 So 15 seconds. Noonan. Well, welcome everyone for this October 14th edition of the Rochester Select Board meetings. And before we start, I'd like to confirm that we posted the agenda in three public places, and on the website, and emailed to interested parties. So we can indeed go forth and right on time, welcome. Before we start, does anyone have any additions to the agenda? Harlan's got an addition to the agenda. 30 years of missing select board, Van Halen. Just 30. Can I speak with you, Mr. Mayor? Just 30. We also need to discuss the trucking. Yeah, I think we should. But if you don't know what we're doing. I have it in the description. Anybody else, if anything else want to add, other than our, not that full agenda. So then we'll go forward with the minutes from the last meeting of September 23rd, and I'll move to accept those as presented. Let's see how many people are in favor. Aye. All right. Got those. And, Marvin, you're the last one in, so you're the first one to go. Well, that is appropriate, I appreciate it. I want to comment the fact that we're getting some telephone lines moved apparently up 100, north on 100. And there's a pole that's been laying in front of Crafted Road from Skitmark, about eight feet long, and I don't have no idea why it's laying there, but I'll try to pick it up sometimes. It's nobody's lines, and so far. There's some help, huh? Not by yourself. Pardon me? Not by yourself. Oh yeah. All right. Yeah, I've already tested it. All right. But anyway, my subject is about the Marshbrook Road, which I live on, and most everybody probably knows that. And it is actually 2.6 miles, a 2.06 miles, and Bargay owns approximately 1.3 of a mile of that road. And, but the town has 49 and a half feet to maintain it, and I'm sure I intended to have you have a coffee and you need one, because I read fast and sometimes I don't pronounce my words right. And I'd like to see, have you got it? You got it. Thank you. I'm sorry. Oh, okay, thank you, if you got an extra. Thank you, sir. But I had a select board meeting when the big road opened in August of this year, 2019. The award was granted. This board announced that if anyone and on any of the roads to be mowed had areas that they wish not to be mowed to please mark those areas. I assumed that the same thing would be true to have more land mowed at a homeowner's landowner's request. I went to my captain before they started mowing and to ask him that more land off, that more land be mowed on the east side of the road that had been. He told me to show the operator when he was there. Well, I told him I would do that. Well, they mowed my road one day when I was gone and they only mowed the grass side between the travel portion and the ditch, about two feet wide, and which stopped the stormwater from reaching the ditch anyway. I then went to Mike the next day and told him about the issue and responded that he just learned that his men had a marked road map that Marksbrook Road would be mowed only one pass. Now, anybody that knows Marksbrook Road, about half of it doesn't need any mowing and on my third of a mile, there's one side of the road that has been pastured and none of that needs to be mowed because the cows have done a very good job and the fence is right out at the travel portion and no grass at all. The road was scheduled to have part of this, to be discontinued by two different slack boards, one of which I was on. It was decided to repair rather than abandon that road, a part of that road. So after the roadside mowing was completed, I asked Mike if he would send his men back and work for me without getting permission from the road commissioners and that I would make sure that he got paid. The operator Dave, I don't know his last name, came with Mike's equipment and did a good job under my direction and I was supposed to have a bill already by tonight but I don't have it, which I apologize for and we are tempted to be good stewards of our environment and this is part of it. Thank you. Well, thank you. You've got it all in front of you. And Mason, you had something you wanted to speak about. You want to step out from behind the camera and do that. Or do you want to do your minute approval first? We did that already. We did that. Yeah. Yeah. Last meeting, I proposed that this meeting and we have a discussion about our town moving forward on a climate emergency declaration. Now, other communities in Vermont have done this and I would think that the Vermont League of Cities and Towns could be advising the select board on different formats of what this can look like. And what could this mean for our community? Well, it helps to give us forward directions and how we as a community move forward with how we look at our infrastructures and this also may relate to potential grants. Something you'd consider here is showing the direction in that way. Now, I had talked about having a special meeting in mid-November. Possibly it's better to wait till mid-December because we probably should think real hard about how to include the voters, all the voters, to be able to have a voice in this. And that can be done with Australian Valley for, but it also can include an email vote for some people. We know that many of our younger folks are working three jobs as much as a lot of us are working three jobs or four. But giving a better opportunity and what would