 And I understand that the process is if someone is interested to notify the select board, it would be for one year, and then it would be followed by an election. So if you're interested, think about it and let the select board know and do the course. All right. Article two, to hear the reports of several town offices and to act thereon. Is there a motion to hear the report of the select board? There's a motion by Mr. Murray. Is there a second by Mr. Brock? Chair Gardner, would you kindly present the select board's report? Does this thing work? Yes. Testing, testing. Before I launch into the select board report, I wanted to thank various town employees and elected members of various boards that have stepped down or retired. So on the town side of things, on the town employees, we had Bruce Johnson stepped down after 10 years or so of service. He was our valued town administrator and the zoning administrator. And Bruce filled a lot of positions in the town office and he has been missed. We have been fortunate to get some new people in the office that are doing a great job. I'll go into that in a little bit. But anyway, Bruce is gone now, he's retired. Don Welch, who served us for years and years as treasurer, he was also on the select board. He also wore many hats from time to time. He retired as treasurer. And then Denise Sparrow, who was a municipal assistant for years, retired also. So we lost three valued employees of the town in 2022. On the elected side of things, Amy Willis, who was sitting before you, she's decided to step down for the select board. We'll miss Amy a lot. She's been very helpful on the select board. But her husband is stepping up and he wants to run for select board. He's retiring from the planning commission where I know he'll be missed. So Scott may win the election, he's not sure. He's wondering if he should vote for himself. I strongly urge it so he gets at least one vote. And also on the select board, Judith Gill is stepping down after spending, I think it was three years on the select board. She was a valued member of the select board. She's a lawyer. She was very valued on the select board and we're hoping we get someone to fill her shoes. She's busy with her other responsibilities, unfortunately. But she's not gonna run for election at this point. We also have some other town members that are unable to serve on the planning commission anymore, for one reason or the other. Lauren Oates had family issues to deal with. I'm not sure, something on her family, she's gone now. And Julie Potter, who was retired last year, she's still helping out and she's retired from the planning commission also. And then Spencer Hardy, who was on the planning commission, he moved to Plainfield, so he wasn't able to be on the planning commission anymore. So anyway, that's the planning commission. We also had Jessica Adams, who was in there for municipal assistant. She decided to take another job. Ann Stanton is retired from the Central Vermont Solid Waste as a rep, we've got John Jewett who's doing that now. Susan McEnally is retired from the funding request, funding request study committee. Frank Pat is no longer a transportation advisory committee representative, and Tom Murdo was our alternate rep for CB Fiber, he's decided not to do that anymore. So you can see that there's been a few people that have retired from town duties, and of course we're always looking for other people that be interested in those positions. So we have hired some new people in the town office. We were very lucky to find Gina Jenkins. She's a town resident, she's doing the town administrator. Is she, are you here, Gina? Yes, Gina is right here, can you stand up here? So Gina is filling Bruce's shoes, doing a wonderful job. We're very, very happy to have her as a town administrator. We have Michelle Palace who's doing a town treasurer. She's from Braintree and I don't think she's here. She is a very, very good treasurer. She's, we're very, very lucky to get her to be placed on, who did a great job also. They're very happy to have Michelle Palace as treasurer. And we also got Tyson Brown as zoning administrator. He's lives in East Montpelier, his wife is from Montpelier, and East Montpelier, and Tyson's learning the ropes as being his zoning administrator. Very lucky to have him, he's a builder also. He brings a lot of experience to being his zoning administrator as far as building experience goes. He's gonna go, he goes to sites, checks out your building, great to have. So we've been very lucky to fill those positions in the town office with some very qualified people. We're still looking for a municipal assistant. We'd like to hire somebody from East Montpelier if possible, if you're interested, please apply. Talk to Gina. So that's it for people that have stepped down or retired. And as I said once before, we're looking for people to fill various positions. So not to bore you with any more details, I'm gonna go into the select board report, which actually is mostly about the retirement of employees, et cetera. So the select board report deals with the retirement of various employees. And I think the only other big news on that report was a couple of things. We're doing the removal of the ash trees along the roads. The trees that lean into the road that are ash are deemed the hazard because Emerald Ashmore has moved into the town in the skill of the trees. So the ash trees that lean into the roads, we're getting some grants and we solicit bids and we do do sections of the road in East Montpelier to remove the ash trees. Is there any questions about that, Ashree? Yes. Right along the road. And I would love to see if there's any way to save any of those trees rather than just cut them all down. Yes. I know there are some treatments and I know there's a very tiny percentage of trees that will survive. Correct. So those, if those trees, if that stretch of road comes up for looking and marking trees, as that's what happens is the road, the tree committee goes along and they mark the trees. At that point, you would say to those folks that you wanna save those trees and you can inject the trees. I think you have to inject them every year or two. What is it about? Two to three years. Two to three years that you inject the trees and Montpelier's done that with some trees, I believe. And East Montpelier is injected a few also. So there is a procedure by which you could try to save those trees. Yeah. Yes. Sure. So there was a process whereby we did an inventory. Is this on? It is. We did an inventory of the trees, the ash trees along the roadside that were six inches or bigger at breast height. And when we did that, then we tried to identify those ash trees that are so big and beautiful that they are, I forget the term historic interest. They're important and that we wanted to save. And there were somewhat like a half a dozen around town that we said five around town that we said we wanna save it and the town is paying for. And beyond that, yes, it's the property owner's option to say I want this one on my property to be saved. And then pay for it. Any more questions about the ash tree removal and the emerald ash borer? The other project of course that was done in town was repaving County Road. It took a while. We had a bull magnet grind it up. There was some delays due to contractor problems, et cetera, et cetera. But at the end of the day, the culverts were put in, the road was paved, came out well. The state paid for a significant amount of the project. We got some grants to cover the culverts and also we had a paving grant to cover part of the paving. The cost was significant because of course, pavement's gone up a lot with a price of oil, but we got it done and the road will last a long time. And the culverts were put in very well and we thought at the end of the day it came out well. Project. Any questions on the County Road thing? I know there was some complaining about the potholes, et cetera, but that was life. So there's a couple of things on select board report, that there may be some questions on. The ARPA money, town got 762,000 approximately. We put $100,000 towards CV Fiber because the town had indicated that broadband access is important for all residents. So the $100,000 we get to CV Fiber has strings attached because it's ARPA money, but the strings are a good thing in a way because it's supposed to serve, that money goes to serving underserved people. So that's where that money went. There's still a significant amount of money left. We're looking at the different ways that we could use that money for some of the budget shortfalls that we may have on one-time expenses, but there'll still be money left for some capital projects within the town. There will be some reaching out to the community as far as potential uses of some of the money goes. And we'll just keep you updated on the progress of that because we're still looking at it. We've got a lot of work to do as far as town meeting and budgets, et cetera. The next thing we'll dive into will be ARPA, but we're also trying to hire another person in the town office, so things take a while and there's lots of work to do, but the townspeople will be kept in the loop as far as the ARPA money goes. Any questions on that? Yeah, Judy. I know that Plainfield had