 He is. He's outside. Huh? Can you have an assignment? Yes. Big case. Just give me one more minute. Oh, I'm ready. I'm sorry. You ready? Everybody ready? You good? Welcome to the Essex Junction Trustees Meeting. Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody on a slushy night. Thanks for coming. I think we're going to have a slightly curtailed meeting. We're going to probably trim a few things off the agenda so that some people who have drive great distance wouldn't have to come. There will be no executive session, for example. And I think, is there anything else we're going to cut from the agenda tonight, Evan? I think, is that it? Just the executive session, please. We're going to touch on the move rolling stock, 6B. We're going to do tough questions. I will try to answer if not. Do you want, I think we can, I mean, I think that we, it's not a problem just to put that and table that entire thing until the next meeting. Would that be good to do? That's up to your board members. I can try to answer some questions I know I had a lot of questions and we, yeah, so we can even meet off, yeah, so I had a lot of questions. Then why don't we wait? That's a good idea. So when we get there we can just table, I can, for it to be tabled. I think, yeah, why don't you ask for it to be tabled now and we'll also table the executive session until our, those two items until our next meeting. So, Mr. Mr. President, I would like to table 6B and 10A. Sounds good. Do I have a motion? Should we accept the agenda change? I move we accept the agenda as requested. Okay, any further discussion? I don't get a second. Second. Okay, any further discussion? Is there any, Evan is just, anything being added to the agenda tonight? No. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, so we'll table those until our next meeting. I think that's a good idea. And so, now we're on to audience to be heard. Anyone in the audience have a question, comment about something that's not on the agenda tonight? Good. Okay. So, we are now on to very special. I thought the flowers were for me. Apparently not, I'm just kidding. They are, they are. We're on to a really, really great item here. And this is a resolution of appreciation for Marianne Reardon. Marianne was minutes taker for how many years, Marianne? 34. Can you come up and join us? Right out of eighth grade. I mean, I'm trying to think 34 years ago. How many, how many... 34 years ago, so think of born. I was born. 34 years ago. I was sitting in this room. You were sitting in this room. Staff and board. And besides the present Board of Trustees, which we all know is the best. Right, what was some of the other highlights? Do you remember anything else that occurred? Was there any, anyone ever actually come to blows in a trustee meeting or anything like that? Well, I know a lot of machines. And conflict was resolved. Sometimes it took a few meetings. But I think what impressed me the most was the dedication of the workers and the staff and the boards to doing what's best for the village. And that was the common prevalent thing through all those years. All the changes of the boards. No one came in with an agenda aside from what's in the best interest of the village. That's wonderful. It was interesting. That's wonderful. That is really interesting. Since I grew up here, it was great. I mean, I'm glad that we're looking out for the village and all the villagers. Right, right. And how have you changed all those years in terms of what I'm sure I know the all kinds of things. Those are some of the highlights. And you want to share them. Were you married back? Were you married back? So, you were married. But you're a grandma now. I'm starting my babysitting duties tomorrow. So a lot of, for me, well, grew up here, I grew up here when there were black lights. It was a blinking light. And, you know, it was just a wonderful village to grow up in. It was great. No high school. That was all fields. The brickyard was a working brickyard. And the high school was Albert E. Lawton School, which is the middle school. And I went to school at Summit Street and well, Hiawatha was there. We had two split sessions because we were kind of growing faster than the school. So we had double sessions. Some people went in the morning and some people went in the afternoon. Then the high school got built. Yeah, so, and that kind of helped. But we were IBMers. We came here in 57 when IBM came here. And my father was one of the original 25 people who opened this plant up here. No kidding. Long history. Wow, that is a long history. It was a great place to grow up. So changes for me. I got married, moved away, came back and now I live in a neighboring town which does an okay job on the roads. Nothing like the village. As soon as you get into the village. You know you're in a village. Exactly. We like that. That's right. That's what it's all about. Now on to the fun part. This is great. I'm going to read a resolution. Which we approved. Whereas Mary Ann Reardon has served as recording secretary for the village of Essex Junction since 1984 and whereas Mary Ann Reardon has been extremely reliable, flexible and professional in her responsibilities including but not limited to the board of trustees, planning commission, zoning board of adjustment, capital program review committee and whereas Mary Ann Reardon has produced excellent clear and concise minutes at all times and whereas Mary Ann Reardon works tirelessly including countless times in the we hours and this is a good example on a slushy night. Even you don't have to. To return minutes to the village of Essex Junction in a timely manner and whereas Mary Ann Reardon has been a tremendous asset to the village of Essex Junction now therefore be it resolved that the trustees of the village of Essex Junction, Vermont express our sincere gratitude to Mary Ann Reardon for her 34 years of hard work and dedication as recording secretary. Thank you. I'm going to pass them down. And here's a there's a box to put them in. A transport box. But the things I read will die. Yeah. Put that in. Thank you very much. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. It's Mary Ann. It's the least we can do. We all use the whole the whole village owes you so much and I don't think you're one of the unsung heroes and we really do. Everyone owes you so much more than this. They're the worker bees that make this engine wrong. Yeah, I know. Thank you for coming in. We'll take care of the morning. Don't feel like you have to stay, please. Don't stay until the wee hours. Okay. Thank you very much. I got to know everybody too. That's been another wonderful thing I wouldn't otherwise get to know. The pleasure was all ours. Don't be a stranger. You know where to find us on Tuesday nights. Some of us every day of the week. Mary, if you ever move back here you'll be an awesome trustee. Right. I know. That's true. I'm going to start babbling. We are now Darby we're on to Memo about the EV charging station and also about the animating infrastructure grant. Are you going to do both of these? Yes, I am. Hand it over to you. The first thing is an electric vehicle charging station grant. At your last meeting I came here to talk about a grant application for an electric vehicle charging station across from the train station. It's looking like that wasn't going to quite work out. So I started looking into some other possibilities and unfortunately this one just wasn't in the cards for a variety of reasons. But this grant VW settlement money and it is anticipated to come around and I know they changed the guidelines drastically from previous electric vehicle grants so it's possible that they'll change them again. So we've got a lot of good information and should this come around again some good knowledge and a chance to do it again. I would say that these looking at all the EV charging stations at the high school, the town office over here, these keep coming around so maybe it is a good idea to have in our back pocket a couple of places already ready to go so when an opportunity comes up I'm gathering from what I've read of these is that everyone when they're going around they're kind of all the municipalities are doing a lot of the same things that we are where they're kind of sticking them off oh we got a spot over there behind the garage kind of thing and I think