 Do you have any questions or do you want to move that way? I move we approve the application for additional parking space for 21 Snow Street. We call it on-street parking is that that's fine. So on-street parking allocation. Yeah, and I'll second that. Motion's been made and seconded to approve one additional on-street parking space for 21 Stow Street. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Just quickly while you hear the historic designation you've got a quick update. I can give you a quick update. Scott Newman, who's our consultant, is making good progress. He surveyed the area, the additional area up around the school that we talked about before. We did a contract amendment that added the area bounded by High Street, Hill Street, Railroad Street, and Stow Street, and then also Swayze Court. So he surveyed all of those houses and he'll be finishing up the work. His contract goes until I believe the end of June. We did allow plenty of time, but I think he's going to be done well in advance. So once we get a draft, we'll bring that. Well, have him come and give you a presentation. I think that'd be helpful as soon as we have a map and just to give you an update. Times running down. I understand. I will get ahold of him and find out what his time frame is for putting that together. Does it look like we would have time to make this initial application while they're still trustees, but it would be the select board to finish it? So we got a time frame and I don't think so. I think it will probably get submitted to the state, but there's a whole review process at the state level and they have to give it their blessing and then we have to hold a public hearing, I believe. I'll forward you the schedule. I know I asked him about that. I think by the end of the year, I actually talked to Devin Coleman, the state architectural historian about the schedule at the state level and anticipating having, unless we have something very soon from Scott that's complete, the schedule would go through the summer and into the fall. I think the hope is that we would have everything done, including National Park Service approval by the end of this calendar year. But we may be able to start the process before June 30th? Yeah, we can definitely start the process. That's all I was asking. Sure. If it's in the works. Yeah, it's definitely in the works and I think it would be a good idea to have Scott come and give you a presentation since this is your project and get your input. It may be worth it to try to do it jointly with the select board. That would probably be a smart idea. Yeah, that's a very good idea. Okay. So keep you posted on that. Thank you. See you. Thank you. You're very welcome. Next up, consider a request on the police department closeout, Bill. How's that for us? You talked about this at a meeting in December and at the time you chose to do it in an executive session. I'm not certain that it needs to be an executive session now because we don't have employees anymore at the police department. Just to remind you, Craig Nolan was burning with the term she used for a long time. That from probably a letter incented by email back on December 27th and basically after a decision went into the next day or two about his request to refresh your memory. He is representing Joe Bifesia. At the time he said he was representing the resilience well. Anthony talked to me at the time and said he's not my lawyer, he's not representing me. And when I talked with Mr. Nolan a couple of weeks ago, he told me that Anthony confirmed with him that he was not interested in this action. So what he is alleging from his client is that the termination of the Robert Police Department employees was illegal and was done in a fashion not in accordance with law. And he cites the statute that we're all familiar with where a police officer can only be dismissed for cause. And as we discussed a couple of different times last year, the premise that he makes this claim on is that because the village is on a calendar year budget and doesn't adopt a budget until March meeting, which really doesn't go into effect until 30 days after this period goes by, he's suggesting that there is nothing different between any prior year and the change over from 2017 to 2018, where he's saying the budget in years past has been adopted in March of, say, 16. And you keep operating that department right through April of 17, even though you don't have a budget passed by that time. And you do that with every other department in the municipality. In the village's case, it's not really true because that was the only department that we had that voters get to act on the budget. The voters don't approve the water and sewer budget, since you won't. So he basically said they were employed and that the village took no action to save what the trustees did back in October, which was to say we're going to terminate the department as of December 31. I explained to him that it was clear, made clear during the public hearings before the Charter Amendment and going all the way back to as far back as last year's village meeting, that when the village voters instructed you to look at the possibility of disbanding the police department, that they suggested that they would have one in 2018 if that was a decision they made. He suggests, and I think he's correct, that I don't have the Charter Amendment with me, but he says the Charter Amendment itself doesn't say anything about the police department ceasing to exist on December 31. It talks about the police department go away, but it doesn't say when. So his position is the village still is in existence as you are. You're here reading right now. He says the village is still in existence, that the police