 Good evening, I'd like to call on Monday, March 18th, 2024, Brolin-Slickboard to order. With us tonight to my left is Flo Smith and Joe Staub. To my right is Tora Nelson, our acting town administrator. And I am Brad Town, and the first order of business is Slickboard Reorganization. I nominate Brad Town to be the chair for the year. Second. Any other nominees? If not, all those in favor? Aye. OK. Motion passes. Vice chair. I nominate Florence Smith to be vice chair for the year. I second. Any other nominations? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And secretary? I nominate Joe Staub, the secretary. Second. Any other nominations? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Additions or changes the agenda to order? I have one I'd like to add, appointment of the Fire Department's Merger Steering Committee. OK. Dan? Dan? Of course, with Janice here for it. No, OK. Public comment? Hearing none. Anything? If I might. I just wanted to ask, and maybe it's good that Tim's here, if there's any plans this summer to have more commercial trucks parked back here in addition to Lucas. I don't know, like any of the big contractors that are coming for the pipeline and whatnot, if they had asked. I'm just asking if possible that we keep it to a minimum. What pipeline? Oh, there's one going in out here out Scott Hill Road, for a water system. Oh, that's nowhere near even. Well, maybe a year or two, you think, is that what you're saying? Yeah, that's what you're talking about. Year to a way, and that's going to be up by the airport, trying to think. And I thank you for when the big over-the-road trucks come with the sand and dirt. When they got their jake brakes on, it shakes my house. Now I get it. They're loaded, coming down there. They've got to make that corner. I'm glad that going out would be nice if they switch them off. You and your guys, I think, always switch them off. Ours aren't very loud. And I thank you for that. Thank you. Any other comments? Hearing none, select our goals for the year. Just want you to think about what you want to see us accomplish for the year. I'll go over this again on reading it to you, but think about what you want. Don, everybody's got their ideas. They want to see the board do it. I want to make sure we capture them and get them on the agendas for the future meetings. Excellent. Thank you. OK, Green Mountain Power right away permit. So this is in your packet. Green Mountain Power doing work on Addison Drive, Bellavance Land Works would be the contractor. There's a map of the project, pretty extensive description of the work they will be doing. Tim, did you get a chance to look at this? Yeah. Any issues with it? No. Pretty much see the little patch throw back in where they cut the black top. It's only one. Sorry, I didn't tell it's only one crossing in the black top. The other one's down in the dirt section. So they're going to concrete it anywhere so that it crosses the service. Because down below, it's going to go over the sewer line. So this is buried? Yeah, very cool. I make the motion to approve the right away permit for the Green Mountain Power Addison Drive. And basically, in terms of which side, et cetera, it says Addison Drive on the left-hand shoulder headed north, crossing Addison Drive near Poplar Street, continuing down behind BSHA on Addison Drive on the left-hand shoulder and crossing below to feed the existing pad mount transformer and repairing the existing primary underground, replacing and repairing. Exactly. Any further discussion? If not, those in favor? Motion carries. OK, loader purchase. So Tim has obtained some pricing on the loader. But three benders he's looked at. One is the Caterpillar 938. Cell price of $264,000. Traded in a $55,000. Total price of $209,000. The John Deere 624. Cell price of $276,857. Traded in a $59,000. Gives a total price of $217,857. And the Kamatsu WA320. Cell price of $251,500. Traded in a $50,000. Gives us a total price of $201,500. I know you've had the Kamatsu out here for the last week or the week before looking at it. Your recommendation is the Caterpillar. You've had a good experience with cat products Yeah, we're going to get the greater and everything else. Well, I see that the Caterpillar is mid-range on the hours, but they have a two-year more on their warranty. A better warranty, right. Now, do they offer any extended? I believe that's as far out as they go. I can ask. Because I asked them for, that's the same warranty that we have on the greater. When we bought the greater, that's the same warranty that we got there. I almost think that might be as far out as they go. He didn't say any longer than that. The machine you've got now, how many hours a year do you put on it? Off top of the head, I would know. I'd have to look at the computer. But I mean, it's the 2008. It's got almost $7,200 on it right now. So as far as repairability of the Caterpillars, the better choice. Where do you get your Kamatsu's? Anderson? Yeah, that one was a few from Anderson. Are they all comparable in size? Yes. They're as close as they can be if we were dealerships. Have you used, have you used, what are you seeing for the Kamatsu efficiency fuel? They're all pretty close to the same. They're all tier four engines now, so they're all the same. And the Kamatsu and the Cat are almost identical. As far as curious emissions, they're hydrostatic. So the Cat has the auto diff in it. So it takes the way to cut back on wear on tires. It's auto. So that one does auto. Set them annual, like the one we have now. Is there a certain efficiency by you have the Cat grader and if you get the Cat loader and you might have another piece of equipment, I don't know? Is it like you just call Milton up there and they send a service guy and they service both pieces? They do. If you have. We do all learn on the make. Even if it's warranty work, it's good to go forever. We do all learn on the make. So that's not a big deal. It doesn't matter. We've looked at all of them like, of course, like we have the Katsuhiro for a week. The guys didn't really like it. It's tippy. We've all lost a lot. It doesn't have. It's very plain. So the seat isn't very comfortable. The steering wheel doesn't. Like the steering wheel, if I said it, that the steering wheel is on my almost touch of my knees. Like it doesn't even come up. Like you're constantly bent over. Like I ran it for a few hours. Loaded the trucks and cleaned them up one day. My back hurt from just being hunched over or steering it around the yard. But