they're kind of beginning to say no we want them in the middle we want them in a more prominent place so. Yes and I definitely plan to coordinate with the energy committee to see about developing some kind of a plan and a vision for where these would make the most sense. Okay good. Alright so we are, any questions about this? Everyone good with that? Thank you. So we are now onto the animating infrastructure grant. Do you want to go? Sure. So Darby is doing the hard work and I just sort of gave her the hard work so you remember my talking to you about having the potential of putting a mural up on the wall that borders the multi-use path so the McClure folks are very excited to be on board. They are, they have given the village permission to use their building to have a mural put on it and the Vermont Arts Council has a grant called the animating infrastructure grant which municipalities can use to apply for public art projects and so we are submitting a letter of intent and that is what Darby is preparing so I'm going to let you take it from there. Yep and so this is a pretty competitive process. What happens is first we get our letter of intent, a fairly short description, we've assembled a project team. They take a look at ours and everybody from all over the state they pick a handful of them to submit a full application. We're not quite sure what that looks like but so before, should we move on to the next step we would definitely be here to discuss submitting the full application. If we are chosen to submit a full application you can use the funding to help develop your plan to implement your art project so it's not like we have to have it ready to go and submit this project that all we need is money for. It's not shovel ready. Right. Darby would you share the names of the folks who are going to be our committee to help us put this together? Sure. We've got Elaine and myself. We've got Kristen Humberger from The Hub. We've got Tina Logan who's an art teacher at ADL. She recommended Journey Blaine who's an art teacher at EES. We've also got Ann Gray and Tim German from the Essex Historicos Society. And Roche. Thank you. We tried to identify as many stakeholders as possible including an art teacher from the town because we wanted to make it a community-wide conversation peace. Elaine, for clarification can you give the location that has been selected for this mural if it is selected for a grant? Sure. It will be on the wall. I think it's the south-facing wall. Track-facing wall. The track-facing wall of the McClure Moving Services building right off of Central Street and it will border the starting portion of the multi-use path that goes between Central and what is that other street? North. North Street. Is that clear enough? For the audience at home. I go by there almost every day and it's a big blue wall. It is a huge wall and it's primarily it's part cinder block and part corrugated metal. And it will be very interesting because that street does get a lot of traffic. Both car traffic, walk and bike and train track with Amtrak. It will be our first installation of public art in the village. It's a really nice thing to kick that off and maybe have more over the years. Excellent, great. Good to hear it. Do we need a motion or are we good? Yeah, did you... I think it was just informational. I think you're getting all thumbs up from us. Normally when you apply for grants you do approve the going out and getting a grant. But this is the letter of intent to apply so if we don't get past this stage we won't be applying. That's fine too. And that's good. And you're good. You'll get it. We'll see. It's very competitive. Thanks, Darby. Alright, so we'll move on to new business and the first item is the Village Sidewalk Policy Review in relation to a request from someone on Rivendell taught it on Rivendell to plow both sides of Rivendell. And Evan, do you want to take this one? I will be taking this one. Todd is here. I see him behind the camera. Right. And maybe if you're of a mind I could let Todd speak to me. Todd is absolutely and if Rick if you want to come up and add your two cents give some insight. That's fine too. I'll feel free. Go ahead. Odin. Thank you. You're welcome. I feel like we're part of the party. So if I understand it the issue is we right now are only plowing one side of Rivendell and because under current policy that's all we should be doing. But the issue that Todd has raised is that it's a major thoroughfare for experience and for commuter traffic which I think the traffic count is indicated and so you'd like to see it on plowed on both sides. Correct. I think to me it's a very narrow issue. The under the policy as I understand it there's parameters around which streets are plowed on both sides and which are plowed on one and there's a caveat in there that basically residential streets that serve as a key connection to schools are to be plowed on both sides. As I read the policy there's no criteria. Lay down the policy to determine what is a key connection based on my observations of living on Rivendell and the fact that Rivendell borders ADL and the number of students that walk down there that it is a key connection to the school so just under that specific point in the policy that it should be plowed on both sides. I've got some I wrote a memo I sent to each of you individually I don't know if you received it I've got hard copies here as I also have some statistics that kind of back up my assertion that it is Rivendell does serve as a collector and I I'll hand these out but my interest in this starts back in two years ago when the Merge School District announced just before school started that the village wasn't going to be getting rust service and that has continued in that this year last minute announcement that the village wouldn't be getting rust service and my daughter starting school at ADL. I moved to Rivendell Drive in 2007 when my daughter was six months old my son was born in 2009 didn't exist yet so I didn't live here when the policy was adopted so I really understood why the sidewalk on my side was about personally I loved it I didn't have to deal with the grass I didn't have to deal with the snow from the driveway it was fine by me but over the years the neighborhood has churned a lot of older people have moved out families have moved in and with my daughter going to ADL this year I stayed home a little longer to see her out and I was just amazed at the number of students that were walking down my side of Rivendell Drive. I think one morning I was out there and there were 30 students to walk down to this side there were two or three who walked to the other side I will say there are a number of people who do walk to global foundries and they do walk down the side that's currently allowed which makes sense because they are going to global foundries and the kids want to walk the shortest route which is the ADL side and I have to deal with crossing the three lanes of traffic that are there on Rivendell Drive so I made the assertion that it's a major collector if you look at this agency transportation map it shows the traffic mountains on some of the surrounding streets you can see that Rivendell is 1200 which is quite a few vehicles for a street with 29 houses if you look up on countryside there's 280 albeit that study was done in 2002 there haven't been many if any houses added two countryside since then and I think I counted there's 34 houses on countryside so about 280 trips in a day makes sense it's like 6 per household it clearly shows that Rivendell does collect a lot of traffic mind you that 1200 was done in July when the school was in session but I think it's a fairly confident saying that that traffic study was done during the school year there would be the cap would be higher because anyone who's going to drive their kid to ADL is going to go down to Rivendell because making a right on the maple street and a right in the ADL is a lot easier than going down to Mansfield let me stop I'm going to ask Darby can you go up the other direction to the next map it's the same map you've got here Todd but we've got it a little bit higher there you go if you could move it over to the left a little bit the other way and up and then scroll it up a little bit more up the other way there we go down a little bit I'm going to show everybody that scroll