 So the first item on the agenda is a budget workshop and update of the town hall feasibility study in agreement with Vermont integrated architecture, discussion of budget related costs in the upcoming fiscal year, budget committee to attend, action possible. So I guess what I'd like to do first is just since we have Dave McGeita here with us is talk about the updates on the feasibility study. Liz had an airplane issue last night, so I stood in for her or sat in for her at the meeting this morning. We met with the folks from the, from VIA and I passed out and all the board members in Darinda have copies of the amended budget structure. And Dave, if you could just take a few minutes and run through that, that would be great. Yep. Yep. Principal from VIA this morning, Peter joined on the Zoom call. And they were quite amenable to make these changes. Very professional about it, they thought it could, they didn't make any changes. But the minute after all that discussion was that the target price, initial price stayed the same at $27.09, but now includes $4,000 for civil engineering. So they picked up that. Excellent. And the contingency, which there will be some, they will hold none unless they want for their own corporation. They will hold none of our money as contingency. And what we made that quite clear in the reaction was, thank you, if you want. Which that's kind of rare for an architect, but I thought it was very cordial and they were all working together, they're going to be working with Liz, as she'll describe. They're in a start work probably middle of December, probably January, they'll start, but they're going to want to start visiting facility on their own starting this Friday, pending this board's decision. And I'll just, are you? Well, Peter, you're on the call. That's about it. I mean, they couldn't have been nicer. I mean, they were very clear that, you know, this is a do not exceed fee estimate and that they're going to bill us for their time as they go and we'll know and they'll know and they'll be communicating with us how we're doing on the, how we're doing on the budget. So we'll know, we'll know what's going on. So this is not to extend the question. Yes. They'll be using the standard AIO of the American Institute of Architects forms, which I'm quite familiar with. I am too. Great. So that'll be the way to go. So, yes. Is this good? Are you looking at having it sprinkled and having outside stuff for us to hook into? We don't know at this point. No, we don't have these. We're not going to get a permit for this job. Okay, I just. Yes. As far as the standby outside, I don't know. I think something of the board wants to see that would be the topic. Yeah. Yeah. Right now, we have no water system, no contour. No, we can hook an engine into it and then be fed. Got it. Got it. Yeah? Yeah. To look forward to that. Is it having to do with that? You mean that if there were a fire and you had a sprinkler system, you could actually hook up to it and that's where the water would come from? Yes. Okay. I'm just going to ask you a question. Yes, there'll be, there's usually two. You'll be feeding them. Yeah, I mean, obviously right now, there is no infrastructure for a hydrant system, but if there's a sprinkler system, if it's in there and we can hook into it, that makes our job. That's a perfect example of why they're going to be meeting with the folks who are, thank you. Yeah. The folks who are on the committee. So, I know we have members of the energy committee here and did you want to provide some input on this? Well, can I just first say? Okay, go ahead. The opportunities will be. So. Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Regardless of whether or not we get this grant. So we're applying for the municipal planning grant, which is due December 1st. And next week, I'm going to meet with Andrea, one of the principals of the architect firm that, and she and I will map out a budget that works with this fee schedule, but is, allows us to sort of put some of the work that they would do February 1st and beyond, or at least the billing of February 1st and beyond, because the earliest we can spend the money is, if we get it, is February 1st. And so, they can have done the work that we just can't have. They can have done the work that we just can't have paid for the work. So that'll be a conversation I have with her as well. So she and I will pull together what work would be included in this municipal planning grant. Included in that will be some community outreach opportunities. So they will probably do a town-wide mailing to talk about this process. We'll have a couple of community meetings so that people can come to the meetings to talk about sort of their wish list or hear from the community about what their needs are. They want community spaces, things like the fire department. Certainly, they're gonna come to the select board and they're going to sit down with us to hear from us as well about what our needs are. And people like Sarah and Darinda and the bookkeepers, what are the spaces, requirements that they need as well. So, and I know the energy committee is definitely interested in what are the energy efficiencies that we can do with the building. And VIA is very much involved in, like that's just a part of their process is also looking at the energy efficiencies of a building. So certainly it would be helpful if there were things specifically that you wanted to have incorporated. Again, we're not building a building right now but it's good for them to hear what is on the wish list. So there will be some opportunities for community input, not just in this process with these guys but down the road as well. Cause this is a long process. Like if we were to actually build a brand new town hall building or even do a big renovation, we're talking, you know, best case scenario, three years down the road, we'd have something. If that's when everything, all permits, everything went well. Everyone agreed to, there was a bond, there's all kinds of things. I mean, we're looking three to four years down the road anyway. And during that time, we certainly want to have community input, so. Is there any design proposal review or? No, so they met this morning to talk about, so we had gotten, we had agreed to work with VIA after a, we had received five bids and we reviewed the five bids, settled on two as the top and then settled down with one, which was VIA. So today was the discussion of what was included in their fee schedule as. Dave. Sorry, I'm really tired. I didn't sleep at all last night. As this man sitting next to you said, Dave Megida, that we were able to add in, get in. So it came out to be the same price but we had the engineering added in. So we got more for the money. So the bids are only for the work that they're gonna do and I think specifically for materials or design. Dave can do a little bit more about that. Let's group now the board now, which option is best for moving forward to meet the town's needs operations. And the three options we're having to look at is one, a renovation of this building as it is today. A renovation with an addition. And the third option is a new building. So they're gonna come back, take this group and tell us what the recommendation is for pricing options. The only way to do that is to learn what programming needs have to take place in this building when it's done, in the building when it's done, whether it's newer, this building. So that's a big job to pull off between now and town meeting day. But the schedule that they're working on, they think they can do that. But there's a lot more design work that needs to take place and then construction documents and construction itself. Is there a way that we could get involved with them in this process? Well, we are going to be involved with them. That's critical, it's a critical part of the whole process is that to be as Liz was explaining, there's gonna be several opportunities for the public to participate. Between now and town meeting day? Yes. And then there's gonna be other times where they're gonna want to move to the board. I just wanna work for you guys. So because we have viewers, we need to have a process for interacting here where we identify ourselves and if you should ask a question, you should ask the chair if you can speak. Okay, thank you. Sorry about that, it'll be a little tougher. I've been reprimanded. Also, if everybody could speak up a little bit, that would help also. Questions, anyone? Energy committee? Yes. Yeah, thanks. This is Larry Sharf, energy committee. Yeah, the energy committee is just very interested in participating in the process in whatever way we can. Not just in terms of energy efficiency of the building ideas, but trying to look forward to other scenarios that might be relevant to this process, such as an electric vehicle charging, if that's a possibility, renewable energy, anything that comes into the sphere of energy related technology or transportation or building uses. So we just wanna be helpful and provide any kind of even future looking ideas that would dovetail nicely with any planning that goes on. Well, that's great and we welcome your participation. Liz sort of outlined what the timeline and the process is gonna be, but they're gonna be public meetings, they're gonna be presentations made to the board where you are, there's select board meetings, you're welcome to attend and make suggestions and provide input. And if you have any thoughts at this point in time, I guess I would suggest they forward them to you, Liz, or Dave, if you have any particular ideas. But I guess maybe, and I'm just thinking out loud, but there's going to be a what I call a needs assessment process as part of this. And maybe you would wanna be involved in that portion of the process as well rather than wait until our contractor produces the report and then respond to the report. But we welcome your input however you'd like to, however you'd like to bring it. Oh, that sounds great. Well, we'll participate early and often. