 Well, our top guys I remember about the roundabout. Yeah, and yeah, you actually brought a recording So a follow-up into order at 7 o'clock we have two minutes to look at sets of minutes to look at tonight So first one is the minutes of January 8th, 2019 Is there a motion so moved do I hear a second? Page one One thing I'm page two. I'm on the last paragraph of Item number five which started on the previous page and the doc in this sentence says the documents will be updated So I'm wondering which documents and why will they be updated because it makes it appear that they'll be updated because of the funding issue and I thought it was because of the discovery of the gasoline tank Underground storage tank She did say that but I don't recall what she meant by that. So I would see just striking that sentence You know it's on page two page three I Just had one thing under the water sewer stone water fund the Last bullet that says stormwater rates show an increase. I don't think they do I thought I picked up believe it or not Terry. I picked up the same thing. I thought they're going to stay level again Yeah, that is the proposal. Yes So they will not show an increase Anything else on page three Page four Ever of approving the minutes of January 8th 2019 say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That we have the minutes of January 14th 2019 as their emotion so moved. This is your second One only page one if there's no comments or corrections and All those in favor of approving the minutes of January 14th 319 say aye. Aye. Aye Any opposed and more abstention? On into public comment. Was there anyone in the audience who was to make any public comment tonight? hands raised Then we'll move on to item number for the redetermination requests regarding the common level of appraisal for 2018 Rick You have a memo from Bill Hinman talk about Okay each of the state office of property and Evaluation review completes analysis of property values across the state in effort to make adjustments to each town's grand list values So the values are based on market value rather than assess value. It's known as the common level appraisal or CLA So town assessor Bill Helm him and looked at our report this year and there's a discrepancy between The study has two numbers in it has a 94.7 percent and an aggregate indicated of 96.03 percent Bill spoke with the state to say why are there two different summary numbers in the report? And the state didn't have an answer yet. They need to do a little more research on it So the town has the opportunity to appeal the CLA within a specified time frame It's coming up this week. So Bill's recommendation is that the board appeal the CLA so we can have more time to figure out why these numbers are Basis for an appeal to have this adjusted so motion before the board tonight to consider that Can I ask the the implications of this are two so our school funding is somehow or the amount we're We're paying into school funding as adjusted by this. How does this affect us? Is it school funding primarily? Okay, all right, and it would cost us enough Like a percent or something more we would or is it just look at numbers a little closely But I know just trying to understand Yeah, okay Okay, and we did this last year as well, right but last year was a big disconnect We won the appeal last year, right? Yeah, okay This appeal is really just correct me if I'm wrong this appeal is really more about clarification than it is Feeling like we're being misrepresented in terms of what it should actually be. Yeah The state didn't have an answer for bill exactly so we're putting up against the timeline to appeal So this kind of buys us some more time to further figure out why those two numbers are different If we didn't do this we'd have to stick with the CLA that's been addressed in the report Quickly it also has one other number for CLA C which is the 95 point nine two which The residential study So I was just trying to figure out what are the three numbers and maybe that's what the appeals about is I think I took it as The difference between the ninety five point nine two and the ninety four point seven if the night if it's ninety four point seven It seems like Paying an extra percent But that was my interpretation. Maybe it's wrong I don't know exactly. I know, you know, it's talking about the aggregate number two of the ninety six point oh three The assessor would have to answer this exactly, but I guess the end point is the two numbers are different That number is very close to our the residential study Which I think again, I took maybe in the future we can ask Bill to be clear But I took the residential study as Being you know our study and maybe it wasn't I don't know I'm gonna walk through the differences But I still think we should follow through on the appeal to preserve our Whatever preserve our ability to get clarification and then agree or disagree But it does beg the question. I mean are we appealing you know as a number to apt to go down or go up I guess it's hard to tell from his memo because I would think and the way I interpreted is he was doing it to Represent the town to see our numbers Go lower. I would hope so Anyway, it would be good to have clarity in the future Bottom line is that if we appeal it and win that it looks like that our tax obligations will go down does So, how do you I'm trying to figure how did you why would we appeal something if our tax obligations gonna go up? I guess that that well that was my point because you know, I'm trying to figure out Is it really the difference between the 95 92 and the 90? 4.7 or is it something different? Yeah, my interpretation was it's a difference between 94.7 and 96.03 In the second paragraph, but okay, which is okay, so okay So it's about a percent a little more than a percent Yeah, okay So we would get a motion in order to do this Authorize the chair of the select board to file a petition with the director of property evaluation and review for Redetermination of the town's equalized education property value Just sorry, I should have asked this as a question before The the letter the memo from bill talks about our district advisor And I was unclear who our district advisor is or what hit that person's role is Mr. Roger Kilburn from the state, I think Okay, so he's he's a state employee with the tax department I assume yeah assigned to our area signed out, okay good enough great. Thank you For the discussion on the motion It's not a lot since here the motion say aye Any opposed and no extensions And we'll move on then to a general fund loan to this stormwater fund Eric I think you're talking about that too. Yep introduces to the board tonight So we're looking at our stormwater loan program and it's been highly successful in its first year a number of neighborhoods taking advantage of this Quicker than we originally anticipated So we know Meadow Ridge has phase two of its project This is remind the board probably the largest set the largest project that is being undertaken and Wilson Commons is also pursuing With these are out to bid that So looking at this our reserves in our stormwater fund. We do not have enough funds to make these loans at this point they're Looking at the memo here. There's estimated funding gap about $480,000 These are both out to bid so the exact numbers will come in when when the bids are open in February But once a tool that the town can look at is an inner fund loan for circumstances like this and we're looking at Proposal to loan from the general fund to the stormwater fund That's main $500,000 the term of five years with an interest rate of And their fund loans a tool municipalities can lose can use in circumstances like this where public benefits are expected and there exists a Loss opportunity if expected projects are deferred because the loan is not made Interest is charged. So I thought as if that money was sitting in the general fund still and earning interests over that period of time Don't want to lose that opportunity. So interest is charged when the stormwater fund would pay that back to the general fund but I guess That's the one thing I mean other than that I mean, I thought this was a pretty straightforward situation But given that we've had difficulty spending our general fund making it go down, right? And we had trouble again last year Why do we need to charge interest? What does that I mean, what does it really mean when we're charging interest against because we're not asking the Loaners the actual loaners of the money to pay that back, right? We're still charging them the 1% because we have You know, we've written some policy on those stormwater loans, right? That charges one. I think it's 1% One and a half percent one and a half. Oh, thank you. One and a half percent. So Why charge why charge interest above what we're bringing in or why charge? I guess why charge interest at all given that we're having trouble spending the money in the first place I guess if I could if I could because I have this I had the same sort of thoughts Yeah, and my rationale for agreeing with it's a good idea is The general fund affects all residents of the town It's a fund that affects all of them where the loan program is a certain segment of the residents of town So the concept is is we shouldn't be in a sense It's probably not a big penalty but Penetrating all the residents when they aren't going to be making as much the town is going to be making as much on the General fund as it would by giving a loan with let's say no interest rate That was the rationale I But the interest is coming from Just from another town fund. It's not right, but another town fund that only affects ace ace or the different population Wait a minute, so From the general fund to the stormwater fund to be able to provide Loans to homeowner associations For stormwater, which is for the whole town. It's Sure, isn't the isn't the stormwater fund the stormwater that Was for pudson for development. Oh, of course. I understand but I mean the stormwater fund isn't a limited fund for just These few neighborhoods. It's a fun for the whole town because we have many stormwater projects that are paid for by Well, everybody's taxed on stormwater So everybody has a share of store and that's I believe that's correct The difference I see here is that the loan is so that the town can continue through the stormwater fund to provide Loans to the homeowner association so that they can do the projects. They need to do to get their stormwater systems up to Standards I don't have the right word there so that the town can take them over So it's that concept of the loans that go out of the stormwater fund to homeowners associations is what to me Says it's a limited segment of the residents in town But you're charging all the homeowners for that 2% you're not really it's not really I Understand your concept, but it's not really causal because you're not Charging the people that are using it that 2% you're charging the rest of the homeowners that 2% Putting them and then just putting the money into the general fund I'm trying to understand the ration. I'm still struggling with the rationale for charging residents 2% when we really have More than enough money in our general fund one and if we really wanted to make it causal we would charge metal ridge because I Correct me if I'm wrong Rick. I'm sure you will but We we we had this concept of a staged Implementation of neighborhoods such that we wouldn't have this situation happen So why are we allowing ourselves to get me? We're putting ourselves in the situation because we're allowing ourselves to get in front of that staging, right? we're not We're not managing that that introduction of new construction per our fund our fund balance which I Fundamentally I don't have a problem with us. I just don't understand the 2% because we're just charging homeowners for it Not metal ridge. We're charging all homeowners because it's not really That okay that aside I think there still is a fiduciary duty by the town to invest that money in the general fund wisely and to just forego that interest is not It's a breach of a fiduciary duty as far as I'm concerned with regard to those funds You can sit there and argue who should be paying the interest within the stormwater fund at Nazem But I don't think that you have the right to sit there and that we have the right to sit there and say no interest in the general fund Yeah, but it's just be we're just charging Taxpayers that were they put the money in there and we're charging them again because it's their money That we put in there and we're kind of charging them I guess it doesn't seem to make sense to me. That was my that's my point So I would maybe a simpler way of looking at is we have an enterprise fund that's borrowing money from the town general fund yeah Shouldn't that enterprise fund because it's supposed to stand on its own without support from the tax base shouldn't they pay interest to the people the Fund that's loaning the money and so and that would apply to any enterprise fund that we have Yeah, water sewer stormwater But what that those fees are just going to get paid then by homeowners There There is a differentiation between Who pays as part of the general tax base and who pays under the enterprise fund set up and it's it's not necessarily at the same proportion Which is exactly why we set up the enterprise fund to begin with So what is this? This is 2% of 500,000. That's a $10,000 10,000 dollars It's it's not a huge number so I mean I don't want to debate it Like Joy said ad nauseam, but I don't doesn't fundamentally make sense to me But