fence, you know, all that. But other than that, that's it, you know, so too additional maintenance and not to mention like the cost. Any other thoughts at the board level? I mean, I know the only one that I'm familiar with my grandparents are buried in the same cemetery in Windsor. And I know when we go once a year, we plant flowers at the gravesite because they don't allow any type of artificial flower or baskets or anything else. So it has to be something you plant or bring in real flowers to put near the gravesite that can be biodegradable or whatever. But so that's my only experience really. Do we want to open it up for questions? I know there's one lady that's ready for some questions. Because they were taken off of my mother's house. Make sure she says her name. The request, the woman you speak, please give your name. The person taking the minutes does not know who you are and cannot see you. I think they know me. No, they don't. The person taking the minutes is not here tonight. So please, the person taking the minutes is taking a moment. She cannot see you, she cannot, she can hear you. Right. But we need to know for the record who you are. Thank you. Okay. Right, my Barbara Hart, I was born in River Street. I have family and my family is my uncle's cousins. My mom and dad have been there for years and we've never had any problems with my flowers. When I put them up there, I don't put them out in the middle that I put them right beside of the gravestone. Now, I don't understand how when we own lots, plots up there that we're not allowed to put things on those plots without getting an argument about it. I can understand, maybe some of them are unsightly, but the flowers we put there, as it says in your bylaws, are not unsightly flowers. They're pretty flowers. Maybe they'll fade in a while, but I have a cousin that goes up there and takes them off in our graves and all my relatives graves, at least by October before snow falls. And I think that if you could put in your bylaws or somewhere, that if they put them on there, they have to have them off by a certain time. I mean, once a year, we put the flowers, we honor our people up there, veterans, families, mothers and fathers. My mother and father have been there for years, and this has never come up before. So why now, all of a sudden, we can't do this anymore? So before I farm the next question, Cisa, so right now with the artificial flowers, what are the big issues that we're having? Or like Barbara said, anything that might have changed over the years that you're experiencing? One of the things about eight or 10 years ago, we tried allowing people to put them on and they would be responsible for picking them up and it never has happened. So they're there, they put them on. The first part of the summer, they're there until the next year. And they're unsightly, they make a mess. And personally, I think anybody that's buried in a cemetery ought to have a decent looking cemetery. And as far as I'm concerned, plastic flowers are unsightly, they fade, and somebody has to clean them up. But the unsightly, he thinks is unsightly is not unsightly. I'll tell you what's unsightly is the sign sitting in the middle of our, telling us that we can't have flowers up there. I think what we mean unsightly is not necessarily the artificial flowers themselves. He just said plastic flowers are unsightly. No, I think what he means is the period of time in which they're, so you had, I think you had a perfect there, Barbara, where if everybody could put flowers at the gravesite during a certain time of the year and be responsible for picking those up, right? Or doing the maintenance around that plot, we probably wouldn't have any of these issues, right? You sure can, just hold on. So I think that's where he's getting at is, I don't think he's saying that, you could correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he's saying that the artificial flowers themselves are unsightly. I think it's the period of time in which that nobody picks them up, then they're there in the spring from the winter, or they're there in the late fall, they get weathered, right? And if they ever get weathered and faded from being out there, and someone didn't pick them up, I think of what he's saying. My name is Vivian Caswell, and I do have a lot of relatives up there, my husband, my uncle and I, my sister, my brother. And you know, he said the plastic flowers are unsightly. He did say it. And a while back, a few years ago, it was that we could put the flowers on there, but they had to be off by September. Right, yeah. And that never happened. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. We did take off. We did take off. Then how come every year I've had to pick up a whole bunch and I'll follow the grace? But you said they were unsightly. What? You said they were unsightly. So I just want to make sure we have, you know, we have a constructive opportunity for everybody to talk and keep things civil. And who gave you permission to do this anyway? I, my question is, who paid for this? Don't make sure you state your name. Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Elizabeth Bridge. I have a sister in law. I have my dad up there. I have family members up there. And I'd like to know who paid for the signs to be put up. Did the town pay for it? Yes, they did. Oh, next to each other. So the town liked them. And they told us they didn't know nothing about it. What? The town liked. Because when we called, they were told. June was told. They were talking about it. They would be vested if we all spoke to the chair. Right. Address the chair and be recognized by the chair before you speak, please. Well, I know the town knows of the decision because we're accepting the, currently we're accepting the flowers and trying to find a home for the flowers. But it's not, it's not fair. Because you guys have put a sign up that Cecil himself said, and I quote from June, no one told him he could. He did it on his own. No, Cecil came in and he and I talked about it. And I got the wording from another sign that we saw in Brookfield, looked at the rules. And as a cemetery commissioner, he has the authority to make some of the rules at the cemetery. He had a very logical argument. I agreed with him and thought that it made sense in his argument and looking at the rules. And so we ordered the signs. And I'm not sure who you spoke to. I don't know why anyone in the office wouldn't have known unless maybe it was the town clerk because the manager's side was ordering the signs. So I apologize if someone misspoke. But what he said was no one gave him permission. He did it on his own. Well, he is the cemetery commissioner. And with that becomes statutory authority. So in other words, Cecil runs the town, not the town. That's what you're telling us? No, just the cemetery. And I wouldn't say he necessarily did everything himself. I mean, there was communication to the town and what she was conveying, what he'd like to do. Now, Cecil put the sign up that didn't mean that the town didn't know the sign was not going down. But as someone who has family up there, I can honestly tell you that my brother goes up and so do and I. And we take care of Junes. We take care of Vivians. We take care of ours. We take care of everyone that we have in the family. Those flowers come off in the fall. We bring them home in disposable. We do not want anything up there. Right. And I'm sure that all the families that are here tonight probably do the same. But if the taxpayers had to pay for the signs, shouldn't we at least have a meeting so that the taxpayers knew what was going on and why it was going on before? I mean, I packed it high enough without little things like this going on. I mean, to me, telling someone they can't put flowers on a graveside is something that the families should have a right to know about. The families that we own the plots. I know the town does take care of that and own the cemetery. But we own the plots. And you're telling us that we don't have any say in what we can do on those plot lots. As a matter of fact, my lot was sold twice. But I mean, we should have known what was going to happen because those are our lots. And we have it for years. As I said, it's been years. My family, my mom and dad have been there for years. They've been there for years. They passed away young. And they've been there for a lot of years and there's never been any problems with putting them back. They love flowers. I'm looking back and it's hard to know what all I can see and hear about it just says all lots shall be sold with provisions for perpetual care and immediate placement of corner markers and obviously the rules. But when people, because obviously your family and everybody bought them at different times, I can just go back. It looks like they had effective. They started with their rules in like 1988. So what it does talk about is, yes, that when you buy the lot, but they're sold with the provisions for perpetual care and placement of cornerstones. And it does give other rules and regulations about vaults and liners and that sort of thing. But it's so just so you know. But what I'm saying is that we should have known what was being planned before we went up there to try to put flowers on there and we see this big sign. And trees and shrubs are allowed with permission from the commissioners? I just want to clarify this, because you were very specifically saying that flowers are not allowed and that's not true. Our allowed does not work. We're having a discussion specifically about artificial flowers. We're not discussing flowers overall for specific, you know, like the convention, but the BMW can be flagged on and there's markets for the different floors. But how many, now he said he went by cemeteries, but how many cemeteries that put artificial flowers on and don't have real flowers on them? Now, the remark was made that everybody said how the cemetery looks so much better without any flowers on them. Well, the people I have talked to, and I've talked to a lot since this began, they wonder why we haven't got our flowers up there, why the cemetery is so bad during Memorial Day. And that's all together a different story. My question is would you be willing to put real flowers up there for the season? I can't do that myself. I'm 90 years old and I live alone. But you also mentioned that you have a cousin who does health work. I can't depend upon people. They work. I'd like to hear from the woman and the friend who's been waving your hands. Good, that's a good, go for it. I'm Janice Ponder and I am really surprised how insensitive the town has been to these ladies concerned. And especially you. I just cannot believe that. That's what a cemetery is for. For people to go and pay homage to the people that have passed away. And if people can afford only plastic flowers, then that's what they should be able to be put there. I'm really surprised that you see something. I think the one thing I just want