We're trying to select board meeting again. That's July 6. We are now in John Hogan meeting room We can be in their meeting. So we have a general public comment Travis is anything that you have for general public comment. Yes And Regarding ATV all-frame vehicles and one day it was my truck I checked in my windshield flying by me and The state police were called They didn't show up until many hours later, but there was no way to identify the ATV. There's no Registration marks anything on it Travelling record down the road And there's been several other instances with lots of all-terrain vehicles on more time than ever A lot this year that state police have on each time and sometimes sending the sheriff out I'm just hoping that the select board will allow or will do this the proper way and have public comments at that time we do have it and I just want to be known to taxpayers and people throughout more town that It's a very noisy endeavor. I have many recordings of very loud Vehicles going by all hours of the night and there's very little to no way to enforce this With all that said, we also did a site visit take which I'm not coming too much on but the point of that bringing that up is The town doesn't even know where all its legal trails are supposedly or class for roads or Everything leads up. That's what the before meeting was for today and also later on tonight And I should hope that the town focuses a little more on that and spend a little more effort on that before they Become close to allowing ATVs to travel on our roads My vehicle has to meet a safety standard. It's not only a state safety standard It's also a federal safety safety standard. That's called SAE SAE and DOT all my headlights have to meet that I have to do a strenuous inspection from here. I have to pay insurance So if we do allow these ATVs on the road, I hope they're properly insured and properly educated According to the BSA state statutes in the state of Vermont So this is just voicing some of my concern. I know there will be an opportunity at some point to Make a certified comment about that. Thank you Thanks We will just a note on that we are we started talking about that Travis I think our last meeting Perhaps at this next July meeting ring and Cali are working on some recommendations We'll talk about those as a board and then we'll definitely have some public comment on this I think our thought was that we would end up eventually voting on this at town meeting But we need to that's Ways away, we want to see what what comes out of it, but it'll be a good public process and I appreciate your Your comments on that I asked step on to come in for public comment Thank you step on for it for coming in Needed a little bit of time. I was sure we're gonna get it this weekend. I had another call from Happen to be up on 100 B here for the the Farnham dogs So this has been you know, we all know about this Step on how many times roughly you think you've dealt It's With yesterday's events. It was 13 times since the 16th of March. All right and Shane last year and I don't have his records in front of me, but I have dealt with them numerous numerous times as well Mr. Farnham Is Well, he abused me The last time they were brought so about two weeks ago They were found in Middlesex at the the the new restaurant there The garage station, whatever it is Philly station There was a some people from Middlesex brought the dogs to Central Vermont Humane Society Mr. Farnham was made aware of that and Verbally harassed Anyways, they were he was not allowed there And then they asked step on if we would bring the dogs back and I was not It's not our job to ferry dogs back and forth Either way, we lost the contract at Central Vermont Humane Society Because they don't want anything to do with the farm in the front of the dogs Because of his abuse and they're quite frankly Frightened a guy and I didn't want to put stuff on in way either, you know to send them out there. So we need to Start a process to To take the dogs and So fun have any insights on that or how that process my understanding is We hold a meeting with Mike and discuss what's happened We've tried to give them bring, you know, brand and we we have held the fines to try to help them be able to have the money to build You know a kennel area for them so that they're enclosed and can't get out So bring all that up and then at that point as the select board and Working with the tab lawyer we can figure out if you know, it's just it's on say for the motorist going through town It's on say for the people that you know own property in the town The dogs are great, but people don't know that You know a random pit bull comes up to your house You're not gonna, you know stick your hand out and say hey You're gonna, you know walk carefully around and they've been eating People's gardens and things like that. So I think that the next step forward We definitely be talking to the lawyer and getting Mike in here for a meeting Or at least put out the certified letter to invite him for a meeting and that's out to him if he decides to show Okay And also currently So we've been holding the fines he owes us $820 Okay Thank you Yeah So any discussion around the board here? Yeah, I think I think what you say much follows and don't work Yeah To work off room. I don't want to you know go against that because I you know, it's gonna be our best our best to move forward and keep everything you know up and up and How do I work out? I mean it's it's a shame because they're great dogs it just They can't stay home Right, and it's causing issues and unfortunately I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt Or someone that picks them up or a caregiver of the dogs or something because Mike is Seems to be a volatile guy. Yes, absolutely I've been in contact with the state police before because of some of his comments to me And you know, there's not a lot they can do You know just on a pure safe basis, but You know, I'm one one kind of way for You know, who knows what could happen, right? You know puts me in danger every time And we can't bring the dogs to Central Vermont and we always won't take them anymore So I don't really have a place to take the dogs other than back to All right, or are they in the shop one day, you know Oh, yeah, I think it's on their own the shop and check into the town bar, right? Yes We didn't we didn't have a place to bring when I couldn't just Drop them off at his house without a home So that ended up being Being a fiasco all of a sudden and I Last fall tried to Or I did I stopped to talk to Mike and try to reason with him and He just peg rocks at me. So Wasn't the best meeting I ever had So at this point unless anyone around the the table has any Other thoughts that we contact our attorney and move the process forward to fix this problem Or attempt to Yeah, we've had lots of people reach out You know We've had a lot of people I think they're nice friendly dogs. I think people would be happy to take them Two dogs So there I There's three of them But I have only seen two recently. So I don't know if One has gotten rid of already or it's just been standing here in the house. Like I I can't even You know comment too much on excited. I don't know but there is three of them That I picked up several different times sometimes and they use it together. Yeah, at least two of them sometimes Let's write the front truck with them and uh, yeah, they're a great dog. They sit right on the passenger seat and lay down They're a really great dog. I'm a dog guy. They're great. I can take dogs. I love them but All right, well, thank you stephans and I appreciate your your help and Certainly when we take those positions of uh, you know the control office, we don't uh Think we're running into those type of situations just a dog here and there. So thanks for your time. I appreciate that Yeah, you've done a real good job Can I mention one one dog related thing? Sure. Just maybe just So vlct on july 22nd If I forwarded that it's gonna have a dog control law and enforcement weapon, I don't know if you know about But I didn't know if that's something That stephans would be interested in how we should maybe have them take and I think there's a small fee or something like that Yep, no, I forwarded that and asked him about a two weeks ago if he could take care of that. Okay Yeah, I definitely do want to go because they can give me some some insight from them And you know, they work with them on the town. So hopefully I can get you know, get some good ideas from that Hopefully moving forward on, you know, maybe a different dog going from a great wild one instead of You know the same dogs day in and day out Thanks, so thank you Don for move on to this without you Um, all right, so we'll go ahead and move on. Um, we're on the agenda a little bit behind so 605 we had a little trail 15 we all went up for a um All right, it's not going on Cali was unable to make it Um due to work issues. So we had an opportunity to go up and take a walk on trail 15 There was um Sasha will give you a list of the names of everyone who was there So you do have that I think between john and i we were able to compile that So As a board we what we saw I think it was fairly self-explanatory and there's some questions Of where that trail ultimately turns and ends um, what I would suggest that we how we start Um, Pam had showed us she had some documentation that something that Cheryl Lynn had sent out to us And this is correspondence from 2010 From the state There seems to be a number of questions and issues what I'd like to do is start by having I actually Cheryl brown who was originally working on that To uh come in and spend a day to kind of unravel this force and the The emails Just to see where we're at And then at some point I think we'll need to get Uh You know lawyer or someone to interpret interpret what we're looking at But I want to get all the information that is out there On this there were some questions that it may be may have been changed at one point. Um, And john was here at that time. He doesn't recall any of that. So Before we Go forward with anything else that we need to get all that information make sure we have that in front of us It may be a simple explanation the answer may be already here somewhere And if not, I would suggest that we we move forward And Travis is correct. We have a number of town trails and in some roads that are Ghost trails are roads. We're you know, there are surveys or incorrect surveys And I think on a yearly basis we need to Uh start or continue to start identifying these. Um, I think you know, in fact, we were finishing up Hopefully sometimes soon on the other side of the mountain When Travis lives, but I think uh this next Trail 15 over here would be if there's no nothing in the Documents that clearly points. All right, this is where it is or this is where it turns That is one that we should Should have surveyed as well Ray, John, Kathleen, Don any thoughts? That's that's what uh, and that's what we talked about many years back Is to take one or two of these a year maybe and have them surveyed So we really knew where everything went and in some cases, I mean, we've done it once Where at that end of somebody's property and so we did we did throw it up But otherwise we we don't but I don't know. I mean, I'd be curious residents What would be your thoughts in terms of what would you like? I think