 That's six minutes after five. We have guests that I've already basically introduced, old friends, and Sandy, and we have any changes to the agenda, Sarah. Amendment. We need to add the driveway, the access permit for Seth Stewart on Nellie Chase Road. Paul would like that done virtually to get it started. Okay. What's the name of the person? Seth Stewart, not, I think, kind of new to the area. Okay. So with that, and believe it or not, after all that, we're almost on time, reviewing proposed timeline for hearings and town-wide vote on enhanced energy plan being drafted by the Middlesex Planning Commission with assistance from the Center for Remind Planning Commission. So Sandy, I guess that's you. Yes, the Planning Commission has been working for a little while with the Regional Planning Commission to draft an enhanced energy plan that would be part of the town plan, would incorporate into the town plan. It needs to go through the same adoption process as the town plan, which you may remember from not that long back. We've recently adopted the town plan. There's a number of hearings that are required and notices that are required. I put together a tentative timeline so that we would make sure that it would be voted on at the general election in November. So we don't have to have a special election for it and plugged in dates for, or date ranges for hearings. The Planning Commission needs to have a hearing. Select Board needs to have a hearing and it needs to be reviewed. It means just send copies to neighboring municipalities and to the Regional Planning Commission. So that's what's in the updated Middlesex Town Energy Plan timeline. I just wanted to run it by the Select Board because you all have a role to play in this as well. The outline or the adoption timeline that I drafted was just based on sort of the minimum amount of time that's needed for these various pieces. I just wanted to let you know that that's a tentative timeline, but since there are pieces that the Select Board need to do as well, I just wanted to share it with you. Okay. Send that in your letter, Sandy. Excuse me? Did you send that in your letter? I shared it with the town clerk. I sent it as, I just forwarded the timeline to everybody who they understand. We all received it. Okay. Before we go through that, I don't know, I'm having a bad day, but I don't remember ever talking about this before. Did we talk about this before? I mean, why we're doing this and why we're doing it now and all that kind of stuff. Can we the Planning Commission or just we the town in general? Anybody? I mean the Planning Commission with the Select Board. I know I'm talking about between the Planning Commission and the Select Board. No, I remember the Regional Planning Commission approaching the planning, the Milisex Planning Commission and saying we have the ability to help you with developing and putting out an enhanced energy plan. Here's reasons to do an enhanced energy plan. It's often part of the town plans that towns adopt. We didn't have the wherewithal or the capacity to do it at the time that we did the town plan. And so we, Theo Kennedy, one of the Planning Commission members has really been taking the lead on it and working with the Regional Planning Commission. And similar to a town plan, it outlines where we are in terms of energy in the town, what we'd like to see going forward. It has some weight in the, if it's passed, it has some weight as various energy projects get approved going forward. And the draft that we've been working on and we've been working on it for a few months is a starting point. And we need to get town feedback and feedback from the Select Board as well. And if it's not what folks want, it's not what folks want. So is this something, I mean, I'm sorry, I just need a little background. Is this something we need to do now? Is this an urgent priority? It's not an urgent priority. Though energy projects, as the Select Board has seen, continue to move forward. And there's certainly a fair amount of interest in energy issues within the town of Middlesex. It's often a part of a town plan. And so where the Regional Planning Commission had the wherewithal to help us develop it, we thought it was good to seize that opportunity and move forward. Okay. So my last question is, and I'm sorry, I'm just trying to parse this out. I thought the big work for this year was the revision of the zoning regulations. So now we're focusing on this instead of the zoning regulations. And I don't know whether that means the zoning regulations are put off for a year or what it means. I don't think it means the zoning regulations get put off for a year. We have that sort of on our tentative plan to begin this summer, which was the time when the Regional Planning Commission would have some time to help us with it. So that's what we're doing there. Okay. All right. I just was, I was a little blindsided by this and I was thinking, gee, did I miss something that I, who knows? Okay. Thank you. So go ahead. So this was, you know, and again, I guess I apologize if this is your first introduction of this, you know, as with the town plan, it's usually something that the Planning Commission is responsible for and takes the lead on. So we did the, I expect we'll finalize a plan at our next meeting, which is tomorrow. And if that happens, the outline that I put forward here is what the adoption process would be for that. And it was mostly driven by figuring out a timeline that would work so that we could vote on it on election day in November and not have to have a special election. Can you remind me when the Select Board has to take it up? What's the range of time for Select Board? It's in the Planning Commission would submit it to the Select Board in mid-July and then the Select Board would take it up in July and August and have a hearing in early September. Questions, anyone? Concerns? Nothing further. I guess, thank you, Sandy. Thank you. Thanks for your work, Sandy. The other Planning Commission members. Okay, so we are moving right along to the second item, our agenda, which is approval of a setback waiver agreement between Emancipation Energy, LLC and KCOS Holdings, LLC. So the proposed solar array at 56 Center Raid, Maginclude, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I just have one quick and probably simple question before we start this. So I looked at the diagram you guys sent out and the setback and all that. And the question I have is, like you could change the length of the array, which now interferes in the setback and add that capacity for one of the other runs and meet the 25-foot setback. So why is it so important that that particular array be that long that it interferes with the setback? You're suggesting that we increase the length of some of the other rows, is that what you're saying? Well, it just looked to me from looking at the diagram and I don't understand the engineering or the technology. But if you look to me, like if you took one panel or two panels off, that row that intervenes with the setback and added them to one of the other rows, you'd have the same solar capacity and you would meet the setback requirement. Eric, I think just knowing the site, I'm pretty sure that it has to do with the topography, Peter. It looks as simple as that by looking at it from just a one-dimensional, but the topography out there, the land undulates and the way these are designed when you put the layout into a program called PV-SIST, which is what he just uses, it alters the performance of the array. So it would require significant earth moving, or it's just, I'm just trying to