it down the other direction this way a little bit more everyone see where Rivendell is if you look up you see sort of the countryside way up there with Beach Street Brickyard Road, Briar Lane, Mason Drive and if you see the dotted area right there over Woods End Drive that's called the Village Walk which there are houses there now at that time that's where the houses were going to be they're now so all of the kids that are going to be walking if you look down at the very bottom of the screen which says Maple Street over to your left right there that's where ADL is that's ADL so you can see all of the houses up there all of them are funneling onto Rivendell the quickest route for all of them to walk or drive to go to ADL is to go down to Rivendell that's why it gets so much traffic I'm not trying to sway anyone's idea but it's unusual for a residential street but it's because it's everything funnels into Rivendell sorry no let's find an action which is also interesting there's actually a right-of-way over one of the properties right here to the school so a lot of kids will walk down to walk behind the house and go through the soccer field to get to ADL as well and the blue is what is found now and going back to what was working for the town in 2005 I'm sort of remembering what the village was going through there was the facing out of the machinery and equipment tax and there were some other issues so I think a lot of this was driven by cost savings and I don't know why but I think they chose the side they're currently doing on Rivendell just out of the efficiency and that's purely it and I really think they took into account the number of students again when I moved in there weren't that many students there who were treating for the first time in all the houses but that's definitely changed and even today there are tracks along the sidewalk where students walking down my daughter walked home with someone who lives on Wood's End as well as someone who lives up in Quarterway so that's clearly where the people are going and I understand there's a here maybe some of the rest in there's going to be other people who might want to come in but I think this is a very unique set of circumstances that doesn't apply to a lot of other streets in the village so all I'm asking is that if you consider key connection I reached out to the principal at ADL to get her opinion copy of the superintendent on that communication and initially she didn't really want to ask for a letter of support for snow plowing and I can understand she didn't really want to get into the specifics of which sidewalks are plowed but she did agree with me that it is a key walking corridor I think that is an important factor and it's just like I said it's not for me personally I like not having to deal with it on my side but seeing the number of the kids that walk down there I just I think it's the safest thing to do I don't really think it's going to take a whole lot more time I don't know how fast the sidewalk plow goes but I had estimated if it goes at 5 miles an hour it's probably another 10 minutes maybe 15 if it has to double back maybe it's not even that I can't even imagine my opinion when Miss College put an infrastructure they should maintain it and that's all I'm asking for the only other thing I will add is if you look at where woods end I noticed that one of the recommendations is to put a crosswalk is to not plow but to have a crosswalk at the intersection of woods end in Rivendell the reason I would defer to the engineers and to Rick and to the two Ricks on that and that's fine but I would having gone through that intersection maybe 15 or 20,000 times since I've lived in my home I can tell you when I come out there the slight curve if you see of Rivendell coming up from Maple Street means that you can't see the cars coming until they're right there but if there's a snow bank any kind of a snow bank then you have virtually no warning so it's a tricky area to get out and if you put a crosswalk across there it would be difficult for kids walking across because I think they have the same kind of line of sight issue that you wouldn't have if you look at some of the other major streets going off of Maple Street that are straight shots you can look down and you can see what's coming for a couple of hundred yards away but Rivendell because of that slight curve it makes a crosswalk right there kind of tricky I only add that but if the engineers think it's okay then I wouldn't argue with them but go ahead I don't know if you know this answer so I live on School Street and I know there's a path that's pretty well traveled and is actually the preferred route of the school for the kids to walk crossing guards and everything are so I'm curious if the school is actually instructing all the families who live up in countryside in that area to follow this path and come down Rivendell are there crossing guards is that the preferred route or anything there's no crossing guards that's another concern with only plowing the side that you currently plow and you get a cross in front of Maple Street there's a lot of cars and we have two lanes of traffic usually have cars jockeying they're more interested in getting out they might not be but that's why crossing down the wired lane is easier than just staying and not have to cross again makes the most sense so but we make a contrary argument now for not doing this and I don't want to put anyone Evan or Rick on the spot but what are your thoughts on this about why why we would not want to do this and stick with policy any well again in my memory you see that I spoke with the superintendent I don't think we all knew that they were considering busing yet still this year he says it's going to start in January which will address a lot of children not necessarily walking to school from past prior lane because they would be more than likely in the busing zone his comment was there's about I believe I put in my memo 27 kids tend to walk four from this particular block and the village engineer who took this very seriously we had him look at the crossing and see what a crosswalk could do and if we did put a crosswalk there we would look at doing the school side of Rivendell plow that side so that the kids would not have to cross it at Rivendell and Maple the other thing the school COO Brian mentioned was I may have said superintendent he's the chief operating officer is a crossing guard cost $4800 a year they would love to put one where they like to put them in a lot of other places but if they were that's one of the places on a list of others they would look at but they want to see and we talked a little bit about what the impact of busing might do we don't know we never had it and so the idea might be to take a wait and see approach of what school busing is going to do how it's going to change patterns consider what the engineer said as a cross at Woods End to take people to the west side of Rivendell and then plow the west side of Rivendell down to Maple thereby not having cars are definitely trying to we have a lot of roads and a lot of places in the village people would like to be considered a key connector it's not well defined but we have a lot of places where people would like our plows to go and there are a lot of places and Rick can confirm this they don't want us they do not want us plowing their side of the street and that's why you've had this policy of getting people signatures so they weigh in we don't mean to do a lot of damage the problem is the blade is what 51 inches and the sidewalk is 48 and on a day like this morning you're trying to find the sidewalk and keep your eye up and do it you tend to cut some of that grass that overhangs and what not it looks bad not that we try to make it look that bad we try to make it look very good but there's just a lot of people that don't want us doing their side so my biggest I guess thought on this is we are a policy board and as a policy board to make sure that we stick with policy and not problem solving where I see that we should be focusing our efforts is really with the policy that says for section H number four that Todd had mentioned that number four talks about plowing both sides of the streets that provide key connections to the schools but there is no definition as to what a key connection to the schools is so I think it's