just a clear picture where it starts here it ends, you know Um, and I said It wasn't an issue until we started looking and then we realized there's some documentation that we've never seen before And being the landowner we were a little surprised that there had been communication about changing the trail but We knew nothing about it You know just to be clear for everyone moving forward where it is So that's that's where we want to start is where that Change came from and what that was if we can unravel that I mean that that's a good starting point Still ends there And In the town and ended there But I'll have to think that's beat up and see really the legal ground ended that's a good outcome Yes, yeah, I knew that was interesting So the third house was a wood lot of us. There's an old cellar hole that's kind of filled there that you wouldn't know Yeah, that's what's known as a cellar house So I will research that even if it ends there that there's no big deal because it doesn't turn Either way All right, well, again, I'll contact the rod. Yeah, I'll try to speak with Cheryl tomorrow. I'll see what her time frame is in but We'll move forward with this and try to get So sometimes we talk about me imagining do you want me to get you that distance or do you want me to wait? I can wait on that. We'll see what the you know We're just trying to see what that comes out and then there'll probably be a time where they'll You know a survey or something might come up and do something like that, but Uh, it seems like the easiest way to figure out where it is. Yeah, I think with all these tails I think it's it'll just solve a lot of problems. Yeah, just to do a couple of years and just get it divided Right, it's earned the money and it because it's typically it'll cost us Probably around five grand before we're done before a year. We're doing it, but it's still worth it Yeah, I think for everyone's peace of mind Because a lot of my family is it's on a map. It's it's talent project Well, we wanted a lot of times and I can also tell trail Right you Shared a story that you had someone last fall come up and park their camper there, right? Right That's an example of What can happen when they're not clearly defined. So I agree and I really try to speak Something we should probably look at Okay, thank you. All right, so we'll go ahead. Yeah, you can stay all night if you Don't mind So I want to go ahead and move on the agenda. We have 6 15. We have zoning fees. So everyone they want to pull out their zoning fees If anyone in the audience, Sasha may have an extra one if you want to look at it um So gave it our zoning administrator came to us A few meetings ago looking for some clarity and also Changing some of the zoning permits and then given clarified there on one document that they were skating Something in the other another. So this is really to get everything in units Working together and Perhaps some of these were changed a little bit because of the time difference So first want to take a look at we'll just go down. We're looking to change the subdivision 150 per lot that's an added Thing we never had that one ponds 100 and if we And those are zoning permits that we were talking about there And under the development review board fees and he has been working with John on this We're looking to the first conditional use non-conforming use residential move from 75 to 100 Conditionally use non-conforming use commercial from 125 to 150 and a development development review board variance for residents 125 Changed to 150 Pardon the resident 75 changed to 100 in commercial 125 Put an increase to 150 The other thing that is added down below it's a letter of No known violations 25 and i'm not familiar with what that particular um selenius Yeah, I know it would be yeah Do you know anything about no big? When somebody is selling a lot the lawyers are asking for no known violations to make sure everything Is company Oh, the research has to be done. So it's 25 all to do that research All right. I know I went through those fairly quickly, but um, are there any questions as for any of them more? All I could So the subdivision There is no fee right now Is that the way I understand it or are we increasing the fee there? It is to If you're subdividing the permit there's a fee for that But if any additional law you want to add on later or divide later It would be an additional fee for that Okay, so it's a lot added to the subdivision. Okay. Okay. Okay at a later date Okay, well that makes more sense. So it should really say 150 per lot added to subdivision Okay, that's a previously improved subdivision And um All right, so at the ponds 100 dollars I'm not sure why We would want that fee Unless there's some engineering involved. Do you know if there's any engineering involved? Is that It was going to be over a grand that they wanted that In the zoning going with the square footage. Yeah So I think that's why he came up with that. It was a cheaper alternative to it, but I don't know as far as the rest of it. Oh, I see. Okay, right I refresh my memory Yeah, instead of charging a square footage Whether you had a hundred gallon pond or yeah 10,000 gallon pond I mean hundred dollars, I mean, I know it doesn't amount much, but it it seems a little high to me that considering But right, I think that it's significantly cheaper than what we were looking at because remember what it was those guys were You know vaude trap was looking for Like I said, it was a thousand dollars, right? Maybe you could do a sliding like for under a certain amount of gallon or something And I think from your You know, we're starting it's only a hundred gallons Right, right Well, I mean to put a bond and you have to get all kinds of you know state environmental rules Anyway, so this is just for maybe Yeah, I don't think it's uh Because I need a zoning permit for it and you'll see if it fits the in the Lawyer And they're always like I said, it's not an added. It's nothing new. It's just actually more reasonable fee. Okay um As far as the drv board increases these are coming directed from the drv or John and David we're working together on this the board my understanding David has shared with me. Yeah I this seems like Those fees I don't know how many of what our dollar revenue is from every year, but Uh, it does, you know, if you're a resident a small resident, you know 25 dollars That increases Could be significant Uh, you know, I don't I don't understand. I I guess I've ever trouble with why we have to increase the drv rates at this time When you said, um, do you feel different with the residential and commercial? Yeah across the I feel more I feel more towards the residential people that are trying to improve their house Or try to improve me and I'd rather not increase the residential portion the commercial portion I guess I'm okay with with the residentials. I think I think I'd like to give them a break We're all we're all trying to make it here And I certainly don't have any arguments with that Unless we want to double back with the drv and hear what their reasoning is or something But I agree, you know, we can't disagree with Ray either Yeah, I think we could do it either way. Um, I'm I guess I would at this point I think raise the idea of Maybe uh keeping the residential And just changing the commercial would be fine. I'm hoping Based on my conversations with David that those he and john and drb had good discussions about this Um, so I think You know that information is probably good stuff there, but I I agree, you know, why don't we keep the Residential, um, we have conditional use non conforming use residential Um at 75 let's keep it there rather than raise it to 100 Uh, and we had the variance at 100 um Pardon me at 75 let's keep that and not change it to 100 And we'll change the two commercials from 125 to 150 I do agree, but I I think that it would be good to get input You want to hear from john right? Yeah All right, so why don't we go back then to john? I'm just We'll confirm with him that they have had an opportunity to look at these and we'll give them my recommendation that we would like to The residential at The 75 for the variance and the commercial use non conforming use And see what their thoughts on that So, um Now we have reports communications. So why don't we go ahead and put around the board Callie do you have any reports communications or anything that you'd like to share? So on monday Last week ran and met Talked about some atv stuff got that organized. I have not heard back from the state yet about Signs and what that would look like. Um, I did check in with berlin and Kind of the vibe that I got was that they weren't really going to do anything with it so Because I guess they haven't had any issues with anything So unless it got brought to them they weren't really going to Change what was happening Exactly they've got enough boxes open right now. Yeah, so All right, so you guys um When do you Have some other stuff that you want to bring to the board and some kind of recommendations or what we should How we should move forward in this Take the first meeting in august or Okay, is that okay with you? Yeah I mean, we are certainly I think approaching out of a small scale You know We're both in the jonesburg area Whatever I think we're proposing would only apply We're not talking about opening the hole down a more down. I don't think uh, but uh And just going back to what Travis said earlier I think One of the problems we're seeing over there on our side is There's a lot of Unregistered vehicles going up down the roads and there's no regulation on we had a race car The other weekend who probably went 50 by my house like straight race car. No doors nothing You know, I'm hoping by some regulation at least we can get Identify, you know, if we say they're going to be registered and they got to be inspected and have insurance that At least have a plate you can track on if we yeah, we can track them down because right now it's There really is no way to track them down. I mean, right when they go by Is it possible for them to be registered for the end of town? Well, that's one thing we we've thought about is having a special Registration in the town and I don't know if that's possible You can look in the apartment or apartment doesn't need to be separate from VASA and all that They have their own little town registration here. You spend your money and crew with your registered and insurer What town is that? Barton, okay, so that thanks maybe You know, I think there's a lot of people Um The out there with the etvs and etvs had a responsible driver said, you know, it should be Able to ride these roads in a legal manner and to just say, no, I don't think this Is the best way to go Just a quick quick question. I'm not expecting to answer it but does he register etv? Say that it can be run down a road Because The way I interpret the ordinance that if we say they can do it They can do it if they register inside on the on the town road only no state roads on the town To put you on the spot, right I don't know if the answer is of course, but have you ever taken a safety course for driving an ATV? I have not That's one of the state requirements for running an ATV on town I don't think so No, it's not VSA Not for VASA Not any more Would this be for VASA then? Is what you're recommending? Well, VASA does most of most of the trials so VASA requirements are