understand. That's part of it, Peter. Essentially, it's like a puzzle. When you have a site in this site being close to the stream bank, it's placed optimally to A, reduce environmental impacts, and B, increase production. So you're always trying to get the most production you can out of the least impacts. And so where it's situated, that's the solve for that. And so to the extent we have to drag it down, we would end up having to do a little bit more clearing or live with shading. And so we need to maintain the buffer from the stream bank and we don't want to do any more clearing on the low side. And then if we wanted to solve, to get away from that set by moving sort of to the left, as you look at the picture, what TJ said is the undulation of the earth would require more cut and fill. And the thought was, given that there's not a lot going on, there doesn't seem to be a huge downside to encroaching six feet into the otherwise 25-foot setback in this particular location. I guess that seemed to be the lowest cost achieving the best results. Oh, and that's fine. It's just, we would prefer not to make an exception to our setback, all things being equal. But I agree, it seems like a relatively minor incursion. I did drive up there uninvited and peer around and try and figure out. But as you say, it's one thing looking at a flat diagram. It's another thing when you're standing up there. And the good news front, I understand the sensitivity to not waiving your traditional setback requirements. The good news in this particular instance, it's not really middle sexes setback requirement. It's the PUCs setback requirement. And you're not really waiving it. You're just agreeing to a consensual arrangement that the PUC can then decide whether they want to waive their requirement. So it doesn't sort of have really the presidential value necessarily that you might think about. And I wanna point out one mistake in my letter. I think we understood that at the last meeting. I do. Do you have concerns other board members? The Americans talk. Just for sake of clarity in the second sentence of the second paragraph, there's a typo there. I said rule 5.115 section five and it's still supposed to be 5.113 section five. So that was just a typo. I just wanna make sure that that for the record is correct. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Board members. Well, this is Steve. I don't have any concerns. How about a motion? I don't need there. Liz. How about a motion? I'll move that we approve this setback. And I'll second that. I'll second that. Thank you, Steve. I'll second that. Okay, got it. Okay. All in favor of accepting the setback agreement which has been presented to us, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. You're good. All right, thank you so much for your time, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Bye. You're welcome. Okay, goodbye, guys. Take care. Could you get me a glass of themselves over here, please? Proving town zoning administrator, Micho Secchi is the town's new E911 coordinator. Hi, I'm Peter, may I speak? Yeah. Okay, so yes, with Marika's retirement, we need somebody to be the new E911 coordinator and Mich has agreed to do this. It makes sense because when you get a zoning app approved, especially if you're putting in a new lot, a new house and a new lot, you get an E911 address. So that kind of combines both jobs in one. Makes sense. What does he have to do? You know, there's all this dorky stuff where you have to measure a certain distance from some, a certain intersection. I don't know, is what Marika used to do. You have to measure the entrance of the driveway from the closest major intersection and that creates the E911 number. It's not just a matter of just saying, you know, 25, 27, 29 on one side of the road. There's a little bit of GPSing to it. Did he volunteer or did you ask him to do it, Sarah? When Marika had the job, we knew she was gonna retire. She talked to Mitch about it and he said, yep, that makes sense. And I just checked with him again last week and he said, yes, he was game for it. It really does make sense. Because usually that's the only time you're gonna get an E911 address unless you have to correct something that's screwed up. And we need a moment on that, do you think? Yes, we do. This is Steve. I'll make a motion that we accept Mitch's to have him as the E911 coordinator. Second. Thank you, Phil. I second. Okay, got it. It's been moved and seconded to prove Mitch as a boy. He's got a lot of titles now. There's our new E911 coordinator. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, congratulations, Mitch. He's an important man. Okay, and believe it or not, we're already down to approving our May 19th, 2020. No, we're not. No, you missed. Regerous report. Regerous report, Darinda. How could I forget? Darinda. And Darinda has a lot on the agenda for tonight. Oh. Okay, I apologize, Darinda. Go ahead. That's okay. So I sent you guys a preliminary budget status report to show you where we're at right now. Darinda, did you just send that? I don't know as soon as I received it, which was about four o'clock. Okay, I haven't seen it. I don't know when the orders came through. It's in with the orders, Mary. Yeah, I haven't checked that. So I haven't checked that. I'm gonna go get my iPhone so I can look at it while you're talking. I can hear you though. So we're at 92, almost 93% of the budget with June to go through and the rest of May. So I think we're gonna probably come in over budget. Not sure, but depends what happens in the next few weeks. We're also, the other thing was to keep you up to date. We currently looks like we have about $422,000 left to collect in current taxes. And we have $795,000 in the bank and our payables are $727,000. So I think we have, certainly we would have enough to make the school payment. And depending on, again, this is a concern when tax bills will go out. So we're probably surprised if we will end up having to short-term borrow. The question would be how much we would want to short-term borrow. And I think we might wanna get ahead of the game because there may be a lot of towns out there trying to do it. So I decided to throw that out there. How early is early? For what? Early for what? We'll start early to get it because there might be a lot. Well, I know we can get through the rest of this year because we have the money in the money market account that we have used in the past and then paid back when we get taxes. And there's 270,000 in there. But I don't know, at this point, they're talking about possibly going out for a re-vote on some school budget. Really? Sounds like that idea kind of got squashed. That is gonna be unbelievably bizarre if they re-vote school and town budgets. Yeah. Then we better borrow a year's worth of money. So we'll just go status quo for now, but I'm just trying to keep you informed and you guys can kind of think about, should we borrow like six months worth of money? Should we borrow something like that? Or it's always just a big thing. I think we need to see, there's so much up in the air right now with the question of whether there are gonna be budgets re-voted, I noticed the Listers want an extension on the grand list, which may or may not affect our ability to get out tax bills. There's just a lot of stuff going on, but certainly we have money. How long do you think from the time we apply would it take to actually get the money a couple of weeks? Yeah, I don't think it takes very long. Right, so I don't think we need to be worrying about it now. It would be nice, and I only say this as a nice to end the