 Go ahead and get started. Yes, of course. Hi, good evening, everyone. Welcome to the September 25th trustees meeting. If you will please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Lauren, do we have any agenda additions or changes from staff today? No, we don't. I do have one agenda addition that was just handed to me at the beginning of the meeting, which looks like, or should belong under 4E, under the Chin's All-Waste District Representation conversation. There's a motion to approve the agenda. I will amend the agenda. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Great. And before we go into the guest presentations, if you are going to speak today, if you could do us a favor and make sure you tell us your name before you start, so that we know who you are. And also, if you could sign in, it would be greatly appreciated. And so is there anybody in the audience that has any comments on something that is not on the agenda? So hearing none, we will move forward on interviews for the Brown Hill Library Board. And we will have Jean, if you'd like to come up and join us, do you want to sit up here and one of these chairs? Yeah. Really? Yeah. At least in here. It's on Channel 17, not for the room. OK. So if you could start off, oh, first, thank you for being here. And if you could start off by just a little bit about who you are, why you want this opportunity? My name is Jean Grant. And I was invited to apply to be a member of the Brown Up Board of Trustees by one of the members at the end of the school year, I think, last year. And I worked for six years at Summit Street School as a librarian's assistant. And I'm currently at Phoenix Books as a bookseller. And I'm quite passionate about books and reading, and really would like to further that for people in our community by joining the Board of Trustees for the library. Great. Thank you. Does everybody have specific questions? You want me to do a couple? You usually have questions. Do you want to go first? I always have questions. Sure. I would just like to know, Jean, do you have any board experience with other organizations? Yes. When my children were in preschool, I was the president of the board of directors for their co-op preschool that they attended. Next. That was it for me. What do you think you'll bring to the Board of Trustees for the library? I have a lot of experience with children and with books and with how libraries work. And also, I just know a lot about books because of working at Phoenix. I think I'm a really good listener. And I think I contribute well to groups that I'm a part of. I know the community pretty well. And I think I have a pretty good reputation in the community. I'm outgoing, unless I'm in front of a microphone. And I'm doing great. And yeah, I work really hard to find the answers to people's questions and that kind of thing. And I know they meet, I think they meet monthly, and so you have the time to talk to them. Yep. OK. Tuesdays. Third Tuesday of the month. OK. So one of the things that we've heard on this board over the years is that Brown Hill is an expensive library. When somebody says something that Brown Hill was one of the most expensive libraries in the state, what does that mean to you? That means that there are probably a lot of books in circulation and a number of employees that work there. The probably, I'm assuming, maybe the building has many costs. And I know that a lot of people think that libraries cost more than they should. And I think that not a whole lot of people understand how much goes into a library in terms of just the collection, in terms of the programming, in terms of the building employees, all that kind of thing. So that's an answer to your question. It does, yeah. Thank you. Does anybody have any other questions you'd like to ask? I'm familiar with Gene. I think I've started Gene for many years before she moved up to her current home. But I'm glad to see you put in for it. Thanks. If you didn't get this position, are there any other positions that you'd be interested in, in the electric government or any of these advisory boards or anything? I really don't know. Possibly. I don't know really what is available. Would you like me to work for you? Sounds like it's not for the kids. It's always over these committees. They're always over these. There's other. Yeah, for sure. And I just have a question. Is this the one or two year? Are there two positions open? There are two positions open. As one of these I was going to say, there's two positions open. There are three people who are applying. And it is to fill two vacancies up until the April election. Oh, OK. So they're OK. OK. And then after that, I don't know if it's a two year. I'm not actually sure if it's a two year position. Maybe it's even a five year. Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't seem to be. Some are five and some are less. OK, but these are vacancies. OK, which one do you? Do you have any questions for us? What is your process? So the way to go is we'll have the interviews today. Like I said, we have three interviews. We have four two slots. One of the individuals is not supposed to arrive until about 7.30 or so. So at the conclusion of the interviews, we will then have a conversation about whether to fill the two slots now. And if so, who? And then we have a decision by the end of the meeting. Unless there are some other circumstances where we would decide to delete that. OK. And you don't have to stay. We'll call the ENO. You're welcome to stay. I'll hear from a staff member. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Good to see you. And so then the next person would be Helen Donahue. Thanks for going first. That's a harder question. We're pretty consistent. We tend to ask the same questions. I'd like to start off with a little bit more about who you are and what you applied. So I'm Helen Donahue. I've lived here in the Junction since 2011. Before that, we were up in St. Alvin's. And I love the library. I feel like I have taken a great deal from the library. And it would be really nice to give back a little bit. And I have a fair amount of board experience. I'm both professionally and personally. I've worked at the hospital in St. Alvin's. I was the support person for the board. So I took all the minutes and sent out the board packets and all that. And I do that now at St. Mike's. Same thing, trustee meetings. And then, personally, I was the secretary for Dismiss of Vermont for many years. And I'm currently doing that kind of work, just minute taking for my church. So a fair amount of board procedure, all that. They told me not to tell them that I take minutes, actually. But I would say, I don't want to let them know that. I said, no, we rotate that. Don't tell us that you're good at that. We don't want to tell. So that's fine. Yeah, it's just a chance to give back. What's your, do you have any thoughts about what the library trustees currently do and whether there are other areas that their responsibility should cover or shouldn't cover? Or what are your thoughts about their general role? My understanding is that they don't really get involved with the hiring process, that they're more sort of the direction of the library and managing the activities and the collections and that sort of thing is more their direction. I may not have that completely correct. And I'm not sure I know enough to have an opinion about that. I think, given the volunteer nature of the board, that maybe it's wise to not have the hiring be a part of their purview. But beyond that, I feel like I would be doing a lot of learning if I were