 Right. I like to call the, uh, select town of Essex, select board meeting to order for Monday, October 4th, 2021. Um, first item on the agenda is, uh, additions or changes. Any changes from the board? Uh, just a quick clarification. Can I pull the minutes from September 22nd? Yup, you can do that. I mean, so we'll pull those out and do those, uh, this at the end. Um, all right. I have a motion to amend the agenda. All right. I'm sorry. I make the motion when you approve the agenda as amended. Thank you. Thank you, Don. Have a second. Thank you, Tracy. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passes for zero. We will do the review the minutes, uh, at the end of the business item. Okay. Um, okay. Next, uh, thing on the agenda is the, uh, public to be heard. This is a time for the public to address the board on items that are not on the agenda. Um, if you'd like to address the board, uh, either raise your hand in the teams application or post a comment in chat that you'd like to speak if you're online or in the room, you can raise your hand. Uh, please be brief. Um, I ask that you be civil and refrain from using inappropriate language. Um, if you have remarks, please address your marks to me as a select board chair. Um, please do not attack other members of the public or town staff. Um, please do not interrupt others when they have the floor. If you are online, um, please, uh, keep yourself muted until you are acknowledged and given the floor. Um, also it's helpful if, uh, if you're online to keep your, your camera off unless you're speaking to avoid distraction or others. Um, miss anything? Okay, I think we got enough to make notes so they're trying to say everything the same every time. Uh, okay. So, uh, I, the only hand I see online is Mary post. Go ahead, Mary. This is a little strange. Um, I'm, I'm contacting you because my neighbor Betsy Dunn is waiting to speak and no one's let her in yet. And I said that I would let you know that. I, we don't see her waiting in the lobby. Did she join? When was she joined tomorrow's meeting? No, she's trying to join right now, but all, you know what I'll do is I'll call her back and tell her that she should try to get in. Maybe something's wrong. Yeah, we don't, we don't see her even attempting to join. Okay, I will let her know that. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Thanks. We have a meeting tomorrow also. There may be some confusion. Or she can try to call in as well or, um, if she wants to email me her phone number, I can try to call her. Yeah, if you haven't had any success when we get to that point of the agenda. Thank you. I think she's listening, but I'll let her know anyway. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mary. I see Margaret Smith. Go ahead, Margaret. Hi, I'm looking for the agenda. I pulled up the top agenda on a list which said. Monday, October 5th. And so I was looking at that agenda for several minutes before it occurred to me that there's actually an error on the website. So it might be that she's trying to log in Tuesday meeting where it actually says that it's Monday's meeting on the website. It's just a thought that that might be possible. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Margaret. Yeah, we were, we were noticing. I don't remember. Yeah, go ahead. Um, in, if you're on the agenda center on the town website under select board, the top one is October 5th, which is tomorrow's meeting. We're on October, October 4th, the second listing down that will give you the right agenda and the right call and information. And I apologize for the confusion. We'll have the correct agendas up tomorrow. Because you're saying they're in the wrong sequence on the. No, it's just chronological. So the earliest is at the top. So it's the top one is tomorrow's because it had to be warned. Now the second one down is October 4th, which is night. Correct agenda. It does say Monday, October 4th on the agenda. Okay. Okay. All right, so hopefully Betsy can hopefully best he can hear us and wish he can join. Right. I don't see any other. Hands off online. That seems to be empty any public comment from the room. See any. So let's move on to. Business item 5 a, which is interview and potential appointment for Lauren Cohen for the conservation trails committee. Lauren, are you online? You're on the phone. Okay. So you're the phone, right? So you're the 1st of several this evening for this, this. Committee we have 4 open seats, I believe at this point. So the what, what we'll do and I'll explain the process here so everyone can hear it up front is that we will. We'll ask you to introduce yourself. Explain, I'll give you give us some information about your background, explain why you'd like to be a member of the committee. Then the board will have the opportunity to ask questions and then. Given that we have 6 candidates for 4 seats, we will. Go into executive session at the end of the meeting. And then. At the end of the end of the night, we will come out of executive session and potentially if we come to agreement, we will appoint members to the committee. And then town staff will notify those that actually will notify everyone. Tomorrow. We assume we kind of a consensus time. Miss anything. Okay. All right. So, Lauren, go ahead. Tell us about yourself. Tell us why you would like to be a member of the committee and you'll have a few minutes. Go ahead. Okay. Timing of this I'm driving while I'm not driving, but I'm in the car. Driving in the rain. So if I can't hear me, let