 There we go. There we go. Actually, I probably want to turn that off though. Sorry about that. It's okay. We're just getting our fifth member together. Ready to go. I know what's going on. Perfect timing. There's no parking. Yeah, I don't know why. Like we're all scrambling. Yeah. Just be next door and there must be a meeting or something. All right, Scott, you ready? Yes, okay. So I'll call the meeting to order. I have just a little after seven. We do have a quorum for both sets of minutes tonight. So we'll start with approval of the minutes of October 17th, 2017. Is there a motion? I'm going to approve the minutes of October 7th, 2017 as amended. So your second. I'll second. One. Age two. I think I would recommend under item number six, the mud pond conservation area. And the last statement, the select board will take the matter under consideration. I think I would add after a recommendation of the conservation commission. Age three. That ends the minutes for October 17th. Those in favor of approving the minutes of October 17th, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And Theresa abstains. Okay. And we'll move on to the minutes of November 21st, 2017. There's a motion. Second. Age one. Age two. Hearing no corrections. All those in favor of approving the minutes of November 21st, 2017, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We should have two abstentions. Ted and Jeff. So next on the agenda is public comment. Is there anyone in the audience who had anything to offer under public comment either on the agenda or not on the agenda? See. Yes. Yes, sir. If you identify yourself. Joseph Aaron from Chef's Corner. Yes. Can I read from you? This is for the public comment. So you're on the agenda for later on for the license? They're he's. He wants to talk about. Absolutely. You want to go up to the. Sure. Just to sort of identify yourself and that would be fine. That's good. Scott Cerell, Chef's Corner. Joseph Aaron, Chef's Corner. Okay. It's not an amplifying mic. Go ahead, proceed. Yeah, thanks for letting us present on behalf of the Chef's Corner team. We've been two decades in Williston and intend to do two more decades. Thanks to the Allenbrook Development, Omega Electric, and the town of Williston. Shortly after we opened in our new location in August, we approached Brian Birch from Omega and inquired what our wastewater fees would be to open for dinners. The fees are between 12 and $19,000. As per our conversation with Rick McGuire, this fee had to be paid upfront. Having just invested and borrowed over half a million dollars, this fee is not possible to come up with. Chef's Corner is not asking for anything free. We are requesting for the Board to amend the ordinance allowing Chef's Corner and future tenants with a positive long-term history in the town of Williston to be able to pay the fee over 12 to 24 months. Period, depending on the dollar amount. We originally wanted to open up for nights in October, and when we heard about the fee, we realized we couldn't afford it to pay it in one lump sum. So we've postponed it till spring, hoping that we can come to an arrangement. The fee could be paid and done through a monthly auto pay or post-dated checks so that the town will be guaranteed of the settlement. That's pretty much it. Thank you, and hopefully you'll reconsider. Thank you. So the Board would have to put this on the agenda as an item for discussion at some future time. And then if we decide to go forward with an ordinance, we would ask the Planning Department to prepare that and then we'd take a public hearing. It's going to take a fair amount of time if we decide to do that. Do you know how much time it would take, Moulis? Well, in order to get something drafted, probably, Planning Department can't tell you how long it would take them, probably not more than a few weeks. For us to consider it, if we could do it at a select board meeting, obviously, then call for a public hearing. There has to be a period of time before the public hearing, before it has to be warned. And then it would have to be done at that point. And after that point, we could then take action on it. So it would be a fair amount of time. Just to, maybe I can help a little bit, I'm more familiar with the timeline. Assuming the board approves an ordinance change, from that point forward, there's a 60-day waiting period before the ordinance goes into effect. So that's the biggest timeline. Before that, there's a 15-day notice in advance of the public hearing that a public hearing notice has to be published. And before that, the select board have to agree to notice the public hearing. And so that's usually, you know, to combine those two together, it's usually about a month. And then before that, the select board has to review the proposal that comes forward. And before that, I'm going backwards, they have to ask the staff to actually draft any changes. So that process could now add another month or two. So two or three months? Well, two months just for, once the board approves it, waiting for that to go into effect. And then it could be another two to three months easily on top of that. So you're looking at five months? Yes, I would say roughly. I mean, we honestly feel that, you know, we've been in this town, it's not that we just moved into the town, and we've been here 20 years and we've signed another 10-year, with 10-year option and that's 40 years. And the wastewater permit in our old location now is doing nothing because Lenny's has moved in there. And we would appreciate it if the town would work with us, whoever else involved the state, the town, the ordinance, we don't really understand their language that well. But for us just to come up with $19,000 is very difficult because we have just done this huge investment in a new space, so that's why we're sitting here and asking it. So we're kind of aiming at, we'd like to open up in the spring because we were supposed to, we wanted to open up in October until we heard about the situation and we'd like to open up in the spring. So March, April, I mean, that gives us a bit of time and appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Can I ask one clarification? Sure. Which wastewater fee is it? Let's talk about the sewer allocation charge. The sewer allocation. $10 per gallon charge. Thank you. Thank you. Any other person who wishes to make any public comment tonight? None. Then we'll move on to the position interview and perhaps an appointment. Brian Forrest, you're here and you've had your, would like to become the energy coordinator for the town. This is a brand new position, one that we hadn't considered before, but perhaps you can give us a brief background, even though we have your application, and why you want to take the position. I'm a retired architect and have been interested in the environment and energy for a long time. I don't have expertise in the field, but I have a lot of passion in the field and I'll bring that to the position. I would like to have the position because the state has a comprehensive energy plan which is looking to provide 90% of our energy from renewables by 2050. The state fell far short of its projected 2012 goals and I'd like to help the town reach the goal of the comprehensive energy plan. This is a brand new position for us and we've read the, we do have a copy of what the statute says as far as what the coordinator does and have you talked to anyone in town, the planning department or anything about a position or? No, I have not. I talked to Rick, yes. Questions from members of the board. What kind of things do you, what kind of things do you want to affect in the town? I think the most important thing that needs to be done is a energy plan for the town. So we can chart where we are and chart how we get to where we want to be. I think we can't do that without an energy plan. We need to have measurable, we have goals and measurable benchmarks to see if we're going to get there and if we don't then we need to change the path to get there. So I think that's the most important thing. There are just so many things. The reviewing where we are with our municipal buildings and schools in terms of energy use and efficiency, either replacing outmoded or outdated and efficient devices, systems, and also building energy, how we're doing there. We've gone through one or two weatherizations I think that's building in the police department, but I'd like to know where we are with regard to the rest of the buildings. I'd also like to see where we are with regard to our transportation and how we can switch to non-fossil fuel based vehicles as fast as we can. My questions, I'll first focus on you then I have some questions about, or maybe they aren't questions for you, about the position in general, but my question is along the lines and please don't read anything into my questions. It's just my way to try to... I know your style. Thanks. The town has the town comprehensive plan. If I remember correctly, it has an energy section in it. And so my questions are along the lines. Have you had a chance to review the energy section? What is your evaluation of it? I'm in the process of reviewing that now. And also while the plan was being redesigned, the town plan, which I remember gave input to the town planning commission on sections of that plan. So Matt and Rick both know my input. Okay. And I guess my question is, you mentioned something very specific, the concept of establishing goals and measurable benchmarks. Is there other aspects that you see the town either should be or could be doing but currently isn't doing? I'm trying to... I guess part of what I'm getting at is what would be the role of A or the energy coordinator? I see it as an interface between the town and cooperative agencies, state and non-governmental groups, which to implement, would give input into the town's energy future and the town's energy model. I think we should do an opportunities assessment in town. We have the Catamount Forest, which presents an opportunity for a sustainable wood lot. We have the town dump, which I'm sure is Belgian methane into the air as we speak. I think we should investigate capturing that as an energy source and or using that site for solar or wind or whatever is feasible for that site. I know there's issues with the dump, but I think there are opportunities in town we should take a look at it, talk to. Those also interested in this issue and take advantage of them to help us on our way. If you don't mind, would it be fair to say that you view this position as sort of an advocate or somebody who is, if you will, trying to push the town? Maybe to do more might be a way to put that? Absolutely more because we have a deadline of 2050. It's just 32 years away. We don't have a lot of time to do this. If we don't get there, we don't want to make big trouble because 2050, as the state has set that year, unless we turn this issue around of carbon dioxide, anything we do beyond that date is not going to be effective anyway. So we don't have a lot of time. I'm not a person who wants this job. This is a job that's seeking a person and I'm jumping in here. What did you do for Vera's Energy Environmental Resource Associates? What did you do for them? I worked on the Searsboro Project. I did help to write the DOE grant. I worked on the environmental impact statement, research for a person to do the environmental impact statement. What actually happened was that the project was divided into two phases. The upper phase came across private land up in the federal lands and because the Forest Service had an assessment of that property as being primed for wood lot or timbering and there was also prime bear habitat that ran into a lawsuit and held the thing up and was going to derail the whole project. But I woke up one morning with the obvious brainstorm that we should do the first phase on private land, which wasn't the highest elevation, it wouldn't produce the most amount of energy, but it didn't have any restrictions on it. Do that first and then move on to the government-owned property once those problems were resolved. So the project moved on. I went down to the Vermont Community Energy Climate Action Conference down in Lake Maury last Saturday. It was really kind of an annual meeting of 10 energy committees and I wrote a report here. The second thing I would like to do is get reimbursed for that. Perhaps we can address that after we make that point. Perhaps we can address that point after we make that point. So this is brand new. I don't believe that we've advertised this position. I hate to throw wrong words. If we wish to make an appointment tonight, we can. If we wish to delay it until we see if there's anyone else interested, which is highly unlikely, but that's up to you. Well, I think we also have a very basic question to answer is, I don't know correctly how to put this all, do we need the position? Do we want the position? And then the question becomes, if the answer is yes, and thank you for raising it, bringing it to us, if the answer is yes, then figure out who's the best candidate. But really the very first question is, as I said, do we need it? I was a little surprised to see it in the select board package because I had never heard of the energy coordinator. But I did read the statute. Thank you for including that. I'm certainly not opposed, but I'm hesitant to say I'm for it yet without hearing maybe from Rick or the town planner, those who are involved with energy issues in the town. The town has been maybe not proactive enough. I can get that. Pushing is never a bad thing. But we've done a fair amount, particularly with solar. So hopefully that starts the discussion. It's set out by state statute, but the statute also doesn't say that we actually have to appoint anybody, but that's true. Is that like wire of coal? Tree warden, we still have a tree warden. Wouldn't that be ironic? Whoever is our energy coordinator is also the wire of coal. So Rick, your comments, I read your comments in the manager's report kind of implied you weren't sure that we needed one. What is your staff's view and feeling? That's what I read out of your report. I have to refresh my memory because it's been a