upon us to just figure that part out so what is a key connection define that and then change the policy to have that definition in and to keep us out of picking you know Todd comes today somebody else comes tomorrow so we don't have to set that precedent through one off decision but rather through a policy statement so with that said in my opinion what it seems like is a street that would be a key connection to schools certainly one of the factors that would be a part of that is does the street actually border the main street that students would take to get to the school and if it does then that is a key connection as well as is it the only street that connects children to that school which there are not very many elements is one of the few streets in our community that actually has a sidewalk on both sides as many of the other it is a connection to a school right many of the other streets whether it be Hiawatha whether it be school street whether it be so much so much we just have a sidewalk on both sides right so do we plow some on both sides whereas this is again that only example where there is an actual sidewalk on both sides so but again I think we need to go back and say what do we want to define as a criteria so my I think that's great um probably one of the reasons I don't sometimes have to do very well and this is I'm a problem solver not a policymaker um and I think Rivendell should be plowed on both sides and there's a couple of reasons one it to me it is a key connection and I think how you define it policy change we need to make um but I also think we are a walking community at our core and yes we merge with the school district that has busing and yes there are people who want busing but we still need to make our community safe for the kids who want to walk to school and there are so many benefits to walking to school um you know it's it's activity the kids are getting that they may not get later in the day it's being outside potentially you're walking with your parents you're walking with other kids it's a way to kind of get ready for the school day and I think to say we're not going to plow because busing might have an impact I say we stop plowing after busing has an impact and we say our community is going to allow and make it safe for both modes of transportation to school and in your memo you said that um you were looking you and the engineer were looking at um painting the crosswalk and signage at Wood's End Drive but I heard you say this evening that you would also plow up to that new we had talked about whether we would then plow Rivendale right Rick we talked about which side of Rivendale we would then up to that intersection so that would make sense because then if you're on that side of Rivendale then you don't then you could see around the curb for you on the other side so you'd plow on that on the other side and then if someone would then cross over but um so the idea would be with that crosswalk we would go from maple to Wood's End on both sides but then go only one side around the other side and then one side around the other way which has much less traffic what what is the problem with I mean in terms of just time what's the problem with plowing both sides of Rivendale right now is it a major problem it's just to save the time yes it's not just the plowing everything's where you drive up and you drive down when you get those two footers in route it's a tremendous amount of time for that snowboard to go that length up there so instead of like on some of your dead end streets we'll go up we'll get to the end they pick everything up they can put it in the height here shoot out to the next one that's where we save a lot of time and then of course in the spring with the lawn repairs that we do and we were thinking of it as a first phase right and with busing and what we would plan to do let's see how it plays out and if it shows that there is still that much more traffic and we discuss the connector road part we do phase two so my concern with that is it's another crosswalk which isn't always safe and so I completely understand you need to save time but if we're talking a lot of snow a crosswalk adding in I just think the safest route is both sides of Rivendale which is a true connection I mean to me it's no different than Summit Street that's just Todd you've had something to add yeah my only concern with not doing both sides is given the I know of a few households right along here who had a physical PDL if you don't plow this side then you're forcing them to cross the street without a crosswalk with high volumes if you're up in countryside where there's 200 trips a day it's not that big of a deal we're talking about 1200 cars in a day that's a much bigger deal in that section of Rivendale you've got you come around the curve you've got the dip you're going up there's not you know the driveways don't necessarily line up like if you go down to a picture of the crosswalk drawing it's on the other direction there it is this is my house right here there are similar situated houses where if this side isn't plowed right out there's like crossing the street climbing over a snow bank walking way down here beginning to driveway or walking way down there in the road dig into the sidewalk and it's a little straighter there but the house is on you know a higher lane or just forced across willy-nilly without any sort of crosswalk so there was a cost associated with getting a crossing guard what's the cost associated with plowing both sides adding an additional side to Rivendale to plow I was like throw you a number about time wise plow it's probably going to be another it takes time should be 10 minutes probably from one to the other that person and it's no more of course it's going to be way longer than that how often do you snow blow when there's enough snow I mean so what so is it 6 inches is it 12 inches it starts rolling back into the sidewalk some years you know we'll do it a bunch we'll go out 4 or 5 times 10 times whatever it is but in some years we don't put it on at all so it's really depends on how much snow we get and how long it stays it's been quite a factor in the last few years I would imagine for snow blowing schools canceled so getting them open and trying for school probably isn't an issue right but then we end up having to snow blow everything and that's where we had the late school before especially with that 36 incher one there it took us so long to get everything done actually I do another day and they stretched it out wasn't it that was a huge 20 that was a 36 I'm right now doing a week we're going to have a snow day tomorrow dance it doesn't need 36 inches I can't give you a set the time is gone thank you I'm just going to say to the three of you I am feeling a little uncomfortable engaging and if we come to a decision because I live so close I think it's might not be appropriate for me are you going to benefit financially from this decision I'm not going to benefit financially but I walk out there all the time and it's just I've got subjective opinions about what should happen so I think the problem is I have to disengage and be objective I'm having a change really you sure I'll offer to do that in the same direction I live on Brickyard Road I literally run through here numerous times I don't know if you see me running through outside the school thing the Rivendell the interior of Rivendell Breyer Lane, Mansfield, Maple Street is a very popular walk it's a huge walking path the issue here is this key school connection and the other weird thing is that it makes kids and it's a very traffic backs up the Rivendell commuter traffic because again if you look at all the houses up there anyone who is not going towards Burlington towards Five Corners anyone who's going to Montpelier or Global Foundries is taking a left there and so again it's a big shortcut for people who don't want to go through all the traffic around Five Corners so in the morning and in the evening it gets very trafficy and it always struck me as weird because you're funneling the kids to the wrong side of the road then the kids have to somehow get across the track it seems like it should definitely be both sides of the road right there and I thought it should be both sides all the way, it used to be and George this is why I think this is why I went back to my original