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Another question over here. Yes. $16 million to the States to... I'm sorry, Enrique, I remember really our time here. You just pulled on your mask while you're talking, maybe? Yeah. Thank you. I understand that the Inflationary Reduction Act is gonna provide $16 million to the state for weatherization. Are we applying to that for that? Or is there a way that we can do something in there? I would say what's likely we would be, but we don't know at this point in time. Yeah, I mean, at this point, we really are like, this is like phase one A, right? Looking at the existing structure that we have right now because we really feel like we can't go to the town and make any blanket statements about this building without really having an expert look at it. And certainly, yes. I mean, we're gonna be looking at all kinds of funding sources and leveraging those funds as best that we can. Usually, somebody like Central Mont Regional Planning Commission, the League, they have their hands on what funding sources are available. I think Randy's gonna be also probably aware of what's going on in terms of weatherization for municipal buildings. So yes, the answer is yes. So this is just the very beginning, the very beginning. Anything else, anyone? Yes. The contract is not to exceed, not sure they heard what the price is for the study. The amended price for the study, as it stands right now, is $27,740. And the maximum we can apply for for the grant. And I think they do sometimes partially fund grants, is 26-4 with a 10% match. Thank you. Anything else, anyone? Yeah, no question. Yeah, go ahead, Rick. I got quite a few calls on this. I don't have any answers to that. People are wondering why we're gonna spend, why, what's the purpose of this study? Exactly. In other words, we're not gonna, like everybody said, we're not gonna get a design. We're talking way ahead, you know, that we're gonna do this, we're worried, I mean, I think we should, if we do, worry about energy, the fire department and all this, but really nothing that these people are gonna do are gonna tell us that. Is that correct or? He explained that a little better to me, please. I mean, what you're saying is, what are we getting for our money? The $27,000, what are we gonna get? I would suggest you review the proposal. I do? Okay, so do you have any, yeah, quick. They outlined it pretty clearly, what they're gonna do, Victor. I mean, the concept is none of us sitting in this room, and I mean, I know we have people in our community who have some expertise, but before we go for a major financial expense where $27,000 is gonna be very small in the big ebb and flow of things, we just wanna be very sure that we're doing the right thing, that we're taking all the right steps, that we have appropriate professionals looking at all these different issues and telling us, making a recommendation to us. So when we go to the town, we can say, here's what our recommendation is based on the recommendation of our consultant, rather than based on five or six of us sitting around the table here and saying, well, maybe we should drill a well, maybe we should put in some more insulation, maybe we should have a energy efficient boiler, maybe not, you know, all those questions. So we need to windows, who knows? I'm sure we do, but you know. You could pretty much answer all the questions you just put out, right? Well, you know, the other piece of this is, I disagree that we can answer all those questions because I don't know what the cost of renovating this building is, and I don't know what the cost of the new building is, and that's the overarching question to begin with. If it turns out we can meet the needs of the community and renovate this building, and that's a cost effective solution, hallelujah. On the other hand, if it's gonna cost more or the same amount to renovate this building, and it's gonna have all the problems that an old building has, even though it's been renovated, then the answer is we're probably gonna recommend a new building, but I'm not in a position to tell you that right now. And I'm sure if we went around the room, there people might have a opinion about that. You might say, you know, I think we should hire a D10 bulldozer and turn this building into a pile of rubble and burn it up. I don't know, but the purpose of this is to give us good information provided by professional people who we believe know what they're doing about the way forward, the best way forward for the town. And since I'll be representing the select board, you can certainly have them call me because I'll be learning more at the same time, right? I don't know what this report is gonna look like either, but I think it behooves us to have a professional review a building that we know is already in many ways, shapes, and forms, not serving the needs that it needs to be. And I understand that we're applying for, you're applying and we're applying for a grant, right? Well, we don't know if we're gonna get it. No, we don't. And if we don't get it. We're competitive actually. What's that? It's very competitive. Right, so if we don't get it, where's the money coming from? I would say likely, well, it'll come from us. So, you know, is that a good use of our ARPA funds? Presumably it is. It would come from ARPA funds. I'm not saying necessarily it would all come from ARPA funds, but I'm saying it's likely it would. I mean, we don't have $27,000 in our budget for this, so where's it gonna come from? Right, that's the question. Where's it gonna come from? It was on our wish list. Yeah, so there's a couple pieces to that conversation and some of the funding that Enrique had mentioned, you know, the Inflation Reduction Act and whatnot, the information that I mentioned in our last meeting and I forwarded that on to Liz, that's a result of that funding coming down through to the state and that funding is potentially another backup to the grant that you're applying for because it does help fund, you know, analysis of buildings and also energy efficiency measures within, and I'm pretty sure it's isolated to existing buildings. I've looked into it a little bit more since our last conversation and I don't think new construction applies. But if that one grant was to not come through there's potential that there's, you know, this other avenue that's starting to be explored. But I absolutely hear you, knowing that, you know, I plan for worst case scenarios and if neither of those come through my understanding coming into this was that we had allocated, you know, that $25,000 earmarked that on our ARPA wish list which we haven't approved, but for me coming in that's kind of like the vision that I had and understanding that this report that they're going to be generating for us is going to give us, you know, it's not going to give us exact budgets for anything but it'll give us an understanding as to whether or not they're even remotely close to each other. In which direction we want to go because I think the town also will weigh in, like do they want to have a town hall in the village, right? It's part of our plan, our town plan, you know, is this something that's important to the town? You know, or is it that we just build a Bechtel home next to the fire department or next to Rumney? What's the sense of urgency? Why wouldn't we find out if we're going to get a grant for first? Well, do you recall that we went ahead and decided as a board to put out RFPs? And so that was because we didn't get the CDBG grant, the Community Development Block Grant. And so in the interest of trying to move forward in this process, which we know is going to take years and years and we have a failing elevator and a heating system that doesn't have parts to be repaired on it, that waiting six months to see if we get this grant and then deciding whether or not we're going to do this didn't make sense. So then we're like, oh, there's also this grant because grants are rolling, they come up, right? So then we say, okay, we've already hired or we will probably be about to hire this VIA to do this and sign this contract. And here's a funding source that may be able to cover it. Although we had already had the conversation that we would put this money aside, even though there was no vote, we had this discussion. So this was something that we agreed upon as a board. I read to use our funds. Yes. Well, I mean, we had it on our wish list as this is what we would do if we didn't get grants. I'm sorry, I'm not the chair, so I'm not going to answer anything. No, that's fine. Well, thank you. In any case, got something. I can't, obviously, people have a lot of questions right now, that obviously the biggest one is that, you know, obviously the biggest one is that, you know, I guess you want to vote on it. You want everybody in town to be involved. And Liz, this isn't, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, challenge the idea, but people do ask. And you say, we'll have them call you? Yeah. And if they don't want to call you? Yeah, I don't know. That's the only answer. If you don't have the answers, have them call Peter. Peter might have the answers better. Or maybe they will be willing to come to that. But the other thing is, they're going to be public meetings, they're going to be select board meetings where this is going to be discussed, there's going to be a lot of a lot. Once we spend our $27,000, that's the cost. Well, as we start to spend it, yes. Yes. The