 This is the second half of the biennium, which means that anything that doesn't get out of committee by the week after the biennium next week is done with this biennium and we have to start over again completely from scratch in the future year. So they're working feverishly, both in the house and in the cell, together how it was done. The big news, this last week, as you might have noticed, was that the big house, the minimum they built, over the back of the kitchen, what that would do is $10.96 minimum wage up to 1175 next January and then the cost was $12.50. Thereafter, people were putting in pieces that they didn't want. So we were very happy to have that done. The other piece that, one of the other pieces in the house that I would also call is that we have a house with the Global Warns Solutions Act. What that does, the real deal with the Senate, agrees with us, is, in a, quickly, these states' goals for current emissions into statute, they're now ideas, but they're not enforceable in any way. It also sets up a mission, a climate council to really look at what we're doing across state government to get agriculture, to talk to transportation, to talk to agency economic resources, to make sure that the policies that we have across state government are insane, and that everyone's going in the same direction. That they hold in front of the agency to the agency economic resources, and they will pass. They will do a ruling, both in a related process, to implement anything that requires money or taxes will necessarily come back to the legislature. So they can come up with a plan, but anything that requires legislature to actually come back to the body. I do want to remind you that the U.S. Census is about to take off. You will be getting in the mail something from them in the next month. Please respond. It's terribly important that we get what they call a complete count. I heard that there's one town in the vicinity that has the census show that they've got 100 feet of people, and the town clerk said, no, we really have 300 feet of people. This is really, it's important to not ship, not to hide from them. It affects the money that we get from the federal government. Vermont gets at least $2 billion from the federal government, whether it's from highways or county facilities, or support for the local government is going to be terribly important right now. And we really need to make sure that everybody responds to the census. So you can do it by mail, you can do it by phone, you can do it online, but please don't ignore the letter we get. I want to mention is that after years of looking at it, we did finally pass on the house side a bill making some changes to Act 250. It's, there were lots and lots and lots of ideas on the table, but at the end of the day it's actually some fairly modest changes to the existing law. The good news is the chance they have designated villages and downtown centers can have that section exempt from Act 250. We did not change the elevation, that applies. We did not change the local commissions. Those were proposals that were on the table for a while, but they didn't make it into the final bill that we're sending over to this side. I do have a written report. It's out on the table when we vote at the point up, and I will be, this is Tommy, we're home this week, so I will be available all week if you have any questions for me, and I'll be with you for the time you're going to pass them on. Well, you need to throw them away from the monitor. Oh. Yeah, this is, as Sandy said, this is the midpoint in the legislative session. We had to wait, because every bill has to pass both houses. Theoretically, when the founders set up the Vermont Legislature, they set up the House of Representatives as the most democratic, lower case of the body. The one closest to the people, they control money, and then the Senate is supposed to be the upper body. We are the wise ones. We'll make sure that people don't go off the deep end. We actually don't know. It is, I've never seen the slightest indication that the Senate is any smarter than the House. But it's a good idea to have every proposal looked at twice, but two separate bodies. I want to mention one thing. Our governor, to his credit, has responded to the coronavirus issue. And his position, and I share it with most people do, is that we don't have any cause for panic, but it is proven to recognize the possibility of thinking. And it's proven and reasonable and responsible to prepare for the worst without following around saying everyone's going to die. Just saying, in case things get there, we should be ready. He has appointed our commissioner of health, Mark Levine, as the head of his task force, and commissioner Levine is, I serve a lot of welcome people. So I deal with him all the time. He's a smart guy. He's a scientist. He thinks scientifically, which he needs a lot more of these days. So I think we're going to be working at it. One thing I noticed, I decided yesterday I'm going to start getting work thrown and I'm going to shake hands doing the elbow to elbow thing. It is very hard to be insulated. I'm still shaking hands. And washing your hands, touching something other people will touch. Going to the men's room in the state house and then I have to use a towel to open the faucet from where we're doing the towel. So I put it up the counter and now it's contaminated. They're just figuring out how to do this, thanks a lot. But you know, it's like learning to rest. You get it. Act 250. As a Democrat, I am proud of how much of my political career has gone into defending a major Republican legal legislation. Act 250 was developed by, was that it? Time's up. Art did, Dean Davis, Jim Jeffers. Small Republicans, as to their credit, they came up with, I think, a women's law. In the 1960s, by the 1950s, the population of Vermont was about where it was in 18, Dean Davis said, the tragedy of Vermont is that our beauty is a function. In the 1960s, there was suddenly this influx and it was a good thing for you, jobs, you needed tax revenues that had more money circulated. But it was also very much, it appeared to be destroying the Vermont