 Good evening See the check-in line is Shortened down to just a couple people I wanted to welcome everyone tonight to the village of s6 junction Annual meeting. I'm Steve Eustis your moderator for the evening and We're going to have a little treat here in the beginning to celebrate the 125th anniversary from the first village meeting and So we're going to have a little play re-enactment of the first meeting which won't take too long But I need to entertain a motion to recess to have that happen Okay, so Tim German makes a motion to recess. We have a second And gray all right all in favor of recess for the short play Opposed nay All right, here we go We all get to wear fun hands Good evening and welcome in honor of the village of s6 junctions 125th anniversary We will go back in time to the first village meeting to elect officers and approve the legislature's passage of a bill Creating the village within the town of s6 in the early days of s6 There were businesses on the river, but not many people living in what is now s6 junction But when the railroad was being constructed in the late 1840s Painesville as we were then called began to grow and a post office was opened in 1844 By 1860 we were known as s6 junction and the population grew to about 500 Which was a quarter of the town's total of about 2000 By the 1890s many Vermont villages and cities were being created to provide more services and relieve Tax burdens on those not living in the populated areas s6 junction was one of these new chartered municipalities Tonight you will meet some amazing people from that time I'll now turn it over to Daniel make Homer to start the meeting Welcome everyone by my watch Not my not my cell phone it is it is 2 p.m. On Saturday after the afternoon of March 4th 1893 we meet to see if you will vote to first Accept the act to incorporate the village of s6 junction approved by the legislature of the state of Vermont November 15 1892 in accordance with the provisions of said act Second if said act should be accepted to elect a president of the village for trustees a clerk treasurer collector three auditors a chief engineer a first assistant engineer and a second assistant engineer as Provided by said act Third to do any other proper and necessary business I am one of the three persons named in the act to call this meeting to order our first order of business will be to elect a moderator and a clerk Daniel make Homer was a long time village resident and leading citizen His general store right next to the railroad tracks and village cemetery stood for over 100 years where the gas station is now Daniel founded and taught Sunday school at the congregational church for 50 years He lived in a large house house, which stood where the priority building now is on Lincoln Street During the Civil War he served as town select man and with state representative in 1863 to 1864 During the heated local debates over taxes to support the war effort He was the first village moderator taking the job at age 65 It is rumored that he was not quite as tolerant of excess debate and long meetings as is the current village and town moderator This gentleman on the corner here is Fred Sawyer. He was the first elected village clerk Fred was the village undertaker and ran a cockery Crockery and dry good store out of his house, which still stands on Main Street Right next to the old Baptist Church on the corner of Grove Street He later moved the business to the Brown Hill block after 1894 and then followed his son Wilbur to California Wilbur was the young photographer who left us so many old photos of the village around 1900 Fred is buried with his wife Francis acts of dates in the village cemetery Do I have a motion to improve approve the act to incorporate? J. W. Trew was an amazing man an inventor He designed and manufactured water wheels on the river and later made and marketed by mail order Millstone picks for giant grinding stones He lived at 61 Park Street The house is still standing and is buried in And he is buried in the village cemetery with his family One of his iron water wheels is preserved in a museum in Watertown, New York Honorable Marcellus Bingham Will you read the entire 20-page act of the Vermont legislature? Don't worry. We're not reading it tonight, but they did Marcellus Bingham was a longtime village attorney and became village president after only one year serving as trustee Bingham was a village laurelist and is credited with writing a witty poem rebuttal to the scathing poem Lay of the Lost Traveler by Edward Phelps of Burlington in the 1880s Which attacked the inefficiency of the railroad and contain the famous line? And I hope and how their souls may dwell who first invented as exjunction Bingham proceeded the more famous Alan Martin longtime village attorney and town clerk Hey, but I'm supposed to read the act Not now mr. Bingham will now distribute ballots the box will be held open for 30 minutes Mr.. Bingham mr. Humphrey and mr. Nichols will act as tellers The results of the vote was affirmative of 140 votes there were 102 yes 38 no to create the village of sx junction the following officers were then President William Fletcher William ran a slaughterhouse off Mansfield Ave Excessed by a dirt road which later became Pleasant Street He was a state representative to the legislature for Essex in 1884 and 5 and after being village president for just a year Served later as first engineer or fire chief in 1897 his son Curtis also served as a trustee and state rep both are buried in the village cemetery First trustee Marcellus Bingham when Bingham became president later The trustees often met in his office on the new Brown L block on Main Street built in 1894 after disastrous fire in 1893 not now mr. Bingham You know women had been allowed to vote and run for office, then we might have avoided some of those early problems The second elected trustee was Edward M. Whitcomb who was related to both Lorenzo and Arastus Whitcomb Founders of the great farm, which is the last active farm in the village today Edward also farmed and his son Edward was a World War one veteran The Whitcomb's have a long history of prominence in the village and town of town affairs For those who don't know this is my father-in-law. So I'm super excited to say this first sentence This crusty old vermonter Is David J. Hunter third elected trustee? First the old vermonter David moved to Essex from Milton to run a wallpaper Manufacturing by the river after the Civil War with his brother-in-law William Shiland They purchased the old dam Renamed it the Hunter Shiland dam above the current Green Mountain Power Dam The business was very successful, but destroyed by fire just one year after David became a trustee in 1894 there were lots of fires back then He lived at 57 Park Street in the house that recently burned down and is now rebuilt as the habitat for humanity house His son Claude appears in a photo from around 1900 in front of the old house. We were lucky to find an actor tonight who almost has his firsthand recollections of the first village meeting I'm honored to be here tonight to introduce the last trustee The fourth elected trustee may be the least known and the most interesting of all Tory Sibley was born in Westford and as a young man enlisted in the 13th Vermont regiment company a As liquid habit his regates our little action Until they received orders on July 1st 1863 to march from the River Camp to in Virginia to get us back Pennsylvania They arrived on the second day of the great battle and were immediately sent to defend Cemetery Ridge and July 3rd company a watched Pickett's charge Approach and what became the decisive movement of the Civil War? Sibley's company was ordered by Vermont general George standard in Captain John Lonaghan of Burlington to flank the enemy or close the hinge of the gate which Subjected the rebels to fire from both above in the side Tory Sibley's Tim told me somebody turned pages for me Company a was the tip of the spear and he survived Almost unimaginable fury of the decisive battle Sibley survived and lived in Boston for 23 years after the war employed in various businesses in 1881 he returned to Vermont farmed an S extraction for two years had a hardware business for four years Which sadly burned in the Brunel fire shortly after he became a trustee? He then farmed until 1900 and retired. He also served the village as village president in 1897 He is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Burlington not far from Easton Allen Then after the first board of trustees was named other offices were filled a treasurer tax collector auditors and engineers or firemen Is there any other business before we adjourn? I hope we'll meet soon to do something about the condition of our streets We have a big problem and also we need the trolley out here The trustees met again on May 2nd and elected a superintendent of streets. Mr. Steven Decatur teach out Who's great-grandson and great? Daughter may be here with us tonight one of which is my neighbor John Booth in Maryland, Vincent He was paid 20 cents an hour for his service to fix the roads in 1895 the village did vote to extend the electric trolley line to Essex Junction from Fort Ethan Allen in Burlington It ran from the train station to Burlington and back for over 30 years. I Certainly hope we'll