statement if we can get out of the problem solving mode I think what the consensus is yes Rivendell seems like it should fit a definition of a key connection to the school and what we need to do is take some time at a meeting and amend the policy to have some type of clarification to what the definition could be we'll send some time today to help figure some of that out let's put that on the agenda for the next time to look at the actual policy so I think I'm looking at the policy so are there key connections listed? no it just says key connections but Summit Street isn't listed as a key connection right Elaine? I'm just curious about the requirement to have a petition from I think it's every resident on the street is that I realize that this is a safety issue when we're talking about it seriously but if this is one resident asking for a change on the street I suspect we might get some complaints from folks who are having their lawns piled up I just we do have a policy around doing that so where we change the policy itself to list the key connections and the criteria for the key connections or we stick to the policy as it exists now because I think what Evan and Rick are proposing is a reasonable solution if I can I agree with you I think that we need to define key connection and I think having a portion in here where if somebody disagrees with the decision there should be an ulterior way to fix that solution I liken it to the speed bump policy where if I remember correctly we get 60 or 80% of the residents to sign off on a petition so making sure that our policy aligns with that with the rest of our policies that we have in the community and one of my other concerns of the policy in general and for some reason I can't find the note is the research that was used to develop which sidewalks should be plowed whether it should be one or two the research was done, if I remember it was 1996 and the book that was referenced was written in 1988 and the reasons may have changed since that time not just within research community development engineering but also our community where it makes sense to open this back up for a conversation agreed okay I just want to add one of the things that kind of struck me about the policy is this was adopted by what presumably could have been three out of five people and to change it requires unanimity I mean nowhere in a democracy do you need 100% approval to have but we have done it twice in the village on two streets so people have gone out and did their homework and has happened twice over the last 10 years is that right but again I think the key school connection is different than the idea of switching what side is I mean like you go back country side with 200 vehicles in a day if you want to switch to side that's a separate issue yep okay I just have one other comment so if we're talking about safety of students in the winter with plowing that's great but I would also still like the school district to keep this intersection of Maple and Irvendale on the list of crossing guards locations because kids are crossing from late August to mid June and so we're talking about this small portion of time when there's snow on the ground but kids are not going to stick to one side of the sidewalk just because there's a crosswalk further up the block so we still have the safety issue of students crossing Maple Street and Irvendale so I think the solution to this problem is actually to have a crossing guard not to have a new crosswalk and not to have plowing but rather to have a crossguard the sidewalk exists now that is on that side of the street but when it's not snowing they're going to use that other side they'll use both and the other thing is neighborhoods churn and so there may be a time when we have five kids using that sidewalk and so I'm leery of changing policy to we need to clarify it but I'm leery of changing policy for today and that's the snapshot of who's in the neighborhood today and that's all okay well so I'd like to get it to crystallize this a little bit and get what are the decisions that we can make tonight so can we number one let me ask this one question can we I guess we could we have the authority to override our own policy and say we want Irvendale plowed on both sides everyone agree with that we can override this since we are the policy makers we can override that and say well we want to see it plowed on both sides because there's extenuating circumstances and so forth so that's one decision we can make and then the other decision is to give the go ahead towards having Rick Hamlin look at this and potentially install look at the whole the whole issue of putting a crosswalk in there at the intersection of Wood's End in Irvendale is that correct is that another thing he's already looked at it I got the impression he wanted to do more or is he ready to go with that I thought we were good to go I gave Evan about $1500 for us I misunderstood I thought that was something he's already studied it and he thinks that's okay that's the thing that came back this report is in this packet I think we can make a motion to start one more question Lane and that's fine is he ready to do that now or is he talking about in the spring time spring time so that wouldn't solve the problem for letter 4 for right now that's what I wanted to have so go ahead well the motion I was going to make was based on the memo so now it sounds like we have two problems to solve we have a long term line and a short term that's what I was saying that's the short term suggestion from staff you know I'd be concerned with changing our plowing without notifying people that we're going to change and start doing both sides I suspect that Todd came in tonight expecting that if we made a change it would be implemented this winter I'm assuming that's what you were expecting well I know what I know I brought this issue to you I would like to see it but I understand the idea of clarifying the policy so it's very clear why it is done, why it's being done why it's different than the other streets I go ahead I mean if if what we do is if we can have draft policy language to discuss and debate on the 11th at our next meeting we theoretically could then approve changes to the policy that could then take place immediately so that's talking a two week time period and or wait until after the holiday break so in a worse case without any changes would take a month okay I don't know go ahead Laura I think we're going to make a decision to plow it tonight so as we move towards whatever we're moving towards I would like to have some additional information one piece being what streets are plowed on both sides today and if they could be mapped on here it is on the map it is where yeah, anywhere you see the blue like for example Maple Street if you see there's two blue lines on either side yeah and why is some red there's two different plow routes so when we have people like today here do the red room here do the blue room so to summarize outside of the class 1 roads meaning the main state numbered routes it's south street a portion of south street that gets on both sides so outside of the class 2 the state numbered highways that go through five corners there's a small portion of south street that gets plowed on both sides are there any others I didn't see any in my understanding class 3 because they get two schools within a rocks distance they throw them in a rocks distance round cost back for a short period okay that's right by the school we had the boarders of school probably did that little spur there's a short section of bryer lane that's now plowed on both sides right there's going to say there's a couple little pieces that are not on there hill crest has not been put in that new sidewalk there and yes he's right there's a short section between corduroy and rivendale after they did the bryer lane project they put a crosswalk down there so it made sense to plow that little short section there the part of corduroy coming down the hill to where it intersects with rivendale and take a right hand side to rivendale the new crosswalk went up and got reconstructed that's why we plowed that little section there so then you'll get both sides there and the developments you'll see we plowed the inner loop which is shorter so down the road when we take the outer loops out remove that concrete and put