I mean, they're all nice because they're all nailed but with availability. Kamatsu and I think John Deere would be the quickest because when I talked to her, they had already had their order placed in and they had a bunch that were looking to be delivered sometime Aprilish on their schedule. But they were saying it could be three months. Same thing with Kamatsu. Cat is a little bit longer by a few months. A little separate. Yes, six could be. You don't mean it all in the fans. And I should just preface, this is for the fiscal year 2025 budget. But that's why we're starting this now. In case there are delivery delays and stuff. I'm not looking to take delivery now. This until after July and it is in the budget. But I want to make sure there aren't any delivery delays or anything. We've got to cover it. So that's why it's on the agenda for tonight. And this actually does come in under what we had budgeted for. That's always a good name. Did you have all three of them to use? We went up the Richmond and looked at the tried of them in the yard up there. Berry City took purchase of the 624 midwinter. We went down, ran their loader around their yard, played the dirt file, spent a better part of an hour going over it. It's pretty much identical to what we currently own, tight deal. I mean, there's not a lot of difference there. So yeah, we went and looked at all three of them and did what we could. If it's a choice for years to make, you like that. Yeah, ergonomics and everything else, yeah. That and it's the cheaper, well, not the cheapest. But I think it's the best deal for our money versus warranty, machine, and longevity. Yeah. Like the warranty with it, too. OK, so do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to go with the Caterpillar 938 for the price, the sales price of $264,000. There's any further discussion? So regardless of the time delay in taking ownership of it, there you're going to give us that for a trade-in now in six months or so. Well, so we'll do it as long as you guys approve it now as I will contact that tomorrow. We'll sign the sale purchase agreement, set the order, and then they'll place the order, and then we'll get it. It'll be delivered. And that goes on for the sales price and not for the total price, because I wasn't sure on that. You know what I'm wondering is that once you sign the purchase agreement, if this one out here blows up, we've got to spray it over. I don't foresee it happening. What's that? I don't foresee it happening, but you never know. It's the same deal with the Grader. We had to wait for the Grader, and we ran ours. Yeah, with a string and a prayer. But I'm just wondering if Caterpillar will still honor the price if something happens to this little. I would soon, so I can text Jeff right now, I'm sure. When you have money in hand, which you will, I think by the vote coming up, that might grease the wheels a little bit. Your machine may show up a little earlier. You got the money. Do you want to know if the price is good? Yeah, if we agree to this, is it going to be good even if something happens to this loader out here? I'm not thinking of mechanical failure, but if you said the electronics were with wires and whatnot, we're getting a little afraid. No, not on that one. I'm more concerned with the Rop system than that loader than much other than the cabs getting. Tender, yeah. It leaks water in the front windows because there's no, the front of the cabs rotted down on the bottom of the windshields from all the years of old salt. You said that was leaking onto the ECM? No, not that one, no. OK. No, but the door to that side is rotted through. Does that door that covers all the electrical panels on that right-hand side, the bottom of it, is rotted right through. But just that door panel alone was almost 1,000 bucks. Yeah, for an 18 by 18 level door. Oh, god. I would have never thought that it would cost that much. Just to paint? Yeah. Going to wait for a text. Why? I think we can probably forego it and go on with the vote. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. OK, paint, turnpike, north repairs update? So Tim had checked in with the state on the availability of Bailey Bridge across paint, turnpike, version 80 to 100 grand, just to commandeer one up. And then it needs the site work on top of, you know what I mean? They said the price could vary depending on availability and availability for contractor with a crane, because they kind of line that all up, I guess, with the rental of the bridge. And then you need either the person with the crane would have the equipment to do the site work to set the bridge, or you don't even have to find somebody to do the site work to set the bridge or make the embotments. And then so it's like 80 to 100 to get the bridge. And then you would have to do a monthly lease agreement, rental agreement. What's the number? They didn't even tell me. They said that would be a longevity thing, like it would how long we'd need it for. The price goes down. They didn't give me a monthly price. He just said that it would vary on how long we'd have it and whatnot. What's a Fisher Road? How long was that down? About three years? Two years, yeah. Most of it was like for engineering. Was that for a one or two-lane? I believe it was two-lane. They didn't specify, though. And I guess I didn't clarify either. I kind of assumed, when we were talking about two-lane road, they would know that I meant a two-lane bridge. I mean, they were aware of where it was going to go, so they knew what it needed. So if we put this in, when it comes to putting in the new culvert, this bridge would have to come out first. The road would be re-shot down. And they might be able to utilize it as a temporary bridge just off the roadway. Scoot down. They'd have to show all the land in over there, and then it's all wet land on that side anyways. That was half the reason why Wayne couldn't do anything. No, on that lower side, the water line goes through there, there's a fire hydrant right there. Water line's on that side of the guardrail. Sewer line's right there. It can probably all be done with money. Well, that tortures me. So I was wondering, what if we invited somebody here to the select road meeting? And I'm not putting down Tim in any way, but somebody like that has built these before, like the contractors that built it down on, well, 302, and there's several places. Yeah. And Tim may even know the companies. I'm wondering if we need kind of like somebody that's been there, done it, can really