area. And the two camps, one was the camp, the more conservative camp, which was saying, we like it pretty much the way it is and we want to sort of discourage it. The other camp was, you know, we need the jobs. We need the revenues. Time moves on. And bring it on. What Dean Davis and Art did, and those folks came up with, it was an idea of a wonderful compromise, which was saying, yes, bring it on. We want development. We want people. When you develop, do it right. That's a beautiful compromise. Not a split the difference compromise. Not in the middle compromise, but a compromise of recognizing both imperatives. And from the get-go, there were people who thought, well, this is confined to my activities, so it must be unconstitutional. It must be a violation of freedom. The fact is, we've been extending activities over the years. I was very worried that this time, I think the reform that is coming down is basically, but that's why there's two houses. That housework has now come to the Senate. I'm no longer on the help of the Natural Resources Committee, but we will make sure to go over detail. I have reservations about any Act 250 exemptions. And the downtown exemption worries me. I would rather that downtowns have the ability to get what's called a umbrella permit, which we already do for industrial parks, where we start with an Act 250 permit for the whole area. And then rather than any development in downtown having to get an Act 250 permit, they just have to get an amendment. And years ago, I chaired the District 3 Commission. I can tell you, amendments were all handled by the administrator who called me his chair. And we talked about, say, yeah, run by the rest of the commission. I think we did. And he used mail a little bit. He would mail and keep the permit next time. So, because we do want to make it easy to develop downtown and more structure-regulating of Alabama, the countryside. I mentioned earlier, I'm glad that our commissioner helped thanks scientifically, so to the public. I think the scientific debate ended decades ago. There was a political debate about the science, which I think now, finally, is over. Where I have not heard anyone say to me, they don't believe in any man-made global warming. It's been about, you know, a year since I've heard someone say that. But we do have what I call denial of light, which is sort of saying, yes, it's a problem. Yes, we have to do something, what? And the big body doesn't do anything that costs anyone the Earth to be used to anybody. And we're coming up on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the finest generation. And I wonder what would have happened in January of 1942, right after Pearl Harbor. Here, the American people had the attitudes that a lot of folks seem to have about global warming. But they just said, well, I'm also winning this war week. Well, you can't raise your shrubs when you're crazy. That's extreme. We may have to do some things that anybody needs. And we may have to do some things that cost money. But the other thing is a lot of what we can do about global warming will save money, will make it money. So it's not a matter of, I would all say, the choice is short-term, bottom line, a blind environment. But that's not the choice we have to make. I think the fact is that it's taking serious steps, science-based steps, about global warming. It's an economic mix of that. Some things won't convince people. Some things will actually make life easier and cheaper. I think no one has ever complained that a speech I gave is too short. So I'll knock off here. But of course, trying to be brief means it's a lot of stuff that has to do with the study that's actually on it. So I will hang around in the back for a little while before I put that vote to vote. And again, since I'm here, thank you so much for the years for the life you made in New York. Thank you. Hello. I think that's the first assignment comment. And I noticed it was a little bit of a pain when we started in the second minute of 8.22. He needs to talk to us like we've got here. Now, are you going to vote or are you going to stop and read the morning? I think I'm probably going to vote not so long. I'll try to vote in life first. Everybody give me a pick. Can you stand up? Can you do that? Give me a hand. All right. Will you vote or is it going to stop? I feel like it's going to be at the community house on Stockbrook Town on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2029 a.m. to transact the following business. Article 1, let the following officers return educated to fill out a meeting with officers. 1, lottery number one year term. 3, treasurer for three year term. 4, flight person for three year term. 5, listener for three year term. 6, auditor for three year term. 7, collector for one year term. 8, agents to defend and prosecute suits for one year term. 9, grand juror for one year term. 10, first constable for one year term. 11, second constable for one year term. 12, trustee for the funds for three year term. 13, secretary commissioner for three year term. 14, lawyer and bank share for one year term. Article 2, to hear the auditor's report is to take any necessary action there are. Article 3, will the town vote to pay real estate taxes and two people in solid to be on August 15th and November 15th. Article 4, will the town vote to collect a question of taxes or to authorize the town trader to collect grant taxes. Will the town vote to accept the total project for every minute, 737,761. Article 6, will the town vote to authorize the board of selection to borrow money in education and taxes. Article 7, will the town vote to charge penalty interest for late payment on the first and second installments due for property taxes. And article 8, to do any other necessary and proper business brought to force by the annual time limit. And that's signed by the staffer to step forward to the United States Thank you. Good job. Okay, first order of business to elect the moderator. I just want to take over. Mark loves doing this. Last year. I know. Okay. Second. Move to close nominations. Second. Aye. I'll go with the moderator for one year. Right. That