Basically, you have to be registered insured and over 12 Right And follow your ATV There's some other age limits in there Look in that So how much VASA trail do we have in more town? I just was being aware of some of the trail we were on near today Well, they're two different VASA snowmobiles VASA is ATVs So VASA And they're immediately different Yeah, yeah, and they don't always connect because the snowmobiles in ATVs sometimes don't also connect So does VASA work the same type of way that the snowmobiles work? Yeah But I don't think we're proposing No VASA No Open it up to the VASA Well, that's where most of the state's catchments are written for VASA Not the VLCP ordinance that we've been using as a guideline as I mentioned VASA it on And I'd like to see how it works with snowmobiles Yeah Thanks All right Well, I have a question so when they register in a town That means not just the people living in the town, people who want to come to your town They have to register to be on your roads or something That's way out of order That was my understanding of how it works Like, I could leave and go up to Barton and spend $25 as long as I have proof of insurance for proof of registration And get the $25 sticker from them And if someone drives up from the Hampshire, right? You have to go get a day pass Like for us to go to the Hampshire, you have to get a day pass and get a day stay People do that Okay, yeah, good So that made me a way to control it a little bit better I was going to mention also where I've bicycled up in, you know, in Roxbury up above I think that gets to be Brookfield or something You know, up in there They have a whole network of trails Right ATV trails And they have to go out and go off the road and all that I always have no idea Oh, okay, I didn't know if that would be another source to talk you to a town That's all Shelly, let me go for Shelly when you can actually go down Almost into Danville on it Because we've done that Okay, all right But there are beings and I have a partial of the ATVs being allowed in Washington on the table Really? And I would have liked to have joined that one today but we're already talking about it here Because I think it's more perfect It was, uh, so there are, are they going to open their whole town to it? Was that their proposal? There is many different sides to it It's going to go on for quite some time It's a lot, it should be So I can't The boss will be open up there Yeah, all right, we don't want to be just up here We've got our own discussions here All right I mean, it's a work in progress Yeah Yeah, and I think there's going to be some common ground that we can all come on Come together Don, did you have anything to share with us today? Um, yes, I just, um, so we didn't Well, even that's good that Stefan's here So we didn't walk through with efficiency Vermont To go up the fire station and the town garage The fire station, uh, actually, you know, was pretty good shape I mean, there was a couple of small and we'll have the report front But the town garage, uh, there are a couple of items that we really should, um, act on And that's the lighting Not only is it not really very energy efficient It happens to be a lot that's not even working right now So if you're going to go try to fix what's not working You might as well, you know, replace the lights There's money available for that And then the other thing that was discovered is in the right Is as you're looking out If you're in the garage, so the right front bay Um, there's a lot of moisture that's generated from the trucks come in in the winter And then it gets up on the roof Stefan will jump in if I'm not describing this right And then the metal is corrugated It gets on the roof, it's running down And it's gone out into the eve And there's damage happening And it's, you know, there's moisture and it's wet And it's, it needs to be dealt with And, um, the gentleman who we walked through had some suggestions But also, uh, you know, suggested maybe some contractors that we could look at it with or something It's something that we shouldn't just kind of like I've rotten the way out of the building No, it's not, yeah, it's Right, exactly It's such a good building now for a chance to, you know, to nip it in And nip it in the bottom and get it taken care of And it seems to me what happens is Because it's radiating the floors As the snow and water or whatever's on the trucks comes off It evaporates, rises to the ceiling Runs down the ceiling into the top of the wall and runs through the wall into the eaves Yeah Just sits there and freezes and thaws and freezes and thaws And big icicles outside That's how they've really suited it to zeroing on that It's the problem So About everything It's now in the road that they could do All right, so we on that project, on that particular thing, the lighting I mean, I'm assuming the efficiency Vermont had recommendations for the lighting, and that reward. So why don't such being work with Don, maybe looking that over, see what that is, there may be grant applications in there, usually there are you, but not through efficiency Vermont. Maybe Ray, maybe you could work with Martin and figure out, and with Don, all right, who do we get to come and look at this? We need to have an idea where we're at, you know, and because this may be something we're at, we need to budget X amount of dollars this fall, and the budget to take care of this problem. Well, he also indicated there was some funds for that as well. Yeah, the hot air reclaimer, it gets a moisture out, but keeps the hot air in, basically a family run. Yeah, I think there's a way to seal that, and then that would help, and then also seal where the water's going to be. So you think Don will be able to, will they be able to come up with some budget numbers? Oh yeah, no, I think so. Again, he sent us some contractors that, you know, that we could contact, they would come and look at it and give us quotes and stuff like that. Has Martin seen that information? Have we shared that? Yeah, yeah. We actually got forwarded on the hand flow. And I sent it to you guys, I don't know if you sent it to the rest of the people. Yeah, we got it all. You got it. You're just reading it, but so Ray, I'm going to get a chance and then you guys can all work together to make sure that that moves forward. Make sure that's on the business too. Yeah, it is a pretty important thing to do it. And in the town hall, obviously that's still a working project. So, you know, we did do one of the things that he told us that we should do like right away, which I think the other day, which was the unplugged refrigerator. There you go. Because he goes, you wouldn't believe how much energy that is, especially when you don't have anything in it, no one's using it. Yeah. So yeah. It is surprising. Yeah. It's a big one. So that's been a point. Another item is I bumped into Mike Wood the other day. And so just reminding the boss of the board that, you know, he's stepping down in August and that really, once he's gone and there's not another lister, then this throws a bit of a comment into the works as far as, you know, properties, the value of real estate sales. And he strongly suggested, I mean, this was just quickly out of the July 4th party, you know, to get into it deep. But, you know, the firm that they also use, the assessor, he was strongly in favor of that we consider, you know, getting them to be there. Yeah. So that's, if we remind, that's the, the Mike came in or I guess we were on Zoom at that point. Right. Right. We discussed that. We were going to spend a little time this summer trying to find another lister. It's actually, if you want to put that out on the front porch form, you know, another time. But when that doesn't happen or it does, even if it does, I think we need to make those decisions. And it's something that we would bring before the town at some point, probably a town meeting to make that change with the listers. We need them, I think, to sign off on the grand list. But I think that's probably the only thing at this point. All right. Well, I had some other things. I did call the guy, Ryan, for the tap in school just to follow up with him. I left him a message. I mean, I was a little down on the slide the last two weeks, so I can't say I did a little, you know, like, I didn't have a chance to follow up on the remote system. I left a message for the tap in school guy today, actually. So I guess the only other item is when we get to talk about the meeting. I want to break out a chance to follow up on how to be, you know, where I told you the road was, you know, already having some serious problems. I did. I sent an email to, I sent an email to someone. I'll find that. Yeah, no, that's great. I thought I'd probably... I thought we can bug them, you know, because it would be a shame, you know, it would be a shame. Yeah, the same email I mentioned again about the ponding here. So I have not received a response. No, I mean, of course I always have stuff, but that's good for now. I don't have anything, so if Don wants to take my... No, no, no. It's something that they will work it on, Don. So a couple things that have come my way as far as communications. We had an email from, and I don't have her name right in front of me, but she was wondering why we need to lock the access over here. I thought they wanted it to be shut. No, definitely. It was the other way around. Yeah, in a minute, I'll give you just a moment of step, and I just want to make sure it's clear. No, they would like... The question was, why is this locked? Everyone else is lousy. It's not a very far walk, and if you're giving the exercise to me. But anyway, step on. You had some thoughts on this. So part of the reason that that got locked is when it's not locked overnight, some people like to come and blow down on some of the fields. That's right. That makes it easier for mowing and keeping the field looking decent. That was the reason that it originally got locked up. Right. I think they recall that.  