that mean? Well, our Rochester civil authority, it would probably be good for them to next select board meeting, come and talk about that issue. How can we make it possible for more participation on a vote like this to be inclusive with email? So, this is supposed to be an evening of discussion about that. I'm hoping that since I brought it up to a meeting to go, that the select board has some feelings and possibly done a little homework on the subject and can share that with us. Yeah, I think this would be a good ball for you to pick up and run with. Since you're inspired to do it. I did some homework on the subject. Can I let you know what I found? There is a group called VECAN, the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Guide. And VECAN has a Google site, coupled down when you look up things with a very nice insight into community energy and climate action committees. So, if we need some resources, that's a great place to start. Seems like you'll need a handful of people to form a committee. And if there's anywhere that we can work with other groups already working, like Envision Vermont or Envision Rochester, perhaps they would help organize meeting times and places. But there's a fantastic resource called VECAN, Vermont Energy and Climate Action Committees. And so, that's the homework. VLCT is definitely a resource. Some issues are going to be worked out and legislated like in next July. Is it that the solid waste will no longer take food scraps which is, I guess I understand a significant amount of the methane producing is a significant amount of what goes into a landfill and does a lot of the methane. So that is a step that is gonna be coming at us regardless of what we do. We'll have to figure out how to respond to that as a town and individually. I assume that the recycling and the waste haulers will be offering the option to take care of the compostables. They're not expecting everyone to have a compost pile outside their kitchen window. That's on the horizon. One of the little bits of homework I did around this. I was just gonna say, Able Waste Management has been taking the compost for about a year now. All right. They have an arrangement. You pay $4 for a bag and then you bring it back. And if you want another bag, you pay any bag. I just put it in a plastic bucket with a tight lid on my kitchen. So they do offer that already. And I believe, isn't there, I mean, when does that compost thing along going through that? Next July. Okay. But you can put chicken bones hand with the regular trash. Well, I get it. Legally you can. Legally you can. But it's fun to know that I guess they don't want it. Keeps the dogs out of it. Keeps the dogs out of the compost. They're not supposed to take the bones. Well, because the phone doesn't really, no. You're feeling about this is more immediate. It's not something that you feel you want to bring to town meeting in March. That's a possibility, but I'd like to next meeting continue the talk. I'm not sure. I think it's better that more folks have the opportunity to know that the select board and the meetings are talking about this because it's very difficult. Hopefully our official newspaper can definitely bring this forth that this is going to take more community participation and the issue around, the voting I think is a good one. It also gives us an opportunity to look forward about how to be more, get people more involved in voting by let's have the civil authority, the Rochester civil authority come and actually think, how difficult is it to actually look at having email voting? We have 800 voters, let's say 10% might email. The others, usually what's our usual voter turnout, 40%. So if we have X amount of emails that we have to certify, I only pick up the phone and we can talk to the person. It can be verified, it's not a massive problem in the situation of LA. Does the process start with the petition? I don't think it has to. I think we should invite the civil authority here and get some feedback from them. Okay, in case those questions come up, I want it to be recorded. Yeah, it should be here at the meetings, yeah. So possibly this next meeting that we can have the civil authority. So it sounds like it's beyond the topic you brought up was about the climate emergency, but it sounds like the topic you're really talking about is email voting, right? No, I'm talking about participation on the subject of the climate emergency declaration that the community really thinks about it and shares a healthy vote on it because something of this nature has a way, helping to have guidance in which directions we move in the future. What would they be voting on? Well, that's what we're talking about right now. Well, do you have something to share with us? Well, right here, we have a model town meeting day resolution and so there's one page of that available as a resource and we could vote to ratify the resolution for everyone to know that climate change threatens the health of our forests, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a boilerplate resolution that we would be able to sign for. Would you like that read at this meeting or the next? Nope, no takers. I think, yeah, it's a page. Mason, I think one of the issues you're looking for is to activate more community involvement, right? In a vote? Well, is a vote important or is it just a