do something soon to get a better water supply. What will happen in case of a major fire in the village Would you all like to hear more about my ideas on where we can get water? No, mr. Bingham not right now On November 5th 1893 disaster struck a major fire destroyed three buildings on Main Street a Week later the new trustees met to take action to provide a better supply of water for protection against fire and other purposes On November 25th They met again and appointed a five-person committee to find water But it wasn't until 19 years later that the Saxon Hill Reservoir was tapped for a new village water supply in 1894 the current Brown L block replaced the three wood frame buildings destroyed by fire We need to do something about the hotel Too many owners that I'm hearing a lot of complaints The Folsom house later the central house located across from the train station where the parking lot is now Was the other big issue in 1893? Because alcohol was served the trustees were authorized to license the proprietors There was significant opposition to allowing a mrs. A. R. Fisher to operate the hotel Including a citizen petition to the trustees they met three times on the issue and denied Mrs. Fisher a license we don't know the details But shortly thereafter Walter v. Johnson bought the hotel and ran it as the Johnson house until November 1912 When this beautiful village landmark was also Destroyed by fire Was mrs. Fisher discriminated against because she was a woman or were there legitimate reasons for these gentlemen to deny her a License it wasn't recorded in the minutes and we don't know But I have my suspicions Well, I need to get home and butcher some lambs and pigs But don't forget the donation. We'll need to vote on that to make it official a Local group called the international order of the king's daughters and king's sons Disbanded in 1893 and gave their remaining assets $130 to the new village the gift was much appreciated the organization was a non-denominational Christian philanthropic group which still exists and was active in Vermont until 2009 Well, what else can happen this year before we've for our first annual meeting? Report for next year, and I don't remember the people's names who came that year Sadly just six months after being elected the village trust Treasurer Edgar a beach died on December 9th His story is well worth telling Edgar beach was the first very first to be volunteered to enlist in the Civil War from all of Essex For this he received a hundred dollars bounty from Byron Stevens son of our founder founding father Abram Stevens He answered President Lincoln's calling on May 1861 was discharged on August 15 But Edgar re-enlisted a year later and served until the end of the war in June 1865 On October 27th 1864 Edgar was shot in the right thigh at the Battle of Boyden Plank Road in Virginia He lay in the battlefield without cover for of any kind without anything to eat and without having his wound Dressed for five days His sufferings were great for during the first night it rained very hard Charactered by rebel forces. He was taken to the notorious Libby Prison Hospital in Richmond But he survived and was paroled in February 1865 After the war beach returned home and went in business a store dealing in men's youths and boys Fine clothing hats umbrellas and other goods which he advertised locally He lived on Elm Street and also served in the legislature in 1872 and 1873 Upon his death his son Archie Beach took his position as treasurer and sadly Archie also died shortly thereafter in 1895 We thank you Edgar a beach for service to your village your town state and country And now declare this meeting adjourned as Village clerk Fred Sawyer adjourned the meeting We hope you have enjoyed this look into our past and meeting some of the extraordinary folks who stepped up to serve Since 1900 our village population has grown from 1,141 to over 10,000 people then as now as exjunction was a great place to live work and play Thank you Ed von Cytus Carl Houghton and Gray Lori Houghton Steve Yustis George Tyler Andrew Brown Tim German Evan Teach and Dan Karen and thanks to all of you for coming and thank you for listening we'll get everybody to Get their seeds up in the front here and We have a couple singers that are just going to sing for us. They can come down while we're waiting while we're getting settled here and The first thing we're going to do is stand and recite the Pledge of the Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands One nation under God in the visible Liberty and justice for all You can remain standing for the national anthem You're going to start off by introducing village president George Tyler who will introduce other members of the head table I just realized that my my character's part in the play was Bill the butcher. There must have been his nickname Anyone anyone remember that movie with five points five corners. I thought this was kind of an irony there So starting over to my right Marianne Reardon are recording Secretary Lauren Morissau and It's my pleasure to introduce to everybody Evan teach our new municipal manager a unified manager for Essex town and Essex Junction and Evan Evan is going to be Spending some time at the nest when is that Evan I'm told it's next Friday next Friday and if anybody has any ideas about how things should be run around here as As opposed to how they are run If you want to go and he has to listen to you We can't get away if you really want to get under his skin You're welcome make an appointment for him and you can go and talk to Evan and you're going to be doing it some Other times too. I will try to do it throughout the year and it is now my great pleasure to present the board of trustees You can see we've come a long way since 1893 Andrew Brown Laurie Houghton Dan Karen and vice president Elaine Sopjack And I'll turn it back over to Steve. Oh, yeah, I should recognize. I think we have a cup Do we have state represent? I know we have a state representative Dylan John Batista here Dylan And I'm not sure who else is here Any other state reps here? Well, Laurie is the state representative. I Forget that's that's one of the other jobs. She does And I also wanted to mention very quickly on article for when we get to it tonight We're going to have a couple of presentations and then I'm going to do a very brief update on Consolidation with the village in the town. So you if you want to stay for that that we'll be very also We have some select board members with us tonight. I'm I can't see I've got my reading glasses on We got Max Levy chair Essex Town select board Irene. Do I see you up there? Irene renter up there. Is that Andy? Hi, Andy. Good to see you And play oh Mike Plagueman wait a second and Mike are and I'm sorry Mike And yes, and a Essex Junction resident to it could take great to see you Mike. Thanks. All right. Thank you George So I'm going to start by going over the usual reading of the rules of annual meeting Robert's rules is the basic rules of order for this meeting except for where Vermont law takes precedence This body cannot change state law, but can change Robert's rules with two-thirds vote if desired All motions remarks and discussions should be addressed to me Please stand up wait for the microphone Then give your name and speak in a loud voice so that your comments may be heard by everyone an Article wants to be moved seconded and restated by me before it is under consideration and debate on an article may begin Articles may be amended and amendments amended once amendments must be germane a Division of the house can be requested by the moderator or one voter before or after a voice vote State law also allows seven people to request a paper ballot Unless we've made other arrangements at the beginning of the meeting Debate may be cut off by a motion and two-thirds vote by calling the question the person making this motion Must have the floor at the microphone, which is generously being provided right now Reconsideration of an article is allowed by state law until we reach a point in the meeting where another article is under consideration This means if you have voted down an article a motion can be made to reopen consideration of this article by a person on the prevailing side However, once I have placed another article before you no more action be can taken regarding the article at this meeting State law prohibits consideration of articles that have not been warned. This means you cannot take binding action during article for other business My role as moderator is to help you accomplish the business you intend to do Please raise your hand and ask questions If you don't understand what is happening if you think what is happening is wrong Or if you want to do something but don't know how to proceed technically Please tell me if I'm ruling improperly Above all, please be civil and respect your neighbor's opinions. I Would like to remind people who are not registered to vote that they can't and should be in the back of the auditorium All right, and if also if there's no objection will allow Village employees who are not living in a sextunction to speak at the meeting as needed to answer technical questions All right, so here we are Ready to ready to go with the meat of the agenda Article one shall the voters act upon the report