Yeah. And, I mean, the road's only about 100 yards to the tennis courts, right? It's not far. It's not far. I see no reason. If you can play tennis, then you can walk through. Okay. That was the case. And there's plenty of access. If someone's in a wheelchair such to get around and up through, I just looked. Exactly. You're going to walk through, so the wheelchair should be related here. All right. Things like that. I want to make sure everyone has access to it. So, yeah, based on, you know, the history when we haven't had it, there's been problems. I don't think there's any reason to change that. And it's like I said, it's not very far to the recreational facilities. And part of it was the bike trail. And if you're biking again, I don't know what the problem is. So, we'll go ahead and leave that there. The other gate issue that I had was up on the Moretown Mountain Road in Loretta, Keen. She has the property that's right opposite Mr. Grandfield's pit, the same pit up there. And there was a steel gate there. And she shared photos with me of where the snow had been pushed back and pushed against the gate and such. At contact with Martin, I mean, Rick Ford came, I got an email from Martin. He had an opportunity to take a look at it. He thought they were probably responsible for it, for the damage on the gate. So he's going to look in to a price out of gate to see what that might be. The other thing is, the gate up there, and I went and took a look at it yesterday as well. The gate's really pretty functional and there's a couple of bends in it. So we may, we're going to let Martin handle it with her. We may give them a little, you know, the price of the gate or a little bit of the money of the gate. That's what they got. We've been helping her with that. Okay. Just so everybody's aware of that. The other communication I had came from Karen, Karen Horne, and she was advocating for the Planning Commission to continue to promote virtual needles. We're having that ability to do that. And she urged that we spend some money through the gate. We have our screens in the screen that I have. We can use it as long as I'm around. Probably the longer out of that, I don't want to use it anymore. But we would need a mic, this owl thing or something. Yeah, the owl is the next step we're going to have. So I would still like to know if you could follow up and see what people are thinking now that they're using it. Yeah. Because it sounds good, but how does it actually work? And then on the weekend, I'd like to try myself to hitch on a meeting just to see. Yeah, I'm going to get back to you this weekend. So just that's out there. So people are perhaps interested. And there are good reasons. We have weather events, you know, illness or something. It may be, and it may be the way of the world. I guess that's all I have for the announcements or communications. So Rambler, what else do you have? Well, I did meet with Ken, Robbie, and from Du Bois and King, and Eric from Stantag. We walked the west side sidewalk. Just informally, I just wanted to walk through there with them to make sure that we are all on the same page on a lot of things. You know, pretty much, I think they've done a really good job. I think they got everything covered. They know what they're looking at. I feel pretty confident that when they meet with the landowners that issues will be resolved and everybody, you know, as best as they can, will be happy. I mean, like Frank Diaz is, his porch is in the right way.  And I don't know how that's going to go, but it's in the right way. So I think that's probably the most controversial part of that whole project, probably. And I don't know any solution to that problem. It's really not the town problem that he has built so close to right away, but, you know, we'll see where they go. Well, did he actually build the porch? I don't know. I think that, I mean, that building was like a Kenyan's years and years ago. So, you know, maybe it won't be a problem, but that's what I saw. It's the biggest thing. The summer tree, I don't think is an issue. That's good. Yeah. So I think Ken and Eric, I think they're really good. They've done a really good job as far as cleaning out the project. And how about Strausses? Is it the locus tree that they built? I think the locus tree is going to be okay. Somebody needs smaller stuff. I think it's going to have to be taken out, but I think the locus tree is good. Okay. Yeah. There are some areas we can paper that sidewalk from five to four foot, you know, to give us, you know, if necessary. Oh, really? I didn't really know that, but they're saying that it's okay. No, I didn't. Yeah. Yeah.  So Ken did give us an email and I apologize for that. That he was going to start trying to meet with the landowners. Just talk with them to let them know where those changes are, what the difference between what it looks like on the map and what it's actually going to be. So I think that's a good step. Once that happens, we'll get everyone back together, we'll figure out what the temperature is there. We'll have more information at that point as far as costs go or not. We have spent money on the project, roughly 60,000 so far between engineering and such. I would have to look at that. That's just round figures. And that's stuff that if we decide not to do the project, we'll have to reimburse back to the state. So what we'll, you know, at this point, it's almost cost-wise, depending on whether we have lots of other changes, it might be the same or less to do or not do the project. It's going to cost us money in a way or another. But we'll have a better indication on that. That being said, on the meeting minutes, when I was originally asked what the town share was, I had said 80,000. And I had gotten that figure from Cheryl. And that night, there was a mistake there. Me made it. She corrected that with me the next morning. It was 103,000 that the town share would be. So that will be changed on the meeting minutes as well. But I wanted to make sure that was clarified. Apparently the 80 that was written on the folder inside, but it was a little number from her mother or something. We had a point though, I mean, that since we're going to, they're going to meet with the landowners, and then there's going to be a recouping and talking out. But maybe after they meet with the landowners, we kind of have the consultants stop doing anything for a little while just so we don't keep the meter running and spend the money while we have our own, you know, in other words, they meet with the landowners. So as we get that information, we have a meeting and then go forward from there, because we don't have them keep doing it. Right. I think that once we have a better idea of what's going on, then we can make those decisions. I already want to put the brakes on things, stop things. Do we go forward in the town? Do we vote on this? What type of information do we collect for that? At some point you have to say, wait, don't spend any more money. Right, exactly. But we need to get to a point in the process where we have all the information to make those decisions. That's for real. And then we can make those. I know there's some discussion on some of the soils that they've taken, the soil samples or such. I didn't quite understand. The state has come out, this is, you know, within the last year, they have this exact term, but it's basically contamination of the soils from exhaust from vehicles. And so they're looking at that and seeing if there is any of that in this segment on the other side of the work, which could affect the cost either way. But I don't understand that. So within the soils, the exhaust from cars is going by. Yeah, it settles on the pavement and it washes it. It's like the roads when it first starts raining and you're bicing, it's very slippery. It's because they have this layer of like oils that come out of the exhaust, you know, this particle. It's pretty right, yeah.  So we have that on this side, too. But there wasn't an issue on this side because the regulations came into effect back here, this project. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty easy. It's another unfunded mandate. That's what it means. So it's, um, anyway, so there are plenty of issues to take a look at that but we're doing everything we can to make sure that we get all the correct information and that we can make that long decision on that. Bob, if Ken needs any assistance, I'd be happy to join him on any of the meetings, especially Frank. All right. Very good, we'll let him know that. Ray, did you have anything else? Yeah, there's a couple other things. One, we'll do an executive session later regarding that meeting with Phil Litter in the teeny case. I did talk to Martin about the, where we're at with the consultant, particularly for the consultants who work with Martin, where he's a colleague. Robert Turner. So Martin told me that he believes the ball is in Martin's court. He was having trouble with his computer and Mr. Turner, Mr. Turner, I believe is scheduled, or Martin was working on getting him scheduled to come up and help him get through this problem they were having. So Martin is working on it, but obviously Martin's working on the roads too, but he does have it on his agenda to get this done. Do you have anything else from the shop or anything else you want to share with him? No, I'm not sure. We'll stand with us. We'll have more. We talked to Harvest the end of last week, I think it was Thursday, and they had to receive the parka, it was on the back order. So it's, you know, just waiting for the parka to come and get scheduled in. They are swamped there as well. They said the parking them and do what they could to fit it in because it's been waiting. And we haven't heard anything today from it, but we're going to call him again this weekend and keep on talking about what's going on with that. So in the meantime, we're just doing it. So Eric has been doing the mowing. I spoke to Martin a couple of weeks ago, between vacations and just we have more road maintenance work we have to do. Eric's done it in the past. He's done it a couple of times. The guys have been doing some of the training as well. But we'll go ahead and do that until the machine goes back. I did speak to Martin last Thursday or Friday about that. And that's exactly what he said. They're saying a week or two before the park comes in again. And then, you know, they'll get to it when they can. But we give our animals a week, you know, a call up and check in so we don't get brushed down or we'll try to get back as efficient as we can. Good. I tell them to submit for himself. And I don't know whether it was Sean or the guys that they brought their mowers over to, you know, submit 50 bucks at a time that they used their mower to pay or to do the lawn. And he said that was fair, but I haven't heard anything about it. So hopefully that will get fixed up. And I think they're working on something in the budget. He's looking at something else. So we may or may not see something with that. Ray, are you all set? Yeah, like I said, we'll meet in a minute. Yeah. We'll do that towards the end. So we don't have to kick anyone out. All right. So next thing we have is the upward minutes. Noted change that I talked about earlier. Are there any other changes or? I don't have in front of just some reading them. Just in the park when we talked about the sidewalk. I think there should be something included in there that there were, you know, residents here who were speaking out against, you know, the possibility of not having the sidewalk. There's nothing really mentioned in there that people were wanting to have it looked at and possibly not to me. Yeah. You know, just to add that into the notes. Sonja, could you add that up? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes that is commended by both of you and John. Is that good? John, thank you. If you catch it this time. Any other discussion on reading minutes for 621? 621, 21. All right. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Thank you, everyone. All right. So now we move on to old business. And we've already talked about the ATV ordinance. And we have CB Fiverr and the service officer down there as well. Service officer, Sasha, I guess we're still looking for that. Or someone there. And Lister. And Lister. And as far as CB Fiverr, they are looking, again, we will need to at some time when we get into budgets and what we want to do with some of our funds that we have perhaps to allocate or not. The other thing that I have for old business is some more FES stuff. And I have a contract for fireworks that we discussed. So that the dates, and I think that we went over this, the changes, they're saying that this is the 25th day of September. That was the week later than what we had originally said. So I'm hoping to all have that date available. I will be in Stratton, but that's okay. Stratton, what are you doing down here? Doing some fun or something up and down? OCR World Championships. I qualified two years ago. So I don't know if it was canceled last year. Congratulations. I'm qualified to go this year in Stratton. What is it called? It's Obstacle Course Raising World Championships. One. Two. Nice. I know I talked with Scott for a step on. He's sound... Yeah, that's great. Sociality though. That means I'm going to sound the whole day. Exactly. So I know we reached out. I think step on is going to be involved as well with more FES, but they seem to be moving along pretty well with that. We've had budgeted for the events. We put in our budget this year. We put $5,000 in. There's $4,000 for the fireworks. The other thing that they've asked for out of that money will probably last for all at some point, but the other thing they've been able to contract or if we say pay is a ragged company. It's banned. It's out of one of the guys losing town, Steve Sharp, to one-hour sets at Morfest for $500. So we have those two that have scheduled there. So I'm waiting to get a quote on those hats that I show everybody. The Moitone hats. I went to Darefield the other day, so I can't be posted on it. Yeah, so I should have thought that we would buy them and then we sell them or something like that. Some kind of a donation. Yeah, something. It was a fundraiser. I think that's a good idea. I mean, then I was talking. He said you maybe want to get 50 or 80 hats tops. It's not like you're going to buy 200. He said you'll have 150 in your house. So there's the guy who lives here on Earl Rowe that owns Darefield. He was great. It wasn't like he said, oh yeah, buy 250 hats. He was like, I'll hopefully buy the next medium. I could just get in touch with Leigh Ann Teller about it.  Oh, great. So those are the people, everyone that's working on it. And anyone else who would like to participate or work on it. I know they've reached out to the Jennifer Hill Library to make sure they're involved. The school has got the beer tents from Lawson's all secured. Are they getting a sheriff as well? They asked about that if we need a sheriff. I don't know if we do or not, but I thought that would be weird on public land. We'll need to look into that whether we need to pay. The other thing is we have Tom Cheney, and he's a police officer. Cheney. Cheney. Tom Cheney. And these are constables. Thank you, Sasha. So you might need something. But we can look into that. Well, certainly the safety is going at Leigh of Paramount. I've reached out to one of our companies in town, hoping to get a sponsor to sponsor a pig roast. It sounds like they may. And I've got someone lined up who would do it for us for $500.  These guys are doing corn. Yeah. The more people from Neal Farmer try to get done to do it, maybe have to help us. It'll be a little by-donation, but fundraiser for the fire department as well. And I thought the same with the pig thing. We've got a sponsor. It'll be by-donation. So anyone can come. This is a free event. But if you have a donation, you can give it. And then money can go to something in town, whether it's... I think that community... Well, whatever, we can come up with something. But the thing that we get out to people or something like that, just sort of gives back to where we're coming. So I think there... It sounds like they're on the right track in there. Everyone's trying to get some things done. So I just like the motion to approve what we have so far, the two events. I think we already talked about fireworks, but just so we'll approve the ban as well. I make the motion to approve the expenditures for a more best discussion. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor? All right. All right. Thank you, River. I want you to have that. All right. And again, if anyone has things coming up, you've got ideas of popping up in your head or things that could possibly do... Let us know. One of the things that... Again, we're trying to make this... Not cost a lot of money, but have, you know, or certainly free for people coming in. I'm thinking like a touch-the-truck thing. You know, step on and think about that with fire trucks, maybe at the town where we're at. And maybe you guys... If you can talk with Martin and just everyone down there, you guys must have good connections or even are you ready?  One of those things. Well, let's ask one of the betters. We want to come on this way for the day. That's exactly what we need. Good idea. Again, not a truck. We have this beautiful... Oh, yeah. I think that would be a good thing to let the new one there and let people see that. Kids love it. Yeah, it's really nice. The color is bright. And if anyone, again, has ideas of those things, or if you have a race car or something you want to drop by with that would be good. What do you have? Are you going to be over there, Travis? We'll also be all on the fire. Oh, that's right, sorry. So anyways, that's moving on. Any other old business that we have to discuss here tonight? Yeah, I just want to say because I was down on the side, we'll be in touch. We were going to be looking at the trees in front of the sand pit. Right. We have the soil report. We're going to think about feeding the trees. Okay. I lost two weeks there, but I'll get back on the chase. And you got to talk to Martin. I've talked to Martin already about it. Yeah, great. You know, it's my turn to speak. I want him to do it right. Because he has people going on vacation. You know, I was down on your business. Right. And I've got some people who would help too. Yeah. That's great. And the personnel policy, we're going to, any more on that tonight? I've got a few numbers over there. So we were, we wanted to take a look at what was being paid now and the changes that we were looking for. Yeah. Yeah. Still, I think the way we used to do the family is we did the same thing with the two person in that we paid 50% of the difference between the single rate and the family rate. And it's still, I'm still not happy with the way that it reads. I think that if we're going to keep the, where it's a single rate, then we should, under dependence, we should make sure that that's additional. In other words, we pay that in addition to. So I mean, if we just, I mean, it's okay to have numbers in there, but I mean, I would just say that we should be saying that we pay 100% of the single rate to the employee and then for adding dependence, say 50% plus 50% of the two person or family rate. Yeah, I think it's nice because they change yearly, every year those numbers will change, but we have the percentage that we're paying, so we know. So, how did you earn that 100% of the employee? Of the single rate per employee and then 50% of the additional, let's see, that's the best way to put that. Oh, okay. So in other words, if you want to add dependence, then it's 50% of the difference between the single rate and the two person or family. That's probably the best. I think, one of you guys, I don't think that there's something we should go on tonight. Why don't you put it together? Yeah, okay. And then everyone can read it and kind of really make sure you clarify. So just, we'll just, okay. Right, and so we'll eliminate the numbers and we'll have the percentages there. It's all based on the policy, what we have, and we just need to make sure that it's correctly. Thank you Claire. Sasha with that. Yes. Let me just make sure. Is there any other old business? You have a couple of new things. That's all right. All right. What do we got for a new business? Neck of the Woods has been parking their van out here overnight and they just wanted to make sure that it was okay with you guys. It's going to be a school of seven weeks. They've been trying to work from here to their building out towards Watesfield. And that was involving from the old Mecca. Mm-hmm. Yeah. As long as it's not, you guys don't find that in your way for any maintenance issues or anything like that. I haven't even noticed that it was here yet. So, seems like that's fine. It's not going to bother to the kind of group and that's the only person that's going to be using the rats at this point. Is there, I would say that we have like a good phone number just in case for some reason it is parked. Yeah. In a place where we needed it moved at a weird time or something. All right. Let's ask them. And then Dick Valentinetti's term is up as of the end of July and he would like to continue and that paperwork is in the final year for approval. All right. Well, I will make a motion to reappoint Dick Valentinetti, the town health officer. Second. Thank you, John. Any questions on Dick's appointment to health officer? All in favor of a ride? All right. All right. Thank you. And then I talked to the listeners, Mike Wood, and just to kind of continue on what Don was saying. They haven't found anybody. They did have one person that they thought was interested, but they ended up not on it. And Mike also said that the appraisal will be coming up in 24. The reappraisal for countywide NEMRIC will give us a good deal on it as long as it's done in the immediate future. Otherwise, the price is going to be going up. All right. So we'll need to maybe get Ed in here from NEMRIC and discuss that. But you know what? I think that would be good for our August first week and August meeting piece here so we can discuss both issues, the list of issues and what they could do there. And if there's a reappraisal coming up, we should do that. Mike would probably come to that meeting too. Yeah. I think that's something we've wanted to participate in. Anyone else around the table having any other business up there, Don? I don't think there's anything else. We'll also maybe at the next meeting we'll be able to set a tax rate. I've got some preliminary stuff from the state on the school rate and it looks better than it has. You know, because it's kind of the increases that we've seen in the past. But then I don't have those concrete debts. So by our next meeting we should be able to have a fairly good discussion on the tax rate. Hopefully we can set it at that meeting until the attack goes up. And we've got the ATV stuff that we're looking at in the future. Don, you're working on a couple other little projects continue just to make sure that everyone is touching base with everyone so everyone can help and get the stuff moving forward. If there's no other questions concerns, I would make, oh, a motion to go into executive session for a issue. And that is this is where premature public knowledge or a general, what would this, what's the lawyer one? Well, this is, yeah, I think this would be the lawyer one. Yeah. So that would be executive session to discuss attorney-client communications in the safety and action on our roads. So that's as as entitled one section 313 1 F. That states confidential attorney-client communications major for the purpose of providing legal services to the body. Yeah. All in, is there a second on that? Okay. All in favor of provide. All right. All right. Well, I just want to point out we will be going into open session after this. Okay. We have to make sure people realize that. Okay. So you guys, thank you. All right. All right. So all in favor of the executive session about I. All right. All right.