to take this position initially, listening. Besides minute taking, what do you think you could offer the library? I think I have a pretty good perspective from the user standpoint of what they have to offer. So I think I bring that to them. I would be interested in kind of making sure that the library has the support that it needs, because I feel like it gives so much. I mean, the free childcare alone that that library provides is extraordinary. And so I would want to preserve that for the community, because I think the community really relies on it. And you have the time to. I do. Yeah, I have a deal with my husband that if I get on this, I have to go off my other board. They've had me for a long time. I think that's OK. OK. A similar question I asked before about how we hear that Brown L is one of the most expensive libraries in this day, and just what that means to you. Great. I mean, no. Obviously, money is tight everywhere from municipalities. But I think if we're putting money into that resource, we're probably getting more than we put into it out of it in terms of benefit to the community. That said, yeah, you want to try to make things as efficient as possible in terms of building costs and that. But I have not heard that. But if I did hear that, I would be wanting to see the numbers and show people what the benefit is that they get from that resource. Any other questions? I'd throw out the same question if you would be interested in any other committees that you've ever, you know. There's other things you want to acknowledge. I don't know that I'm as passionate about anything as I am about the library, but I had looked at the vacancy on the bike walk advisory committee. I'm a sidewalk biker, so I'm not a pure terror. My husband is a road cyclist, and I just don't think about that. But yeah, my family bikes and it's a concern. Thanks for putting this up there. Thank you. Do you have any other questions for us? No, actually, thank you for asking all the good questions. I don't think I did. Great. So yeah, as I said, we'll get to the rest of the interviews later on, and we'll go from there. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. Can I just make an observation about the question that you asked regarding the Brown L? It has a high budget, but it is among the highest quality libraries in the state. And it's a symbol of the level of the budget is a symbol of the level of use. I just want to emphasize that it's not a problem that we have a sound budget for the library because it gets enormous amount of use, and it's really unlike any other library in the state. Right, and I hope that it is known that the intention of that question is not one to say a negative way that I think feels too expensive, but rather one of, as we have approved the budgets that have come to us, that we feel very strongly and passionately about the library and the level of services that it provides, and that it shouldn't change. And I really wanted to make sure, personally, that those who were applying wouldn't say something contrary to that. I appreciate your clarifying that. Yes, but I didn't want to show my cards to her. It's an important thing to me. Yes, absolutely. I understand. So if it is OK with the rest of the board, next we had Kristin for an interview, but she's not scheduled to be here until 7.30. So if the rest of the board would be OK with it, if we can then shift gears to Alan Nye, our representative to the Chittin' and Solve Waste District. So Alan, if you'd like to come up and join us, thank you for being here. And for those in the audience, this came about at our last meeting, where we had learned about the distribution centers and the reuse zones no longer being in existence and some lack of understanding. I would say, personally, I'm my part. I don't want to speak for the rest of the board, but then also what some options can be, how the decision-making happened and whatnot. So Alan as our representative, if you don't mind giving us a bit of background on the issue. Right. And then after that, I'd like to talk and maybe get a little direction from you on compost. Yes, so first we can address the reuse and then go to compost. So the board held an all-day session on drop-off centers back in June. We have, Hinesburg is building a new town barn and we're having to relocate our drop-off center because of that in Hinesburg. And Burlington has a very much overused drop-off center. So we decided that it was time to get the board members together and get some direction and guidance for staff to see where we would go. And as part of that, we were looking at the usage, safety, other things that are going on at the drop-off centers. And there was a concern from the full-time staff that the reuse zones are causing some problems. Those problems vary from children being allowed by their parents to run rampant around the drop-off center with cars backing up and going forward and people trying to get into position to get rid of the materials that they brought to illegal materials being dropped off at the reuse zones because there isn't somebody dedicated there to watch what's going into the reuse zone. That has included some hazardous waste. A couple of them have picked up the large quantities of needles. And so there was a recommendation by the staff to think that with some of the other alternatives that are out there on the economy today resource and the goodwill centers that are in Williston and South Burlington, that there might be enough other alternatives out there for some of the materials that are being put into the drop-off into the reuse zones. The other is that after a while, the materials that sometimes are put into the reuse zones are taken and put into the trash because nobody has taken them over a period of time. And they've just become cluttered. And then they have to clean them out and get them ready for more materials to come in. So there was a motion made that we talk about doing away with the reuse zones at that meeting. And it was seconded. And there was a vote. And as you are aware, the voting at the waste district is weighted based on the numbers of people that you have. And it asked to do away with the reuse zones at the drop-off centers. Then that was going along. And all of a sudden, we started getting some letters from Richmond. And at our board meeting at the first part of the month, the Richmond chair of their select board showed up and wanted that to be reconsidered. And so the Richmond representative, as any representative representing their legislative body, he made a motion to continue the reuse zones. And that motion failed. So we're back to getting rid of the reuse zones. I voted after hearing your discussions at your last meeting and also seeing some other mail and whatever going on and listening to Richmond. I voted to do away with that recommendation and keep the reuse zones. But we were in the minority at that point in time. So the track right now is for the reuse zones to probably go out of existence towards the end of this month, the first part of next month. The couple of things that we have discussed, we have a building that is being used as the reuse zone. And we are more than happy to provide that to the community if there's an effort by the community that would like to try to continue the reuse zone and keep it in existence and man it or whatever else is out there. But so that's where we are as of right now. The plan within the district and the direction that the general manager has is to do away with the reuse zones. So I can answer your questions and give you any more information. Questions? Was