a process for some of those funds with nonprofit organizations being able to apply that were local to the town and it would be great if we could do something like that. Yeah, we're looking at that, those potential uses. Anybody else on the ARPA? And of course, the fire department has had some changes. The long-time chief down there, Ty Roland was voted out at the election they elect every year officers and it was a close election, but Ty got voted out, Larry Brown got voted in, but then Larry Brown unexpectedly retired, so now Albert Petrella is running, is the fire chief now, very capable, a very nice guy, seems to be doing a good job down there. So there's been transitions, but I think that the service still continues to be excellent and I don't believe townspeople are going to worry about as far as emergency services go. There's been changes, but the changes are not necessarily that. So does anybody have any questions about the fire department, emergency services? So the other last thing on the select board report is the budget. The budget's gone up a little bit more than it has in the past. For one thing is health insurance has gone up dramatically. So health insurance premiums went up almost 20%, and then because we have more indifferent employees, we have employees that are taking more health insurance as a benefit than we used to have. So that's pushed the cost up to the town significantly, which raises the tax burden, unfortunately. We're still looking at the budget. There's certain things that we may be able to pay for out of the ARPA money that are one-time expenses to soften the impact of the taxpayers. Right now it's 5.8%, 5.8 cents. We're hoping that we'll be able to work that down a little bit because there's a significant increase on the school side, which is around 10 cents. We have no control over that part of the tax rate, but we do control the municipal tax rate and we'll try to soften that below to the taxpayer as much as possible by the time we set the tax rate. Are there any questions on the town budget? Any questions on the select board report in general? We'd love to answer questions. Do we have someone standing up? It's not a question. I just wanted to- Lowering star. Lowering star. I wanted to say thank you to the road crew, Guthrie and his folks, and I wasn't sure if anyone was here. Amelia or Maxwell, there's another person right there. Thank you. Hi, I'm Pallie Giorva. I was just curious what some of the one-time expenses across you were talking about that might be covered by ARPA because I think that ARPA funds are a good opportunity to do some things that have long-term impact for the community versus short-term expenses. Exactly. Well, the ARPA money wouldn't necessarily be used for an ongoing expense, but for instance, digitizing the land records is pretty significant expense for the town. It's a one-time expense going back to whenever we kept records, and that's money that we could probably use the ARPA money for that we're not sure. So there's a few expenses like that, just one-time expenses that could help the tax rate a bit. And it's not an ongoing expense, so you're not funding something out of ARPA money that you have to do year after year after year. So those are the kind of things that we'd be looking at. You know, we're not gonna be looking at paying salaries, et cetera, out of ARPA money. That's foolish because eventually you're gonna have to pay those out of the tax rate. So, I mean, we would never do anything that would jeopardize the tax rate moving forward. You know, we wanna keep the tax increases fairly level. So one to two cents, two and a half cents, is a lot more palatable than the 5.8 cents that we have right now. So we're hoping to tweak that down a bit, just by those one-time expenses taking those out. Any other questions in general on the select board report or activities for that matter? Seeing none, thank you, Chairman Gardner. And Carl and Amy. But Carl, you have a couple of comments you'd like to make? Yes, sir, thank you. Carl Etnaier, vice chair. I'd just like to say on behalf of the select board how great it is to see this room filled with people for town meeting once more. Any more questions for any members of the board, including the chair of the board? Hearing none, without objection, the report of the select board is accepted. Speaking of the budget, Article III, shall the town raise the sum of $2,196,054 as proposed by the select board set forth in Article III. That's by Australian Ballot. And Seth indicated if there was any questions and unless there's any other questions regarding the budget, the polls are open till 7 p.m., Article IV. Shall the town authorize all property taxes for the fiscal year 24 to be paid to the town treasurer without discount in installments? The first installment due Wednesday, November 15th, 2023, and the second installment will be due and postmarked on a before Wednesday, May 15th, 2024. Is there a motion to adopt or bring up that Article IV? Article IV, Mr. Brock makes a motion. Scott has seconds at any discussion on Article IV. Hearing none, seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Article IV, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. The ayes appear to have it, the ayes do have it, and you have adopted Article IV. Article V, shall the town raise the sum of $46,764 for Kellogg-Harbert Library for support of the Kellogg-Harbert Library to be voted by Australian Ballot, which is true, and it is going to be voted by Australian Ballot. Just as a side note, it was not printed on the ballot that you received in the mail. And traditionally, for many years, this has not been voted on the floor, it's by ballot. And so there will be ballot going out for Kellogg-Harbert. We came up with thought with some creative solutions that the Secretary of State felt needed to be less creative, and so you'll be getting a ballot. However, as in the past, I was wondering if the representative from Kellogg-Harbert Library, Sarah Swift, is present to maybe make a few comments or answer any questions, and here's Sarah right here. Welcome, thank you. Would you like to say a few words and take a few questions if people have any? Hi, good morning to everybody. I'm the new representative on the Board of Trustees from Eastmont-Pillier. I'm taking over for Jennifer Micah. I want to thank her for her three years of service. Just a quick update on the library. It's been a great, 2022 was a great year. Lending has remained strong. We have 763 patrons from Eastmont-Pillier. We had 17,000 checkouts last year from Eastmont-Pillier. Over half the yearly budget comes from appropriation at town meeting. Our request this year is level with that of last year. And I'd be happy to field any questions if anybody has them or find out the answer if I don't know them. Is this off? No, there you go. Any questions? Mayor, are you still in there? I have three grandchildren in Eastmont-Pillier now and happy to have them here. And the library children's room not only checks out books, but toys, puzzles, games, science kits, these are amazing benefit to all the kids in all the towns that they serve and thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding the article concerning Kellogg Hubbard Library? So it was... Accident left off? Yes, correct. As said, it's going to be a special election because that's the proper way to proceed. It was accidentally left off in the switch from all Australian ballot voting to back to the traditional town meeting and as that was being transitioned, Kellogg Hubbard Library got left off of the mailed Australian ballot. So thank you. And so there'll be some more information coming out about it. There's been someone about a month away, according to us. So that will be mailed out and please do vote yes on that. We're not asking for money twice, it's just one time and it's going to be at a later date. Okay, thanks so much. Yeah, and Kellogg Hubbard Library folks were alerted previously to this error and they're fine as far as I understand with the procedure. Any other questions or comments regarding the library and there will be a special meeting that'll be sent out by ballot. Moving on to article six, shall the town raise the sum of $4,500 for the Four Corners Schoolhouse Association for Operating Expenses During Fiscal 2024. Is there a motion to bring up article six regarding Four Corners, Ginny Callan? Is there a second to that motion about the Four Corners? Is that Nona? Sorry, I can't see folks with masks as much as I would like. Nona Estrin seconded. Any discussion regarding the Four Corners Association article six matter? And is there anyone here who's from the association? I don't think Hobie is in town today. He's the president that has any information that could share if anyone has any questions. Does anyone have any questions regarding article six? No, okay. No, really? Therefore, all those in favor of adopting article six, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. The ayes do have it and you have adopted article six. Article seven, shall the town raise the sum of $12,000 for the East Montpelier signpost to provide for the production and mailing of six issues of the signpost for each East Montpelier resident household and non-resident property owner during fiscal year 2024. Is there a motion to bring up article seven, Loring Star? Is there a second to that? Don Welch. Any questions or discussions regarding the signpost article? Article seven. Any? No one? Oh, Ginny Cowan. Just want to say how much I appreciate getting the signpost in our mail. It's a great resource for our community and we appreciate all the volunteer effort that goes into it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding article seven concerning the signpost Seth's pointing to someone? Kim Watson. I also wanted to ask people to stop by the booth for the signpost right outside the lunch area and she's taking ideas for articles. So if you have any great ideas for articles, please pass them on to Ann Stanton. Thanks, Kim. Any other questions or comments regarding article seven concerning the signpost? Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of article seven, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Article eight. Shall the town raise the sum of $4,000 for East Montpelier Trails Inc. for the enhancement, development, administration and maintenance of the trail network in East Montpelier during fiscal year 2024. Motion made by Mr. Brock to bring it up is there a second for that? You see Ed Blackdeegan seconding that. Any questions or comments or discussion? Mr. Brock is present in the event there is. And Bruce Jappel, I see your hand there. Or let Richard say a few words, would you? If you need to. Thank you. I'm Richard Brock and I'm one of the junior members of the board. I see other members here. They may be fox-holing. But I very much want you to read Mary Stone's report in your town report. And that covers pretty well. The more or less disaster that occurred with the winter storm, which has made our trails very much of a problem. But we, there are a number, I don't need to go into too much detail, but there are a number of problems, but we are aware of them and we'll be working on them as the season progresses. And I prepared the financial report which starts on page 70. If anyone has any questions about any of these things, please fire away. Any questions for Mr. Brock or comments regarding the article? I just wanted to mention Nona Estrin and Mary's here. And this is a great report, which covers everything, but there's one piece. Many of you are in the category of what we call trail fairies. People who go out and clean up the trail, we never know who does it, but it gets done. And we bring a crew out and it's done. This time is a little different. If there's a root ball on a tree that's across the trail and there's a good bore, that may be a valuable tree and the root ball can maintain that as a valuable timber tree for the landowner. So you will note, as Richard pointed out, that it may take a long time by our usual standards for the foresters in Vermont to get around to the landowners that want them to come in and make an assessment and then get their workers in to take those trees out. So if you are feeling like doing trail fairy work and you come across a tree on somebody's land and you wanna cut it, please do ask the landowner first. Thank you. Bruce Chappell. Yes, thank you. I just wanted to say, my name is Bruce Chappell and we operate Templeton Firm in town. We're one of the host firms and properties that have the hiking trails go across our land. I just wanna say that it is unbelievable, the amount of use that these trails get. During Maple Sugaring season the trail goes to our sugar woods and I see have a chance to visit with a lot of people just when I'm out there, which isn't a lot, but we have a lot of people from outside of Eastmont Payer that truly enjoy these trails and I've had several articles written about the trail system here in Eastmont Payer and our involvement on our own farm and I truly believe that the trail system in town has gone a long ways to promote land conservation and stewardship of our forest resources. So I think working with the Trails Committee, they're a great group of people and it's been only a plus for our family to be able to host that and we're glad to do it. Paul K. I'd just like to say, I'd just like to say that having spent 50 something years in the woods around here that some of the things that are being talked about need a little more information and like what Nona just said about the trees that have tipped over and whatever, certainly you should talk to the landowner before you do anything, but also there are a lot of the trees that went down, for example, are white pines, very limited time frame for those trees to be valuable in the marketplace even with the rootwad still hitched. When those trees go down and they, you know, get bark knocked off them or there are openings to the wood, by the time you get into late April or early May, you're gonna find that those trees start to stain and by the end of May, you're starting to get longhorned beetles that are laying eggs and producing young that are tunneling in those trees. And so those trees aren't acceptable in the marketplace once that really gets going. So it's not as simple as just this is what you can do with the species or that species or the condition that the trees happen to be in. Now that doesn't mean that the trees may not have value locally, but your sap would and say those white pines and all the ones that went down over at U32, acres of them, that by June those trees may not be very marketable. So I think we need to realize that the way we do things, ideally you would jump on that immediately, but just the way it happens to work, the timber harvesters try to get to wood plans made for the winter sometime in summer or early fall. No one can do that, no one can do that. Early fall, knowing that they can't really be cutting a lot of that pine in the warm seasons of the year because of the staining and the degrade. So this hit us pretty hard when that Christmas week, because a lot of those people were already lined up for their winter work. By the way, there are fewer people doing this work than they have been in the past. So that complicates it also. But anyway, I think we've got to accept the fact that some of this stuff is just gonna go right back to Mother Nature, whether we like it or not. Everybody seems to be so busy that they can't be doing this and can't be doing that and everything, but if we expect that that's gonna happen for our, in this short term situation, we may be expecting a little much. Anyway, as a town tree warden, if any of you have questions about any of the ash stuff or any of the other things that we're dealing with, you know, feel free to call or me or anybody else on our committee for that matter. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding article eight regarding the Montpelier trails? Bruce Howard. I just want to mention that as in the, right up in the booklet here, one of the proposals for the near future is to build a trail across our land that's basically gonna connect the existing trails at U32 and those at Mallory Brook. And so when this is done, and this is not gonna happen immediately, of course, but we've been working with Richard and the committee and Mary. And so when that gets done, people are gonna be able to park at U32 and walk quite a long ways on the trails network. So we look forward to that. Mary Stone has a question or a comment. Yes, I do want to add and thank again, the landowners because we don't own land. There's some of our trails go through the town forest, which East Montpelier does own, but we are gaining the benefit of the generous landowners who have allowed a trail across their property. And Bruce is a great spokesman for our trail system and Carol and the other Bruce are soon to join. If you're thinking about having a trail on your land, you know who to talk to. I think it's definitely been a benefit to them. It's certainly been a benefit to the town. I mentioned just in passing in that article or the write up for the report that you can clear a trail, but it's all the feet walking across it that keeps it there. And that's really all every one of you probably has been on our trails. And without you, there is no trail. So thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding the article concerning East Montpelier trails, article eight? Yes. I just want to add that it's clearly the board and all the people involved in East Montpelier trails very much appreciate not only the landowners, but the continued support and generosity of the voters of this town. So I ask you to vote yay on this and thank you very much. Any other questions or comments regarding the generosity? Article eight, are you ready for the question? All those in favor of article eight, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The, oh. No, I didn't mean that. This is, we'll strike that, strike that one. The eyes clearly have it. And article eight is adopted. Article nine, shall the town raise the sum of 90, and the microphones are working great. So Colin McCaffrey, thank you very much again. Article nine, shall the town raise the sum of $9,700 for the Montpelier Senior Activities Center for Operating Expenses during fiscal year 24. Is there a motion to bring up article nine regarding the Montpelier Senior Center? Mr. Brock, is there a second to that? I see Scott Hess. Any questions, comments, discussion