was 29 years ago. Also. Also. Also. You're going to realize that. So. I think. I think he was right. Just. I think. I believe. We're not. I told you. School. Is it. Is that. I guess. Well. We won't be. They. Was. There's a. The. The. The. First. I'm meeting today at the record, but they said this was this Thursday, and they made me feel it. Consider it has to be worn, not people that think it will feel it. I said it. Me, I think so. I think it's okay. No. No, no, no, no, no. There's no way. Okay, moving right along. Number two, we need to select the down part for a three-year term. Nomination term order. Move nominations to close. Second. Most of the names that we call nominations are all signified the same, aye? Aye. All right. Number three, we need to write the criteria for a three-year term. Nomination term in order. Nomination term in order. Second. What is called as a nomination in the second term? Do they hear me in the nominations? Move the votes nominating. Second. Most of the names in the second term we call nominations. All the votes in favor signify the same, aye? Aye. All right. Most of the votes, congratulations to you. Here is the third result. Okay. Number four, this is great. Moving on to May the clock. How do we do number four? We need to wait for the select person for a three-year term. Second. Most of the names in the second term we call nominations. Congratulations, Leigh Ann. Thank you. Number five, we're a three-year term. Nominated. Any other nominations? It's both of them. Second. Most of the names in the second term we call nominations. All the votes in favor signify the same, aye? Aye. Most of the votes. Is that one of the names we have on the top or the top of the top? Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. So, we have two. We have two. So, what do we got? So, we got also two years. One of their nominations. We got a lot of them. I think it's three years. Second. Most of the nominations. Congratulations. Number five, we're a three-year term. Number six, we're a three-year term. Number seven, we're a three-year term. Yeah. I think we can come up with the last two. Okay. We'll worry about the remaining two than the other one. So, right now, Candidar is a nominated second. Most of the names in the top of the top are the servers who are nominated. Second. Most of the names in the second we call nominations. All the votes in the second term we call nominations. Number eight, Jack Green. Jack Green is the nominated and seconded. Have you been nominated? Seconded. Most of the names in the second term we call nominations. I know when Jack made the wave, I don't know about ourselves this morning. He's out there tending. Good job. Who's the nominated and seconded? Any other nominations? Most of the nominations. Second. Most of the names in the second term we call all the names in the second term we call those votes. Those votes? It's three more. Well, it's Homer Perkins who came with the state of Vermont basically. I've held that position before. I've had the position. The position is in honor of Homer and it hasn't been any other. No one has complained so far. And you were... The thing is it's... Well, you've been elected so it's not been any... No, no. It's just that the position is, some states have abolished it, but I honor Homer's history so that's where I'm at. Thank you. Second. Puckets is the nominated and seconded? No. Any other nominations? What is the nomination? Second. Most of the names in the second term we call all the names in the second term we call those votes. I haven't seen that we've never willing to do the years. Basically, the only thing that I can see is the horrified God capture. Thank you. Hello. When we grab along, would you like the second council for whom you're chairing? Nominate Ryan Merrill. Second. Ryan Merrill has been nominated and seconded. Any other nominations? Who would be called as nominations? No. Second. Most of the names in the second term we call nominations... Second. Bill Whiteford has been nominated and seconded. Any other nominations? Who would be called second? Most of the names in the second term we call… Nomination with all the names in the second term we call those nominees… Second. Most of the names in the second term we call those nominations... Second. Most of the names in the second term I don't know if they'd cheer or look at your turn. No, it means to be in a better field. Second. Oopsie. First and the very second. We both don't know anything. The whole paper's sitting in the back and saying hi. Hi. So you mean we could come over and be in the cemetery again? Yeah, I would have watched you here. Yeah, I had to go clean up. People had to look at home. I don't know. Time for number two. Can you hear me now? Is there any necessary action? Who keeps on the other way? I don't know. Are they here? Yes, I can. I have to say those people are really deaf. I think I've heard a lot of questions because I've been in this problem for almost 30 years. I don't know why. And the motion that we kept being so moved or so moved. Second. All the favor is to be glad to say hi. Hi. I have to close. After number three, we don't vote for favor or state taxes and duties. So it's almost two on minus 15 to the number of 15. This is a practice we've been doing the last three years. So let's move on. Second. Right, we'll say R Building and MLE. We've got the truth. We've got the實. Motion to elect. That. to elect the collector of current taxes, changes in the transfer of a second loan. Was that seconded? Seconded. Any questions, comments, or vote on the question? Discuss it. All those in favor, on the transfer of current taxes, signify the signing on it. Discuss it. Another bill for a committee. Article number five. We'll attempt to vote to accept the proposed budget. Recommended amount is 777,766. We're going to give you a number. A couple of sevens on the air. Some groups. This is our discussion. We're just going to make it. Discuss it. We should know about it in the budget. Figures that stood out to you. Decisions that you thought would be addressed for things that you might want to share with us. I've pointed out a couple