get given our fund balance and in our difficulty in driving it down. So and then also why are we wire has had we questioned the policy of getting ahead of our Getting ahead on construction of our fund balance because I thought that was going to be managed in a way that we didn't have this problem So it's kind of a question back to you why didn't The board has absolutely we can delay some of these projects. No, no, but why wasn't it? I mean why wasn't it? This work getting done sooner rather than later and it's to the benefit of neighborhoods because Presumably there's no guarantee on this but presumably projects done now will be less expensive Later that isn't necessarily true because right now things are going quite well economically two years from now when it when we have or if and when we have recession maybe things will be cheaper, but yeah, yeah Generally, we don't try to Time the market so that we can do these kinds of construction projects Okay, so the One and a half percent is being paid by metal Ridge, right? I would almost say that you should We should make that one and a half percent and then that percentage is paid my matterage Alternatively you could tell matterage if you want to build it ahead of when we have funds pay the two percent and I kind of I I Wouldn't charge the rest of the ratepayers. I guess but It's ten thousand dollars, so we have bigger fish My questions were So one point nine two percent. That's I super year. I just wanted to verify that as Supposed to one point nine two percent over the life of the loan the five years I believe we do it over each year each year. I Assume so I just want to check and then the last question. It's a little bit of a hypothetical The one point nine two percent is the best guess at how the general fund will do over the next five years Yeah, I asked Deb Beckett up here the scenario Say if this money you've stayed in the general fund, where would it be invested and what's you know? That's the current interest rate for there where it would be invested We'll say though that interest rates are going up. So it's so there's a little bit in time When you use the word risk, it's probably not the best word to use in this case risk that not as much money Will be coming back Into the general fund from this loan as the general fund would have made had it not made the loan and kept On investing in whatever vehicles and invest in and that's just something we have to accept Yeah So let me just ask another question. So we're we will have the one and a half percent coming in from or them Yeah, the one and a half percent coming in from Meadowidge And then we're going to have another two percent on top of that Coming into the general fund. So really, you know, are we kind of double charging interest on this or not? It's the general fund which is entirely separate from any enterprise fund. So it's loading money to the enterprise fund It's you know, that's a seven. So we'll have a net half percent interest Being paid by taxpayers. Is that kind of the way I should look at this Because it's the one and a half coming in. Yeah, I get from meadow from from the you know The person we're loaning the money to Jennifer am I looking at it, right? So it's really only Which is more than just the neighborhoods, it's all the storm water So they'd be paying an extra half a percent on this That fund would be paying $2,500 over that period of time. Okay. Thank you Changes are not that's going to be a select board decision. If that $2,500 changes the overall rate Oh, whether that will seem unlikely given the number Thank you. So that $2,500 a year will show up as an expense for the storm water Fund Well, the whole amount will show up as an expense and then the revenue coming in from Metta Ridge will offset a portion of that Shows my lack of financial understanding Does the difference between this loan from the general fund to the storm water enterprise fund being a five-year term? Versus the loans that go out to the homeowners associations being a 20-year Term does that end or how we should think about this at all? Okay So and then what we're being asked to think about tonight is not Consensus or a majority opinion Asking the staff to go ahead and develop the necessary documents to come back for a final approval from the board And if we if we have sort of a consensus or at least a majority of yes, then we can go forward Wish to go forward with it and have the staff prepare the Necessary documents to come back to us at some time in the future So now and we're at the play thing that we'd like to hear every year and that's the audit report Jennifer You've written the memo on it, but perhaps you can read us through The audit report that we have If you're going to come to one select board meeting a year, this should be the one That super exciting stuff Left this in your box over the week. I'm sure you all sat down and read it in the Sunday snow short I did kind of put an outline in Your packet that just kind of walked through the documents and what you were looking at The first one that I wanted to talk about is the governance letter, which is the separate piece of It's different from the audit book This audit book is shared publicly to anybody who requests it. This governance letter is specifically addressed to the select board and management Some highlights in this report are that all significant transactions have been recognized That's what they do in the audit process They review it and make sure that all of the information that we're presenting to you throughout the year is clear and accurate There were three missed statements in the audit that we chose to pass on you can see as a whole or Separately none of those had a material impact on our financial statements One of those is actually a carryover from last year. So you saw it there last year as well It is the sewer receivable in 2017 and then the other Ambulance receivable and grant receivable. We often have a small discrepancy in those because We when we're doing that in End of September, we don't necessarily know the October report is not complete at that time So there's usually a small discrepancy there doesn't have a material impact on our statements You will also see that there were no disagreements with management during the process of audit Which is always a good thing for the select board to know that we're not Forcing the auditors to make decisions that they don't want to make or not Disagreeing with them in any major way One of the biggest items that the select board should take up this year is a recommendation from the auditors About our capitalization policy Currently our policy is we capitalize anything over five thousand dollars and their recommendation is that we move to ten that is something that management would support and You'll probably see a recommendation on that What are the practical, you know, what are the practical things that? Which does that mean in other words to the town? We don't have many assets that are within that five to ten range So it really has no Significant impact on those financial statements. It's really Just streamlining that to make it more manageable Yeah, you know, is there any value of taking a $5,500 piece of equipment and spreading that over Seven years when we can expense it in the year that we get it So it is something that you will see Probably Rick and Eric and the new finance director will bring that to you at some point during this fiscal year It will help how every need be to Jeff any questions on this governance letter I mean my only question. I think it's obvious. This is a very good letter We should be happy The next part of the book is just at the very beginning of the book is the Independent auditors report. So they are just expressing their opinion on our financial statements And you'll see that their opinion is that these statements are presented fairly inaccurate The next section of the audit is Starts on page three and that's our management discussion and analysis If you read nothing else in these documents, um, those are the 11 or so pages that you should read that's really Management report on how the town is doing throughout the year So it's really it's it's some numbers, but also the story behind the numbers for What is going on in the town? Some highlights that you'll see is as Theresa mentioned as we've talked about throughout this budget cycle our fund balance is $3.7 million we are Anticipating to use some of that in this current fiscal year And then also I'm planning to use some of that in fiscal year 2020's budget if that is approved as is On page 8 there you can see Some of the revenue and expense highlights for the year Some of the reason that that fund balance did increase this year really looking at All of these being favorable balances toward that fund balance. So sales It says sales and meals tax, but it's actually Local options tax and rooms and meals tax That was $290,000 over what we had budgeted for last fiscal year So as you saw in the budget this year, we did increase the amount that we're budgeting for that line item We've been pretty steady, especially on the local options tax side. I'm gonna we actually increase that this year So hopefully getting to a number that's closer to our budgeted number And the reason to do that is that we don't want to take We don't want to increase the tax rate when we're actually getting this money from another source throughout the year So really trying to budget that more realistically to what we're actually receiving Other increases we've continued to center for we increased that about $200,000 was it I'm trying to remember what I Can't remember off the top of my head. I know it was Local options tax was about 3% in rooms and meals. We budgeted to increase that. I believe 5% That's what I remember The dollar value of that. I can't remember off the top of my head. I can look Um It was pretty much to make up the difference between it was to get closer to this number that we saw last year This this number is as I've said every year more than once It's a very volatile revenue source and it can vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars Depending on which way the economy is going and we're trying to predict the economy Quite a few months out, which if we did a really good job of that We probably would be make more money on the start Last year we continued to see police Underspending this fiscal year though. They are only down one career position Which is not an only but compared to last year when they were down I believe chief fully reported this time last year. They were down almost four positions So in much better shape hopefully planning to use more of their budget this year and not have that Underspending And then we did have other financial sources. So we received the bond proceeds for the fire truck Last fiscal year. We have not seen that expense that expense will hit this year So that that'll be sitting in our fund balance to use so that is well, it's in our fund balance It's not necessarily available for use Yeah, the next section on here is the financial statements. They go through the financial statements in both full accrual and modified accrual however Is there a brief explanation of the difference between the two? Yeah, so full Modified accrual is how we often report to you. It's more of a cash basis almost and then full accrual We really do only for audit purposes so that these statements can be compared to other Organizations in exhibit F is our Financial statements. Those are the ones that you see throughout the year from the finance director of how we're trending to budget So it's really just each expense line item that you approve in the budget looking at how we actually did in those line items so if you were Curious of the different ones where we're really off on that budget. That's a great place to look Some of those you'll see as we talked about Just a moment ago is in the police department really I'm having a lot more in the budget for labor in Police that we actually didn't spend The next section is just the notes of the financial statements So really walking you through some of the significant accounting policies of the town current town commitments any Debt that we have an employee retirement plan. So really I'm just more detail of what is actually shown in these financial statements And then this year we did not require a single audit Which is a good thing We don't spend that money to have that single audit we didn't receive we did not receive grants of over 750,000 so that is not a great thing But I believe that we will hit that very easily in this current fiscal year Especially I'm with the catamount money that is federal dollars It's 400,000 federal dollars. So that will put us very close or halfway there to that Federal amount or that raises a question as part of this sale Is there any compensation for that single audit or is that no, okay? That just falls on our shoulders if you will We do get compensation on occasion is when we have a community development grant like we might bring for another organization and and we have like we just did like us with the Burlington project and the school renovation project they have great Do you have any questions on anything on that? Thank you. We're in order to you Such a good good report. Thank you So we're running a little bit ahead of schedule There's not scheduled until eight o'clock I wonder if we can Start the discussion then on the fire truck purchase. What's the public hearing on that's on these? Discontinuous the discontinuous Not sure if Ken Morton was planning on being here for the discussion on the