of the auditor Do I have a motion for article one? Joanne Moved a second Chuck Berry. It's a second. It's Mary Joe. Excuse me All right, article one has been moved and seconded and does anybody have any discussion for that and Ray Joe you may start if you'd like since you moved the Motion so it's any questions the report of the auditor is the book Any questions by anyone on that? Okay It's an easy one Seeing none. I'll call for a vote on article one. I'm going to ask for yeas and nays All those in favor of article one signify by saying aye Opposed nay Article one passes unanimously as we go on to article two Shall the voters approve an annual general fund budget in the amount of four million 954,000 687 dollars for fiscal year July 1 2018 to June 30 2019 three million 423,606 Dollars of which is to be levied in taxes against the Village Grand List. Do we have a motion? Chuck Berry again. Is there a second to the motion? Mike legman Okay, and I believe Chuck did you have something very quick you needed to say the amount on the general fund here says just for clarity the the budget is four million nine hundred and fifty four thousand six eighty seven Dollars, and then the amount for taxes is three million four hundred twenty three thousand six hundred and six dollars Okay, okay George is George is going to give a presentation on it, and I think he can address that in his presentation On the budget like we usually do each year Go ahead George and before I begin I just want to also recognize one other really important person who has done yeoman work for this Entire community, and that's Greg Morgan the chair of the Essex Economic Commission a great I think what I want I'll get right into the I think maybe what I'm Understanding about this Chuck is that where the the budget is for four million nine hundred and fifty four thousand dollars But we're raising we're seeking to raise three million four hundred twenty three thousand dollars in taxes And the reason is that if you recall a couple of years ago two years ago We transferred the cost of the village public works department the street department into the town general fund budget and so Even though it's we're kind of in a hybrid situation right now where the village public works department is still the village public works Department still our employees and our equipment and our property, but it's a shared cost now with the town so the cost of the the Recreate the I'm sorry the village Street department which is over a million dollars gets shifted into the town general fund and that is a cost That's met by the entire community. It's shared for the whole community. Does that clear it up? Chuck Okay, thanks, and I'll get into a little bit more of that in a second I very quickly go through this and again appreciate you're coming here tonight So slide one let's go right there So what I see here is this the total amount that we are proposing is four point six million And then we also have three hundred seventeen thousand dollars in debt service And then village finances are divided into two big chunks We have the general fund which we is money we raise from property taxes And we spend on municipal services like the fire department administration planning and zoning library and so forth And then the other piece because we own the wastewater treatment plant And it's a shared cost with two other communities Essex town in Williston We we sort of we we separate that out as a separate fund called the enterprise fund and the three components of that But because that is money that is under that that's a facility and money that comes through the village We list that as a separate fund And money for the wastewater and sewer is paid by your water bills These are our proposed capital expenditures We have capital funds that are ongoing funds. They're basically like bank accounts We put money into them every year every year we take money out of them to pay for things But the money going in every year isn't always the same as the money coming out We put money in it's kind of like socking money away for anticipated large capital expenditures So the number one is the top one is capital reserve. Those are street projects Sidewalk large. We have a bridge repair that we're doing on on Main Street the rest are Next one is rolling stock recreation parks. Sorry for the misspelling. It's not recreation. It's recreation And again, we acquired the village recreation department when the school With the school merger a year ago and so the village recreation department is now part of our general fund budget and so their capital costs are not our capital costs and The other two one we have a wastewater treatment fund a capital cost and a sanitation capital cost And if I'm going too fast and I can clear anything just raise your hand real quick So the overall budget increase The overall budget increase operating is 135,000 and we are also have $2,717 in debt The contributing factors for the increase number one as usual is salaries salary increases This year, however, we are increasing Salaries for our volunteer fire department. The reason is that we are trying to Align the salary training Internal policies of the village s ex-junction lined fire department with the town fire department We don't we don't have an immediate plan for consolidation of the fire departments But because we have one administration now We are in a sort of an ongoing project to try to align some of our policies and procedures and Make various departments as close to each other as possible when it's possible New shared services. These are shared services that we are sharing with the town The town has created saw the need to create two new positions one in information technology and another one in employee benefits and If and so we are paying because those people will be doing those staff will be doing some work for the village We are sharing some of that cost Capital contributions we're increasing the amount We feel that we really need to catch up more with capital expenditures and street repair sidewalk repair so we're putting a little bit more money in this year than we did previous year and health insurance and matching grants also we are having a put more money in for another another An arts event that we held last summer and we thought it was very successful called steamfest And we're going to do it again this year This is the tax appropriation this gets to the amount of money that we are raising in gent in property taxes and we see that the the Bottom line is is that on the average village home price at two hundred and eighty thousand dollars The total impact of the property tax increases that we're proposing with tonight's budget are thirty dollars and eighty cents Over last year These are some of the challenges For the general fund our challenge was to maintain services while working again as I said toward more shared services and alignment of the fire departments Recognize additional ways to combine services with the town again one of the big ways We have done it is to have a shared manager, which we Did this year with the with the town we have shared finance director shared clerk And other shared administrative costs, so we anticipate doing more of that And we'll try to keep you up to date, but so far it seems to be working And we are also we won't need to try to contribute more find other ways for Increasing how much money we are contributing to our capital budget for keeping up with infrastructure repair costs these are some of the Efficiencies that we have worked on and will continue to work on as I said combining public works We haven't we've combined the public works budget, so it's a shared So we now have public works in the village and the town is shared equitably by everybody in the in the community of Essex in the town of Essex And but we as I said the village public works department is still part of the village We have an MOU in force with the town and an understanding that that is that is allowing that to happen And this year the select board in the town meeting some of you may have been there they passed the the The entire general fund budget for the town which included the village public works department We have combined finance and TGA is our initiative to potentially Consolidate the planning and community development offices of the village in the town into one These are some of the big capital projects that we have in mind for this year We have a railroad Avenue water line replacement the water the entire street is probably going to have to be dug up to replace the water line We're going to try to align that with some railroad station improvements that Amtrak is going to be performing this year We were doing a facilities assessment in conjunction with the town to look at all of our our public works facilities And try to get some understanding of where we should go both the villages and the towns public works facilities are old So we want to approach perhaps renovating them in a in a reasonable way and probably in a collaborative way West Street and West Street intersection Again, that just needs some more work and the Crescent connector one million seven hundred ninety five thousand dollars But that is federal and state highway dollars. That's not money. That's coming From the village that's coming. That's money. That's