department was in place through December 31, 2017, with a budget that was passed last March and that you should have allowed it to roll over and excuse me, suggested that they should be paid through June 30th when the village actually dissolves. He alleges that the action that you took back in October, where on your own motion you decided not to have a police department provide service after January 1st, was not within your authority and that you should pay Jolie through June 30th. As you know, when this issue was first raised to me, I did talk to an attorney and then Skip and I went and talked to Paul Giuliani who helped with the Charter Amendment and Paul felt that the village was on solid ground to do it. He said that the owners elect the trustees to administer the village and they had the right to say the department wasn't going to exist after December 31st based on the fact that the village Charter was amended. So back in December when I brought this issue to you, you listened and you took no action. I informed Mr. Nolan that thank you very much and the trustees have taken no action. He wasn't happy about that at the time but that was, we had a pretty brief conversation. He did call back a couple of weeks ago and said, you know, my claim is still out there. You know, he asked if we, if I had alerted our insurance company that there was a potential harmful termination suit being considered. I said I didn't send this to the insurance company, they're aware of it, but they're not going to do anything until you actually file suit. So they know you've sent this letter. I know you've sent the letter and the trustees have said thank you very much. So I'm not recommending that you change your mind about this but I want to let you know that he brought the issue back. I told him it was, I think we had like a month between the trustees meetings in February and I said, you know, they're having a village meeting and then the next week they're not going to be as usual if they won't be meeting until the end of March. And he said, well, I'd like them to consider my letter again. So here we go. Thank you for that explanation, Earl. And one last thing, Skip. You know, when we talked to Giuliani about this, I shared with him some of the conversations that I had with other attorneys and expressed that, you know, there's a risk that if he filed suit that you could lose and Paul's response, well, there's always a risk but he thought that you were wrong from the ground. So as I said, I'm not recommending you do anything different and I'm not going to speculate as to what the insurance company might do if a suit is filed. So anyway, I'll stop there. You can ask questions if you have them, but I don't think I have much more information than I just shared. And as we talked and the actions that we've taken, we held the vote on the charter change in June, so it was full six months ahead of, you know, when we would expect that it, you know, that it terminated the police department in January or December 31st. So they had six months notice and then we talked, like you said, to Paul about the motion that we made to, you know, send them a notice in I think late October that we were going to close things out as of December 31st and we gave them some, you know, money in return for there. So I feel like we've given them all the notice that we did. I shared that with Nolan and he said, well, nobody's arguing that they didn't know this was coming and nobody's arguing that you didn't give them, you know, they knew in June that the charter passed, they knew in October what you said, but he said they don't have the authority to make that decision that they made in October because, and you know, what he's saying now, I didn't share this is, you know, the village does have a budget for 2018. We have a residual police department budget. We've got to pay the debt on the cruiser. We've got rent to pay for the office space there until May. We have insurances that we're paying. So he said, you know, it's not like you didn't have a budget. It's not like the village went away. You just chose to eliminate police officers position and you don't have the right to do that without cause. But the voters voted a budget that didn't include them. So I don't see how he argues that the voters didn't do it because they did that at village meetings. Right. And again, I'm not trying to put words in his mouth, but he would say that, well, that vote isn't binding and effective until the 30-day appeal period goes by and you've got January and February and March. I'm not trying to argue in their favor. I'm just trying to tell you what his response to. And he can do that, but he hasn't changed my opinion. And I guess I'm not inclined. I wouldn't support doing anything different than we did at this point. Did you speak to any attorney or Giuliani after this, this most recent conversation? No. Because nothing was new. There really wasn't any new information presented. There's nothing different. There's nothing changed. And I told him, I said, I think it's very unlikely the trustees are going to change their minds. Plus he didn't work. I don't see how he argues we should owe him even if he didn't work. He went here. As I said, I'm not recommending that you do what Giuliani did. Acknowledging that he's asking again. So the minutes can show that we heard the request, but we declined to take any action with regard to supporting the request. Is that it on that? Next steps on 51 South Main Street. I just wanted to fill folks in on what since village meeting there, Chris Parsons had called me and he wanted to tour through it. He hadn't been inside at all. I got a hold of Woody who took us through the building, toured it inside and outside there. He's