fire truck he was How about going to Can't do the warning because that's part that will be partly on Well, let's start with the manager report I Am doing the manager report and the financial report is part of that are you gonna be prepared in a few minutes? Have some other That we reported on the financial statements in there Everything's continuing to trend where we thought it would throughout the year property taxes have been billed for August and November Collections on those are trending about where we expect them to be I'm an interest revenue is the story of the year really as far as that big discrepancy that we're going to see between what we budgeted and what We're actually receiving We're trending now about Close to a hundred thousand if it continues throughout the year and we don't we budgeted about 25,000 so quite a bit and Local options tax, we're not going to see that second one So we really have no not a lot of history when we go into this budget cycle For that local options tax We've only received one quarter of the fiscal year and that as you saw was significantly higher So we'll get that next one believe it's February 15th Had one quick question under expenditure highlights it talks it says two-thirds of Transportation payments and I was wondering what was meant by transportation payments So we pay Green Mountain transit Our commitment and that's part of the budget and we pay them in Three installments and we've made two of those three so far. So that's why that looks Higher than 50% Jennifer so I'll continue The quarterly report. I was not able to get that done in time. I will have that done Well before the next four meeting We have picked a Rick and mr. Chair It looks like you're trying to find things to talk about. I'd like to talk about the budget process in general Is that something we can discuss we can do that after why don't we finish the vendors report Then we could talk a little bit about that until okay I just didn't want to attack it on at the end of the night when everybody is We can do other business right after we do this. Sure The next item is the substance abuse form. We have picked a date for that. It's Wednesday, April 10th So please mark that down your calendar Really big turnout from the community. We're gonna have quite a push on getting the word out We have a separate committee working on that piece of it And then we have another committee working on the format for the meeting itself And we have so anyway that planning is well underway for that event Yes, that's my expectation. We've reserved the auditorium over Wilson Central School for that The in my written report, there's also a notice some information about a community development Program grant application This is an organization that in this case is located here in Wolston and they decided Recently that they'd like to pursue a grant for the April round I think it is in order for them to meet that deadline They have to have a public hearing on this Sometime in early February in order to meet that deadline They needed to do that before they appeared before the slack board to ask permission for to move forward on this I told them that it was okay to go ahead But this like board has the option of saying no We don't wish to participate in this grant if that's something the board would like to do But the public hearing for this is being scheduled I think for February 5th the February 5th meeting of the board and at that point Representatives from this organization will be able to explain why they're applying for this grant and what their plans are I also have some Wanted to mention we've picked the date based on earlier conversation with the board for the legislative breakfast And that's the morning of February 11th and the only We've got a so far a good Response from our legislators. We have At least four or five Maybe four state senators that will be here and to I think two of our representatives at least one definitely The one thing I do ask for is if there's a number of the board that's going to be there and is willing to serve as moderator It's not a huge function, but I Would like a board member Past I think Ted you did it last year Well, we have plenty of lead time for that all right, so that This earlier today, I had a meeting with the director of the Chittin and Salt Waste District and Have them come back and present an update to the board in Probably your second meeting in February the first meeting Second meeting there are talking about a whole range of different things and Nothing's Determined or settled, but I think it'd be useful for the board to hear some of the things they're talking about and considering including major changes to the materials recovery facility is located in Industrial Avenue Including the possibility of shutting that facility down always Mackle which would have a okay and then the Final thing is just a brief storm report our crews were out working hard during the storm we had About a foot and a half of snow. I think I think was more Our crew is understaffed and inexperienced As far as we could see they did a reasonable job in clearing the snow out we had some complaints from people who Said that our plows didn't get near enough to their mailboxes And some they got a little too close to the mailboxes So we had the range of complaints, but I'm still standing that is my key We're probably do do for new mailboxes, and that's concludes my manager for Those two then the inexperienced crew for getting it done So we do have a request to have this public hearing the night of our select board meeting on the 5th of February is there any objection to having that public hearing on the The grant proposal Opposed to do that when we consider the agenda for that night So I had a request to take a look at the budget The things that we do to look at the budget from Teresa and so Go out thank you. Thank you. Mr. Shearer. So so You know last year it was my first year through the budget process. I think Or was it the year before no, I was not on the board. This is my second. Yeah, my second and You know something bothered me just about the process because I I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but you know this year you know last week Ted Started the discussion about You know, where should we target? You know increased decrease flat and You know most business budgets kind of start there and it's not a bottoms-up process by itself It's usually a tops-down Bottoms-up process and that is you know, we should be starting much earlier with a you know What can we afford? What should be our outlook? What should we be targeting and be pushing down to Rick what? Finances we should be seeking from the departments and then Rick should be managing that into his departments And of course things will pop out We need this to keep services flat or to keep services going well Or we need new services here in which case, you know Rick brings forward a justification for doing that but Coming in and then the timing of this is is such that Since we could try to cram it into six weeks or so at the end of the year Let me bring up just the fire truck and I've been poking at a few things here and I find it awfully uncomfortable to Poke and prod and and it's getting a little feisty the feedback from the chief is getting a little feisty and Quite frankly, there's no reason there's no reason for that, right? I mean, there's no there's no reason for us to be here at the nth hour Needing to approve a budget that we haven't really discussed at least we haven't discussed the issues at any great length So I would think we should We could move that back a little bit talk about the structure from a top-down. What are our targets for the town and Then any big items come up a lot earlier than a couple weeks before we're approving the budget because it I feel like I don't have enough time to research and look into things We have two sets of questions and and on the second set of questions We're all I'm glad the chief isn't here yet because he's already getting feisty and and he implied You know, I'm not going to put my residents at risk. Well, nobody's suggesting that but I feel it's my Responsibility as a board member to ask questions and you know look for alternatives, but I'm not going to Make up alternatives, right and I don't see any so I look at Rick It is that's part of your job to challenge the your staff and come up with alternatives and present those to the board and Don't really have any right. We don't The things that are proposed to us have no alternatives. I mean the best I can tell and That's kind of what I was seeking from the chief. But again, I you know, I'm not an expert in this business So I guess to some extent I'm looking for you to take, you know, you know, bring the budget back a little bit So we're not driving this at the nth hour because I think we do have a real Deadline here with a warning for the town meeting And it seems like we should have a month, you know back up a month here and and not be Especially on big items it wouldn't be nice if the fire truck bond issue came up and and the new staff came up in September Rather than December or or January. I'm not sure when it came up But it seems like we got this is our second my second set of questions into the chief clarifying questions and They're already Seeming just reading between the lines a little feisty. So and quite frankly, I would have expected you to one Already know the answers and not have to send those directly to the chief. So If you're challenging the chief and the expenses Then I kind of expect the manager to know these things So I was kind of surprised when you just forwarded my questions without even reading them to the chief And then the chief's response I would have expected you to read that and say well some of this may be not appropriate Such as the comment about, you know, putting residents at risk I mean, I'm a huge supporter of the chief the fire department the emergency squad the police department But I'm also responsible for approving a budget and We're looking to spend two million dollars in a couple of years, right? We spent six hundred thousand dollars Was it last year Jennifer on a fire truck or we're gonna spend it this year So in twenty two to twenty two we want to spend another one point four million. So it's two million dollars over a couple years and We had we had seven structure fires and again. I'm not minimizing. I I'm just I was looking for alternatives looking to make sure it's justified and and My questions feel like things are getting tense with the chief and I don't think I'm glad he's not here So I'm glad I'm talking to you about this It doesn't feel appropriate. It feels like we're up against a time deadline here, too. So now we're at the nth hour I feel like I'm kind of over a barrel a little bit here with no alternatives and you either approve the budget or not So anyway, I so mr. Chair. I guess I'm looking for It seems like this can happen earlier than it does and Then we should start with the top-down process kind of a this is what we expect This is the financial situation, you know, this is how much money we should be putting in you know spending of our but of our of our general fund and This is where we should be holding a you know theoretical tax rate flat, you know low high and And then drive that down into the departments and exceptions would come forward then Just a thought so that's kind of the way a business works a business doesn't you know a Department doesn't you don't ask your department will tell me what you want and Three days before I have to put my budget in, you know, we got Exaggerating here, of course, but you know a couple of weeks before I have to have my budget in You know my my department brings me all their wish lists It works a little differently than that right you kind of tell them what they have in the first place And usually it never is more usually try to hold the line And and but there are exceptions, of course, and you make them justify. I'm Justify, I'm hard, you know, it's it's a It's a couple million dollars. I mean it's it's me. It seems like a big ticket item ticket items and then you know, I The other thing that bothered me about the the expenditures and again, I'm not Suggesting I don't support the fire department is the the fire marshal was sold one week as a fire marshal in the next week admin whereas the We would have an admin another administrator and the fire marshals would really be the fire department Fire fighters, I guess Again, I It seems like that should have been somehow filtered by you to come up to us in a more realistic manner when it was sold to us Just it should come out as this is what we need and this is why we need it so and I know you're proposing some changes there, too, but Some feedback So I wonder if Next year if we were to have a retreat earlier In the fall to take a look at to what we might propose for Budget at that point whether that would serve your purpose at Would hope it would serve. I mean I'm Certainly not a dictator in the board and you're the leader, mr. Chair So I'm just making a suggestion that something just doesn't seem right about the way we're doing this and it I'll say it. It's kind of the way we do a lot of things because I feel like you know the everything gets set in concrete and then we are up against a deadline for Stormwater catamounts budget it seems like that kind of It feels like we're not getting in early to set a policy which would be our budget. What do we want our budget to be and And then letting staff do the the groundwork the footwork that they are responsible for doing and then