new ones in the inside it's less material less travel time so that's one of the reasons you'll see that good so why did you plow both sides of summit? because there are two schools down there right but the crosswalk to get from summit street to Fleming is on the same side of the street as summit remember the exact details on that I have no problem I'm just curious if there was it may have been because hill crest didn't have a sidewalk and so they maybe walked down that way I don't remember the details let's put that on the list to see if we can remove well that's a new one just for the people just for the people watching so what we're thinking of is saying we'll revisit this next week at our next meeting and look and attack it from a policy decision and seeing if we don't want to revise the policy such that routes like I guess it wouldn't just be Rivendell it would be Mansfield and several others that appear to be major connecting routes from neighborhoods Mansfield only has I know I'm trying to see with some of the others so to look at some of the others that might be major walking routes and if we don't want to revise the policy to say how they get is that what we're saying? I think if we could get information on which streets if we could get a sidewalk map without the blue and the red so we could better understand which streets have two sidewalks on them because Mansfield doesn't have a sidewalk on both sides it does north of Pleasant a few blocks north of Pleasant and has sidewalk on both sides as it goes to Brickyard but when it gets south of Mansfield I'm sorry could you go over to Mansfield which is that way I should know yeah Rosewood from Rosewood north it has two lanes but from Rosewood south it's only on the east side you see Breyer when we rebuilt that a five-way tunnel goes on one side and the other side gets taken out that's what we're going to do I think you'll find there's very few streets that act as a collector to a school to have sidewalks on two sides but I think we're going to have to be careful how the criteria we use so we can make it you said you had questions plural so I don't remember what they were but I thought of a new one could you find out from EWSD where and if they do I know they do in some areas what their map is that they direct kids to walk does that make sense I know they have it around Red Avenue and across Lincoln and up by our house they direct now the kids follow it I was going to say you really think the kids I would like to see what that map is to see what they consider to be the major walking routes if that's possible I just know they did for this section can we also get the radius of busing that they're looking at so we can see which parts of these roads fall within the mile and those that fall outside of the mile of each school I got a question in my own mind but I'm not going to work it out in my head well it's going to be interesting when they start busing kids and say picking up kids in the countryside there's congregated stops and kids are walking down the street where you don't plow to get to a bus stop I'm not really going to do it which is the issue we're dealing with in the town of having kids that now walk to a congregated stop they're walking on sidewalks that are not plowed at all and so the other thing along with the busing I can't recall if the policy had changed this is going to change last I knew kids of a certain age were going to be required to walk regardless as long as they live in a certain diameter is that still going to be the policy if you live with a certain distance you are a walker no matter whether the buses are coming in January or not correct they have at least a quarter mile minimum and up to a half mile so I guess if we could have that as well and if that could we could have the only thing I'd like to say is that at our next meeting it's great to do this but I would like to have the meeting end with us making a decision yes or no, our both sides of Rivendell going to be plowed can we narrow it to that to make sure that we at least get the information down so that we focus that decision at our next meeting about whether we're going to go ahead with this because the dark solution may be a good solution the bust solution may be a good solution but those are pending solutions those are promissory solutions they're not real solutions right now there are things that might happen but right now if we have a lot of snow we might want to look at changing our policy for plowing both sides of Rivendell so what are the criteria we're going to use to think about that and what about a short term solution do we have on the plowing and time and effort it takes to say we want to allow plowing for a certain time period to collect that data as well because we're getting all this other data I mean you can tell us an idea but we're not getting actual ideas of what it does to their schedule to plow both sides of Rivendell and then how about the question I want to ask one more question because someone raised the issue that Rivendell don't want their street plow on the other hand if we think that there's a significant safety issue I'm not sure I don't like to be dictatorial or whatever authoritarian but if we think it's a safety issue it is a public property and if we think that it's necessary for the safety of kids walking to school that would take priority over people being concerned that their lawns might or might not get dug up which is the only reason I can think of on their side of the sidewalk does anyone have thoughts about that or do you think we should be concerned about trying to get permission for people I think once we start down the road getting permission from people to plow their sidewalk in front of their house I think it stems from whatever criteria we set up we determine that this is a key connected road then that's it okay I just wanted to make that clear we should notify them then and they'll have an appeal process to get ex-president residents to sign on to an invitation to say that they don't want it to happen I don't know, do we do that for crosswalks? we're making, if a key criteria is safety then are we letting anybody override that I don't know if it was kind of a crosswalk policy that's a good question that's just the example if it's a safety issue do you allow for folks to override it I think what is I understand the policy if I live on a street my side isn't being plowed and I'd like my street side of the street and I go around and collect petition as long as the other people on the other side of the street don't mind suddenly not having a street plow I think that's where it comes from I don't know that people can say we don't want you plowing out here if we say it's a safety issue okay so that's a lot, but I would like to get if we're going to put this on the agenda for next next time I'd like us to come away with some decisions alright good and we have all the data that we do we think we all understand the data we're looking for to make a decision if you don't mind I'll read my own writing well you asked what streets are plowed on both sides with a map which we have but we will present it again and try to make sure EWSD where map to direct kids to walk do they have a map that directs kids to walk major walking route and the major walking routes what is the radius of busing they are contemplating that's EWSD two questions there can we have Brian attend I could certainly ask that how long actually does it take to plow both sides of Rivendell that'll be a tricky question for him to review and then to come up with some types of definitions for key connector would the EWSD walking radius if that were I remember seeing a map previously if we could find that map again the walking radius and if we can just get an update on how sure they are for January we've heard that before well he said it was starting in January and we've scheduled a follow up meeting for four weeks later to give them time to work out any kinks of that start because we certainly have a lot of questions questions and concerns not only in the village but in the town of what it does a much bigger change for the town because now they have kids who have to walk right and who didn't before they not only have kids who have to walk but they have congregated stops where they used to have basic end of driveway pick up service so