week or so since I wrote that. But if the board is, it's really a board decision. It is anyway, but I guess if the board is interested in pursuing a range of other things beyond what we've already done, then it might make sense to bring someone in like, this gentleman, Mr. Forrest is an energy coordinator. We have done a lot, but there's always more you can do. And really, it's a matter of how aggressive does the board want to pursue some of these things? Even if you make the decision to make this appointment, that's still going to be an issue coming up time and again with every new proposal that comes forward. It's more of a consulting role. So you have somebody looking at and evaluating in contact with conservation groups, looking at potential new technology, what other towns are doing. Right, what other towns are doing, but it's a consultant role. It's not a... Yeah, they don't have any separate authority. They all have to come to the town management. Well, to the board, mostly it would be policy issues right now. The recommendations are just coming to the board. I'm sorry. Recommendations and thoughts and opinions and stuff would just be coming to the board, as I understand it then. Well, we can filter to the staff. I now have some additional staff, which I'll formally introduce later in the meeting, but certainly we have more capacity now to handle extra work than we did before. I like the idea from the standpoint that somebody would be looking at this outside of the towns, because they'll have more time. I mean, your town staff is pretty busy, as we've seen before. On the other side, it would be nice to maybe advertise that we're pursuing this position to give. I actually don't know, Brian, maybe you can tell us, how did you come about understanding or applying for the job when... Oh, okay. Wait, see that again, I'm sorry. We're at the energy section involved in the transportation energy section. The town plan. Okay, interesting. So my view on the position, I think first let's talk about the position, is either there could be two, I view two types of roles. One type of role would be to monitor the town comprehensive plan and make sure we're making achievement on that. That's kind of more the status quo. The other position, or the other, not position, what would be the word, the other role might be more of the advocacy, the pushing the town, the more the coming up with ways to... I like the idea of the measurements and the benchmarks. So I look at that as more of an advocacy type position. The only thing I'd say just to interrupt is one point. On the measurements, we'll have to measure that at some point, right? If that 32-year-out benchmark or goal stays solid, won't we have to measure ourselves as we approach that? I don't know what requirements currently exist for that kind of thing at this point. There are certainly tools that are available towards that. In fact, there's a website with a community dashboard, and Wilson doesn't have anything posted on it, even though we've done a fair amount. And a lot of communities have posted information. That's a good resource. And I know Mr. Forrest is aware of that as one option. Well, is that something Brian, Mr. Forrest, can do for us? Sure. Or the energy coordinator? I would think that that would be a good tool for him to use. Yeah. I assume this has got a zillion different measurements that could be out there. I mean, one of the things I'm... One of the condroniums as I was reading through the information Rick presented in our packet is I'm pretty sure, although... I'm pretty sure, but not positive, that the town plan is going to talk about natural gas and the idea of increasing natural gas use in town because of its efficiency and cost effectiveness and whatever other benefits Vermont Gas will tell you or associate with natural gas. But on the other hand, it's in conflict with the concept of reducing greenhouse gas emissions or getting away from fossil fuels. Seeing that, not that I know that there's a clear answer, but I'm just curious how that might play out with the energy coordinator. You know, those conflicts that are... In order for an energy coordinator to not be affected, the energy coordinator has to have buy-in from the select board about the goals and not the goal, but the consensus on science. We must believe that climate change is real. We must believe that we only have limited time to save ourselves. And if we don't have buy-in, then on those kind of issues, then the energy board is really just spinning us wheels because there's no point in doing the work and there's no belief there in the first place. So if you believe that... If you believe the scientists that we're at a tipping point and if we don't get there by a solid problem by 2050, we're at a tipping point from no point in mind doing any of the work in this area of the town. Here, I have no particular problem with Mr. Forrest, but since we haven't advertised the position, just to me, it would seem like... I would like to at least put it out there if we're considering... I absolutely agree and think that's been our standard practice, is that we make sure that any position is advertised. We have, and what I believe is a very good, maybe excellent candidate, but we still need to go through that step. Do you have any sense of time as far as how long you'd like to see this advertised? I was going to ask you the same thing, Rick. Not in December, I'd say the end of January. End of January? Okay, so... Some time in January. So as I'm reviewing the statute online, the energy coordinator duties, the legislative body of the municipality may appoint and determine the length of term for an energy coordinator. So I might think that we, on an interim basis, see if we could make the length of time for one year to see how it goes. That's what Rick... Rick has recommended six months. Oh, six months, I'm sorry. Rick, I was taking into account the fact that we hadn't advertised. All right. So I figured the board would be reluctant to appoint. That's why I was suggesting, if you want to move forward quickly, you do it for a short time. We have a chance to interview several people, and again, by the end of January. So would we have all the candidates signed up by the end of January, and then we would interview, or we would interview them between now, as they come in? I certainly could arrange it as we come in. It probably isn't going to happen until sometime in January, though, because your meetings are pretty well already booked for December at this point. Okay. So it would basically be June. Okay. All right. And if we get nobody else, then we have a candidate. If somebody else would be more than happy to work with you. Great. Thank you. So we have consensus that we'll advertise this and revisit if we have any other applications. Can I ask how we would advertise? How we would? Well, typically, usually all we do is just post on the website. Well, as we've seen, only one person read the report, or maybe one person was interested at the report. Once a year, I will do a, usually a broader posting, like in front porch form, and maybe use another source or two. That's for this. I mean, just to get, front porch form seems to be a great vehicle. We'll do more than just post on the website then. Yeah, just to get some interest. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Forrest. Moving on to liquor license application from Walgreens. I think we have a representative from Walgreens here. So if you would identify yourself and tell us what you'd like to do, it's a change of license. Sure. My name is Merrell Bent. I'm the Vermont local council for this Walgreens application. I'm from the law firm of Wilmington Campbell, Bernal, and Benton, in Manchester. Actually, this license application is one of 29 license applications being submitted in the state of Vermont right now. And it's part of the larger acquisition of about 2,000 ride aids by Walgreens that was recently approved by the feds. So it's one of many. But all it is is changing over the ownership of the currently existing ride aid that you already have. Not much is going to change. I don't think anything's going to change about the management of the store. The manager who did the education course is going to stay the same. So you have the education certificate in the application package we submitted. And it's really just going to be kind of an ownership change. Nothing more significant. So they would continue to sell beer and wine at the store under second-class license. So it's not terribly controversial, either, I hope. There is Walgreens in Burlington, I think. I think the ones that exist are in Rutland and Brattleboro. There's one here in Burlington, too, I believe. Maybe there is, yeah. So they have two ride aids now that are switching over as well. So every ride aid in the state is going to be Walgreens. It's going to be flying that flag anyway. Any questions for the applicant? I think I'm pretty good. I just want to, the application that's up for us also includes tobacco. Is that correct? Yes. What's that? We don't do that. The state is actually responsible for doing tobacco license. Okay. Yeah, it's just an extra checkbox. We get to check off at the license. Are there any violations? At ride aid, no. Not to my knowledge, but I don't represent ride aids, so. I didn't even know they had a liquor license, so I didn't know they had a liquor license. Good to know. Later they opened? Is that what I was asking? Any further questions? It just sounds to me like the status quo. Yes. What went on at ride aid will go on at Walgreens and... That is the sincere hope and I think that is what's going to happen. You mentioned you would be the same manager. Did I hear you correctly? The person who did, yeah. At the very least, the manager, they identified the manager who would be staying on. I suspect everybody who's there is going to be staying, but we did have them identify the manager who will be staying on so that we could make sure that we had somebody who had already done the certification for the online course. Yeah, exactly. The staff has no objections. Through a motion. Go to approve second class liquor license for Walgreens Eastern Company Store, store number 10327, located at Walgreens. Discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. May you oppose? No. Thank you. Great, thank you. So we do have liquor license, first class license application for chef's corners. And this is just a change of location. I don't believe there's anything else. Yeah, everything was exactly the same, just different locations, same owners, same everything. And staff has no objections to this one either. Okay. The only question that I would have is, they have the outdoor seating and the current, the not current, the old, the previous location, it was kind of fenced in. Is that going to be true here also? They will have to provide some sort of barrier. Okay, that's a requirement. Okay. And we would expect that the, similar to the right aid of Walgreens, the staff will say the same, which is different locations. Yes. So the training and their good history, excellent history? No violations. So their excellent history will, no reason to suspect that will change. Where is the patio on that? So it's out behind the, Okay, so it is out back. Yeah. Okay. All right. If there's a motion to be made. Move to approve the first class liquor license with an outside. Do you want to say, doing business at Chef's Corner Cafe and maybe we look at the United Corner Stone Drive? Second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Very none. All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Opposed? Good. So we're moving on to the ambulance service rate change. Chief Morton is here to talk about the proposal that we have and the memo that is written to by him. Welcome. Hello. If you've all read the memo, it speaks for itself. It's revised guideline. We need to add a non-emergency BLS, a non-emergency ALS level of service billing. And we recommend a $50 decrease to the current rates for meeting that new standard. We don't expect to use this very much. No, we said less than 5% of the time. If it's two or 3% of the time, it's probably a lot. Can you explain? I read through this, but I didn't quite get it. These are the non-emergency versus emergency. What differentiates them? What you're dispatched to as opposed to what you end up handling for call. So maybe an example would be helpful. Dispatched to a call that would require an ALS level of service. And then you arrive and find that the person is not as sick as you first thought they were. They reported as being. And you have a non-emergent transport to the hospital. Okay. Okay. So, I mean, with this, somebody fell and broke their leg. Non-emergency, they're in pain, I assume. They need to get to the hospital. Would that be considered, you know, non-life-threatening? That's the word I meant to use. Every call is different. I can't give specifics because the broken leg that might seem like a slow transport to the hospital is a pain management call that requires a quick transport to the hospital. I'm sorry. It might be a pain management that requires a faster transport to the hospital. A better example would be somebody stung by a bee, thinks they were going to go into anaphylactic shock and get there. They're absolutely fine. Absolutely fine. But they want to go to the hospital and be checked out. So now it's a non-emergent transport. Thank you. The other piece of this is you're saying this is required. You don't have a choice. Have a choice. You have a choice in what the fee is, but not the... Exactly. And it needs to take effect for January 1st. And the fee would also... Would this fee that's proposed here would be exclusive of the mileage that is also charged, if I remember correctly? Correct. Yes. Okay. And if... Is there ever the case... I'm sorry, maybe this... But where the ambulance shows up, but the person who the ambulance showed up for refuses the trip to the hospital or trip anywhere. Yes. Would that be falling to the same category as non-emergency? No, it's a non-emergent transport. Okay, so it has to be... You actually have to transport from the site of the accident or whatever to the hospital or a medical facility. We do not bill for non-transports. Okay. So it's only if we transport the person, emergent versus non-emergent. Other questions for our chief? Your basic thing, we don't have a choice. We couldn't argue about what the rate should be, but yeah, we don't have a choice. Not like energy coordinator. It's not like energy coordinator. We've pulled a couple of other services and found that they similarly reduced by a small amount. So we kind of matched that same small amount. It seems like you have to provide the categories for the government. We have to provide the category. And we will end up using that billing model. Just not very often. We don't believe it. Those are motion. I'd move to approve a basic life support non-emergency rate of $575 per call and the advanced life support non-emergency rate of $725 per call, in addition to the rates previously established effective January 1, 2018. Excellent. There's a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No abstentions. Good. Thank you. Good night. See you next week. Before you go. Yes. Included in our select board packet was the fire department strategic plan. That was last two weeks ago. Oh, I'm sorry. It was in my packet. Because I missed the last. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, please be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you. We appreciate this. Thank you very well. Thank you, sir. Next, is the Lake Uracway Association report. President of the organization Chris Cohnett. I don't remember your name, but if you would both identify yourself for the record, I appreciate it. Good evening. Lake Urquay Association. And I'm Jamie Carroll, Secretary of the Lake Urquay Association. We have just 80 feet from the Wilson town line in Hansburg. We want to first thank you for, especially to Rick and his office, but also through the graces of your work, the amount of time and effort that this office provides the Lake Urquay Association with working with us various projects. And I know the amount of work that Williston has on their plate at this time. And there's always an open door here. And we really, really appreciate that, whether it's public works, whether it's through Rick's office or through the financial office. And it really does make a difference to us. So thank you for that. We have a quick presentation. Rick has come up with this way that we can do a PowerPoint, which is great. And I'm going to just give you a little bit of history. In your packet that I provided, Rick is just a kind of an information sheet of projects that we have worked on. And really, it looks just like this. And so these are projects that has a little bit of narrative on some of these projects that we're going to be talking about. We're going to try to keep this to 15 minutes. So that you can move on to more important things. But we've had a host of projects go on through the course of the year. We look at 2018 as being even more projects. And so we're going to touch base on those projects. I think it's really important that we let you know that we have really worked hard aligning ourselves with the Lake Uracoy Recreation District, which we all feel is really important to us, the four towns coming together. Lake Uracoy Association's mission is to work on water quality. And Lake Uracoy, in my eyes, as being a resident of that lake for 60 years, my entire life, I think is our biggest, most precious resource that we've got, natural resource that we've got in our community. It's being used by thousands and thousands of people. We have over 200 acres of recreation paths that surround our lake. And I don't think we have to tell you how many people come and go throughout the course of the entire year using those facilities. And so we really work hard in working with LARD. There's four representatives on the Lake Uracoy Recreation District Board. There's 14 of us on our board that work hard to meld those two associations together. So that hasn't always been the case. We haven't always had the relationship that we do now. And so I really am excited about that. We're very excited about that. So let's get on to the PowerPoint. I apologize, we had a problem with the trajectory just wasn't working. So we, this is our backup plan. Not perfect. Best we can. So thank you, Rick, for bringing that up. So this summer, the Greeter program, which we've had going for many years and partnered with the town to receive grant funds from the state grant and aid program. We got a boat wash up and running. So washing vehicles and boats that are high risk have been in a water body other than Lake Uracoy that may be carrying invasive species. So they're washed, including the cooling systems and things of those vessels before they go in. And then potentially on the way out if they're going to go to another water body. Hinesburg Fire Department was kind enough to bring us the water. It's a good training activity for them. Yes. You don't mind if we ask questions? No, certainly. Do you actually have a wash down? Yes. A public wash down? Yes. At the ramp? Yep. Where the wastewater goes away from the lake, hopefully. Exactly. Yep. Where does the wastewater go? You don't have a great picture, but it's on the uphill side of the access road to the fishing access. So it just kind of drains off in there and dries off. That was, some other members of our group worked really hard to find the right location in partnership with the land, nearby landowners and the state. So that's the most, that's the location they could put. That's really fantastic. We don't even have that at the boat launches on Lake Champlain. Yeah. Including small vessels now. We're doing small vessels. We're working out specifically on Saturdays and Sundays because they're paid positions. But we really are excited about the fact that we're doing canoes and kayaks now too, also. And there was a new state statute that the legislature approved this cycle on the governor signed. So that boats that are being launched and access that has an operating boat wash station are required to utilize it. So the DEC is coming out with rules on that. We're certainly not gonna become enforcers, but encourage people. And people have been willing to participate with us through that. So we intend to submit a grant request again to get state funding from the state. To continue that program as we have in previous years. Some of the contributions Wilson makes and the other towns make help us meet local match and that sort of thing on that. We also did a ecosystem restoration grant near the Pine Shore area in Hinesburg. So the Youth Conservation Corps did some work for us and then the town of Hinesburg did some, their road crew did some work for us for the local match for that. So that's working on erosion control, trying to reduce the nutrient load going into the lake. We restarted our water quality monitoring program. We'd been doing it for a number of years. The state said we could take a few years off. So we restarted that to give us a good baseline data about the lake. Did some education opportunities around the lake. Lake-wise properties did a tour of them, talking about how people can modify the landscaping and their property to slow storm water and improve the water quality. Looking into 2018, continue with the boat wash station, trying to increase hours. We are working, as Chris mentioned with LIRD to look at an ecosystem restoration grant looking at Phoebe Lane that along the road in the northern part of the lake there as well as the tributary that drains in there is a great source of nutrients for the lake. So looking at what can be done either with the road or the waterway in that to try to work to reduce the nutrient load into the lake. So if that's our overall goal, we got to reduce the inputs to reduce the nutrient load in the lake. So that covers kind of the general activities and then we've been working really hard and I've been leading the effort on the millfoil control. So this summer, we installed some benthic barriers at the fishing access kind of as a pilot. We had done some diverse system harvesting there the previous summer to remove some weeds so that there was a clear channel for boats to get out on the water as well. So return to reduce the chance that they would be transporting weeds elsewhere. This was primarily funded again by that same grant aid program. We also hired the Darian Freshwater Institute at RPI to come and do an aquatic plant survey of the lake to see where we stand with species and distribution of plants and things. The benthic barriers are the right slide which are put into the lake by permit through the state are allowed to go into the lake after May 15th and then have to come out of the lake on October 15th or before October 15th. It's basically a weed barrier. It doesn't, it kills all the weeds. It doesn't just, it's not specific. So it's not the most desirable opportunity to control millfoil, but it is a great opportunity for us to cut down the cutting of millfoil by boats and then distributing it through the lake and repropagating into the water. So just a little recap on the millfoil timeline. It was first found in the lake in 1990. There was a aquatic plant survey done by the Association in 2014. We've been doing a variety of things since then. The dash I mentioned, the benthic barriers this year and we've been working towards the herbicide permit to treat the whole lake with a herbicide sonar. We partnered with the town and Rick was a big help to submit that permit this time last year. The state's review of that has been extended, kind of unprecedented. They did issue a draft permit. We had a public hearing that was in Hinesburg in May and they've taken their time to review all those comments. We hope to hear a decision from them soon. Typically they review these in 180 days and we're past a year at this point. So hope to have a decision from them soon. So looking, go ahead. Flip the next slide up which would, this shows the two year 2016, 17. Jamie if you wanna just explain maybe why it looks so different. Yeah, a Wilson resident, Pogo senior took these photos for us with a drone on the left. The millfoil really topped out. The winter of 1516 was that record warm winter we did or didn't have. So the ice was out really early. The plants grew really well and kind of created some stagnant water there in front of the beach. So there was some algae growth and things there. This summer was quite a bit different. We still had millfoil but it didn't top out as early and the beds weren't as dense. So recreation wasn't impacted as much this summer as it was the summer before last. The survey did show that there was still quite a bit of millfoil still in the lake. So it's so found throughout the lake. We did do a survey of the lake as well as Sunset Lake which Lake Iroquois drains into towards the South and to Hinesburg to understand that plant community better as well. The Richmond Conservation Commission paid for our plant survey and which was great because we now have data for two different years that is really helping us with the millfoil process and investigating how dense it is and where it is. So. And our intention is to continue that every year going forward so that we are able to monitor these control efforts to see if things are getting better or worse as we attempt different things. Do you have more than just millfoil as an invasive species? Yes, there's curly pondweed is one other plant that's found in the lake but those are the two at this point we've been fortunate to avoid. Lake Champlain has got 50 non-native species in it so we're fortunate that we don't have more but that's what the Greeter Program education and the boat wash actually washing the boats on the way in to try to prevent the spread of new species. And actually our plant survey documented a invasive species in Lake Sunset this fall that they didn't know that they were, that they had that's not existing in Lake Uruguay. So it is important that we work with Lake Sunset also through this process. So looking forward to 2018, the summers of effort on the lake, the fiscal years of the towns bisect that the town of Williston in this fiscal year you did allocate $20,000 towards Lake Uruguay situation, some of it for our regular efforts and then some of it for millfoil control. It's our intention to proceed with that if and when we get the permit for herbicide. Rick, could you maybe go to the, to this table which is the dollars and cents table? Maybe that would, right there, you got it. Yeah, it's gonna be a full. You wanna just run through that. So as we look to 2018, estimates are an herbicide treatment program would be approximately $100,000. So funds from the town of Williston, funds from the town of Hinesburg, grant funds from the state, the grant aid program as well as we've raised $30,000 from private funds to get together to do a one year summer treatment. The expectation would be that we would get four to five years of control and may have to come back and treat again based upon experience with other lakes. We would continue to do some hand pulling in areas such as the public access perhaps at the LRD beach. Those two areas have high density of plants and there's all high use area for recreation and consider around the, there's a rock island in the center of the lake that has got a dense area of millfoil around it. Continue the monitoring program, continue our education efforts to raise awareness about a base of species and all the work people can do on their own properties. The intention of the board is to move forward with the permit of our board, is to move forward with the permit if we're able to obtain the permit for this spring. Yeah, yeah. So the other options are to use the diverse assisted suction harvesting, the dash program, which is an expensive program. We've spent thousands of dollars on a program that really is what we feel and the contractors feel is our lake is too farly infested to be using the dash program to be able to control it. But we have no options. We don't have a toolbox of tricks here. If we made reference to this to Heinsberg, if we had an invasive species that was lining Alderbrook or Lewis Creek, we would