coming from the state Ultimately from the federal government going through the village and then to pay for that project And we hope that's going to go forward this year The rolling stock budget as you can see we have a vector truck sidewalk plow Two more pickup trucks and trailer mounted boom lift. I don't know what that is but I'm we do need one and That's your attention and fire department pickup truck You know what that is Okay I this was I I'm getting near the end. This is a this is an important Slight this is an important pie here this this graphic because it shows you where most of your property taxes go Is if you don't know already but if most of your property taxes go to school And we have a consolidated school district. So hopefully That consolidation is going to is going to slow down some of the increases that we've seen the orange slice is The slice we still pay to the town for the town municipal services and the blue slice is the remainder of what's left for is s extension and If you had looked at this a few years ago, you would have seen another slice Which was the village recreation department as I said when we consolidated school districts We took over the rec department So the villages slice of this pie which was getting smaller and smaller all of a sudden got bigger again So we got to work on pushing it down But this slice also sort of represents in my mind Outstanding Challenge to consolidation and shared services with the town. This is something that we jointly hopefully will be working on over the over the next few years and I'm very quickly going to go over this is a wastewater plant See these are some of the challenges for the wastewater plant I won't I won't read them all but I think the top one we have is wastewater treatment facility is challenged by state Regulations and this is where this is this is actually kind of serious stuff and this is where our state representatives are so key We want to we we have a very very high quality waste water treatment plant. We do an excellent job We've won awards. We have an outstanding staff, but every year we are challenged to reduce in even further The phosphorus phosphate burden going that we're discharging tighter and tighter regulations Increase the cost of operating that plant and that that cost gets passed on to you with your water rates And so this is going to be an ongoing challenge one of the long-term challenges that we're also hearing Is that we may be Eventually getting mandates to start cleaning up chloride from a road salt that slowly makes its way into the ground water And again another big challenge and I would also say that state stormwater regulations We are ahead of the curve in Essex and Essex Junction. We have a stormwater committee We are out in front in terms of getting grants and getting getting our permits lined up But again, it's going to be an ongoing challenge for this community for the entire community in the years ahead These just show our water rates What the factors that go into that we take into account when we determine water and sewer rates? And I won't ask you to read the entire thing and again These are enterprise funds. These are the capital expenditures for the wastewater treatment plants sewer lines and water delivery system in the Village And I think it's I don't want to say self-explanatory, but this shows you how we're actually spending the money Thank you all right. Thank you George So Chuck you moved the article to so you're allowed to be the first to speak to it if you have any questions Okay, so anybody else That would like to speak just to come down to one of the two mics Please please remember to state your name. My name is Abigail Taikaki and I wanted to Talk a little bit about steamfest and the incredible event that was put on last year By the leaders of steamfest I know that this year's theme is the art of possibility and I thought that last year's event and this year's event I'm sure will also remind us all what an incredible Community that the Village of Essex Junction is and that we have a reputation of being a place for innovation and forward thinking Having to solicit sponsors and businesses and I do Appreciate all the philanthropic efforts of our local businesses and I think it's important to have their buy-in But I know that working in a volunteer capacity to put on these big events It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of patience to solicit additional donations I know that the steamfest organizers are hoping to get another $10,000 to put on this year's event and make it even more magical and awesome than last year Mr. Moderator, I was hoping you could help me generate a discussion around whether we could increase the village's Contribution to steamfest to add another $10,000 and remove that burden of having to get additional funding from local businesses Sure, the way we would do that is you would make a motion to amend article 2 to raise the Total amounts of the budget and the amount raised by taxes by 10,000 So you would have make a move move an amendment in that I would like to move to amend the general funds to include an additional $10,000 Okay, for steamfest. Yep. You okay and just to be clear before I ask for a second You can your motion is for the total money and we know that that's kind of where you want it to go But you can't say specifically that that's why I can't allocate it. That's okay Everyone always thinks that so that's fine. So do we have a second for that motion? anybody Greg Morgan is a second. Okay, so that means we can discuss that As an amendment so the discussion is only on adding $10,000 to the budget for the idea of it being for steamfest and And you get to be the first person to speak to it And I just I had is there a particular line item in the budget for steamfest already that you can point people to Just to make it easier If you can't find it, that's fine. I just sometimes it's easier people see Page 5 7 economic development what line line 148 148 so we can see for everyone in the audience the proposed budget is 8,280 to start so okay. Is there anything else you'd like to say on the topic? I Just think that steamfest is Just like train hop and the farmers market part of what makes the village of us junction a really special place to be and it's also just sort of Has an impact on Reminding the state that we're the innovation Center of Vermont. Thank you. All right who else would like to speak to the amendment on the floor Go ahead Greg So I'll I'll expand on that just a little my name is Greg Morgan. I live on Grove Street And I chair the economic development Commission But I want to be careful because my commission always says make sure you don't speak for us if but but our commission is supportive of this event and I would go a little farther than Abby did. I Mean what's happening in five quarters now is quite significant There are three centers of innovation where just a year ago there was only one there's something called Accelerate Essex, which is a house you may have seen the sign. It's Just next to the fire station and that's a co-working space where people can Bring their businesses or their ideas and get fairly inexpensive space to develop those ideas and help grow Enterprise in Essex, but what's spun out of steamfest or two other spaces one is over on the quilt shop It was started by the hub for Women in business in Essex and that's a place where as I understand it five artists at least five artists but others have space to do their craft and and That is another co-working space. So that's two the third one is just launched a Kickstarter and raised $6,000 Today they they finished it out and it's called words and pictures and as I understand this it's a place where you can self-publish and With membership you get a membership you pay to be in this space. It's above martins and You can also use printing capabilities there So what we're seeing is the emergence of this center of innovation not just Because we want to be an innovative community, but there are innovators and people building spaces and bang to be here This is terrific. I I'm blown away by what's happened. So and a lot of it came out of steamfest. I'm sorry to go on so long but steamfest sort of prompted the other two the last two spaces to be there and I think it's a Who knows where it's gonna go, but I think it's a great investment. So that's my sense. Thank you Part of our economy. All right. Thank you Greg. Anybody else like to speak to the motion Okay, got another speaker here It's either one can be polite So I'm Karen Dole and sugar tree Lane and I guess I have a question regarding it of curious what the total budget is for steamfest and What the 10,000 is needed for kind of looking at it at the bigger picture and knowing what that 10,000 would be how it would be contributed towards it and Yeah, how that would fit in how would make a difference Okay. Thank you. And then hopefully that can get answered in a minute here if I want to get all the People to talk first and then maybe Abby can come back after everyone's had their chance to ask their question and answer that Go ahead Correct 148 Community events And it was 35 82 way was 4,000 Budget in 18, I guess I'm trying to figure out exactly what we're asking for here 17 actual is We're asking for an additional 10,000 on top of the That