regarding article nine for the Montpelier Senior Activities Center? Seeing none, hearing none. All those in favor of article nine, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The eyes do have it. Article 10, shall the town raise the sum of $6,000 for Twin Valley Seniors Incorporated for Operating Expenses during the fiscal year 24. Is there a motion to bring up article 10? Ginny Callan, is there a second to that motion? State your name? Owen Rock Campbell. Owen Rock Campbell, thank you. Any questions or discussions regarding article 10 for $6,000 for the Twin Valley Seniors? Any questions, comments, discussion? Seeing none. Oh, Jean Troyer, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, for the Twin Valley Senior Center, I'd just like to say thank you to the town for all your support. We did get a partial tax exemption this year and our appropriation is up a little bit. We realize it's a little odd to have two different senior centers asking for contributions. But we do serve probably more people in East Montpelier, some 190, than Montpelier Senior Center does. And we do it on a far smaller budget. We serve 10,000 meals a year to people that need them and couldn't do that without the support we get from community harvest and the Vermont Food Bank. And we just all want to say thank you to the town for your continued support. Thanks, Jean. Any other questions or comments regarding article 10? Lorene Starr. Thank you. Lorene Starr, I wanted to ask Jean, I believe you're still looking for volunteer drivers for Meals on Wheels. I know statewide that's been a real issue. At the moment we have a pretty good volunteer staff for Meals on Wheels, where we really need volunteer help is in-house in operating the kitchen, in serving meals, community meals in the building and maintaining the building, our places where we really still need volunteers. Thanks, Lorene. Ginny Callan has her hand up, is recognized. Maxwell, can you, Max, push that over there? Pardon me? Maxwell, I thought. Okay. My husband and I co-lead a class at Swin Valley Senior Center, it's called Bone Builders. We've been doing it for years and it's an exercise class for seniors. And we have probably, since COVID, we've been doing it all on Zoom. It's free. It's free for anybody. We have people that go on vacation, they're in North Carolina or Florida. They're still doing their Bone Builders class and it's a great way to kind of help keep yourself in shape. There's balance in different things. Two-carrying leads another group at 9 a.m. of that same exercise class. Totally free, not at Montpelier, but it is free at Swin Valley along with Tai Chi and other classes. Any other questions or comments regarding Article 10? Hearing none, seeing none. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor for Article 10, please indicate by saying aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it and it's adopted. Article 11, shall the town raise the sum of $6,500 for Central Vermont Home, Health and Hospice for operating expenses during Fiscal Year 24? Is there a motion to bring up Article 11? Ms. Swift. Sarah Swift, is there a second for that? Kevin Ellis. Any questions, discussions regarding Article 11 for the Central Vermont Home, Health and Hospice? Seeing none and oh, yes. Carol Nixon. Carol. I'm just wondering, I noticed that a number of these appropriations are going up slightly, which is understandable. This one is not and I feel like they could use as much money as we can give them, but I'm just curious why this one is not going up in the same way. Anyone present that can answer her question? Seth. Can I try to answer it? Okay. What was her status in the organization? The director came in and talked to the slide board and she felt that they could keep it level funded. They're getting some federal, wasn't federal help. And that organization, they just seemed to work hard, try to do with as little as possible and do a tremendous amount of work. So hats off to them by trying to keep it level funded, but it may go up in the future by strongly or due both for this article, because I think they do a lot of work and they don't get a lot of money for what they do. So thank you. Thanks Seth. Any other questions or comments regarding Article 11? Seeing none, hearing none, all those in favor of adopting Article 11, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes do have it. Stepping out of order for a second, I just wanted to let the assembly know that our state representative and East Montpelier resident, Ella Chapin, is here and she's going to speak as we get probably to other business given the time, but she's our representative as you know for East Montpelier and Middlesex and she is here and we'll be saying a few words when we're done with the warned articles. And there's an applause over there for our state representative. Article 12, back in order, shall the town raise the sum of $7,834 for support of the Rural Community Transportation Inc, RCT, to provide services to the residents of the town of East Montpelier, skimming through including $6,834 as its RCT portion of the fiscal year share of the ongoing cost of providing the bus service along Route 2 with service into East Montpelier and $1,000 as its fiscal 24 share of annual ongoing cost of providing the bus service along Route 14 and 15 with service into East Montpelier. This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost of the service, which will also be supported by appropriations from other towns, state and federal funds and rider fees. Is there a motion to bring up Article 12 concerning RCT? There's a motion by... Carl. Carl. Sarah. Claire. Claire. Yes, thank you. I got the S in the seat. Thank you, there's a motion. Is there a second for that article? And that looks like Ed Deegan for Article 12. Any discussion or comments regarding or questions regarding Article 12? Anyone speaking to it as published? Yes. I'm Selena Moore. Selena Moore. I very much support this, but I wondered how much usage is happening now finally? It seems like such a good idea that all of us get into a bus instead of drive our many, many, many cars around. Does anyone know the answer to that? Are we getting better usage? If anyone speak to Selena's question, Nona Estrin has her hand up and is recognized right there. We live right on the corner of Galson Hill and Town Hill Road. And there are people standing out there getting off the bus and getting on it quite often. Maybe people from U32, maybe, and also our neighborhood uses it. So just wanted to state that. Lydia Faisy. Hi, Lydia Faisy. I probably use the bus from the East Montpelier Park and Ride five to eight times a year and it's got people in it every, well, maybe once I've gotten in it with only one or two people, but there are people coming all the way from St. Jay. There are people getting on in East Montpelier. It's a really good means of transportation when the cars or bikes or whatever else don't work. Kim Watson has her hand up in the back. Hi, I'm Kim Watson, and I'm hoping that the new Appointed Energy Committee will have that information for us. They'll hopefully be able to do some type of survey with the East Montpelier residents as well as the general community and get that information to be put in our town plan. Thanks, Kim. Any other questions, comments, discussions? Nora Duane. I can just speak anecdotally that I drop off a family member for the seven o'clock bus in the morning down at the Park and Ride and there's oftentimes people on it. And then there are a couple of businesses in Montpelier, at East Montpelier that I know workers can get dropped off there. So it's not just residents, but it's also serving businesses in town. Thanks, Nora. Any other questions or comments regarding rural community transportation, Article 12? Something about the ridership numbers is that because the numbers that we have at the moment were impacted by COVID, we don't really have a true sense of where bus transportation is headed. Because in the previous couple of years, ridership was down because of COVID. I think now it's trending up, but we don't have those specific numbers available right now. Thanks, Seth. Any other questions or comments regarding Article 12, RCT? Seeing none, hearing none, are you ready for the question on Article 12? All those in favor of Article 12, please indicate by saying aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes appear to have it, the ayes do have it, and you have adopted Article 12. Article 13, shall the town raise the sum of $1,499 as its Green Mountain Transit portion of the fiscal year 24 share of the ongoing cost to providing community bus service along Route 2 with service into East Montpelier. This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost, which will be supported by appropriations from other towns, state and federal funds, and rider fairs, Article 13. Is there a motion to bring up Article 13, if you will? I see Donald Welch in a seconded by Mr. Brock. Any questions, comments, discussions regarding Article 13, Green Mountain Transit for $14.99? Kim Watson. I was just wondering if anyone was here to speak to this. I know in the past during COVID, the fairs were free and that they had eliminated some of the fairs. Do you know when they're gonna start charging