me know. So, as you stated, my name is Lauren Gaffney Cohen. I have spent most of my life in Vermont. I grew up in ethics, but a history of when I moved back to Vermont to have a family I first started working with the recreation department in ethics before moving on to a career in real estate. So I have that background in seeing the town end of working on the wreck department. And then also seeing on the real estate side of the value that folks find when they're looking for not just a house, but a place to live. So I certainly have that interest as far as the trails and the recreation and my family does a lot of hiking and biking and I really see the importance, especially now with every everyone moving in the direction to reduce, you know, energy use and to go green and to find alternative ways of transportation. And I see a lot of commuters. We're getting longer into the season or starting earlier now with some e-bikes and have needing to have that connectivity within our own community and would love to see sx be a leader in that promotion for both commuters and for kids getting to activities on bike or on foot, as well as using them for recreation. Part of I had had interest in joining the committee I think was back in the spring and that I had applied. But I had a conversation with a woman at my child's school drove to pick up my kid, and she is less than three quarters of a mile from school and walks with her stroller to pick up her son. And there's no sidewalk from her house or crosswalk for half that path and just felt like such a short way to walk and have to walk on such a busy route 15. But I also see the preservation side of it too. I have a background in history. I was a major history major. I also worked with the at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts before moving back to Vermont. So I certainly see the need to preserve history, as well as the, maybe I'm going to long recreational areas in our town. All right, great. Thank you, Lauren. Any questions from the board. Go ahead. Hi, Lauren. Thank you for joining us tonight. You're welcome. Can you talk a little bit about your time with the Essex person, right? I see that you were in a distant program for coordinate. Yeah, I wanted to make sure I got it right. But yeah, given that connection to Essex and the municipality already. You could just explain maybe a little bit of what you did there, how you found the experience, that sort of thing. Sure. So I even go back to director Pete, when I was in high school working with the junction and the town after school programs, and then, but my most recent position there was working under Ali vial assistant program coordinator and I coordinated the fall soccer program, the summer camp, the explorers, the after school programs. I just mentioned that my, my experience with that was, I really love getting people involved as much as possible, especially, I mean, I can't imagine being in that position now with the distance but having people come in person and, and encouraging people to go to more community events and, and my family certainly attend, you know, we'll be going to the trick or treat trail and go to as many of those many events because I think that's really important to bring everyone together and, and I feel like we could use even more help at the rest department so we can accomplish more as a community. Great. Thank you. Welcome. Any other questions. All right, so Lauren, my, my favorite question to ask is whether you feel you have anything unique that you bring to the table that others on the committee might not, might not have. I don't know what others have I'm, I'm sure there's a lot of great candidates out there. I think the, the perspective that I bring to it. I had a little, a little bit to do with with my work on the, the job side. I see people not just looking at a house as a house now when they're buying a home, but looking at I've had to discount a property because there's just, there's no trail or there's no way for my kid to walk or bike to school I can't commute or I want to live here so I can commute to school or I could walk to the hospital from here and I'm seeing a greater importance of that and, and the value in that, as well as, you know, the, the committee is not just about trails but the historic background. You know, I worked with giving tours at the armory and, and highlighting the importance of understanding our history and why it's so important for our present and future. Thank you. Thank you. No other, no other board questions. All right, thank you, Lauren. As I said earlier, we'll go into executive session. Late this evening, hopefully not too late. And someone will be in contact with you tomorrow. Okay, thank you. Thanks. All right, so let's move on to Shannon Jackson, come on up to the microphone and introduce yourself and let us know what your interest is and welcome. Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you having this meeting tonight and welcoming you as an interviewee. I also grew up in Essex. I'm a proud graduate of the high school. And I feel very fortunate to boomerang back here, much like Laura just mentioned. I closed on a house on Monday a week ago. So we are in the process of unpacking everything and I could not be more excited and more thrilled to be, you know, immersing myself back in the community I grew up in. During my time away, went to school down in DC, and then I hit the campaign trail and worked for Senator Sanders for over a decade. And I've always, you know, while it was growing up having a want to be involved in the community and serve both on the student council as well as on ships and a variety of organizations in town. I've always wanted to have that part of my life balanced where I am servicing and, you know, giving my time and volunteering. And I'm very active. My father and I hiked the long trail last summer. We did a through hike and a wonderful time together and on that we really made a promise to each other that we wanted to really embrace the beauty of Vermont and the natural beauty. And when the front porch forum post came up about this, I thought that, you know, a lot of perfect scenarios were colliding. I would love to embrace. I want to be involved in my community even more. I would love to give back and help organize people similar to what I did on the Bernie campaign in which we brought the other people from all walks of life to, you know, be involved in a mission that they believed in. And while this is not healthcare for all or something, you know, of that magnitude, I think it's something that really will resonate with people even more. Talking about, you know, being invested in your backyard and improving and, you know, continuing to maintain the incredible resources we have already here. Having grown up in Indian Brook and Saxon Hill and the many, you know, the tree farm, all the trail networks and the beauty that our great town has. I'm really excited to be part of it again. I'm excited to bring my skills to the table and do what I can to make it even stronger than it is already. Great. Thanks, Shannon. Any questions? Go ahead, Pat. You mentioned the Essex chip. So I'm assuming when you were a team or growing up here in Essex or have you been involved with them? It's coming back. Yeah, yeah, no. I was going to, I mean, I'll let you, you know, sort of explain the connection, but, you know, I wanted to be here if you've maybe given any thoughts to, you know, how a committee like Conservation of Trails might work with like Essex chips, you know, where, you know, it seems like introducing, you know, our youth to the trail systems in Essex, you know, just pop my head seemed like a powerful or great idea. So I don't know if you have any other organizations that you, you know, maybe kind of linked to, but if you could talk a little bit about, you know, maybe what you might want to do on the CTC with, you know, and we'd link that to other groups that you've been involved with. Absolutely. No, you're right there with me. I'm on the same wavelength. When I grew up in Essex, and only enjoyed the teen center, but I also had the privilege of serving on their board as one of the student members. It was under, and Brad luck was involved and then right coffee. So I was there for two years and, you know, I loved being a leader in the community, even at a young age, but really, I think that's a great resource and I think they have a lot of great programs there already. I'm sure they're already involved to some degree. I know that last weekend, maybe two weekends ago, you had the Indian bro cleanup, and then sitting in on that committee, which I thank them for that opportunity as well. I know that they had talked about how they're getting the schools involved how they're getting, you know, posting it in coffee shops and things like that, putting it on the website. And I think there are a lot of ways to tap into these already existing networks and, you know, established coalitions to get them to even more so take part in, you know, green up day and, you know, other things we do to already rehabilitate and, you know, therefore the, the trails and the resources we have here established and I'm also very excited about the possibilities of what we can do even further. I know, you know, just off the cuff that that meeting there was kind of thrown around how we could expand the network or make it safer or look for other ways to strengthen our community, whether it was through the preservation and conservation side or it was safe streets. I know that, you know, I'm not I'm sure all six of these candidates myself included are going to make the top decision tonight, but I know just sitting here listening to what the previous candidate spoke about about her perspective as a real estate agent and that people are viewing this holistic view of a community not just my neighborhood my plot of land. I think there's going to be a lot of potential and excitement to work with. Great. Thank you. Any other questions, race here Don. I'll ask my, my favorite question again you may have already answered it but if there's any more to add what you know what do you think you have that you unique that you bring to the table for the committee. Well I think everyone brings from special sauce to the equation here. I think that I bring a youth perspective or a younger perspective, I can say youth anymore. But I think it's important to get fresh blood involved. And while I am returning blood, I do feel that, you know, I want people my generation and younger and older and everyone to be involved but I think that during the COVID pandemic I was living in Burlington for the past three years and I got together with some of the city counselors and we put together every month we had a food drive which we went around to all the large, you know, great harvest and the cheese traders and jazz and price chopper and everything else and made it so that we had a community held food drive. And we had hundreds of families coming every time to get these, you