bringing it to us It seems like they work something up Bake it and then it comes to us So just I'm just suggesting Another way to do things like the idea of maybe some early input into Town staff in terms of our thoughts on the budget But just a couple quick thoughts We're a municipality not a business and we operate. I think very different Our goals our priorities are very different than what a bit business would be so that's a tough comparison There are certainly principles that cross I think you're absolutely right. I find being on the select board sometimes a little delicate because we're a balance we're a balance between Providing town staff with the resources and the tools they need to do their jobs effectively safely And in the and provide the best service or cost effective service to the town at the same time We're also there advocating for the taxpayers who Don't want to see or don't want to see Anytime the taxes go up anytime there's taxes, but in particular when taxes go up. That's an impact on them Sometimes find that position to be in challenging It's part of being on the select board though And it's actually part of what I get the word is an enjoyment, but some satisfaction out of when I feel we've done a good job In terms of the budget process Or in terms of when it happens. I suspect we are in concert with the majority of Village trustees city councils and select boards that are December's or late November's December's in January's our budget season and It's always going to be a crunch and it's kind of our job to take the budget and go through it with whatever fine comb We feel we should and come up with you know the questions the challenges the pay. Why does it make sense to do this? You're right. It's not the time to make groundbreaking changes but We I mean we have seen our departments Morph over time and the fire department is actually a great example of that. That's a fire department that 10 years ago correct me if I'm wrong was strictly a on-call volunteer fire department We're today because of the needs of the towns and the chief Advocating sometimes making progress sometimes not in trend in transforming that that fire department into what I feel You know, I'm no expert either But I feel good about how the fire department is meeting the needs of the town in a mechanism in a way that In an appropriate manner And and so over I mean so these processes necessarily shouldn't happen overnight they sometimes are going to take times to appropriately develop and it needs to be a step-by-step process versus a In most cases I would think and suddenly things things changing and then the other piece of it is One of the benefits of the budget. I think as a select board member is it really helps us Understand how the town works. This is one of the most effective tools for me to Feeling you know feeling like I've got a sense Feeling like I have some of the knowledge that I need to be hopefully I'm a fairly decent select board member but we also have to rely on on Rick to bring us You know to carry those those budgets those those Cases where the process the budget the Departments need to proceed in the manner they went before I am not doing a good job explaining myself I need to rely on Rick to come with a budget that I can analyze versus me going to Rick and saying This is what I want your budget to look like. I guess it wouldn't work for me that other way around me Not quite sure that was a lot to listen to so I'm not I'm not sure where that was going, but We have an expectation for a tax rate year-to-year right I would think from a from a from a tax rate perspective the time to start talking about Where to manage that tax rate to isn't at the end of the budget process. It's at the beginning It should happen ahead of time and it shouldn't be a mystery to us where that tax rate is right and then the finance director Should be able to tell us that up front, but we learned that the very first day of the when Rick presented the budget What he anticipated the tax rate to be Should have and why wouldn't we have In my reply would be I don't think that's a bad idea on the other hand This year Rick did a pretty good job of nailing it on the head Coming to us with what? you know what he was presenting as a Tax rate and my idea of what the tax rate should be in terms of keeping it within people's ability to pay We're pretty closely matched, and I think that's one of Rick's strengths or skills is is doing that So yes, I don't think it's bad to have that discussion, but on the other hand I think Rick is pretty good at having a good understanding of it It all depends on what you think your value is I guess in terms of If you're just here to stamp it at the end of the day No, I don't think that's fair Not even a little bit the the big issue for me this first two things and then we're gonna have to get to our public hearing in a moment, but the This is not a business. It is a municipality. It has to be run efficiently Economically and effectively, but it still is not a business the motives and goals are very very separate I own my own business. I pay employees. I have overhead and I have profit Sometimes more than others So I get you know, I'm in my business to make money Here we're in this to provide a service at the most Economical and efficient costs that we can So I don't want to tell the town manager and have him tell his department heads This is the number that you've got to work with because this is what I learned in business school I want that I want the services to percolate up I want it, you know to go back to the wonderful example of the Carter administration in 1977 anybody The you know zero-based budgeting where where you know, it's like okay It's not just the same number as last year. This is what we actually need And I think we come close to actually doing that with the town saying, okay, this is what This these are the services that we need to provide This is how much they're gonna cost and there have been year after year particularly during the recession years where we've said to management afterwards the numbers too high the Property tax base the tax payers will not support this And come back and tell us what you're the experts come back on what your budget what you think you can cut to get the number That we need but you don't you don't We should know that up front, right? We should know up the front whether that makes sense or not and we probably did this year So why don't we have those discussions up front and I'm suggesting just having them a little earlier if that's what you're Suggested I don't have a problem. Yeah I'd like to start early because I don't want to be in this situation where I asked a couple rounds of questions and all of a sudden we're up against the deadline and Tempers are flaring a little bit the just having the discussion so Making a little earlier in having the discussion and affordability up front That's what I suggested I think and that's and I'm not suggesting we're like a business But that's kind of the way you don't just do bottoms up. You typically come from both directions We're not profiting here we need to move on tonight Next board after we have the election in March, we'll perhaps have a different board. We might have the same board We can have this discussion at that point as to what we wish to do Going forward so we need to move to the public hearings night on the hurricane lane discontinuance and I'll read the The warning that was put out. We've already done the Exam in the segment of town highway on January 14th The public hearing for the purpose of receiving testimony Including from persons only or interested in lands abutting the segment of hurricane lane being considered for discontinuance Shall be held on Tuesday, January 22nd 2019 At 8 p.m. At the Williston town hall located at 7900 Wilson Road so the Open the public hearing and tonight the the town attorney has made some recommendations on how we should proceed and He has said that we should swear in the people who are going to present testimony for the discontinuance tonight and then go to deliberate on the On the subject itself and then Go forward from there So at this point, I think there's four people who are probably going to testify tonight, and that's Eric Wells Bruce horror Doug netty and Fernando Cressa. Is that correct? So if you'd all just stand and I'll Read you an oath to confirm So If you just raise your right hand Do you solemnly swear that the evidence you shall would give relatives of the cause now under consideration Shall be the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you God Thank you very much. So Eric. I think you're starting to the discussion I can kick things off here. So the town was approached with a request to Discontinue a small segment of hurricane lane at the hammerhead ending its point 037 acres and We're approached by Cressy netty real estate The reason for discontinuing this piece of roadways it would adjust the town's boundary line by adjusting the boundary line It would create a change in the buffer zone required for additional parking on the site for a potential tenant that they're Looking to have moved in there and turn over to Doug and Fernando to explain where the specifics the project If you just introduce yourselves for the cameras Doug netty, I did that last Dog Daddy Fernando Cressa Spring and I own This building which is around 66,000 square feet at 291 hurricane lane We have one tenant in there called a 6th north and we have a business some flexi seal That's not only going to occupy the building, but they're looking to purchase the building Move their company from Essex to Williston their manufacturing company really quite a good company and But with their employee base they need more parking than The site currently has we just finished a Hearing down with the DRB requesting the addition of Me parking spaces 25 25 parking spaces of those 25 parking spaces we're looking to permit and I think we'll get a permit from subject to this approval here I'm 11 of those 25 parking spaces are impacted in this setback From the harm hammerhead so by removing this hammerhead and providing easement to the town of Williston And bringing the setback To you know from the new property line We're able to provide 11 new parking spaces on our on the site for flexi seal who's Just interested in again and besting in the town and moving their company here Just to catch up to the DRB approve the permit with a condition They they don't they they're in recess right now. They're probably approving it right now, but they don't improve it in front of us Their their wording is that subject to the select board Approving it there. That's a condition of their approval. That's your question here. Yep. Yeah, just want to make sure we stay Yeah For their testimony from you for you know No nothing to add other than Same thing that I just mentioned Flexi seal needs the extra parking spaces and that's the only reason we're asking for for the change Do you have any commas to make The same the same that we got before We'll have the same rights that we had as if we had ownership. Okay. Okay same. Okay Okay We have an easement document that we would execute with if the discontinue went forward So since this is a public hearing is there any member of the public who wishes to make any comments regarding the proposals Seeing nobody is there a motion to close the public hearing. I'd move to close the public hearing on discontinuance of a segment of hurricane lane Discussion on the motion to the close. I assume we got no written Anything like that? Okay All those in favor of closing the public hearing say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed so now we're going to Deliverate the discontinuance if we wish to and at the end we see we need to have at least a straw poll to Support the discontinuance if we could agree to do that. So is there any Comments from the board about the proposals So I think we were all in consort when we were at the site procedural question this is Conversation right now is pursued to direct over recommendation by the town attorney that this is the process we follow. Yes To make a motion to To delivery It's a point of order. I don't know. I had to say a question as to whether we needed a motion to go into a deliberative session or not and Consensus among a few of us were we didn't we didn't need to do that Unless you wanted to go into a closed session for a deliberative session and since I don't think we need to do any of that I'm just suggesting that we do it in the open and If it sounds to me like we in the straw poll that I just heard that we have consensus to go forward with a discontinuance If we did make a motion, I would label it to have a chat, but Is that a legal term? It is Municipal chat What is the next step then after this next step is to consider authorizing the manager to execute a quick claim deed and we'll also ask the staff to draft a formal written order of discontinuance which can be Approved by us by just signing the document Signing the written order is a yes affirmation to discontinue So we so that has them and none you have the quick claim deed or okay The quick claim deed is drafted which contains the easement language Yeah to authorize time manager decks is the motion in order to Mr. Chair yes, I've moved to authorize time manager to execute a quick claim deed on 0.037 acres of hurricane lane contingent on the select board first ordering discontinuance of the hurricane lane segment which is to be quick claimed Sorry discussion of the motion Here in the discussion all those in favor of the motion say aye