 I'd like to call the board of the Berlin Select Board to order for the Monday the April 16th meeting to my our left is Pete Kelly, Wayne Lamerton to my left, Jeremy Hanson to my right, Dana Hadley our administrator and Dianne Isabel our treasurer. Let's see here. Additions are changes to the agenda thing. I have none. Anyone else? Hearing none, public comment? No public comment. Treasurer's report. Dianne. I have provided the March delinquent tax report, the March budget status report, and trial balance to the select board. Okay, and approval of licenses, permits, vouchers, and applications. Is that everybody seen in here? So, are you looking at those? We'll have Timothy Schwartz, Councilor Grange. Thank you. Yes. Well, thanks for having me at the meeting. I'm going to have a chair. Okay. All right. Thank you for inviting me to the meeting. And first, I would like to say that we've all been very happy with the way things have been progressing is knowing feeling like we have some partnership with the town and vice versa. So we are trying to keep on moving at the Grange. We have another project we would like to do a few years ago when we redid the bathrooms and the lower level of the Grange hall. The town gave us a letter of support for the grant that we were seeking at that point. And we're applying for the same type of grant as from the Vermont Arts Council. It's a state legislature funded grant. And so I would be very pleased we would be very pleased if you would consider writing a similar letter for this project. The project that we're doing is more improvements to that lower level. For those of you that have been there, the lower level just has a poured concrete foundation wall. And that's a kind of ugly, but be also very cold, especially in the wintertime. In the summertime, it can be kind of nice because it's cool, but not so much when we've had winter days like earlier. Earlier this year we had a lot of really cold ones. So we have to do some waterproofing in the foundation, put some insulation on the foundation, new wall surfaces on the inside. We're going to put a new flooring down that will provide a little bit of insulation. We can't really insulate the floor per se if we don't have enough head rub. And generally making a much more welcoming space, which we think will be much more comfortable. And we'll encourage people to use that space as well as the upstairs hall, which is much more attractive at this point. So I sent a draft letter to Dana, which you said you looked at. I did. I'd be happy if you would consider writing something similar to that. And I gave the board a proposed letter, which is quite similar but a little different. That's fine. I find a starting point is helpful whenever I'm trying to come up with some wording. This is addressed to the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall. That's the non-profit charity that we set up, which is 501c3, you know, tax deductible, able to get tax deductible contributions. So that's who it's addressed to. And isn't the Grange itself like a 501c7? It's c7 or c8. I never remember. It's a fraternal organization. And we're not allowed to be a tax-exempt organization under that. So you're asking the board if they're willing to sign another letter? That's right. Yes. This is not a request for financial support or anything like that. It's just something that will help to show that the local community is supportive of the work that we do at the Capital City Grange and the way we'd like to improve the facility. I'll move that we have Dana. It actually has all of our signatures. I'll move that we approve the letter and sign it. I guess you'll have a chance to read it after. I scanned it enough to know that I don't think I have to worry too much. Yeah, scan it for my files and I'll read it to the public. Great. Well, thank you very much. You want me to mail it? Thank you. No, I'll just take it with me if that's okay. Out of curiosity, how much is the town using the Grange? Yeah. We did a check on that before the town meeting this year and we found that we've had just about two years since the tax exemption. We have about 48 events that have been on the calendar. A few of those are beyond the time of when I checked our listings, but most 44 I think were no idea of the amount of attendance that each one. Oh, no, I'm sorry. We don't track that. Yeah, we don't track anybody's attendance really because we let people, it's very user friendly. About a recent meeting that I held there, I think we had 15 or 20. So it's getting you pretty well. Oh, yeah. And that includes private events as well as the ones that are sort of civic. And town related. The planning board had an informational meeting there as well, or gathering town residents for working on the town plan. That was interesting. I got to go to that one. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. You post it. Brural licenses? Yes, I do. No? You can do this then. I'll move to approve general fund accounts payable warrant 18 G 20 with checks 17996 to 18039 and the amount of $17,906 and 60 cents as well as payroll warrant 18 dash 21 for April 1st, April 14th and the amount of $40,723 and 56 cents as well as the March 2018 journal entries and the reference out March 2018 bank statements for the general fund sewer commission order debate. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Those opposed? Motion carries. So your signatures for appointment of town representative and central mark internet? It's actually signature. If the board authorizes you as chairman to sign you appointed Mr. Hansen or Mr. Hansen was appointed at the last meeting, you weren't here, but as our representative for the central Vermont internet. Is it approved? I saw it. We did that the last meeting. Yeah, did you? Okay. And you can mail it right to the clerk if you'd like. Oh, no, no, I'm saying I'm just being sarcastic. Oh, okay. He's just hand me a copy. He's like that. I just wanted one from my file. Yeah, no, it's not good. Okay. Green lantern. It's a little sore on that vein. I feel way, way better than I need it to feel for you. Well, Green Lantern Group was in, Robert Leonard was in the last meeting and talked to the board about this proposal that he has as a 20 year agreement. There are some unknowns with it. The first 10 is clear. The last 10 isn't as much years. The years, yeah. It's a 20 year agreement. According to his calculations, it would save the town approximately $3,000 per year, of which 2,000 of that, more or less, is the sewer division for their pumps and so forth. Again, sewer division has some changes coming down the road that hopefully they'll be using less electricity. So I guess it's, and I know that he either met with you or talked with you. And the board at that time, at the last meeting, wanted another to have it brought up in this meeting, whether it was something that you wanted to know. Was he going to be here? He is not going to be here as a way at the moment. I think when you're more knowledgeable, maybe you've become so, but it seemed like it wasn't too big a risk, wasn't going to make that much difference. And sort of the soft factor of going, the town going green seemed beneficial to us as much as the 2,000 or 3,000 dollars of savings in the unknown. The bigger deal is the second 10 years. I mean, we're assuming, and this pro forma assumes that the power rate is going to go up to the 3% of the year for the next 20 years. And we don't know that. It's not a terrible assumption. It's not a terrible assumption. But I'm just saying that the power-versed agreement of green-mount power is for 10 years. We don't know what is going to happen in 10 years as far as what they're going to do with power-versed agreement. But right now, they're paying 19 cents a kilowatt. They're probably not going to pay 19 cents a kilowatt once they get enough solar bill. That was an incentive to get people to build it. So if they reduce the credit to 15 cents or 12 cents, then our savings isn't what we think it is. But I don't think we're going to lose money. Right. So we talked at the last meeting about taking the Shaw's Pump out of this equation. I mean, I don't know if this is an old one, but it looks like this still includes the Shaw's Pump. That's what appears to me. It does. Right. He took it out. He projected at the last meeting what it would be. But I don't think he had any... I guess my point would be that we're not ready to sign this. I think at a minimum, he should come back without the Shaw's Pump. That's my point. Yeah. Sure. And my opinion is that I don't think that that was going to get hurt entering into this agreement. I can't look at my crystal ball and tell you we're going to save that amount of money. I don't think we're going to lose any money. And the fact that we're going to use some green energy is not a bad thing. The fire department's also expressed interest in getting out of this as well. That means obviously they're using a lot less energy, electricity per year, but they're looking at saving, you know, a fifth of what we're talking about. But we need to recalculate this contract without the Shaw's Pump. Why don't I have him do that and then maybe come to the next meeting? That's fine. With that? Motion to table. So second. All in favor? Aye. So moved. Thank you. Local emergency operations plan update. And that's where Mr. Richardson comes in. Let's just come up here. Hopefully you've all seen the latest update. It's just standard review every year has to be redone around this time frame and it's due to the state by the beginning of May. We go through and make sure the phone numbers and names and so on are up to date. Certain elements of it are pending, but there are parts that are in the appendices, which are not required to be submitted to the state. They're optional, and so we can update them at our leisure. That specifically I'm referring to the Tier 2 hazmat sites in the town. The Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission is working up an update to the Berlin sites, but the submissions were originally due the beginning of March and they were the businesses that have to submit those reports were given an extension to the end of March. So things are running a little bit behind schedule, but they'll get Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. I'll get us the update as soon as they can, and then we can update our appendices. So we have the most current list of potential hazmat sites for emergency planning purposes. That's the main thing hopefully before you for approval. The tour asked me to mention that next year's plan may be significantly different. The Vermont Emergency Management has put forward a proposed new version of the emergency plan. They're calling it a local emergency management plan instead of the LEOP. They had submitted a draft for comment to the emergency management community back in