advise us. Is that something worthwhile? And I'm not sure how it will work with Thunderleaf. I never did get an answer. Probably should have called them back today. They were gonna give me an answer back, whether we would even be able to claim this under an emergency, or we'd have to foot the bill entirely because we've already told them that we wouldn't take emergency money to do an emergency opening, temporary opening. We already said no. Berrytown had one denied the same week that I was talking to them about. They said, because they tried to do something similar, they didn't say which project it was, they just said they had said no to begin with and then changed them and they denied the project. Well, that could be the road that it's been. The project was on as well. Like I said, I think they did not find it being a major activity. They just said that it would be denied. Well, we can, if you're gonna get a hold of them tomorrow or this week, I'm gonna be filmed. We can postpone this for a next meeting. Cable it to next meeting and we'll have more information. What would you like to know for like, definitely get information about it? Well, first thing would be, of course, availability of the bridge. And then the next thing would be if the feds were gonna take in, you know, 80% or whatever they usually do for this type of thing. I mean, if they're not gonna fund it, it's all gonna be on the town. That's big. Oh, yeah, it's not doable. Yeah, it's priced out too far. So just find out that and I don't know if you can, but the time period is for them to okay a project like this. I don't know, I definitely can definitely ask, but. Yeah, I mean, I hate taking spend over a hundred grand and then just take and tear it all out and throw it away. So what are we taking? See what you can find out, Tim, and we'll motion on tabling. I make the motion to table this until the next slide. Second. Any other discussion? Can I comment? Sure. Um, to me, I mean, $100,000 doesn't necessarily sound like a lot in respect to, you know, the overall cost of this, the impact on not just emergency services, but traffic in general. You know, I mean, I go to the dentist, I go here, I go there, you know, people know that I'm on the fire department and not that it's, but you know, so many people have asked like what is being done with this road. I mean, it's a big deal. I mean, it's a really big deal. You're forcing our vehicles and just so much more traffic out into like 62, the hospital intersection. Yeah, it impedes, you know, people coming from Montpelier, it impedes, you know, us going to the hospital and you know, and even just accessing folks that maybe in an emergency situation, like on, you know, on Payne Turnpike, on Barlin Street, on Stewart Road, I mean, it's a big impact. So to me, $100,000 doesn't necessarily sound like $100,000 just to get the bridge. You're looking at probably anywhere from three to four, maybe $500,000 extra, depending on how long it takes for the paperwork to go through to get the process started to even get to the replacement part. So, you know, I mean, it's just $100,000 to get the bridge. That's not to site work or whatever. I don't even know what they pay a monthly fee for that bridge. Have you ever heard of Price? I don't know. That's the thing is, you know, you're throwing out what it all could be, but you don't know what it is. And until we have someone come in and know where we get more information. The additional information will be very helpful. Like you said, you're hoping that they understood too late, but they may have been quoting what they perceive as one lane. So even that is gonna be important to know. No, but that's a too late. Right, right. So when you take in, check with the availability of the Bailey Bridge, you can take and see what the timetable is, trying to think the, and try to also get the monthly rental fees for it. And at the same time, hopefully we can be pushing the state to do the engineering on the road stuff. It's all the same people. It's all the same group. Well, can the bridge be put in in such a way that they then, when it's ready, come put the culvert underneath and then take the bridge away. No, can't do it that way. No, the bridge is gonna be pretty low to the road. Because then, Well, we don't even know what the design is. I'm guessing it's probably gonna be the same design as Fisher Road, which is gonna be a live bottom, multiply, but they'll be the same engineers. They might try to do something different. They might not want a live bottom. Well, I'll be sure, but I'm gonna change your, in the middle of the stream. Well, that's it, like I said the other day, it's kind of, you would think that they'd almost just take the Fisher Road design and just. Move it over. Move it over, but. Well, if they, Never come to Bay and they do things. But even with that, the trick is here is going to be to take in, find out what the cost of the Bailey Bridge is, and hopefully we can get the state going, give the design so we can get those concrete pieces in order to remember that was the other issue with the Fisher Road was the, near as concrete places down in New York State somewhere. And that's what this time, they don't make mistake on the footings last time. It's one of the permit process is gonna take six to eight months until the process. One of these, I don't know if you've showed them the 35 things that we're gonna do in line of all of this. Yeah. There's kind of a compliance there. No way we can just fill those holes in temporarily. And. No, because it won't stay, because it hasn't stayed, it's gotten way worse now. Yeah. Is it growing? Yeah, there's not much left down there now. Any other discussion on this? Thank you for doing the research. All those in favor of tabling this? Aye. Aye. And carries flood damage at Darling and Junction Roads. So this is another project to be paid for by the feds. There are two culverts on Darling Road and one on Junction Road that we went out for bids on for engineering services. We received four bids back, included in your packet. One is from Auto Creek Engineering for 59,000. One is from Premier Engineering, which is a brand new outfit out of Northfield for 99,600. For Wright and Pierce Engineering for 247,780 dollars and one from New England Consulting for $37,000. What was Wright's? 247,780. The recommendation is to go with the Auto Creek Engineering proposal. I concur with that. I think they are very well known. They do good work and it's substantially less expensive. So was that a motion to her? Let me just see what, yes. Was that a second floor? Yes, it was. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. The motion carries the appointment of representative to the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District. Theron Leigh-Sleeper online with us. Is it official yet, Theron, can I say? Yes, it is. Okay, so first of all congratulations to Theron. We all know him, he's on our planning commission and it's a town meeting and everything. He is the new general manager of the management district. Did I say that right, Theron? Replacing Dan Casey. So congratulations on him for that. But also at the time meeting, Matt Levin stated that he was stepping back from the Berlin's representative and would stay on as an alternate. We had appointed another representative who became the treasurer of the management district. So he's now a non-voting member of the board. So we're back to the point of looking for a new representative and Peg Nonley, who we all know as one of the justices of the piece, heard it there at town meeting and stepped up to be the representative for the Solid Waste Management District. So I'll make that motion to appoint Peg. Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. You go ahead and do your vote. I just want to think through until I sell that. Well, why don't you talk to Joe to make the vote? All right, that's to a mention, Joe Levin from the planning commission. But I wanted to let you know that you want to reach out to me if you have any questions about what we do or our organization, or just about managing Solid Waste General. I'm happy to be with you, come meet with you and help navigate anything that you're trying to figure out as far as our work goes. You okay? Thank you. Thank you, congratulations. Thanks. All those in favor of the appointment? Aye. Motion carries, congratulations. Let's see here. Capital improvement plan. So now Theron is switching his hats from the Solid Waste Management District to the Planning Commission. You know, one of the things I've really been pushing for the last several months is improved capital planning and capital budgeting and looking ahead more as far as what we're spending our money on and when we're spending it and being more proactive on that instead of doing things like we did with the roads with Pine Hill Drive this year, putting it off, putting off for another year. You know, let's develop a plan for this. So I've sent out an RFP, which is in your packet for consulting services for development of an asset capital improvement plan. We received two proposals back. One is from Stone Shore Municipal Consulting, Enrichment, and another from Seam Solutions in Barrie. Theron and I, you know, Theron on behalf of the Planning Commission reviewed both of these proposals. They both came in under budget Stone Shore. One of the principals is somebody widely known to us here in Berlin is Karl Rogers. He's a former Barrie town manager. And then also Ron Rajensky, who's a former town administrator, I believe, in Richmond. I was very tickled to receive the proposal from Karl Rogers. If, you know, when I was, you know, first looking at what we want in a capital improvement plan, you know, I was immediately told to look at what Barrie town does. And, you know, if I were to try to do it on my own, I would copy or, as I say, best practices what Barrie town does. So I really do like the experience that he brings. Their proposals were $26,800. The other proposal from Seen Solutions is Stephanie Megman. She was an engineer with V-Trans and also did a lot of work with Vermont Emergency Management in the State Emergency Operations Center. Her cost came at $21,550. But looking at the two, I think that the Stone Shore would be a plan that we could use, that we would actually use. And not just something pretty to sit on the shelf and gather dust, but something that we could use. We could update it, be a living document that we could base our decisions off of, not just now, but for the future. Theron, I think you're in similar thoughts as that. That's right. Yeah, I found the Stone Shore proposal could be overall the better value of the two based on having the two consultants versus one and the wealth of experience that they bring to the table. I did think that that was the better proposal of the two. And they set out with an 11 month schedule, am I understanding that right? I believe that's what it was, correct? Yes. To me, that sounds like an excellent rate for the time period that they would expend working on our behalf. I concur. So I'll make the motion to approve the Capital Improvement Plan contract to Stone Shore, Municipal Consulting that this be paid for with ARPA funds. Your second? I'll second that motion. And for the discussion, all those in favor? Motion carries. Ice rink engineering bid. So this is in your packet as well. Pages of the anticipated expense of the full ice rink redevelopment. As you remember, we have the bond vote on this back in November, basically putting a solar canopy on top and turning it into a four season facility anticipating like pickle ball and basketball and possibly even tennis and things like that in addition to the winter ice skating and hockey use. The first step early in obtaining the bond is you're going to do the engineering work, which RFP was sent out and to Boy and King was selected as the best value at just under $52,000. So recommend award of that contract to Boy and King. That second page is until we get the bond in place to cover that, the funding for the 51,000 that the time would cover that through a bridge loan to be paid back. So I'll make that motion. Actually I should make that motion, but I would recommend to Boy and King be awarded the contract with the bridge loan authorized in the town administrator to sign on behalf of the town. So moved. Here a second? A second. Any other discussion on this? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Personnel policy update. So I'd mentioned this a couple weeks ago and there's a copy in your packet of things that I would like to see us start looking at as far as updating the personnel policy. First of all is the on page nine, the boot allowance. Currently at $150 per fiscal year, I would recommend that you increase to probably $300. Next is on page 10 under paid vacation date. Well, actually let's back up. Bottom of page nine, top of page 10 is the list of paid holidays during the year. So I don't know if the board is inclined to make any additions to that list or not, something to think about. Two possibilities would be MLK birthday and also June 19th holidays. So that's for consideration to think about. Then on page 10 under paid vacation days for the first year employment, paid vacation days will prove at a rate of four hours per paid period to a maximum of 40 hours. However, no vacation time may be utilized until the employee has completed six months of employment. So four hours over six months does not equal 40 hours. So I think that needs to be clarified in my recommendation just be a straight 40 hours for the first year because that's how the rest of the years are laid out. 80 hours, 120 hours and nothing just keep it uniform through all of those. Bottom of page 11 under sick leave. Full-time employees may accumulate sick leave at four hours per paid period to a maximum of 160 hours. I would recommend removing that cap of 160 hours that there'd be no limit on the amount of sick leave. You can carry on the books. My old job, that's how it was. I had over 2,500 hours of sick leave on the books at one point and I had to use 1,600 hours of it in one year. And I didn't use a penny of pay. So to me, I don't think we're out anything by extending that cap. I don't want to get into a situation where somebody's getting up to the 160 hours, maybe they're sick that day and the federal government, we called it first flu so they don't lose any of their time off here, give that something to think about. I'm not saying we should, but that's be a recommendation I make. I think that's all of the updates I had. So I know it's been a while since you guys have looked at this. There was one that I had talked with Vince about was that on time, we're only allowed 40. I had talked to him and hopefully maybe go to 80. That's our page. In the winter time, so we can kind of, if we get a couple of weeks of long hours, we lose quite a bit of pay through taxes. And if we get to put some in the comp time, it might go take a day off here or there when the weather's a little nicer. And we wouldn't possibly lose. That's the way it was when I was at B-Trans. We were allowed 80 hours of comp per year. I'm good with that, I'll figure that out. I'm not up to make decisions tonight, but I wanted to put this on the radar to start reading through it and see what other updates you might have for this. Excellent. Pair of boots is $300 now? Or a big pair of boots? Yeah, new clothes, new clothes. They're more, they're made in the United States. Really? But a fair chip was it was made in the United States there about four or 450 to 10 months ago. It was right there, probably. They're almost 300 bucks. Okay, anything else on this? If not, town meeting recap? So a couple takeaways from town meeting is on the local options tax. The Charter of Change packet, Rachel sent to the Secretary of State, which is the process that goes through to be sent to the legislature. So that was done last week. I've not seen anything yet, as far as a bill being introduced in the legislature or anything. I'm skeptical if they'll get to it this year or not. They got a lot of their big bills to do on this. It's a fairly straightforward thing. A lot of towns have been through the options tax at this point in everything and nothing controversial, but it's just a matter of their timing and getting it through their committee schedules and everything like that. So I'd be happy if it passes this session, but realistically, I'm not so sure it will. Well, our representatives said that it shouldn't be an issue. They don't think it would be an issue, but. She has it on the show. That's right. Are you talking about implementing the local option tax? Correct. Or getting approval from the state. The state has to approve it down the capital? The legislature has to approve it, correct. Oh, golly. Well, did we get our legislators to kick butt on that? Well, I think, yeah, I think they will. It's, you may know. And it's, you know, like I said, it's a fairly straightforward thing at this point. They've been through it, you know, with some of the other, and it's just a stand alone. And we're not trying to do, you know, five or six other charter proposals in the same, you know, which sometimes gets bogged down, you know, what these other cities and towns are doing. So to me, it looks like a quick and easy thing to do, but they don't ask me, they don't consult with me on these things. So. Hey, but we have a state mushroom now. Oh, yes. Yeah, that was funny. I was reading Ian's thing about the mushroom, you know, that was pretty funny. I just want to say you guys, Select Board and Tim, did a great job getting the word out about the one and a half acre deal and about the local option tax. You know, I saw the video, you were in the truck and you were interviewing them. And I don't know, you guys have a little marketing campaign on Frontport Forum in various places. Well, it worked, good job. Thank you. And I'd like to do more, you know, I know in the past, we used to have a newsletter. I don't know if I want to go quite that formal, but, you know, maybe a series of front porch forums, postings throughout the year or something. Might be better than a, you know, a full newsletter and stuff that we've done in the past, probably been 10 years or so since we've done the newsletter. Any else on the town meeting? No. Okay. The town treasurer assumed far department bookkeeping. Ah, I do assume. Okay. So this has been a subject that's been floated around in the past, I don't even say it's been discussed. It's been floated for probably about three, three plus years in particular. So currently the far department uses batch odor for their bookkeeping. And that comes at an expense of 1,200 a month. It's plus fees, that I understand. So it's expensive for what, the far, I mean, we see in the orders tonight, you know, we see what's involved in financial aside from running the fire department. And we feel that the treasure department now has the capacity to take on those duties for the fire department. We met with the president and the chief and the treasurer today, worked out some of the questions that everybody had regarding this. And we are comfortable at this point, preparing a proposal to move forward or to present to the fire department corporation, I guess technically, to move forward on this. In reality, we're looking at, you know, half a dozen to a dozen checks per week that, you know, the fire department has to pay. So it's not a huge amount compared to, you know, the big stack we have here for the town, you