Any opposed and no extensions All right, we've taken care of I believe everything we need to as far as the What I'll do is I'll have the final written order finished I'll have the town attorney review it then I'll circulate to the board and then the board can either sign it electronically Email a pack to me or come in and sign it this week Once it's signed we'll record it and then it will be it won't be officially So we would expect to have that done by the end of the week Okay, quick question Signing Digitally what mechanism will you use to do that? I think you would you need to print it out and Have not seen anything come through that we're signing digitally Yeah, I can it can be a question. So this is the old school way of signing Actually sign it and then you make it That's what you meant My preference would be And I'm happy to do that don't get me wrong it's just we have some system at work where you sign in I was curious because I've not seen the board do it that way. I wouldn't yeah Wait, stop. There's a there's a system that really was used called dot-loop and the problem with it is in unless all parties agree to that You can't do it, and I would be concerned for the town that we don't have any presidents that allows for that So our standard way of coming in and signing would be the correct way to do it. Yes Sorry All right, thank you very much. I want to thank you I know this took a bit of time a couple meetings in a chilly site visit, but it's incredibly important for this company That's coming to Wilson. So thanks Can I ask is that flexi seal is that the same thing we see commercials on? No, no, it's not No, it's a it's a they do in industrial Mechanical seals for water systems serious It's a real yeah, they're like a national their products are used throughout the US Yes, it's international they have offices in Brazil and Louisiana and their main headquarters are now going to be in So thanks Lot warmer tonight than it was last Monday, so yes, that's true That's funny because I went on a day. It was sunny. It was calm. I might have had to put a jacket on So let's move on to the fire truck purses and consider adding an article for a vote by a strong invalid for the purchase of a new fire truck and I think there's been some questions regarding the need for the truck and Fair chief has responded with some answers. I believe to this and So if there's questions tonight for the chief, this is the time to ask Okay, so the chief isn't going to go through his Well, he's done it before but he can do it again, I'm sure Okay, you want me to go through and do it that way or you want to him to go through his answers Welcome I'll start Key for many years we've had a Capital we've had a capital plan for replacement of fire trucks and I forget Is there a process that we use to sort of adopt this or do we have just relied First of all, I want to make sure that's correct and it's it's morphed a little bit But it's been in place for quite a while now Or does it prove the capital program which So what we're being person your your recommendation for the one point four million dollar bond boat to purchase to fire trucks is a Modification of that capital plan a slight one It happens to fall on this year and one that you believe will save us significant money over time It's correct. I just want to make sure I had the my understanding of what you were presenting us with That's my quick version of it. The only other question. I have is you've used the term quint many times I didn't want to show my naivety by asking what's a quint, but I'm going to ask that now when you say a quint truck What do you mean? Is it a manufacturer or a type of fire truck? It's a type of truck and it and it combines What is provided by it with a ladder truck as well as what's provided with a engine? So both the combined into one vehicle Quint refers to the term quint is it five things Booster tank hose pump ground ladders aerial device Okay, now I get any company that makes fire trucks presumably could make this truck I'm sorry any fire company that our fire department fire equipment company that makes the a Truck can do this. There's more than one company. Absolutely that that that spreadsheet that goes out 40 years I've been generating probably since I've been chief so you know 28 years whatever and And during the time of those years those trucks were less common now They're they're very very common and every manufacturer offers those trucks Piece of it is I think I asked this last time, but I'm just going to repeat it if you don't mind When this new the proposed Apparatus, I'm going to call it grid because that's what it's labeled on the sheet. You gave us We will be down to actually three fire trucks I mean trucks that I think of as fire trucks big trucks big trucks the rest will be either smaller trucks for things like brush fires And in that type of thing and some pickup trucks that you normally use in addition to the two command vehicles That you also need in the department in the ambulances, but in terms of fire trucks we are We were at some point. I think up around six maybe we had five we used to have five Four engines in a ladder and now we have three engines in a ladder and we'll end up with two engines and a quint Which is a combine of a ladder and an engine and that puts us at the Absolute minimum of pumping capacity To be able to meet our ISO rating that we currently have in the community So we couldn't go any lower we couldn't go to one-in-one is what I'm saying We can go as low as two engines in a ladder truck Somebody if you were more to say something like we're at the absolute minimum plus a cushion that would make me feel a little bit Better than at the minimum We'll be okay You're the expert in saying when it will be okay, but it's okay. Yeah, okay so proposal is to Retire three trucks and replace them with two Are there further questions what should which three trucks are we retiring? Brush one engine three tower one. Oh the brush one is just a That's a pickup truck. Okay, so it's It's a pickup truck with a skid tank in the back that carries water and has a pump Okay, I think I know what you what you're talking about. Okay. Yeah, yeah the one that's out of service Yes On the You know from my I'm just going to go down my questions because I have just some following questions from those so the one the 1.4 million Dollars when we did the last truck this Spent six hundred thousand dollars or so I don't remember the exact figure It was a two years ago the board Okay, so that was two years ago So what we saw what I saw when I was on the board was the selection process I know I saw something because I was reviewing a vendor a vendor selection process There was a selection process once the bond was approved We then went out and generated a specification and invited numerous bidders to come in and they all made Proposals and we chose a successful vendor Which is what we'll do this time. Yeah, okay, and if we If we find something so if we approve 1.4 million and we find something for We'll still be looking to get the best deal that we can I assume if we can get something for 1.2 million or whatever we can We can swing. We're not Setting ourselves to spend 1.4 million dollars That's my hope my expectation and also We hopefully will have a higher return for trading of the two trucks that are in service that we're going to retire Which will of course lower that number. We also will not spend the current 51 I think it is thousand dollars in capital monies for replacement of the chassis for the brush vehicle So that will actually come out of capital and the 1.4 kind of becomes So for brush fires, you're proposing using One of the other one of the other trucks that that kind of intermediate Pumper we're talking about one of the two trucks in the bond Does that have water storage on board one of those it does and that's why you can use it for So it's not just a pump or are they are they all do they all contain water storage units are just the one They do okay, and Jeff just to speak to you that would be our cushion Because that that brush truck that's more robust than what we have now But certainly small than the pumper we have now would carry a pump that has pump capacity So that that in itself would allow for cushion Just not a large fire truck cushion, but it does have pump capacity Doesn't go into the ISO calculation, but it's available to serve that function So one of the things chief I was looking for when I was poking at the purchase here is are there alternatives to what we're doing? I mean, what are the alternatives and you know one of the things I was wondering and I'll ask it even though I don't not sure it's my place to push on alternatives I would think that down manager would push on these first but in terms of the tower truck Which I don't know if it's the most used the lease use I would maybe assume the least used of from a fire Fighting perspective, but I don't know the answer to that but If we held on to that longer To the point where we we weren't replacing KME engine I guess number three So we kept that for a few more years longer and then replaced both of those when when With a quint at that time And I think you implied more maintenance, and I'm just one of the things I was trying to understand was how much more maintenance, right? What are we looking at for for? tires don't seem while expensive Don't amount to the hundred and ten thousand dollars a year that it'll cost us to purchase new fire trucks And and I Did push the chief rather hard on this point And talked about a number of different alternatives including the possibility of relying on other communities For the service rather than us having every community having to buy a very expensive piece of equipment And I was satisfied with the chief's responses on that specifically on the Need to move up this replacement of water truck and by the way, the chief and I joked about this years ago that we've both been retired before we ever wanted to put this before the townspeople again to replace the ladder truck and Didn't quite work out But one of the reasons it didn't work out is that the current truck if we wait a couple more years Which is certainly a possibility we could do that we would lose value on that truck because chances are good that the value will definitely we know the value will decrease over the next couple years and The concern is that and chief you can correct me on this because it's been a several months since we first talked about this It's becoming increasingly difficult if not impossible to find parts for that ladder truck and our concern is that when it breaks we may not be able to Repair it to keep it in operation. Am I off on that? You're right on that That was in his chief's notes and just to respond It's it's either the second or third truck out for alarms and fires So it is often used and in the response to the request I think I know to that had it gone out a hundred and some number of times But it was out of service quite a lot The bond for engine three's replacement would have come up next year Would hit its 20th year So when I looked at all of this I said the tower is starting to fail The bond for engine three is coming up anyway. Maybe you're at the next and And let's be smart and combine two trucks into one be more efficient drop one apparatus still have the capability to protect the community and And let's let's do this now versus as Rick spoke continue to keep putting money into trucks that are failing us And if we have a catastrophic failure of the tower ladder, it goes from a trading value of Well north of six figures to scrap value the motor whatever someone takes out of the truck So I think it's wise to do something with a truck that's failing before it does in fact fail. I Also believe the hundred and ten thousand years the first year and every year of payment it That's that's the principal and interest year and every year lowers. Does the payment go down over time? Does it continue to write you down Jennifer? Oh interesting so it's not like when you get a mortgage or something and you pay the same rate for the life of the mortgage There's a mortgage Okay So chief one of the things I'm sorry We're up against the budget. So I have to ask all these questions kind of in within a couple of meetings here, but What's failing on the the big truck, I mean what is the tower truck what's failing and and You mentioned in this second in the same section here about Nating to The cost to refurbish it to NFPA in 1911 standards is between $200 and $400,000 do does does either the state of the town Have some necessary compliance to NFPA Manufacturer builds a new truck. They're going to build it to NFPA standard sure if a manufacturer refurbish is a truck They're going to refurbish it to NFPA standard So the vendor we reached out to and that's the green section that that those are numbers from our vendor that we called it happened Was sold as the most recent truck He's he came up with the number of the range of cost refurbish He also made it a point of saying that if you refurbish a truck that's 20 years old It's still a 20 year old truck with 20 year old truck value So a truck that we could maybe sell for $150,000 now if we put 200 or $400,000 into it for refurbishment It's only worth $150,000 right if you were to if you were to turn around and sell it But you know if you were to put that much money into something you would expect some lifetime What it what would be the if you did a refurbishment? What does that do to the lifetime? What is that? What does it mean? Is it a ten years that it extends the life ten years? five