year without that debt on our books. Starting that next year by going into debt. And I think we definitely will get through, there's no doubt we can get through the end of the year, even if we have to go use the money that's in the money market. Right, I mean that's right. So I spent some time looking over that report and it pretty much told me exactly what I expected. We have a number of categories where we're significantly underspent or underestimated income. Our income side of the equation actually looks pretty good. Of course that doesn't say anything about what the actual tax collections are, but it looks pretty good where we, as we know, where we run into trouble is in our favorite two areas, computer and equipment repair. And as I said to Steve to say at noon when we were talking, when the engine in the truck dies, we have no choice but to fix it. So that's just one of the things we've got. But other than that, we're doing a good job of managing our expenses and we're right where we should be. So. Okay. Yeah, and as long as we can cover that big bill, I mean that'll wipe out everything we've got in the account right now, just to help to the school practice. Yeah, but we should be getting, in the next few days, hopefully we'll get a bunch more money, right? We hope. Well, tomorrow's D-day, right? Right, yeah. Well, and so, yeah, and the money's been coming in, but we'll see what happens. Like I said, there's only, they say 344 left to come in or something, so. But you said 422. 422, okay, 422, yeah, whatever I said before. I got too many numbers written down. Yeah. And you have 75 in the bank. I wrote them down. That's how I remember them. Okay. Is Peter, is there any hope? Probably nobody knows, but in the 1.2 billion coronavirus relief, is any of that going to any municipalities? You know, they're talking about that, but nobody says, here's where you apply, or here's when it's coming, or, you know. Yeah, I think it would just be given. I don't think you would even probably apply. I think it would be like, something that the administration decides to give out, or that the legislature decides to give out. When the state has this gigantic caller trying to fail, it just seems unlikely to me that they're going to be portioning out any significant amount of money to the towns, but, you know, the bottom line is we don't know, nobody knows, or at least nobody I know knows. We started fraying all of our expenses. So we added a chart of account number, and we're gonna, you know, so at least we'll know what this is costing the town rather than putting it through the individual budgets. Yeah, yeah. Okay. The next thing I have is talking about taxes. They passed the S344 bill, which I sent to everybody earlier. So that does give you the right to waive penalties and interest. And Dave Smith, who's the Delinquent Tax Collector, we in the east on IC, so we can hear what the discussion is and weigh in on anything. But I wanted you to see that, and kind of we need to know how to move forward after tomorrow. Well, the bill passed both the House and the Senate. And we signed by the governor. Yeah. And it's effective July 1st, or is it effective immediately? Immediately. Immediately. What do you have a recommendation for us, Dorinda? Well, we haven't assessed any wage fees since March. So I would say certainly I would waive those wage fees would be mine, I mean, interest fees, not wage fees. Interest fees until this is over, possibly until the state of emergency ends. And I would consider waiving the 8% for this there. The bottom line is guys, I think we should do it. When I saw those cars lined up at the airport, getting food the other day caused me to totally freak out. I mean, if there's not many people that are that desperate, there were probably a lot of middle sex residents in those food lines. And that 8% in the interest don't mean that much to the town. I mean, it all means something, but this is not the time to be penalizing anybody. I agree. I agree, but I mean, what's when you say for this year, what's the end date if it's this year? Is it like? Well, through this year, it's the 8%, the penalty would be the 8%, which will be due if they don't pay their taxes in full by tomorrow. Yeah, but I mean, like, is this through December 31st? Or I mean, I'm just trying. Well, Mary, I think there are two components to it. In terms of the penalty fee, my recommendation would be we waive the penalty fee for this year. And I think that's all we're allowed to do under the bill. Isn't that right, Dorenda? You can waive it or you can delay it, I don't. Yeah, but it's just for this year. Well, our support stand. I believe the interest, I read the bill the other day. I believe the interest is till the end of the year, correct, the end of the calendar year. The interest is on while we're in a state, this whole thing applies to while we're in a state of emergency. Okay, okay. That's June 15th right now. Well, can I just chime in here? Oh, no, no, no, that's the stay at home thing, Mary, not the, yeah, I would just, I mean- Wait, Sarah has something she wants to say. Okay, go ahead. So I'm looking at the bill right here and it doesn't take very long for me to just go over it. Do you want me to read it too so you guys understand what it says? Sure. Yeah, okay. So, getting to the meat of it, the legislative body of a municipality is authorized to one, extend or establish a new timeline, time and method of payment for the municipal property tax and statewide education property tax collected by the municipality. So you can extend the time to establish a grace period for decrease or waive any penalty interest or fee imposed on taxpayers for the late payment of the municipal property tax or statewide education property tax. Three, reduce the municipal property tax rate. Oh, yeah. And the acts permitted by the subsection may be adopted by majority vote of the legislative body of the municipality and shall expire on January 1st, 2021. So that's what you got. So my recommendation would be, we don't change the tax rate or any of those things but that we don't waive the penalty, whatever the right word is for that and don't charge any interest from whenever we stop charging interest back in March until the end of this calendar year. You're gonna need to warn that. Yeah. Why does it have to be warned? Because it requires an action from the municipality and it requires some, that's something that really needs to be warned. They need to put that on the agenda saying that the board, the select board's going to take this step may take the step at its next meeting. And that next meeting is going to be on June 2nd. So that is right around the corner. You still might even be collecting late payments at that time. That'll give you enough room to decide to have a firm warned legislative vote saying it was warned, they voted on it. And by your collection of your late taxes should not be affected because it's gonna be pretty early in the game. Does it make any sense? And I'm just thinking out loud here. Does it make any sense to have a special meeting to do that in the next few days since that question is gonna come up? It does. We're gonna get it resolved? I would. Sure. We can have a five minute, we can have a five minute Zoom meeting. Right. And do this tomorrow or the next day and have it done. And then when asked, David and Dorenda can say it's a done deal. You don't have to worry about it rather than saying it looks like it might happen but it's not gonna happen until June 2nd. How does everybody feel about doing this? I mean, does everybody agree we should do this? Yes. Yeah, we should do it. Okay. I agree too. What do we warn an emergency meeting or a special meeting for Thursday at five o'clock? Okay. Thursday is the 21st, right? Yep. I'll set up the Zoom meeting. Okay. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Isn't that? That's good for me. Yeah. Sarah, isn't that number 870 blah, blah, blah, your number meaning that the town's number and it's always gonna be the same, the meeting ID? I don't know. I just scheduled the meeting and they give me a number. That's pretty much it. Maybe that is always it. Well, I mean, when I do something, I do these yoga classes on Zoom and it's always the same number. Right. Well, this will give you, this will give us a chance to put this warning on the front porch form for Thursday, which has cut in a little tight, but just so people are fully apprised of what's going on. Yeah, but nobody's gonna object to this, they're gonna be relieved. Very nice. There might be some people who said, I had to hustle to get my tax payments in and now you're telling me that there's no 8% penalty. I'm just like, They'll just passed. We couldn't do that until the other day. I think we're acting in a pretty timely manner. I think so too. All right. So we're put at Thursday at 5 p.m. Yeah. It's gonna make the delinquent tax collector's job a little easier. Yeah, Dave, you just. When is the next tax done? You've got a break, Dave. We'll do. Tomorrow is. Oh, tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. So when was it actually passed last week? May 13th. It's like everything else that has to deal with this pandemic. Everything happens at the last minute. And then it changes. And then it changes. Yeah, how about the. I have to get my pieces out of there, Gavin. Okay. And now I have one last thing. Mitch Asecki contacted me saying that. It's hard to hear you. Can you get a little closer? Thanks. The middle set. The planning commission applied for a grant for $20,000 from the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development for a design of a walkable bike path and village center. They now want to start taking the money for this. And I went back in the minutes when you guys talked about it. And I think it was something that Sarah said the planning commission had originally mentioned or something like that, or I guess somebody from the state came maybe. And there was, it said the town's portion would be 10% and we were told at the time it could be an in-kind contribution. So I don't have a copy of the awarded grant for anything like that, the terms of it. I got Mitch for it. I haven't received it yet, but I just want you guys to, I mean, I guess we didn't even know it was awarded. So I thought you were gonna say we never formally approved it. We needed a motion to say we cleared them to apply, but that's not the case. No, I guess we cleared them to apply for it. But this is the first that I heard it was awarded. And he's saying our match is 2,250 from the minutes it says 10%, which would have been 2,000. And I don't know if you want to do in-kind contributions or where our portion is coming from. Good question. How could we do in-kind contribution? What kinds of things qualify? Excavator. Yeah. Truck. Are they actually gonna build the roads? I mean, I thought this was a planning grant, not so. I'm kind of the consultant, I guess, to work on a design, but that's what this grant is for, was for the consultant from what I understand. How do you do 10% when it's a higher consultant? You can't use an excavator for that. Oh, you can't, Mary, right. Good point. Discretionary. I mean, this, I know I'm backing up in Sandy's no longer on the meeting, but I mean it, I was completely blindsided by that energy plan. I thought the planning commission's number one project for this year was the zoning regulations and all of a sudden we're presented with a schedule for this energy plan. And I don't even know what the energy plan is. Not very good communication from them, I don't think, but anyway. Well, Mitch isn't doing much better. I mean, is he also on the planning commission? I mean, is this a planning commission thing? Is that what you said? Sandy is the, Sandy is the- Chair. Chair. Whoop, I can't hear you, Vic. I think he's talking to somebody else. Oh, okay. All right. Anyway, it is what it is, but I mean, I didn't know anything. Did any of you know or remember anything about any comprehensive energy plan? No. The zoning regs do. I'm sorry, what? Aren't the zoning regs do for renewal? For every five years. That's why we did the plan last year. So we could do the zoning regulations here. And now what's gonna happen is the zoning regulations are gonna get pushed off or likely get pushed off into some kind of special town meeting, which I hate. Anyway, I'm glad they're working and I'm glad they're doing stuff. But I mean, the question I was gonna ask, which I didn't ask, is why do we need an energy plan? Anyway, if I'm off base, you can all tell me that, but I thought it was a little strange. Well, I mean, I think it's supposed to address situations like this ages, the Kingsbury thing, so that when it comes up, we have something in place but we may never have anything else that comes up like this, so you don't know. Yeah, but the thing I don't understand Mary is, and maybe it's, I just don't understand, it isn't really in our jurisdiction anyway. So what difference does it mean if we have an energy plan or not? We don't regulate it. No, we don't regulate it, Peter, but I think the energy plan does hold a little weight and that would be it. But it would have been nice to have a draft or know they were working on it. Well, that's all I'm saying. Application for this grant, yeah. Because it seems to me like we're gonna have to put $2,000 up. Sounds that way to me too, I have to admit. Yeah, yeah. Unless Derek could do some, David could do some computer work or something like that. Well, it isn't like $2,000 is gonna break the bank, but no. I'm just gonna refresh your memory that this was a grant that was pushed by Planetary Matters. Right, exactly. And Mike Peltier when they came in and said it would be, I think it's worth going back to them and saying, I don't, they shouldn't be contributing to the grant, but they seem to think that this would be no problem, no cost to the town. And I'm surprised to know that there's this $2,000 bill stuck on us that really kind of benefits them. You know, it's great. Why don't we, if they'll contribute the $2,000? I think that was discussed before. I think it was. But I don't, what are the ethics of that? The ethics, I mean, they're the ones who wanted to do it. So I don't think there's any harm in asking. You know, they seem to have the money because they bought the house and then they bought the other house. Well, they're the ones who want this revitalization. They want the bike pass and they want to see if this can, you know. Well, you know, you're saying the same thing. I mean, I think they have the money. Yeah. Met the guy with the hearts too. Whatever, we've got to, and I'm very supportive of a lot of the stuff they're doing, but, you know, it's the hitching post today, the $2,000 for this tomorrow, that this, that that, I mean, they're kind of overrunning us, I think. Don't forget about the massive food drive they're going to have. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, they are the only people who've made a concerted effort to do anything in town. And I don't know about you, but I mean, I took a picture of those hearts and I sent them to all my friends around. I mean, you know, it's like they're doing a lot. I think a lot of the stuff they're doing is great stuff. I just think we need to keep an eye on them. That's all I'm suggesting and understanding when they come in with these casual things like, oh, we're going to go ahead and apply for this grant, this, that, it's not going to cost you anything. Well, we just need to hold their feet to the fire. That's all. I think that holding their feet to the fire is we'll ask them if they can meet the match for the town because they said it wouldn't cost us anything. There's no harm in it. Right, there's no harm in asking. Right. Well, and do it before we finalize the grant. I mean, if we actually finalize the grant yet. According to, according to Mitch's email to me, it says funds are due to be dispersed in three installments. The first 40% and the second 30% will be direct disbursements. The final 30% will be reimbursed. And he said that he hasn't applied. I haven't requested the initial disbursement but I hope to do so in the next couple of weeks. I would say. We need to copy the grant agreement before he does anything. Yeah, I asked for one. And you have to write him and say, we're not proceeding with this until we get a copy. Well, I get a copy of the contract. Sounds like he's proceeding. It sounds like he's proceeding with us or without us. Yeah, I mean, you know, he's got, I mean, we know he has that tendency to go off on and do things that can cause us trouble later. So I think you have to really rein him in and say we're not doing anything until we get this contract and we go terms and the select board understands it. Okay, I'll write him another one tomorrow. And then I think somebody's got to ask the planetary matters for the cough up the money. Before we finalize. What I'm concerned about is I think this grant maybe is all done. I mean, I'd be curious to know who signed if they, if they don't do what we want, we'll just say, sorry, we don't want to proceed with it because of Corona virus. Whatever. His initial line is the planning commission was awarded for funding. So it must be the planning commission applied for it. Well, right. But I mean, they did apply for it. They did. And we all agreed on that. Right. I think the idea was that there would be no money going out of the town, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I believe you're right on that too, Peter, but I agree with Mary. I'd like to see, I'd like to see exactly what that $20,000 does in that grant. They already hired a consultant. They already hired new boys and kids. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, it seems like the town has control. I mean, the select board has control over the planning commission and we can always reject. No, it doesn't. Yeah, here's a question. And maybe this gets to the meat of the matter. Does the planning commission on its own stick, so to speak, have the ability to obligate the town to anything? That's my question. They go ahead and apply for grants without our consent. Can they obligate us to $2,000 matches without our consent? I don't think so. I don't think so either. They are separately elected. It doesn't matter. I mean, I don't think they have the authority to obligate money. They're not, yes, they don't have as part of their official duties, the ability to uptown, I don't. Well, and the other part of this is we're gonna have to administer this grant, correct? They're not gonna administer it, are they? Do you know, Sarah? I believe that this, the Central Mont Regional Planning Commission, as I can vaguely recall, was checked, like Darinda and I just discussed that, on the grant application, that the Central Mont Regional Planning Commission would administer the grant with the town. So it would be, somehow they're involved. It's the with the town part that makes me nervous. Yeah, well, I think- It sounds like you and Darinda. No, no, when Mitch first started talking to me about this last year, I try to minimize whatever I have to do with grants for obvious reasons. And Mitch said, okay, I'll take, well, I'll do it. He had the portal and, but I believe they checked the box. And I think Peter, you signed it. I don't know. I'll go find a copy if I can. Oh, that's great. But somewhere in that grant proposal- Someone on those pieces of paper you slid across in front of me. Yeah, I realized. Somewhere in that grant proposal, there must be something that outlines what the in-kind match would have been. I would think so. I don't know. Well, that's why I asked for it. He also said that he was advised that the town treasurer should create an account for this grant to facilitate the tracking of its expenses. Sucks. Well, wait a second. Somebody's gotta tell Mitch, she can't be calling the shots on this thing. I mean, that's what makes me nervous when you make them and give them another office. God knows where he'll go with that. That's an easy one. Yeah. Well, look at all the trouble we got in when the zoning administrative duties that we never really did anything about it. Yeah. All email follow up with him again tomorrow and tell him we have to have a SAP and to hold off on requesting any disbursement. And then it has done through you until further, until you, you know, I mean, if it's gonna be ministered by somebody else, we don't have any control over it. Well, the truth of the matter is though, we approve this. I mean, the only part that's in question is the $2,250 or whatever it is match. Right. So I don't, I don't mind. I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to micromanage the planning commission. That's the last thing I want to do, but I would like to generally understand what they're up to. And obviously tonight I did not. So maybe I should go to a few of their meetings, just what I need. Anyway, you all set, Dorinda? Yeah. Is that the end of your report, Dorinda? That's the end of my report. And Peter, there's still a document down at the town hall waiting for you to sign for a Welch card? No. No, I e-signed it. Oh, you signed it? I e-signed it, it's all taken care of. Oh, okay. Cause it was still in my mailbox. Okay, great. No, no, I never, it turned out I could e-sign it. I e-signed it like the next day or something and it's taken care of. I'm sorry that that didn't get communicated. What was the document, Peter? I'm sorry. The agreement for an insurance policy. Did we ever get anything back from the lawyer about, you know, all these bylaws and stuff? I mean, that's been kind of hanging around. I mean, it isn't the lawyer, Mary. It's the Benderson guy. Okay, he has. Benderson has never signed the documents, the amendments. And we still don't have a bookkeeper to replace Dorinda either while we're talking about that. I don't know what we, I don't know what we did. I mean, this is an unwarrant item, but just an observation. You know, I'm thinking more and more and the lawyer absolutely does not recommend it. I called and talked to him, but if it was up to me, I'd figure out a way to do away with this Welch Park thing. Every time I hear the word Welch Park, a cold shiver goes up my spine. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm on the board and I don't even get copies of the documents. You know, it's pretty. Well, maybe there aren't, I mean, we had the documents at one point in time that that was four or five months ago. I would, the last I had anything to do is John Riley came in and said he would draft the changes. And that's the last, I've never gotten anything since then. So we have those amendments, Sarah, correct? We have them in the Welch Park file. Which ones? The amendments to the Welch Park, whatever it is, agreement. We have the new ones. We don't have any new ones. No, well, these are the ones which go back to last winter. But John Riley, I mean, John Riley, he came in. Was it November, December? I don't remember. I don't, there were no amendments submitted. You guys drafted some, but there was none voted on and approved. Yeah, but I've never, I've never seen that. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We've signed them on behalf of the town. Everyone has signed them except for Welch Park. Right. So they are not in this office. Peter, John did not submit them. They are not part of the files here. I would have recorded them. They have not been recorded. Okay, so maybe submit. I will, I will get ahold of John and get copies of those documents. Is that I'm a member of the board, the last communication was John said he draft them. I've never seen a draft. I've never signed anything. And I mean, you know, okay, but, you know, I am a member of the select board and if I've got this obligation, that would be nice if I saw the documents. I agree, Mary. I agree. I will call them and make sure we have a copy. I thought we had a copy of them, but somehow we've got to get to the end of this Welch Park thing. And I think our fearless leader who gets all wrapped up and makes about five phone calls and then disappears for months doesn't make it easy. And I am not interested in being the new fearless leader. I can tell you that. Considering this wasn't a warned agenda item, you know, it might be a good idea to put this on the next agenda and we can have some real discussion about where we go with this. Yep. All right, Mike. Okay, so moving right along, approving May 19th, 2020 select board minutes. Do we have a motion? So move. Second. Okay, thank you. All in favor of the motion. Can I just correct that? It's May 5th. Today is May 19th. I just had a typo, sorry. So it's May 5th. Oh, okay. I read it right off the agenda. I should have known that. Move the May 5th minutes. Okay, Mary and Phil, okay. Okay, all in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we've approved them. Okay, here we go. Approving the listeners request to reserve the right to request an extension for filing of the 2020 town grand list. Peter May, could I just clarify this for you guys? So this is something that's come from the State Department of Tax, the State Tax Department, they're basically asking all listeners in every town to do this, just as a precaution. The listeners, our listeners have absolutely no intention of using this extension. In fact, they plan on filing the grand list by the end of this month, and they plan on going forward with grievances in the beginning of June. So this is just a pro forma thing. So why would we do it? Because the State Department, State Taxation Department, saying every single town should do this just in case something happens. Should do this. Should, yes. They can't require towns to do it, but they are strongly urging, and so the listeners are asking, it's just like if something goes wrong, they have this as a backup because if they don't do it, I forget what happens. I remember filing for this extension before when what's-his-face who's doing the town-wide reappraisal. So it doesn't mean they are going to. It just means that if something happens, we won't get in trouble with the State. I think the State would have better things to do than do this. Yeah, wouldn't you? Okay. Yeah, I'll move that we approve the extension. Second. Opportunity for the extension. Opportunity, yes. Thank you. Is there a second? Is there? I too. Steve, seconded. Yes. Yes. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Okay, another wonderful title. Designating road foreman Paul Siminera as the COVID-19 health and safety officer for the town. Wow. That's an honor. This has to, every town has to do this under the governor's guidelines. And since Paul's the only one with employees, seems like that makes sense. Plus he's married to a nurse. Are you bleaching, Paulie? Is Paul okay with this? Yes. Sarah had mentioned a healthy benefit package and a pay increase. So I was on board. Oh, okay. I want to be sure. Thank you. Paul, are you guys still working on the shift or are you back together? Say that again, Mary. Are you still doing a split shift? Are you guys all back together again? Because you're less than 10 and is everybody coming in every day? Or are you? Everybody's coming in every day. We're still on eight hour days, but I'm still splitting my time and most weeks I'm unable to get 40 hours, but we're making it work anyway. Okay. And that's for the first thing you should write. Cool situation. Over which it is not, that's the only reason. Okay. Oh, gotcha. I'll move that we appoint whatever the, the COVID-19 health and safety app is on. Yes. I second. There you go. Thank you. Okay. It's been moved in second at all those in favor of the motion. But I'm doing the executive summary version of these motions. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Congratulations, Paul. Another title to add to your resume. Okay. Considering the letter of support for CB fibers grant application for their Northern border regional commission application for an economic and infrastructure development investment program grant. This is you. You signed the letter and you can mail it out. What's that? Didn't Peter already sign it? I thought I saw it already signed in everything and mailed out. I don't think so. No, we just got a copy of it. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, it's just a grant opportunity that we want to apply for. We've just finished our feasibility study and we'll be now headed toward a business plan. And then we're gonna, I mean, there's a lot of funding out there right now. So it's a matter of trying to balance what we can get a hold of obviously the more grants we can get the less we have to borrow as we move forward. But the possibility of millions upon millions upon millions of dollars could become available in the near future. So, but this is just one thing that we're looking for and we're trying to get all of our communities plus some businesses in the area to just sign a letter of support. We signed one in custom. Yeah, that's right. I heard that. So I moved that we approve the letter and send it out. I'll second that. Okay, Peter's on the phone. We moved in second to get Peter. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Be opposed. Sorry about that guys. A dear old family friend is in the final stages of her life and that was my sister. So anyway. Not a happy day in the hood family. No. Yeah, at her. Yeah, I don't know who you're talking about. Okay, so. George, we've done the orders or we will do the orders. Correspondents, Sarah. You got the letter from Betsy Davis. Yeah. Yep. So that's her correspondence. Okay. So do we, do we return? I mean, obviously we read the letters. We look at them. Do we routinely respond to these letters? No. Just kind of if you want to say, I'll shoot Betsy a note and say the board talks about it, talked about it and here's the minutes. What are we doing the minutes? I don't know. I just think somehow we ought to acknowledge that we received and read the letter. We really talked about it. How can you usually email people back if they email us but when they do an attachment I guess I didn't. I was thinking of emailing her back. I never CC anybody because then it becomes a meeting. Right. But, you know, I think the only thing that I was gonna say to her was that, you know, we weren't looking at, you know, turning it. It was really more about addressing the issues around the fact that there's a pond there instead. I just biked through