there any discussion? And I apologize. I can't get into my iPad. So the information might be in there. I apologize if it is. But I'm wondering if there was, when the surveys were done or however it was done to collect the data, if it was looked at by a specific reuse zone. And if it was, was there any discussion of keeping the reuse zones that weren't having issues open and maybe just closing some of them? The motion was to deal with all of them. So I don't know that there's any specific discussions by each reuse zone. I did notice there is a couple of people that make it a regular thing to go around to the reuse zones every week. And apparently they run year-round yard sales and pick up things and take to their yard sales. I noticed that there was the one from Essex. I don't know if it was in communication to you guys or to the select board. But there's a lady, I guess, that's done quite a business with reused books. And so listening to both of those items is the reason that I changed my mind with respect to it. But it was a blanket across the board. It was across the board. And I didn't know there was a specific building because I take most of my stuff to Goodwill Resource. So explain more about this. There's a wooden shed, like a building by Andre, that is at the back end of the drop-off center. The one here in Essex. Yes, and it's the same at the other ones. We have a building in all of them. And that when you come to the door or come to the gate, I know when I do it, I tell them what I have. And they'll tell me that, really, we don't want to see that in the reuse zone because it's not going to go. Because they got some experience and said, OK, so I'm going to pay for it to get rid of that kind of thing. But there's a lot of people who try to put stuff in there because they aren't going to have to pay to get rid of it. And then the district ends up paying for it because we end up putting in the dumpster that's going to go to Coventry. And are there signs or anything up around the centers now that are indicating to people this is going to close? There are signs, and also the employees are identifying. That's how the word get out, basically, at the start. That they do see the people that come quite often, either to use it or to drop something off. And so they know one. And so they've been telling people also, yes. OK. Yes. So the building that's at the SXTRAP wall, are you saying that we can continue to use it if the village or town staff did ourselves? Would it stay there? Or are you saying it should come out of the dump and go someplace else? What is this? I think because of the safety issues that they're identifying, that it would probably have to come out of there and be located someplace else. And would you guys help relocate it? I'm sure that we would assist with that. Or have other towns decided to go there? They're looking at it. I think Richmond is looking at it. But the chair of the select board spoke, and then we voted on the motion that the Richmond rep made. And then he had to depart for another meeting, so he wasn't there. So we didn't get much backwash with respect to what he had decided to do. Have there been any conversations with any of the nonprofit organizations that you've mentioned about instead of the municipality staffing or the community staffing having one of them staff the three zones? No, but that's a good thought, Andrew, and I can talk. I think they did talk, a conversation going back and forth at our meeting at the Williston School, did talk about if one of the communities was willing to put somebody there that it would be able to possibly work. Coming from the liability point of view, I'm a little bit concerned with somebody being at the drop-off center sort of working in conjunction and where that puts us with VLCT and insurance liability and those kinds of things. We've been very lucky. We haven't had more than some basic fender benders at the drop-off centers. But if you go to either Richmond or Essex or Burlington on a Saturday, I mean, it is crazy. There's 400 or 500 cars. They go through Essex on a Saturday. Wow. And then with the reuse zones, were there any conversations about in order to keep them and to maintain the safe environment and to maintain an understanding of what goes in and what goes out about changes that may need to happen there and budgetarily what that would mean? We did have discussions, and we continue to have discussions about the drop-off centers themselves and the flows of traffic and people within the drop-off center. It gets very, very tight. And there are people that come with pickup trucks that can't back them up without difficulties and those kinds of things. So the safety is a big one there, Andrew. That answer your question? It does, yes. And then trustee, were there any other questions about the reuse? I'm familiar with it. I go every week or not every week. You're one of those in the pickup truck, aren't you? Are they not in the backup truck? No, I've seen it. I've dropped stuff in there. And like you said, Al, you've got to look at the liability normally in there, but also people leaving car seats or anything like that, people taking stuff out of there, they don't know what they're getting. And you're trying to secure your own child to a seat that you're picking up at a reuse center. It could just be a lot of trouble. And I see the reason you have to shut them down. I don't have a big problem with it. There are plenty of other places that people can bring things. And see if there can be reused. There's a place around Pine Street that takes items, larger items, usually appliances and such. But anyhow, I see that. Plus you also have the tree limbs and all this other debris, leaves and such that are coming in and people coming in and out of there with that. So it does get habitat. So there's no other questions from the board. I know that there was a gentleman in the audience, Peter, who handed out these survey results to me before the meeting had started. I don't know if, to help educate, I'll say for me personally, could you speak a little bit as to where this came from? And feel free to come up by the microphone and state who you are. My name's Jesse. I'm here without this survey from your retreat packet from June. And basically, it came out last year, a survey close to 600 people. And in regards to the safety, zero people thought the safety at the reuse zones were poor. So I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, you're saying safety is the main issue here, but the 600 people are saying. Well, we have professional staff that we hire. And we listen to them the same as everybody else. And the person that is in charge of the drop-off centers and our engineer both believe strongly that safety is an issue. And so as a board member, and I have been involved because I'm an engineer, I've been involved in traffic safety and a few other things. But I haven't spent time at the drop-off centers, but there are professional staff that we hire. And the board listens to them. So somebody coming in and filling out a survey is valuable information. But I think the board listened to our engineer and our chief of the drop-off centers with respect to how they felt. I mean, it isn't any skin off their back with whether we have the sites or not. They're just expressing a concern with respect to what they've seen. Did it have any photos or documentation or data on the frequency of items? Well, I don't know that you're going to get a photo of somebody walking behind a car because you're not going to be prepared to take that photo when it's happening. No, I don't know