of things I didn't know. But my first paragraph, I'd be interested in hearing from the townspeople about maybe adding resources to the town highway department. I know it's getting increasingly difficult for a two-man crew to cover the mile of the highway, given the ball of the weather. I think it's becoming an issue with work or safety to have these guys basically on call 24-7 from no time. Especially with the weather. So if you have a good guy in there that maybe would say something to someone. You can actually rotate a guy so that you have the time off and count on having the time off. Instead of going home and getting a call right back out of work. It's certainly not in this budget, but we wanted to bring it up now. So we had some feedback on that. From the townspeople. We're running for a little fool to talk down the road. Do you think we have any thoughts? Good question. Do you run? I'm respected. It's the highway budget. I'd like to find out what it would cost to be able to mow on the roadside. The shirvel problem is starting to get worse every year. And it's one of those things that can only be dealt with by cutting it down before it goes to sea. And generally all the towns cut it down once it's gone to sea and spread the sea everywhere. So unless you want your fields and ditches to choke out the shirvel. It's the only thing that really can be done. And usually people just, it's a matter of not wanting to. We're not having the resources to do that extra mowing. So. Just a little bit. If you'd rather not be able to put a thing that's around eight thousand dollars when we mow on the road. So we wouldn't have to add another eight thousand dollars. We wouldn't have to cut it down to about sixteen thousand dollars. But I do think that you should be mowing if we could before it goes to sea. But I think we would have to mow on the road. In general life personally is important. The guidance that you guys think we need. A third person on the crew for parts of the winter. And that's, you know, I think we should at least identify that and figure out what that's possible. And I'm saying to them all, taking care of the resources to go actively. At least my experience always pays off more than trying to catch up later with over time. The problems that occur in the winter staff. Thank you. I'm going to do it. And then you try to schedule it before it goes to sea. I don't know. As far as I've done, it pretty much is good for the rest of the year. We just want one of our guys to do it. You're going to have to go out and fly it. Glad to still be doing it. We contract it out. I believe it, right? Yeah. At least I get out there and talk to people and talk about how my brush goes. If you're on the mowing before it goes to sea, it's the first time it made any sense to do it. Because when you're going to stop the seed, you're just going to have to cut it before it goes to sea. But you're going to have to cut it so early. I just want to know how effective it will be when you cut it before it goes to sea or after. It's outside the right-of-way now, by quite a distance. I don't think it'd be any stop in that religion. They need to come up with a different plan, I really think. Yeah, it's excellent. 100 feet out of the right-of-way. That's right. I think it'd be a good idea if David would not pull all the seeds up by hand. It doesn't even work. Round up barely kills it. That's what you're doing. It's not my top security, but I'm retired. I bet it's the best time to cut it back before it goes to sea because it's in the fall. That's what it's all about. We had a guest speaker here last summer that was a professional. That's what he does. Lori was at the meeting, and this gentleman, as crazy as he was, he seemed to have a lot of knowledge about exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. So I can get that name if you guys want to talk with him. He does a lot of work for a lot of other towns. I think he said he worked for Norwich, Woodstock, and Palmfret, and down south. He did know exactly when to cut it, and he said how to get rid of it. There has to be community burn kiles where people can take their own weeds and burn it, and he seems like he would have the answers. It would be worth talking to him. The big problem with chervil is that we can mow it down before it goes to sea, but the roots are still there. You're just going to grow back and head up again. So you can mow it down 10 times. If the roots are still there, it's just going to come back. So it's one way to slow it down, but it's not going to solve the problem. It needs to be pulled out, yeah. It's certainly not going to be impressive, but it's kind of really helpful. It's going to slow it down, but it's not going to drag it up and down the street, to the mall, to the sea. I mean, it would be a strategic move. Jim Linden mows my lawn, and he weaks my bank around the flowers, and it has really, two, three years of doing that, has really thinned out what comes back between mowing, and anybody who's been by my house knows that we don't mow every week. I mow when it gets tall. So it has a chance to get back. The only problem I have is the stuff that's in the middle of the flowers. So mowing does help significantly, because they don't have the leaves to draw the nutrients down into the roots. I just had a question about the process. We're in the middle of here. Are we making an advice into this like we're to increase the budget to allow for these recommendations, or are we just saying these recommendations and that doesn't necessarily have to change the budget? And the moment we're just discussing the budget. What are our options for these two items that we're saying might require more money for the house? If you decide that you want this meeting to be discussed on each side, you want to have a second volume. Then you would have to make a motion on the floor about the proposed budget by the number of costs to have a second volume. You'd have to change the budget of the community. The highway thing, I'll see you next year. I will speak to it. Just my personal opinion that the highway department at this time does an unbelievable job. It is a