it again last night and I like it gets, it's really high, it's deep. You know, you're really, you can't walk through it. You would get completely soaked if you walked through it. Right. Well, I just think it's a matter of practice. Somehow we should be, even if we just say we acknowledge the receipt of your letter and it is select board members of all Reddit or whatever we say, obviously if we have some discussion about it and we take some action on it then we should definitely let them know. But if we just sort of take it under an advisement it seems to me that it's polite to say, you know, thank you for your interest in this subject. We will. Well, let's, I think that we should have Sarah write a letter and then touch the minutes, just like she said. And indicate that we all read it and we understand our concerns. Yeah, Peter. Claire, when someone writes me, I say, thank you, you know, Betsy, you know, I'll bring it to the select board, that type of thing, usually something like that. And then I write them back and say the board considered it last night and here's a copy of the minutes. It just seems like the least they know they've been heard, that it was discussed, it wasn't just round filed, you know? Exactly. No, that's all, that's all I'm looking for. I just think it's, I want to be sure, be in polite to these people who take the time to write to us. So besides Liz, does anybody want to say anything about that letter? I just thought that maybe she was a little concerned that like we were going to start, you know, turning it into a class three road or something like that. But really, you know, I think the conversation was really about how can we make it passable for walkers and bikers at the very least, which it's not passable right now. And so I think she was worried that we were going to do some major upgrades that made it so that, you know, people could start driving through and mudding and all that kind of stuff, which is kind of what they already do. But like, it's, I think we've agreed we're going to block the road off. So hopefully we're going to prevent some of that mudding activity. Yes, exactly. But we're not blocking it off to walkers and bikers. No, no, no, no. Right. Wait a second. We're not paving it until next year. Right. I mean, and we have no money to do any upgrades anyway. So we don't even have money to deal with the, I kept seeing those emails and it wasn't clear to me. It wasn't clear to me if somebody wanted to get together with the beaver guy about the, you know, about the greats that you would put up or whatever it was you would put up. And like, Paul, I think he's asked if, and did he ever show up that Tyler guy? And who was that Tyler guy? I don't know if he's called for listening. He says he's here, but he may not be listening. I'm sorry. I'm trying to cooking dinner and folding laundry. So we met with Tyler, with Tyler up at the site. And what we figured out was right now, because it's a trout spawning season and the trout are fishing upstream, they've recommended that we wait until the beginning of June. And then with help from Tyler, well, Tyler's guidance, and then with Rupert, we're gonna slowly start to lower the water level safely because the pelvert is obviously completely blocked. At that point, as we lower the water level, that should get us to the point where a spawning season is over. And then Tyler can go ahead and start putting up the device that he'll use to block the beavers from plugging the culvert at least hopefully on him. You know. Tyler, are we paying him to do this? No, Tyler is the furbearer specialist for the state. Yeah. There's a good title. I want to say that it's furbearer specialist. But are we paying him to do this? No, this is an off of, yeah, this is through the state wildlife management. There's no cost to the town for this. No way I'll see unusual last name that no one can pronounce. But no, this is Tyler Brown. This is different than the gentleman from the trail access. Okay. Okay, cool. Hey, I think we should buy a town kayak and people can ferry themselves across. Hey, Paul, I had a question though while I have you on this. So I was, I biked through that last night and when you get, and I was coming from going past hunger on the right. So in that direction. And then when you get towards the next house, there's these, on the right are these, is like a big hill. Is that an old beaver dam or is that something that like that's overgrown? To be honest, Liz, I'm not a hundred percent sure. I have not driven all the way. You're saying more towards the East Bear Swampside? Yes, yeah. Yeah, I've actually not since last year when I originally met with John Yudis and Mary Neal and have I driven through there. So to be honest, I can't even speak to it. Yeah, I just wonder if it was an old beaver dam from a long time ago, because it looks like a beaver dam but it's now it's totally overgrown with grass. No, you know a lot of it. They had done some pretty extensive logging in there. Kind of a beginning when I'd first moved to town 2009, 10, 11. So that's probably a lot of the remnants of that. I see, yeah. Who is they? Peter, this is Steve. I've got to get going. So I think we've gone through everything we need to vote on anyway, right? Well, can we just do Bob Hollis here? Can you just guys just sign off on the access permit on Nellie Chase Road? We've got enough people to do that, Mary. Yeah, we're good. I'm Mary. Hi, Sarah. I just had a quick question about that Nellie Chase Road, though. Are we planning on reopening it to a class three? Because remember they said, well, we're selling all these plans and now this is gonna be a second driveway on there. No, that's not that part of the class. Yeah, no, that is a class three road already, Liz. Oh, okay. So where is this, the Sasse Stewart spot? Steve, go ahead. Good bye. All right, thank you. Bye, Steve. I'll see you soon. Bye, Longmeyer. The driveway that Seth is looking to put in, Mary, is just across from the driveway he put in last year, which would be Eric Chase's and the IAZO's property. Eric Chase. Yeah. It's on this land, Paul, correct? It's on Seth's land, correct, that he purchased from the IAZO's. Yep. Oh, he bought all green lights in my eyes. I got it. Move approval of the access permit, Seth Stewart on base road. Okay, 10 seconds. All those in favor of approving the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I think we have completed our assignment for this evening. Peter, I have one other thing. Oh, okay. Thank you. Paul's in really desperate need of some new technology. So that he can basically take information back and forth. So Sarah had indicated that the Chromebook, which we intended to use as the new public computer, can't be used to access the ACS records. Is that right, Sarah? Unfortunately, yes. Yes. So that means we have to replace the current public computer, which we've had a couple of near catastrophes with, but it keeps rebooting and, but we are gonna have to replace that. I think I can do that for about 500. There are some really good prices right now on Dell, and we've got a connection there. So what I'd like to do is to take that Chromebook and have that go to Paul and get assistance, however we need to do it, to get files moved to the cloud for him so that he has access from wherever he is to get those and get a purchase order in for a new CPU for the public computer. I think we're okay with monitors. We've got two or three monitors around, so that should be a problem. Again, more money, but it's really the only way I see of us being able to achieve both things with getting the right stuff for