January. We're taking comments through February and then they're going to come back with a final proposed plan, structure, template, some time in March, and that's still pending as far as I've been able to find. So just a heads up that that may be different next year around, and we're already planning ahead to have to look at that as we get the information on it, and maybe it might take some additional work because it looks at additional things that are not currently in the LEOP. So just a heads up on that. I wish I had something to show you about it, but I haven't seen it in my cell. Move to approve the local emergency operations plan for Berlin for 2018 as presented. You can approve the discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Bruce, is this something that the committee turns in and where does it turn in to the regional planning? Regional planning commission should get it and then I think they collect them and send them to Merck. Is that something that I should do? I think I can double check on that for you. I don't know how Tour had handled it in the past normally. Well, Tour did it. Yeah. And that was great. But I just want to make sure this year, I mean I can certainly do it. It's not an issue. Let me get back to you. You would. I appreciate it. Thank you. And just to know somebody with ICS training has to be the approving person on that. There's a little fine print on there. With Tour in the past, that was not a problem. But does somebody who's had ICS 402 or ICS 100, I believe? I have two. Okay, so that's great. Just for keeping the state happy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, a memo received from Vermont appraisal company on solar field assessments? During the work that the assessors have been doing, they discovered a problem with the way that the solar plants had been taxed. Apparently, there is a state law that exempts solar installation from paying the education tax. And we have been charging the education tax. Now, we have one, I think we have three that we've overcharged. Where you showed me. Right. These are the ones that they showed me. So I wanted you to be aware of it. And I wanted your advice of where you want us to go. Should I write letters to these owners? Advising them to come to the board of abatement? What's the board of abatement? Maybe civil authority. Civil authority. Yeah. I'm not even sure if that's the way to go. What are we talking about here for money? About $11,000 total. $15,000. And it's not appropriate for us to just say, oops. I'm not sure. And that's what I'm asking. But in the letter, I don't know if I can. What you said in the end, I'm not sure. Is it going to be complicated with the state or the education council? I'm sure it's going to be complicated, for lack of a... Well, we are going to have... The town will have to pay the educational tax no matter what. So in other words, the town would be on the hook for that. But we would be anyways. Yeah. I mean, just instead of... We can't collect that part of the tax. Right. It would have been spread out across more people with a slightly higher rate. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, yeah. It's not like... But the education tax is not going to be shortchanged. You get these 113 pages. They advise us... Age 82. To go forward and send no more, I guess. But I... And I don't know if we have the authority to just do it. This is all news to me. Why don't I talk to Grail Helper? That's the best bet. And see if it's something we can make easy. Remember where I came in and talked to them about this? Yes. You and I sat down. They told me I was wrong. Well, you now should feel good because you've been vindicated. Well, as you all know, this is not the first mistake. We've had, I think, with Clarissa working here. She's quite thorough. And I see things... Was it... But this was a mistake that was done last year? Previously. You'd read this one. Okay. Yeah. So it's a part of... She just got a much better education. A larger package of mistakes was more. Yeah. I got to do it as long as I could. Yeah. And for two... There's two of them that... This is the first year they were being charged. Right. For the solar fields. Why are you bothering me? Okay. You wanted to do this and how about 2020? One is two years. And then there's two that are one year. So Clarissa is who's doing this for us right now. She's the... She's working in the assessor's office. She's the... That's the clerical work. Can we get a side-by-side of the property owners? I mean, I think this is something that we talked about. I see you have asked for reports. And I thought it would be good to wait until they're done with their April 1st work. And that would probably be in June by the time they're done with that. And then hopefully have them come in. Because in your policy you would ask for a little more ability to have oversight from... Yeah. It's going from... I'm looking at this first bill here. Going from $1,100 to $44.50. This just doesn't quite line up. So we had a long discussion with the assessors about this. When was that? A year ago? Yeah. Yeah, it was a year right around this time. Yeah. And this state law for tax in Zilla Hills is interesting. My question was... So let's say I put a $9.5 in this little bit. I've got an assessment for $652,000. I said, do I need to pay equivalent tax on panels and inverters? Because what are you taxing? Are you taxing the installed solo fill? Are you