or are they charging now? Anyone have an answer to Kim's question? Apparently, oh, somebody may behind there in the last row. I believe that they will still be free in this area, that they're still charging in like Burlington area and stuff, but in the more rural areas, they'll still be free. Great, thank you. Thank you. Would you state your name for the record? Adam Standforth, I work for Green Mountain Transit, so. Thank you, Adam. Well, that's good, perfect. Lauren Starr is recognized regarding Article 13. Lauren Starr, just a reminder that Green Mountain Transit also has a free Rides for Seniors program. You sign up and you can get, I think it's up to a dozen rides a month for any purpose whatsoever, and they have volunteer drivers for that. So it's a good resource. Good information, thanks. Can I speak to that real quick? Yes, and then Gene. So go ahead. The money that you're voting on Article 13 is separate from the Green Mountain Transit article, which is embedded in the funding request. The funding request, Green Mountain Transit is 1366, and that goes to the ride service that Lauren just spoke of. The Green Mountain Transit Fund that we're voting for in Article 13 is for the bus service. The other amount is for the free rides for seniors, et cetera. Two separate spots of money, just two separate things. So Lauren, if I may, your information was relative to Article 14, subsection 18, is that correct? Okay, good to know. Gene, did you have a comment or a question? Yeah, in terms of the bus service, Green Mountain Transit does provide a bus for the senior center, and it's free to anyone that needs a ride to the senior center. It's handicapped accessible, accepts wheelchairs, and if you give us a call, we can set up a free ride from your home to the senior center, and that's provided by Green Mountain Transit. Thank you, Gene. Any other questions or comments regarding Article 13? Seeing none, hearing none. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor of adopting Article 13 regarding the Green Mountain Transit, please indicate by saying aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes do have it. Article 14, this is the Town Funding Request Study Committee Report and Recommendation, beginning on page nine of your town report, going into page 10 with 20, excuse me, 34 separate organizations for a total of $22,166 combined. Is there a motion to bring up Article 14? I see Becky Reed saying she moves the question. Is there a second to that? Mr. Brock and Mr. Dworkin simultaneously, any questions, discussions or information regarding Article 14? The floor is open. All quiet on the Western Front, no. Allison, underhealed. Yes. I have a couple of questions. What is big, heavy world? There was another one, too. Mosaic, I think I know what that is. Mosaic, Vermont. Can anyone answer Allison's query regarding sub-article two, big, heavy world, what is it, and Mosaic, Vermont. Big, heavy world sounds like a cartoon my grandchildren would watch, but I shouldn't make light of the situation. So looks like, is that Erica Zimmerman, yes. I can speak to Mosaic, which is the county's, sorry, sexual violence prevention organization. It used to be called something else. No, circle is domestic violence. Oh, the sexual assault crisis team of Washington County is now called Mosaic, Vermont. Thanks, Erica. Can anyone answer Allison's, well, Lindy, and Lindy, you're on the committee. Yeah, it's good to have members of the committee here to answer some of these questions. Thank you. Big, heavy world, whoops, that's loud, is a group that is saving or archiving music in Vermont and there's a little bit of a description on page 87. They came to us two years ago, I believe, and did a wonderful introduction to the funding committee and explained how they're collecting music from independent music makers from various people in Vermont and creating archive-type situation. We were not familiar with it either, but it sounds like an amazing organization and we have quite a few musicians in East Montpelier who participate and he knew them and was very well-spoken as far as what their mission is sounded like a great thing. So we've, I think this is the third year, but it might only be the second year. Thanks, Wendy. Yes, comment. Hi, Patricia Giavara. I was just wondering why the Crossform Out Trail Association isn't funded, it doesn't appear to be funded in any way by the town. Looks like select board member Etniar has an answer to that question, I think. Yeah, thank you. I was thinking that it would be helpful to provide some context for all these funding requests and that will answer your question as well. So we've been voting on a bunch of articles separately for individual organizations and now we have before us Article 14, which has 34 organizations. Why are we doing it in this way? Years ago, the town of East Montpelier decided to, well, for a long time, the town of East Montpelier has been supporting nonprofit organizations that serve the town and they decided to have votes on the town floor for budget articles that would be, when I moved to town, it was under $10,000 that got raised to under $25,000 on the floor of town meeting and anything above that would be voted on by Australian Ballant. So organizations come to the town and we as a select board do not feel that it is our purview to allocate town monies in the overall town budget to individual nonprofit organizations and so we ask the townspeople directly through either the Australian Ballant process or votes here to vote on those and over the years, we have found that this collective article, Article 14, has become larger and larger and we have broken out some of the organizations that had the highest asks there and we're putting them before you as separate articles. So for everything on Article 14, they have gone through this funding request study committee that's been mentioned a number of times and we have dedicated volunteers who send out solicitations for requests for money, review people's applications, talk to representatives of each of the organizations and then convey to the select board a detailed recommendation on funding these and if somebody, if some organization is in here and has not been, or some organization is not funded here, then it's because either they haven't asked for funding or they have asked for funding and it's been turned down and as far as I'm aware, the Cross-Fermont Trail Committee has not asked for funding this year. But they haven't before. Right, right. So, and just- The comment was they've had before. Yes, they've asked for specific amounts of money to actually fund the bridge, it just got done and the townspeople did vote to give them a significant amount of money and they just didn't come in this year for money. Right, yeah. And then for the other articles that we've been voting on, then all of the representatives from those organizations came to the select board directly and asked for funds and we gave them permission to be on the town ballot at the level that they asked for funding for. Right, but I don't think it's clear, I'm not sure everyone understands that if you put an amount of money in these requests and it pushes it over the $25,000 limit, you have to pull it out because under the $25,000 limit you can vote on the floor. Over that it goes to Australian ballot. So it's nice to have those under $25,000 and then you can discuss them here. Right. And vote on them here. You can discuss them in a town forum, but anyway. So that's the process. If it's $4,000 and pushes it over the $25,000 then you take it out as a separate article. Don Welch. Thank you. Maxwell will pass it over to Donald, please. Thank you. Don. Don Welch. Just to give a little more background to this, I was one of the ones behind batching these together because back in the day you had these and each one of them had a discussion, had to read every motion. And so a $100 item could take half an hour so we kind of put those together. But also I believe you can break out an individual item and modify it on the floor. So I think this can be broken out so that it's not, if there's one that you feel strongly about that should be changed when you can modify that on the floor. That's correct, that's allowed under state law. And Robert's rules of order. As long as it doesn't push it over $25,000 as then it would be out of order. Any other questions? Ginny, Callan, yes. I'm one of the newer members on the town funding committee and we're gonna be losing our chair, Lindy Johnson, who's been doing it for years and done a fantastic job. And we're gonna be needing some new members so think about joining us. Good point and thank you, Lindy. Any other questions or comments regarding article 14 and the funding request committee recommendations listed in the town report? Seeing none, hearing none. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of article 14 in its entirety, please indicate by saying aye. Those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Article 15, shall the town extend tax exempt status for the 0.68 acre trailhead parking area on Route 14 South owned by non-profit organizations, East Montpelier Gully Jumpers, Inc. and East Montpelier Trails, Inc. for an additional five years until 2028. Per title 32, section 3840 of Vermont statutes annotated. Is there a motion to bring up article 15 for consideration? Mr. Brock, seconded by Loring Star. Any questions or discussions or information regarding article 15? Mr. Morey, question is from Bob Morey, how much is this costing the town? If you know. Not very much. Not very much, according to the chair of the select. Mr. Brock, whatever it is, it isn't in addition. This is merely to maintain the status quo. You have to vote. I believe from last night's informational meeting, which was also a select board meeting. And may I add, if you're looking for a good time, go to the East Montpelier town select board meetings. The agenda is posted on front porch forum and it's great and you can really learn a lot in a short period of time about what's going on. So if you're looking for something to do, it's free. Go to that meeting. Go to the entertainment. But it's my understanding from the meeting that this is something that by state law, any tax exemption is only for a period of five years. So it's not in perpetuity. So every five years, any tax exemption that's been granted by a town has to come back up for a warning. Is that correct? Correct. Thank you. Mary Stone. Just a little historical perspective too. We were approached with the gully jumpers about purchasing this piece of property. There at one time was a little quick stop there. It's the access to the rail trail that has been used since the railroad was ties were removed. I don't know how long ago, but this purchasing that piece of property protected that as a parking area, not only for people walking their dogs and taking exercise bicycles, but also in the winter for the snowmobiles. So it's a pretty important piece for the town and for all the people who use those trails. Thanks Mary. Donald Welch. Just to put it in perspective, all of the tax exemptions that we vote on periodically amount to three-tenths of a cent on the tax rate. All together. All together. Thank you, Don. Mr. Morey, yes, sir. Bob Morey. There are a number of trail heads around town that don't have this privilege or honor of being tax exempt. Why are we doing it for this particular one location in town? Is there a answer to that question? Yeah. The trail heads that access other trails in town are not owned by the trail association. They are owned by the landowners that generously support the trails. So that the quick answer is this is the only one that's owned by the trail association and the gully jumpers. All the trail heads are privately owned. Any other questions or comments? Yes. On article 15. Hi, Ashley Hellman, first time here. Thank you. I was just wondering, since I'm not familiar with this particular area, do people have to pay to park in this area or is it free to park in this area and then their granted tax exempt status for the free parking? It's free. It's free, okay. All the trail use is free and the park. Select Board Member Adenyre. Thank you. I'm speaking as a resident Adenyre now, as a user of the trails. Just for those who aren't familiar with this trail head, if you leave the village on Route 14 and head towards Berrytown, it's on the left across from the Humane Society. And this is the access point to park for about a two mile section of trail. It comes out on Country Club Road on the other side, but the landowner next to where it comes out is not interested in having cars parked along the road there and makes it known to people who try to park there, I can say. So that this is the access point to that part of the trail. I see Ginny Callan, Loring Star, and then Ruben Bennett. Ginny? I would just add that I've walked on that trail a number of times with my dogs. There's a lot of people that use that trail. And in the wintertime, I see the snow machines going through. I think it's very popular and a great addition to the community. And Loring and then Ruben. Oh yeah, Amelia, if you don't mind, we just take her right over to Ruben and Loring's on deck. What Ginny said. All right, Amelia, could you pass that to Loring, please? Loring Star, just a reminder that there is a wonderful website for East Montpelier Trails, Inc., just Google East Montpelier Trails, spectacular trail maps, descriptions of all the trails, parking, et cetera. Any other questions or comments regarding Article 15 concerning extending the tax exempt status is set forth. Yes, sir. Seth, Tim Frazier. Tim Frazier, who's maintaining like in the winter? So like the other day, we got the big storm. I plowed all that because people walking their dogs were parking in the road in the corner. And then they parked where the groomer goes because we had no common sense to park on the right side where I plowed. But they wanted to make a point that they have rights and can park on the road. So I see an issue. I plowed. Tim, could you put the microphone up a little closer so that the folks over there couldn't quite hear you? Thank you. You can park three cars right by the road. And then there's three rocks with a sign. And then you probably have 150 feet that people can park in back of it. So why can't we put the rocks and make more parking so it's safer in that corner? Or people walking their dogs are parking on the road and where the groomer is because they feel they can park there in the winter when it's snowmobile season. And it's not being plowed. Well, right. So I've been plowing it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I'm not sure what the story is on there. Well, thank you, but park on the right side so the groomer can get by. And so there isn't someone dead. Maybe there should be some signs there. Yeah. More common sense. And then, so, article, in this, it doesn't say anything about hiking on this. Well, that's what they're doing when they go on the trail. No, I feel like they're taking it over. What's that? No one's taking it over. Well, it says snow would be on, right? Doesn't say anything about hiking. Well, the gully jumpers own half of it. And the trail association owns the other half. So they can hike or snow go on. So why can't we work together and open that up and make it safer? So you're saying move the rock? Yeah, all of them. Okay. Well, we can look at that. I've talked to the trails committee about any obstructions there in the way. I'm not familiar with the obstructions, but. Right now you have to drive on the groomer trail to get in back of the rocks to go and park. Okay. So they walked their dogs. Well, we'll park there. Okay. So we're on the road. Yeah. Well, I'm not sure who's responsible for keeping that open. Who is it, Mary? Mary, do you have an answer to that inquiry? I think the answer is we need to communicate. Are you working for the gully jumpers with the groomer? Are you grooming? You live next door. Yeah. We just give, you can find my phone number in the, on the website or I can talk to you shortly. But it sounds like there's a communication problem. And we've had some parking problems on that site because so many people use the trail. Okay. We can't move the rocks because the rocks were put there in order to stop dumping. Oh, right. The trash is continues to be dumped there. I don't know how they get it back in the summer, even through the gate, but local people and our trail crew also go out and clean regularly, clean up the dump. So we, most issues can be worked out. Yeah. We just have to communicate. Thanks. So that comes back to the tax exempt. It does. Any other questions or discussion regarding article 15 on extending the tax exempt status of the two organizations that own the property? Any other questions or comments, seeing none, hearing none. Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of article 15, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. The ayes appear to have it, the ayes do have it, and you have adopted article 15. The next item is article 16 to transact any other business that may properly come before the meeting and using my moderator's discretion. I'd call upon our honorable state representative, Ella Chapin from East Montpilier, to give us a few words about what's happening at the state house. Ella, do you wanna speak here or do you wanna just use the mic? It's up to you. Thank you, everyone. Try here. How's that? Okay. Hi, I'm Ella Chapin. I'm your new legislative representative in the House of Representatives. And I'm here with my son, Ari, who I'll just embarrass just slightly. We're residents of East Montpilier for those of you who don't know. And I represent both East Montpilier and Middlesex in the House. I'm gonna keep it pretty short, but I'm gonna stick around for a little bit to chat with anyone about any issues of concern or interest. And I'm trying to be as responsive as I can via email and phone with constituents at any time. So it doesn't have to be today if you have other social engagements or wanna get to lunch. So let's see. Well, the legislature meets in person four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, from beginning of January until sometime in May or sometimes into June once we pass the budget. This is not exactly our halfway point, but pretty close. And the legislature is on break this week. And one of the big things that happens in the middle of the session, which is coming up in just another week after this, is what's called crossover. So right