Paul to work and also then able to do it. Is this so he can work at home or work at his office? He'll use it for both. Should I carry it around with him? Yeah, yeah. Rather than being desk bound to an old PC that's not particularly important. I'm outside, I got a feeling. Yeah. Wow. What's that? It's a cool cell, who is that? You can have a cocktail instead of one, whatever you want. He hasn't got out of his meeting. Well, I don't see him on here. Oh, it's Deborah. I'll go and mute him. Okay. I'll kick him out. Mute him, there you go. Thank you. Yeah, it sounds like he had a cocktail party to go to. Yeah, right now. I was like, where else are you going? No one's going anywhere these days. AKA Deborah, yeah. Yeah. That's a great world, isn't it? So Phil, just quickly, any updates on where we are with getting our other computers going and our emails up and all that stuff? We're sitting, waiting right now. I can talk to R.B. We did extend the contract, Peter, for six months with R.B. Which you and I had talked about just so that we don't have to go out and seek proposals while we're in the middle of this COVID thing. I can, you know, we're like half set up. I certainly can figure out with them the best way to finish that set up and get those in place. I guess that would be a matter of working that out with you, Sarah, in terms of, you know, access to the office or whether they just come and take the computers and take them back to their shop and do that. But I can. Did you get the message today from the other people? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I'll follow up on that. Alrighty. So what do you think about the Chromebook going to Paul and then looking? I support it, Phil. Me too. Yeah, okay. No, I think we need to do it. He needs to have working computer access. He does. If it also means, now does he have decent internet access to this house? It's probably as good as he can get. It's not great, but for now, he's got what he can get, I'm sure. Yeah. He's not on the phone, all right? What's that? He is. He's called in laundry. Yeah. Yeah, guys, I can't see him, great. I've got decent enough internet for doing documents stuff. As long as we're not streaming videos, then we're in trouble. I just needed to be able to access emails. I cannot do that from my cell phone because of the way that the Xfinity app platform is. I can't access anything that's not in my inbox. Right. And I can't process payroll over my phone and I'd rather not use my old home computer that's quite frankly, full of nothing that the town needs to be involved with in regards to safety software. It's not going to that. Well, you know, there's no safety protection on it at this point, it's all expired. Yeah. And whereas with the Chromebook, you don't need any of that. You're basically gonna be working in the cloud. But like you said, for documents or a spreadsheet, that's all text-based stuff. And I've used Chromebooks for years and they're pretty fast actually. Yep, excellent. Okay. Perfect. I would just put the heat on RV to come back with us a plan. I mean, we've had those new computers for months. Let's get them. Let's get them. Whatever, thanks. I'll take care of that. Okay, thank you. Okay. I do have one other quick thing. Stephen, Paul and I are meeting tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, right, Paul? Right, Paul? He's on mute. Sorry, yeah, I'm doing dinner. Yes. No, okay, we're almost done. We're meeting at the state parking lot up on the road up to the town for us to try and work some more on that issue. I'm not exactly sure what we're hoping to get accomplished. It was the state guy who reached out to us. Steve and I and I probably don't know. What? Go ahead, Paul. Nope, it's Tim Appleton who we met with earlier this winter before the pandemic stuff. Now that the snow's gone, we're just trying to touch base with him again in regards to what they're looking for, what they'd be willing to help out with and anything like that. So just a preliminary, more of an exploratory meeting. Right. It's not particular to the road, it's just that's the meeting place, right? They're just talking about what kind of- That's correct. It's strictly to do with the parking lot. Okay. The parking lot meeting they- The state parking lot, Mary. I'm sorry? The state parking lot, which is at the end of our class three road, which we now use for our snowplow turnaround. Okay. Where's that? Oh, God. Oh, God. It's like, where is it? Did you just- Did you talk about this last week? Oh, wait. Okay, right. Okay, you're talking about- I mean, there's- I'm just telling you we're meeting. I think we are moving ever closer to telling the state to, do whatever you wanna do with your parking lot. I'm glad you let us turn our truck around in there. If we do anything, we're gonna create a town parking lot down at the old pit and people can hike up the road and that's what we're doing. Okay? Yeah. Okay, good night, everyone. Thank you very much. Wait, does Vic wanna say anything? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Oh, I'm sorry, Vic. I was just wondering, has the date for the meeting this Saturday from 10 to noon been changed? Somebody said it's gonna be on the 12th, but I don't see anything official. I thought it was May 23rd. What? Is this still gonna be May 23rd? No, Vic, we had this conversation just this weekend. It is June 7th and it's been on the website for over a week. Okay, okay. We did have that conversation, but obviously it's not getting out to the people around cause a lot of people think it's gonna be Saturday. Okay, I'll put a- Maybe you wanna put it on front porch forum is all I'm saying. Just suggesting that, I'm not telling you what to do. All right, I will- No, I think that's a good idea. We don't wanna have a bunch of people showing up Saturday. Yeah, there seems to be, for some reason, I don't plan on attending, but a lot of people are interested in going. Okay, I'll put it on. I'm gonna write the post as soon as this meeting is over. Very good. Very good, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Vic. Where's that meeting gonna be? It's gonna be behind the fires. It's gonna be behind Town Hall by the fire station in the parking lot. Old fire station. The old fire station. Yeah. Social distancing in the parking lot. Productive meeting. We're getting there, guys. Thank you all again. I mean, this is, I hope we're getting a little better at this. It still feels a little struggling to me. When it's just us, it goes fine. When we have a lot of other people, it's a challenge, but I'm glad. I think we're through with that with the solar project. I hope we are. Don't forget five o'clock on Thursday. The 21st. Are you gonna send us an email about that, Sarah? I'll send you an email with it. I'm gonna sit here. I'm gonna write the agenda for that. I'm gonna post this stuff on Front Forge Forum. So it'll be there on Wednesday, both the meeting for the informal road meeting and then also the agenda for this bill. Do you use just, I just have to ask, do you use the same link for your Zoom meetings, for all Zoom meetings? Probably. Yeah, okay. I just wanna know if the next time I go on, it's gonna be this link. That's what I said. I think that if you, the meeting ID stays the same and you don't have to have a password. Yeah, I think it does. I know that's what happens with mine and what happens when I do this other, this class that I take. It's always the same meeting ID. If you're a host. Okay. Great. Good night, everyone. See you on Thursday. Have a good night. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye, Vic. Bye. Bye-bye.