whole concept for me in this is having good information. I mean, any information is going to be somebody's opinion but hiring professionals to give you good information is good practice. I mean, if this was me building my own garage or looking at my own house, probably I wouldn't do this. I'd go to people I trust and ask them to give me their advice and I'd make a decision. But where we're dealing with a community, I think we owe them, we owe them this. And in the long run, I mean, I have no idea what the number is to renovate this building or build a new building. I mean, there are a lot of questions. For instance, if we were to build a new building or renovate this building or we're going to create a building that has a large meeting space in it, I don't know the answer to that. How many offices are we going to create? How big are we going to make the vault? I mean, all those things are to be determined and that's part of this process. But all those things, are we going to put in a sprinkler system or are we going to put in a stand pipe or are we going to, you know, on and on and on on and on and on and on. This is just the very, very beginning of the process. Enrique had a question and then Dave has a question. Okay, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Enrique. Thank you. I know Energy Committee, has anybody done already an energy audit of the building? Not as of yet. And is that part of the proposal or should we? So they have some called out some figures in here. I've also volunteered. This is where we should start. Yeah, to make that effort on behalf of the town and use it as any potential match that they need to for any grants that might potentially have a match. I know that something that's not very expensive. So yes, that is part of the plan. I'm sorry, who else have their hand up? David. Oh, David. I think no matter what option is selected, the town wants to have a new town hall, whether it's a new operating in this building or a new building or this building plus renovation, that's going to be a costly project. No matter how you look at it, it's going to be costly. And as a taxpayer and as somebody involved in this project, I want to make sure that the homework is done before the option, the best option is presented and locked into. And the only way to do that is to go through this process. Yeah. You can't have people say, I'll bet you that the windows, I'll bet you that that tile has got water dripping onto it. You don't want to do it like that. No, I totally agree with the study of the building. I think the energy audit is something that we can do regardless of any time, that's a good story point, at least for us to know what the situation is. We have a pretty good idea. How fair the situation is in the existing building, how to solve the situation is a different question. The energy audit can give you a lot of leads on what can be done, what the process could be. And that work is going to be done as part of this project. So with that, I'm hoping we've used up 30 minutes of our agenda, good use, but we've used it up. I believe what we need is a motion to enter into a contract for $27,740 and not exceed estimated price for the work which is outlined on the revised proposal. And with that, they will present us with an AIA document. David, is that what we believe would happen? And then we'll have a chance to, you know, David will look it over others. We can all look it over and agree to sign it. I'll make the motion. Okay. And you'll second her, Phil. Okay, so it's been moved and seconded. I just have a comment. Okay, go ahead, Randy. Wondering if that motion should include the contingency of using the ARPA funds to pay for this. I would rather not have that motion tied to it. The reason for not doing that is if we disclose to the potential grant source that we have other sources of money, that's a problem. I mean, it's already on the air, but it's just we, and we already have, it's in the grant that we applied for another grant. We didn't get it and that, you know, if we had to, we would use some ARPA funds to, or that's how we would pay for our match. So, yeah. I just think, I hear you. Okay. So with that, are we ready to vote? Did you have something there to question? Yeah. How do you typically handle contingencies? Well, a contingency is not part of this. That's right. So I guess I think we should approve this, get the contract signed, and at the time we do that, we should say, you know, in our heads, we're building in an appropriate contingency, but we can also do it right now. If you're more comfortable doing that. I don't care. The type of contingency I think the type of use for a contingency in this project could be something that at the last minute, we want to have a study done about something. As opposed to construction contingency is something that was an unforeseen condition. We're not at that point yet. Okay. And we talked about that a little bit. I just don't know how you typically can do it. I mean, like if they were to come back and say, oh my God, you really need to do this. Well, or whatever it is, whatever causes the contingency. On that idea, I mean, you're saying this is the beginning of the process. Right. How far are we going to kick the can down the road before we do something? Roughly. What did you say? A year? On this? We're going to start an SAP. I asked them that question because I was curious. I was like, what are the next steps after this? So I think it's really then, you know, they present to us, we decide, like we look at it and we say what makes the most sense. Then, Dave, aren't there some sort of? There's a procedure you followed. The next step would be schematic design and design development, which means they took our design, excuse me, their conceptual design. We approved it. Now they go out and they do what engineers and architects do. They spend a lot of time putting together construction documents. And before you move from conceptual to design development to construction documents, they have to get approval from this board. They won't march on to the next step without getting permission from this board. Right, I understand that. But my thoughts are that, and the question is, you know, if this is going to take a year, I mean, we already know, like I asked, that the furnace isn't all that great. I don't think the study is going to take a year. No, no, no. The study will be done in February. The idea is to have this study ready to present it. I'm saying, Peter, what I'm trying to get at is we could end up spending a lot of money before we ever did any, if we do anything. That is true. That's correct. But the sooner we start, the better off we are. I mean, we, you know, we know we have to, all of a sudden the water system doesn't work. We've got to fix it, right? Right. If the furnace doesn't work, we've got to fix it. Right. I think that if those, any of those items didn't happen. Yes, we have to address them. But I think that going through this effort, depending on when they happen through this effort, and if we know that we're, you know, we're getting to a point where everything is pointing to something other than investing in this building, that can inform the decisions that we make around the repairs that need to be made. Well, you know, addressing it doesn't necessarily mean repairing. Maybe we simply move operations somewhere else. It depends on the scenario. Yeah. Right. Yeah, if it was catastrophic, that's likely what we'd do. But, you know, there's certainly an open question about the furnace downstairs. Now, is that a, I don't know what it is, $10,000 item to replace that? I'm sure probably it is. But no matter what happens, push comes to shove. We're gonna have some energy-efficient new heating system in our new renovated town hall. That could be sold for some price. It's not like it's a total loss, but it's a one-year-old furnace. But we have to have heat. I mean, are we put in more renize downstairs? That'd be another solution. We really need to, yeah, we're way behind. Okay, I made a motion. No, we're moving second. So the question is that David brought up is do we want to amend the motion to include contingency, I'm sorry, contingency? Owners' contingency. Funds. Owners' contingency. Owners' contingency. So we're exactly, because the question is- Is this like a percentage? Yeah. Like 15% or something? Whatever we think is appropriate. Was that settled at the last meeting? It was, wasn't it? I thought it was. I believe we discussed 15%. I believe we settled it at the last meeting. Ada, can I, I think, because this is a firm thing, I think the contingency should be a budget item and not part of contracting this service, right? And just build it into the budget as opposed to approving this contract. I agree. Because what we're voting on now is approving this contract. And I think we all, we discussed it last time. We understand there needs to be a contingency. I agree. That's a good way to handle it. Who included in the, in the budget. And the minutes will reflect, the minutes will reflect that we've discussed that. So it's not like we're hiding it or not disclosing it. So with that, I would call for a vote. All in favor of the motion, which is to enter in your contract for $27,740 with VIA, please say aye or raise your hand. Aye. Opposed? Victor's opposed. So four to one, the motion carries. So Dave, you will let them know and go ahead with the process. I'm happy to follow the best protocol that's okay with you. Perfect. Thanks, Dave. Yep. I'll be in touch with you after I talk with Andrea on Monday. Fire Department, you're here. Good evening. Good evening. We do have one quick piece of business which involves the fire department before we get into the budget discussion is December 