that Okay, yeah, the question we're certainly asked adding 10 and Village manager can answer a couple of your questions as I understand that their budget with the village is 4,000 and they are asking for an additional 10 to 4 well we could put it But they're asking for an additional 10. Okay. Thank you. It's anyone else that hasn't spoken yet want to speak to this Okay Abby do you happen to have the answer to the question on what the 10,000 would be used for I Don't have specific Information about the budget but from what I do know what I've learned from talking to the steamfest organizers or so far is that Event essentially events such as steamfest are not inexpensive to produce and the funding would go to things like advertising signage, but also There's permitting stages that have to be erected audio and visual equipment it sort of provides the funding to meet the needs of the desires of what the The people involved in steamfest want to to make happen. There's also important things like I'm providing like t-shirts that help people identify the volunteers involved that can give information And I'm sure there are a million other things that go in their budget, but I don't have that detailed information. Okay. Thank you for that Go right ahead John Warmer a little sugar tree Lane. Do you know what their existing budget is? Is ten thousand dollars Small fraction or is it going to double their budget or even more? Okay Does anyone know the answer to that question? Perfect Thank you. It's tough when it's not being run by the head of the table Sounds like my time of lurking quietly in the background is over So I'm Julie Miller Johnson, I'm a village resident and I Have been the managing director of steamfest last year and I'm doing it again this year and I will say I was a little unprepared for This level of attention So steamfest last year we had a bootstrap budget of about $9,000 which was Which covered the cost of any marketing materials we had any We Spent that money on advertising promotions and Printing really like we didn't pay for anything else. We didn't pay for our musicians. We didn't pay for Anything our artists paid us to actually be in this event So it was a really bootstrap type shoestring thing this year We would like to be able to actually rent a couple of tents so that our Music stages can be covered in case we have inclement weather last year. We were very lucky to have sunny skies So that would increase our budget right there by probably $6,000 for tents We would like to be able to have the money to pay for Some of our musicians because it's hard to ask people to play music on a Friday night for free so that and then a much more significant advertising and Signage budget we had very we had literally Handmade signs for it and we would like to be able to purchase like legitimate signage so we're our budget is Intended to take this event from sort of a shoestring operation to Sort of the next level of a little more professional not professional but a little more polished Artistic creative event All right. Thank you very much Well, you can make a statement to everybody Julie before you go too too far If I remember correctly wasn't there also a fairly significant amount of the budget that went to Being able to have the Maker Faire itself like in the the the maker component of it Yet last year we did give a significant portion of our budget to make a fair I think well one-third of the budget All right, does anybody else want to make any comments on the motion on the floor? Yes, go ahead. So I just want to be clear that My original request to the village was for $4,000. I just know that there's there's no line item I don't think in the budget. So I just want to be clear people aren't thinking that we I Don't know. I just want to be clear. I originally asked was for all right. Thank you All right, is anybody else that hasn't talked yet want to say anything It'd be best if you could go to the mic If only we had I'll see it's only This is a question directed. I guess to someone who can answer it, which is What other events is the village putting money into village-wide events? Okay, and also could you state your name? Oh, I'm Andy Thank you Do you want to answer that George? I can't Andy we put on the block party We put on it's some some of these are shared with the wreck village recreation department But the block party is something that's completely village and I think correct me if I'm wrong Lauren I think we are still contributing to the Train hop and tree lighting And do we and I think we also contribute to the a lot to the Memorial Day Parade Yeah, and the farmers market which is coming back this year and the farmers market that I leave something out guys Yeah, I don't I don't want to over complicate things But is it possible to get a sense of what amounts are contributed to each of those events? Just to get a relative sense, but the total is line 148 right, but I'm just curious. Oh, okay. Sorry I Couldn't I would love to give it is accounted for I can guarantee you that I can't tell you exactly what the breakdown Is right from here. I don't know Lauren. Can you do that? Yeah, so the block party is on line with 152 and That's seven thousand, but we get to about fifteen hundred to two thousand and contributions for that the other amount that is in the Community events and programs that is for the train hop. So it's about three four thousand two hundred eighty The Memorial Day Parade I think that we don't pay much for that because we get reimbursed from Probably works does a lot of the work and then we get the Lions Club to help pay for the tents Farmers market we do contribute for the director and that's about well It's four thousand nine hundred and fifty in this budget Thank you very much. Yeah, I just wanted to get a sense of relative. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your comments Anybody else that has question Yeah, you may go ahead Karen Dolan again This has been helpful to get some more of this information and it still is confusing for me, I guess because I think At least I speak for myself in support of the event it took my kids last year and really enjoyed the event but I think for me the question is more of a process piece of We're hearing that the original across was four thousand now. It's ten thousand And it's also making me wonder Or for any event can we just come and ask for this and what does that mean? so it's just a little confusing for me and wondering If there is a process that folks usually go forward to submit this and Because it just seems like we could have five more events coming up after this being brought up So like to look at the big picture. Okay. Thanks, George. We'll answer that question for you though on the process on the process, let me just tell you the last year what happened is Julie came to us and and Proposed the steamfest and described it And then she came back and I don't know how many times you came back Julie But she was she was requested she requested to have her To put in a question on the village trustees agenda And she went to see the village manager and the village manager put her on our agenda For an upcoming meeting so that we could warn it We could tell warn people who might be interested and explained to people so the public could see what was happening And I think she came to at least two or three times and then we we agreed on an amount And at that point then she had to also work with the village manager and staff to make sure that all the Insurances and permits and all that sort of thing were in line. So that that would be the process And not that that clears it up And but usually these events that we're talking about I have some kind of a history like that It starts with seeing the village manager Just to answer your your kind of follow-on question about anyone in the meeting is allowed to you know move the budget up down whatever and if you Essentially convinced the whole bot of enough people in the room that it's a good idea then that yes, it can happen All right Anybody else that hasn't spoken yet Okay, go ahead Abby. I Just wanted to clarify To further answer your very legitimate question Karen that I am not asking this making this request on behalf of steamfest Nor did they ask me to I They follow the proper channels and their official ask was for 4,000 I'm just as a resident of the village And a fan of the event asking if we could support them with an additional $10,000 because I think it's a really cool event That could only get cooler That said I you know the vote is the vote and I love you all anyway Thank you Okay, theoretically you're supposed to be at the microphone if you'd like to Well because we don't want people calling from the back of the room and identify yourself, please Bob Pruto I'd like to move the question. All right, we have a motion to Call the question which means that we're not going to talk about it anymore if passed. We're not going to talk about anymore just vote Do we have a second for that motion? Can't remember what's your name again John Wurmer All right, so we have a motion to second so voting Yes, means we're going to stop talking. No means we're going to allow more discussion All right, all those in favor of calling the question signify by saying I oppose nay Question is called All right, so that means