know, pretty decent banks that would feed them for a week. And I loved tapping into the skills I had developed as a campaigner. I loved using my, what is it called extroverted sense of personality to connect with anybody and everybody to get them involved, whether it was asking them to do their part as a business in the community, asking them to help pick up groceries and drive them to the site, help them bag, help them pass out, help them monitor traffic. I feel that I have a good sense of how to organize and delegate, which is not always a skill that is easily done. And I would love to take my talents and bring them to this committee. Great. Thank you. And welcome back to access. Ah, couldn't be happier. So you grew up in Pinewood. I did. Yeah, okay. My wife is Janet Carlson. Oh, no way. Yeah. Your neighbor. Absolutely. Yeah, my folks are still on rustic. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Yep. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next candidate, Rusty Brink on the microphone. Same deal. Whoops. Give you the opportunity to introduce yourself. Tell us why you'd like to be on the committee. Right. Last question. First of all, I'd like to say thank you for including me into Linda for coordinating my integration of the system. I was influenced by really what Shannon said, the, the front porch form had a vacancy for the conservation and trails committee. And I thought, geez, that would be something that I focused on a good part of my life. And so I ought to, I ought to apply. And I quickly found out that there were six other or five other people who were interested in doing that. I just thought, gee, you really needed somebody to do that. And I thought that was a good idea. Quickly, I'm born in Madison, Wisconsin, grew up in Eastern Massachusetts, came here on a football scholarship in 1962 to attend the University of Vermont. And basically I've been connected here with the exception of 20 years where I took a job in Charlotte, North Carolina and another job in Florida. As I mentioned earlier, Andy, when we came in, I, my wife and I sort of had a contest about coming back to Vermont. We have 11 grandchildren, native of them are in Vermont. And so it was a, it was a hands down vote come back to the grandkids. And that is what we did. And we've been thrilled. We built up in Stonebrook Circle. Professionally, I was a fundraiser for 50 years. And that may be the answer to your question, Andy, the unique experience that I bring to the table because I worked with individuals in helping to identify issues for them in sharing their estate with others, particularly with respect to land. Although I didn't do an awful lot of it, it did happen and it was an important discussion to have. As, as, as Shannon said and Lauren said before him, community is important and I applaud you folks for what you do for the community. I, I thought in some small way, perhaps I could contribute on the trails and conservation committee. I go all over the state, Killington, Pico, Mount Mansfield, both sides, Jeffersonville and the White Mountains, the presidential range at Mount Washington a number of times. Not that that makes me competitive for a position like this. It's only an indication of where my interests lie. And I'm active with Lake Champlain now as well as as well as the Green Mountain Club. I have to admit, though, in the last two and a half years, and Patrick may know a little bit about this in the last two and a half years. Some of my conservation focus has shifted because of the importance to Kathy and me of work with devastation, at least in our hemisphere with hurricanes, fires, et cetera, et cetera, and, and food insecurity. I'm active with the Rotary Club here and in serve with Patrick and we try to do an awful lot with our community in terms of reaching in and engaging in activities that will benefit the community and people that are less that are more disadvantaged. So without going too far, we happen to answer any questions, but that's basically a 50 year professional career in philanthropy and still do a little bit on the side. Now, if you're going to work with the Rotary Club, you know, Patrick makes me go out and raise money when I have to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. But, but it is important. I really, I mean, I worked in nonprofits my whole career. That was all I ever did. And, and if I can be of help to this committee and to our community, I'm happy to do so. Thanks. Thanks, Rusty. Any questions? Well, I was going to mention it, but Rusty brought it up already that we do know each other from Rotary. Just wanted to make sure that that connection was public. Rusty, could you talk a little bit about your community service specifically here in Essex? You know, I know that through the Rotary, you know, there's different things that we do. I think, you know, having that, or at least knowing, you know, I know it, but, you know, knowing some of your history of, you know, what you've done here in the community, I think would be great. And then I kind of have a follow up question as well. It might be quicker to answer your philanthropic activities that you did. And any of that also involved writing or considered going after like France, something that I think we might expect or want the conservation? It did to a certain degree, but I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't want to peg my competitiveness in this position for my ability to write grants. Certainly we had to do that an awful lot. You know, the