know, the finances, you know, miniscule can compare to, you know, the town's finances. We think we can, you know, do it cheaper than what they're being charged. We think we can provide a better service, timely service. They get reports six weeks or so after the end of the month. Yeah, six weeks behind. Or as I was going to do it tonight, I did not, you know, we can, you know, through NEMRIC, we can run it. I'll say real time, but we can run one immediately on demand for them, you know, provide them much quicker numbers that they need for their operations. So, I don't know, Joe, you want to chime in or Janet? Well, like I said, you said earlier, you know, we've been talking about this for a few years or whatnot. I think that the cost of the accounting for the fire department, we backed up before we had bachelors doing that, before we outsourced it, we were doing it with volunteers. And that was just burning out our volunteers to do so. We're looking at something nearly, you know, quarter million plus dollars of a budget and relying on volunteers to do so, you know, efficiently and correctly and all that. It's just, that's why we outsourced it. First time around, we did have like three entities that answered the RFP, Bachelors got it. And at that point, it was nearly, it was $900 a month plus expenses. And those expenses were programs that they may have had to buy to put in place to take care of our finances or postage and handling of the checks and the invoices they were paying. The contract came due. We ended up putting another RFP out. Bachelors was the only one that actually answered it and it increased nearly $300. So, I mean, we're paying something. I think they have a lot of overhead. They have, and so I kind of get that. I see it probably this move, the only thing I see beneficial is being more, it's financially responsible for the money being spent in that one line item. That's all I got to say. And I think with our meeting, I had a meeting with Cali a week or so back and tonight I think it's very clear that they have time available to do so. And that's wonderful. I've been a proponent of it for quite some time as a liaison between the board and the fire department. I actually suggested it to Joe a couple of years ago. At that point they were in the middle of a contract and it wasn't going to expire per period of time and we had floated it around through the board, as we said. And there were reasons why we couldn't go forward with it based on staffing, et cetera. But I think now is a wonderful time to move forward, especially if you've had those conversations and they have the time and it's cost effective. You're really the only kicker that I see is that the fire department has to provide 90 days notice to batch elevator to cancel that contract. If we're going to do this, I would very much like it to be effective July 1st because that's been both in these their fiscal year changes over. It's not going to be cost effective to do this in the middle of the year or even after a quarter or anything like that. That doesn't mean that July 1st we had to take it over, but if it extends a week or so into the new year before we start writing checks, I'm okay with that. My concern is that 90 days for July 1st is right around the corner for both for us and for the fire department. So if we're going to end up doing this, we're going to move pretty quick on this, potentially from our side at our next meeting, which would be April 1st and I think your next meeting is April 2nd. So those two dates are very close together and I think we can work things out before then. And I think after this evening's meeting that we had, I think we can have probably a proposal together to give to the board of directors who meets a week from this Wednesday. That's wonderful. And I concur with everything said and also bachelors have done a wonderful job as well. Yeah, they have, yes. Well, basically we, the fire department's paying exactly for a level of service that we don't need CPA level of accounting for these books. And I concur with that. I just wanted to put it out there. They have done a wonderful job and we appreciate it. So that's all I have on that unless anybody has anything else. So we'll have a vote on that April, April 1st, April. No fooling around. No fooling around. Okay. Anything else on the fire department bookkeeping? Hearing none. Hearing none. Turn over. Well, so once you're here, do we want to do the merger committee appointment? That would be wonderful. Sure. So I also want to jump in. Mike Sweeney has stepped away from the merger committee with Springtime coming up and across season starting. So he has stepped down, but Rod Sear, who we all know, a longtime member been involved in the fire department since 1973 has offered to join the committee in that capacity. So I will make that motion. And I'll second that. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Congratulations Rod, when you see them. Welcome to Rod. Okay, Town, Traffic and Build Ordinance. So I thought this was going to be an easy PZ process. I thought we were just going to have to add Dodge Farm Road for a speed limit and Dodge Farm Road where Denner's Scott Hill is a stop sign and that was going to be it. Public hearing has been worn for April 15th on this. Looking at it into a little bit more and I've mentioned this before that the section numbers of the, as are formatted in the ordinance, I'm going to make those all uniform Roman numerals. I want to correct the spelling of dog Rover Road to dog River Road. Add in and then correct a Partridge Road to Partridge Farm Road, which is its official name. Then we had talked about Comstock Road, changing the speed limit there from 40. And then your package is a separate email. The response I got from the league as far as setting speed limits generally between 50 and 35 miles an hour without conducting a traffic study but only after considering the neighborhood character, abutting land use, bicycle and pedestrian use and physical characteristics of the highways. So we do not need the engineering study to drop the speed limit on unpaved class three town highway to 35, but we do have to consider those factors, which I think all play into the proposed 35 mile an hour speed limit on that road. The proposed 35 mile an hour speed limit versus the 40 that it's currently set at. So I've updated the draft to reflect the 35 mile an hour speed limit We'd also talked about increasing the fines for certain violations. I've increased the handicap zone, the