Chris is still interested as soon as we might do something. He's interested. I kind of shared with him, you know, that we were looking at. I should have asked Steve there whether if there was any option to subdivide the property. If Chris needed the whole property to do what he did. I talked to Steve after I asked him to look into it. And he pointed out that the biggest feature that we'd have to settle right off would be how many parking spaces that Chris's project would need to depend on what you would have left for parking. So Chris would have to determine what he's actually applying for before you could actually answer the question. But he does have an estimate. Yes. So based on that estimate I think that would be good. Of course Ben before the board is to clarify his actual number, yeah. But as a scenario it seems workable. We're probably talking about a difference of four or five spaces at the most. Steve's not here, he's gone. So it sounds like we don't have, we need more information before Steve could. Before they could actually give you a firm number of parking spaces. Yeah. I also had a plane to Chris the motion that was made at town meeting with regard to those extra funds and that anything if we took their money anything for spaces needed to be a 99 year lease which amounts to ownership. He didn't think that he wanted to kind of give up any parking that he would give us for 99 years was something he would favorably upon and things there. And I've called Carruthers Environmental that did the hazardous waste, the hazardous materials assessment and found the asbestos. They gave us a quote of $6,000 to remove it. But before they would do anything we needed to get a written permission from Dan Johnson in order for them to act on it that he did assessment and paid the bill even though it was our building and even though he told us we could use it they didn't have anything in writing so we need to kind of be able to do that. We need confirmation from Dan that we can do that. And also I haven't had time to contact anybody about taking the building down and recycling the materials you know what the options are getting any prices to do that that we talked about at village meeting that we would get those and then see where they came in as to you know what we would do also you know at that time we didn't know anything about the TD Bank parking but it sounds like have you heard anything official as to who the owner is or what it spends? No I mean I've heard, I can't remember the gentleman's name but I hear that there has somebody that's got a purchase and sale agreement that looks like it's been accepted but it's kind of in the Byzantine maze of TD Bank in Toronto you know they've got to go through their processes and I had heard the same information that as far as the parking lot he was considering paying parking lot there where you'd have one of those kiosks that spits out a ticket and he would, evidently he's got a couple, the gentleman has a couple of properties in Burlington and I think he's got a parking lot near where the key bank is there in Burlington I can't remember the street and that parking lot he's got an arrangement with a towing company to do his enforcement so they go through the lot and if there's not a ticket in your window they tow you out so you don't need a police department to write a ticket you just tow away and it's your, you've got to figure out where your car is so because you know it might differ on our looking at 51 whether there was still available parking at TD Bank versus parking was prohibited at TD Bank and he put a bigger demand on alternative parking there so that's where we are I guess my inclination is to continue to try to get prices to take the building down and get the hazardous materials out and then see if we wanted to do that and then if we did that does it affect the price that Chris Parsons would be willing to offer to us and what would we do at that point is that okay? Yeah it sounds reasonable I mean if we pay for taking it down we should get a bigger number for the property you know and there would, if it's down there's even more parking spaces available during the main street regardless of what happens. Yeah we still want that as much parking for main street reconstruction even if TD is fully available. Yes that's a good next step. You know the folks, Chris suggested this too if we're looking at taking it down whether you know if somebody took the vinyl siding off then could it be burned or not you know whether somebody could do it cheaper and stuff but you know that's something to look at and there was still quite a bit of stuff in there that needs to get out of there kind of Upstairs? Pardon? Upstairs. Yeah well there's a few things downstairs even a couple of air conditioners and lockers and stuff out in the police department and upstairs with some furniture and many boxes of records I don't know Those wooden lockers in the police department? Yeah I guess I don't know whether they were the personal lockers or something they came from Norwich University Wow likely they did. They looked like antique. Chris was pretty interested. Why? They're like oak. Yeah they weigh a ton. They're too big to go in upstairs on the third floor They measured it but they couldn't get them up there. Is everything out of the other police department there now? I'm pretty sure. All the furniture? I think so. I haven't been for several weeks. I put Woody on that quite a while ago and he started right away so I think it's pretty much done. So we'll continue along those lines and then when we get something we'll move it up. Conflict of interest policy. Did she give it to you? Do you have it there? I don't see it. Is it in the book? No, I doubt it. Carla