now, committees have been meeting, forming, getting to know each other. There's a third of the body in both the House and the Senate are new members. There's been a lot of education, a lot of getting to know the ropes. And bills are starting to pour out of committee now. And not a lot has passed the House and nothing has passed both the House and Senate except for the Budget Adjustment Act, which adjusts the current fiscal year's budget based on changes that have happened and new allocations that are being made for various reasons. So what's gonna happen over the next few weeks is a ton of bills are gonna be starting to come out of the House and on the other side out of the Senate. And then at crossover, which the deadline is in just a few weeks, that's when anything that gets passed out of the House can be looked at in the Senate this session in order to be potentially assigned to law this year and vice versa from the Senate to the House. Anything that doesn't make crossover can still be worked on by various committees and one of the two bodies, but not crossover to the other body until next session. And we work in a biennium every two years at the end. So this is the beginning of the biennium and after two years any bills that didn't make it through and become law are done, don't get re-looked at and they have to start anew in the following biennium. So that's just a little overview. So where we are right now, a ton of things are starting to come out of committee and get looked at by the full House. So so far this year we have passed, at the entire House has passed, like I said, the Budget Adjustment Act, we passed a shield bill to protect healthcare providers and patients related to both reproductive care as well as gender affirming care. So this doesn't change people's access to those things, residents in Vermont with their healthcare providers, but what does is shield Vermont providers and patients from other states laws in this new era of the Wild West of healthcare law. And I'm happy to explain more about that. It went through my committee, so I know a lot about it. By the way, I sit on the judiciary committee. So that's becoming quickly my area of expertise in the State House. So we work on civil rights and civil liberties, criminal and civil justice and the entire court system, violence prevention and public safety to some degree. So if you have interest in any of those bills, that's where I am most involved. We've also passed, the House has also passed an elections miscellaneous bill just last week that makes some various adjustments to election law would if it was passed as it passed the House, we'll see where it happens in the Senate. And we've also passed a variety of healthcare compacts that I think are really important making it easier for various types of providers to work across state lines. And that also I believe relates to telehealth. Right now, there's a lot of big bills being worked on in the House, paid family and medical leave. A lot of things related to housing, workforce development, childcare, which is particularly being worked on the Senate first that will come to the House in a few weeks. The Affordable Heat Act just passed the Senate and will now be in the House. We're working on a suicide, there's gonna be two different suicide prevention bills coming out of the House. And then of course the fiscal year 24 budget is something every committee is to some degree working on and our Appropriations Committee is working on and is along with the Transportation Bill. So a lot of big spending bills, capital bill as well. So I'm happy to share what I know about any of that at any time. I wanted to just explain that to reach me, and I have some reports I'll leave here and also I can email a full report. We have sort of committee summaries from every single committee about what's been happening and it's like a 13 to 15 page document. I'm happy to email that to you all. I also bought like a five page shorter version for I don't have copies for everyone but you can ask me and if I hand out as many as I have, happy to email that. So to reach me, you can email, call. I usually get back to folks within a few days. It might get a little tougher as things heat up but please know that you can reach me that way. If it's really, if you call the phone number that's on my sheet or on the legislative webpage for me, you can ask to send me a note that day if it's sort of urgent, if it's about a vote or you would like a phone call sooner because you have something that's really urgent. So you can also reach me that way. And one of the things that I can do is be a conduit. I can be a conduit to state agencies if you're having trouble getting through to someone. I can be a conduit to other committees who are actually working on a bill. I can talk to people I know on those committees. I know pretty much every committee I know at least one or two members pretty well. So I'm happy to sort of dig in and see if they're really gonna take something up or what they're thinking about a particular bill. So I'm happy to be that conduit as best as I can. And I also wanted to just mention that this is not our work in the legislature but we often hear about things that people want us to get out to constituents. And one is that Medicaid renewals are restarting for anyone who's on Medicaid now. They've been sort of, I get my understanding is sort of that hasn't, people have just been able to stay on Medicaid that has not, their eligibility has not been re-looked at during the pandemic and that's restarting in April. So I have some flyers about that if anybody wants one about how to go through that process and what that means for folks. And I also brought some flyers about from disability rights Vermont, disability rights Vermont if anybody is interested in any advocacy work on that front. So I think I'll stop there. I could take a couple of questions or I can just stick around and people can talk to me individually as they like. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions at this time for our state representative? Any questions for Ella while she's here and assembled? No, wow. Thank you. Again, article 15, any other business that may properly come before the meeting, not of which can be binding, hang on a second I got an important message from our page. The word from the kitchen is to stall. Thank you, Elliot. Nona, you have something? We were looking at 1130. So we're not doing that. I have a most attractive stall to present and it has to do with a dry subject but one that's very near and dear to my heart and to my husband Charles Johnson's zoning. We want to stay in East Montpelier Vermont. Thank you. We'd like to do what's called aging in place. However, I was young when I built my house and it didn't occur to me that a landing of three steps to a lovely little mud room and then a flight of stairs to go either up or down would very soon wrinkle on my planning brain. I wanted to live in something more appropriate for aging by the time I was 80. I love to plan but my husband doesn't and we are now still in our house and I'm 83 in me. Okay folks, if our zoning regulations were updated so that there were more appropriate setbacks and maybe changed frontages or other indicators that would make it possible for us to squeeze in another little house on our eight, 10 acres of a piece that looks like a Z, I would love it. And I have two kids and five grandchildren like many of you here, kids and grandkids have grown up. I have a kid, Hans Estrin, who works for the Extension Service in San Dermot but does most of his work up here and at UVM. He'd love to live here, he could move into our house. We have five grandkids, adults now, two still in college, three self-supporting, marvelous additions to any community. Our house is being eyed by them with a great deal of interest. Come on, let's do this. We've tried, everyone's wanted some changes. We've all tried to come to some agreements but it's really hard because everybody has different interests and we have concerns about our town and how it looks but I know we can come up with zoning regulations that will make it a little more friendly for people like me, older now, smaller lot, not a five-house lot, not a lot that you can subdivide but at least pop in another little granny house or house. Thank you. Any questions or response? Zach Sullivan. Yes, so I don't remember back here that chair of the planning commission. That's correct, yes, sorry. I'm the chair of the planning commission. I took over from Julie Potter and I'm about to take credit for a whole lot of stuff that Julie mostly did. We actually just completed an update to the zoning regs this summer and in that we made, we did significantly decrease the particular side and rear setbacks. So, and I'm blanking on whether we put that at 10 or 15 feet. I look it up every single time because I'm not, I don't always remember the trivia question but we did significantly reduce some of the setbacks. It is, and this came from state laws, well, anywhere you were allowed to build a house in East Montpelier or you have new residential uses, you can also have what's called an accessory dwelling unit what are sometimes you refer to as mother-in-law apartments. And so I think there is, within the current zoning there are