we are going We just got to take my notes So we have an amendment on the floor the amendment is to add to for article 2 to add $10,000 to both the general fund budget and the amount to raise in taxes by ten thousand dollars each and We're going to vote on that so voting yes means you're in favor of adding the ten thousand no means you want the budget as is Any questions? All right, all those in favor of the amendment signify by saying I Oppose nay Nays appear to have it the nays do have it The amendment to article 2 fails Okay, so that takes us back to article 2 as written In same amounts, and I know you've been waiting very patiently to talk about something besides the amendment so please go ahead You may I Will look forward to that I still have not lived it in the other one was set up correctly Steve Greg Pearl Street First I know the Trustees put a lot of time into these budgets, and I want to say thank you, but I'm up here because I have a question The reference material for this inquiry is on page 31 32 54 and 56 so this goes back to the discussion where we bought the Park Street school building for a dollar last year and The question by the fellow named Steve Greg. Oh, that's me Asked how much will it cost us to run this building? We were told that there's some rent pay And there's a net cost of nine thousand dollars. I Asked if we had that in the budget. They said sure we'll find it In noting that we are looking that we're gonna be over spent on the Estimated expenditures for FY 18 on the total budget I would now like to refer to the Lincoln Hall slash Park Street school budget on page 56 Do you have a line item? It's the totals that I'm most concerned with okay So the proposed budget for FY 18 as shown 50,874 our estimated expenditures will be 58,435 For everybody who didn't do the math 7,561 over which is great. They controlled the cost of that nine thousand dollars But if you really break down these expenditures that are broken out for the Park Street school that are On line items one sixteen one fifteen There's several of them here 104 if you really go break it out you can see the the differences and that along with the additional overages About two thousand dollars in line item one oh six which is maintenance buildings and grounds you come to an operating cost of 9,806 which was an excellent estimate from last year's meeting now We are over this year the cost of operating building and go up Who knows two and a half percent for next year, but we can We still have a proposed budget for next year of fifty thousand nine twenty seven so we do a bunch of math and What it comes out to is I'm proposing Because I don't want to raise my taxes just like anybody else, but I want to have an appropriately funded budget, so I'm proposing to The Lincoln Hall Park School Budget, I know I can I propose a specific line item? No, you may not but you can always you can assert your interest certainly of 8,969 dollars That is about a two and a half percent increase over this year's projected cost Okay Which isn't That's an increase to the proposed General fund in order to appropriately fund the continued operation of this building that we bought for a dollar So are you well hang on so are you gonna? Could you please phrase that in the form of a motion? I move it to increase the general fund? by 8,969 dollars it with the intent or interest of Adding that funding to our operating costs of the Park Street school building, okay? So let me repeat that so the motion is to add 8,969 dollars to the general fund budget and taxes With the idea that it would be moving in in that area of the Lincoln Hall Park Street budget Is there a second to that motion? Abbey made a second All right, you already talked to it. Certainly. Is there anyone that wants to comment on this and Do you want to say anything about the why the numbers are what they are George? I really can't I I would Defer to either not enough Lauren if you can speak to it. I mean I think I can yes So we decided to put the Park Street school in with Lincoln Hall because it made sense because it was a building that we're supporting now the things that were in Lincoln Hall Last year some of them have gone down one of them was liability insurance We're anticipating less maintenance on that building in particular We don't have any capital outlay in Projects for Lincoln Hall next year and so even after we added the Park Street school into it It we it remained flat Does that make sense? So you're saying the the biggest Reason for the the flat budget is that there's no capital outlay. There's no capital outlay which was 5,500 Line number 117 The liability and property insurance Line 107 right is going down about a thousand Let's see Maintenance buildings and grounds we estimated that that would go down about five hundred So that there are things that dropped in the Lincoln Hall budget that allowed us to put the Park Street school Costs in there without an increase What level are we funding the Park Street school? What it needs Okay, so we we gave some rough numbers of where things were reductions at Lincoln Hall and I was just inquiring if those numbers are Do they come out to the nine thousand dollars that it seems it takes consistently to run Park Street school? I just haven't done all that. Sure. I believe the answer is we're budgeting the same amount Okay, all right Allison you had a question or a question common Alison Warmer Lincoln Street, I just want to say that a budget is a guesstimation of how the money is going to be spent It's not it's not a checking account with a limited amount of money in it And then if it looks like we're going to need more we have to Borrow or something like that and if you look at number ten on the green sheet It talks about the fund balance balance that the village has and we have 458 thousand dollars Which is nine point five percent of the budget. So anyway, we have money To draw from if Park Street needs more work than is in the budget Thank you Anybody else go ahead Tim Thanks, Tim German Sikmar Lane This one strikes a nerve with me because about 20 years ago I was on the Park Street School Committee and it was the result of that effort that got us to put the money in to preserve this Village treasure. It is the oldest Longest-serving school in the state Continually in educational use and it really is a beautiful old building that said I Don't support putting more money into it for the reasons that have been given and it I'm harking back to the last amendment to which I also think is a great event but I'm not a great fan of adding monies in Or taking them out from what we have great trustees. They're elected. They work really hard for us same thing with a select board and I Think we need to respect what they've done and they have to measure all these different costs They know the ins and outs against each other particularly the the Community service type events and we have so many different things all of which deserve a lot of money and deserve more money than they get But I think that's your job to do that. You do a great job at it So, you know, I wouldn't support doing more for this But I'm so happy that we're here talking about doing more for the Park Street School and our historic buildings. It's great All right. Thank you. Any other comments? All right seeing none we can move to vote on the amendment. So voting yes would mean The I'll read the amendment is to add $8969 to the general fund budget And the amount to be raised in taxes with the idea that it'd be spent on Lincoln Hall Park Street area if possible It's voting. Yes is to increase the budget. No is to leave the budget alone just like the last amendment All those in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye Opposed nay The amendment fails unanimously You don't often have that All right, so that takes us all the way back to the beginning article 2 as written Anybody have anything else they'd like to say on article 2 Richard Smith Seneca have so I know we really don't want to add money to our budget. We've gone over the sound twice But this was something that actually was requested so the fire department actually requested a budget to make sure that we aligned with the Essex town fire and to make sure that we match their wages for $4,799 That way we'd be able to actually align this year with them that budget was cut 3,000 or 33,930 $5 Which actually brought us to the 366,864 dollars. Do you have a line item so people can look like you're talking? That is gonna pop that It's gonna be the totals under the fire department me page 58 Okay, thank you The concern is to align budgets You actually have to align budgets and so at one point the town had had its budget also reduced But those funds are actually added back in for the town fire department So they'd be able to move forward at that same meeting where a couple meetings later was decided our budget would be lowered It was never added back in so the town is prepared to align budgets and the Essex junction fire department Is not prepared to align currently with the Essex town fire department. He knows talk to you Just keep going and then I'll answer. Okay So when we look at it, we are going to come up short $33,935 on meeting what we needed to to actually align our budgets this year as of July 1 I Propose or I make a motion that we add back to $3,935 to the Essex junction fire department budget So we are able to align our budget with Essex town fire to be able to provide as we talked about the alignment that we've been working towards Could you repeat could you repeat the number, please 33,935? 