1st is gonna be a big day for the town of middle sex and for the middle sex fire department. Middle sex volunteer fire department soon to be the middle sex fire department. And I've been trying to think about it. I don't think we wanna do anything wild and crazy. I'm not thinking about fairs. I'm not thinking about dances. I'm not thinking about that. But I did think that it might be appropriate to have our first select board meeting in January which I think is what it's like the second or something, isn't it? It's right at the, have it down at the fire hall and just have a little ceremony to acknowledge that the world has changed. And Liz said she'd make cookies at one point in time. Yes, she did. That's a great idea. Oh. I don't know if we need any of that but I think it'd be nice to have the members of the fire department there, have us there, anybody else in town who's interested would be welcome. And I think it'd be nice. How did the open house go? There were quite a few people who came to have their car seats checked. Nice. Yeah, that's right. Nobody from the town came. We had some people from more town and I think somebody from Barry or Berlin but nobody from Middlesex. Oh, wow. You know, I didn't know about it until I saw it in the front porch forum. Like Thursday or something. We had a front porch forum. I pressed the button. Okay. I don't look at it every day. So does that, I don't think we need emotion or anything on that. Does that make sense to the fire department? Does it make sense to us? Yeah. So let's, you guys probably need to make a motion that you're not going to be here but that's not it. Well, we'll have more in the meeting. We'll have more in the meeting that's being there. Yeah. Whatever the mechanics for that are. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully. Okay. Good. Okay. We have budget information. We do. I'll let Eric do it. He's a trader here. Okay. Proposed fiscal year 2023-24. So does the budget committee have to we do? We do. Yes. Okay. Cause I was going to say we should try and put it up on the screen. No, I think everybody's had a chance to see it if they've opened their email. Okay. Go ahead Eric. I'm sorry. Yeah. So the property and casualty insurance and workers comp was added by Durrindo because I did not have those numbers. Those are tentative numbers. Those are just gas commits at this point until we get our renewal. Yeah. Our supplies for the building, we raised it to $200 to $600. Our equipment repairs, we did drop that down $1,000 just because we haven't been spending close to the 10,000 that we had budgeted. We had a few bad years and that's why we had raised it up. But equipment purchases, we stayed the same. Where was I? Yeah, telephone, stayed the same. Fast quad, we stayed the same. Electricity, I raised it a little bit just because I assume rates are going to increase. I think Washington Electric got a rate increase but I don't recall what it is. It's a little more than 10%. 13, I think it was. Yeah. I mean, that's, we're doing a dark for that. Yeah. The same with the fuel heat. I raised that some too, just because I don't know what it's going to be yet. Our building maintenance, we did add a little to that to $42.50 just because there's some things that we need to do to the building. Add some airlines and stuff like that. Change some light bulbs. There's a few other things that we needed to wire up for different outlets. And these are light bulbs that are up in the top of it. Yeah, you're not going to do it with a ladder. A ladder truck. I was going to say, yeah, ladder truck. Well, yeah, not, 35 footer is not going to come out. No. You got to have to be able to put the ladder onto something. Yeah, right. Radio dispatch, I wasn't sure what it was going up so I kept it the same. I'm sure it's going to go up. I don't remember seeing it, Bill, or the estimate for that view. No, and they're in the process of changing the whole system so that they're another, that's a shot in the dark as to what is going to happen without it. And there's nothing we can do about it. It's out of our hands. So remind me when we typically get that therein that do we get it in January? What the radio dispatch or almost update? Usually I've seen it, I thought I've seen it by now. I haven't seen anything come through. I think they're behind the 8-mall on it this year. Well, it's because they're in the midst of trying to figure out if they're going to reorganize themselves, I think. But on things like that, like the insurance cost before town meeting, we'll know what the insurance cost is. We'll probably know what the radio dispatch is. So we understand those are plug numbers for now. Looks like it was a 3% increase over the last couple there. So yeah, I think it's going to be more than that. But I do think that based on that email that you sent through for how they're going to change the dispatch, I think that's something, I don't know how we plan for that. Because if we don't start planning, it's going to be a huge number in the end. Yeah, and I think that was like $10,000 a year, if I remember right. Which I'll have to figure that out. But we can plug those numbers in, certainly. Yeah, I think that's something that when we talked about it way back when, it might be something to throw into this CIP and add that in. And then as a group, figure out how we move forward with funding, everything that's in that capital improvement plan. So yeah, I think that that'd probably be an appropriate way to add that in. Our dues and training should stay the same. Those don't normally go up. Of course, in seminars, we kept that the same. Firewarding, we kept that the same. That hasn't changed in forever. Diesel, I brought up a number a bit just because that's the way of the game. $6 a gallon. We kept the stipends at the same as before. And our radio communication, so our new radios and stuff like that, any kind of radio maintenance, we kept that the same as well. So it would be a tool of, at least on our end, the debt services. Did you plug those numbers in? I plugged in the correct numbers. So as far as prior to the debt services, we're at an increase of 3.9%. And then with the bonds and everything else, looks like it's actually gone down a little bit. Well, our interest is going down as we're paying off the debt. So that's our proposed budget for next fiscal year. And in terms of this year, you think you guys usually come in very good on your budget, even though you spent some money in different categories. So is that what we can anticipate for this year? Yeah, I think we're going to see. OK, great. Questions, anyone, budget committee, the board members? Yeah, for the most part. So even though the structure is going to change, the money doesn't change. So that's the good news. And we are going to continue to watch our budget like a hawk like we always do. From our standpoint, there's no change in how we monitor our budget. Hey, Mark, a question for you. Have we added that dispatch figure to that CIP at this point? I can't remember if we did that through conversation without an official form or not. Or is it something that we should be asking, Eric, just fill out a form and get to us so we can get it in there appropriately? Dispatch is the only thing that's on the dispatcher's note on the CIP. OK, so we should add that. So maybe if you want to fill out one of those forms, we can get it on. And that'll be brought back to light during the conversation that the budget committee has with the select board. Any questions? Anyone else? Any concerns? Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. And this is also our monthly meeting, right? Right. So let's switch from the budget discussion into the monthly meeting. So this past month, and it's built on meeting to meeting month to month. Much busier. We had 10 calls during the time periods. We're up to 61 so far. No mutual aid out. We had one mutual aid in, and that was for a wildland fire. We invited Worcester to the hot dog roast. As far as responses, we had a maximum number of nine responders. Mental number two, our average this time, gone up a little bit to 5.3 per call. Engine one has been out seven times. Engine six out twice. Tanker out three times. Rescue out three times. And truck 14, our utility pickup is out once. That's for the wildland fire, because that's most of what that carries. And then if there's a structure fire, that's carrying hose. Hopefully it's not frozen, but hose back to the station to get dried out and stuff like that. So that's the use of that vehicle. As far as calls, we've had two up on 89. One was the car was smoking. It was a blown oil line. And the engine responded through responders. East Hill, there was a tree in a power line. We held the vehicles in quarters, because it was just down the road from my house, and I went right to it. And we were able to hold everybody in quarters we didn't need to have in response. On a tree, on a power line thing, there's nothing really the fire department can do other than get there and call dispatch and say, hey, this is pole number and get whichever electric company is rolling because we're obviously not going to spray a tree that's burning on a power line. And usually what happens is the tree will burn for a while and the fuse will finally pop and then it's stabilized until they come down and cut it. But we're not going near it. We're not. That's not our belly leg. We just. Make sure no one else goes near it too. Yeah, keep the public away, right? We had a rescue call on East Hill that was canceled before anybody could get there. We had a stuck door call on number two. Center Road was the wildland fire. A Pucker Factor along with Red Hen is the state complex fire alarm. Whenever that goes off and that ended up being a