that it's there. I think it's a feeling that they've got from spending hours and hours at the drop-off centers. Alan, I have a question. The communities that second vote, the communities who still voted to propose that, what do you remember? I know that Hinesburg and Essex and the Junction voted to retain them. I know that Burlington, Jericho, South Burlington voted those of the ones I can't remember. I was just thinking, who was sitting there me and what I couldn't say during the vote. So it seemed like to prevent this from continuing to prevent the reuse zones from leaving that we'd really have to work with our external communities or with our neighboring communities. As you said, you voted to keep them. So it sounds like, which I appreciate, but it sounds like to really inflict a change with that vote, it wouldn't really be with you. It would be with your colleagues or peers from other organizations or the communities. Yeah. And I mean, you guys run into the same thing. I know when I spent time on the select board, if you have Dennis come in and tell you that you got a safety hazard up on Sand Hill Road, I don't go and stand on Sand Hill Road and look at the issue of his professional opinion with respect to that. And I think that's what you're hearing from our professional staff at the Waste District also. Right. Great. Well, I will actually take some time and reach out to the chair, the Richmond select board, and just see if there's anything that they're doing and that you might want to do, or it might be a non-issue. But I will take that on to at least make a phone call. That'd be great. And if it is a final decision that does end up happening at the Essex reuse zone, I think it would also make sense possibly in both the town and the village annual reports to make sure that the information is there, especially for those of us. I'll put myself in this bucket where we're there maybe every three or four months. And so to not go there expecting that. Right, right. And after tonight's meeting, I will get a hold of the general manager. And she knew I was coming tonight. And we'll tell her that the village would really like to retain it at the Essex Drop-off Center. And it just doesn't do anything more than making sure that your voice is heard. But having that opportunity to know, and also if we do what it would take. Yes, Dan. Not to further this much, but just the fact that it's at the Drop-off Center here often in the Essex, in the town of Essex, not within the confines of the village. But it's used by anybody in actuality. I don't bring my trash to the Drop-off Center there. I bring it over to Richmond or Wolveston because it's close for me. It's easier to get to. So it's really, as far as that goes, I received all the information from the guy over at the Wolveston place there on the regular. And so maybe the town of Essex might want to take it or outside the village, put it somewhere up towards the center. Who knows? But maybe it's something to discussion that, like you said. Yeah, I mean, I'm not questioning the decisions that are being made by the paid staff at all. It just is something that I know the community values. And the least we can do is make a phone call to Richmond. I honestly am not suggesting that we take on the village municipality and reuse zone. And I think there's enough other places for it to be. But I'll make a phone call. Yeah. That's my information. Thank you. So if we're good with the reuse zones, I know Alan you said you wanted to also talk about compost. Yeah. We are seeing a continual rise in the amount of organic material that is being brought to the compost operation. And that's a result, of course, of the legislation that was passed in Montpelier. And we expect that number right now were about 6,000 tons. And we expect that number to rise to about 10,000 tons. Annual? Annual. When it's put into full operation in 2020. Our current operation cannot handle that much organic material. So we are looking at what we can do to be able to handle the amount of organic material that we're going to expect to receive. We've had a professional compost consultant. Didn't know there was such a thing. Take a look at our operation. And it looks like what we put in after we took it over from the intervail has been treating us fairly well other than we're having to dump money into it every year because it's not a financial cow or making money on it. But it looks like that if we were to expand the operation, it's going to require some modifications to the processes that we use. And there's going to be a price tag affixed to that. And that price tag is going to probably run in the $3 to $4 million. We are doing some things to simplify it. We right now have, I think, 11 bagged products that we sell out there on the economy. And I think we're going to be getting rid of a lot of those and just going to be making compost and topsoil probably and not looking to sell more in bulk than we are in bags because it's a time-consuming job to bag that material. And it appears that there may be. But I wanted to make you aware that we are looking at probably modifications there that are going to cost money. That money probably would be obtained through a bond and a bond vote. If we do go to bond something, we probably are looking to do something also at the material recycling facility, which is really undersized for what we're currently doing today. It's been there 20-something years. And it's still the same size it was when we first started the operation there. And as I think you've probably seen some of the information, it's been in the paper a little bit. The price of recycled materials has dropped considerably. And we're raising the tip fee at that location. So we can get closer to an even budget. Just give me a little respect to that. But there is probably two years out probably before we can get designs done and figure out what the cops are going to be. But the waste district is probably looking at a bond. The other option we have, of course, is to tax the municipalities, which is what they did the first couple of three years that there were in existence. And we started making enough money to pay for each program paid for itself. But I'm a little bit concerned because the 10,000 tons of organic material is going to generate about 31,000 yards of compost. And I don't know that there is a market. And this is just Alan talking with no, I didn't hire a consultant. But I don't know that there's a demand for 31,000 yards of compost out there, especially since every other community or waste district is going to be starting the organic process. And so there's going to be more compost and more materials available. Do you have an estimated timeline as to when any kind of a bond vote may? It would probably be two years before we would get to that. Are you seeing, let me start over, without the legislation, do you foresee that the organic matter would continue to increase on its own? Or do you think that's what's really causing the jump in that? That's what I think that's what's seeing. We have public relations teams that go out there and talk to the restaurants and the institutions and everything else. We've got all the big ones, the schools and the hospitals and those kinds of things. But now it's those smaller restaurants that are starting to have to do that. And whatever, I know I came to you, maybe it was almost a year ago probably, and talked a little bit about the inequities being forced on the Chittin County people with respect to, I guess, it's counties going to get away and not have to collect organics, I believe, because they don't