33935 Okay, so the motion that you made was to add 33,935 dollars to the General fund budget and the amount to be raised to taxes the idea that it go in the fire department area to align the budgets As originally proposed is there a second to that motion? Okay, Chuck in the back Chuck Berry, okay, and Evan you wanted to respond so some of that myself and Lauren will take this as I understand it The alignment was not the budgets. It is the salaries that are taken to the paid-on-call firefighters that they would both Be at I believe it's $12.50 and to deal with One of the entities gets paid for training the other one does not get paid for training And so we are trying to figure out how we would deal with that and so There was a certain amount of money that was put in back by the town that was in fact correct to be done and We looked at it and from the village standpoint, no correction was needed so Pat Shidell made a Motion to the select board to put in 13 to take $13,000 out of fund balance to pay to raise the base rate for the town firefighters to 1250 an hour on July 1st on July 1st But do none of the rest of the alignment so the rest of the alignment which was longevity pay Officers admin pay nothing else was going to be done at the July 1 And then the thought was to completely align the departments at January 1 So that was that was what was done So take a guess or I'll enlighten everybody we're the department. That's not paid for training So that's why when this goes about that's where that $33,000 comes up Our department does over 3,000 hours of annual training to maintain So those historical facts we heard earlier about all those buildings burning down Doesn't continue to happen in the modern century All right, anybody else like to thank you for for the motion anybody would like to speak to the amendment on the floor Go ahead state your name Sam Hooker Beach Street so to clarify the alignment is going to happen the budget difference is a question of timing throughout the year the 34 approximately 34,000 extra dollars Has to do with discrepancy and whether the alignment happens on July 1st or January 1st So the The pay rates of the volunteers are planned for July 1st We have many things to do between July 1st and a couple of years from now to align the departments So it's not waiting. It's just the money for the salaries Get done on July 1st and We have I'm sorry the town's Salaries get adjusted on July 1st and then there are other things within the budget that are Scheduled to occur on January 1st, but a lot of the other things of alignment occur throughout the year If that answers your question, maybe maybe we're talking past each other and it's probably that I misunderstand so Is it that if we don't spend this 34,000 extra dollars alignment will happen as of January 1st next year anyway And the 34,000 extra dollars would just make it happen sooner Like on July 1st. Is that the aim of the extra 34,000 dollars for my misunderstanding this? One second sure. Oh if we add the 33,000 dollars back and Bring the village up So that they're paying all of the training like the town does Then the town won't be fully aligned because they will not have their officers pay and their longevity pay added because those are Happening in January 1 so it would still be off kilter with the alignment The alignment will look right. We'll meet up. We'll intersect on January 1 2019 If we don't add this money in today Yes Thank you very much All right, anybody else that hasn't talked to the amendment yet. Okay, let me get this straight All right, I have a deal with the budget next week. So you're gonna have fun at me next week So I'm having fun with you now So tell me one thing first The fire department in Essex Junction does not get paid if they train. Is that true? True Essex town, however does get paid when they train. Is that true? Okay, so right now the Essex Junction boys and girls are not getting paid, right? Training, yeah, okay next question Are they getting paid the same rate? No Okay, so the town is getting paid of lower rate the town's getting paid a lower rate and When Junction firefighters go to a fire car they get a two-hour minimum and the town gets a one-hour minimum So those are other differences. Okay, so Those differences are you're telling me all the all the funding game differences are going to be on par Starting January 1st. That's the administrative rates. That's the training rates and the whole okay So what is the cost to get the paid training for the gals and the guys that save our houses when it's a little too hot? Like burning down The 33,000 the 33,000. Yeah, okay. So in other words we can have that alignment Portion and happen starting January 1st July 1st, okay, and then there will be other alignment pieces That'll be ratcheted between both entities starting January 1st On both sides. I'm assuming is this correct Okay, so everybody then so if we add 33 now our guys and gals who protect our houses from burning down Will be on par With their Essex town compatriots, correct No, they'll be above they'll be above but the other guys catch up on January 1st So that so in other words sometime at some point somebody should have said something last month, okay to get everybody on par So quite frankly, I'd like to see them get paid I appreciate their service when they screen pass my house and screen down Pearl Street as I hear them and quite frankly My granddaughters thrilled the death every time they run down Sandhill Road because she thinks it's great. So when she comes to my house, she thinks it's really great Like why aren't they screaming down our street? Well, I don't live in the main drag, but she has so I Appreciate that you guys in the fire department because when I'm out at her house, I hear you guys a lot too So I appreciate the fire department gung-ho. Thank you very much. Let's appreciate them and vote. Yes Thank you, Diane Jan Abbott chestnut Lane. Um, I would like to go back to what Tim German said. I Think these budgets have been very carefully considered. I think that our Folks up front here have worked extremely hard on this. They're not trying to favor one department over the other they're trying to get it all set by January 1st and My recommendation is that we not try to Redo this Their hard work in the middle in the middle of the meeting and by the way, I call the question All right, so there's a motion to call the question which we went over already Is there a second to call a second to call that question? Paul Paul Bellovo All right, so voting yes means we're not going to talk about it anymore All those in favor of calling the question, please signify by saying aye oppose nay All right, the motion passes to call the question Okay so now We're just going to vote on the amendment the amendment is to add $33,935 to the general fund budget and The amount to be raised in taxes on article 2 With the idea that it goes towards the fire department budget All those in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye Oppose nay The nays appear to have it The nays do have it All right, the amendment fails We're back to article 2 as written again Go ahead Diane Diane fuchs oak Street. I'd like to call article 2. All right We have a motion to call the question for the entire article 2. Do we have a second for that? Second Jan Abbott All right, we know what we're doing now for calling questions All those in favor of calling the question signify by saying aye Opposed nay the question is called All right, so this means we're voting for article 2 as written which I will now read To avoid any confusion Shall the voters approve an annual general fund budget and the amount of four million nine hundred and fifty four thousand six hundred eighty seven dollars for fiscal year July 1 2018 to June 30 2019 three million four hundred twenty three thousand six hundred and six dollars of which is to be levied in taxes against the village grand list All those in favor of article 2 as written signify by saying aye Opposed nay The eyes appear to have it the eyes do have it article 2 passes That takes us to article 3 Shall the voters approve holding the 2019 annual meeting on Wednesday April 3 2019 to act upon any articles not involving voting by Australian ballot and to reconvene on Tuesday April 9 2019 Devote for the village officers and Transact any business involving voting by Australian ballot. Do I have a motion on article 3 Chuck Berry? Do I have a second? Mike Munson Anybody have anything to say? Seeing none All those in favor of article 3 as written signify by saying aye Opposed nay Article 3 passes by voice All right, that now takes us now. We're speeding right along here Article 4 to transact any other business that may lawfully come before the meeting And I'd like to Mention first of all that tomorrow we do we do will have Australian ballot voting on article 5 Sorry If you read it it probably says right here What's the exact date? Tuesday April 10th to elect moderator to village trustees and a Couple different library trustees and a school director. So please come