Chapter 27 of Shee by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 27, we leap. We passed through the caves without trouble, but when we came to the slope of the inverted cone, two difficulties stared us in the face. The first of these was the laborious nature of the ascent, and the next the extreme difficulty of finding our way. Indeed, had it not been for the mental notes that I had fortunately taken of the shapes of various rocks, I am sure that we never should have managed it at all, but have never wondered about in the dreadful womb of the volcano, for I suppose it must once have been something of the sort, until we died of exhaustion and despair. As it was, we went wrong several times, and once nearly fell into a huge crack or crevasse. It was terrible work, creeping about in the dense gloom an awful stillness from boulder to boulder, and examining it by the feeble light of the lamps, to see if I could recognize its shape. We rarely spoke, our hearts were too heavy for speech, we simply stumbled about, falling sometimes and cutting ourselves in a rather dogged sort of way. The fact was that our spirits were utterly crushed, and we did not greatly care what happened to us. Only we felt bound to try and save our lives whilst we could, and indeed a natural instinct prompted us to it. So for some three or four hours, I should think, I cannot tell exactly how long, for we had no watch left that would go. We blundered on. During the last two hours we were completely lost, and I began to fear that we had gone into the funeral of some subsidiary cone, when at last I suddenly recognized a very large rock which we had passed in descending but a little way from the top. It is a marvel that I should have recognized it, and indeed we had already passed it going at right angles to the proper path, when something about it struck me, and I turned back and examined it in an idle sort of way, and as it happened this proved our salvation. After this we gained the rocky natural stare without much further trouble, and in due course found ourselves back in the little chamber where the benighted nude had lived and died. But now a fresh terror stared us in the face. It will be remembered that owing to job's fear and awkwardness, the plank upon which we had crossed from the huge spore to the rocking stone had been whirled off into the tremendous gulf below. How were we to cross without the plank? There was only one answer. We must try and jump it, or else stop there till we start. The distance in itself was not so very great, between 11 and 12 feet I should sing, and I have seen Leo jump over 20 when he was a young fellow at college, but then think of the conditions. Two weary, worn-out men, one of them on the wrong side of 40, a rocking stone to take off from a trembling point of rock, some few feet across the land upon, and a bottomless gulf to be cleared in a raging gale. It was bad enough, God knows, but when I pointed out these things to Leo he put the whole matter in a nutshell, by replaying that, merciless as the choice was, we must choose between the certainty of the lingering death in the chamber and the risk of a swift one in the air. Of course there was no arguing against this, but one thing was clear, we could not attempt that leap in the dark. The only thing to do was to wait for the ray of light, which pierced through the gulf at sunset. How near or how far from sunset we might be, neither of us had the faintest notion. All we did know was, that when at last the light came it would not endure more than a couple of minutes at the outside, so that we must be prepared to meet it. Accordingly we made up our minds to creep on to the top of the rocking stone and lie there in readiness. We were the more easily reconciled to this course by the fact that our lamps were once more nearly exhausted, indeed one had gone out bodily, and the other was jumping up and down as the flame of a lamp does when the oil is done. So by the aid of its dying light we hastened to crawl out of the little chamber and clamber up at the side of the great stone. As we did so the light went out. The difference in our position was a sufficiently remarkable one. Below in the little chamber we had only heard the roaring of the gale our head. Here, lying on our faces on the swinging stone, we were exposed to its full force and fury, as the great draught drew first from this direction and then from that, hauling against the mighty precipice and through the rocky cliffs like 10,000 despairing souls. We lay there hour after hour in terror and misery of mind so deep, that I will not attempt to describe it and listen to the wild storm voices of that tartarus as said to the deep undertone of the spore opposite against which the wind hummed like some awful harp, they called to each other from precipice to precipice. No nightmare, dreamed by man, no wild invention of the romance here can ever equal the living horror of that place and the weird crying of those voices of the night, as we clung like shipwrecked mariners to raft and tossed on the black unfathomed wilderness of air. Fortunately the temperature was not a low one. Indeed the wind was warm or we should have perished. So we clung and listened and while we were stretched out upon the rock thing happened, which was so curious and suggestive in itself, though doubtless a mere coincidence, that if anything it added to, rather than deducted from, the burden on our nerves. It will be remembered that when Aisha was standing on the spore before we crossed to the stone, the wind tore her cloak from her and whirled it away into the darkness of the gulf we could not see with her. Well, I hardly like to tell the story, it is so strange. As we lay there upon the rocking stone this very cloak came floating out of the black space, like a memory from the dead, and fell on Leo, so that it covered him nearly from head to foot. We could not at first make out what it was, but soon discovered by its feel and then poor Leo for the first time gave away, and I heard him sobbing there upon the stone. Now doubt the cloak had been caught upon some pinnacle of the cliff, and was then blown hither by a chance gust, but still it was a most curious and touching incident. Shortly after this, suddenly, without the slightest previous warning, the great red knife of light came stabbing the darkness through and through, struck the swaying stone on which we were, and rested its sharp point upon the spore opposite. Now for it, said Leo, now or never. We rose and stretched ourselves, and looked at the cloud where it stained the color of blood, by the thread-ray, as they tore through the thickening depth beneath, and then at the empty space between the swaying stone and the quivering rock, and in our hearts despaired and prepared for death. Surely we could not clear it, desperate so we were. Who is to go first? said I. Do you, old fellow? answered Leo. I will sit upon the other side of the stone to study it. You must take as much run as you can and jump high, and God have mercy on us, say I. I acquiesced with a nod, and then I did a thing I had never done since Leo was a little boy. I turned and put my arm round him and kissed him on the forehead. It sound through the French, but as a fact I was taking my last farewell of a man whom I could not have loved more if he had been my own son twice or. Goodbye, my boy, I said. I hope that we shall meet again, wherever it is that we go to. The fact was I did not expect to live another two minutes. Next I retreated to the far side of the rock and waited till one of the chopping gusts of wind got behind me, and then I ran the length of the huge stone, some three or four and thirty feet, and sprang wildly out into the dizzy air.  But so it was, my feet never touched the point, they went down into space. Suddenly my hands and body came into contact with it. I gripped at it with a yell, what one hand slipped, and I swung right round, holding by the other, so that I faced the stone from which I had sprung. Wildly I stretched up with my left hand, and this time managed to grasp a knob of rock, and there I hung in the fierce red light, with thousands of feet of empty air beneath me. My hands were holding to either side of the under part of the spur, so that its point was touching my head. Therefore, even if I could have found the strength, I could not pull myself up. The most that I could do would be to hang for about a minute, and then drop down, down into the bottomless pit. If any man can imagine a more hideous position, let him speak. All I know is that the torture of that half minute nearly turned my brain. I heard Leo grieve a cry, and then suddenly saw him in mid-air springing up and out like a chemo's. It was a splendid leap that he took under the influence of his terror and despair, clearing the horrible gulf as if it were nothing, and landing well on the rocky point. He threw himself upon his face to prevent his pitching off into the depths. I felt this poor above-me shake beneath the shock of his impact, and as it did so, I saw the huge rocking stone that had been violently depressed by him as he sprang. Fly back when relieved of its weight still for the first time during all these centuries, it got beyond its balance, fell with the most awful crash right into the rocky chamber, which had once served the philosopher Knut for a hermitage, and I have no doubt forever sealed the passage that leads to the place of life with some hundreds of tons of rock. All this happened in a second, and curiously enough, notwithstanding my terrible position, I noted it involuntarily, as it were. I even remember thinking that no human being would go down that dread path again. Next instant I felt Leo seize me by the right wrist with both hands, by lying flat on the point of rock he could just reach me. You must let go and swing yourself clear, he said in a calm and collected voice. And then I will try and pull you up, or we will both go together. Are you ready? By way of answer I let go, first with my left hand and then with the right, and as a consequence, weight out clear of the overshadowing rock, my weight hanging upon Leo's arms. It was a dreadful moment. He was a very powerful man, I knew, but will his strength be equal to lifting me up till I could get a hold on the top of the spore, when owing to his position he had so little purchase? For a few seconds I swung to and fro, while he gathered himself for the effort, and then I heard his sinews cracking above me, and felt myself lifted up as though I were a little child, till I got my left arm round the rock, and my chest was