to get out there again. And I know that this is an emotional topic and we have the right to our own opinions, but we also have to look at, I went into this with complete open eyes, right? Other than I have my grandparents that are in one cemetery, I have no knowledge of any of the cemetery stuff. And I started looking this past week and unbiased to me that there are a majority, and when I say majority, so over 50% of the cemeteries that do not accept any artificial flowers. None. So then there should be some kind of rules. But what I'm saying right now is, Janice, is you have the right to your opinion just like we all do here. But to personally attack Cecil, we have to wait over something that a majority of cemeteries in the area are not allowing anymore. So are the majority of cemeteries in the area being insensitive to everybody? I think that's right. I'm just saying, this isn't like Bethel has decided that we're gonna be the first cemetery to outlaw artificial flowers. And that's the way it sounds here and it's not. So I just wanted to put it in perspective that a majority of cemeteries do not allow artificial flowers right now, period. I think, instead of putting up a sign first, a letter should have gone out to people who own the plants. We should have known. They should have been consulted. I think that it's very, very insensitive. That's what cemeteries are for, to go with the homage to the loved ones. Yeah, we did not have a, we don't have a list of who has cemeteries. But I will say this, we were, I should have put a notice in the newspaper. I totally should have done that. And I also wanna say is the people sitting here are the exception. Not that you all go in and maintain, but it's, this isn't about you. This is about all the other people that don't do what you take the care and time to do. After Memorial Day, there was a whole bunch of flowers placed up there. And of course we've talked to people and tried to return them to people who wanted them. But there's so many people. We haven't even heard from, and we have all of these flowers. And of course we're hanging on to them, but so yes, I take full responsibility. I should have put a notice in the newspaper. That is completely on me, because we don't have a way to notify you individually. Well, if these people take care of things, and the other people do not, then their flowers should be thrown out, okay? After a certain period of time. But just putting a sign on, no more this, no more that, without consulting the people whose loved ones are there. Yeah, as you said, there's no way to consult, because there's no way to consult, because there's no list of who owns them. Well, there should be a list, shouldn't there? Well, not that I thought, but I thought there was one. Right, and you're definitely right there, Janice. I mean, that is a piece of it that, we could revert back a month from now. The better procedure would have been to put out some sort of notice. This is very upsetting to me. Absolutely, very upsetting. So two things very quickly. The owner of the plot, and my mother and father are married, is my mother and father. They are the ones, and I am not aware of any deed or parcel that came, was handed down to any of the children, saying that we now own that lot. That's why we have perpetual care. It is not possible to determine who currently owns all of those plots. So I public notice, I agree. I also agree that to use the blindly handed policy that says they are excited is perhaps misleading and perhaps could be called insensitive. So I do think that it would be appropriate for us to clarify what we need, to have for the policy to which specifically address artificial flaws. I think that that's appropriate. A time limit, or if it's not cleaned up, they will be disposed of. Well, so all of that is something that we as a select board can do in terms of the policy itself. The question still remains that there is a maintenance issue. We have all agreed perpetual care, and that involves the mowing, the trimming, and the disposal for people who don't follow the rules. All of that becomes a maintenance issue, and that's part of perpetual care. When memorials are, you give provided memorial day, are not taken care of by the people who place them. Whoever that is, they become unsightly over time. And that makes the entire cemetery less appealing for all people. Well, you're talking about, are you talking about just plastic flowers because she had said that fresh flowers were plants or whatever? I am specifically talking, well, I'm talking about... Because they die too, and they become unsightly. Fresh flowers die, and they die into the soil. So they are not the issue that the artificial flowers are. If you bring a bouquet, if somebody comes to visit their grandmother, and they bring a bouquet and they lay it by the tombstone, that's going to decay. So there should be definite rules on fresh flowers, and if you plant a little bush or begonias or something like that, that's a different story. That's provided for in the current policy. But fresh flowers, there should be a policy for fresh flowers and for plastic flowers, but it should certainly be put in a notice of some sort so that everybody doesn't get upset. It's not right for them to get upset. About this, so typically, the difference between like having an appointment tonight, so this is done under an appointment to the board, versus if it's a scheduled board event, then we can take things like take action on it, change the policy, not change the policy, you know what I mean, James? So what do we think about this? Why don't we move this to an agenda item for the next board meeting? This two weeks will allow the opportunity for the public to comment back to Therese on, this is what we would like to see, or maybe this is a compromise that we could probably get to. Cecil could have his buy-in as well, and we can take all those notes before the board in two weeks, and we can have what we would call like a hearing on it, and then we could take action if need be, if you wanna change any of the current cemetery bylaws. Because the only reason why I say that is because when we do appointments, so we schedule this appointment, do it like 15, 20 minutes, and then we have another appointment that's waiting, so I just don't wanna keep our other appointments, that's all. So, Mary, I'm gonna just go with you because you haven't talked yet. Yes, I think there's one more elephant in the room. Yeah. Hey, I asked, I know for a fact because I go up with my brother, how often do they trim around the stones? My understanding was it's only once or twice a year. My brother and I go up with a leafwacker, and we do our own trimming, we remove our flowers, we do the trimming, and we put the fact. That's not a leafwacker. Name? Oh, let's put the bridge, I'm sorry. So, I'm curious as to this whole leafwackin' thing because my understanding was that it was from what I've heard from people that it's only done a couple types of years. So, as far as leafwackin' and sending things flying, why is that happening? I think, again, I think when we get back to the artificial flowers, it's not just leafwackin' or mowing, it's what happens when they blow over or nobody picks them up at the end of the year. And I think the thing that we're trying to get back to is we don't have a full-time person that's out there to do that, right? We have basically a volunteer that's out there volunteering their time to do various functions, right? And then the rest of the functions are... So if I have a volunteer to go up there once a month, I'll pick up any flowers that aren't any good. I'll dispose of them. I'll do it. I don't have a problem with doing it. But I don't see why you can't put artificial flowers up. So why don't we... I should answer the question, sorry, mowing is we do pay the bidders and they mow and trim weekly, you know, the cemeteries. So they are trimmed every week and they're mowed every... Of course, when it gets to an August, sometimes, of course, if the grass hasn't grown, it's burnt down or something, then no. But no, we have SNS, lawn care does Cherry Hill? As SNS do Cherry Hill? SNS. Yeah, it does Cherry Hill. And then Harold Hooker does East Bethel and Fairview. And... They're the trims every week. Any trims every week, yeah. And Gilead and all the other ones, anyways, are cared for. I'm not sure what cemetery in particular you mean or referring to, but those cemeteries in particular are mowed. I'm referring to the one right here in town. Yeah, the Fairview. Yeah, it gets mowed and trimmed every week. I get those for you. No? All right. Okay, we just, yeah, we just took... Well, it's kind of this word against buying. No, no, no. I get the bill from the contractor. It's nobody's word against anybody's word. I'll go out and take beat because that was the contract. It was very specific about how many mowings and everything, so I will go out. You tell us to plant flowers or something. You know what? What does he do? He mows over the top. So I think we probably could go on and on in progress. So what I'm suggesting is because it was an appointment tonight, so we don't have a lot of time for the appointment is, and this gives the opportunity for us to go home, think about, you know, can we meet in the middle somewhere? Can we not? You know, I think right now it sounds like that the cemetery commission would like to go to no artificial flowers and change the current policy. That's what I'm afraid is going to happen. But I would say this gives you the opportunity to send your information to Theresa to talk about it. And we'll also have minutes from tonight, so all of your comments will be on record and the select board will give all of your comments. Can I ask you one more question? So do you have addresses of all the people that live in Malcolm? All of the addresses of people that are taxpayers and not to live in Malcolm, you send out tax? Tax bills, yes, ma'am. So send them all a notice that there's going to be a meeting. But the next select board meeting, and this is what it's going to be, they need to be notified. Everybody will be properly warrant under the meeting laws. So they're posted at three locations. We can put out a Facebook post, front porch forum. Or any other publication, if you can think of something that people are using. The hair. I'll get the word out. And then this will give you some opportunity, because maybe there are some individuals that couldn't make it tonight, or usually we don't take business up on, we don't make any changes or anything, it's just more of a hearing to talk about something where next time maybe we could do take up business to change something or keep it the same or find something in the middle. So. I have one question. He was talking about how no one really owned their lot. How come we have deeds to that lot? If we, and we had to pay for that lot. I was sharing my personal experience. Oh, I'm sorry. My parents bought the lots in which they are interned. Right. Now, I don't know that the deeds for those lots were ever passed down to the heirs. As far as I know, the people who own that lot are deceased. Right, but they're selling your relatives. But they also paid for perpetual care in that cemetery. And they are, that cemetery is providing perpetual care. Right. But as far as the ownership of the lot, I don't think that it's possible for us to contact the current owners of all of the lots in all of the cemeteries. That's logical, but there's family that belong to them, people that are in that lot. Well, but we don't know who the family are. We? No, I've conducted many, many, many funerals. And I doubt, and I don't believe that the cemetery in those cases has a list of all of the family members who may have attended that gravesite service. It just doesn't happen. You're, I'm a preacher. I have conducted funerals. And I don't know of any funeral director, any funeral that I've ever conducted, where there was a police sign here so we can contact you in 50 years if something needs to happen with the cemetery. It doesn't happen. That family name is on that stone. The family name is on it, but that doesn't... I disagree with you 100%. I'm sorry, but my sister's last name is not the same as the family name that's on the tombstone. They're not gonna contact her. So, and it's okay, we don't have to, we can agree not to agree, right? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. So what we're saying is right now is we can talk all night about this. Sarah will probably be pretty unhappy because she was supposed to start like 20 minutes ago. However, what we can do is because we wouldn't normally do it, we wouldn't conduct or take on any business anyways. So we won't make a decision on it anyways. But what we can do is we will put it as a board item for the meeting at the end of June that will give everybody enough time and we will try to warn it as best that we can so that anybody can provide feedback and attend the meeting that night. Does that sound fair to everybody? And there'll be a Zoom link so if people can't come in person, they can attend via Zoom too. And we put that in the ODA, so. And I apologize, we don't have more time and it's definitely a topic that deserves more time. But, and we would like to carry on the conversation and hopefully be constructive with a result next time. Does that sound fair? Okay. All right. Well, I thank you for anybody that came in regards to the Summertime Discussion. And I'm sure Cece will be more than happy to have people that would like to help. It is a volunteer position and I'm sure the more help, the better. It's just so disgusting about it. They were very upset, let's put it that way. And I know we do have what we call the hybrid model so you can go on the internet and you can log in that way. And I know some people are better with the internet than others, but there is an option if you can't physically make it to do that. You can also call in, correct? Yep, they could call. So even if you can't, even if you don't know how to do it through your computer, there is a call in number, right? There is, you could also send an email to myself or Kelly that we could put into the select board packet so they can read your, you know, but and like I said, all this great conversation is gonna be in the minutes. So the select board is already gonna heard from you so they're gonna have, you know, have all of your input as well too. So if you, so they'll already have that from the minutes if you can attend the meeting, they already know your opinion and it'll be in the minutes that will be in their packet. And what's unique about that is a family member in Make It Up Connecticut could call into the meeting to voice their opinion at that, which normally, you know, somebody probably wouldn't drive four hours up to Bethel, right? So it is kind of a neat, neat feature that we have now. Now it's just gonna get a minute, Joe. Well that's even farther, yeah. So I mean, so there is that option, you know, to talk amongst your family too. Because again, like Gene was saying, the town has no way of knowing who all the branches of the family are to quantify a discussion. Yeah. Before this without telling us that we can't put flowers on our loved one's grave once a year for us, even if it's until September. But there's got to be a solution. It can't be a solution that says no, that's it. We've done it and you're all done. So the best way for us to come to a solution at the next board meeting is if we can get feedback prior to the meeting, because when the board's able to get all the information ahead of time, then we can start to look at all sides of the story. So if there's, just making up, there's 10 different things that people are looking at, then the board members can look at that material ahead of time so that we can be prepared for that. Where if you wait until the meeting to spring it on, then it becomes something that maybe we didn't have a chance to research or to look further into. Because we would like to do action on it. So I would just invite everybody to make sure they provide feedback to Therese here. Or Kelly or whatever works for you. And the next meeting is when? The 27th, right? 27th. Yeah, the 27th. 27th. Yep. Does that sound good? Do you suggest you might also write a letter to the editor? Herald inviting people to submit some comments. Oh, I'll get the word out. So that's a way to reach many, many, many people. Well, when I called her at the town clerk's office, she said I wasn't the only one that had called in. She had gotten many calls. That's correct. Yep. And so we have those comments, we have your comments. Well, we'll move forward. You won't have the ones that called in because when I called Pam and asked her if I could have the names of the people that called in. And she said she didn't know them because she didn't keep track of them. So. That's true. That's exactly what she said. She said, and then she said that you said, oh, I should have asked you to do that. And she had thought, she recognized your voice. And I talked to Mr. Eicham, Grant Eicham. I talked to him and had his know and so I had spoken with him as well. So I do think that, so some people, but if they called Pam or maybe Deetree, I'm not sure maybe Deetree has a list. She's just was out today. So, of course, my name's Elizabeth Bridge, but my concern is the whole issue with supposedly the town didn't know. Cesar claims he did this on his own, but yet you guys are saying that you didn't know. So. Yeah, I knew. But you acted like you didn't know. Right, no, I said I knew from the get-go. I'm not sure you talked to me on the phone. There are four women that answer the phone there. I know. I know. I certainly knew. Yeah, you answered and you told me you it was and I mentioned it to you them. I knew because we, yeah, and I know Deetree talked to you, Mrs. Hart, and I think that maybe Kelly did. I called you back, but yes, I knew. I knew and I said I knew. And so, but I'm not sure if you spoke to me, then I would have said I knew because I knew. But Kelly, excuse me, Pam may not have, and Deetree probably certainly didn't know. She does pool lessons and does the book. So unless you talk to Judy, so I'm not sure, but no, I certainly knew because Cesar and I talked and I took the picture of a sign that was similar at another grave and looked at it with them so. And someone knew that the flowers that were taken off of my mom and dads because they sent them home by Richard. Yes, because they were labeled with your name on them. Oh. So. But who put the name on, I mean. Cesar, when he picked them up off the. A lot of them. Off a lot of them, he put the name on so that we could. Save. All right, let's go guys. I'm done here. Yeah. We'll, we'll get the word out. Okay, thank you. I do think there's a solution other than just telling them we can't have them. Thank you for coming, Barbara. Take care. Okay. Okay, thanks, Janice. See you later. Thank you. Janice. You have people buried up in death cells. No, but I, I'm a taxpayer and those are my friends. And when they get upset, I get upset. Okay. Yeah. All right. So we're going to get what it is here. Thanks, Janice. So we have our other appointment which Sarah is here to talk. Thanks to you so much. Thank you. Have a good evening. Well, it's still sunlight out there. So welcome. All right, the floor is yours. Yeah. So sorry for the delay. I know you have plans to, to be. I know how it goes. And I've actually never been in here before. So I'm going to join with really beautiful space. Yeah. So I'm Sarah. I'm sorry. I'm Sarah. I work for the White River Valley Consortium managing the working communities challenge program. I think we sent out the brochure to you all in advance. So I don't know whether you'd prefer me to give you the rundown from the start or whether you don't want me to do that if you had a chance to look at the brochure. I would say, you know, if you can give us a high level recap. Yeah. So the working communities challenge is the short version is it's a grant and technical assistance program that the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston hosts an individual New England States in partnership with entities from that state. So they have a Vermont steering committee, a lot of Vermont funders who's funding their pooling and they ran this opportunity for communities in Vermont. It's a two phase process, which I'll touch on again in a second, but essentially there was a planning grant that the White River Valley Consortium has been in since 2019. And as of the start of this year, we have received an implementation grant. So the working communities challenge opportunity actually encourages is designed for and for smaller communities even requires towns to band together to reach a certain population threshold in order to participate in this program. So back in 2018 or 2019, when the opportunity for applying for the planning phase first came out, it was actually Joshua Jerome from the town of Randolph and Rebecca Sanborn Stone from here in Bethel who took the lead in inviting all of the neighboring towns to join with them for this opportunity. So really Bethel is one of the founding members of the White River Valley Consortium and it's since has grown to include 14 towns, essentially centered around Randolph and Bethel and there was that map in the brochure that I sent around. So during the planning phase, a number of organizations that serve this area, community members, community volunteers spent a long time discussing together what is this, what issue do we want to work on together for the implementation phase? It's a really flexible grant program. It's meant to help communities work on whatever issue they identify as most important for increasing economic opportunity for all residents of their communities. So over the course of the planning phase, the White River Valley Consortium ended up selecting the topic of housing that's affordable for entry level workforce and beginning