false alarm they called and said, it's a false alarm and we could take a breath and it was, it was almost within a minute that they canceled. So we were starting to roll when we got the cancellation. But any time we hear that that's going off there's a Pucker Factor on that one. As with Red Hen, there was a early morning fire call there that ended up being false alarm that we responded with engine one into six, went in with the thermal imaging camera, checked things out and determined that it was a false alarm. We had burning leaves on route two. We had a car meeting on 89. It was, and that one is quite interesting because it was just past the curve when you get on southbound from exit nine. So we used the tanker as a safety block above that curve to get people over so nobody would be shwacked once they come over the hill and around the corner. That's just something that's part of what we signed up for. And then we had a tree on right at the corner of Story, Nelly Chase in the North Branch, or North Bear Swamp. The Fast Squad calls, there was a total of 15, two of those were conjunction with Fire Department calls. So we had 13 medical only calls. That was up, I forget what last year's, last month's number was, but that was an increase. As far as training, we were planning to have training put on by someone from Waterbury Anglets to do emergency vehicle ops, and they somehow got double billed, so we're gonna do that at another point in time. We are, though, however there is some good news. Our new airpacks were delivered. And we're going to have training next Tuesday on that with the new packs. So until then, we've got them stored in boxes, and a fun fact that it's apparently cheaper labor-wise to send air tanks completely full of air, which then becomes quasi-hazardous cargo than to use the manpower to empty the tanks and mail them out, that's the way it goes. So we'll be doing that and looking forward to having new airpacks. As far as repairs go, our heating system is down. We have had a valve controller that's been out for a long time, it doesn't really get it, but that we can bypass and leave it open in our loop system. But the blower that clears the glue died. And, of course, it died probably sometime during the summer when we don't know it, because it'll turn on for the domestic hot water heat. And that's the only thing during the summertime, but we don't notice it until we walk in there and the temps drop, it's like, why is the heat working? So they came and they figured out it's the fan that blows through the exhaust and their normal distributor couldn't get the part in. So then when I called up Monday and said, hey, we have no heat, this needs to be fixed now. They went to another distributor and got the part and it's gonna come in tomorrow, gonna come repair it during snuck on tomorrow. So we should have heat. Monday morning, even though we had that cold temp, it was 55 inside the building. So the building kept heat pretty well. Normally we keep the bays at 60 and the training office area at 65. So it has been holding its temp. So we're lucky in that respect. And then we're getting, or we've gotten radios. We got a donation through the Middlesex Community Fund that paid for all but more than $1,000 of the new radios. So that's nice to have. So we're getting new air packs, new radios. We're gonna be getting new bunker gear. My hope is that people in the town are gonna say, hey, the department's starting to really do look and act professional visibly to them, not that we haven't been looking and acting professional, but they're gonna start seeing that and maybe it will spur some interest in people wanting to join. Yeah, can't hurt. I think we're in a good position. Obviously with that discussion with the building and the sprinkler, that's to me, that's a benefit of us being here during that discussion because that's something I would like to see us more on, especially as if there's more commercial building going on that we have a say in that approval process. So we know what's coming ahead and if there's something that we need to plan for, like Berlin did when the propane facility went in, they were able to get some funding from the company in order to if there was ever a problem down there that they had the capability to deal with it. So that's, as middle sex starts to grow, we need to be in on the ground floor of that stuff. So we know what's going on and is there any questions? Well, as you know, there have been ongoing discussions about a water system for the village. Well, there's a big one. If we're gonna have a water system, can it be adequate to supply water to a sprinkler system? Hydrants, that kind of stuff. So yes, absolutely. But I feel we're in a good place. I think we're doing well. We're continuing to do well. By the increase of the call numbers, the increase of the responders, those are all positive signs. Yeah. The people are liking what it is that they do as part of the fire department. Great. Thank you. Questions? Questions, anyone? How many members are you? So I think we're at 10 right now. So that's, yeah, it's 10 because at the call with nine, there was only one that didn't show up, so. In the render, we are all set for the December 1st transition. The league's all set. Is it December or January? January. January, yes. I've already notified the league. Okay, thank you. And we'll have our elections. December, we flip our business meeting and training. So it's annual meeting and business meeting on the first Tuesday. So that's when we'll have our elections and then the training is the third. So we'll have those results. Yes, there's a reminder that the select board has to appoint the chief. Right, that's, I'm giving you the heads up that it's coming. The first Tuesday needs to be the third. So I'll get that. You'll have the info prior to it. Right. Thank you. Yeah, I'll be a little bit longer. If you're late, I know we'll be late. Okay, yeah, I have another meeting at seven. There you go. Thank you again. Yeah. Highlight report. Well. Eric, Victor. We have, let's see, where to begin. The pad is going to be for the assault shed. We'll be put in later this week. Being snowing tomorrow, we can't go tomorrow. He was hoping, he said anytime after Tuesday, so I'm assuming whatever better day between Thursday and Friday, that would be good. All right, that's really good news. The equipment's there, right? I didn't see it when we left, but they said it'd be there at some point. Yeah. I'm sorry, Eric, I couldn't hear you. Did you say the pad is going to be installed tomorrow? No, it will not be tomorrow because of the weather. Okay. So probably Thursday or Friday. Okay. The new truck probably won't be until the end of the week. They're waiting on some parts for the plug-in at the hardest down at the dealer. It's all done at where the parts were installed. So I'm waiting on them on that. As far as the salt shed is concerned, I can do a temporary type of structure on this pad with concrete blocks that we have, but I will need to buy some more and put a temporary roof. I guess my question would be, is if I could get the okay to spend up to $3,000 to do so. So the plan was originally to use the concrete blocks we have and put tarps over it. Yeah, I was looking at what we have, but we don't have enough to go high enough. Okay. But we don't want to put a tarp over it flat. Well, the problem we run into with the tarp, and it can be done, but you're going to have to shovel the snow off it every time you want to get to the salt. There's piles up on top of the tarp. Yep. Yep. So what would this temporary roof be? So this would be a three-walled concrete block structure. Yeah. Roughly, the concrete blocks would be roughly eight feet high and just a cheap frame with a tarp or whatever for a roof over it so that you don't have to keep on digging it off and you can dig into the pile and take it out. We're talking about. I mean, you're talking about wood trusses? What are you talking about? Yeah. I acquired two steel I-beams from Bull Box. They had some kicking around. They said they would drop them off for going across to support it. And it's just a matter of putting something up to hold the tarp off it. But I'd have to purchase some blocks. So I don't know. I don't know how many you'll have to have because we have some, some are broken, some aren't. So after I get them all laid out, then I'll know exactly what I'll need. Okay. So. So do we need a motion to approve that? Probably do. I don't think it'll be that much, but they give myself some. We're safer with the motion. Yeah. Yeah, I'll move approved. Is there a second? Yeah. Okay, thank you, Randy. All in favor? $3,000 is that what we're talking about? I'll just put it down. Do you agree with the authorizing specs? I'll interrupt at $3,000 is that what we're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well. You never know. That's all in all going to be a much better solution than trying to put salt in that building. Much better solution. So. Secondly, I had the controller that controls our sanding on the freight liner. The only truck that does salt, I had it changed out to one where we could monitor and control better the salt usage. So it's not being wasted. And that was like, they gave me a price of 3,900, but I think it's less than that. I haven't got the bill yet. But the truck is back and that works. So other than that, we should be good to go for tomorrow. In our old truck, we're still in the. It's there if we need it. It's there if we need it. Okay. Hopefully we don't. And our man doing a CDL training, how's that going? Good. He's almost completed his hours of driving and it's just waiting on the test, which I believe is at 21st. Great. Now I saw in Marshfield, Victor and Eric that they bought with their ARPA funds a leaf blower. And I was behind it. And I'm like, what contraction is this and what good is it doing? Is it doing good? Great, actually. Getting the leaves out of the ditch and off the road so you can grade is. Get in, but they were blowing them into the ditch. Well, it should be going out today. I was like, what? They're just going right into the ditch. Maybe they were just getting used to it. Well, you'd probably have to take more than one pass to get them out, but yes. But it's an. Yes, because Berlin has an attachment they made on the front of their grader that does that. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, I heard why it's important, but I was like, they're just blowing them right in the ditch. Well, but they just probably had to do a second half. It was very slow though. Oh my God. It was like going like one mile an hour. Yeah, I don't. What kind of stuff? It was on the back of like a pickup truck. Oh, yeah. You know, they were the bag that was coming next. Maybe the was the back. The bag hanger. Oh, yeah. It just didn't look terribly efficient to me. It was just sort of just blowing them into the air right down into the ditch. But yeah. We can buy a hell of a leaf blower to put on our roadside mower. Yeah. If that day ever comes, if that day ever comes. Anything else? I don't think so. Did you ever make a trip? Yes. Go ahead. Talking about that roadside monitor, I know I gave that to you. Have you got, did you get touch bases with Pete's shell? I haven't yet, no. That's on my list of things to do. There is one more thing. The guardrail. Yeah. We had a question come up from a resident questioning about having a guardrail put up on Center Road, just below Peacart Corners, going towards Brooke Road on that outside where it drops off. Because the road, there's nothing there. Yes. I did a quick call to Lafayette's to get a price on having guardrails installed, just because I figured that question would come up with how much it would cost. They have two different prices. They have $38 a foot for brand new guardrail, or $19 a foot for used guardrail. And that's about 770 feet. So you're looking at a difference of $15,000 to $30,000. For a guardrail. For a guardrail. I remember I asked for a guardrail on Dolan Road in a long time ago. I'm just giving the information out there, and letting you know that that question was brought up by a resident. So you guys are aware. So that's the inside of that corner? It'd be the, well, it's the outside of the corner, where it drops off. I should go down the hill. Put those big stones on, like you do with some of those places. Like on Portal Road, you have those big stones so that, I mean, the car would crash into them, but they would crash over into the river. Austin, don't let me, but there's nothing there stopping a car from going over the edge right now. Not much. There's a couple trees, but that's about it. Where on the side of the road? Yeah. So you can come up and you can go down the hill. Down the hill. It's down the hill. It's right on the right-hand side where it drops off. There's a big yellow house. It's on the right-hand side, it's where you, so same, just down the intersection, go up there. Same center, right. Where the center road seems to be. Yeah. It's Brook Road. Above that, it's above the center road Brook Road intersection, that's what you're talking about. So right up towards the corner. Oh, come on, I think that's a right turn, that's not right. It's a big drop. Just put a sign up. I'm just passing along the information. We don't have that much in our wardrobe, do we? No, we do not. When the bus goes down, Dolan, into that ravine, then maybe they'll get it. Yeah. A gargoyle. That's all we'll take. Well, you know, we should have our eye on things like this that we need to do, but we need to do it in a planned way. Maybe there's grant money available, who knows. But as you said, when the bus went backwards off Molly Supo up there whenever it was two years ago, that was pretty scary. And that isn't a big drop off. We got some, came down the hill backwards and went off with all the kids on board. Scary. That was passed along today, so I forgot I'd bring it back. OK. Well, when you guys get to your budget, there you go. We're working on it. So I ran out of a question. So I came up my driveway one fair fall summer morning, and there's a guy with a flash, like, peering in the culvert across the road. Yeah. So I stopped, and I went over and said, hi, what are you doing, blah, blah, what's going on? Oh, I'm from the Regional Planning Commission, and we're doing our culvert survey. Yeah, I haven't done the information back yet, but yeah. So they, and I guess somehow I didn't remember this or didn't know this, but every so many years they do a culvert survey, part of their services to us. Yes, and that information is stored on a map, which we have access to, and we can update that as we replace culverts as well. Yeah, I saw him down off from Center Road, and I thought it had to do with the bathing project and the culverts that were put in through that. I was scared as well as the environmental people telling us we needed to put shot rock in all our ditches. Anyway, I was just interested. Yeah, he should be done that now, but he said he would get the information as soon as possible. Yeah, okay, thank you. Yep, thank you. Where are you going, or how many feet is that drop-off? How's that? That whole distance is 770 feet, I measured it. A long, 770 feet along the road, the drop-off. No, it's not that deep. No, please. Don't put that under the tool and put a panic on our hands. I'm scared. It is a pretty good drop-off though. Yes. It is a pretty good drop-off. Okay, anything else on the roads? I think so. The new paving is really nice. People are driving really fast. Right, I was gonna say, we didn't need to spend all that money, we could've just had people drive more slowly. So did we get, we're all set on the grand portion of that? On the grand portion of that? I finished filling it out, so I'm just gonna review it and then it gets edited along. Well he's coming back to fix that joint. Is he still gonna do that? One right on the bridge. One way, John. No, at the, no sex day highway and no sex, right? The transitions down there, heading towards the interstate, there's a bump. And they're gonna address that. Which one don't you like, the one that goes down towards Great Old Pork Road? The one that's right on the bridge that's pulls all the water right there. That one. That seam right there. Oh, seam in the center of the bridge? Yeah, it develops a big pool of water there to the inside of the bridge as you're coming down. Get a drill and drill a few holes. Okay. Thanks, guys. I'm sorry, we're running a little behind schedule. So, Wrightsville Recreation Area requests a raise on per capita assessments. Director Collin O'Neill, I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you, Collin, earlier. Welcome. Thank you. I think I might relocate to make it a little easier on people who are remote. Oh, the Alice, the Alice is here perfectly. I'm sorry? The Alice picked you up. Oh, I didn't realize I thought it was this. Yeah, right here, on the job. Great, all right, so why is that? I can see you. Yes, so you are correct. We are seeking an increase to the cap of the annual per capita that we assessed to all four of the member district towns. And just to give you a little history, the park has been in operation for 37 years, and over that period, this will be the second time that we've sought an increase to that cap. I've run the park for 21 years as my side hustle. And we did seek an increase to the cap eight years ago. We increased it by, we got that approved by all four towns, and that was a $1 increase. And that got eaten up pretty quickly by the great increase in the minimum wage, fully in support of paying people better, but that's, it's gone, minimum wage has gone up significantly in that eight year period. Now, just because we're seeking to increase the cap to $4, we're not in a race to get to $4. The plan is to go from the current $1.50 per capita in 2023 to make a significant increase to $2.50 per capita to enable my position to go from a side hustle, which this year will be 1,200 and something hours. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's no longer, I say that in jest. It's no longer a side hustle. So the plan is to increase that, that between that and our increased revenue and a new contract we have with the state that contracts us to maintain Shady Reel and the Boat Launch, those all, those sources will enable my position to go to 85% of full time for 2023, which will enable me to leave my real job and focus entirely on Wright's film. And the reason, well there are a couple of reasons why we want to transition my position to 85% and perhaps eventually to 100% of full time is to keep up with current demands. The park has gotten very busy. There's safety issues that go along with that and having more time to do more thorough training with my crew. But most significantly it's, we have a lot of deferred maintenance. So we can try to get the funding for that through a few avenues. One could be to come to the town and ask for some of your upper money. I don't wanna do that. I prefer to transition my position to 85, so I have time to write grant applications so we can pay for all of those repairs and improvements with grants. We have stashed a good little fund as our matching fund for the grants. So it's really just the administrative time to, and we have many grants identified. So it's the administrative time to apply for those grants through the planning. I mean, you guys are earlier talking about the same concept, professional help, planning, permits, all of