resting on it. The rest was easy. In two or three more seconds I was up, and we were lying panting side by side, trembling like leaves, and with the cold perspiration of terror pouring from our skins. And then as before the light went out like a lamp. For some half hour we lay thus without speaking a word, and then at length began to creep along the great spore, as best we might in the dense loom. As we drew towards the face of the cliff, however, from which a spore sprang out like a spike from a wall, the light increased, though only a very little, for it was night overhead. After that the gusts of wind decreased, and we got along rather better, and at last reached the mouth of the first cave or tunnel. But now a fresh trouble stared us in the face. Our oil was gone, and the lamps were, no doubt, crushed to powder beneath the fallen rocking stone. We were even without a drop of water to stay our thirst, for we had drunk the last in the chamber of nude. How were we to seek to make our way through this last boulder-strewn tunnel? Clearly all that we could do was to trust to our sense of feeling, and attempt the passage in the dark. So in we crept, fearing that if we delay to do so, our exhaustion would overcome us, and we should probably lie down and die where we were. Oh, the horrors of that last tunnel! The place was drawn with rocks, and we fell over them, and knocked ourselves up against them till we were bleeding from a score of wounds. Our only guide was the sight of the cavern, which we kept touching, and so bewildered did we grow in the darkness, that we were several times seized with the terrifying thought that we had turned and were travelling the wrong way. On we went, feebly and still more feebly, for hour after hour stopping every few minutes the rest, for our strength was spent. Once we fell asleep, and I think must have slept for some hours, for, when we woke, our limbs were quite stiff, and the blood from our blows and scratches had caked, and was hard and dry upon our skin. Then we dragged ourselves on again, till at last, when the spare was entering into our hearts, we once more saw the light of day, and found ourselves outside the tunnel in the rocky fold, on the outer surface of the cliff that, it will be remembered, led into it. It was early morning, that we could tell by the feel of the sweet air and the look of the blessed sky, which we had never hoped to see again. It was so near as we knew, an hour after sunset, when we entered the tunnel, so it followed, that it had taken us the entire night to crawl through that dreadful place. One more effort lay o'er, I gasped, and we shall reach the slope where Billy Ali is, if he hasn't gone. Come, don't give way, for he had cast himself upon his face. He rose, and, leaning on each other, we got down that fifty feet or so of cliff, somehow, I have not the least notioned how. I only remember, that we found ourselves lying in a heap at the button, and then once more began to drag ourselves along on our hands and knees, towards a grove where she had told Billy Ali to wait her arrival, for we could not walk another foot. We had not gone fifty yards in this fashion, when suddenly one of the mutes emerged from the trees on our left, through which, I presume, he had been taking a morning stroll, and came running up to see what sort of strange animals we were. He stared and stared, and then held up his hand in horror, and nearly fell to the ground. Next he started off as hard as he could, for the grove sum two hundred yards away. Now wonders that he was horrified at our appearance, for we must have been a shocking sight.  I know that two days afterwards, when I inspected my face in some water I scarcely recognized myself. I have never been famous for beauty, but there was something beside ugliness stamped upon my features, that I have never got rid of, until this day. Something resembling that wild look with which a startled person wakes from deep sleep, more than anything else that I can think of. And really, it is not to be wondered at. What I do wonder at, is that we escaped at all with our reason. Presently to my intense relief I saw all be lolly, hurrying towards us, and even then I could scarcely help smiling, at the expression of consternation on his dignified countenance. Oh, my baboon, my baboon, he cried, my dear son! Is it indeed thee and the lion? Why, his mane that was ripe as corn is white like the snow? Whence come ye? And where is the pig, and where too? She, who must be obeyed? Dead, both dead, I answered, but ask no questions help us, and give us food and water, or we too shall die before thine eyes. Seized, though not, that our tongues are black for want of water. Hell, then, can we talk? Dead, he gasped, impossible, she, who never dies, dead, how can it be? And then, perceiving I think that his face was being bratched by the mutes, who had come running up, he checked himself, and motioned to them to carry us to the camp, which they did. Fortunately, when we arrived, some broth was boiling on the fire, and with this Bilali fed us, for we were too weak to feed ourselves. Thereby, I firmly believe saving us from death by exhaustion. Then he bade the mutes, where the blood and grime from us with that cloth, and after that we were laid down upon piles of aromatic grass, and instantly fell into the dead sleep of absolute exhaustion of mind and body. Chapter 28 Over the Mountain The next thing I recollect is a feeling of the most dreadful stiffness, and a sort of vague idea passing through my half-awaken brain, that I was a carpet that had just been beaten. I opened my eyes, and the first thing they fell on was the venerable countenance of my old friend Bilali, who was seated by the side of the improvised bed upon which I was sleeping, and thoughtfully stroking his long beard. The sight of him at once brought back to my mind a recollection of all that we had recently passed through, which was accentuated by the vision of poor Leo, lying opposite to me. His face knocked almost to a jelly, and his beautiful crowd of curls turned from yellow to white. Curiously enough, Leo's hair has lately been to some extent regaining its color. That is to say, it's no a yellowish gray, and I am not without hopes that it will in time come quite right. End of the note.  Zuchast slept long, my baboon, said old Bilali. How long, my father, I asked. Around of the sun and around of the moon, a day and a night has Zuchast slept, and the lion also. See, he sleepeth yet. Blest is sleep, I answered, for it swallows a recollection. Tell me, he said, what hath befallen you, and what is this strange story of the death of her who dies not? Be think, thee, my son, if this be true, then is thy danger and the danger of the lion very great?  Knowest thou not that these Amahaga, my children, these dwellers in the caves, hate thee? They hate thee, strangers, they hate thee more because of their brethren, whom she put to the torment for your sake. Assuredly, if once they learn that there is not to fear from Hiyah, from the terrible one who must be obeyed, they will slay ye by the pot. But let me hear thy tale, my poor baboon. This adored I said to work untold him, not everything indeed, for I did not think it desirable to do so, but sufficient for my purpose, which was to make him understand that she was really no more, having fallen into some fire, and, as I put it, for the real thing would have been incomprehensible to him, being burned up. I also told him some of the horrors we had undergone in effecting our escape, and this produced a great impression on him. But I clearly saw that he did not believe in the report of Aisha's death. He believed indeed that we thought that she was dead, but his explanation was that it had suited her to disappear for a while. Once he said, in his father's time she had done so for twelve years, and there was a tradition in the country that many centuries back no one had seen her for a whole generation, when she suddenly reappeared, and destroyed a woman who had assumed the position of queen. I said nothing to this, but only shook my head sadly. Alas, I knew too well that Aisha would appear no more, or at any rate that Bilali would never see her again. And now concluded Bilali, what would so do, my baboon? Nay, I said, I know not, my father, can we not escape from this country? He shook his head. It's very difficult, but a cover we cannot pass, for you would be seen, and as soon as these fierce ones found that ye were alone well, and he smiled significantly, and made a movement as though he were placing a head on his head. But there is a way over the cliff where off I once spake to thee, where they drive the cattle out of pasture. Then beyond the pastures are three days' journey through the marshes, and after that I know not, but I have heard that seven days' journey from thence is a mighty river, which flows to the black water. If you could come scither, perchance ye might escape, but how can ye come scither? Bilali, I said, once, though knowest, I did save thy life, now pay back the debts, my father, and save me mine and my friend's reliance. It shall be a pleasant thing for thee to think of when Zion hour comes, and something to set in the scale against the evil doing of thy days, if perchance thou hast done any evil. Also, if thou be right, and if she does but hide herself, surely when she comes again she shall reward thee. My son the baboon, answered the old man, think not that I have an ungrateful heart. Well, do I remember how thou didst rescue me, when those dogs stood by to see me drown? Measure for measure will I give thee, and if thou canst be saved, surely I will save thee. Listen, by dawn tomorrow be prepared, for later shall be here to bear ye away across the mountains and through the marshes beyond. This will I do, saying that it is the word of she that it be done, and he who obeyeth not the word of she, food is he for the hyenas. Then, when ye have crossed the marshes, ye must strike with your own hands, so that perchance, if good fortune go with you, ye may live to come to that black water whereof ye told me. And now, see, the lion wakes, and ye must eat the food I have made ready for you. Leo's condition, when once he was fairly aroused, proved not to be so bad as might have been expected from his appearance.  