small town that's spread out, and I even know I'm on a state maintained road. It's very much value to the idea that I can get around to 20 to 20, and I don't like the idea of driving our employees and their citizens into the ground, but being overworked. So I'm very much supported. Operators and I need to start with you for our third highway person. Can we hear from Dave? Do you feel that you would like to take the person? Well, a lot of times it would really be kind of nice to have a third person, but she wouldn't take about four hours to complete your route. And actually, if it was snowing an inch or two an hour, by the time you go four hours, you're going to have another seven or eight inches of snow in the road where you just was three hours ago. So, you know, there's a lot of times that it would really be nice to have a third truck going to help keep up with the situation. We really want two guys. If someone's running a chain saw this, it's possible we want to have a second guy. And I appreciate that point because if there was an accident, that would go back to the town's bottom line to be a little bit different. What about kids? What do we have? Does that mean another truck? Personally, I'd like to see, before we add my money to the budget this year, we don't really know what a third person's going to cost. We've got payroll and taxes. I'd like to see some thought given to this year and then a number to come back next year as to this is what we're looking at and expenses to add to that. That's what we're looking for, but it is getting kind of put a third person on for a while. We're looking certainly to do some more research on five months and months. Bill. Hi, I support Donna. I think the sec were saying that I asked you for more money this year to kind of get a sense from the community of whether the human resources with a higher vision makes sense. And I think the response to it, there is. We used to have a third person. That person was over time and then was eliminated. We've had a pretty much flat budget for years. But the fact of the matter is two people can't do it all. And one of the two people is our highway superintendent. So when he saw them in his truck, was he planning, organizing, going after grants, doing all the things that are almost impossible. When you look at our budget this year and last year, Dave Brown was brought in 10,000 dollars. 10,000 dollars in grants. Now, he's not doing that when he's filing or he's working on a call or he's cleaning a dish or something like that. He needs time. And you can't ask a highway superintendent to walk in the water every single year. So one benefit we have in extending and getting back to that third person allows our superintendent to spend that extra time in planning, organizing, thinking, and getting the money and resources to get their job done. And I'd like to, another thing about highway department I mentioned, we can't go by labor alone. In most communities, they put all the money in people and not enough in materials. We need both the good equipment, well-maintained materials so we keep up our infrastructure. This kind of has that balance. I agree now that the human resources needs to be reset and I commend this work for putting that out and moving it in that direction. There are a couple of small items that I would just like to highlight. They're really nice in the budget, small numbers. One is a thousand dollars to be proposed to improve and upgrade the time of the website. There's some of the opportunities that we have in our community that we could, if we had a place to go, but oh, God, that's happening. Oh, I didn't know that was here. Oh, I didn't know that event I could attend to. So having a more robust website can help not only us, but also visitors. What about stock groups? When you go to your website to find out, you've got pet groups forwards. You've got employment opportunities. You've got restaurants. So it can help us grow with the community and just help with the communication process so much of what we do here as CommMeets. We've learned because we're listening, and we can hear. One role of that website is that you go to the website and exchange your information so we all are in tune with the date. Also, there's a small budget item for $4,500 to upgrade the computer system. One of the other strong computer infrastructure we're staying still. So those sort of initiatives are really important. I commend the select board, and Isaac's been a really re-elected select person for the initiative line. And this is about a small item in the last few budgets, about $1,000 to give economic development support. We need to grow. We need to get businesses and people here that we're going to grow as a community. And as a result of that, and the assistance of that opportunity, Stockbridge is now, and it's written up in the Stockman's report, is teaming up with other kinds in the whole valley to initiate and move ahead in economic development. So all those things are important. And going back to helping with additional highway support, you can't do everything. If you're doing, I understand if you're talking about doing, you can't be thinking and organizing plans. So we need to, from time to time, expand our resources so that we can do that well. Thank you. So I think we all kind of had a conversation about the highway we were going over. And as far as the term of money goes, is that a recommendation that the, just like what he's looking for, for us to up the budget by $8,000, to do an additional vote? Or is that something you think would be critical? If this is out there to say, you should all figure out which one is the second one, it could be the second one. I think it's both on that. Maybe the left guy, maybe the left one, it's a recommendation on how we're going to do it, all the way well. It sounds like you guys are limited towards some sort of a study. I think that would be fine. If we were to increase the budget by $8,000 for a second, I mean, I'm happy with the opinion that it would help. I used to try to keep it out as money for us, but that would be... But I do hear the comment about, you know, not in the back. It's