years or And that's why I brought this this before the board for approval I feel so this truck will not give us ten more years of service. It's it's rotting out from beneath Upward we've had failure of all types of components we can refurbish the truck and put money into it But the undercarriage is still been exposed to 20 years worth of salt and brine And and I just don't have the confidence that we're going to put good money after bad and have the truck still fail And and similarly and again, we don't we don't approve this bond We keep running the truck and repairing it till we approve a bond, but during that interim period I don't have confidence that truck will last so we would normally for the other truck So we typically proceed the truck purchase By two years with the bond is that typically what we do so the 2003 truck would come up the 2000 23 bits replacement 2021 would start to look at it for that is next year. We would be talking about it. Okay, so So we basically we'd be talking about delaying one more year, okay? And and I think in the capital budget prior to this year. I was showing I believe I'm sorry if I'm wrong 800 that $800,000 for the replacement of engine three and I'm now looking at eliminating that one point two million dollar tower ladder And looking at one million dollars to eliminate that truck and combine those functions into engine three I you spent 200 more thousand dollars Now versus next year, so we're not talking about the whole new scheme and plan We're talking about a little more Toward the truck we're going to purchase or look toward purchasing or approving next year But in the process eliminate the need for another truck two years later Ricky didn't you didn't come to your your point about the mutual aid It sounds like we give mutual aid to Richmond But in terms of because they don't have a Don't go ahead. I'm sorry, but the the thought of Mutual aid to Williston is not something we'd consider or Regional tower trucks or trucks that aren't the problem is the response time. You're looking at it upwards of 20 minutes You simply can't wait that long Well, I'll speak to that we eliminated the hazmat truck Five or six years ago, which was a function which dropped yet another drug not the five to four now the four to three We eliminated the hazmat truck and we also then eliminated the tanker which is part of the you know five to four and In eliminating that truck. I have an agreement with Richmond that kind of silly if you folks by a tower ladder or a ladder truck Why don't we send you our ladder truck the few times here? You might need it and we'll call your tanker to Williston the few times here. You might need we might need it So that's kind of that mutual that we're working with Richmond as far as other trucks You would mention about South Burlington might have one or two others They actually have one aerial device and they run it as a first-line truck So that truck is not typically available to come to Williston, so it's it's off the table Essex town Richmond Hinesburg and Shelburne that about Williston don't have ladder trucks Essex Junction does reached out to their chief and I gave them the numbers of calls We have per year and he had sent a letter to me which I'll find in a second Which says that what your request is would not be sustainable by the Essex Junction fire department Ie. We could not send you a ladder truck and subsidize Williston with that many calls per year I think I almost said exactly what he stated so That would not be reasonable request and would drive the cost burden from Williston to Essex Junction if they sent their ladder truck to us and Once again an aerial device in Williston is part of our ISO rating Which we've gone from an eight over the years down to a three right we want to go backwards again and have the insurance rates affected a Will a community Williston's size really needs to have an aerial device What I'm proposing is a more efficient less expensive and I think less to maintain aerial device For a truck that this town really can't afford not to have involving a town building and We were very fortunate to have an extraordinarily fast response time faster than normal because of the circumstance And it saved the building and that's still a brick church back in 2007 I think it was It was just coincidental that the chief saw it was driving by saw the fire It was just coincidental that they had already been on it received a call and the ladder truck was already pulling out of the driveway And they turned right instead of left and got water on that Steeple very quickly but the wait for mutual aid and we probably would have lost that building Because I am data-driven I want to make one note on in the response to the questions I read through them again, and I noticed I there's one error And I was in class last Wednesday trying to respond to the to the questions And I was dictating over the phone and and and then reading on my on my phone We don't wait 30 minutes for trucks from other towns to arrive. That's that's incorrect It's probably 15 minutes. I was always studying my part, but just what I know that Don't want my neighbors to think that I'm claiming they'll take 30 minutes to get here. It's not quite that long Potential With large pieces of equipment like ladder trucks You could envision a system where there was a regional approach to providing maybe that one piece of equipment So that no one department has to own it, but it could be owned by I don't know what a Group of towns maybe even a whole county. Is that possible here? Does that make sense that question makes sense? Oh boy in the grand scheme of things it could I I'll look toward Rick to answer this question. I don't see municipalities Board departments some of which aren't municipal departments. I don't I don't see that happening And once again the truck being a Williston is what affects our rates and most importantly forget the rates the response times that's it's so critical and So a little bit of what I just heard just make sure I heard correctly Even if Williston was an advocate for some sort of an original approach to let's say to providing a ladder truck service The other municipalities would likely not be I'm not speaking for them. I'm just saying I don't think we're ready for that yet The managers have had discussions about it, but there are some major hurdles and the response time is probably one of the biggest ones you can work out the finances But where's it located and who gains who bet who doesn't buy where it's located? Okay good fair enough. Thank you Well the questions regarding the fire truck purchase, yeah, I think I I appreciate the alternatives and she fine. I'm a supporter of the fire department I hopefully you don't think otherwise, but I also have to support the residents and I feel like it's you know part of my job to ask questions when I feel like I don't have enough information, so I appreciate your time and and I Think I'm I'm done with the fire truck Further questions for yard in the fire truck purchase if there aren't that emotion is suggested To adopt the necessity the necessary resolution and declaration of official fiscal year 2020 at town meeting Sorry discussion on the motion that this resolution that we received. There's actually two separate resolutions One is a resolution for the bond vote and yet there is a declaration of official intent Yeah, I'm sorry, can we spend a few minutes on the resolution bond vote for fire trucks, sir It's now the time to do that. I don't mean to hold things up. I apologize couple Slightly on the nitpicking side. I'm going to admit that before we start As you know, I get hung up on where as is the first whereas I'll just read it then go through my the three existing fire trucks are reaching the end of their useful eyes and need replacing I wonder if needs should be should be replaced because there's some there's some legitimate Argument about when is the appropriate time to replace them? We may or may not have reached that what I would suggest is Is getting word of the words and need replacing and just put a semi-colon after lives It really you know the way I stared at this a long time and it really is is If you replace the ladder truck ahead of the pumper it kind of makes no sense because if you're going to if you want to combine them You're doing maybe something a little quicker, but you're being more efficient at the end and then you end up with the savings of okay And the other part about the first whereas I wonder if it should reference I don't know if it's a policy, but we have a replacement schedule and I just wonder if it should reference that As opposed to the thing I always find difficult about this. I don't want it to look like we're the ones Deciding this I have to make sure I get this nuance correct that we're relying on the expertise in in the town To guide us on whether to adopt this revolution or not So does that make sense? Okay All right, I think Rick was correct of saying and need replacing take those words out Then in terms of the second whereas it would it does it make sense to reference? The fire chief recommends to fire trucks can be can replace the function of the three older trucks All right that one nowhere You know I kind of agree with you on one point and is whereas a select board agrees with town staff that the timely, you know replacement of The acceleration of the replacement of you know two trucks with one Makes financial sense for the taxpayers of the town or something like that does that or the fourth and fifth whereas a state exactly that I'll just make one quick point and then that okay stop the first two what whereas is to me is is where we're relying on Expert advice. Yes Second whereas is we're saying yep. We agree with the expert advice. Thus. We're doing this and To me the first that's what I'd kind of like the first to wear us is to To focus on but I'm in support of the resolution. So it's not a huge deal I don't think we need to say that we're relying on expert advice By signing it if if that were the case then everything we do we'd have to say well, you know Plus I'm only doing this because somebody at a meeting told me it was a good idea. You know, it's like smart people said so So I you know, I mean if that's it's kind of implied that you know, I'm okay either way I know what you're trying to do. I understand the intent. I'm okay either way So the only thing we the thing we've agreed on is to delete and need replacing in the first whereas, okay Let's move on Discussion on the motion If not, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. The opposed The abstentions I think we've done it We're to sign these later after I make that one change sure So moving on to the capital budget and program for 2020 and Rick I had any changes My changes I recommended were in the operating budget for The capital budget and program move to adopt the capital budget and program for fiscal years 2020 through 2025 is presented Discussion on the motion Just to make sure I understand what we're voting on this would include all of the changes that were oh, no the changes There are some capital items listed here. Okay, the changes I've recommended have nothing to do with the capital budget Okay, so sorry capital only okay. Yes Any discussion on the motion? Not all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. The opposed So this is just the capital budget that was just a capital budget We're on the general fund budget now at a number 12 on the agenda for the fiscal year 2020 And Rick you had some recommendations for this which we asked you to get to us for this week Yes, I have a number of changes some of them are Probably simple and then some a little more complicated I'll start with number three on the list here, which is administration salaries For the fire The position that's been proposed is a combination position It will be essentially the second in command it'll be responsible for a Number of different functions in that role including overseeing the Inspection program that we're proposing as a matter of improving as a way of improving public safety Our thought is though that the For practical reasons it would be difficult to get this position Advertised recruit goes through the recruitment process and hire someone possibly someone within the organization But that's still we have to Figure out who that would be and have that everything in place and all the training in place by July 1st so Assuming that that's not realistic I taught 96,000 but you'll notice that the number I that I've shown as recommended is not half of 96,000 that's because I'm proposing a lower fee Than the hundred dollar per unit rate that we had talked about earlier. I'm suggesting $50 now I Did this for a couple reason one is well I felt that the hundred dollar just felt a little high But more importantly, I think this gives the board a little more flexibility At the time that the board has to talk about this rate and make a decision on it and we will have to go most likely through a drafting of ordinance and That'll involve public hearing and the whole process That goes along with the public hearing. So by having a lower rate The board isn't boxed in and by having an assumption built into the budget that the board is Going to You know if you go with something less than $100 then we'll be short revenue and that's not a good thing. So the boards can certainly go with higher than $50 or lower as well, but I Think you have a little more flexibility if I go into if we go into this assuming a $50 per unit rate rather than $100 per unit rate I like that if only from the fact that