big story in fundraising is when they asked Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. He said, that's because where the money is. And today, and today when I started 20% of the individuals who contributed 80% of the dollars, now it's closer to 95%. And so in so successful philanthropy, I mean, we all try to get people involved to develop pride and engagement. But you really need to be talking with people about how their investments in their community or healthcare and education are my two things. So you needed to convince people about what their gift was going to impact. And I'm sure for Shannon, when he went out to talk to donors for Senator Sanders, they did the same thing. You know, talking about what different Sanders are going to make in the life of their community and state and nation. Great. Thank you. You talked about hiking in Mansfield, Bolton and Camel something telling them, what is your experience here with the local trails and local schools? Very modest. You know, obviously, I would say probably most people do Indian Brook. We live in Stonebrook, which is above Pinewood. And there are many trails going through Pinewood. And so those are activities that I've done. At this stage in my life, my hiking ability is much less limited than what it was when I was much younger man. So I'm more thoughtful about where I go. But Indian Brook is good. That's a great resource. But I don't want to paint that too broadly. I've been there probably four or five times. That's fine. Thank you. Any other questions? Resta, you already answered mine, so I won't make you repeat it. Great. Thank you folks. Thank you for your work. Thank you for coming forward. We'll let you know tomorrow, hopefully. All right. And I did see that Betsy Dunn was able to join online. Betsy, feel free to turn your camera back on. Yes, I can. So go ahead, Betsy. Let us introduce yourself and let us know why you'd like to be on the committee. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. My name is Betsy. Well, so actually Elizabeth Dunn. I go by Betsy and I have lived in Essex for 36 years. And during that 36 years, I was a full-time nurse at Fletcher Allen, and I was the MCHP before that, and then something else, and then you'd be an emcee. But I've served my community that way, and then I served my community when I retired from that position as a full-time person working down in our legislature. And then I did that for only one biennium. My oldest sister developed Alzheimer's and stage 4 lung cancer, and I felt the most important thing I could do was to be with her for the last year and a half of her life. And since that has happened and she has died, I have been spending my time during COVID hiking. I hike a lot of the town trails, and I've also hiked trails within the northern part of the state. And I found some similarities between how the trails are treated and cleaned and taken care of. And I have a passion about making it more accessible and easier for people to figure out where the trails are, because a lot of people don't know where the access leads are to get into the trails. They know there's somewhere around there, but where do we go? So signage is a little bit of a problem there. I believe that during COVID, we saw in our neighborhood of Tanglewood, the virtual area that has got direct access from all the streets into the Matthew Forest, an increase of people hiking and walking the trails. Since COVID has kind of slowed down in the sense that we were able to get out, there are less people hiking again. I'd like to be able to rejuvenate that and keep people out for not only just being outside, but for their health and well-being being outside. I think I have a background. I was a biology teacher for a little bit before I was a nurse. And I think it's great that we have as many people wanting to be on the trails commission, the trails and conservation committee, because there's a lot of work to be done with conservation. And with, as I said, the maintenance of the trails, maybe all of us should be put onto the trails and conservation committee, so that if there are people who have better instincts around the conservation, they can work on that while other people are doing the work on the trails. That's just a thought. And for me, it's that we have two predators in our woods. We have the emerald ash borer and we have this gypsy moth. And I think we need to do a study of how many trees are being affected by these things. And what about we, how many trees that we have that we could clean up ourselves and what else can we do for them? I think that having a, on some of the trails that I've been on during this last year and a half or almost two years now, some of the trails had markers underneath of the trees. And this is what this tree is. And identifying it. And maybe we're going to put them on to find that it's hard to make those little signs, maybe for the kids who are coming. As parents, you have signage and saying these are the trees that are in our forests and these are how they look. And can you find them? How many can you find as you're walking the trails? I think there's a lot of little things that we can do. And I would be happy. And I would enjoy being part of that. I don't have any raising money background. I didn't raise money when I ran for office. That was a successful thing for me. But I'm happy to help out in any way. What do I bring to the committee? I bring to this committee energy, focus, and I'm a problem solving. Any questions? Thank