definitely going to slow down. It's going to be something before it gets worse. It's going to be something before it gets worse. And I know it's a real job, but I think we do need to add to the budget for a certain amount to cover another mulling and research. And maybe if we have to have this guy come in and talk, I don't know how much he charges, but, you know, add that into this budget because it's taking over every place. It's a good time to talk about an update from Dave on the Gaysville Bridge. It's so sketchy. I just wondered if there was any update or any information that we could have. I don't know if the select word wants to share it. I just had one short little blur, but I was actually going to read and it's actually new information that the board doesn't really... hasn't heard yet either, but it's regarding the structural strength of the debt and the hole that's in it right now. Pretty much it's just a cosmetic problem and it has nothing to do with the structural strength of the debt itself. Basically, I heard yesterday to just go ahead and patch the hole, whether Luke and I do it or you hire somebody in there and pay big bucks to do it, there's so many cross pieces in there that is for the structural strength of the debt that basically the debt itself and the cement is just for creating a smooth place to travel along the bridge. Do you need more funds for the town budget? Do you need more funds for any of those options? No, I think we'll be all set there. If we do anything, if we really did decide to do a huge repair there which I'm not in favor of, I'm probably trying to do another structures grant through the state and get them to help me. For right now, I think basically the steel plate that's on the bridge could actually come off and everything will be fine until we have a chance to patch the hole. Has anybody been underneath it to check the hole at all? I had an outfit in there that's where this information came from. The state actually looked underneath it and I had another construction out there. It's been working on the bridge. Look at it too. That's the general consensus of them was it's good for now. Okay. Any other comments on the budget? Yes, sir. I think I'm going to make a motion on an opportunity to add $8,000 to the budget for durable control hardware specialties. I mean, you can proceed on that from the way you got me in the years before. Great. I'll make a motion to add $8,000 to the budget for durable control. Okay. I'm hearing most of the points of comments here and the goal of the budget that we're not sure of which direction to go doesn't seem proven. I mean, I thought the share goal was wrong but how can we increase the budget that we are not sure of saying we need more study? I think there's a problem. I've heard that everyone at BASIC is probably need for a second knowing but we're not sure exactly when. When or how to deal with it? I think either way, we feel that there is a problem that needs to be addressed and some funds could help us all along. I'm not hearing anyone saying that not having additional money to deal with this problem would not be worthwhile unless that's what you're saying. Well, no. That's a problem. It's all over the place. I did. But I interpreted it differently. I've heard that people aren't sure of what to do. Some people will say there's a question about studying it. We don't... Well, we have $8,000 around this cost. We're not going to spend a lot on the model or figure out where it should be and how good it makes it to be. In model, that's what we want. Without having money I suppose we could model it when we'd be over somewhere because we wouldn't have the $8,000 through the model. And it seems to me if we did model I haven't had before it was a seed but I'm certain that you won't be looking for the answer. But you're certainly about to find at least a roadside spread because you can't help but spread it and have it in my hand. I can now put down a 400 seed with my back on trying to drag it out of my hand. And then I was pulling it out of the hand to walk out and try to pull it when it was wet. There's so much to that around now and every windowner in town would have to get on the bus which wouldn't be a bad thing and try to pull it around the bus. But that route feels really deep and the best time to pull it is when the ground's soft and wet and you stand a chance of getting moved out and it's dry and you're lucky that I pulled this man. Well you're going to get it all because it's there. It's kind of like the Japanese bamboo that's running in the house. You can't eradicate it. I know a Japanese bamboo cover put down all the Japanese bamboo covered with black paper up in there for eight years and removed the paper just when you got it in. The Japanese bamboo just ain't no fun. Unless you get the entire route. There's a problem there wouldn't add much of an expense to the control of the shirveless just to add a clause into the contract for the guy mowing if it's mowed after the stuff has gone to the city. Add a clause that before the guy goes it all over town without flaying in the equipment. I don't stop at different intersections every mile or two miles or whatever it would take and have something to either pressure watch the equipment off so that it can contain the seed that's on the equipment in an area instead of keep going everywhere and spreading it more. I would clause this. Stop at the top of the section section intersection and get off and have somebody with a pressure washer on it or whatever and spray the thing off and have a piece of plastic under it so you can collect the seed. And mow down another stretch of the area and stop at whatever that you've gone through the shirvel and clean it a little more often but it would reduce the amount of water that it would consider without adding a second mulling but it would be up to the contractor to have the equipment clean so he's not spreading it around town. Everybody's going to have to learn to bend over to Paul Bruce. No. That's it. It seems clear to me that what we need is expert advice and best practices are for eliminating or mitigating the turtle. I don't