get a host of volunteers on a Saturday and Sunday and we'd work like hell to go through and pull it and clean it up and eradicate it. Well, we can't do that on Lake Heracoy. So we're concerned that if we don't do something, we're gonna be in trouble here. And so that's why we're back here. Asking for your support. We really appreciate the fact that Williston has been able to give us all the support that we have had. And we continue to work with the landowners. We've come up with a, there's 92 landowners around the lake, 14 of which are in Williston, one in Richmond and 70 some odd in Heinsberg. And we, and a few in St. George. And we are reaching to each of the landowners in trying to get them to make a commitment. We've asked for a simple $500 a year for five years. It's pretty simple if they can do it, $2,500 investment. And we've raised over $30,000 from that. Request just in a few months time. We will continue to do that from this point on because that is, we feel is really important. But as I've said, the use of Lake Heracoy, I've lived there my entire life. The use has been incredible in the last 10 years. We love it. We love the fact that people can come and use that resource. We don't want to let this. And I live right by the beach. I'm the first camp in from the beach. And last year in 2016, it was pretty hard for the beach goers. And number one, the smell. Number two, the swimming. And number three, the boaters. You know, I would almost every night pull some kind of a boater, whether it was a kayak or a kid in a canoe, or at sometimes a sailboat out of that muck to get them out of there because it was so frustrating for them. So we've got to deal with it. Fortunately, this year wasn't as bad. We appreciated that. You know, there's a bit of controversy with the use of herbicide. I understand that. We understand that. There's a, you know, not all of us are unified on the lake. There are some people that are adamantly opposed to the use of herbicide. We appreciate that. We understand that. The health department in the state of Vermont have put a stamp of approval on this use of this herbicide in other applications throughout the lake, or throughout the state. And I don't think our lake is any different. The fact that we're running into such controversy is kind of, you know, precedent setting. It's kind of unusual. So. Thank you. So the monies that we allocated for the current fiscal year, you're plan on using towards the Sonar application. We do. Yes, yes. Is there a request for funding for the next fiscal year? Looking for an additional $5,000 for the next year. We have not used, Rick and I talked about this today, we have not used the $20,000 that was appropriated for the 18 and 19. And so at this point, our hope is that we can, if we get the permit between now and April, we're gonna move forward with the herbicide. If we don't, then we're gonna hopefully spend $10,000 during the month, or during up till June 31st. And then we would request an additional $15,000 for next year for number one, various projects that we're working on, including BB Lane and various other projects, such as the DASH, but also for the weed problem that we have. Other questions? The one technology I haven't heard you mention, and there's probably a very good reason why I'm asking you is harvesting, I've heard hand pulling and I've heard the herbicide. Does harvesting have a role or no? Lake Bomazine is the lake that's done the most harvesting of millfoil. Millfoil is a pretty amazing plant. If you get a piece of a leaf and a piece of the stem, it can fragment and travel somewhere else, fall to the bottom and a new plant will grow from just that little bit of it. So the analogy people use for harvesting is like mowing your lawn. You just gotta keep going back and back and doing it and it likely becomes more dense. So it's not used as a control for millfoil in the state. They do do some harvesting for water chestnuts on Lake Champlain in the southern part of the state, southern part of the lake, excuse me. But yeah, it's not used for millfoil. It's also very expensive to purchase a boat and operate a boat and things. Okay, all right, good, thank you. Any further questions? Thanks very much for your presentation. Thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, thanks Rick. So let's move on to the Whiskey Valley Park District membership and Nick Warner is here to talk. Rita Desao, our town rep to the Park District is here. And we also have a memo from you as well regarding the project, proposing. Thanks for having me back. And I see me got all the materials that I sent along to Rick and I sent a memo and Rick has a memo and actually Rick and I spoke on Friday so we're up to speed with each other. And as you know, the last time I was here, I put forth the proposal about mud pond and I will cycle back to the issue that Rick cites and actually I'd like to hear from him on that. And the morning after I made that proposal here, I went to the conservation board and I think you had made the point that going after a park that the town already had owned and had made investments was something you didn't have an interest in and the Jacob parcel came up at the conservation board and I had actually been aware of that and was intrigued by it. And the conservation board unanimously recommended that the park district work towards properties like that and I don't have the exact language in front of me but they did support the notion of the park district taking on a park to help increase the value that we bring to the town. And subsequent to that, I've done a ton of research on the Jacob parcel, we've walked it, we've gotten an idea of what the issues are. Every park has its issues. It's a highly intriguing parcel, it really fits our mission. Our board has talked about it, we haven't taken any formal action on it of course because it hasn't been offered to us but it's clear that it's a high value conservation parcel. It has great public access, opportunity, it's riparian strip and it has great conservation values so my highly educated guess is that my board would find favor with it. I mean, jump in anytime you want but we've had quite a few discussions about it. Then the other piece of the discussion tonight is how we're funded and the formula that we've used in the past and one thing I just wanted to sort of reflect on the issues that I've heard. I've been doing this for three years now so I've got a pretty good sense. And the issues I've heard at various meetings and through conversations with folks at Williston, the obvious one that we only control eight acres of land within Williston and the feeling that we're not bringing value from that perspective. The issue that there was a feeling that we had morphed from and this is a point that Rick brought up and actually took his point and I agreed with it and it's changed but we did morph from an organization that's very aggressive in acquiring land into one that was managing land and becoming more of a manager and less of an acquisition organization. I can tell you that's changed quite a bit. There's a potential of us having four new properties if you include the Jacob parcel over the next couple of years and we have one under option and in Burlington the one that's working very actively on in Colchester there's a Williston parcel and there's also Memorial Park in Winooski we're working on that particular parcel. Winooski has a very analogous situation because we own no land in Winooski. We used to lease a parcel there but we're moving back into a different relationship with them. Also just generally our service and relationship to the town generally and that I can tell you's been changed to the positive over the last couple of years in terms of our work with the Conservation Commission and with Melinda on specific projects. And the issue of why aren't the other towns paying up? There's a few years there where South Burlington and Essex weren't paying their full share, they're back on board. The only town that's really short right now is Winooski and they're climbing back up the financial ladder so that has changed quite a bit. And last but not least is the use of the Equalized Grand List as a mode to help calculate the formula for how we're compensated by the towns for membership. I go a little cross-eyed when I study this issue and I've been pretty focused on this so over the last year it has our board. We've had it on our agenda. I do understand that Williston is a town that pays into the education system so I understand the issue that you're not a receiving town at the end of the day in terms of the monies that get sent down to my pillar in which you get back and if I'm in your shoes I'm concerned about that. I live in Burlington, we're a receiving town so politically I'm on a different end of the spectrum but I totally understand the difficulty of both emotionally and practically of gathering taxes from your constituents, shipping them down to my pillar and feeling like you've totally lost control of the process and not getting back your investment. I think that, you know, put that on table that's a real issue. I guess I don't really want to debate that point tonight. I would say that the reason that the Equalized Grand List has been used in our formula is a way to compare how towns can afford to be part of our system and Rick made the very good point, we had a great discussion last Friday that that has changed over time post Act 60 and Act 68. That has changed. I'm not gonna, I don't think anyone on the board would tell you that we don't feel that changes could be made over time. However, if we abandon the Grand List as a part of our formula then another town will pay more to compensate the fact that Willison has paid less. So there's a little bit of a political issue there. However, I do feel we're better prepared than we were six or eight months ago to look at different models. I think what we're really focused on is first of all stabilizing our budget and our overall ask this year is flat from last year. We've raised our operating budget by 2.4% but the overall ask to the towns is the same. So that was a big goal of mine. We are about 14 months into operating as a fee for service entities. We have a contract with South Burlington. We've brought in about $7,000 worth of profit, net revenues from that work. We've sort of, it was a big deal for us to step into that area but that is something which I think can expand and we're already getting requests from other communities to do fee for service work and we feel that that's a new area for us to move into. But cycling back to the issue at hand here, I felt very strongly and I made the pitch to the board and I got support that it really is in any scenario for us to be a good part of Williston is to take on more responsibility as a park owner and manager. So that's why I was very proactive with the idea about the Jacob parcel. I think Rick, from Rick's memos, he's not asking for action on this tonight. However, we are faced with the potential of you guys voting to go to town meeting to ask for the removal of the park district from Williston. Believe it or not, I understand both sides of this issue. So I've been really determined not to turn this into some kind of political squabble I'm more interested in problem solving. So I was hopeful, let me back up a little bit in any scenario and I mentioned this to Rick on Friday. If I left tonight, which I don't expect to, with the board saying we love the way you're funded into the future, let's just keep it going the way it is. Go ahead, take the Jacob parcel. Even if that scenario occurred, we have a lot more level of comfort with two things. One is that any ownership by park district of a parcel would have to have some kind of reversionary clause. And frankly, most of our properties have that. It's very common in the conservation world I've discovered since I took this job. That would ensure that if we're not managing it up to a certain level or if we go belly up as an organization that you get the property back or it gets transferred to another organization that can manage it properly. So that's something. But also, we have not stopped the conversation of how we're funded. It's a big organizational, emotional part of our work and we have monthly meetings that are fully attended by our trustees. And I guess I just need to reassure you that in any scenario, the conversation will continue. Now Rick has made a very intriguing case and I don't necessarily disagree with what he is saying about the use of the Equalized Grand List. If, but I just feel if we abandon it totally at right now that it would create a political issue with some of the other towns that may be very negative. We've done a ton of research and I gave you a memo about how other park districts are being funded in Vermont and how other organizations like are funded generally across the country. And I think what we're emerging into is an organization that is less dependent on town funding and more dependent on program funding, lease income and fee for service. So that's our organizational goal. For the time being, we need to do our business. We need to maintain our parks. We do a good job of it. And maybe I could, Rick, I'd love to hear your piece on how you feel about our funding. Not as a means of debate, no, but I just, just so you can be clear about. Chair gave me the green light. So first I should say that you, Nick and in the membership of the Park District do a fine job in maintaining the various parks that are part of your system. And I don't think that's ever been a question in my mind anyway. And I appreciate all your hard work and work of your board in trying to resolve this. However, we brought this issue up about a year ago and the funding formula was one major part of that. And I understand that it may be uncomfortable for some of your board members to, because it's going to be a change and may increase their costs a little bit, but it's going to cost them even more if Wilson pulls out. So I guess I'm not fully understanding the opposition to this. I mean, I understand up to a point, but we've kind of said we want an answer or we want something to change. And I know there's