symbol? I mean, a vote is, you know, a vote's one thing, but actually having people out there doing stuff is more important. Well, they go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. Well, we can vote the resolution and if it's important enough, you can decide if we need a resolution to form a committee. But if you think it's important enough that you or we can attract a committee of a half dozen or less to further investigate things we can do, there's a model of easily available. And there's a town meeting type, you know, non-binding resolution that the town can choose to form and again to adopt it. This resource includes some of the bylaws of other communities. You can look up what the Norwich town has done, also bigger towns of Brattleboro and Bennington. Everything may not mesh with our town size, but it's a good resource. There's voting to adopt the resolution where it's like, okay, we checked it out, the list's not done, or there's an ongoing conversation and it sounds like you're more interested and it makes more sense more is gonna happen coming out of an ongoing conversation. And yes, voting for a resolution if the town is educated and stands behind that is a symbolic thing, whether that will enable us to get grants, but I don't know. Have you done some research on this? There's two pages of grants available, also. There are grants available, right. Henry, is that from the Vermont Climate Energy Action website that you mentioned before? It is. All of that's related to VECAM. Energy and Climate Action Network. Yeah, Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network formed in July of 17. Lots of contacts, board members. So back to the original request, you're requesting to have a special town meeting with this as the topic. Correct? Correct. And about associated to that special town we're meeting. Well, prior to that is ongoing discussion to get there, which would be the adoption of whatever plan the select board felt was appropriate to put forth for a vote. Can we suggest that you propose the library get involved in any of that discussion? I'm totally open to any direction of what I'm looking at is that we figure it out in these meetings ahead and be able to communicate through our official newspaper and wherever else to inform the voters, but at the same time offering them an opportunity to vote which could be new and exciting for our voters. Right, the participation in a lot of the subject matters that we've had at the library have been very successful, lots of good turnout. How was Bill? Are we going to get a report on Bill McKibben the other night? I had to miss it. Was there a good turnout? Yes, there was, and it was a good discussion. Well, it sounds to me like a vote on something like this is most appropriate at the town meeting where we're going to have the largest turnout of voters, whether they're physically or through Orca media and the discussion leading up to that point, but a vote before then seems like it's premature and that actually the real goal here is to educate and to generate discussion and awareness that perhaps you could give us a little presentation each meeting coming up and if we want to have a, if you want to propose a special town meeting to discuss it, I think that's, we could do that and probably tacked on to seem to me that it's more an agenda on the select board meetings and the real special meeting is the town meeting where the town takes a stand on bigger things like that. I guess you can petition to have a special town meeting if you can do so. You know, the annual town meeting is not that far away. No, it's not, it's not. But it's not in December, it's not next month. But the process of the town, the select board involved in the declaration is an important factor. So next select board meeting, it would be good to continue the subject. And we know. Because there's going to be, you know, I had about six select board meetings before the annual meeting, something like that. Could be a little more. Could be a little more. Not too many. So it'd be great to have it on the agenda for next select board meeting and possibly by then, not only yourself having a little more idea of what's going on with this, that a few people can get together and start to look at this a little bit more. So are you volunteering to bring some information to the table? Am I volunteering? Yes, I am volunteering. And you're also volunteering to do some homework yourself. No, you're suggesting, don't you? Yeah, I'm suggesting you guys don't often know what your opinions are. You're volunteering yourself. It's good to know what your opinions are in this process. I mean, you do like to encourage other people to do things. And I think it'd be great to match that energy with presenting some information other than just... That's not a problem. We have it right here right now. We can actually do read it right now. It's great. It's not bad. Bring more. Bring more. That'd be great. Thank you. I'd like to know that you also are aware of it. You know, like for an example, in your situation, you can have a conversation with the Vermont leagues of cities and towns and see what their suggestions are for the town. We are, we do pay dues to this organization. And that's what they're there for. And so you're the ones that can relate to them, not me. Right. So it'd be nice to have some feedback from you guys also besides the public bringing information. You know, it's a cooperative type of thing. Right. Is that it for now? Sure. Right. Thank you. All right. Actually that's, I guess it ties into that, the issue of climate change because it was perhaps an effective climate change that took out Bethelman Road in spring. And that would segue right into Joan's update, which is predominantly about the completion of that project miraculously six months to the day. She's not here, Patty. Do you feel like presenting what she brought us to the meeting since you've been the PR person on this job? Sure. Sure. You all know that it's open. It's stock. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was right. I realized this. And then really a big shout out to Tatro Construction and Joan and everyone else in the town office and the road crew and their support and the town's people who put up with the inconvenience. And thank you everybody. But really those guys, they work hard to get it done. And it's astounding that they made that deadline. Yes it is. Thank you, Tatro, if you're watching. They're not. No, they're not. Yeah, she's got it. I don't have Joan's. Tatro Construction completed the project by the end of day October 11th. It's kind of like midday-ish, but we actually opened it at 8 o'clock that night. This is a great accomplishment on the part of many people. Tatro Project Manager Cody Marsh and his crew, which he had a wonderful core of people that I got to know as well. And the V-Trans staff from Municipal Assistance Bureau and District 4 engineering firm, DuBlois and King, along with many of us from Rochester, thanks goes to all of them. And thank you to the four landowners who agreed to sell easements to the properties so that the town was able to put in the drainage system that they could, that they needed to. Also to everybody that had dump trucks going by, which is about now half of the town, between Route 73 and the quarry for all the noise and the dust. Thank you all for what you put up with. It was hectic, it could have taken two years and been not quite as intrusive, but we chose the fast path and our tax dollars directly are not spent on this. It was 100% funded by the Federal Highway Department. So we achieved what our wish was and we only had a very few moments of, oh my God, it might not happen, but generally everyone went in the right direction and was very cooperative and everybody did what they needed to do. Lots of paperwork still lies ahead and still bills and funding in the, still has to settle. So we're not exactly sure, but we're not over budget. We'd be at to see how much under budget or at budget we would be, but I don't anticipate that we would be over budget. Around three million, I think. For the entire, from the entire section of Rochester to the town line. Site two, as far as Joan knows, when she typed this, Hutchins completed the work contacted with VTrans and they were also done by the end of the day on Friday. We were able to get, at our last meeting, we were talking about culverts that we weren't sure we're going to be done this year and they were done. And so it just, love it when a plan comes together. If you want to talk about the 18, it was actually pretty hectic up there and things were just boom, boom, boom, falling into place. It was an important time for Cooter to be touching base. So thank you for all of your requests, the system comments, cause there was a lot of information flying in a lot of different areas and Cooter was the anchor of it all. We are applying for a better roads grant that they would, that we will use to replace and upsize the Rogersbrook culvert next year. So there is still one that yet to be done, correct? Excuse me, I didn't quite hear Rogersbrook grant. Yeah, Rogersbrook. No, Rogersbrook, Rogersbrook. FEMA continues. FEMA is a different organization than the Federal Highway Department and they move at almost a snail's pace, but it's moving along and the paperwork continues on that. Town garage project, the status is in flux. They have been unable to find a contractor to pick up this project and get it done on budget and close to the deadline. So there's a possibility the end of the year project deadline can be extended. If that happens, we may want to try to bring in some other funding to do more work we'd like to do at the town garage rather than breaking the project into two phases. The second phase is doing something to contain the winter sand. The whole point of the project down there is to keep the river water clean. And so looking at the winter sand, which of course has salt in it, the state would love this, the Clean Water Act would love to see us have that. But right now, Jones says it's a moving target. So we'll see which ball drops first. West Hill Bridge design, we need to get the design RFP out this fall. I'm getting help with that from V-Trans Bridge Engineer. That's the small bridge at the bottom of West Hill Road in Rochester. And it actually is being mostly funded by the Forest Service so that they can start their logging project, their Robinson logging project. And they need to update that bridge. So we will kind of be gifted a bridge because they want to do some logging. So I don't please the people up on that road. And that is it. Thank you, Jones. Thank you, Jones. Do you have anything to add to that from that