entrepreneurs. So as we all know, there's a huge housing crunch in this area and that specific population was really where we felt like there could be a value at. There's already a lot of entities who are doing really great work around affordable housing or senior housing and we saw a real need as a consortium to work on housing that's accessible and affordable for young people, people early in their careers. So that's the idea with which the consortium applied to the implementation phase and we were awarded this three-year grant that started at the beginning of this year. Again, it's a really flexible program. So I don't yet even have for you a target. Like we're not saying yet, like we're creating X many numbers of houses and we're not even saying we're definitely working on X, Y, or Z strategy like zoning. We have the time to work together to collectively decide what do we want to do to address housing for that segment of our populations. So we're really in the early phases of we've been, so I was, I'm speaking at first person because I live in Royalton and I was a volunteer community organizer member of the consortium during the planning phase and then with the start of the implementation grant I've been hired as the coordinator for this effort. So we've been really like getting all of our ducks in a row in terms of logistics, processes, outreach. And now we're at this phase where we're ready to, we want to start engaging directly with the governments of the 14 towns we're serving as we go through this process of figuring out what projects we want to work on around housing for young people and people early in their careers. Is two rivers a part of the, so then you're aware of the seven of us towns that are working on zoning, by-law changes and updates too for making housing easy. Yeah, they are a core team member and Sarah Rait is on our, we call it a core team but it's essentially a steering committee for the consortium. Okay, great. So we're deeply in the loop with that work as well. Yeah, that's great. And we're probably not going to, as a consortium we're probably not going to be looking at zoning because that effort is already going on. So we're looking at complementary solutions, other solutions to that. We've been trying, we have a couple of properties one in particular that was housing units that had a fire and it hasn't been redeveloped and I had reached out to two rivers at some point I haven't heard back yet, but looking for a developer to put them in contact with the owners who that I've had contact with to say, hey, here's this property that they are really needing to unload to for some housing and so for me it would be nice to try to figure out how to make certain connections for Bethel to bring developers into Bethel that want to do some housing like that. Yeah, that's a big piece of this work. I'm not a housing expert. I'm here to help people meet each other and network with each other. So a big piece of the value that the consortium brings is making those connections. And that's a need we're hearing across the White River Valley too. So while we haven't decided our big projects yet for this grant, we are planning sort of learning already starting to plan learning opportunities for the community. So there's networking events like this one for the representatives of the municipal governments. We're also talking to a medium scale developer and fairly about organizing. So we'll be organizing a field trip to this nine apartment building unit and fairly that will be open to everyone in the White River Valley who wants to come learn from that. So really sort of like trying to arrange that sort of connectivity and learning opportunities for these 14 communities that we're serving. Nice. I know here in Bethel, we don't have a lot of, well, we don't have a lot of, we don't have any green space or areas to make our footprint larger. But what we do have is we do have a lot of existing structures that could be rehabilitated into housing. Well, like Therese was saying, and our biggest thing is like who do we, who's that connection point that we put? Like A to B to be able to make something happen because we do have buildings that have kind of just faltered or stayed in a certain stage that we do have good opportunities. And we have consistently a lot of individuals that come in to take part at the schools and work at schools and GW plastics that housing has been, one, housing and daycare have been like the two big drivers of people coming and not coming. They kind of go hand in hand. Yeah, and childcare was actually. We didn't have the childcare or that, but yeah. In the planning phase, childcare was one of the other finalists for what we were thinking about applying for this with, but one of the reasons we did it is because we were interested in seeing how the model that GMDC is working on in Randolph will turn out. Exactly, yeah, that's why. So we're kind of, we just figured we would wait and let them run that as a pilot and then see. Is it a Green Mountain Economic Development? Is that who's doing it? Yeah. It's the 80 child, they get right on Slack Hill. Yeah. And GMDC is a core, is a member of the core team for the consortium as well, so. Sounds like you have a wonderful group of everybody in the know. What are you specifically looking for? Yeah, so we are, just big picture, like I mentioned, we are starting the process of exploring what work the consortium should even take on over these next two and a half years together. We want the town governments to be partners in that, certainly to be involved in the conversation, not that we're going to be expecting you all to take on loads of work. That's what the consortium is for, but partners in the decision making, informing the decisions about what the real needs are. So we really are just at the point where we want to start building an ongoing relationship with the select boards of each of the towns. And the really specific granular request is that this June 30th event, which will be hosted here, is really the first opportunity to bring representatives of all of the select boards together. The staff from the Federal Reserve Bank will be presenting more about what this working committee's challenge even is. We really wanted to give time for the select boards to directly talk with the Federal Reserve Bank staff and really understand what this program really is. It'll be an opportunity to meet the other members of the White River Valley Consortium. So I'm the staff person for it, but we have 10 folks on the steering committee and then many other volunteers as well, but the steering committee members will mostly be attending. And then really, so the agenda will be intros from the rest of the White River Valley Consortium, an opportunity to hear directly about the program and ask questions of the Federal Reserve Bank staff. And then the last segment of the agenda will be breakout groups for the representatives from the towns to start talking with each other. I've been hearing a lot of common threads across the communities, which is one of the reasons that we should be working together on this. So it's really a first opportunity to start comparing notes on what are the specific challenges in Bethel? Well, in Bethel, there's not that much space for new development, but it's buildings that you would like to see reuse, sort of comparing notes and starting to hear what each other are thinking about doing. And then from there, we would then have other opportunities to work with you as well. And that's why that's on the next, the agenda item is to pick as much. Right, so specific, so that's basically one meeting thing and then see what goes up. Yeah, so we have other ideas already for how we might want to work with you afterwards. For example, we are getting ready to launch a robust public engagement, community outreach, information gathering process. So certainly we will be talking to Bethel residents anyway. And if you wanted to be an active partner on that outreach process, we would love that. If you were interested in hearing having us help you organize more direct public engagement specifically of your community, like a walking tour of some of the sites in town that you think could be potential housing, we have the staff capacity and the partners who could help organize that sort of outreach event specific for you. So that type of thing, but deciding exactly which of those items we want to do would come after this June 30th meeting. Sarah, is the idea that ultimately, so you've gotten this implementation grant, but what is, I know you don't know this yet, but what is the sort of driver of where that money is going to be used? Yeah, so a lot of the funding does go for operations during the three years. So staffing, not just for myself, but there's other, we have a grant writer who has some time on this project so that we can go after even more funding, communication staffing, meeting expenses, logistics. We have a significant pot of funding to compensate participation from anyone who's not otherwise being compensated. So community organizers who want to help with the outreach, underrepresented folks who we want to be able to compensate their time for participating in this process. Then there are also a few pots of funding that we can apply for pilot projects or for technical assistance. Where we're at in the process is we have, we're nowhere near deciding exactly what to work on, but we want it to sort of narrow the field a little bit because there's so many different things we could work on around housing. So I've been keeping a running list of pretty much every idea that's been suggested. So what could this group work on around housing? It's like 30 plus lines in an Excel spreadsheet. We did have a subset of volunteers in the consortium start working their way through that. Really we were thinking of it as not what are we gonna work on, but what are the most promising things to look into more about to understand whether we're going to work on them or not. So we started a conversation about what are the most promising strategies for creating more units? What are the most promising strategies for creating systems change to make it easier to make more units in the future? What are the most promising strategies for increasing equity and who can access those units? And then also what are the strategies that we wouldn't necessarily even say they're promising, they're more just intriguing and we just don't know enough about them to even know whether they're promising or not, so we should do more research. So we did go through that process and got it down to a list of about eight strategies. We're not saying we have to pick from those eight, but it's a starting point for us to do more research. So that's sort of one track of activity that's happening concurrently with us starting to work with the town governments concurrently with this community outreach process to hear from the community what types of housing do we even want and what