fire lane and fire hydrant to $150, which I think is still reasonable. Now comes the issue. Tim called me last week about the speed limit on Goodenout Road and Marvin Road and starting to look at the ordinance. There are 26 roads that do not have a speed limit listed in the ordinance. Majorities are very short roads, which to me is okay. You know, Brownsville Road extension, I'm okay with there not being a speed limit for that oversized driveway. However, Orner Road, which is there off of airport road across from Blue Cross Blue Shield is posted for 35 miles an hour. I looked at it as I drove by yesterday. So there is some mismatch between what these roads are posted at and what's in their ordinance. So, you know, I can add Orner Road, 35 mile an hour to our draft, but I think to do it properly, I think we want to take a look at all these roads and make sure if there's not a speed limit that we're okay with that and if there is and we need to reflect it in the ordinance that we do that. So more than likely we will not be holding that public hearing on the 15th, but we'll have to rewarm that for a different date. And I show this list to Tim and we'll be working out over the next. I'll go around, some of these do have signs on. So we're going to go around and give you a list. They don't mark where you're going to check the list on your travels and see what is posted there currently because there is some of them that are on the list that don't, that do have them. That makes totally sense. So if they doubt we would have to post it. Here you're talking about putting signs up. Not necessarily, if there's a sign, I think we should add it into the ordinance, but if there's not a sign and it's not in the ordinance, I don't know that we need to establish one for, you know, a one-tenth of a mile, with one walking road. Right. So you're going to work on that. There'll be more on that to come. Okay, any else on the town traffic? License, permits, and vouchers? I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 24-20 for payroll from February 25th, March 9th, 2024 to be paid on March 13th, 2024 in the amount of $60,482.92. Payable warrant 24-G21 with check number 23780 to 23818 in the amount of $178,034.20. Check number 23799 in the amount of $700 for police training and tour approved. Berlin Volunteer Fire Departments let rooms orders from July 2023, October 2023, December 2023, and January 2024. Oops, I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. The motion carries. Approval of minutes for February 19th, 2024. I make the motion to approve the Monday, February 19th, 2024 minutes as presented. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. The motion carries. Approval of minutes for March 4th, 2024. I also make the motion to approve the Monday, March 4th, 2024 select board minutes. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. The motion carries. In a correction to a September 19th, 2022. So this was the meeting where you all approved the police department contract. However, that approval never made it into the minutes and is actually not on the work of video for that night either. What I suspect happened is you all went into the executive session, which is noted in the minutes to discuss it. And then when you exited out of executive session and formally approved that contract, the recordings had stopped at that point and the minutes are generally prepared based on that. Recording, so I actually never made it into the approved minutes for that meeting. So we need to add the actual approval of the PD contract to those minutes. And there's just two other things that I noticed in the minutes before I would approve them is on page one. Just about toward the end, it ends with a question mark and there's something missing there to that sentence that begins the organization then brings in outside members and it ends with dinner at the first meeting and town question mark. Seems like something's missing in that. And then the other thing is on page two, Joa Luzi's last name is spelled wrong. But other than that and adding in what you mentioned, I wouldn't have a problem approving them as long as that area can be looked at and added to and then changing Joa's last name. So, so, and also on the end of the actual approval. Okay, Smith approved the adjourn seconded by Kandler. So I'm guessing they're thinking that was Joa Luzi. That's why I've been here. So that means you weren't here at the time? No, Jo was at the time. I was at the time. So you do have the three? Just that who seconded was most likely Jo. That will just need to be looked at on page four. Well, Jo, but John Quinn was still on the board at that time. I don't believe he was at that particular meeting. Not when Carl Parton was on. We're still looking at September 19th. All right. So, you know. No, it's not listening to me. So, and you do. You name everybody going in to include whoever the select board's members who was present, right? So when we go into executive session and everybody disbands, camera goes away and we come out with a decision. Whose responsibility is that to make that, to record the motion and the end result of that motion? If there was action. Who makes that? I'm only asking because I'm the secretary now, okay? Well, I would say the secretary. Okay, well, I wasn't at the time. I wasn't at the time, but I'm just saying is it would it be now my responsibility to do that? Yes, but you have a very nice time administrator who keeps track of those things. Yeah. When you see the problem, the problem of this was is that even when the person doing the transcription did the transcription, they only headed up to going into executive session. Right. That's right. Now it's different now because even though when we go into executive session, the camera leaves. And, but if you see online, Orca is online. We put them into the waiting room and then when we exit out, we put the Orca online back into the full meeting, so from that point it's recorded, but this was two years, what, a year and a half ago and Zoom was still fairly new and who knows, maybe even Orca cut off at that point as well and didn't come back or anything, so. I guess my question is, do you all remember who made the motion and seconded to approve the contract? I honestly do not. Well, I'd be willing to bet it was you, Flo, but. It could very well have been me and Carl could have been the second. I can definitely look back at minutes that I have held on to and see in my notes if I could find that. When you need this