it will keep These costs will just be passed on to the renters. So rental is already too too expensive so But it right then that's that's absolutely That was one of my issues last time was the high rental fee I did have some other questions though that were on these things too. Mr. Chair So if you want I can pause on this and come back to the other items because they're all Separate from that. So one question I have about the Assistant or deputy chief they a whole idea of about succession and What happens if this fire chief is suddenly not available, there's no second in command You know, what do we do? I mean we do have that a deputy or assistant fire chief But he's an on-call we can and those by the way, those aren't common I'm not I'm not trying to say that that every two weeks on the Tuesday of the second week I'm it at almost 100 hours. Well, they do 100 plus hours every pay period But but I do on occasion and and I'd like to balance those out a little bit and have you know those Those 45 to 50 hour weeks versus more Okay. Thank you On the whole rental safety Was there anything that in needing a fire marshal was there anything that? Which it seems we we need you're asking for more of an administrative or a Succession plan then necessarily a fire marshal given that the Troops the the firefighters will be taking over those responsibilities I'm trying to accommodate and unmet need and And and and there are a number of unmet needs and I think we've talked about Looking at the properties that are rental properties in town But also sure succession plane also balancing out some of the workload We've pushed down to the company level that we should be bringing up to a person who's more of an administrative level person So there are a number of unmet needs this position will support Luckily, it's not that I'm going to the town is saying I need the entirety of the position Funded from the budget. I'm saying we can offset a portion of that cost through the Succession plan, I mean you must have thought about this before today is is it is your successor now Do you consider somebody in the department now? Candidate for succession. I would hope so So I mean that that's what any chief hopes to do is is pave the way for the next people to move up And there are a number of qualified people to move up within the department structure is stands today So I'd hope that the next leader would come from within so in reality in terms of if if something happened to the chief We would have somebody there that could step into that position If you had this position well step into that position on some temporary or permanent basis if if they're being groomed or That's the primary candidate for I that whoever is high Assuming the position goes forward whoever's hired in this position would become the next fire chief upon. Let's say your resignation Never know that that that's all right. I just wanted to be clear there. Okay, so But one can hope but that doesn't mean that's where I know that's a Scenario could be we somebody You know the positions created some he's hired in the position you retire But somebody's brought in from the outside to be the fire chief could be okay. Yeah, and this is not a new concept I mean since I started preparing for you folks strategic plans I've always put in that I'm getting closer to the end and and and and chief Holbert Who's a call physician is getting closer to the end the little twist this year is that because of his changes at work He's had a lot more to devote to his work versus the department And I hate to speak for him, but if he was here you'd say the same thing The question is regarding the budget. Oh the but a couple of the things Rick and yeah, that I'm hoping we can discuss I'm just going to throw out my my feelings on this. I'd be curious how others respond I think you have me sold on the idea my reservation is That it's coming It's it's coming a following a year in which there were three new staff if I remember correctly added last year so I guess my only reservation is a concern that It's not a concern. It's just looking at The fire department seems to be growing in Much quicker than the other departments in town. It's definitely grown quickly and and and Last year again, we made some adjustments within the budget that that if you will Freed up monies otherwise spent for call staff and and other Line items in the budget that that really covered the cost of one and a half of those three folks So it wasn't three entire new positions. We only increased funding to cover one and a half of those positions and and There's no crystal ball But and I'm not If I were to be here in five years, you probably would not see me here again looking for more people Because I think we're where we need it to be there's been a long-term goal But I think we're we're where we need to be but it's where we need to be not what we'd like to be Questions regarding the proposed budget Just on the on this this idea for could you remind me chief? What's your proposal for this rental? inspection processes this which rental properties, you know How many you know in other words will you hit every rental property per year? Are you planning to every rental property every three years in What kind of rental properties all rental properties? No more than three Hopefully more than two But we don't know till we hit the streets We will find that some of the newer buildings will be able to move through more quickly and Because of that, I'm hoping that we can see ourselves in every apartment certainly every two years And my my I always have goals. I'd like to do every year, but it's probably to be close every two years If we have I'm sorry well if we have it if we have a target property, however We'll be there more often and we absolutely have target properties in town that need a little more attention than others. What's our enforcement? policy or capability Right now zero. No, I mean even if we have a somebody doing fire marshaling We'd have to institute an ordinance that went out. Okay, we actually need Do that which we don't have today My only question is what legal authority would we have and it'd be through an ordinance. So so if if we actually Institute something we're going to have to Or if we hire somebody we're going to have to institute policies So why wouldn't we do something like a like a spot-check policy? and a and a call-in rather than a mechanical You know building inspection I think That's what I meant to get on a random check and that way everybody And then make sure it's it's fine. All right if if landlord We're not here to we got to make sure we separate your business from I don't like it My understanding there'd be a better there'd be a more powerful public policy issue than that, right? I mean There's a nuts and bolts issue of how we're going to do a spot check because spot check I don't I don't think it would be discriminatory if it were if there was a means by which it could be Genuinely random And you know, I don't know if the town I suppose could buy a big bingo wheel with Yeah, it's pretty easy to come up with random. Sure, but then but then the other issue is is you know Randomly if somebody doesn't get hit two years, and they have this carbon monoxide leak I'd rather have a process for it The I was just going to say Interrupted but I was just going to say I thought I heard the chief say that we would hit places that Were problematic more which is not discriminatory just practical, right? It just sounds like a practical thing to do if somebody's Violating you're going to go back and check them again Well, if we have a problem we have we have an obligation back and check it again Absolutely, or if you have a particular landlord of a particular property might not be the same apartment could be the same property I guess I don't know I don't understand the implications of discriminatory policy seems like if we picked on Then if you're going to sit there and do that there's going to be at some point in time some landowner Who's going to be suing the town going I'm tired of being the one that always seems to do this And whether it's a frivolous lawsuit or not the town is going to waste their time and effort Getting themselves out of it So I just think it's a better policy if you're going to do this you do it across the board not just pick a Discussion about a policy that we don't even know for adopting or even having a discussion about down the road so I just wanted to point it out Further questions regarding I'm sorry. I do Rick because you identified a number of things do you want us just to focus on the ones we have questions about or do you want to go Through all of them. I would like to go through all of it But I was I stopped at that point because that that whole position Fee thing was I know was a major issue and I wanted the board to you know get a chance to ask questions on that issue alone And then I could see the other items. I like the fact that it went down. Thank you You know if we go in this direction that keep the renter property Any additional costs? Down I continue on my yeah, okay So because the next two are important to as it relates to the fire department one was a An item involving training and rescue that's item number five I had cut five thousand from the department's request and my proposal Based on the my discussion further discussion with the chief is to add four thousand back into that request Which is why the four thousand is showing as recommended being added Also item number six the There's a new item in their first station maintenance in the amount of seventy five hundred dollars in that involves having an outside contractor do the mowing and some light landscaping of the property and I I believe we can get it done for less than seventy five hundred dollars. So I've reduced that I've taken I'm Recommending instead of taking all seventy five hundred out which would get rid of that service altogether is only taking thirty five hundred out This is where I had a question and my question is along the lines of is the fire department grounds Handled differently than other town buildings. Yes The when we first hired these all these firefighters They had some time in between calls to do Some of the maintenance and they will continue to do some of the maintenance in the building They would be doing the plowing of the Driveway, they'll do interior cleaning All that's done by a town staff that are working in that building We do not contract out that kind of work. Do we contract that out with other buildings? Yes, well we either contract it out in case of the police station and library or we do also have to part-time custodians to do that work for the other buildings Really my question was is the fire department isn't being handled differently being handled consistently with other departments or town Town buildings it is now you're suggesting it I'm exact Suggesting that we go to the contracting route Which right and because we have no other building that is actually maintained by the occupants of that building Our recollection is that also was a function of the Great Recession and I think wasn't that part of the budget? Constraints no The the biggest change here is the reduction of to Uncall firefighters Is and it affects the two different sections of the budget the fire call wages and the EMS call wages and that's Savings of thirty thousand dollars Currently we are down at least two And so with our feeling is with the addition of the new position that we've proposed We can do without those two on call positions How many uncalled positions do we have? 20 But how much do we budget for that many? I mean it you have Okay, so we're taking two out of that number out so Okay, the next item is number 14 street light expense This is a function of when we prepared the budget We had not taken into account for this particular line item the savings that we're gaining From the solar panels the money that we gain from those solar panels that we purchase gets Recycled back to the various departments in this department. We just missed when we were preparing the numbers So that's an easy one cover a hundred percent of that street light Expense with or is that just 11,000 dollars of some bigger number? 