part of what you're doing is a change. And so that's really something the board will have to consider if that's enough. But for me, the funding formula, I just haven't seen the progress on that. And as you said in my memo, I've made a pitch for explaining why the using the Equalize Grand List as a method or a way of approximating ability to pay just doesn't make sense because it didn't, it was never a great method to begin with. It's even far less accurate now. So in my memo, I've recommended that the board vote to withdraw from or put to a vote to the townspeople to withdraw. However, there's a little bit of time between now and when the board actually has to make a decision on this. And so I would hope that your board could make some progress towards resolving that funding formula issue. That being said, ultimately, it's the slide board's decision on all that. And so that's just my opinion. Thanks. My intent tonight was not to get into the funding aspect of it. We'll be getting into that with our budget considerations between now and in the January, but to find out whether the board is interested in continuing to talk about the proposal you have that was similar to the mud pond proposal for the Jacobs-Cranes property. So I'd ask the board for your questions or comments at this point on that. So you made a statement at the beginning when you talked about the Jacob parcel that it had great public access. So we've heard just the, you know what I'm saying? Potential. I heard this exact opposite that it had almost no access. If you look at the map, I think, since you guys are map, there's work to be done. However, there's several possibilities. The town owns a right-of-way, actually didn't print out my own map, but there's a right-of-way that I highlighted with the magic marker. That is a town-owned right-of-way. There's also a town-owned path right-of-way that goes from the back of the Trinity Baptist Church property. There's also an existing private trail behind a house, but there's also a, that right-of-way connects, I forget the name of the street, but there is a right-of-way that connects with one of the streets from the development that is closest to the hydro dam. Yeah, true. Yeah. So the potentials are several. One is to work with Trinity Baptist Church on acquiring a right-of-way and some kind of easement and parking there. The other is that there is existing ability to get on the parcel through town-owned right-of-ways from the end of that street. So Trinity Baptist property, buts? You see there's a dark line that shows a path easement. And this is actually the beauty of the open space plane because way back when you guys approved that development that's next to Trinity Baptist, they granted a path easement that goes from the back corner of the Trinity Baptist property to the Jacobs property. So that's one potential access. Another, which is less likely just because global foundries, I guess, is less willing is to use one of their existing parking lots at the solar facility and run a path easement across there. So it's gonna take some work. However, there is existing, you can park your car along the side of the street and access the property. So there is existing access and there's another two potential ways. Plus that right-of-way, you see with the magic marker, my high-tech magic marker, goes all the way up towards the hydro dam to the third development. So there's ways to get to the property from all three housing developments down there and plus the potential for access from Trinity Baptist. Now I haven't talked to Trinity Baptist. They may watch this and say, what are you kidding, we're not gonna do this, but there's work to be done, but the recreational value of that parcel, the density of people living near it, all lends me to think that there's gonna be some progress and be able to improve access there. It's a gorgeous parcel, I'd be ever been back there, but it's quite striking. Yeah. Are there questions coming up? Nick, I just wanna make sure that I understand. Yeah, lack of better words. It sounds to me like the board, the Manuski Valley Park District Board has not stopped discussion of, but has not yet decided to change its, I don't know what the right word, it's funding formula. What it gets from the member, what it gets to raise revenue from its member, municipalities. Yeah, it's a conundrum. Willisons is the only town that has an issue with the formula to start with. I was at the Essex Board last night, we sailed right through, they love what we're doing, they think that there's never been an issue. That doesn't mean I don't understand why you guys have an issue with it, I get it. If we change the population only, for instance, it would mean, for instance, that Brolin to be paying $10,000 more. I don't have a sense of whether our highest paying town is gonna wanna start paying us $110,000 a year for operations. They're great, I just send stuff to Murrow's office and the Treasurer and they love the work we do, but we're managing quite a bit of land in Burlington and we have a lot of relationships. So as, I try to think in terms of where are we gonna be 25 years from now after I'm gone and to me, the only way that the relationship is gonna work with the town of Williston is if we become owners and managers of Parkland. And I had actually a very interesting chat with Mike Harris on his way out when he was leaving Conservation Board and I said, okay, I really just gotta know why is it we don't own Parkland here? We helped you build Five Tree Hill. We've done a lot of things and I understand there's been personality clashes that we've just come in here and say you gotta pay us your money and I get that and he said we want control. We want to be able to, it's a chess game in a rapidly developing town that if you own a parcel of land and there needs to be an easement across the edge of it or you need to work with a developer on, you need to have control over that land and having a third party like us come in and place an easement on it and lock it forever is a big deal in a town that is growing so fast. That was just one of his perspectives but it was very illuminating to me and I got that. So that's why initially mud ponds seem like a good property because it's peat moss going down five to nine feet. I mean, it's not ever-developable. It's highly ecologically important. The Jacob Parcel is isolated. It's riparian. It's flood plain. It's a tributary stream. There's a lot of reasons why that could never be reasonably developed. So that seemed like also a good option. So it was really my encouragement to the board that I'd be proactive and come to you guys and say, to me, the main, there is the funding issue. We're not gonna ignore that. We're having a really hard time. I think they're having a really hard time as a group trying to accommodate a single municipality but what's the real issue? The real issue to me is that we are not playing the role that we should be playing with you guys which is owning and managing property. And so to have, if we resolved the funding issue with the population thing and I went through the whole political process, I'd still feel like we're not really doing what we should be doing for the town of Williston. It's not the role that our organization does best. In 20 years from now, we'll still have an issue. Someone else will be sitting here trying to justify money for eight acres of land that I was reminded you can't even access from Williston. You have to go to Southboro, which is true. I think it's kind of funny, but it's true. I mean, it's a reality. So it was at my encouragement that the board give me permission to be here, to be proactive about it. I think there are other ways that we could be funded as well, and it doesn't ignore the issue, but my focus has been on what are the other revenues that we can bring in to be clear. We don't carry debt at all, so we're not bonding. We're not doing memberships and we're not competing with our partners like the Vermont Land Trust, Housing Conservation Boards, Lake Champlain Land Trust. They all partnered with us and raised money for us to acquire our properties. So we're an end user that manages and owns these lands. And that's what we do best and that's why I made the proposal. So I guess the way I should think of this is, or I guess I'm asking if there's flaws in my way of thinking, but under the current funding scenario, which is based, I think, 50% on population, 50% on grainless value. Correct. Board is, at least all indications, not willing to abandon at this point or rethink. I think it's fair to say. Well, rethink, no, that's different. I mean, it's a constant conversation. Okay, but we're getting to the point of, but the difference would be, in this case, that same fee that we've been paying under that formula would be different because now instead of it being eight acres that you can't even access through Willis-Ten, you have to go to South Berlin to access, would actually be 27 acres, no, 37 acres, 29 of which are directly in Willis-Ten and will support the open space, recreation, conservation goals of the town, help support. Correct, I mean, it also fits the objection that we are not an organization that's growing our portfolio. And so it's two parts. If there is a perceived lack of value and real lack of value that people see for us in Willis-Ten, that's important, and we're also growing our portfolio. When I was reading Melinda's, I don't know if you had a copy of Melinda's memo. I don't, but I have read it. Okay, and the one question, it didn't answer that, I was kind of hoping it would as I read through it is, because I think the concept of are we getting the value we should out of what we currently pay using the current formula. I don't know if it started with the conservation commission, but it certainly has been echoed by members of the conservation commission. Yes, absolutely. And so I'm sorry to make a long story, not as long as I maybe could make it, is what is the conservation commission's opinion of does adding, they recommend, yes, they like the idea of Wenuski Valley Park District managing or owning and managing the Jacob property they don't answer the other question, which is does that make the value Willison gets for what it's pay, whatever the word is acceptable? Does that make sense that last? It makes perfect sense. And I felt it wasn't appropriate for me to ask that question. Well, I think it's appropriate for me to ask it. I think the board, I think for you guys to have the, the, the conference, I felt like for me to go in and say, hey, you know, I want you to tell the select board that this makes it, you know, I did not feel I was appropriate. It's, it's no, it's more that I, they are in a better position than I ever will be to assess the value that the district owning that land provides to Williston. Right. And I would, so I, I need and would value their opinion on that. Yeah. So was that the question we want to send back to the conservation commission? In my opinion, absolutely. Yes. Are they, and it's still ultimately going to be a decision for the select board? Oh, absolutely. And I may not agree with the conservation commission, but I still would like to hear. I'm not sure what kind of data they're going to give us that we don't already know. I don't, I don't think it will be data. I think it'll be kind of a D. What's the word when you, you know, just a subject, an objective, you know, kind of yes, this feels about right. I don't think they'll ever be able to come up with any sort of subjective reasoning behind it other than, you know, this, this is a valuable park and it adds significant value to Williston to have it owned and managed by Winnorski Valley Park District. It's enough, you know, that type of thing. It feels, I, my sense is they'll tell us, yes, it feels like enough or no, it doesn't. How do, I guess maybe I'm missing something, but how do we know if it's enough until we see a plan for what we would do with the parcel? I'm just trying to understand, just having the parcel doesn't really provide any value. I guess it would be, what would the plan be for the Winnorski Valley Park District to enhance it such that people would feel it's usable as a park? And, you know, that's part of our, you know, if we got to the point where you guys say yes, you know, you authorize staff to go and, you know, the next logical step would be to authorize staff to look at the feasibility to make sure it all happened, because things come up with any kind of land transfer. And also like the answer to that from the perspective is, I think we have some very highly successful properties that the town owns and manages, and successful from the standpoint of conservation and use recreation, Five Tree Hill, Mud Pond, both the country park and the natural area. Yes. I'm not probably saying that right. Conservation area, yep. So, I mean, I think we have a sense of what you have to put into that to get that recognition and use by the community. I think a great analogy would be what we're doing with Walcutt Family Natural Area right now in Colchester, which is a 69 acre parcel that we're building from scratch a new park with a parking line and with a mile and a half trail with lots of punching and bridges because of the landscape. So it would be that type of development. It would take a couple years to do these things, a grant cycle and a lot of work, but we could give you plenty of examples. And if we got to the point where the tent, you guys authorized staff to go to the next level, then we would be a lot more aggressive. We do a natural resource inventory and we come up with some basic planning for a trail system and talk with adjacent land owners about the potential for new access. I don't feel like I'm at the, you know, I'm certainly not at the point to make that an appropriate next step, but that would be the next step. And that's what we're doing with a couple other properties right now that we're looking into being owners of. One of my worries about this property is the access question because nothing is established yet. I assume many of the projects that the town has taken in the past, it's had road frontage, so the access issue, I don't wanna say goes