know. Let's say that's our first step. Let's say it's an expert advice with respect to it. It may be a similar step in the order of others but we should have ordered this one. This is what we want to do from the turtle with some knowledge and good walking. We also have another besides the shirvel with the garlic monster too that we've got to start thinking about before it gets the worst thing that's a turtle is on our road of sight as well. So that's another one while you're looking into the shirvel is to also look at some of the other interfaces such as the garlic monster that's starting to spread through the span of two. Is that the stuff with poisonous potential? No. No, the parts. That's another one. Cow parts. So Joanne talked about this expert that we had come in the fall. He talked about all these different ways of doing this, mowing regularly, cleaning equipment. He's definitely the guide to talk to and I think he did talk about all these different ways of talking about Japanese potweed in the shirvel as well. So to me, if we wait another year because we haven't decided to spend the money, it's not going to get better but if we decide to put some money in the budget have this guy come and give us direction and maybe some of us will want to get out and have a little pulling party after the rain or whatever but there are a bunch of ways to attack it and if we have the right direction from somebody who's an expert we'll be able to gather some ground on it. I agree. How many more questions in the morning? Is that enough? Yeah. Do you have a question on the floor? Second. Question in the morning? Is the budget by $1,000? We're over. I believe it's at $1,000. What do you say? What do you say? That's what it said. It was $69,000. It was article 5 $761,000 and when I had $8,000 with that I got $777,000 $776,000. I like this number. No, no, no, no. That's the number. Oh, okay. Do your math again, please. $777,000. Second. Most of it is second. Most of it is second. Second. Second. Well, the reason being if your taxes are due do we have to move to question 5? Yes. Second. Discussion. Well, if your taxes are due we've always found if they're due in full installment things. So if your taxes are due there's no interest or interest price. Or penalties. Does it really do? I mean, you've got penalties on the end of the bill. I mean, I think you should think about if they're either due or they're not due. Well, I'm going to pass the floor. Well, I believe we voted in article 15 so if you're not going to say they're due, let's go to the source. Rochester and Depple and Fitzgill to find out if they clicked an interest after the first payment was due if it wasn't paid and they all said yes, we've always done that. So I went to the select board and talked to them about it because when your first payment is due and if there's no interest due if you haven't made it, there's no accountability. So I think that's one of the reasons especially like this year when I got the Delingham Tax List it was very, very high in March 2019. So I think it would give a little bit more incentive and then the other reason is I was talking to the Bethel Town Clerk and I said do you always borrow money in anticipation of taxes and she goes, we don't always have to if we do really well with our first payment this saves our town money. So that was one of the other reasons. What about? Assuming that you would not make Delingham Tax List after the one that's the first one due is that right? You wouldn't do Delingham Tax List. That would be after the second one, right? Right. So no public changing just a little bit of that anonymity. Right. We had a point where we need to consider maybe three installments a year and how long times go to four and we need to spread those payments out because taxes are getting so much easier to survive. God, don't just have a word for us all to think about the number of taxes you do. You don't have a problem anyway. Well, the reason we split is because we get some money up and try to borrow less. That's what I recall why we did it at the beginning because it was always due at one time. So I think that they didn't do the following because we were trying to make it easier for the town to get the tax but if you're looking at the town budget you're trying to get some money in earlier too and it's a combination of personal slap and tax but it also helps the town borrow less money directly. Well, let's give a call with these good living methods to get the name right. Go ahead. Was it an unusual year because the taxes were screwed up? Is that why? Could there be some kind of when it's wrong then that would be a different type of situation where you wouldn't be penalized because you're waiting to see if there's going to be less due? Could there be some type of stipulation for that? Because that was a big deal. We didn't make the taxes at all until they got the real deal. That was a year. Right. But I mean if that happened again but we didn't know how much Even though they were wrong I made my payment knowing full well my second one could be reduced or not. It still was an obligation to pay and it still helps the cash flow for the town. I like the incentive personally. It's the same thing. There you go. Wouldn't that just be penalizing people who are having money problems? I don't have to be a reason for that. Unfortunately that's the way it works. One on one basis. Is there a reason why the days are a little further like maybe June and November? So they're a little further apart than three months. That's why the tax bills don't come out until July. I know at the time they had it close together but they are now. They went back over 15 to November 15 the whole year that made the change but that was the thought behind it. How many of you have questions, comments? Other ones? Move to close discussion. Second. This year is on page 69. We've got so much discussion tonight about all of you that are happening in our community there. How can I ask you about all of these years? And on page 69 is a form that maybe not today, this month, this year you want to volunteer for something or maybe what you're interested in is