that. Any questions at this point? So my strong impression is that over time the usage of that facility has continued to increase. I know disc golf has become a big thing and other activities. Do you have any numbers about usage numbers? I do, I do. Sorry, I didn't bring my full report though. I mean, cause I have comparatives that go back seven years, but... So yeah, so 17,000 day use visitors. Now this is the first year we've tracked that number. So I don't have any comparatives for that, but it would be similar for last year and then thousands less before the pandemic. Yep. Thank you. So yeah, you're definitely correct. Use has gone up significantly. So has revenue. So has staffing. And it's, I mean, it's what we want. We were getting our residents recreating and I call it recreation fitness. You know, it's really succeeding and we have a lot of incentives built right in for district residents where we have discounts for season passes, discounts for boat rentals, and I do have figures on how much we give back to the community and discounts to incentivize them to come and play and stay fit. And just to build on that, so we have like the retail price that we're hoping that only tourists are paying. And then our residents are all paying at, you know, some level of discount from there. And we want to continue to increase those incentive, those discount incentives. One thing that going to full-time will enable me to do is seek a VOREC grant from our Outdoor Recreation Economic Consortium grant to purchase more boats. And right now we only rent boats for use at the reservoir. This plan will enable us to have enough quality boats where we can let our residents use them off-site as well. And we rent to about half price of what they're going to get it from Wumiak. I mean, to our residents, we rent for about half price. When are you open with that, is it Memorial Day or is it before then? So we usually open whether depending on the weekend before Memorial Day and the last two years we've had heatwaves in late May. So we've made a point to open. Even like last year we opened, we weren't ready. So we weren't able to charge, but it was in the 90s in May. So we opened just so people had a place to come and cool off. So it was like four and a half months so I don't have a tally, but we stayed open through Columbus Day weekend or Columbus Day. So I don't know what that, it's a significant season and it keeps getting, we don't open it just because we feel like opening it. We open it because there's a demand and we stay open because there's a demand. And if you guys drive on Route 12, often when our gate isn't open, you'll see cars parked out on that big triangle out there. And even though we have an off-season little rogue parking area to help alleviate that hazard of people on the road, on Route 12 and walking across there, but that fills up also, that has capacity of 15. And actually part of the plan, our 15 year plan, is to harden off areas of the parking so we can have that gate open more. So not only when we're there with staff, but perhaps year-round where we have that gate open and just let people kind of use the facility. But we have to harden it off because people do donuts, in American fields, et cetera. So the plan is to go up to 250 this first year and I've always tried to increase our revenue through user fees, through revenue. And in transitioning my position to full-time, will also enable me to do more marketing, get more partnerships, sponsorships, work with area health and wellness programs at different businesses. Norwich University, for example. So if we pay a little bit more the first couple years via the per capita, my work will generate a significant increase in revenue which should really reduce our dependency on the per capita. So in the plan written here we would seek to never have to increase that per capita by more than 3% in any given year. Ideally, less than that. Unforeseen circumstances, perhaps we would have to go more than that, but I mean I'd like to see it say stagnant at 250 for a few years before we had to increase it at all. I'm a resident, I grew up here, grew up in middle sex. Okay, questions anyone? Project committee, yes. Yeah, George. Yes, George. I don't know about people. Yeah, I'm a rep to the right school beach breakfast, as you know, a conservation institution. I've looked at the finances in detail at our last right school meeting, and I'm impressed with what Collins' doing and has evented. The conservation commission supports this. I assume you agree. Thank you. Thanks, George. Any other questions? I think we're all set. Thank you. Do you vote on this? We will include it in our budget. So I don't know. I mean, so the way this works is this is when we develop our budget every year. So you've requested an increase. We will include that in our budget. And then the select board votes to approve the budget and then the voters vote at 10 meeting. So I don't know what you were anticipating in terms of when the rain increase would be effective. Well, the anticipation is for when we invoice the towns for 2023 and we usually receive payment in May or June from the towns. So that's after 10 meeting, right? I'm sorry. Yes, that would be after 10 meeting. Yes. So assuming it's in the budget and assuming it gets approved, it'll be fine. But we won't vote on that tonight. So I'm just looking to make sure I understand because you're the first town that I'm going to. And I'll go to Worcester next and then East Montpelier and Montpelier. And I just want to have a good, clear sense of what I can say to them as far as what middle sex is. Because that's going to be the first question is what are the other towns to say? I mean, we can pull the board, but I can't imagine we're not going to be supportive of this. I mean, anybody have any objection or any serious concerns about this? But I do want to make a clarification. This is our FY24 budget. So we do not pay out anything until after July 1. So I don't look at the envelopes. Yeah. OK, no, when you had said you received payment in May, but that won't happen because this is our next year's budget. We've probably received maybe our payment sometime along for the current year, but this is for the next year. I appreciate that. Yeah, we understood that at the right time. Thank you for coming back. So the understanding is you will put it in the budget. Yes. You'll have to vote on it. I think that's what you were looking for. And do some towns have it as where they are having it as a line item? You don't have to go and get votes or anything, do you? The signatures? No, we just get in the past, the last time we did this eight years ago, came to the meeting downstairs. They approved it. And I went to the next one. For none of the towns have ever voted at town meeting for it. Well, it's actually in the budget amongst all these other items. I'm not questioning that. And I do remember you coming. And I don't remember whether or not we like how we handled it. Because even if we were to say, yes, we're voting on this, we still have to put it in the budget. And the budget still has to get voted on, right? Well, the problem is there's no money. It's not in this year's budget. So we have no money to give you this year. It could have been an extra thing that you guys did too at a random time that wasn't a part of the budget, I'm wondering. Well, we have pay rights bill dues every year. So they do have a line item in the budget. Right. But the line item we have in the budget for this year is for the old amount. Right, for the old amount. It's like the $1.50. Right. So that's the one you already paid on June 1st. No, we haven't. That's the one we will pay. That's the one we will pay. And then it's our fiscal year goes from July 1st to June 30th. So when we're having a budget discussion now, it's for next July 1 to the following June 30th. So we've already approved our budget for this year. Which is everybody. All the tenants are like that. Yeah. Well, some have different fiscal years. I don't think they roll on them. But anyway. That will fiscal year maybe. I'm sorry if I'm confusing it. Let me just back up. So what happens is you heard the fire department discussion tonight. In the next few meetings, we'll be hearing from other town departments. We put together our budget. We approve it typically in January. The select board approves it. Then it gets presented to the town meeting. The voters approve it or amend it or don't approve it. They've always approved it. And then that's for the following year. Starting on July. July 1 of. 2023. Right. Yes. OK. I understand. OK. I'm sorry if I confused you. But then Derinda's saying that you don't pay the Wrightsville assessment until June 1st, which is almost the end of the fiscal. Is that what you're saying? What I was trying to say was this is for budget year that begins in July of 2023 and ends in June of 2024. Can we get our assessment? And so you'll be billing us for the current. Our current year is in for 2750 for where we're sitting right today. And I don't know. I don't think we may have received a bill yet, but I don't recall paying it yet. No, we would have received last year. That would have been paid. Yeah. So the one that's for this beginning on July 1. I mean, we work months ahead of time here with these budgets, so it's hard to explain. But it's for 2750. And then beginning next July or the, yeah, July 2023 will be the 4520. Go. I'm going to do it. What happens if one of the other towns says no, we won't increase? Then we can't increase it. That's why I always come to Middlesex first. Well, I come to Middlesex first because it's in your town. Yeah. And I had success last time coming to you guys first and then to all the other towns. Oh, my god. Yeah, I