high-laying world? No, not really to that. Not really to that. We're still working in Bingo. Winter sand is going to start arriving Monday, if all goes well. And when that happens. That project. The project is DOA for this year. I think they did deliver some components for that project down there, right? Yes. I guess they did. We have a place. Appropriate place? Yeah. All right. Where I can plan by. Anything else on road-wise, talk about it? So this will look. I have a request. Yeah. Coming down the right-hand side of Brook Street, if you're driving on the right-hand side, there's four or five spots that need to be patched. Otherwise, to avoid the holes, you're driving down the left-hand side of the road, which is oncoming traffic. You're talking about the asphalt? Yeah. The asphalt. You're talking about down the hand? If all works well, go ahead and we will pass some hot mix Friday. Wonderful. Yeah. I don't want to get on that, because things sometimes don't go on as planned. I know. So if I stay within the next week? Only Sunday through Monday. Okay. So. Just so that everybody's aware, there are holes on that right-hand side. Yeah. We're around that. Thank you. And so I guess we could transition on to, Joc, you wanted to talk some about the improvements that need to be done on the Connick-Class 4 Road for the Swine Trail? Yeah, it's Richard. It's Richard, so. It's you. The other job. The other job. Yeah. Jesus, did I do that? You did, too. Ha ha ha ha. We're possibly going up on Swines Mill, Wing Farm Road at the end this year for this winter. It's Class 4 Road. Some pretty rough spots. We're going to have to probably add material. I don't believe there's any spots for culverts. I couldn't probably tell you better on that. I wouldn't. The water runs from the top to the bottom right there now. Then there's some ledges in the road, so there's going to be material. Going around, though. Yeah, because it's pretty steep and there'll be some brush cuts so trucks can get in there. Yeah, they don't need to be able to plow that. Yes, it's a winter job, so it's got to be done so that it can be plowed. So what we'll do is work up a roadwork agreement so we have to clear what you're planning on doing in the sessions and having our first doing work on a town in Class 4 Road. So, yeah, it's quite cool. Have another place to sit with. When did you want to start working on that? Well, we just wanted to do it before it gets too cold. So let that... We'll see you then later. Hi. Is it a one-year project? I know. Oh, really? Many of us. Is this part of the Robinson project? I know. No? Private. I know, it's government. That's a different sale. Okay. Not Robinson, okay. So you call it a multi-year project? Yes. Thank you. Is it a team or is it a swan's middleman? We are. It's an underprivileged swan road. All right, so we'll work up an agreement and we'll get you oriented to start doing that. Okay. Thanks for coming tonight to talk to us. Thank you. Terry, you got anything? I saw you leading a septic truck down behind the school today, was that you? Yeah. It's just routine. It's routine maintenance, yeah. I don't air them to them down there. It's just a routine pumping. How was the latest testing, though, with the? Great, since it put the new pump end on. No, yeah, I know that. But what about the, what is it, the EFOA? The EFOA is passed upon colors. Yeah. Oh, okay, good. And we're one of the 45 towns that have passed. One of the 45 towns that have taken in, nobody's failed, and there's 600 total. There's gotta be done by the end of the year. Okay, good. So we're all set. Good. So we won't have to deal with it for at least three years. Maybe longer. Thank you. Yeah. You talked a little bit about library, but anything else you wanna mention? Yeah, our trustees meeting is tomorrow at six o'clock. And there are a couple of programs in between, but on Thursday, the 24th, there's a discussion and reading from Wendell Berry's book, Another Turn of the Crane. And that certainly has things to do with climate change and the town improvements and that sort of thing. So it should be a good discussion also. And that is when? The 24th, at seven o'clock. At the library. At the library, yeah. Thank you. Wendell Berry? Wendell Berry. Easy. The discussion will be led by someone else, but it's his book. Is it Berry or like the Berry or B.E.R.? B.E.R. Okay, thank you. So the other new business topic of roadside mowing, was that what you wanted to talk about, Marv, or is that something different? No, I think it was that, this letter. Okay, that's what I thought. And that comes on to Harlan. You had something you wanted to contribute? Since the last meeting, I spent a couple hours down in the basement down here. And I went through box by box, just checking the contents of what was on the outside of the box and there are no books down there. Interestingly enough, I found a bunch of AOT maps dating from 1940 to, I think, don't quote me on dates, to about 2003, showing the road in question as a primitive, untraveled road. And they were kind of stashed in this old, broken map, bureau, or file, I guess you would call it. So that was kind of interesting. Thank you for taking the time to dig into that. Have you come up with anything on your side? I have not. Has anybody spent any time? You have, I was glad to have. I have, yeah. Are there any other