away, but is a lot less significant. In this case, it's a very significant question mark. The access paths, except for one, are pretty long there. Long doesn't worry me. I like to walk. I assume others do, but I think it's more, is it gonna be able to create an attractive? That's the point, right, yeah. Long wouldn't bother me from a walking perspective, but is it going to be attractive for use if you have? Right, this long slog underneath a power line or something. Exactly, right, so it's hard for me to judge how, what those distances are looking at the map. Yeah, me too, yeah, me too. Does that understand it? I mean, the town, well, I said the town manages many of its own parks and recreational areas, especially when you manage all of them. So we're capable of doing it. The question, for me, then becomes the interplay between how much money we are paying the park district and what we would get back with the park district managing this one new parcel that we still don't know about the access to when we have some understanding, but not a lot. I think, it sounds like people are trying to say, well, I wanna know if we're gonna stay in the park district or not based on what they're gonna do on this project. I'm not opposed to the concept. But it's part of the value, I mean, if that is the only value that Welleson feels is getting out of us, then that still hasn't gotten us to the finish line that, you know what I mean? It's like the value, part of the value getting out, being a member of the park districts, we are a regional organization. So that the efficiency of what we're able to do with three full-time staff and over 1700 acres is brought forth by the fact that we've regionalized these conservation lands. So that's part of the value that Welleson's buying into. If I get to the point where we're having that conversation, then that feels like, you know, that's the end point. The other part of the value is what lands within the town that you have easy access to that we manage so you can actually experience what the value we bring. And so that, to me, seems very important in Welleson. And it, you know, it doesn't make the issue of whether the equalized grand list is a good way to value or to place value. But it certainly changes the dynamic of our relationship with the town. And that's why fellow was so important. And the only thing I would, you know, in terms of grand list, to me personally, I was telling Rick this, to me the property tax is a lousy way to charge people, you know, it just doesn't represent people's affordability. I mean, I get so going all the way, you know, when you break it all the way down, but I guess the rationale, you know, as I look at the old documents when we set up the formula, it's a way that we can do a comparative value of the community's ability to afford. So everyone's under the same system like it or not with the, you know, the CLAs and all the stuff that they're placing on the grand list. But it is predicated, assuming that each grand list does at least approximate the value in those towns and the ability of those towns to afford to be part of the system. But it certainly has changed since we began as Rick made the great point to the point where towns have very low control over how much comes back to support their school systems. And I know Williston loses quite a bit of money, so I get that. I don't know if it's a very good funding or affordability metric. You know, I think we heard earlier, and I've only been on the board for, what is it, six, seven months now, but I've heard quite a bit and learned quite a bit and it seems like, you know, the dynamics and the stats for Williston would say that Williston residents pay more for housing as a proportion of their income than most anywhere else I think in the state. If I recall, and maybe Chittenden County was the primary, but people pay a lot to live in Williston just because evidently they like Williston. It's a growing town, you know, it's maybe a newer town, newer neighborhoods. So it doesn't always equate when you're paying more of your income for the property you live at, it doesn't necessarily say because you have that big house, you could afford more things, right? In fact, it might say just the opposite. So I'm not sure the funding model is perfect from that perspective. I am planning to ask my board to discuss Rick's specific idea at our next meeting and just put it out there and say, there's an idea for alternative funding here. We have already crunched the numbers, we know what it looks like, that population only be considered for calculating the formula. So I don't know how the board's gonna respond to it or whether they're gonna want to take a vote on it, but I'm gonna put that specific idea before the board at our next meeting, which is on December 18th. So it's never been put forward yet? Oh, it's been discussed. Oh, it has been. Oh, yes, oh, yeah. Yes, we've discussed it, but I think we're concerned about how it would really work out with the rest of the towns. Does it affect, have you actually looked at, so how many towns, you know, there's gonna be winners and losers or? The, in fact, you could forward this stuff to them. I'd send, you do have it? Okay, so population only means Burlington means Burlington would pay a little more than 10,000 more per year. It's kind of a wash for Colchester. They pay 320 more. Essex would pay about $639 more. Jericho would pay 319 more. It would save South Burlington almost $7,700. It would save you guys over $7,000. And Winooski would have to pay about $3,200 more. When you share the information with your board, I suggest you put another alternative in there and that is impacting Wollstone out of the equation entirely. That's a big thing. I mean, to be very blunt, if he loses us, that's gonna have a bigger impact than if you try to readjust something else. It's not just a threat in any way, it's just an observation of how this is all working. We've talked about that because, you know, the reality is, I mean, this preceded my tenure here. I mean, this is not a new issue. So we've talked about that possibility and I've crunched, you know, some kind of ugly numbers because I have a total operating budget of 356,000, I believe it is this coming year. So it'd be significant. But it's, that's why I've been aggressively going after the issue and saying, to me, the big one is we don't own a park here within the town and that you're unhappy with the funding situation. And I had hoped we'd get farther with that conversation but there's a lot of, when I go do these presentations, the questions from boards is I was like, well, how about them? You know, they paying, you know, how much? So it's like having a, you know, it's like having family at dinner, you know, with seven. So anyway. The population is pretty simple. You break it down per person. And right now per person, Williston is paying more than any other community in the entire district. And, you know, that's why I say, is that really fair? And if you look at the, what we pay in the education tax, which is the largest part of our tax bill, the communities that have lower property tax bills for education are Winooski and Burlington. Well, it's a desire than those. Yeah. I mean, I have the latest data, but I mean, you're, I think you're the fifth in line in terms of a giving town, I think Stowe's on top and you're number five. And Burlington and Rutland City and Burlington and Winooski are the biggest receivers. And that was one of my points is that the using grand list is a way of redistributing the wealth essentially, well, that's already been done with Act 60 and 68 and basically using grand list is doing it twice. And why would I? Mr. Chair, we should probably wrap this up. Yes. I was trying to see whether we have any direction to give to staff regarding the proposal on the property. And that's what I'm gonna say is that I think if there is more data that we can get, I'm in favor of getting it. My number one concern is that if somebody presented to me how much money they're spending in the park district, being a member of the park district now and said, but what you get back is management of the Jacob Kranz property. I would probably say that's not a sufficient bargain. And so that, you know, that's where my thoughts are. I have to agree with him. So is there anything we need to ask the Conservation Commission to do at all? My question is still, I still would like to hear from the Conservation Commission how they feel about the proposal of managing the 29 acres under the current fee, whatever scenario, schedule. Are there any objections to that? If there isn't any. And I'd like to, I guess I'd like to hear that the Conservation Commission gets some input from, is it Keith? Nick? Nick. From the Winnowski Valley Park District on what they would propose to do with the property. So just kind of getting an idea if they did take it over and they do improve it, is that, is that value? I mean, just owning the land as it is today, I would agree with Ted. That's not really worth it, but if it requires a significant amount of work and funding to make it accessible. And the Conservation Commission feels like, yeah, there is a path to do this. It would be a great value. It would be a load on the town. Then, you know, that might make sense because it seems like you're trying to find a way to provide value to the town, which I applaud. Back at the envelope, it's a $50,000, two or three year project to put a trail system and a gravel parking lot. That's just based on the numbers from Walcutt family area. Because we're pretty close to the finish line there and it's cost us about that to put in the system there. Okay. And that'll be mostly from trails funding, land and water conservation fund, and our own capital. See, that's information I wouldn't have known off the top of my head, so $50,000 for improvement. Yeah, that's ballpark. What's a typical maintenance of owning your properties run like for this kind of a property? I could get you those numbers because we've been collecting that in a lot more detail this year. That's important because, you know, as a representative of the taxpayers, we are kind of incumbent on us to understand what value we get for what we spend. So, I mean, the regional network is great, but again, when you ask the taxpayers to pay for something, you probably want to know that there's something at home as well. Yeah. And I'll also commit that at our next board meeting we'll discuss that proposal specifically and also discuss how it would look without Williston's member, which is not something we'd like to see happen, but that's, it's a reality that we've dealt with since you tasked me last year to have these. And it's been a long, it's been something we've taken very seriously. Nick, I just have one more question. Yes. The data, maybe the data is somewhere here, but is there a breakdown of the acreage of park that you manage in each of the towns? I can get that for you. Okay. Yeah, I've got that. I believe it's in here. It's in the package? Yeah. Well, no, the breakdown of how we charge each town is here, but I have another document that shows exactly how many acres are in each town. It seems like we've seen it before because we've talked about this, but it's not in this. Right. If we can get it real quick by an email or something, that would be great. Yeah. Because then you could look at the acreage, the population, the grand list and kind of. Yeah. Okay. Super. Thank you very much. So we need to move onwards to the community outreach program and social workers. We've talked about this a number of times. Rick, any further words on this before we go? Speaking of regional efforts. And actually, Wilson has been historically a strong supporter of regional efforts. And I am encouraged by what Nick's saying about expanding their efforts to acquire more properties as that was the original for us. So that's all good stuff. But this is entirely different from all of this is to use the services of Howard Center and for social workers to provide support to both the police departments in the region. And actually they'll be supporting our ambulance service as well on different occasions, potentially. So this is a small amount of money or a picture of things. We have the money in the budget because we're not spending it on police officers. And so at this point, the proposal is just to fund it for the six months. You will have in your budget proposal, actually the budget proposal is being handed out tonight, money in there for a whole year. And that'll be a separate consideration by the board at that point. Questions for Rick before we ask for a motion? I'm good. The manager's report was good. Plus the information that was provided. I'm looking for a motion. I've moved to approve spending up to $7,400 in fiscal year 2018 out of the police patrol salary account to support the hiring of social workers to assist the police and fire departments by providing services to community members with mental health related needs. So discussion of motion. Yeah, so maybe I wasn't quick enough. I guess I thought where there was gonna be some presentation. So I, I has on this our discussion on this point. So with respect to the 7,400, you know, I looked at all of the data and the hiring costs per person. There's four people in this plan is $80 some thousand dollars a person with a $20,000 overhead for a person who will use our facilities for an hour. I just thought just one of my comments was it seems like a high overhead burden for a non-off, I guess I'm trying to figure what that cost, what that expenses. Health insurance is one big piece of it. There's administrative costs for supervising these individuals to build into that cost. It was operations. It was, yeah. There's lots of difficulties. I think the 61 included wages in, I wanna say benefits, I think. But I could be wrong. And then we're only charged, there's only what, eight communities? There's not even that. And we're only gonna be charged $7,400 for half a year. So how does the equation close? Is there a bunch of grant or federal money? The 80,000 person per person times four is 320,000. As I understand it, the state of Vermont is gonna be paying for half of that. So that's 160,000. Out of that 160,000, South Burlington is paying half of that. So the remainder paid 80,000. Okay. And this is for six months, so it's only 40,000 and divided amongst the ones. Got it, okay, yep, okay. No, no, so that's how it closes with 7,400. So our yearly, our yearly. 