have a facility to take it within 25 or 30 miles. And they have all everybody at Thier's got backyards that they can do some of that with also. But to be in the business, we were one of the first municipal compost operations in the country. And they're selling compost down on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard and those kinds of things. And then there's a whole bunch of other people who are doing the same thing. Yeah, yeah. But we are in discussion about it. And I thought I would let you know as soon as I could so that if there are concerns, I wouldn't take it back. We appreciate that. Trustees, any concerns, questions? It's going to be interesting. The enforcement aspect of it, I can see where you have a few people going out speaking with institutions such as the schools and hospitals and larger facilities or sites. But residentially, to deal with this, and I know it was brought up to before, but I see this as being a big problem with rodents. I mean, it's bad enough. This is going to be a big issue. Well, we'll see what happens. Absolutely, and it's going to be interesting. Thank you, Alan. OK, so thank you for coming, Alan. Really appreciate it. Appreciate it. OK, very good. Have a great day. You as well, thank you. So next on the agenda, we would have old business appointments to the Brown and Library Board. But again, Kristen is not set to arrive until 7.30. So with the board permission, if we can move on to 6A, new business, EJRP's request for a waiver of no alcohol ordinance. And Lauren, if you'd be willing to get Brad on the phone, as he would be joining us remotely, the settings can go on. It automatically takes me to Essex Public Wireless. Yeah, that's what it is. But then I can't, but there's no pop-up that comes. If you wait, go to Wi-Fi. So choose that, and now wait for it. You should get a pop-up now. Give it a second. Hi, Brad. It's Lauren. Hi. I'm going to put you on speakerphone, OK? Can you hear me? Yeah. Do you want everybody hearing him? Hi, Brad. Hi, Brad. Hi. Hi, everyone. Good, how are you? Good. Thank you for taking the time from wherever you are to join us. Well, hope it is going well. Love, Indianapolis. Great city. So Brad, to be expeditious of your time, if you want to go ahead and introduce us to your request. Thank you, Brad. So a couple of quick questions, one going right into that portion with VLCT. Has it been identified as to whether it is even allowable by VLCT at this point? Hi. Brad, I called VLCT about it. I called VLCT. I spoke to Pam Fecto, and she indicated that as long as they had a license to serve alcohol and that we were named as additional insured on their insurance and that we get a certificate of insurance from them, it shouldn't see a problem with it. So that was her take on it. OK. Did she mention at all if this would then have any future impacts on our insurance rates and whether this would then expose the village to additional risk and then? No, I think she felt that all of liability is on the first group public. And then Brad, for me, one of the things I personally struggle with, I think of what I see as the mission statement of EJRP about creating a community through people, parks, and programs. And this one component about alcohol, how I struggle to see how that links in with the mission. And I'm wondering if you can speak about that. Does anybody have other questions that you'd like to ask? I have many questions. I will just say, part of the STEAM Fest event, First Republic did a beer garden. And there were families there. I didn't hear of any issues. I didn't see any issues. No one. I volunteered at several of the events. No one complained about having a beer garden. Quite a few people said it was a nice addition. I personally think this is a easy, simple, contained, because it's a 12 to 2 way to see what happens and see what the feedback is from the community. I agree with Lori. I agree with you, Brad. The summer street party that we have here on Railroad Street, Railroad Avenue, that people are out there, they're not necessarily, it's not sanctioned by the event itself, but we have several bars right there where people are drinking, walking around after having a drink of beer or two. At the Farmers' Market, there's tastings for wine. Alcohol is kind of part of our society. It's been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. I don't think it's a big issue. I think it's contained, like Lori said. It's a limited time. It's not late at night. And right now, it's just going to be one vendor, a local vendor at that. So, first and public, right just down the street from there. So I think it's a win-win. In a lot of ways, I think this would be great. The weather's nice. There are questions or comments or concerns. The only other comment that I had, Brad, it looked like in the plan about monitoring consumption was to have EJRP staff be a part of the monitoring on that. What I'm curious on is, have you explored looking into any of the private security companies, like the Green Mountain Concert Services, where I know that's one of the things that they do as well is help to monitor age, to help, again, alleviate the village from making a decision about whether someone has had too much, whether someone should have any, and putting that onto somebody else to help alleviate the risk that we are exposed to and that our staff are exposed to. We're actively monitoring to make sure that only people with this brief would have... Questions or concerns? A motion? I'll make a motion. I make a motion that the trustees waive Chapter 3, Section 303A of the Village Ordinance for Saturday, October 13th, from 12 to 2 p.m. for the Battle of the Barbecue Event at Essex Junction Parks and Recreation 75 Maple Street. All Vermont Department of Local Control and Village Insurance requirements need to be met for this to happen. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. Thank you. So... Thanks, Brad. Thank you, Brad. Thanks, Brad. Okay, great. So we're good to go. You sound like you're a smaller group tonight. Yup. Yes, George isn't here. 31. Great. You have been approved. Thank you. Thanks, Brad. So seeing as Kristen isn't here, Robin, if you want to come join us, I'm going to speak with us about creating meadows on municipal property. I just think I should have had you guys up in my house. I've got two little meadows. One's just finishing his first year. One's just finishing his second year. Nice. But like me, those are those past your best. So, Robin, if you want to... So, reduce us to this? Yeah, a couple of things. One resident in particular had been calling because he says children are getting into a certain area and you're throwing stones down into this garden, hitting the house, and so on. And so we tried this one in the last four months. We tried, the publicers didn't cut a certain section of the lawn or grass. As it got a bit taller, less people went into it. I just went to the border for not breeding in Philadelphia. And it was all volunteers who came out on the busy days. And we tried very hard to cut all the grass and get it ready for the Fourth of July, it was a big event. But people always parked onto the trees, they'd have their barbecue under the trees, they'd go where we didn't really want it to go. And it was difficult to get them to move. So one year we tried not cutting the grass, rather than cutting it every day for a month to get ready for the Fourth of July. We didn't cut it or we didn't want people to go. And there was a thunderstorm the night before and the grass was three feet high and very wet. And people didn't want to walk through