was supposed to give it to you. These are copies for the legislature. Update on the legislative charter change. Bill and I are scheduled to go back tomorrow morning at 8.30 to talk about the UDAG policy in particular but in talking to Bill we really spent more time on the history of how we got here in the village, kind of what's going to go away. We didn't really talk about the operation of the water and sewer department and how these funds have kind of been used and things. They've inquired from rural Vermont to know how utility districts operate, which we can certainly tell them how we've been operating for 100 years and the magnitude of both the water and sewer that have over a million-dollar budgets each. I was, Ben and Jerry's that kind of started this issue of the UDAG money. I kind of looked, asked Karen how much water and sewer bills they each paid. I mean they paid to each. I guess I was a little surprised that it was over $100,000 that Ben and Jerry's paid both to water and to sewer that I didn't realize it was that much. Is that what was you doing here? Yeah. I thought it said $25,000. $125,000, which I just thought that, I think most people kind of think of when you talk about a fire district you're looking like somebody with 50 or 100 houses on a sewer. Yeah, and that's, we're certainly not that. And as Bill points out, this is really a name change. It's not really any, we're not going to be doing anything much different other than giving up this zoning and stuff and things. But then raised the question about how we use the UDAG money. We've made 25 loans more or less. They've all been facilities that connect to the water and sewer. I think it's a great idea to use them to help promote connection to those facilities, particularly the sewer department, because it only, it has 400 less customers than the water department. So it's more in need of more customers and we're dropped a couple hundred thousand gallons a day and flow after Irene. So I've written up some things that Bill edited and made much clearer to give to them tomorrow. And the two of you, you are welcome to come and listen if you want. All righty. It's 8.30 at the government operations committee room there. Who was the fellow from rural water that's coming? Is he an actual water system operator? He's the executive director of the Rural Water Association, to which we belong. I talked to him today. He called and just wanted to let me know that he had been asked to come and testify. He didn't have anything really to say about this. And that all he was going to say is that the water department has been an outstanding member of the organization that they take advantage of training opportunities that we offer that, you know, from all of his knowledge of the system, it's where he's very well run and very professional. So, you know, they kind of summoned him. He's not going there to object to this. Well, that's good. I think we could tell him more how we operate better than anyone else anyway. We'll do that. You know, and I like to write out things that I was going to say anyway, and I think it's good to give them. I don't know if the chairman passed it around to the members. I think you should hand it out just like you did last night. Yeah. You know, so... It's good. Are you sure, and Stevens, setting in on these discussions or not? They set in on the first one for a while, and then they had to leave to go to their own committee meetings there. Did they give formal testimony? Yeah, they each sat at the table, said their name, who they represented, and basically introduced us. They didn't really make a lot of statements, except for the fact that the village voted to amend the charter. They didn't say anything about the operations, or, you know, I think Tom mentioned the number of merger tries that we had and things like that. But they didn't talk about it. I believe they both said that they were supportive of the charter movement, but they didn't go into any detail. Anything more on that? No, thank you for doing that. You think you want to come tomorrow? I have to work tomorrow. That gets in the way of a lot of fun things. It just sneaks in there. Yeah, so I'm not available. Yeah, where'd it go? You can catch a ride with Bill. I had my car up the Cody's at 7 in the morning, so I'm going to shuttle down to the legislature. And I think having more there is better to kind of show the support for what we've loaded on and things there. So, good. I just put on there the minutes of the annual meeting. Are they in there? Usually they're on a different size sheet of paper, Bill. I don't know. We've got two sets. We've got February 14th minutes and the annual meeting minutes of March 7th. They are here. They don't go in the big... She'll probably copy them into there. So I'll make a motion to approve both of those February 14th and March 7th meeting minutes. I'll second it. The motion has been made and seconded to approve the minutes of the annual village, the last annual village meeting of March 7th and the meeting of the... Is that a joint? No, it's just us. The Valentine's Day trustees minutes of February 14th. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Now for our longest-serving left-handed trustee of time. We're going to get a binder that has the binder over here just for you for the next time. On top. And I put down here the next meeting for us, which will be, what, April 10th or something? 