15. Basically, right? Okay. And what I appreciate, not appreciate, but I think it's a really good thing is we get to try it for reasonable cost. And if it doesn't fit, then that's, there'll be one answer. And if we think it fits really well, then that'll be, and that would hopefully be the answer. And it's in a different direction. Funding model should change based on usage, or, you know. And there's a chance. We're gonna get into that. Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully at some point, we get the fire department to, or the police department to actually staff up to. Yes. Right. Hopefully we'll hear at some point on that. So I guess we're in the middle of a motion now, or any further discussion on the motion? Good. All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. They opposed. Onto the topic of the night. And that's the start of the budget review. I'm gonna turn back this on, but I don't know how you probably can really see it. I did, for those who get paper copies, I did print out a summary of the slide. I have not yet posted those online. However, I got this done very late this afternoon. So I shouldn't be able to post it. So if you can't see here, which you probably can't, maybe look over someone's shoulder and put this up and everything. What are you showing, Rick? I mean, what is a? It's a PowerPoint. No, I mean, what are you going to show us? It's a budget summary. Okay. It's the initial shot across the bound. Overture. Do you want to do that next to someone? It's a way to look at it as an overview. Overture. Overture. You should set it to music. That's the first slide. So, anyway, so tonight we did distribute copies of both the operating and capital budgets. It'll be your first opportunity to see them. And we'll have plenty of opportunity over the coming months to go into a fair amount of detail. We have a schedule of meetings set up where major department heads will begin to talk about their budgets. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions about their budgets. And anytime there's an issue that you want to come back to including possibly adding something to the budget or deleting something for the budget, please make it clear to me. I will be keeping track of all these things and at the end of our list of possible additions and reductions from the proposed budget. Also, as we move forward, there'll be possible changes as we get more information. For example, we don't yet know what the county tax will be. We just learned tonight that the Urquoy Association may be asking for either $5,000 or $15,000. We didn't know what to put in. So we put in the same amount as what we have in the current fiscal year. So right away, I know I can, which was $20,000, by the way. So I know right around, at the very least, I can cut $5,000 from this budget. So it's a working document. And there's a lot of information in this document. This is just an overview this evening. I also want to thank, I'm not here tonight because she had a family emergency type thing, but Jennifer Cannelly, our finance director, has spent many hours putting this together and been meeting with various department heads. And all the department heads give serious consideration when they're preparing their budget. And the focus is and will remain on services. This budget is a bunch of numbers, but underlying those numbers are the services that we provide this community. And all the numbers do is support that. In fact, this year, and I intended to do this last year, didn't get an opportunity, but we actually list the services that each department provides. So at the beginning of each section, and you can see it there in your budget book, for major departments, there'll be a cover memo of some sort, which will list major issues within their departmental budget. And then the next page will be a list of the services. You might actually be surprised of the variety of services that several departments actually offer. It's not the, you know about the basics, the plowing the roads and police and fire. But there's lots of little things, the police department, fire department and public works do that you don't necessarily always hear about. For example, our fire department does inspections of car seats for people who are putting car seats in for youngsters. And that's an important service. It's public safety related and that's something they do. So we don't want to lose sight of all those services because that's what this budget is really about. So the bottom line for the budget for next fiscal year that's being proposed at this point is a 11 million, essentially 11.1 million dollar budget. This represents an increase of 545, almost 546,000, which is a 5% overall increase. I mentioned earlier this evening, I went to the open house for Coosie. I ran into a manager for another community. When I said our budget is represents a 5% increase, this manager said, wow, how are you ever gonna sell that to your community? And then I started explaining some of the interesting or different aspects that are included in here that are kind of one time expenses or changes and that number starts to go down. So and as you'll see as we get into discussion, there's some different things that affecting this that are increasing it more than what normally would be the case. And I'll get into some of those things shortly here. So there's different ways of looking at budgets. We often look at the, based on department to department. Another way of looking at it is the various objects, which are cost categories. For example, the biggest cost category are wages and benefits. And so if you look and that cost category is the largest single change of any other cost category and it's an increase of a little over $300,000. But one of the factors driving that cost increase, we talked about it recently, was the increase in health insurance costs. That's certainly one of the factors. There is one position change in here that's driving a little bit of that cost increase. That is a change of a part-time position into a full-time custodial position. And we can talk about the merits of that later. That doesn't really amount to a whole lot of extra money. But one of the big changes, which is $110,000, but it doesn't really change the bottom line at all. And that is a change in the accounting method that's affecting the budget. And it involves stormwater funding. Presently, the way we calculated the public works crew time, a portion of that was attributed to stormwater. So we reduced the amount that was charged to the town general fund and charged that directly to the stormwater fund. Well, we've learned that a better way of doing that we can go ahead and charge the cost to the stormwater fund. But the orders are suggesting not lower the amount within the public works fund. Instead, create a revenue line that offsets the amount that you would charge to the, so the stormwater fund is being charged revenue equal to the $110,000. And that's being shown as a revenue on the positive side for the general fund instead of reducing the town general fund expenses by $110,000. So would you also have to do that for the other two enterprise funds, the water and sewer? No, those have separate employees. They have, so okay. All right, I thought water and sewer employees were public works, but no, okay. You learn something new every day. The stormwater fund really only has one full-time employee and that employee already is charged directly to. So all the other miscellaneous work out in the field that our public works crew does, you don't have a separate crew for that. So that's $110,000 right there. That really is zero impact overall, but it adds to our percent increase. Oh, okay. All right, another is the open space. $235,000 increase. This is largely part of the purchase of the catamount property. And that still has to be determined whether the town's actually gonna purchase that property, but we need to be in a position to have the money if we are gonna happen, because they're talking about possibly having a closing on this before the end of this fiscal year, the current fiscal year. And so we have to make sure the money's in place. The plan already includes use of most of our environmental reserve fund, but even if we use that and include the money, we're gonna add to it anyway for next fiscal year, because every year we add money to it. We're still about $200,000 short. We've been told that there is a grand opportunity where we can get $200,000, but we can't apply for that until next fiscal year. They say that that's okay, which I find a little hard to believe, because that would involve us buying the property and then applying for the grant. But they say because of the unique circumstances, they're willing to make an exception for this. There's no guarantee on that $200,000. So we've got a budget for it. So what we've done is budgeted for it in here. It increases our overall budget by $200,000. Again, adds to that percent increase, but it's very possible we'd be getting a revenue on the other side that might offset that. For some reason, I thought we had the money in the conservation fund for the amount that was anticipated, no? No, when they were talking about the outside funding and grants and everything, they had included this $200,000, but we can't apply for it in this fiscal year, and that's the rub there. Oh, I see. They assume the grant and the funding. Okay, that's probably what I noticed, and so you're saying upfront we would have to spend it, which we don't have, got it? But there's no guarantee where we're gonna get that grant either. There's never any guarantee. The state people have seemed very confident about that, but I don't necessarily disagree with their confidence, but I have to plan for the fact that it may not happen. Another significant change. I have to figure that out later. Yeah, I mean, all this stuff we're gonna get into a lot more detail. Yeah, yeah. Another major change in the budget is actually a decrease, and that's in our capital projects and debt service. Generally, our debt service is on a downward trend because we've, over the past few years, we had borrowed a fair amount, and now we're all paying that off. For example, the two fairly new buildings, the police and fire department's buildings, we're half paid on those already. It's a 20-year bond and we're 10 years into it, so our public works garage is much newer, but also what we're borrowing is far less for that. So we're definitely on a downward trend, and we don't have any major projects other than maybe buying ambulance trucks and things like that, nothing, no big new projects coming down the pipe. So, and also for the current fiscal year, we had kind of added some capital, one-time capital projects that were needed, and we decided to try to draw down the fund balance, and so we paid from them out of the fund balance, so we'll have fewer of those proposed for next fiscal year as well. And then contract and services, there's an increase in there in $65,000. There's another interesting one-time expense build in there that will be generating some conversation. There's $25,000 included in that particular funding category to replace the clock tower, which is actually part of a steeple on a church, and so I get a lot of quizzical looks when I mention this, but 20 years ago when the steeple was last replaced, the town did contribute, this was before I was manager here, but the town did contribute towards that steeple replacement, and the clock in that tower is a town clock, and it is maintained and operated by the town. Don't we still budget for somebody to ride a 10-speed bike to wind that clock every year? Every, is it every week? How often do they? No, monthly, perhaps, it's bill of white, but the bill of white doesn't do it anymore. Doesn't it work? I thought it was weekly, interesting, I think he's having a son or something. I recall about 10 years ago asking if I could have a tour of the bike, go up and see it. So you actually ride the bike to wind it? Never really? It never happened, it's a secret, that's a secret place. Oh, so you ride it, there's a bike mechanism that... Yeah, a pedaled mechanism, well, so I've been told of rent allowed to see it. So it winds a big spring or something? There's no way we could... So I have seen it, but I don't recall exactly the mechanism to wind it, but it's a fascinating mechanism. I don't see how we could allocate a single dollar without going up there and seeing it. I agree, I agree completely. It's a nice narrow stair. While we're still young. All right, maybe we'll have to go up one at a time, but we still can do it. It could be arranged perhaps if it's safe. So those are some of the major cost factors on the expenditure side. And I think you can see why, when you say there's 5% increase, well, yeah, but... So over the years, the costs have been increasing for the townspeople. And in part of it's just a function of demand, there are demands been increasing. The population certainly has increased about 100 persons a year. So over the last 10 years, that means a thousand more people than we had before that. And that's in addition, of course, to the general cost of buying goods and services has been increasing. So it's when you're looking at the budget and the budget increases, it's a combination of things and driving that. And getting back to the service with more people, you got more people demanding service and more roads and all kinds of things. So it's, that's all part of it. I wanted to include a graphic of how we spend our money on a pie chart here. This shows, actually one of the interesting parts of this is if you look at police, fire, and highway, those three departments that represents about 54% of the total overall pie. About the three slices on the right? Right, exactly. And that's, those are all public safety related. And actually, the 54% is on the low side because of portion of the