you, Betsy. You've always let us off. Well, I know Betsy, we've had lots of interaction over the last, you know, two years. So, yeah, I think I'm okay. I think I'm okay. All right. And you already anticipated my question and addressed it in your remarks. That's, I guess I didn't say earlier that we're doing this. Previously, before we had hybrid meetings where some people were in person, some people were online, we would ask folks to leave the room. So you didn't hear the questions and the answers for the other candidates, but with the mixed situation here of some people online and some people in the room is somewhat logistically harder to do. So you got the benefit of hearing the questions ahead of time. Oh, Don, I guess Don has a question. Betsy, you mentioned that the trails needed markings so that people could figure out where they went, where they started and where they ended. What else do you see as a major problem with our trail system, or the way we're conserving our resources? Well, some of the tales, I mean, I am very fortunate to have my father in modeling with me. He's 95 year old world tour to that and he goes out there in height. But his stamina is less. And I think that all of our trails are wonderful and people want to finish them, but sometimes they just run out of steam, but they build it back up. And I think that we could have a lot of fallen logs and logs that have been cut by our maintenance team that come out and cut them off of the trail when they fall. We could take some of those and make them little stumps for people to sit on or have benches on so that people could sit, wait, or even people who just want to sit and observe the older book, the stream and watch the animals who come to it and get water. I think there's a lot of things you can do to make it easier. When I looked at the essence park and wreck folder that I got in the mail, they said these are the essence parks trails and open spaces they certainly didn't include them all. But Woodside, the Woodside property isn't there. And there's a wonderful trail system there behind Woodside. And now that Mike's has given us trails that are across the road from them and they, they segue right into the Woodside trails, they should be incorporated into our trails. And I think that on our website for the trails and conservation commission, I'd like to see a PDF of each of the trails there, so that people can download those and take them with them when they're going on the trail to be able to make sure they're finding the parts that they want to do. I think that would really be very helpful. I'd also be interested in our conservation in the sense of what we have a lot of people who like to do birding. How many birds are using our lakes and our streams that we have. I think that would be an interesting thing to get a handle on. As well as I said the emerald ash for and the gypsum out there, those are a huge problem that we have to really be aggressive, I think, and looking at. And the foul and I had something else on my mind, but I, that's, is that good. Is that answer your question on. It does. Thank you. All right. Any other questions. All right, thank you, Betsy. Again, we will, we'll have an executive session discussion later and we'll, you'll hear, hopefully here tomorrow. Let me ask one thing I was really serious because these two commission with two parts to this committee used to be two, two committees or one commission and one committee. But you have people who want to help. I think it's interesting if we could have them all so that we could have a little bit more focus on working on the conservation because they are we might need someone who's helping us with, you know, grant writing like Rusty who is just speaking that maybe getting some money to us that we don't have to take from the town that we could see that's necessary. I think that that is a really good idea. I think that there's a lot of work to be done. Thanks Betsy. I think the history here is that the use that the committees used to be used to be two separate committees. I think it was, it was difficult the staffing both of them are getting volunteers for both. It was volunteers yet. Probably about six or seven years ago that the two committees combined and the membership expanded from five members of each to seven members total and the reason was staffing was pretty good. It used to be the recreation department staff, the thrillers committee, the planning department staff, the conservation committee, and they each just would go through these ebbs and flows of not even having enough members to have a forum. And so there was interest in both and after speaking to the members of the time and the select board, the select board agreed to combine the two conservation and trails they used to meet together jointly anyways for for half their meeting to review a lot of the stuff together and that was That's the history behind it but yeah it was largely based around just lack of interest and difficulty getting getting volunteers to step up. Thank you. I misspoke when I said when I said staffing earlier. Oh, no, yeah. Volunteers. I'm having enough volunteers staff and that perspective not staff and employees. All right. All right. Thanks Betsy. I guess that finishes our interviews and again we'll have a discussion later. Moving on to business item he thank you for everybody who who attended. Feel free to stay for the rest of the meeting if you like. And we'll go back to you tomorrow. Moving on to business item five e consider approval of.