taxing the land and the power of the infrastructure? And telling me that's equivalent? Because if so, when you send me the form for the equivalent tax, am I supposed to include the inverters and solo fill? So we read the law, the state law that's attached here. Is assessing the solo fill despite production. The amount of power it's producing is determining the value of the solo fill. So they came up with a special law to try to tax solo fill. So I'm assuming I don't pay equivalent tax because I'm assuming I'm paying it in the property tax. But that's what we came to discuss. And I said, I want to be fair. I want to pay my share, but I don't understand. And we had a long discussion and they said, this is the way it's done. And now if you've got to give back the education tax, it's crazy. Like this bill, our bill, $11,000 for the solo fill, $8,700 education tax. Maybe we need to discuss how to use that equivalent tax. As all I'm saying, before we make a precedent, I think we should think this one's wrong. And maybe that would be part of the question to Rob, what's the way forward to make this, so this makes sense given this alternative. Which doesn't make any sense to me at all. How do you assess the value of real estate based on its production? Electrical production. Right, which is going to change. We had a rainy spring. I mean, it doesn't have to last. Yeah, it depends on the capacity or is it what actually comes out. All right, it's capacity. But I don't know the answer. I will talk with Rob and bring it back. It is a complicated thing. Okay, and especially permit for Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and all. Blue Cross and Blue Shield has a walk at lunchtime walk every year about this time. They're going to have it on the 25th. They've had this in the past. Their route is the same. Going from their office down industrial to Granger to Comstock and back. They have the insurance in place. They have asked that you waive the fee. This is a non-profit walk. They're not raising any money for their employees, basically, that are going to be doing it. And they will have people that are helping with traffic. And we waive the fee in the past? We have for non-profits here. I move to approve the special event permit application for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont and to waive the application fee. Second. Second. Are those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Bottom, Brad. One of my checkers. Thank you. Okay, my state revolving fund will well head number four. I had mentioned at an earlier meeting about the state revolving fund loan for well head number four. I've been working with Tom about it. He's been keeping the public works board informed. And this loan is a $90,000 loan, which is to pay for the engineering and the preliminary work for well number four. The state revolving fund, they've changed it a little bit. It goes to the bond bank now, but it is a loan that is, you can pay before its maturity. And usually what happens when you have your final financing at the end, like we did with the water system, it pays off that exploration loan. The, it hasn't been quite decided if this loan is going to be used. We are looking at a few other avenues that we will be bringing to you. But again, I wanted to keep the board up to date. And at some point the decision will be made. And this board would be the one having to sign for the loan. Just a simplified version of the calculations that we went through to get there. We sold all of our allocation for the water system. Several people had purchased the allocation that aren't using water. We're using a third of the water that's available. The system is built to a certain size and we're using a third of the water. We have four large customers coming on this spring that will use another third of the water. At that point we're using two thirds of what we can produce, but we sold more than we can produce. So that's why it was determined now is the time for the next one. I had them, I had a lot of questions and Mark Young's from came back with those answers the other day. And he's on board with us, they take it. And am I reading this right? This is a zero interest rate loan? That's how I read it. Well, I guess you could move to approve this loan. However, you may not take it. Okay, so maybe you want to wait until it's definite and how it's going to be financed. Tom and I are kind of working on a few, I don't know what's going to come to fruition. And do we have a quote from Mark about the cost of doing this? Or are we putting this out to bid, I expect? Well, no, this is amazing because you have hired Mark Young's from to do that work. We did that, quite some time ago. And the cost to do it is coincidentally $90,000. And again, this is the type of situation that we have to pay the bills. And we have some Mark Young's from bills that we haven't paid because we don't have the funds to pay him, which he is on board with. We have to pay the bills, then we have to submit the paid bills and request the funds to go to Diana to come back. And then that turnaround time takes usually about a month, if not more. The good news is that we are still on water. We're going to start accumulating funds from the water. And I think the water division has done for a new system has done quite well keeping its cash flow where it has been. We've been very fortunate that our customers pay the bills and we've been able to keep up