capital projects and equipment certainly are public safety related. And the good part of that service is public safety related. So when you're looking at our budget, a huge part of that is all public safety related. All the other stuff is open space and library and recreation parks represents a comparatively small percentage of the overall expenditure pie. So let's talk a minute about revenues. That's the other side of the budget. So there's several major issues built into the revenue questions as well. And the counting change I talked about shows up on both sides. So we're gonna see an increase in revenues to the town general fund of $110,000. The fund balance use is a huge issue. We've had, the select board has a policy on how much fund balance we should keep because there is value in keeping a fund balance and it's generally 10 to 20% of our overall expenditure. We are way above that at the moment. Although the plan put in place for the current fiscal year we'll draw that down because we're buying and have bought already a number of capital items that were needed anyway, but these are one-time expenses. And there's opportunities for next fiscal year to further draw that down. Perhaps the $200,000, I don't know. I have to look at it. I don't recall whether that was taken out of the general fund or not. But there's a major project that is not included in these numbers that the staff is recommending. Perhaps we need to get a little more information but we may be recommending a town vote and that would be a call for the select board would have to make, but that's for the purchase of the solar panels behind the town hall. We have had an opportunity or we will have an opportunity coming up because the people who own those panels gave us opportunity after six years we have the option to purchase. We have to request of them to give us a fair market value. They are in the process of calculating that now. We'll have that in a week or two. And then we'll have to do an evaluation of the economics of the whole thing once we get that number, but that won't take very long and we're certainly get all this information to you before the end of January for sure. So with the board, if the numbers look good and certainly there's money to be had from those because we'll get all the revenue from the energy that they generate, right now we don't. And if everything looks good then we can put it, either the select board can include it directly in the budget which will add probably over $300,000 to the budget or you can put it to a town vote and then you can figure out whether you want to borrow for that or possibly use fund balance towards that. So when you start to see the numbers you can better understand how this holds. Let's see, what else do I want to talk about on this? All right, I think that's it for the major revenue shoes. This is a chart showing the current, the fund balance numbers and you have really good eyes to see. And I actually all these numbers are in my transmittal letter that's included in the budget too. So that's another thing you can look at. But anyway, we started off with as of June 2017 of a $3.2 million fund balance. The top of the range, the target range is $2.3 million. So obviously we're way above that. However, as I said, we had planned to draw that down and we're showing over $800,000. So that would bring us down to 2.4 million. And there are some projects that we're recommending in this budget. In this chart it says 914,000 protected use for fifth school year 2019. I'm not sure that number is accurate. I had a different number when I was looking at late this afternoon, it was a couple hundred thousand dollars short. And so I have to reconcile that. But anyway, somewhere in that range. And that's a combination of things. I thought it might be interesting to show you the history of the fund balance. At one point, by 2008, it was at higher and then it went down for several years. And then it has gone steadily back up. Those down years directly related to when we had the big recession. And that money was served as a buffer and some of that was used to help ease the burden of taxpayers in town. The steady increase is a function of an improving economy in part because with improving economy, we have more local option taxes. When we have a economy that's going downhill, we have far less than what we may be budgeting for because it's a very volatile tax. And there's a host of other reasons why it's gone up like the way it has. But anyway, we are where we are at this point and we're doing our best to try to work out a plan that will bring it down in a way that is sustainable. And that's the critical piece of that. To, this is a graphic of the revenues and obviously the biggest piece of the pie are the property taxes that represents almost half of this entire pie chart. Another significant portion, not surprising, is the local option tax. That's 26%. That's a large percentage for such a volatile tax. But it's also a value that most other communities do not have so that most communities will see a much larger portion of property tax supporting town services than Wellston. And then we have a host of other fees, user fees and everything this chart shows. I thought it also might be interesting for you to see how the value of our grand list is broken down by property type. The biggest piece of this puzzle is on the far right, if you're looking at it, the screen is residential and that's 57% of the value in town is residential. The second largest piece is 27% and that's commercial properties. And it goes down from there 7% industrial and only a 1% agriculture farm. Obviously years ago those numbers should be different. I will say, and I know this question has been raised before, this is a very healthy breakdown or division of property types. Most communities will be much more heavily weighted on residential and it's nice to have a balance of residential and commercial and industrial. And so that again, I think Wellston is in a fortunate position to have that kind of distribution in property values. So everyone wants to know, well, what's all this mean in terms of your taxes? And last year we, I think it was about this point and I don't recall exactly what the tax rate was, but it was, I think it ended up being like a half cent is what we were projecting. We ended up with no increase. So two years in a row we had the same tax rate. Currently, we're looking at if this budget is approved, no changes at all, we're looking at just under a penny increase. So it's less than a penny. Now I suspect there will be changes. So these numbers will change. And again, you never know until the grand list is finalized and the board actually sets the tax rate in June, what the final number would be. But usually we've been pretty accurate on this. That's per $100 of assessed value. Yes. So that is per hundred thousand. These numbers are per hundred thousand. So no one penny per hundred dollars of assessed value. Is that, yeah. Let me show you the next slide. Okay. What that translates down to is if you have a hundred thousand dollars in value in this, it's a little bit bigger. If you have a hundred thousand dollars in value, you're paying $265 in municipal taxes. The proposed, if the tax rate is as we're showing here, that would mean a $10 increase in your property taxes per hundred thousand dollars in value. So if it's $400,000 property, your taxes will go up $40 for the year in municipal taxes. And so that's, does that help? I think it's a penny per hundred. That's the tax impact. I just did a quick calculation. It's projected about 3.5% increase in the tax. Tax bill. Municipal tax, we're out of school. Right, so to put it in perspective, this is a comparison of the municipal tax rates throughout Chittin County. And Williston is the next to the bottom on municipal taxes. And there's a lot of reasons why that is. But anyway, it's good to take that. What's the top one? I... Wellington. Winooski. Oh, Winooski. Wellington is next. Below Williston is Charlotte. And they have a fairly small population, right? No, I'm sorry, Winooski. Oh, yes, they're small at most. Right, I was surprised when I actually just noticed it on the chart that... It's under 10,000, yeah. I know, because they qualify for USDA. 60 cent notes. Funding and financing. So that's the overview. And instead of the end, this is actually the beginning, an extended process of review. There's gonna be lots of issues. I didn't even mention one huge issue. One thing I did not include in this budget proposal is the fire chief's recommendation that we hire three new firefighters. He's gonna have make a pitch for that. There's some rationale that makes some sense. I just didn't feel like we could afford it at this point. He's gonna argue that the actual cost is less because it'll reduce over time and reduce the amount of part timers that we need to use, and he's right. There's also some issues or problems we have with the way over time is being... Well, I think we have some issues with the fire contract. And fortunately, we're gonna be involved in negotiations very soon with the fire contract and maybe we can resolve some of those issues. But I just didn't feel comfortable adding something to the budget and having this over time problem in the fire department hanging there. And so my hope is that perhaps we can get some savings through the contract negotiations and perhaps combine that with some other savings. Next, the fiscal year of 2020 might, we might be in a better position to afford the firefighters that the chief's asking for. But anyway, that's a hint of what you have to look forward to. Next week. And that's it for the overview. Great. So next week we'll start and we'll hear from the chief I think next week. So read the strategic plan that he has. We're in budget season. We meet more often. Well, yeah. I will be in Santa Clara next week. Okay. Santa Clara. We'll be in. We're gonna have a contract. Not Cuba. We'll talk about it right now. Well, this is the time where we hear from the individual departments. We'll have a chance again to review what we see and what we hear. Public hearing will also be scheduled on these budgets for January 2nd. So marked out on your calendar. That's the first meeting of the new year for the March of Tuesday. Every week? We do. So we'll be meeting weekly and except for the week between Christmas and the years. So let's move on to the manager's report. All right. First, I don't really don't have much to talk about in my report this evening, but I did want to take a moment to introduce to the board the new assistant to the town manager who has been sitting quietly and patiently for the meeting this evening, Eric Wells. He started full-time on Monday, although he did come in for a little bit on Friday as well. And so he's going through the process of learning about our operations here. We spent some time today riding with one of our police officers. And I actually meant to ask, we had a problem today with the Taft Corners intersection with the traffic light. I guess it went green on all sides. And so we sent officers down to help control. Not laughing like it's funny, it's just, wow. I can't believe it can do that. Were there any accidents as a result of that? Nothing that they shared, so I don't, I don't think there was any issues. Surprise, the control system allows that? Yeah, I physically allows it. I don't understand that, yeah. Anyway, we're happy to have Eric aboard and he'll be doing host of different projects for various departments. He's not, he's an assistant really to all the departments, not just to the manager's office. And there will be a meeting coming up on the summer 19th that I will not be able to attend myself. This will be the first select board meeting that I've missed in close to 20 years. Yeah. I will be heading out of town that night. I will be traveling during the day on the 19th and returning the following week, but most of that session will involve budget and Jennifer Cannelly will be here for that. And there's a public hearing that evening scheduled on North Wilston Road and Lisa between that and with Eric's help, I think, well-covered staff wise. Next week's meeting is going to be held in Wilston Woods, not here at the town hall at the community center. This traditionally is something the board's done every year to partly give an opportunity for citizens from Wilston Woods to attend the select board meeting. And we usually do get a few, not too many, but we get a few residents there. And it's a nice setting. It's really pretty aesthetic. A holiday tree or Christmas tree that they set up. And so anyway, we'll be meeting there at the normal time. Just please remember that if you show up here, you may be attending the wrong meeting. I've done that. The community center is right off the main road, Wilston Woods Road. You just keep going and going on Wilston Woods Road and it's on your right-hand side after us. Just up the steps, I am. That's up off of North Wilston Road. Yes, it's a lot of traffic. Private drive. And really the only other item I guess just to mention is my written report is there was a project that the board had heard from the developer many, many times from Mr. Atwood and apparently that project is permanently going away. He's asked for a refund of all his monies that he had paid for various fees and most of which we are refunding to him. Some small fees that we won't be, but the major fees, he will be getting back. That's all I had for this evening. Thank you, Rick. Other business, the kid ring permit? I think you said you had one? Yes. You do have a catering permit that's come in. This is for an event scheduled for Thursday, December 14th. The caterer is Sodexo Vermont, Incorporated. And it's an event that's held in September. They actually, they hold this every year. They've never had any problems or complaints. So there's a motion to approve the catering permit? So moved. Second. Any discussion on the motion? Since we have a motion to say aye. Aye. Opposed? And is there any other business that we need to talk about tonight? Hearing none. We're adjourned. Stuxnet. Stuxnet. Computer worm. All the lights turning green at the same time. Oh, really? In 2010.