unfortunately one of the numbers is the actual ridership percentage it's not great regardless so a lot of people are not taking the busing they are either walking or driving or biking but they are not waiting around for the bus and that was part of my statement in the beginning I don't think we can count on busing taking all these kids but it does change whether there are other things for timing luckily it is not a village function to bus children to school and please don't make it one so that's what I have and then one of the other ones was we have a speed bump policy and should we look at how much percentage total if we are going to look for signatures what other policies have as their sign and rate approval from neighbors not that you would use this if it was a safety issue but looking at the policy in general should it be 100% 80% 60% and should it align with other policies I'll try to get that done for a future meeting I do think we should have a conversation whether we want to reopen the policy outside of plowing do we want to keep it as it is and is it still a representation of what we as a village want for our sidewalks? I think it's a reasonable thing Andrew because the policy was a money saving issue as I remember it was highly controversial there's a lot of complaints and the idea that it's sacrosanct it can't be revised it's just monkey with this now that we've had it down there for a few years and see if we can't change it it makes perfect sense to think we couldn't look at it again our trip to St. Albans is so relevant in my mind being on that bus we were driving through some of the streets and the city manager was saying we're not taking sidewalks out we're putting them in to help create the connectivity so we are not doing and Rick thank you for coming appreciate it seriously thank you very much thanks for wearing your dress hoodie so we're not going to be looking at rolling stock transfer we're going to move on to the manager's report and the trustee meeting schedule take it away Evan yeah you know we just manager's report we are looking at the legalities around loitering ordinances don't know if you have heard that Burlington their loitering ordinance did not pass court muster so that's kind of a little setback for me and our thoughts of what some of our ordinances would stay and do so we're still looking at some options of what can and can't be done but recent court cases are not favorable to stopping or moving people that are just on public rights it doesn't bode well for that so we talked a little bit today we can regulate parks we can tell you the park is closed let's say from 9 p.m. till 7 a.m. it's closed there is if there's no public path that goes through there there's no activity there's no reason to be there it's closed we can do things like that but in public sidewalks public rights way we are limited with that so that's something we've been working on I've met with almost every village department right now with their budgets we are putting that together we have the budget date I don't want to announce the 19 so staff is putting that together and so we'll be ready for that day just been very busy we are currently just about to put the offer to a candidate for the assessor position so that will be going out and we hope that person accepts Randy has been with us many years and done a great job and one of the things that through our process as a management team as a staff we really wanted to focus on the people the aspect of that job and the emotional aspect when people come and tell you they think their taxes are too high or you have the wrong valuation and all that emotion you can have somebody give you the math but we wanted to make sure we had a candidate that had people skills as well with that so we're very cognizant of that interaction with people and Randy was so good and it is so good at that do you know how many actual filings we get for grievance none none after he sits down with him and explains how he got to his number they don't come so we're looking to keep that tradition it's hard to say zero forever but that's the type of person and we found a really qualified candidate we're about to make that conditional offer and we'll see how that goes did the job description change at all? it was updated but it did not change significantly but it did get updated again we wanted communication at the forefront they are going to have to eventually do a revaluation it's not quite there legally in their boundaries but it'll come within the next five years or so probably but there's a state mandate you have to be within a range we're still in a good place but it'll probably be five to sometimes soon but no we look at our job descriptions too we want to make sure they're updated and we're going to be doing that as time permits throughout all the job descriptions thank you so we are moving on to thank you Evan trustee comments, concern and the reading file Andrew if I could I want to point to just in the reading file the minutes from the capital committee I wanted to just make sure that I brought this out in the sense of making sure that the goal around so in the minutes one of the things that's discussed is a desire to explore funding options outside of just the traditional the current methods and so what I want to make sure that we get is one is a capital committee that you guys are okay with it, number one and number two if you have any kind of roadblocks any kind of deal breakers if you have any questions, concerns to let me know before we do this what I would say is pure fact finding information and pure fact finding research to look into how could we possibly diversify the ways in which we take in funding to help pay for capital projects besides just raise taxes and or bonding some of the things that are in the minutes are things like a tax increment financing and local option tax which those are in there again for research purposes and not a we think that sx junction before with both of these or either these options as they exist today but rather let's do some research to understand how this may or may not work I for one have not only do I not have a problem with it I think it's, I think when the capital committee was created it was actually one of the, it was sort of a core mission and I think it's, I absolutely think it's right on, I think you're right on doing it so I personally think it's fine I don't know, that's just me but Elaine? Can I just ask a question about looking toward the future of the capital committee I don't think the town has one and I don't think the town does capital planning the way the village does and so I'm wondering if conversations or thoughts can start about looking at how the town does capital planning because if we're looking at revenue sources it would be counterproductive to all the other work we're trying to do to have the village go off on its own to do a certain kind of revenue generation when perhaps in partnership things could happen and then we could standardize capital project funding and planning across both communities I think it's time to start exploring there Yeah, I think that's a great point I think it's a good idea, I believe that, again tell me if I'm wrong but I think that the town capital is pretty much the town engineer it's entirely within his purview, isn't it? The town engineer and the public works director in consult with the town manager they present the plan to the select board the town does use impact fees quite a bit for their capital so the village does not Yep So part of the fact finding, if I may would be to look into what other communities are doing So inclusive of the town but also then looking into Colchester South Burlington, Burlington and other communities within our county and beyond are there other things that are happening that neither one of us are doing and don't know of? That's great And to that end I sat in on the capital committee and that we would staff would certainly be a resource to help them with that research and other options and I'd be happy to meet with state officials to find out more about how the state of Vermont does its local option taxing I believe there are three segments you can do and you don't have to do all of them you can do any segment you want and I believe and that's what I want to find out you can exclude certain items within those categories too