with things. It's going cash flow positive. Yes. So, you know, the cash flow has gone very well. And when you have the third? Yes. And certainly with additional customers, at some point there will be a credit plus, which will be needed at some point. So why don't I bring this back next time? By that time, we should have a definite answer. But okay. Motion to the table to the... Motion carries. Town Administrative Report Day. We have received the... Tom has put out the dates for the town plan approval. The Planning Commission has finished its work and has the town plan ready to present to the public. It is available online. It's a lengthy document, so I didn't make all copies for you. But if you'd like me to make a copy, I'd be glad to. I thought I can also send to you the link. It is on our web page. So the Planning Commission is having their first public hearing on this at the school on May 23rd. And again, I'll send you the schedule. At 7? It will be at 7. And it's suggested that the select board also needs to have public hearings. They need to have two. And so the suggestions are May 24th for the 1st and June 25th for the 2nd. After that, depending on what the input is from those meetings, then the town clerk would need to send the article language to printers and have it ready for the August vote. And I'll send you these dates. We have submitted three applications to VTrans this year for their annual grants. They have the grants for Class II roadways, and they also have structures grant. The Class II roadway request is one that we have done. This is the third year that we've done Fisher Road. And we're going to try it again. We band-aided Fisher Road last fall, which got us through the winter. Got some of the really bad ruts so that we could get through. But there's still quite a lot of work to do. And I'm hoping that we'll be looked at favorably. We're thinking this is just under $250,000 to do that project. So include the signal. That does not include the signal, but that would be an ideal time to do it. We've budgeted separately $25,000 for the signal. This is more than we can focus enough. Well, maybe, depending on the... And I only say that because that is a safety concern. Sure. That's why I think it's a perfect time to... Might prioritize it. Yeah, to do that. And I have mentioned the signal in my application. I'm hoping that we looked at favorably. And we haven't gotten a grant. I don't know, I'm taking it personally. We haven't gotten one since I've been here. It's three years anyway. Then we've also put in for two structures grant. And you probably can guess what structures they are. They are the Merrill Lake Road culvert and the Richardson Road culvert. And the figures have come back from the engineer. Our engineer is Grenier and Waterbury. And so we're asking for a $250,000 grant on the Richardson Road project. That's estimated to cost $242,000. And then we'll have incidental expenses that we're expecting. And the Merrill Lake Road is $208,000. So we've asked for $210,000. I would love to say and hope that we get that. But I shouldn't say it. If we do not, obviously we may have to do something else. Are we going to do the temporary steel plate solution to send one way traffic through that? We've talked about that a little bit. And as you know, it failed a few weeks ago. Tim thought he could shore it up by doing what he did. He's did it on one side last fall. And he thought he could do the same thing on the other side so that traffic could pass through. But he has done the pricing on the steel plate to put on it. We haven't gotten there though. We haven't done that. Is it passable by foot? Because there's that. All of the carriages have gone through it. Yeah, I think he's... I wonder where this way can we check it out? Yeah. Well, he's been going around though. Yeah, going around. So yeah, should we get by foot? Let's go back to that question. I'd like that one. Okay. Just making sure because they have the five-mile race coming up that way. Sure. Yeah. And Tim will probably be down there very shortly. If he can ever stop plowing or salting or something to do his what he thinks he does. Yeah. Yeah, he's... Do they wash away? No, they just move it. Lovely. It is amazing. It is. Yeah. It is amazing. So that's all I have for your board. Okay, thank you, Dana. Ron's able to beat. I'm all set. Thanks. I'm going. Jeremy. The Berlin Elementary School Board is looking for a member. Carl Parton was designed and they're looking for somebody to fill the shoes at least until the next town meeting. So that's all I got. Okay. And motion to convene the Labor Board. To recess the Select Board and convene the Labor Patrol Board. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. What do we have, Dana? I have two renewals. Liquor license. One is a first class restaurant liquor license and that is for Leo Foy who runs the new dog river brewery which is down on 302. In the big lots I guess he's done that. Plans of Vermont Plaza for what I'm trying to think of. So I have that application and we have no reason to know that it shouldn't be. And the others for the steakhouse which is also on the 302. Move to put the licenses for Dr. Brewery and the steakhouse. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Move to adjourn with the control board and convene the select board. So we'll be in favor. Any executive session tonight? Not tonight. Move to adjourn. All those in favor? Aye. So many.