it. So it was sort of, we controlled them by not cutting the grass every day. So I talked to Rick Jones and they spend a lot of time cutting grass, seven months a year. It's resource heavy, they need the machines, they need the staff. And also, meadows are good for apple trees, for peach trees, for plums, for trees, all sorts of vegetables. We thought it might be a nice way just to have a pilot scheme. We haven't picked any pieces of land. We didn't see if we didn't cut it for a year or two. We'd have to manage it. For instance, in my property, when a wild pasture comes up, I just use old edge clippers and just cut it at grind level. You do that for about a month. That's other stuff I'd compete at, like golden rod and so on. And then you don't have to cut it anymore. And it looks very beautiful. So we thought we'd give it a go for years. A pilot scheme, it does take three years for the meadow to regenerate itself for the plants that you've managed it to prefer to come through and see what happens. Great. And so you said you didn't have parcels already in mind? We haven't picked any yet. Rick said it would do, because he calls it a ricky ride one. If the trustee said it was worth taking a look at. Just to know which ones might be chosen. Well, the one we didn't come up in furfure, it was to transfer access to the GOT, Greenmont Park, right for it. But it's only been a couple of months. 16th just has nothing to do with it. But it would be a municipal land and it would be, obviously we'd have to consider a sideline stuff like that. We wouldn't keep it high anywhere where it might be an issue. For instance, on the school street where people cross from the ice cream shelf, keep it very low. But other areas where it is an issue, and we just add the diversity of the community in general, we don't get it. And so it sounds like it would require some maintenance for a few months or so, at least in the beginning to help. Yeah, we just cut out invasive species that we didn't want in there and let the native ones get larger, because the invasive ones get faster and they're more aggressive. So we can keep those down and let the native ones come through. After two or three years, the native ones have got the root system in there that helps them on keeping them all down themselves. Would you seed it at all in any way? We could do. You can get plugs, which are even better. They're relatively inexpensive. And then you could start making a design out of it rather than when you could choose if you wanted to. Children from the library from the middle schools and stuff to go out on the meadows and you could expand like bees. All sorts of, it could be a learning process opportunity as well. Yeah. Couple questions. Has the tree committee looked at any of this? No. And in the recommendation here, it says to authorize staff to implement the changes to develop perennial meadows. So what does implement the changes mean? Is that the worst? That's the wording. My memory of it was that the trustees would, if they decided to do so, direct us to go and look and try and find a few sites. Then we would go to Evan and have them improve the sites. And implementation is simply not cutting, but managing. So are you saying instead of implementing changes that maybe identify? Well, I guess the changes are not cutting. Right. So I would be, I mean, I think it's a great idea. I do have a lot of concerns. So what I would like to see happen is that when we have the treaty committee look at this and provide some feedback and then to, we don't authorize any changes but authorize staff to come back with the areas and pictures of the areas and more of a description of what's going to happen in those specific areas. But I would also like the treaty committee to look at this. That's my personal. I'm just curious what you're concerned, what you're, you see, you have some concerns. I'm curious what the, as I see this, I see it as very, not a big issue is being a very simple, it's not like there's something permanent, permanent barrier, there's no hazardous materials involved with it, it's simply letting greenery or whatever grass and whatever, you know, bushes and such that are accepted, naturally accepted here grow. And rather than have the brick in the street department or the highway department have to go in and maintain the roadsides or what have you in these parcels that we're just gonna make, we're gonna keep the invasive species like the wild parsnip and such, poison ivy at bay to let it grow and then if it doesn't work and it sounds to me like this is more or less of a trial period to see if it works here, if it works here, then we go full out. I don't see a big issue with that sort of thing. Just looking for more specifics. And my main concern is honestly aesthetics. So you could have a meadow that is beautiful and you could have a patch of weeds that are completely out of control and don't work with the community that we have. So my main concern is where and what's already there, what's it, how big, I mean, I do think it's a great idea and I anticipate that we would move forward or I would vote to move forward, but I want more. Yeah, I don't disagree with what you're asking there. I just didn't think that then when we get down to something that when you say something about what's weeds, what's beautiful, it's kind of like artwork. When I drive around and I see people with broad iron, homemade art, what they consider art, I think it looks like trash or whatever and it's a very subjective thing. What one person's art is another person's whatever. So I'm not really that... Let's also remember we're coming into winter, so we can take some time to see some of the aesthetics because we're gonna snow. We have, the old phrase is, a weed is any plant you don't want in your garden. But with chicory and so on, most people sit in lawns, they cut it down, but it gets too full tall and it's neon blue purple, it's beautiful. That's right, thanks. So Laurie, would I be misunderstanding what you're saying to say that you would not want to approve the recommendation as it is and possibly either change it or not make a motion at all to have staff come back to us at a future time? I mean, I would be happy to make a motion and then you all can decide whether or not we should vote on that motion. You can do that. You just wanna make sure we're all on the same page as to what it is that... Or you can make this motion and I'll just vote no. Well, I think first we have to make a motion. I don't know, you make the motion you'd like to see. Okay, I can do that. And then you can vote on that. Let's see, so I will make a motion that the... How do I wanna say that? That the trustees authorized staff to pursue two or three pilot areas for perennial meadows as well as have a discussion with the tree committee to obtain their input and return to the trustees with more specifics on those areas. Does that make sense? Any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. Hi. Anybody opposed? Thanks. Great, that passed four nothing. Thank you. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming in. And I think Kristen. Yes. Hi, Kristen. So if you'd like to come on up and join us. Okay. Thank you for coming today. Where would you like me to sit? You can come right up near where the phone is, not that we're gonna have you talking to the phone or anything, but just to be near a microphone. So that way those on TV lands can hear you and know what's being said. So thank you for coming today. And I don't wanna mispronounce your last name. So Kristen. Balliff. Balliff. Balliff. Thank you. I've already butchered someone else's. That's okay. That's very long time. I get it, yeah. So if you can just start off by telling us a little bit about you and why you're interested and we'll go from there. All right. Well, I've been a village resident since 2006. My husband and I moved here with our two children in 2006. So mainly because he got a job at University of Vermont as a professor of biology. So our two children, our youngest, was just entering elementary school. I guess Summit Street, third grade, and our eldest daughter was entering middle school. And so they've gone through all the public schools and I think I just grew to love this area. I was part of, I was one of a village neighbors that kinda wanted to see some improvements in this area. And so part of that was we started the train hop. And that was, it was just a handful of us at that time. It's grown obviously and it's become an annual event. And that was really exciting to see. So of course to me, Brown Hill Library has been a huge part of that. And so for me, I think a library's part of that is kinda the heart of a community. So I was kind of approached by Christine Packard to come and she invited me to come to this, I had no idea that there was a board. And so it was really interesting to attend the meeting, see what it was all about. I love to volunteer, I love service. And my background is I have my undergrad and my graduate degrees are in English and love libraries. I substitute at the, as it's high school library and I also work at Phoenix Books. And so thank you for letting me come at this like just got off work, closed up, ran here. So thank you for extending and allowing me to come and talk to you. Well we appreciate you being here and taking up the opportunity. Yes, not many do choose to volunteer. So thank you for that. And trustees, any questions? So have you sat on any other boards in the community? Have you been involved in any other? No, I really haven't. And previously before we moved here, I was part of the PTO and part of the communications as well as community volunteering. I've done a lot of volunteering in the schools. I think when we moved here, it was kind of a transition for me. So I've definitely done some volunteering in the schools but not sat on any particular board. What is it that you think you'll bring to the library board? I think just my willingness to do whatever I can to help out with whatever it is that they specifically, they might have some specific needs and I'm happy to help out. My background of course is in education, literature, art and kind of bringing community together with different activities. So because I'm still learning kind of what the board is all about, I guess for me at this point, it's just being willing to feel an itch that they may need or have and yeah, good, thank you. Did you say you've attended meetings of theirs in the past? Yes. Okay. And so in terms of what they do and whatnot that feels like you have, I'm getting there. Yeah. I'm not quite sure, you know, obviously because it's, I was just asked in May and this last meeting was the first time I was actually able to attend a meeting. So it's still something that I'm kind of learning about. So it was really interesting, you know, to have the agenda in front of me, be able to kind of say, oh, this is what's going on. This is what you're all about. And so that was very enlightening and yeah, very interesting. I know one of the things that's been mentioned to some of us in the past is that the Brown L. Library is one of the most expensive in the state and I'm curious what that means to you. What it means, why it's the most expensive or what do you, I guess. If someone asks you that or says to you, the Brown L. is the most expensive library in the state. What would be your, your responses? My response to that, surprise. I did, I had no idea about that. That's interesting. I don't know how I'd respond to that because I've never heard that before. So I would actually need to find out, before I respond to you, I don't feel comfortable saying anything until I find out why, why it is and kind of, yeah. So we're, then let me ask a slightly different question. Where do you see the library in terms of its role within a community? Its role in the community. Like I said, for me, it really is any library's, like I said, the heart of the community for me. And I think this library is specifically because it's been willing to open its doors to so many different community activities. I think that's been very impressive. That it's not just catering to one specific, you know, group of people, that it opens its doors to children, young adults. They have programs for seniors and adults. So I guess to me, it just, it really can be a place where people can feel comfortable. It can serve a lot of different needs for the community. So. Do you feel like the library is, there's some directions the library could go in that it isn't or that you'd like to see it go in or that there's directions the library is currently going in that you think maybe they should be doing different things? I mean, I would think that if I were to become more involved with it, I would have a better kind of vision about where they're at, what they're doing. I feel like that they are certainly just sitting in on the meeting the other day was interesting to hear some new ideas that they have about more outreach to the community, how to get more patrons to come in. Certain, I think, age groups of patrons to come in. They were talking about maybe dedicating with people who have a new baby to dedicate a book to them. And I thought that was a great idea because it gets that new family. And I think getting children in with, I remember not here, we lived in Massachusetts, but I took my daughter to library story time and music time every week. And so that was hugely important for me as a young mother and for the, you know, just to be able to meet other people and have that sense of community. So things like that I think are wonderful. And so anything to continue, again, reaching out to the community, I think is a great thing. Any other questions that everybody has? I guess one other question. So there are two available slots. There are three people who are applying. If you are not one of the ones selected, are there other volunteer opportunities you'd be interested in? Possibly, yeah, possibly. I have, I mean, I've meant to volunteer at the library as shelving and I've actually applied for a couple of positions there. So I, yeah, I'm always up for, yeah, volunteer opportunities. So yeah, absolutely. Great. And so these two slots that are open, they are to fill vacancies through April of 2019. Then after that, there would be an election as these are, these are elected positions and we just appoint them when vacancies arise. So if there are no other questions, the way this process will go is shortly, we will talk then about who to appoint and we'll make a decision. You're welcome to stick around. If you don't want to stick around, that's up to you. And if you don't, there would either be a phone call or a letter, something, some type of notification that you would receive. Okay, I might go home because it's too late for my family. Yeah, time is sure and precious, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for coming in. Thanks again for letting me come in so late. Thank you. Thanks. So looking back on the agenda, it looks like we are back on to Old Business 5A, appointing us to the Brown Hill Library Board. Remind me, because it's been a while since we've had competition. Should we go into executive session? That was wondering