out if you can For that Australian ballot voting Now I think George wanted to say a couple things first On article 4 and then we'll open that up to again any Non-binding business that people would like to bring up We have three items. I think first of first off We're going to have Dylan. Do you want to come up and read here the resolution or Lori? Dylan representative Dylan Jambotista is going to read a resolution relating to our anniversary So I should note that I'm quite horse and I'm quite sick and we've been sitting here a long time So I'm going to get right to it and I'm not squeaking with excitement to get out of here So but you know one of the things that Lori and I get to do in the state legislature is acknowledge Significant achievements and one of those is the 125th anniversary here of the village. So we have a rather lengthy resolution I'm not going to read the whole thing because again, I'm sick and I sound like I'm sick But it is notable that whereas on April 4th 2018 the annual s-exjunction village meeting will include a re-enactment of the first first such gathering held in 19 Or I'm sorry 1893 better get the date straight Now therefore be it resolved by the Senate in the House of Representatives that the General Assembly commemorates the 125th anniversary of the village of s-exjunction and be it further resolved That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to the s-extunction village clerk So with that, I'll hand this over to the village president for now. Congratulations. Thank you So I have another resolution that I am going to read because it's about neighborhoods community and parties Which I particularly like so I'm Steph Tallene who's standing here with me tonight Gabrielle Smith couldn't be with me But they came to the trustees last year with this really incredible idea to start neighbors day in Vermont So I don't know if anyone here participated. I know I did we had a Breakfast in the park and it was great and we just hung out and talked and so Dylan and I decided that It should be a Vermont thing and so this is our resolution and I will skip some pieces of it Whereas neighbors are the persons who reside in our immediate vicinity and whom we encounter on a daily basis Although contact with our neighbors may be frequent. We often remain unacquainted perhaps not even knowing their names and Neighbor day is intended to develop bonds of friendship between neighbors and the goals of neighbors day include Developing a stronger sense of belonging Mutual support safety and security in neighborhoods Establishing connections with neighbors that can be helpful in a time of crisis Creating families of choice and promoting opportunities for enjoyable neighborhood events and in in late 1990s an elderly woman died in the 17th of Paris and her body was not discovered for months and as a result of this tragic occurrence in 1999 the deputy mayor of the 17th Established neighbors day on the first Saturday in June with the hope of fostering a sense of belonging and lessening the likelihood of a similar occurrence that first year 10,000 neighbors in Paris participated in 2000 the scope of neighbors day grew as it was celebrated in 30 French municipalities and has expanded across Europe and eventually to five continents In 2017 30 million persons across the globe participated in neighbors day celebrations including groups of neighbors in Essex Junction Neighbor day events might include neighborhood potlucks barbecues picnics pizza parties wiffle ball kickball Although variations of neighbors day exist in the United States no American jurisdiction has designated it as an official observance until now Essex Junction events justifies encouraging neighbors day observances throughout Vermont making our state the first to designate neighbors day officially Now therefore be it by resolve of the Senate and House of Representatives that the General Assembly designate Saturday, June 2nd 2018 as neighbors day in Vermont and It urges Vermonters to organize neighbor day celebrations and I want to personally thank Steph who created this here in Essex Junction And I hope all of you will find a way to participate Steph has some information about it so you can see her if you want to get involved And obviously you can ask any of the trustees as well. Thank you for Thank You Laurie. Hi folks. I am gonna very quickly try to yes. Yes I just very quickly wanted to tell you where we are with consolidation. I know a lot of you Are interested. I hope you are this is your community. It's not ours. It's we're kind of Trying to decide what to do. We think we know what all of you want to do But we also need to hear from you. We need you to stay engaged with us and let us know what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong I Borrowed this from max max had this and Greg Duggan Deputy manager for the town gave this slide this showed this shows previous consolidation efforts Clearly since we're still not consolidated none of they all failed These are Consolidations to date and this is not by no no means a seamless list as we just heard with the fire department discussion We are working on some of these departments are are aligned Right now we're working on aligning them. It's probably going to take it like for the fire departments There are a lot of internal policies and procedures pay scales and so forth that have to be lined up so we're working on that And in the upper right-hand corner, these are the big Village departments that are still independent of the town Community development and planning fire department libraries and recreation We don't know where we're going with this. We can't say but I can tell you that we are In a in a having a great conversation with the town. I think we're collaborating a week ago. We had a Joint meeting here with this elect board where we talked about a path forward for aligning some continuing with the alliance alignment of these departments We anticipate with the new manager that we are going to continue to align policies and procedures that will help Make his job easier Ultimately where we're going. We're not sure but as I said we need you to stay engaged. Please call us Write to us email us talk to the manager if you have ideas and stay engaged because this is your community. Thank you All right. Thank you George. All right, so anybody can talk about any non-binding business now go right ahead Laura Berman Jackson Street. I have a question about road construction last year at about this time that or Road repaving came out and included on that for early 2018 was repaving 117 which is kind of a disaster right now. Do we know if that is still planned to be repaved this spring? So are you I think if you can't hear he was asking about the part of 117 in the village or out of the village? Okay, that's a State project So outside of the he's saying I know he doesn't have a microphone I'm gonna say I'm not aware of 117 being on the schedule this year So I'm gonna say no, but I will bring it up to Dennis who's the public works director of the town and we will see where that is and we'll put out and we'll put something out Okay, I can maybe clear up a little bit. So 117 is a state highway And so the state has to pay that we don't we could but it would cost a lot of money and would have to ask you to pay for it so I know it is scheduled to be paved and Where it when it will be paved whether it will be this year or next year? We don't know and sometimes we don't know right up until the last minute and I don't is that am I making an accurate statement there Rick Gonna find the mic Yes 117 in the village was recently done by the state so outside this our jurisdiction We have no control over that. That'd be something the state would do We they should be I know it's been on the schedule, but they had us on the schedule too We got bumped out quite a bit. So I can't I can't say it's gonna be done this year. Okay. Thank you. All right Thank you for asking go ahead Brad Hi, Brad luck village resident and also the director at Essex Junction Recreation Parks I just briefly wanted to take the opportunity to recognize One of our employees who's been with us for the last six years Adam solace Who will kill me because he's sitting right in front of me, but Adam is our licensed childcare director who's leaving ejrp in July. He's been with us for six years He has grown camp Maple Street. He invented camp reach he enhanced camp star expanded village kids to include a fourth site with two Buses he created the after-school enrichment program. He runs the day-to-day operations of our busy office And he's fostered a culture of continuous improvement Encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit and set high expectations for our department employees He will be greatly missed and we wish him and his family the best And we want to just thank him for his years of service to ejrp in our community. So thank you All right, anybody have anything else to say I could joke that he's moving somewhere warm and You know you could start hating on him now All right, if nobody has anything I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting Barry and the second All right motion in a second all those in favor of adjourning signify by saying aye opposed nay Meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody for coming