types of solutions would people be interested in helping to implement? And then after we've done sort of that due diligence and information gathering, that's when those pieces of information would come back together to allow us to actually decide what we should work on for years in two and three of the grant program. So the actual, the goal is then that you actually will implement some, so there could actually be housing built or is this really just a plan and then maybe qualify for more grant money to actually do the housing later? Or do you think that in years two and three you actually may implement a project and actually build some more housing? I think it's somewhere in between. I mean, housing does take a while to build, so it's unlikely that there will be significant numbers of units. However, some of the solutions we're considering are things like helping towns figure out how to use revolving loan funds to support housing. That would be a solution where maybe that could make a difference in more units existing during this grant phase, even without additional funding being secured, just to throw out an example. So somewhere in between, like we're not likely to get enough, get significant funding and build a large number of units within two and a half years, but some of the small changes might see real impact within this without additional funding. Okay, excellent. Thank you. I think the biggest turn right, I've heard and I've really not heard a lot about funding. Yeah. And I don't know if anybody has been watching, but the current loan rates on homes is up over 5%. And also while I was on the school board, I heard this area, which includes Bethel, Rochester, Stockbridge, and who else is in our group? Anyway, we have more than 55% of our children are qualified for free getting to do so. So that tells me that the group that needs housing cannot afford to go out and borrow $350 to $400,000 of 5% interest. So someone's gotta get on the horse and say, all right, somebody, I don't know who that person is, it's gotta figure out a way to get, to do what you want, many, many hundreds of millions of dollars available at a very low rate. So that right there is a job that you and your group can't even do, it takes more people than that. For sure. Yeah, I mean, we are looking at, well, one of the things we will definitely be doing regardless of what the big projects we take on are helping our communities take advantage of the recent housing legislation that's been passed. And I know that that's a drop in the buck in terms of what's needed, but that's a good example of there are more, there are new and more resources, and it can be really hard for our small communities to understand and access those resources. So we're certainly going to be helping the 14 towns access those resources that do exist or that have been newly created. And we are also working with banks and figuring out their changes to their lending practice. I mean, I obviously not interest rates, but there's, I really am hesitant to even say this because I'm definitely not a banker, so I'm probably gonna say something wrong. But things like how the loan to value ratio is created for creating an accessory dwelling unit. Like tweaks like that, there's innovative things happening in other places where it's not necessarily our group finding more money but figuring out what are the systems that are greasing the wheels a little bit in other places. And then also frankly, I mean, in this area, we certainly need more funding available for low income families, but we also just need more housing period. And there's not enough of it. It sounds like for the most part, it's putting a plan together and then connecting the pieces of, so we have the plan and now who do we gotta bring in to be the developer to develop this make up in Bethel? Let's say if we looked at three different properties that had the highest likely ability of doing something with and then you're helping behind the scenes to connect the people and connect any type of funding that may be out there for those people to develop these properties. That's basically the thing. Yeah, helping you all make the connections, helping you understand what resources are available. I don't know if this example would be applicable in Bethel, but one example we have talked about is if there's places that are really promising site for more housing development and don't have any water or septic currently, there's models of collaboratively owned but not municipal water and septic. So we're looking at potentially a project to support a couple of different sites across the White River Valley, essentially group purchasing, helping them to get the grant funding to group purchase, feasibility study planning for that sort of collaborative water and septic which might actually make a real housing site more possible. And we would be there to help walk through the process and also have the benefits of doing it as a group. It'd be nice too just attracting a developer too because you know once they build it, they will have the tenants. It's, you know, I know there was a conversation I had with someone who had built some other units in Massachusetts and felt that, you know, they would be the type they were kind of, that they could go up quickly, that they could, you know, and that's the thing is enticing people in a way to develop because they will get the tenants. The tenants are here. And, but yeah. Or they will come, you know, I mean it's. And it doesn't have to be all multi-unit either. I mean, one of the most promising strategies we're looking at is are there ways we can support creation of accessory dwelling units? So adding in law apartments all into existing houses and one of the, I mean, that's quick, it's still not super quick, but it's certainly quicker than multi-unit apartment buildings. One of the other things that really interested us about it is the potential to then also help that homeowner stay in their home if it's hard for them to stay in their home and afford to stay in it. Could that be a benefit to that homeowner as well? So things like that, we'll be doing a lot of research into a lot of different models around how to support ADU creation but some of that might be helping tap the new state funding streams. Some of it might be tweaking financing mechanisms or looking at financing mechanisms that already exist like revolving loan funds. Some of it might be finding grant money to cover technical assistance to help homeowners create those units. Some of it might be partnership, like helping create partnerships. Like if there's a partnership with an employer who needs housing for their employees and there's a person who would be interested in adding an apartment but is nervous about being a landlord and having to find tenants, could we help support the creation of a partnership where they've got guaranteed tenants who are backed by the employer and then the employer has housing for their workforce? So helping think through all of those solutions and figure out, on one level, we're looking at what makes sense for the region because a lot of what I'm hearing across the towns is the same town to town and then also realizing that each town has its own differences as well. So helping look at solutions that benefit the whole right river valley and also helping each town understand its own challenges and opportunities better individually as well. So it's certainly not like let's all come together as a right river valley to pick one spot in the valley where we're gonna build a large apartment building. We wanna help Bethel meet its needs. Yeah, it sounds great. So not to get too far ahead of ourselves but we do have an action item for after the public comment. I mean, while we're on the topic now, do we wanna come up with that? Have you decided on the time yet? Yes, I think we're, I will double check my notes but I believe we're, so we're having food and networking starting at 6.30 and then an agenda from seven to eight. Maybe 8.15, I haven't. So do we have a member from the board that would like to represent one or two or whatever? Can't have more than two. I'm right. We're at the Warner meeting but. I cannot be there, I have another meeting so I'm not, I'm not gonna get out of town that week. I'm available, I can go if nobody else wants to. June 30th. Thursday, June 30th. Well, I say that, I'm available now. I don't know, my daughters just got this, like they were getting out of school and they're like, hey, I got this basketball camp, softball camp, like oh my God. Like every night now is full of basketball and softball for the summer. Oh, exactly. But I say that, I'm available. And I have that. That's a question from Father's House. Just to be clear, whoever comes to June 30th, you're not on the hook. I'm not, you're not signing up to be the point person for this effort for the next two and a half years. Really, we just want to make sure every town has someone who can talk directly with the fed or their family. So I mean, I can go if anybody else wants to take my spot, there can. If not, I can do it. Or, I mean, two of us can go, right? Did you want to go, Paul, or? No. So we just, so Jean and I, that sound good, Jean? So Jean and I will. OK, great. That's great. Will you be recording it? So it's a? Probably not. But we can give you a synopses after the next meeting there. Well, I was going to say, we probably won't record the whole thing. But I could try and at least record the Federal Reserve Bank presentation on what the program is. That might be helpful to record. I wouldn't say if you could have it available for Jean and I to pick up or after the fact, maybe email it or something. If you do have a hard copy of the presentation or something like that, that we can get back so that all the board members can read through that. Yeah, definitely. Or a packet that you can print off. Yeah, they're going to do a PowerPoint. Do you know the Bank of Boston? Are they going to do a PowerPoint? I think so, yeah. I can make sure all of that's available. Yeah, just send it. If you find out later, then you can always send that to me even after the fact. I can make sure that it goes into the packets for the slide board. Do you have trees as well? Yeah, we have trees back there. Yeah, that would be the best way is to get trees any of the copies of the board. OK, great. And as of July 1, I'll have office space at the Arnold Block. So it'll be really easy for me to get my chair out of the corner. Do you have a printer there? Oh, thank you. You can print all of them. Yeah. It costs a lot to do color copies. That's right. I won't be running color copies off on their printer. Allish me, and it'll be easy for me to keep the stuff there for whenever it works to meet up. Well, thank you so much. Well, we appreciate it coming in. Sorry for the delay. It's fine. At least we were able to get you right in. Yeah, right. Yeah. Because this came about, what, Wednesday or Thursday? And I was like, I think we could probably make it happen this week. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you all really. Next time we'll flip Ploppy with the cemetery commission. Yeah, exactly. Let's get a little rowdy in here sometimes. Yeah, it was nice being in here and nice meeting you all. I'm looking forward to working with Bethel on this. Take care. It was nice to meet you. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you, too. All right. And we will open it up for public comment. There is nobody currently here in person. So if anybody has anything, Kristie or Lenny, now's the time. Well, OK, I think we're going to, high fest is happening in 10 days. It begins. I think I asked Owen to make sure you got packets. Did you get packets or get one of you? Did you get a packet about private fest? Yeah, last time in the prior select board meeting, you meant it. Yeah, they got everything last time. So I just want to go ahead. Two weeks ago. Yeah, OK. So it's running. It's off. It's happening. Just want to update you on a few things about private fest. One, we have, I've been organizing this and we have lots of volunteers from the town, from the town's people. So this is a community event. It's not just us putting on this event. This is me putting on this event. This is a community event. Lots of things are happening. All except for one of the events out of the five are for all ages. Only Saturday night, the Bolesk show and drag show. That is for 18 and up only. All the other events are free of charge, died donation only, and they are for all ages. So there's a prom, there's trivia. There is a movie on Sunday at the town hall. There's a prom at the White Church. There's trivia at Babes. There is, we're doing a queer sobriety meeting. That is strictly for queer people who are either sober or interested in becoming sober. And that's happening at the Arnold block. Thank you very much for the people at Arnold block for letting, allowing us to use the space once again. We have donations from Kaka Doodle, from the Bethel sandwich shop. Everybody's on board. Everybody's supporting this and they're in this. And I just want to make it clear that this is, this is to celebrate each and every individual in this town and the neighboring towns where they are and how they identify. So everybody is welcome to these events. It's a positive safe event. They're all going to be safe positive events where people support each other where the community comes together and the surrounding communities come in and we support people no matter where they are. Queer, buy, stray, this doesn't matter where you are. You're coming to support one another to take pride in who you are. That your town is that diverse and that we support each other. So that's really what this is about. So everybody is welcome. And we've gotten a lot of youth to do a lot of things. We have a youth for the prom. There's going to be a youth doing the DJing. There's going to be a youth doing the photography, a student doing the photography. The idea for the prom came from the young people. So all, this is what they wanted to see at this event. So a lot of this is surrounding them is to bring the youth to this town and to promote the youth in this town. And I just want everybody to know that again, everybody is welcome to this. Every single person is welcome. As long as you come positive and safe and ready to enjoy, everybody is welcome. So that's where we are and it's happening. So, and it's in good shape. Yeah. So, thank you. So, and I hope to see you all at one of the events. Come to the movie. Come to trivia. Anything, just show up. I mean, your presence would be really great. The town would love to see you there. And not just as a select member, but as a person, as an individual who takes care of this town, who supports this town and support the people of this town. It would be great to see some of you there. That's one of the events. If you need more information, I can send it. I can send some more detailed information about each event, if you would like. I can send it to you, Therese, if you would like. I'm losing you a little bit. She has posters that you sent on the posting board. Oh, thank you. But if there's anything additional you want, just email it to me and I can send it to support. Okay. And most of the events are people are, people are going to be in attendance. They've notified us that they are attending. So the more they marry, that's how we feel about it. Okay. Christy, you have anything to add? I dropped the direct link to the Pride Info event site from the Bethel Equity website. It's in the chat for anybody who wants to grab it out of the chat. And honestly, this, I just, I'm excited. I wrote down, come positive, come safe, and ready to enjoy. Like Leonard, those words? Heck yeah. I wrote that down. And for me, I just want to say thank you to Leonard and everyone that's collaborated on this. This is the first town that I've been a taxpayer of that has made such an effort to make sure that I felt included. So I just want to put that on the record. So thank you. It's good to see everyone by the way too. The lady's left. I think a much more unsightly scene at these cemeteries is especially the one toward Randall, that's a fair of you, right? You go into the older section of that cemetery and a third of the stones are broken and tipped over and look like shit. I know, we know. And I would tell you, you were to put some money into fixing things up. Let's fix the headstones. Well, I will tell you, I just, Cecil had approached me and said that he heard from someone else that there was money out there. So I wrote to my contact, Caitlin Corkins at the Vermont Historical Preservation and Caitlin sent me to another organization and they do have some grant money, but I'm not sure if it's just like $500 or what, but for stone cleaning, and I talked to the conservation, or the conservation, the cemetery commissioner and branchry because they had a stone cleaner come in and I got their information for Cecil and then that I was gonna talk to him to see if he, you know, about moving forward with the grant to see who would repair the stones if we got the money. But, and if it's only like 500 with a 500 match, it's $1,000, but I don't know how much it even cost to repair stones. So, but you're right. And it is a concern that Cecil, that Cecil has had is, you know, is about the stones and those, it's, you know, cemeteries, unfortunately, I mean, it will all eventually, it falls to the towns to, you know, right now we do the mowing and stuff, but it may be a situation where we need to, you know, add more money to the cemetery budget to deal with some of these things. I really had to bite my tongue, but I wanted to ask the lady if she had any idea how my great, great, great grandfather, who was in the first part of the cemetery that died in 1839, how they would trace them to me. Because his last name is Wallace. There you go. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. These ladies, I appreciate their hurt or whatever, but do they know how many people that aren't, you know, my father, my grandfather, my cousin, by the law? Great, but there are people in those cemeteries that their relatives have long since gone away. And they don't come back. No, and the thing is too, is of course these ladies are great. You know, it's unfortunately, they're the exception. There's so many people. I have a whole, several filing cabinets covered with artificial flowers. And I have not heard from any of those people to come and get them. And so that's the problem is these ladies take care and are wonderful, but it's the people, the masses that come up. And you know, you hate to say that, but it's that old adage, right, that one bad apple, you know, and unfortunately that's the situation. However, and I will say, I should have put a notice in the paper. I'll give you a note to, when we have your conversation, get ready, I have a note for part of the policy. Are you, you're gonna be here next, are you not gonna be here? I hope to be here. Oh, okay, all right. I thought you were like, planning to be here. You know, it's got plans. I can get run over. I saw what the next agenda to accept it, yeah. You're having a different cemetery discussion. Yes. Okay. So is this, well, this one? Is that our family? With him? Yeah. No, he already told me before the meeting, so. Well, the, I mean, some of the areas are challenging, and there's a lot of, there's a lot of care. It's not this. There's a lot of care, but it's, you know, finding the right person and, you know. Oh, it's such fun. It's not a full time gig, you know. And it's not, it's not this situation that caused that. Yeah, okay. See, I just found out about it today. We don't pay a lot of our appointees anywhere near the amount of money that they. Deserve. They're at the top, yeah. Sure. Gene is the right word. I expected this before now. Yeah, me too. All right. Well, we'll move forward. Close public comment. We already took care of the next piece there, so. So Gene and, Gene and I will represent the board here on 30th of June. Thank you. And Teresa will get any of the hard copies to the presentations to the board members. And then we were just kind of, just get back on the wagon here and talking about the town garage. Yeah, so. You wanna do there? I was telling Chris, this poor gentleman pulled into our parking lot and I happened to be walking out to ask Kelly a question. And I see this car and it says Morton buildings on the side. I said, is there a person in that car? She said, I think so. And I was tapping on the glass where guy was like, he goes, I thought you were gonna tell me to get out of here. And I'm like, no. So they're different. I thought they were the metal building, a metal building, but they actually do wood. And, but it worked out good. I said, see, you pulled into the right place because it gave me a brochure and a card. Currently we have had the furnace is checked out. It's good. We've got the oil furnace working. The electrical panel is, wills hold in addition. We got the ceiling fans replaced. We put in better lighting. The overhead doors are gonna be going in. So we are doing some stuff to the existing building. I know it's terrible, isn't it? You're never gonna find it, right? Next time I gotta move us back over there. It's my bad. You give it an hour and 15 minutes and it'll be fine. Yeah, exactly. And they can see us. They can see Chris and I too. So, you mind, but thank you Gilberto. They, so anyway, so I'm not sure what are next. Steps are regarding the garage because prices are so expensive right now. I was, when we talked about the architecture, oh no, I'm sorry I didn't see it. I would have. I got a cold summer breeze. I was gonna take it. Recreating conservation commission. I just wanted to give him that tribute. Yeah, he was a wonderful man. Thank you. Anything else for the girl? There you go. So, you know, with the prices right now, when we had talked to, done a more detailed RFP before, I had like a budget