11,000 of much bigger number Yeah Let's see next item is line on 21 Green Mountain transit bus service At the time we prepared the budget. We did not have their budget And their budget was a much higher than normal Increase you may recall some discussion on that And so I'm recommending that we add nine thousand dollars to what's already budgeted for that line item And then the last item on the expenditures is outside services night number 35 At the time we prepared the budget. We did not have the county tax numbers We got those just recently and it's four thousand dollars less than what we currently have proposed in the budget So I'm recommending reducing that by four thousand dollars and The revenue side We already talked about the inspection fee and the I think we also talked about the highway stormwater charges We had proposed a budget that Was greatly reduced over the current fiscal year Is because our highway department was not able for a variety of different reasons Staffing being one of them to provide the same level of service to the stormwater Fund and so we had to reduce that to be more realistic to with the actual labor that they are doing We think that next fiscal year. They'll be able to do a little bit more than With the addition or hopefully as we get up to staff So we added that as a revenue for the town general fund from the stormwater fund Can I ask on the prior item Rick? Why the 96 went to thirty two five and step I kind of expected it to go to about a quarter because you're breaking it The year's going in half And then you lowered the feed by two times I guess I would have expected that to go down by four. I think I added in Some Additional funding for inspections of condos. There's like $5,000 or something is that So it's not quite So it's there's some adjustment to that and that's money that that those inspections are already being done But they're being done by the state and the state's willing to give up their revenue If we do the inspection for that one little pass the number didn't get divided by four There was some constant there that stayed Okay So work on the highway revenue. I'm sorry. You lost me. I'm not sure how that turns out being revenue coming in It's coming in from the stormwater fund. Oh work that's being done for the stormwater fund by the general fund. Okay. I see Okay, and all right That concludes the changes So on the bottom you talk about the tax rates All of these are Accepted or approved by the select board and my mass shows that that means the tax rate will increase by 1.33 percent My calculator worked Plus and half Any further questions regarding the general fund the budget not that a motion is proposed To adopt the general fund budget fiscal year 2020 in the amount of 11 million 494 thousand five hundred sixty five dollars I'll second Session on the motion See I'm still on the fence for the fire marshal position. I'm still a little I Haven't thought about it or vetted it enough it feels So again, I'd Like to see us move this budget process back a little bit. So there's a little breathing room, but I'm not gonna There's no line item veto here by select person. So It makes it a little difficult to have an impact Or stop the train so that's what anyway Any further discussion on the motion favor the motion say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And looks like it's been 5-0 Moving on to the water fund budget There's no recommendations for any changes that's why there are any questions regarding it There's an order to adopt the water budget for fiscal year 2020 in the amount of one million two hundred eighty nine thousand six hundred twenty five dollars Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Moving on to the sewer fund budget again, no changes are being proposed from our last discussions If there are no questions in a motion is an order to adopt the sewer budget for fiscal year 2020 in the amount of one million eight hundred and forty two thousand seven hundred and eighty five Is there a second? Discussion on the motion All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And lastly the stormwater fund budget and again No changes are being proposed from what we discussed before If there's no questions regarding that then a motion again is in order Quick question. I just want to verify we talked earlier tonight when doing the minutes that the proposed budget does not Does not indicate there'll be an increase in the stormwater fee and I just want to verify that that's Shoot Bruce is not here correct Jennifer you can There's no increase no increase Unlike the sewer and water I'd moved to adopt the stormwater budget fiscal year 2020 in the amount of seven hundred sixty three thousand five hundred eighty five dollars In favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Moving on to this town meeting warning. We have a copy of that If I may Mr. Chair explain some of this as I always do each year when we have this Luminary Jeff which I'd shared with you Week or so ago. I share this with legal counsel You can counsel provides all kinds of recommendations And we do have a new legal counsel this year and they so there's some changes in here that reflect that particularly articles They distraught articles 13 through 18 Minor change in the way the each of the articles phrase But more importantly is are the articles involving the town charter changes There the wording is somewhat different. I did not do a markup on these because basically each article was Rewritten and a fifth one was added remember we I had four before and the recommendation was to add a fifth one in addition the our legal counsel looked at the requirements for posting The charter and so we're going to recommend when the board does adopt this to add to the motion that you I forget the wording Similar to what we did before we're posting a chart proposal moving that it's too long or unwieldy to be shown It's a mended form and what we'll do is we'll end up Taking that approach so we can have the questions this way on the ballot and we'll provide the full version at voting booth So when people pick up an absentee ballot just to cover all our basis with us so we won't provide that and like though there's no way to provide that and the updated sections into like the Observer or My flyer could publish it We'd be we'd have to publish basically the whole charter Would you have to is that what you'd have to do pretty much? I would say now we will have the whole charter published online And it's available and we'll have copies available at the voting booths Maybe I mean it just getting it at the voting booth is kind of late right to sit around to read the charter Which is quite long maybe a some some mentions in the Williston Observer pointing to these documents when proposed printing the whole thing, of course and maybe on Eric in your In your movie star career there For the Williston show as well as a front porch forum Facebook, right? Yeah, we're starting to brainstorm that together. Okay. I don't communicate these issues ahead of time It's very important These before they get into the voting booth because you're right. It's you can't look through this We have to provide it but it's You know, they're not really gonna gain a good understanding of it is standing in the take you a while to read the whole charter, right? So it will get talked about at the very least At our budget review session that we have scheduled for I forget the date February something other Terry do you remember the date? I believe Baker partners fourth Anyway, it's sometime in the 11th 11th, that sounds right February 11th, we're gonna do our annual budget thing and one of the big folks is gonna be on the charter changes and and the bond vote Also, I will be doing the flyer that goes out to every household and I'm gonna try to summarize the all the things that we normally summarize we have to have the Actual warning in there. We have to have a summary of the budget the capital budget And then some other bunch of other information and maybe a page at best to Talk about all these articles the town charter and the bond vote So that I'll be putting that together over the next few days and I will shoot Excuse me We also have legal counsel review that to make sure that is not in any way promoting those articles But rather just explaining the articles So the concept of the select board Promoting the articles is not proper The board can do that but not in a form where we're spending town money Printing documents up if the board wants to go out and verbally For or against that they can do that But you we can't spend taxpayer money promoting something like that Individuals I think we can do whatever we wish to do but not as a board But as a board we approved of those things right and so we're actually as a board. We've actually Done that right board. We have we can't print it to this date anyway Pursuiting proceeding with them Now, you know last year we Approved something on the warning that not all of us were in support of and some of us I think talked about not supporting that when it came to the voting booth So if we are in agreement then one would hope that the board would support what we agree to warn anyway Okay, but there's some legal implication here, too. There's you're implying Only if we're spending taxpayer dollars in support of That's where the problem runs into our meeting our TV performance will be on Tuesday the 12th of February At 525 to talking about the budget and things like that Will they use whatever other methods we can to get word out to so people understand what they're voting on This is everyone's benefit So any further questions regarding the warning? And there are two separate motions proposed one to adopt and one to Talk about the length of the charter so I'd be looking for a motion Move to adopt the official warning for town meeting an Australian ballot vote to be held Any discussion on the motion All those in favor of the motion say aye aye any opposed And the second motion we have would be to simplify things for the town Yeah, absolutely move to find that charter amendment proposal is too long and unwieldy to be shown in its amended form For each of the separate articles and resolve that copies of the amendment Amendment proposal should be readily available to the public at the town office and for distribution to those requesting absentee ballots We're voting early if requested and by having a full copy located in each ballot booth on March 5th 2019 That's already discussion on the motion Ballot booth. Well, I'm gonna be making lots of copies. Okay Any further discussion? We'll also make copies available at town meeting We don't need to say that here For discussion on the motion Well, those in favor of the motion say aye aye any opposed I do have copies of that for signature before We conclude I'd like to Thank Jennifer for all her support during this process. We very much appreciate it So we do have just a couple of quick things I think for other business and that is the Talking about the town report in report dedication. We passed around a document last week to Get the input from you. I think three people agreed with Dedication to two individuals this year and I'm not sure If that is the wish of the board or not Could use your individuals for number five and six in the list Question was the least raised at the staff level of whether it should be just one of those two because by doing both Somehow diminishes the accomplishments of one But you know, we'll do it whenever the board decides is fine Actually like it together because it You know, maybe the one wouldn't get the recognition ever if and given its family When when either one is doing something the other one's impacted in some way, right? So It's a lot of service for a family to go Six years five and six. Yes. No objection there. Okay, we'll proceed The good news is there's no meeting next week because we've completed the budget So we don't have to worry about doing that the next time We'll be here as in February on the fifth and looking at that Any other business that's bringing forward tonight just one quick question the Resolution for the Bond vote for the fire trucks does that need to be signed anytime soon Is that under a rush like the previous one that you want us to do digitally? I Think it has to be done before February 1st So we'll have to figure out a way to get that signed then huh, okay? We now have a ready tomorrow, so it's That works and we'll have the both documents ready by the end of the week to sign I mean if you really wanted you can wait around for a few minutes. I can print it off Cuz I'm gonna be gone starting February First second for two for two meetings I'll certainly wait to put my John Hancock on it because it's just difficult for me to get you know And I just think it's a good idea to get it done and out of our out of out of my hair if you will I'll wait around a journey can do that Other business that need to Talk about tonight just real quick We are going to talk about the Recreation Committee Letter the letter from a member of the Recreation Committee sometime in the future I don't think the Recreation Committee appreciate or fully understood the issues So we I Had a long discussion with Todd and he's gonna meet with his board and talk about some of the issues And so it may or may not come back to the board, okay, may you resolve itself? There's multiple issues there Okay, I must have missed something He brought up a very good point. He may not captured everything I need to know, but he certainly Letter from Bob Mitz. Yes Yeah The they they did an analysis they found out that the Mount that they're charged is actually consistent with the number of hours they use in the value They use it. Okay, then that's the part that obviously we don't have yeah, right What's missing is that's not The same amount that other communities pay towards the district particularly now that it's district owned facilities I would hope that Williston is treated the same as the other towns that are in the in the district I think that's more of an issue, but you know, there has to be a discussion. I think Amongst the the Recreation Committee and it eventually may come back to the board if they want to Have some word going back to the district and that probably would have to come from this board The letter go out It was in what was included in our select board packet it was no the letter Wasn't maybe I misunderstood your question there. No letter went out in response to the matz letter. I Didn't see anything in The nerve. Oh, I see it managers report. Yeah Okay, there is something. Okay. I typically don't Pre-read all the extra manager report No, I know I know I spend a lot of time in the other stuff, but I don't That's happened to me though. It'll be out of me like what do you guys talk about? It's like, oh shoot. There it is The other was to be brought forward We're adjourned 25,000 actually this can be something that's the one that didn't involve a change and then the other one