too. Finish our business and then do that? We haven't warned in executive session. So I would need a little bit of education because I'm not recalling as if we haven't warned in executive session, can we? I believe if business comes up that warrants going into executive session, it can be requested, but I don't know the requirements for warning in executive session. Should we maybe take about a five or so minute break since we have technology looking to it? Yeah. I'd be glad to look it up while we're talking about the reading file. Sure. Yeah, we need to keep going. Sure. So manager's report, I never, sorry to give you a couple extra minutes. So Evan's not here. He is away. George isn't here. He is away. And as such, you're dealing with me, unfortunately, but we get the wonderful pleasure of having Lauren. So Lauren, is there anything from the manager's report? No, thanks so much for the next meetings. Okay. One of the things we're going to ask you to do is to set goals for budgets for the next meeting. That's one of those things. As well. Yes. That we're in the reading file that purchasing policy. Yep. Thank you for sending those in. Just ultimately brought it up along those lines. Personally, if that's something that is in our October 9th meeting packet as well, just again as that reminder will be. It will be. Okay. And in your 11th as well, I think we'd like to have the joint boards forwarded in. Yeah. Just a joint policy. Additional reminders about the need for us to do that homework in advance and to not wait until last minute. We'll be greatly appreciated. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So with that, we can go on to the reading file. Can we? No, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Comments. Well, that's part of the reading file. So I just wanted to make sure. So yes, I have a couple of things. And Evan had asked me to bring some of these up. He and I met a couple of weeks ago and there were a couple of things I asked him to look into and then just one other one that I wanted to let everyone know about. So I've had, it's been a while, but we had a discussion here about the policy and process around developments and there's supposed to be a landscaping fund if they don't use, so they would do or spend the money. I don't know all the specifics. Anyway, I had several people come to me again and ask about that. And so since we talked about it with Pat, I know Lauren's been involved in the beginning, but we had talked about with Pat, I went back to Evan who he had known those same people or some of them had gone to him as well. So he is, and Lauren I'm sure, and others are looking into specific projects that have been brought forward to say whether or not there's an issue that needs to be handled. And more importantly is a process for the policy going forward. So he just wanted you all to know that because it's taking up some of his time. And then the other thing I had asked him to look into which he had also been asked by someone else that I spent some time at the senior center in my role as a state rep, just kind of talking with them. And I spent about four hours there. And one of the things that came up was the fact that the doors are not handicap. So you physically have to open them, which I've been in there, but I don't notice because I'm fine with opening them, but there's quite a few people who have walkers. So anyway, I've asked that we look at grants or can we put it in the budget for next year or what we can do to get those push button things. So he's looking at that. And then just to let you all know, one of the other things that came out of my time at the senior center is they would like to look into having an advisory council similar to what EJRP had had. It had been talked about as part of the MOU process when they came under the village and they just haven't done anything. So I said I would help them in whatever way I could. So I just want to let you all know that I've kind of provided them some information that will probably help them draft some documents and then they'll come before the trustees and whether or not it's something we think they should have or not is up to us. But I wanted to let everyone know that was on the horizon. Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Lord. Any other comments from trustees? Elaine, if you want to take a break from that. I got it. I got it. Thank you. Day in any comments? Good. Oh, I'll say too. So tomorrow is capital for a day, Chittenden County and the governor and many secretaries and deputy secretaries will be coming to Chittenden County to meet in all sorts of different places. And tomorrow at 3.30, Governor Scott, secretary of the ANR, Julie Moore and a handful of other folks are going to be touring our wastewater treatment facility because of a recent award for innovation that the village received for the wastewater treatment plant. In addition, there'll be three other sites in the village that are going to be visited by not the governor, but secretary Moore, secretary Tebbets and secretary or commissioner Curley of the Department of Labor to the high school. Commissioner Curley is going to high school. Secretary Tebbets is going to Fish and Wildlife over by that way, over by West Street. And commissioner Curley is going to the CTE. So there's going to be lots of officials in S-Exjumption tomorrow. So it's a pretty good day for the village. So then reading file and then going on to the concept agenda. I'll move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. And Elaine, what did you find about executive sessions? So referring to the secretary of states document on open meeting law for municipalities under executive session, there is nothing in here that says that we have to warn going into executive session. However, the board has to vote on whether they agree there's an executive session is warranted. And one of the reasons to go into executive session includes the appointment, employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee provided that a public body must make the final hiring or appointment decision and explain its reasons for that decision in open meeting. So I'd be happy to make that motion because I feel like that applies. Yeah, it certainly sounds like it applies in this instance. Does anybody disagree with that? Or am I supposed by the motion that would? So I'll move that we have reason to enter executive session by one VSA 313 section A3. Could you repeat that, please? One VSA 313 A3. Will you invite the assistant manager to attend here? Inviting assistant manager more and more, so. I would second that motion. All in favor? All in favor? Is there a discussion? Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. So we will go and we'll take a five minute, 10 minute recess and then we will enter in executive session. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Elaine. Oh, you're welcome. It also sounds great. So we have exit executive session. We are now back in regular session. Thank you, everybody. I will make a motion that we appoint Gene Grant and Helen Donahaye to the Library Board of Trustees. Second. Any further discussion? I would just say that we had three excellent candidates, all of whom are well qualified and so it's a very difficult decision for us to make to just roll slightly higher than the other. We appreciate all who applied and hope that they run again on April 2019 for the elected seats. So all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. I move that we adjourn. I'll second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Andrew. Well done. Thank you all.