of 600,000 and engineers are like, you know, this is like a million dollars. And we really are looking for a standalone building to, but the, you know, not even touch our existing building and then re-side them. And this gentleman said, well, you know, we could build, you could build the building and have it, you know, right, and everybody goes, we wouldn't be, he said, we wouldn't be able to metal side it to make it look like all one, but I said, does it necessarily have to? It could be in addition that we just re-side the existing building. But so I, there's a part of me that wants to, there's a gentleman in Rutland that does metal buildings, part of me just wants to talk to somebody, like no commitment, just get this gentleman over here to like, is this even possible, what we're thinking? And then can you do, you know, people are saying like metal buildings or metal buildings, you don't need this necessarily need this to be all engineered and this and that. This could just be a metal building that obviously one building opens into the other building. And then, you know, we re-side it, because we already know from the structural engineer that you can't attach to the existing building, but he said, obviously you could re-side it and make it look like one large building. So part of me just wants to talk to somebody in just the metal building business to see, hey, you know, is this possible? What do you do? What have you done? And just to maybe try to get some more information, because obviously engineering is going to be extremely expensive, whereas maybe we don't need it if there's someone to come in and just build a metal building, but maybe I'm way off course. I just kind of wanted some. I think it doesn't hurt. There are not a lot of companies on the metal building that went up in Randolph. We could find out who did that building in the memorial places. Oh, in days, right? Or in days of the Green Mountain Memorial or whatever you had. Yeah, the Green Mountain Memorial. I mean, it doesn't hurt to get a couple of different opinions at this point. And I think the challenge is, like, I mean, if we were to hit the Powerball, I would like to have Chelsea's, you know, that building that went up in Chelsea a few years ago. I mean, that is like perfect. And it was over. It's got the right square footage and stuff. I don't know if it fit completely on a property, but most of it would. I mean, that would be really nice. And that was over a million. It was about a million dollars, I think. Four years ago? Yeah. Oh. Another source, Bethel Mills. The folks upstairs at Bethel Mills have contacts all over the place. Yeah. You might be able to come up with some names. But I think what we're getting at, and Dave hit on it a little while ago, is yes, the building materials are expensive, but what is gonna get even more expensive is the financing portion. So, you know, paying, I'll make it up, paying 20% more for materials is gonna be nothing compared to paying two or three percentage rates over 25, 30 years to pay for a building, right? That's where it's gonna get really expensive fast. I mean, you can almost say, we'll pay an extra couple hundred thousand dollars more to build it with lower interest rates, because the interest rates is where it's really gonna get expensive. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sorry. So I just kind of wanted to, you know, obviously I think about it on a regular basis. And I just, I can feel like somebody who just, this is what they do. And obviously we know it needs to be insulated. It needs to hit certain, obviously energy codes. It needs to be, you know, but we did, we are taking other steps to make sure that it's, that once we, you know, that the existing infrastructure in our building, like we don't have to move the bathroom. We don't have to move, you know, trying to keep things, you know, I know I have to move the waterline, but we know where it is now. And we got our septic fixed and emptied last year. So we know that we've rehabbed that. So we've kind of slowly removing some of the surprises that we weren't sure what we were gonna find. If we were gonna find a septic tank or a VW bug down there holding, you know, we didn't know what we had. So we've located these things. But all right, well, thank you. That's helpful that I can, gives me some directions. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. That was really all I was looking for. Carry on. Yeah, we got. And what else you got here? Oh, American Rescue Plan money. I don't think I had anything. I haven't really had anything different. No new ideas have been funneled in, but yeah, Kelly's working on getting a cold. She's raised every sector of a member's salary 300%. There you go. I'm not with through ARPA. Nothing is what? Through ARPA money. She's got no hoops. Through ARPA money. So I did, Kelly is working on getting, or she did get an estimate on the website redesign, but it just seemed extreme. I was really, I wrote to the people back and I'm like, no, this is not all of a sudden you wanna charge us 5,000 a year for the next several years. I'm like, no, I'm like, I'm not looking for a big redesign here. Like we all, a bunch of municipalities got the same website statement. We're just looking for you to tweak this, make it a little more user-friendly and certainly a little more accessible and ask for some input there. So I've been sitting on a number of about five grand, but they came up with something nuts and I'm like. You just asked, Kelly just asked one. She asked the people who do it now because they already hosted. They're the ones who've done a majority of the towns and because through the Snelling Center there was a big grant and so we thought, we don't need to reinvent the wheel here. We just want them to do a few things to our existing website. Well, I'm not sure how clear they were. Do you know what I mean? So we're gonna. I guess what I was going with that is like, is it worth just in regards to sort of next steps instead of just balking at one number, getting some additional quotes or reaching out to other folks? And so part of it is like, so clearly we have a domain host, but is it, would it be more like, I'm just kind of spitballing ideas, but like, would it be more cost-effective to have the town hire a part-time person who's responsible for the website specifically and budgeting that in would be less expensive in the long run than, you know, so it's maybe 10 hours a month of their time to do those updates and to, you know, kind of keep it up and running, but also make it a little bit more accessible and could that solution be a potentially more cost-effective than hiring a company that looks at the same? I don't know, because I mean right now we have to change it all the time. Everybody's kicking out agendas in minutes every week, so like Kelly doesn't mind the maintenance and stuff, there's just some issues that we would like to address. Like there's a big bar like the photo that if we move that, if we could move the menu and kind of do some things, she's done some research with other websites that she feels like that would really work better for Bethel and be a little more efficient for people to find things quicker and, but anyways, I just thought it was, I'm just not sure we were getting the answers to the questions that we wanted, but yeah, so we may end up having to do something more, but anyways, so that was it, is still, I'm still trying to, is we do, you know, that is still on the list, is redesigning the website as with the use of some ARPA money, and I have not yet had time to write the RFP for the pumps and the generators, so I know Richard's kind of- But I would say that, you know, right now, just kind of the way things are in the world and it's, you know, this inflation thing is gonna be here for a while, so it's, you know, probably our best bang for our buck is to do things as quick as we can, for one, for cost-wise, and two, you know, lead times for certain things are gonna be long, right, so pumps are probably gonna take months, you know, to get where costs are gonna start going up, right? I mean, you gotta think, if everybody, if all these municipalities start spending money on pumps and things and, you know, demand and costs and lead times and things, so, you know, however we can come to the conclusion on how we wanna spend that money, of which, you know, some of it we've already kind of concluded to what we wanna do, but we do still have that part of money there. I just need to get the RFP out, and honestly, right now, I've just been focused on audit prep, but once I get the RFP out, then we'll have an idea, and at least I have some, that shouldn't be too, too terrible because I have some, I know what I need to bid for because the engineer already looked at it, so I know like the make, the model, the this, the that, so. Sure. But yeah, so we definitely will probably have to spend that money before September, which is fine. Yeah, we said that. And I would, yeah. Yeah, we're gonna have to. Let's go to. But anyways, so that's it. So no updates on American Rescue Plan. I had an email from a man called, Oh yeah. I was asking whether any ARPA money could be done. And he said that their investment worth only was about shop. There's everybody else's? Yeah. Well, but yeah, and they were saying they were, he was asking about that. I'm not sure because it can't be used for. Well, it just has to be an existing municipal function, right? Right, but we don't have anything to do with the library. The library is a private entity. I wonder if they could get. But we do appropriate money there a year, right? I'd like to go for others. Like we would. Human services. I was wondering if that would work. Yeah, we already. Human services. It would have to be. We already appropriate money there, so is that a normal town function, you know? Yeah, I mean it would have to be, but I think it's not very much money. But, so it would have to be some way like that. Well, we just increased it to what? 5,000 the last two years. Right, exactly. This budget and the one that will start in July. All right. And so I would have to look at the client. The report's changed. Oh, that's on the list. I think that's a different one, though. All right. And for that. I also suggested in my reply that is it a immediate issue or is it a long term? More much than taking it. Is it something that needs to be budgeted or something that needs to be. Upgrade the social service budget. Social service budget. All of those kinds of alternatives. There's also money out there for libraries, depending on, you know, the grants and that sort of thing. So they should also reach out to, you know, there's obviously the State Library Association. But, oh, put it on the list. Anyway, I just. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for really helping out. That came in and came out. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's my question. Added? Added to this. It's been, it's been very nice. All right. OK, so. You left in your town, man. I didn't tell you that link on June 9th that contained a link to the Cannabis Regulation Training. When you guys, you should watch that. And I tried to watch it on June 9th, but I was on the road. And I don't know if it was just, the link didn't work or if it was just my connectivity wasn't correct, but I wasn't able to watch it. So I'll have to try. So yeah, that's, yeah, so I did send you guys the new link. I already told you about the transfer station. I did, with Rita's help, submit our grant application for upgrading the new sidewalks from the Giffords to the school. It's a $530,000 project. Then the pool opens Tuesday, July 5th. So that's exciting news. I'm telling you that I'm going to be taking a training. And some days off, our audit is scheduled. And I spoke to Diane Placy. And 69 Church Street was sold to another interesting party. Interesting party. Good news is I'll bring a small business to town. Last time I spoke to Pam, there was still not a property transfer tax return on file. So I'm not really feeling like I'm at liberty to say publicly who the buyer is. But I called Diane. I'd sent her a letter telling her she hadn't contacted me. But I thought they were going to come by. She didn't. And then I sent her a notice saying I was going to be gone. I'd call her when I got back. And then when I called, she was like, oh, we just sold it. I was like, OK. I'm like, well, I hope you got what you needed from it. And so anyway, so they've been cleaning up the property. Yeah. They've been hauling a lot of stuff out of me. Well, Jen is done. She told me, Bartleman, she said that she's done cleaning up. So I'm not sure if the new buyer is going to finish the cleaning or what. But last time, I knew the money hadn't exchanged hands yet. So with our small whatever it is, a little bit tentative. 0.29 acres out front. Yeah. Is it worth us keeping if the business identity goes in there? Or is it something to talk with the business identity? Maybe wanting to see if they want to purchase that? He asked about it. What we were doing, I said right now, I wasn't really sure. And I just said, obviously, we mow it and maintain it and be good neighbors. And he laughed. And I don't know if it may be down the road, depending on who he would be interested in purchasing it. But he certainly just didn't know if it made sense. I mean, if you're going to have a business front there, and we have a little sliver of your property, is it worth us even owning at that point or not? I don't know. So we'll see once he gets going, maybe. But he did ask. I just said, for right now, just letting what I know and doing some research on the property. These are some things I know. I just wanted to share that information with you. And he was like, oh, thanks. And so gave him some names of people who could do cleanup and move trailers and this and that. So I guess we'll wait and see. Perfect. I think that that's based on often thought that that's a possible source for additional parking. So it is near downtown. Have people used any park there for Mr. Wright's funeral and for Frosal Fulerton's funeral? And I think people know. Well, I guess you could, what Jean said is, down the road, you could develop it as a curb cut. You could push the curb back whatever, 10 feet. You could have diagonal parking and probably about a mile. You could probably look into it. You could probably put, I don't know, make it up. So we're just giving it up. You could make, you know, you probably have six to 10 parking spots there, you know. And especially if there's going to be a business there. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Good thought. Oh, it's a good job. Good thought. Oh, what? With electric charging stations. With electric charging stations. There you go. So yeah, so. I think that we have an electric car. It's spoken like a true electrician. Because if you all had electric cars, a great crash, you wouldn't have lights on. Well, at least you're the electrician. You'll figure out yours. Yeah. You're just following the rest of us. You're just following the rest of us. I'm Steve driving around. Why is he the only one driving around? I don't know. It's the one that's coming out of the market. It's a solar powered car. Wow. It's coming. I remember speaking of solar powered cars, I was in high school and they had a solar power event. I don't want to date myself because I'm a pretty young guy. But this was in the 90s. And the event was in Dartmouth at the Green in Dartmouth. And they had solar powered cars. I mean, so that's how long this is, you know. And this was like big technology. It was all a solar powered car that I think it was like a one-seater, you know. But I mean, whatever, I'm not that old of a guy. But that was 30 years ago that was going on, you know. That's funny. So, all right. Select board meeting minutes from the 23rd of May. Anybody have any amendments to it? Are we good to approve the minutes as written? I didn't see anything on there. Okay, all in favor? I did have a question. Did James catch up with you in regards to the banner or the banner costs? Yup. Yup. And I saw him when I drove by and had I had a little bit more time or to stop and ask him, but myself. He was good. I put him in contact with Penny and Kelly and just said, told Penny this is the amount that the select board approved. If you, since James was working on partnerships, if you wanted to put more money in it and put their name on it, also sponsored by Spaulding Press, they could work it out with them, but send us the bill. This is the max we're willing that we can do and Kelly and that we're going to work together. Nice. Yeah, he's awesome. When I was driving by, I saw him and I was like, oh, I wonder if he got... He did. He's awesome. I didn't see a banner size that I wanted to use. No, he called me and said, Good to go. Do I need to talk to you about this Saturday? I'm like, nope. You might just deal with Penny. It's not easy. I'm like, yes, it is. I'm with the wording. You've got it. We'll see Penny. Yeah. He was like, thank you so much. Yeah. He was awesome. Yeah. Very nice. Good. Good. Good. Other communications. And there were a slew of other communications in there. Brett committee. Letter of intent. Planning commission. The roads grant. And we did have two volunteer spotlights in there. I think everybody probably has seen them by now, but Bev and Ellie. I had a couple of... Maybe I don't have questions anymore. I'm looking through the budget. I think I talked to you, but... Sorry. Got me. Got me. Yes. No. So the fire department still has some things that... Yes. They haven't bought them yet that they need to buy. Yep. The fire chief was in today and he had... Ordered a trailer like six months ago and it just came in. Okay. So that's going to be another $7,000 bill. He had the... Because they have like 20... Something that goes to their jaws of life. Yeah. Isn't that... They were going to lender. They finally got a situation to get that fixed. They have some other stuff. They... Gary has a list to order. So they're aware... I usually email them in May and say, gentlemen, start spending. I was going to say he's got like, you know, probably 80% of the money he has allotted. And spend for those items. No. And they... What happens is they like to wait till closer to the end of the fiscal year because if they ever had a major breakdown with an apparatus... Something. They know it's going to kill their whole budget. So they try to be... And they know they don't have much money in their capital apparatus budget. So Dave and Gary are always super conservative about that. At least they have one now. Yeah. It's true now. So they... What do we do? I don't know. Yeah. So he was in today telling me about some stuff that they had ordered that was finally coming in. And they also had to have their rescue fixed. So that bill will be coming in. And so some things were... But it looked pretty good, you know, like I was talking with you. Yeah. You know, it looked like budget was coming in ahead. And I... Well, I wrote in some notes so that you knew, like... Things look pretty good. Some bonuses were... Or not bonuses. Yeah. So they're coming in, of course, like stormwater catch basins. Yeah. And, you know, things like that that we would see. I did also talk to... I'm working with Greenbacker right now because the BRTS currently gets some of our money from our net metering. So I did reach out to them today to ask them where we could allocate that money so that the net metering obviously stops going to the transfer station July 1 and comes to us. Gotcha. And maybe that'll take down Town Hall. So there's some stuff in there. Obviously, you know, don't lose sight of the fact that we were 30,000 total in the hole when we started the year because of retirement. So sewer water budgets are going to be a little wonky. We were not planning on obviously doing... Making the payout to Tim in this year, in this time frame. So, you know, that's... That will be a little bit wonky right there. But other than that, yeah, I was just working on audit prep so made some notes for you guys. Sure. General Fund looks like page eight. You say there is for the long-term debt for the Town Hall, you say one more payment, but is that due in the fiscal year or is that one more payment? Oh, due in the fiscal year, yeah. I should have thought about the wording. There'll be more one more payments on top of that. I was hopeful. I don't have a copy of the time. I didn't think anything was coming up like that. I was just going to say, if you look at your town report, there's a list of the long-term obligations. No, no, one more in this fiscal. I'm sorry. No, that's fine. Of course you're thinking. It's not like that. That's right. You know, I'm thinking this as I'm doing it to myself. What was it, 2006 or 2007 when they did this? I thought it was in 2000, but... Yeah, I was going to say closer to 2000. I think so. Because they were doing all the fundraising and everything in the 90s. When I came in 2006, they were still doing work to this building. So I don't know. It was 2000. Anyway. We're still playing. Yeah. I was trying to count backwards. Trying to work on that in my head now. Crack open your town report and you'll see the balance and the turn. So unless we have anything else come before the board, we are going to buzz into executive session quickly to talk about town employee merit increase. And that will be it. I got a little small thing to add to that. In executive session? Yeah. About personnel? Personnel. Okay. Okay. Do you need Theresa in that or no? Yeah, I'd like her to be here. Okay, so we'll have Theresa in for part of it and Theresa not in there for the other part of it. I mean, it's really... Unless it matters. It's really quick, but I don't want it on camera. Okay, that's fine. I think Steve is moving to go into executive session to discuss personnel matters. Yeah, Paul second it. Paul, you second it. I think he beat you.