some options for people to build, to add more housing. Either accessory dwelling units are also great as a potential source of rental housing. For, as we look at how do we create more affordable housing in the town, it is not just about how do we help people age in place or how do we have people's kids move in and say I still wanna have a place for myself as well. But it's also one of the ways that we could potentially increase the affordable housing stock in town. So those are, I think there are some options there. I don't know how many, I don't know how much appetite there is for additional significant changes to the zoning having just gone through it. I don't think it's good to constantly be changing the regs on people but I do think because this is so new not everyone may know that it's now easier to build accessory dwellings and there's more space to do it in. Kim, you had your hand up then Bruce. Oh, yeah, Kim Watson was next, so thanks Amelia. And then Bruce. I'm also on the planning commission and with the recent revisions and amendments to the plan to the zoning regulations, one of the difficulties we had is our seven acre area zone, which is our agricultural zone. And the consensus on the board was that they wanted to either keep it at seven or move it to 10. And as a member, I was against that because if everybody looks at our town maps, what you'll see is a lot of the conserved land was actually one acre zoning. And many of the conserved land along route 14 and even by the elementary school were potential for growth. Right now we need to really, really look at our ag land which is at seven acres and trying to reduce it to maybe five or even three throughout the whole East Montpelier to allow for this kind of increase in development. So that is, I would really highly recommend anybody looking at that that they come to the planning commission with some ideas of how we can get that done. Ruth Howard. So I wanna commend the zoning or the planning commission for their changes in the zoning. I like these changes when Julie's group first proposed them and just like Ford, of course. I wanna tell a quick story. In June, we were looking to get approval to build a new little sugar house in the middle of our farmstead. And I looked at the zoning and I was like, okay, there's a 75 foot setback. So this, even though it's right in the middle of all the buildings, we couldn't do it. So I spent a couple of weeks doing other things and then I got the paperwork together and I sent it to the state because it's an ag building, the state approves these things. And the state person got back to me and said, the setback's only 40 feet. So basically the zoning had got improved and updated in the time between, I started looking at it and the time the state got it and we could build it with no trouble. So this is a great addition to our farmstead that didn't require additional paperwork. So thank you guys. I just wanted to make one more pitch on Clarice Cutler for accessory dwelling units because under Julie's leadership, we also increased the maximum size of what those can be in the town. So they can be a little bit bigger. The maximum size of what? An accessory dwelling unit. Yeah, an ADU. And I also wanted to pitch that through the state there's funding up to $50,000 to build an accessory dwelling unit through Down Street. So for anyone who is interested in that kind of project, there's a lot of funding for it right now. Thank you. That's a good point. That's a good point. That won't people up. That's very good. No, no. Those are great accommodations. However, I just want to point out if you're trying to keep your property value, surprisingly affordable because you're hoping that your children or grandchildren will be able to afford it someday. Putting an extra dwelling on that property raises the value. It doesn't keep it affordable. It's a great accommodation while we're living but may not be so great for our purposes when we are no longer living. Any other questions or comments regarding the topic that was raised or any other business that may properly come before the meeting which cannot be binding? Ellen Canagler and then Carl Ednire. I just wanted to thank Rosie Lecaire and all the members of the Civil Board of Authority for the voting process because I really don't think we have any hijinks going on in this town and we're a bunch of rock solid, honest people. Thank you. Carl, other business. Yes, I'll just make a comment on the issue that you raised, Nona. And then I'd like to transition into something that the select board has talked about getting input from townspeople on and that is response to future health emergencies like the COVID pandemic. So on the issue that you raised, there is a bill that's going through the legislature right now that would have statewide implications for zoning. The idea is that we need more housing units built all over Vermont and the state can play a constructive role in making sure that zoning is more flexible about allowing more building. And as I understand the bill in its present form, everywhere that's zoned for a single family home would be if this bill passes allowed to build an additional single family home there, not just an accessory dwelling unit. So that's something that you're interested in and you could talk to somebody in the legislature about that. But the issue that we on the select board wanted to get input from folks here at the meeting and anybody else who would like to contact us is we've been through a rough several years here as we talked about before. We've not held town meeting in person for some years because of fears of spreading COVID at the meeting. We are now back together. And we have gone through times where the select board has declared a state of health emergency and discussed about mask mandates in town. We have listened to input from residents and business owners here and decided to go out with encouragement to people to wear masks in businesses rather than mandates. But we do have to some extent authority in the town to declare a health emergency and to take measures on our own. It needs to be by state statute approved by the health commissioner, Phil Scott as governor irrigated that function onto himself and decided to veto town measures after he ended the state of emergency in June of 2021. That is in principle available to us in the statutes. We also have control over the town office, whether it's open or closed, whether to impose mask mandates on the people coming in there. And this may not be the last time that we go through a health emergency like this. So just looking forward, drawing on the lessons of the last few years, like to hear from you, what you think is appropriate to be doing, and how should we be responding in the future? And with the moderator's permission, since this is a non-binding discussion and we won't be asking even, I don't expect to ask for any vote on anything. I'd like, and we don't have a school meeting these days where we get together in person for the East Molecular School District which doesn't exist anymore. Then I think it's okay to talk about school-related measures here. Just like to get input from the town. Any responses to Carl's inquiry about what, if any, steps the town should take regarding any future health emergencies that may or may not arise? Yes. Renee, yeah. This is slightly on the side, but after the storm we had, have you talked about warming places and that kind of thing? Because I don't think we had any of those available. I'd like to authorize a committee that Rachel Grossman had asked us to put together to consider special town emergency management measures for something like that. And there is training available, I think it's March 18th, through the folks in Calis that opened up a warming center at the elementary school for the first time during the December storm. So there's training for people who want to get involved in that. And I've been talking with the folks in Calis, I'll make sure that somebody else here will make sure that something gets out on front porch forum about that. So thank you for that. Any other, Sarah Kinter. Hi, during COVID, I think it was about a year ago or less, I found the select board extremely accessible and responsive to my questions and concerns about COVID. In terms of talking to businesses, communicating, you can call them at home. I don't know if that's still true. And so they're there. They're there to help and communicate. Thanks. Thank you. There's also a lot of information on the website now. We've updated the emergency protocols. I think Gina put a lot of stuff on the website about phone numbers, et cetera, et cetera. So there is a lot of information on the website. Now we've updated. Thanks, Seth. Any other questions or responses regarding Carl's inquiry or anything else that may properly come before the meeting? I don't see any. That being it. I'm looking for adjournment. There's a motion by Mr. Brock to adjourn. Is there a seconded by Becky Reed? Maybe we could stroll to the cafeteria so we don't. They're not ready until 1130 so you can stretch and do whatever we need to do. March 7th, 2023, 1117 a.m. All those in favor of adjournment, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you to our three pages as well for all their help.