correction done, whenever, it's gonna be better, but table first, you're gonna put them back onto the agenda then first. And I'll let you know what I find out, Flo. Okay, well, round table, Flo. I do not have anything to see me, thank you. Round table, Joe. Oh, let's see, what is that? Pie. Yeah, March 23rd, Saturday, March 23rd. Rural and Fire Department will be having an all-you-can-eat pie breakfast. Expect to see everybody there. It'll be a great event, community can come together. You'll be entertained by many people, but Ray Burke and Sam Burke will be playing as well, and that's your entertainment. Last year was a great year, and I expect another one this year. Starting at 9.30 till noon. Folks can bring pies if they wanna donate them as well, I'm bringing two. The more the merrier, and the more people the merrier. It's always a good time. Anything else, Joe? I think I'll get it. Tor. I have one, I still don't have an email in this last week. The state has opened a temporary shelter in Berlin for those exiting the hotel program. It's there on 190 Junction Road, which is the A&R Annex. This came a lot very quickly, but I will say that the state and agency human services and buildings of general services were very accommodating for us. We put together a conference call very quickly with the police chief and Tom and myself to go over the questions, concerns we had. They were very accommodating for that. But they were anticipating between, possibly between 50 and 100 residents at the shelter. The first night, that Friday night, they had zero. Saturday night, they had one. And Sunday night, last night, they had zero again. So, the demand definitely wasn't there. Of course, it's not a great location at all. It's out of the way, it's cut off from services. It's not on the bus route. There's a lot of things wrong with that location. But Saturday morning, I did reach out to Rick DeAngelis with the Good Samaritan Haven just to see how things went on his end. And he said that they were very proactive in trying to reach out before that to try to get people into their shelters and stuff. And I think that was very successful in keeping the population down at our shelter in Berlin. So, we'll be continuing to monitor us throughout the week. But at this point, doesn't seem to be a huge issue or anything. That's wonderful. I'm glad you went over that. I had a resident approach me about it and just asked a few questions. And I had given the same information that no one had stayed the first night. But I think it's wonderful that everyone came together to do that in a short period of time. And they have two National Guard on duty at each of the locations and four EMS providers there in addition to service agencies, Washington County men's and things like that to try to get them into more long-term facilities and other types of help that they need. Excellent. And then here again, I think the Good Samaritan Haven was very instrumental in that. And there was a time period associated as well, like 7 p.m. or anything? 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. 7 a.m., 7 a.m. Are they gonna keep this open for the schedule duration or are they gonna feel that out? I've not heard of them cutting back on it yet. My concern is if they do cut back. I mean, you know it from emergency management. You know, the power goes out and stuff. People can suffer through it for a day or two. Third or fourth day is when sometimes that need goes up. So if they cut it off right now or tomorrow, I'm just worried, okay, maybe somebody found something for the weekend, but that's now dried up or not available that come Wednesday or Thursday, that need might surface. And if we've already cut everything off at that point, you know, it would really be stuck. So I would kind of be hesitant about promoting them closing these shelters early. But I would also depend on, you know, what available with a good smear to shelter as maybe they have capacity at that point and can take on a few extra people or not. Anything else to add? I don't know. Okay. Burling pond of water levels, Dicky Dan. So in your packet is a series of emails basically between the conservation commission and the city of my peeler concerning. Well, first of all, starting with the, sorry. I apologize. City of my peeler with approval from the state has placed some stock, stock logs on the outlet from the Berlin pond which has raised the water level of the limpond. And there's a concern that it's going to affect, I mean, all of those things, this year's noon loon nesting activities. So there's been a good dialogue between conservation commission and the city of my peeler on this. The other issue is that eventually the city would like to remove the Dicky Dan, which is, here again just got to go through permitting and everything else. It's not going to be a quick process but in the next couple of years or so, something that the city may want to do. I think we as a board need to be aware of what the city's wanting to do and make sure we make our voices heard at the appropriate times. That's right out here. Yeah. Right. Fire department has a dry hydrant right up there too. Correct. Okay, yeah. So that's another issue to be concerned about with that. Definitely. So this is mainly for your information but I wanted to make you aware of this for the few months going back and forth on that. How old is that damn? Considerably old. Yeah. I don't know about the one right here. Right here. Is it back to the 1800s? Tom's making reference to 1850. Yeah. That sounds right. It was really, talk about Mr. Strong. Well my house is 1845 and that owner of that house, I think owned the mill at one point. There's a built-in mill. This last one says that Mr. Strong established the mills at that site and provided lumber for which my house was built in 1850. So very likely your lumber as well. So. Well the dam held up well. Was that old? I can't believe it was old. Apparently there are, I don't have the latest inspection report from the dam but excuse me, apparently there are some issues there. I'll take us in that minute. Collapse, but Tom's got some ideas. About refurbishing the dam and so forth. So anything else on the Niki dam? No. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. The executive session? We do for two items. Move to re-enter into the executive session for sale lease of property under one VSA 313-18 and personnel one VSA 313-183. Assessing that motion. If there may possibly be action. All those in favor? Aye. We're in executive session.