places that you might think to look? You giving it any thought? I've given a little thought, yeah. I've been thought that I was happy that you might be down there digging in there since it's a big conservative here, yeah, yeah. Some thoughts? Yeah. Is it the lawyers? Certainly I had some thoughts about that. Well, what? About looking in other places. Oh, okay, yeah. Did they? As far as we know, they've searched every place that they've run that bunny trail as far as they could. So yeah, I don't know. Well, I just thought it was kind of interesting to know all those manner stuff down here. I don't know what, you know. All right. Shit happens. Well, thank you for spending the time digging in there. Yeah, if you've got any other places that you'd like me to look, let me know. All right, okay. Tom, you wanted to report about the sale of the Constable? Just to make it public. Yeah. You know, we're dispositioning the old Constable assets since we no longer have a Constable. And one of those assets is the vehicle. And we've had an offer by the Orange County Sheriff to buy that vehicle. So, and public as to what we're doing, what we intend on doing. Orange County? Yeah, we're good to go. How does it work all financially hiring a Sheriff to come in as a Constable, having a Constable in town? Well, I think right now it's an occasion. It's about the same because we have the budget that's about the same. Right. Yeah. We're staying within the budget. Yeah, we're staying within, yeah, a set budget. So we're adjusting it to make it so it's not more expensive. I don't think it's much, it's not less expensive either. It's just. But did we get more coverage with our own Constable? We're only getting about two days a week now. Yeah, right now. If you've got a problem in town, there's nobody you can call. If you've got a problem, there's nobody you can call. Somebody gets shot and you can call a state police with a mic and a spot. You can always call the state police. Yeah, but nine times out of 10 to them, they're too busy or, you know. But that's who you call a police officer. Yeah, that's, if you. I'm just wondering about, you know, the efficiency of that as compared to having a Constable, at least for Tommy was in town, you could call him and, you know. When you can call the state, you can call the sheriff. If they're in the area, they will respond. Yeah, if they're in the area. Right. Well, Tommy was in the area all the time. You know, right? A lot of times. Now I'm not sure if I'm somebody else. Now he was on the Randall Police Department. No, he was here 20 hours a week. Our last Constable was part time and the one that was part time. Yeah. So in terms of how it's going to work out financially, once some time goes by, would it be able to see what the, you know, how it balances out? Whether they're running more things. Can we get the same bang for our buck? Time-wise? Well, get the same bang for our buck. We're willing to give it six months to a year of taking and then look back on it and see what the results are. We've only had three months. We've got a little less time. This wasn't thought of before. Sure. Yes, it was. We've thought about this for a year. Yeah, a long time. Of course. How long is the contract with the Sheriff's Department? And we have right now, it's a year. It's a annual contract. Annual contract, yeah. And then as we evaluate the budget, if it turns out that it's more or less efficient, if it's more efficient, if he's bringing in some income, then we could afford to bring him in for more shifts. We always have that option. That's what we're hoping for. And there's also a savings, of course, in infrastructure. We don't have to maintain a vehicle anymore. We don't buy tasers. We don't have to supply a constable with equipment. So the sage is there. So on your financial projections, you see this is a better deal? Yeah. I think we're getting good. You did do financial projections, right? Yes. Nancy, do you want to comment? Well, I think we have to understand also that you're required to have certified constables today. You just can't go get somebody off the street to become a constable. The law requires that the individual be certified. So when Mark left, he was certified, but we were going to have problems after that. Yeah, to have a law enforced constable. You can have a constable entitled to satisfy. Who's an animal control officer, essentially. I just want to make sure I heard Tom correctly about the constable vehicle. Did you say you had sold it to Orange County? We haven't sold it yet, but the sale is pending. Okay, the sales pending. Thank you. I want to make it public before we proceed. Better do it quick. Well, let's do it. You're right. Sure, no matter. It's got some issues, but they're willing to take it as is. We also have an application for a driveway construction, but it's incomplete and doesn't have really a description of what's going to be done. And it was also not warned on the agenda, so we can't take action on it for a couple of reasons. So I'll reach out to him and ask for more information and maybe put that on the agenda next time. Get with Cooter. He doesn't even say exactly what the driveway is, so there's nothing to do about it. So I think that is pretty much covers the agenda. Thank you all for coming out on this holiday evening. And thank you for having us. Oh yeah. Yes.