already filled. But the form allows you to check off what you might be interested in before that to the time of clerk. If you do a call, tell your body you're not obligated to do your plans to change. So it's an opportunity to do things. One, see all the volunteers and make a big difference in this town and if you've got some area you're interested in put that kind of sentence on the floor. Sounds like a good idea but just in case there's a couple here, because I have to close the paragraph. You should cross-strain and then pull the right word. Are you in position? Yeah! It's where we're breathing. Move to those down eight. Close to eight and second. Close. The paragraph is on the case to a part. I'm in position. You have to hand it to us as he's got nothing. On behalf of the meeting, I would like to thank everyone who has generated money on helping our acoustics. We have someone coming in to fixing this so that our meetings will be a little bit easier to hear. I do appreciate everyone's assistance here that donated. Also, the PTO has lots of snacks out there and that money goes for field trips for the Stockbridge kids and so that would be really good if you don't want to eat now. I would love to take home with. Also, tonight is a school meeting and I am just speaking on behalf of being a community person. There's going to be a community meeting coming up for input and Carl Snotty is head over there. I don't mean to step on your toes or speak over you but this is going to be a year that's going to make a big difference for everybody in this room. There's big money, they're looking at big money and not just for the budget but for improvements on buildings or a building or buildings in our partner town. It's a big deal and don't think that it will be taken care of and you'll be okay if you're worried about your taxes because there's a lot of questions that you guys should ask. That's all I'm going to say but it's a big deal and I'll let this pass by. If you see that there's a community meeting I really recommend you going because we all need to have a voice. We could lose our school or there's so many different varieties that they're looking at and because it's a statewide problem. There's just not a lot of kids so if they're trying to figure out the best way Carl and the board are working really hard at coming up with decisions we all have to have a voice because it's going to be very expensive if we're not aware of what's happening. Don't you know is there going to be a race clinic in Tennessee? Yes. Okay. Do you have any way to work? You go on Scottish Connections do you have anything for the internet? There's a date here. You did a 15th and 17th 17th. 17th? Yes. The report's not the reappraisal has moved along at a galloping speed. The gentleman who has been in town doing the reappraisal has in fact visited all of the properties in town. The next step will be the company then sends teams of two to go around and visually look at things compare what they think versus what he has it will be loaded into the computers and a booklet will be produced it will be sent to all the property owners along with a change of appraisal notice for you to read your new appraisal the booklet gives you a chance to say well gee they've appraised me at this but so-and-so has it has property like mine let me see what they did to his so you can make some comparisons to start with. The reappraisal company will be handling all of the grievances you will get notice when you change the appraisal notice it will tell you when and where the reappraisal grievances will be held and it will be all in place in time for the 2020 tax bills. Two items, one with regard to the volunteerism there are two seats open on the planning commission that we'd like to fill so I believe that there's one being forward but we're still moving for another but also when we did the last time plan there was a recommendation that the town organize a conservation commission which might be the kind of thing that people would be interested in specifically to talk about shareable and other basis the park. There are a number of things that could possibly be dealt with that you don't have to put on the select board so there's folks interested in that. The other thing I have is a question there's a slight budget increase for able waste management this year I'm just curious as to what other people's experiences and how they feel about the quality of service from enable and whether it's going to continue to be appropriate for the town I know that we've noticed that the service has kind of come and gone a little bit and also because of the situation with recycling market for recyclables going down even though we're paying recycling fees recycling is going right in the truck with the trash so there were so just whether is actually servicing the town well or not is possibly a question but I don't know what our options are so I don't understand what's going on with the other so personally I put my recyclables in the same truck and I watched that twice in January and I called them and I said what's up with that and they said oh well we separate it when we get into wherever it's all going so that was a concern for me as well also as a select board so I said the select board has already talked about it and before we sign a contract with them we're asking them to come in and meet with us because we have some questions and concerns we've already notified them just to clarify they do have sorting pretty timely through business and they love sorting because it was a concern for me should we go closer or go to the trouble of separating them if they're going to put them in one truck she just said that they sort them by the way time is set to be after recyclables in clear bags and trash in non-clear bags so to me that seems like it would be fairly easy for them to sort ours is not in any bags ours is just in recycling bins they've always come in just empty bins but the trash is in bags the trash is mostly yeah I'm going to get a dumpster okay that's how to pick up okay but I don't want to have it anything else on the road we're going to second what's the plan to second