mean, exactly. And who else is in this district? So it's Middlesex, Montpelier, East Montpelier, and Worcester. And I go to Montpelier last because they have all the money. So if I can show them that the three other towns are on board, then it's a much easier sell for them. Yeah, and I think I'm wondering if there was a time that you came to us in some not out of budget season and asked for money. And we agreed to it. I do remember there being a not, but I, you know. It was the same time. I came here in November eight years ago. And then our next season. So the July payment had that new per capita assessment. All right. I'm good. I understand you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. What was a pleasure to see you, Adrian? Yeah. I was going to tell you about the drill. Yes. Thanks. Thanks. You had the whole family in the night. I know. Hey, Colin, was there a young man also named Colin that used to work at the beach or not? Someone's got a common interest. He's a red-headed, like a blonde, red-headed, younger guy. I thought Colin Callum. Callum? OK, that's why. When I looked at you, I'm like, that's not the guy. I remember that. Boy, the age was he was a boy. OK. I was. I remember. But he did work at the beach, right? Did he come here? I think he came here and even spoke about it once or something. I know he did. That's why I was confused. And Sarah was too. She was like, that's not a good learning effort, but that's it. OK. OK. Dorinda, treasure's report. Treasure's report. I don't have anything really exciting. I'd like to introduce Olivia. This is our new owl. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Olivia. And so everything came in. The only issue we had was one cord which I got to send back and get a different one. But other than that. Seems to be working great. It seems to be working great. So, yeah, it came in way under budget, so. Great. So it was a plus. It's always a plus. Yeah. Well, when you think what we thought this was going to cost back when we started talking about this during the pandemic. Yeah. No, it worked out. Yeah, I got everything other than the TV. When I went out this time, you gave me $2,000. And I spent $1,200. You know what I mean? There's no really finance stuff to make up. OK. Thank you. So we have the CB fiber easement to review. The amended CB fiber. You guys all got that, correct? Remind us. I read one. I said it yesterday. I forward it from Phil. He said it last night. This has just slightly changed from the first one we had in that the first one was written more to cover a private landowner than a municipality. And so the references to a town versus a person granting a right away were changed. The ones you have at your desk are the revised ones. Yeah. But there's no significant change in the intent of the document. We have to accept that. Hi. I read it over and it sounded fine to me. Please. Pretty straightforward. And I believe when we talked about this before, we decided that all things being equal, we would reveal and approve this and not submit it to our attorneys review. It always seems more complicated than it should be. But when you get to the meat of it, it's pretty straightforward. Anybody have any concerns about that approach? Is there anything about heights or anything like that? Like what is this that they're putting in again? It's they call it an OLT, which basically to me is a junction box. It's going to go right where the other, I think that one's green metal power boxes. And what they're basically doing is aggregating fiber. So a strand will come up past the school. One will come, well, the center road, the work road loop, will come up and meet there. And what's the other one? Bears want? East Bear. East Bear. East Bear. Yeah. So I think those three, at least at that point, come together and are interconnected there. So it's basically just a cabinet that's used to splice the. Right there in the pullout where consolidated it is? Oh, is that who that is? It's consolidated? That's consolidated. Yeah, I believe. So it's an area. They don't have any height description in here. But it says the area will be 18 feet by 18 feet, located on the southeast side of an existing utility facility. And the southern side of an existing driveway is depicted in exhibit A. The 18 feet by 18 feet, I think, is just the ground. Yeah, the ground. So they can get in there and work. But the box won't be any bigger than the one that's solid. It's probably smaller. My understanding, I think they have to bring power in to that cabinet because there's probably surge protection and backup and stuff like that. And I did set to see a picture of the cabinets. And I think this one's probably about four feet long. Maybe three feet wide. The lady said, what's her name? They were asking for permission to bury Gable. Right. Is that 18? Carol. Carol. And is it by someone's property? He said it's by our property. Yeah. OK, so it's not. It's right off the edge of the driveway. As you turn it into the town garage on the right. OK. The existing boxes. Should we put it in there? There are the other boxes. There's a no flies on it. No, I'm only just saying because there's so many things that they can put in here. And do we care? I mean, I don't care. But do we care? Like that they can put in foundations and guys and poles and things like that. The good news is, the poles and everything are right there. The poles are right there. Exactly. It's not like I would anticipate that they would put in a new pole. OK. I'm just imagining like 50 years down the road. And this gets pulled out of its rusty file cabinet. 50 years down the road would be that big. But we're putting up a telecommunications tower because we have a needs man. The dimensions I saw were definitely not as good. Maybe a little higher in this table. But certainly, no bigger. A bunch of electronics or storage. Yeah, I mean, that's what it looks like today. No, there's no height restrictions in here. No. And it's not going to be that high in there. I think it's actually smaller and bigger. Well, it's not that. I'm saying that they can also erect all these other things. Yeah. And in 50 years, we're going to be using CV5. And well, we're dead in 50 years. So what does it matter? That's true. What do we care? We leave the rest of our people. So are people comfortable somewhere making a motion? I'm making a motion. We authorize the, or no, that we grant the easement to CV5 and authorize the chair. So I don't have to report it. Second. OK. Thank you. All in favor of that motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Would like these documents? Yeah, Sarah Brown. So I'm going to sign one of these. Sarah and give it to you, all right? Yeah. So this is the easement. I guess we're going to start over here. Sarah, you have the information on where the facts are. No, Sarah just told me to tell you to sign this. Oh, sign that one. I don't feel like I want to be scared. Oh, I got it. Yeah, I got it. To care the one that I'll probably send her in the evening tonight. This is a pass. Because they'll probably be working tonight by 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Here, well, with snow coming, maybe not. Yeah. Just want to know, I have a quick, very funny story that the chair rolled out. I got a call from a hairdresser in Moortown who said that the person putting up the lines for CV5 or dropped a set of keys. And she knows that because of her security cameras. But I couldn't figure out CV5 or they were a contracted company of North Carolina. Oh, yeah. So I did an emailing over to your CV5 person. And she said, oh, that must have been totally wrong. So I said, well, I don't, we called. And she said, all right, well, just, you know, you figured out where she would leave the keys. So then I was driving up to Danville. And I see that company that, you know, starting by putting five wherever, taking inventory of the polls. They pull over. I run across the guy and I said, hey, listen, did you guys ever find your keys? He said, don't use keys. I'm Danville, right? He says, oh yeah, we picked them up this morning. It's really nice. That is such a smoke. Was that North Carolina company? I mean, it was just kind of. He's good at telling. That's what it was. He told me. OK, approving minutes of the November 1, 2022 select board meeting action. Likely is there a motion? Move, move. Go ahead, Victor. I'll move the motion. OK, second. As stated. Thank you. All in favor of the motion to approve the November 1, 2022 minutes, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Orders have been signed or in the process of being signed. Did everybody sign them? Any other matters that may come before the board? Can I just add that in the pressure report, I should have told you that we have hard copies of the audit if anybody cares to have a copy, but it's up to you. But they're downstairs. Got an electronic copy. That's good enough. Well, they send us bound hard copies. Thank you. But if you're interested. I wonder if there's something in the statute about that. Or they have to? Sometimes we have to send them to banks, like every so often the bank has. So it looks a little more professional than sending them. An email. They should be able to send them electronically. So do we have an electronic copy now? Yes. Yes. I would love to get an electronic copy. You did. We did. Oh, I did. That's right, I did. Yes, I did. I read. Yes. OK, go ahead. The pieces of Sarah's new workstation have started to come in, delivered to my house for some reason, but. Oh, I was going to ask you if it came in. Yeah. The CPU might not be new until the first of the year. Oh, really? Again, parts. So we shall see. OK, thank you all for your time and attention. We are adjourned. Let's go home and take a nap. I know.