but the goal nevertheless is to find funding sources for capital and Andrew I'm going to tax pun intended your memory I believe we had over 11 million dollars of projects identified Yep Over what kind of window? In terms of the capital plan that exists future So like going all the way out to 2029 beyond 2029 we don't have 11 million dollars budgeted Honestly I thought that was less than I expected That is just that is just that is just the projects you scored that also do not include public buildings or other things like our fire station I know you just spent a lot of money on this building you now own 75 Maple you own Park Street School Pipes underground Pipes underground I don't know we don't own the Amtrak station No, wish we did No I don't think you actually do but what you'd like to do is build a new one you could just best believe Amtrak is not putting a penny into that structure Oh no we don't But they'll be happy to control what ours looks like Right So if you think in those terms it's 11 million dollars just of the projects we've identified and not even including the public buildings that the fire station is circa 1955 Right 65 This is why when we had the discussion before when we look at this you're right on in the sense of saying our buildings infrastructure are in the same sense in the same vein as water lines sewer lines sidewalks bridges it's all capital and this is why when we looked at we're looking at doing a space study if the recommendation comes back and says oh you need more space you need a bigger fire station you need a bigger public works building second yes those are capital needs but we have way more pressing capital needs than maybe finding more space in a public works building or fire station I mean if we're gonna if the village of Essex Junction is gonna outweigh capital money you know go to the mat and find extra capital money from impact fees or a TIF for impact tax or anything like that that money to me first and foremost the priority would be streets sidewalks etc buildings would be way down on the list do you prioritize it? that's why I was a little leery about the space study because if it comes back well look at this as a high priority well understand the funding situation it may not be a high priority in terms of operational space but in terms of who's gonna get the funds it's a low priority I'm just warning everybody that's just me okay we're getting big time nods over there okay I just wanted to just point that out that's why I just wanted to raise that issue sorry go ahead didn't mean to I think it's right on I think it's right on just also being very mindful of staff's time given this season okay so I had one thing in the reading file I just wanted to raise this I think it's understood but the tree committee has a long a big long narrative and a lot of information great science all about the emerald tree borer but the end point is they're requesting additional money in the tree budget which we may or may not get but we have to understand that's a separate issue for us to improve I just want them to understand okay we saw the reading file that doesn't mean they get the extra 12,000 bucks I just wanted to make that clear I wanted it in the reading file we still have some questions for them about some of the stuff in fact a couple of the trees are likely to be removed by the state when they do some work up by west street it's de minimis compared to I just don't want us to spend money now on those trees when the state may take them out in four or five years we could focus on some other things but yes everybody would like ten, five, ten or fifteen thousand dollars more in this budget everybody would and I'm beating them back as best I can but that's their cost the town itself has a tree plan that it also would like to fund but it's probably of what we can do one of the ideas that I would like as we talk sort of village and town is do we get a better bang for the buck if we do it together and you end up renting a piece of equipment they rent it by the week do we get our forces together bang out a week or two of tree removal and a week or two of stomping together and bang it out as staff to staff and then see where we are on an annual basis of where we are in our everything and what can we get done for a total of eleven or twelve thousand something like that five and a half, six a piece and maybe that's more manageable and then see where we are and see where the little pest is in the timeframe so we're just acknowledging this before we're not authorizing the work to start because the timing is important if it doesn't show up in the village there's no sense in cutting down trees well there's a couple of reasons and I don't expect that you all read the report but yeah it's in your file but one of the comments and the town had done this a couple of months ago not just for emerald ashore but trees in general when you get a disease tree if it's in the parkway we come and we get it we pull it out it's one tree but it looks bad in front of the house but that's one thing we plant a two and a half inch caliber in its replacement and in about ten years you got something going that's now but when you start taking out multiple trees on the same street it starts looking deforested and that's not the look so one of the things in these tree plans is you don't go down the whole street I don't want to name a street and take out all six trees all at once you actually only want to take out one or two and immediately replant so those trees have a time to come up and come back for trees three and four it doesn't look like you've deforested the whole block that's kind of the goal and that's why in the future you'll see why did they leave that ashtree and why didn't they leave that ashtree it could be healthy and we're going to get it the other thing is the cost of of removing these trees the insect is here and or if they're infested will be two to three times this cost and the regulations of what you can do with the tree material you can't put them in landfills you can't do any of that the cost is exorbitant that's why we're trying to be proactive and it's heart wrenching to have to do this to a live tree that's not diseased they grow back so that's why there'll be some changes to this but we'll highlight some of the changes but just because they ask for a live it does I'd be very mad if they give it to them but it's something that has to be but it'll change from every year based upon your priorities too okay, anything else? trustee comments Elaine? okay, so we are on to the consent agenda and I have one change that Mr. Kudry who in regard to the multi-use path contacted me for item four in the minutes of the last trustee meeting item number four, guest presentations and public hearings lying down here line four it says following concerns of the 30 rose bushes planted by public works a few weeks ago near the retaining wall, only 10 remain he said only 20 remain he said 10 were pulled out in 20 remain he wanted me to clarify that for you so I'll make that change to the agenda I mean to the minutes Elaine? and I just have one, I think it's a correction um 6B paragraph three ninth line down it's Mr. Karen asked Ms. Renner I think Lori asked I think it's Ms. Houghton asked where are you? right here, when we were talking about the electronic electric vehicles charging stations and you asked about that, so it was it's Houghton not Karen nine out of paragraph three oh, paragraph three six, seven, eight nine, yeah, it says Mr. Karen at the end it should be Ms. Houghton that's Mr. Karen that's it, we get those two mixed up all the time see why any other changes to the minutes? everyone good? so I'll move that we approve the minutes as a um I think consent agenda oh I can move that we approve the minutes as agenda as amended I'll second any further discussion? all in favor? aye I do approve the warrants of the consent agenda because we only approve the minutes yeah, so we have to approve the whole consent agenda really I'll move that we approve the consent agenda any further any second? any further discussion? all in favor? aye so the consent agenda is approved now we're done well not yet, someone has to make a motion I'll move we adjourn all right, do I hear a second? any further discussion? all in favor? aye, we're adjourned thank you I want to clarify the adjourning