11th? April 11th is your next trustees meeting. I think you're meeting on Tuesday, April 2nd, with the select board. I haven't heard that. Oh, well, we've been talking about it. Who? Well, it's on my schedule. I think we talked about it. Oh, well. The night of that big game. You won't have to stay that long. The adoption of the local operations management plan, both of us would be in on that. That was the big draw. The game doesn't start until, like, 8.30 or 9 o'clock. You can say the same thing you did tonight. I've got somewhere to be. We're going to go fast. Well, that wasn't the meeting I was intending to talk about. But when I was going to talk about was the one on the 11th, where Bill will not be here. And I've scheduled the folks who wanted this pump park event to come in and talk to us. And also now that the cars have been advertised, and they're going to be back in on Monday. Loughdie's been fielding the inquiries and showing them around the ones who've come. So the advertisement for the cars went out on the police chief's lists throughout the state. So all the police departments know about it. And the advertisement only said that trustee's desire is for my police or sheriff's department to get this vehicle, these vehicles. And there was no minimum bid required. I did say that the village had the right to reject any and all bids. So if you get one bid and it's too low, you don't have to take it. And if you sell it, they'll be sold with police radios in it. That was in the advertisement. If we don't sell it to a police agency, then we'll take the police radios out. The fire department has a use for them. We can, whether they have to buy them or just give it to them, that's a different question. But when I talked to Gary, he said, you know, if they'll help the car sell to a police department, they haven't been there. So we left the radios and that's how it's been advertised. So the bids are due by 4 o'clock, I think it was on the 9th, which is Monday. And then it's stated and noticed that the trustees will consider the bids at their meeting on Wednesday the 11th. Time to be determined. Is there any deposit required or anything? No. So we can, if there's a bid like, we can reject any or all bids if we think it's too low. Yeah, I mean, whether there's one bid or 10 bids, if you don't think any of them are high enough. And I did tell them that they had to bid on each vehicle separately. We wouldn't entertain a bid for, you know, 7,500 for both. They had to make a bid on the Crown Vinc and they had to make a bid on the SUV separate bids. So that way, you know, one department might be the high bidder on the SUV and another department on the Crown Vinc. And they're both as is, no? Yeah, I think that's it. Is it totally off warranty for? Right, being pretty clear. I'm sure the people that are interested, you know, I'm sure that these talk to them, you know, the few phone calls that I've received, I told them that all of the recalls that were, we are aware of have been, you know, we scorned to the dealership and had the exhaust one was the last one that we did, right? They did the exhaust and the front end of the SUV, the recall that came to light while the thing was that formula for it and they did have been in there. And we've had the town highway garage try to investigate rattles and bangs and stuff like that? There's a rattle in the exhaust pipes of the Crown Vinc. I took it up to the highway garage and had them put it up on the left and it actually has the baffles that cover the mufflers and stuff, but the rattle is in between and you can take away the baffles and go away with the rattle but you lose the protection of having them on there. So if somebody buys it, they can make their choice whether they want to, you know, take the baffles off and quiet it down their eyes. You don't hear it inside the car as you're standing outside your rattle. Have you tested them for top speed yet? I put the foot down a couple of times but I don't think it was bad. One person took it out to try and out yesterday and they were quite pleased with it so I'm sure we're going to get a bid from them. But, you know, too much about the others. Any questions on? No, I think it's all in good hands at this point. Yes, as long as I don't have to do it. Anything else for that meeting while you're on? Are you back for our second meeting? I believe so. Your second meeting will be on the 25th, I'll be back for that. And we have some cookies. Maddie, let us know that it was her last day or went to your last day. Okay, well, so I will actually, because you guys are meeting jointly with the Slug Board, I'll be there on Monday. Where are you going? I'm going through Shelburge, Ruat, and Reinsburg. Oh, to work with Lisa? Yeah, we were with Lisa. Shifting things around. You lived down that way? No, I lived in Morrisville. Oh my gosh. I'm moving soon, I guess. I don't really, this is all very new to me. So when is your last day? My last day with the record is next Wednesday. Well, we thank you for your coverage and things. I learned all about merging, non-merging. I don't know what to call it, a merger, not a merger thing. So thank you. And she took the official pictures of the Keith Wallace Award that seems Gordon wasn't there for us this year and that you did forward those to me and things. So we thank you for that. How long were you in this job? Six months. Eight months? Yeah, Christmas party next year. I'll still be there because I'm working for the same company. I'll see you in a round town. Waterbury can't get everything out of you. Well, we wish you well. Thank you. Yes, good luck. It's going to be great working with Lisa. She's a great person. Good, good. And you're not leaving, are you Denise? Not until June. Not until the end of June. So you're ready to adjourn? Yes, I'll make a motion to adjourn at 5. We're 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Denise, give us credit. Yeah, good job. Second that? Second it. All those in favor say let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Well, thank you.