After this we limped down to the spring and bathed, and then came back and slept again till evening, when we once more ate enough for five. Bilali was away all that day, no doubt making arrangements about litters and birers, for we were awakened in the middle of the night by the arrival of a considerable number of men in the little camp. At dawn the old man himself appeared, and told us that he had, by using she's dreadful name, though with some difficulty, succeeded in getting the necessary men and two guides to conduct us across the swamps, and that he urged us to start at once, at the same time announcing his intention of accompanying us, so as to protect us against treachery. I was much touched by this act of kindness on the part of that bilally old barbarian, towards two utterly defenseless strangers. A three, or in his case, for he would have to return, six days' journey through those deadly swamps, was no light undertaking for a man of his age, but he consented to do it cheerfully, in order to promote our safety. It shows that even among those dreadful Amahaga, who are certainly with their gloom and their devilish and ferocious rites, by far the most terrible savages that I ever heard of, there are people with kindly hearts. Of course, self-interest may have had something to do with it. He may have thought that she would suddenly reappear, and demand an account of us at his hands. But still, allowing for all deductions, it was a great deal more than we could expect, under the circumstances, and I can only say that I shall, for as long as I live, cherish a most affectionate remembrance, of my nominal parent, old Bilali. Accordingly, after swallowing some food, we started in the litters, feeling so far as our bodies went wonderfully, like our old selves, after our long rest and sleep. I must leave the condition of our minds to the imagination. Then came a terrible pull up the cliff. Sometimes the ascent was more natural, more often with us a zig-zag roadway cut, no-doped in the first instance by the old inhabitants of Kaffir. The Amahagir say they drive their spare cattle over at once a year to pasture outside. All I know is that those cattle must be uncommonly active on their feet. Of course, the litters were useless here, and we had to walk. By midday, however, we reached the great flat top of that mighty wall of rock, and grand enough the view was from it, with a plain of Kaffir, in the center of which we could clearly make out the peeler drawings of the Temple of Truth to the one side, and the boundless and melancholy marsh on the other. This wall of rock, which had no-doped ones formed the lip of the crater, was about a mile and a half thick, and still covered with clinker. Nothing grew there, and the only thing to relieve our eyes were occasional pools of rainwater, for rain had lately fallen, wherever there was a little hollow. Over the flat crest of this mighty rampart, we went, and then came the descent, which, if not so difficult a matter as the getting up, was still sufficiently breakneck, and took a still sunset. That night, however, we camped in safety upon the mighty slopes that rode away to the marsh beneath. On the following morning about eleven o'clock began our dreary journey across those awful seas or swamps, which I have already described. For three whole days, through stench and mire, and the all-prevailing flavor of fear, did our beavers struggle along, till at length we came to open rolling-ground, quite uncultivated, at mostly treeless, but covered with game of all sorts, which lies beyond that most desolate, and without guides utterly impracticable, district. And here on the following morning we bade farewell, not without some regret, to old Bilali, who strolled his white beard and solemnly blessed us. Farewell, my son the baboon, he said, and farewell to thee, too, our lion. I can do no more to help you, but if ever ye come to your country, be advised, and venture no more into lands that ye know not, lest ye come back no more, but leave your white bones to mark the limit of your journey. Farewell, once more, often shall I think of you, nor wilt so forget me, my baboon, for though thy face is ugly, thy heart is true. And then he turned and went, and with him went the tall and sudden-looking beavers, and that was the last that we saw of the Amahaga. We watched them winding away with the empty liters like a procession, bearing dead men from a battle, till the mists from the marsh gathered round them and hid them, and then, left utterly desolate in the vast wilderness, we turned and gazed round us and at each other. Three weeks or so before, four men had entered the marshes of Skafer, and now two of us were dead, and the other two had gone through adventures, and experience is so strange and terrible, that death himself has not a more fearful countenance. Three weeks, and only three weeks, truly time should be measured by events and not by the lapse of hours. It seemed like thirty years since we saw the last of our whale boat. We must strike out for the Zambezi, Leo, I said, but God knows if we shall ever get there. Leo nodded. He had become very silent of late, and we started with nothing but the clothes we stood in, a compass, our revolvers and express rifles, and about 200 rounds of ammunition, and so ended the history of our visit to the ancient ruins of mighty and imperial Kafer. As for the adventures that subsequently befell us, strange and varied as they were, I have, after deliberation, determined not to record them here. In these pages I have only tried to give a short and clear account of an occurrence which I believe to be unprecedented. And this I have done, nervous of you to immediate publication, but merely to put on paper, while there are yet fresh in our memories the details of our journey and its result, which will, I believe, prove interesting to the world if ever we determine to make them public. This, as at present advised, we do not intend to be done during our joint lives. For the rest, it is of no public interest resembling as it does the experience of more than one central African traveler. Suffice it to say that we did, after incredible hardships and privations, reach the Zambezi, which proved to be about 170 miles south of where Bilali left us. There we were, for six months, imprisoned by a savage tribe who believed us to be supernatural beings, chiefly on account of Leo's useful face and snow-white hair. From these people we ultimately escaped, and, crossing the Zambezi, wandered off southwards, where, when on the point of starvation we were sufficiently fortunate to fall in with a half-caste Portuguese elephant hunter, who had followed a troop of elephants further inland that he had ever been before. This man treated us most hospitably, and ultimately, through his assistance, we, after innumerable sufferings and adventures, reached Dalagohe Bay, more than 18 months from the time when we emerged from the marshes of Kefir, and the very next day managed to catch one of the steamboats that ran round the cape to England. Our journey home was a prosperous one, and we set our foot on the quay at Southampton exactly two years, from the date of our departure upon our wild and seemingly ridiculous quest. And I now write these last words with Leo, leaning over my shoulder in my old room in my college, the very same into which some two and twenty years ago, my poor friend Wincy, came stumbling on the memorable night of his death, bearing the iron chest with him. And that is the end of this history, so far as it concerns science and the outside world. What its end will be as regards Leo and myself is more than I can guess at, but we feel that it is not reached yet, a story that began more than two thousand years ago, my stretch a long way into the dim and distant future. Is Leo really an reincarnation of the ancient calicurates, of whom the inscription tells? Or was I should be deceived by some strange hereditary resemblance? The reader must form his own opinion on this as on many other matters. I have mine, which is that she made no such mistake. Often I sit alone at night, staring with the eyes of the mind into the blackness of unborn time, and wondering in what shape and form the great drama will be finally developed, and where the scene of its next act will be laid. And when that final development ultimately accures, as I have no doubt it must and will occur, in obedience to a faith that never swerves and a purpose that cannot be altered, what will be the part played therein by that beautiful Egyptian Amenartas, the princess of the royal race of the pharaohs, for the love of whom the priest calicrates broke his woes to Isis, and pursued by the inexorable vengeance of the outraged goddess, fled down the coast of Libya to meet his doom at Kaffir. End of Chapter 28 Over the Mountain And The End of the Book She by H. Ryder Haggard


From the vault Lady, what do you have this week? I have I'm getting back to some old hardware This is something that I was actually going to release in March and I will finally getting it pick in place soon So this is like a gigantic 128 by 32 OLED. I love how big this OLED displays and it fits perfectly on a pie bonnet So I made this is the tester for it. So I made this pie bonnet You have the little cable comes around circles around here It's over I squared C and there's a little stomach connector if you want to connect sensors as well So this will be coming soon. It's kind of like our pie OLED, but just like really big pixels, which I like Okay, the biggest pixels that is top secret back in the vault you see your product


It ends in tears, car wash worker crashes the clients are 1.3 million vehicle without permission. At the beginning of this year, an Italian soccer player learned the hard way that you mustn't just leave your car at the car wash with its keys. Not long after the publication published that story, a South African man took to social media to advise motorists to be careful with their vehicles at car washes. In a video, the car owner who had his car tampered with advises Mzansi people to wash their own cars to avoid what he experienced. The man can be seen holding a black device that looked like a tracking device that was not in his car before going to the car wash. Now a video of a Nigerian man who works at a car wash got into trouble for driving a client's car at a car wash without permission. He then crashed the R1,3 million Mercedes-Benz GLC and caused a lot of damage to it. The Sun team asked readers about their car wash horror stories. Simphi we Matlala said, you try and support small businesses and in return, they leave you with a huge bill to settle. Just wash the car yourself for the sake of peace failing which don't give them the keys and move the car yourself or you'll never be sorry. Javala QC said, they removed my battery and put an old battery and they denied it. I had to spend R1 200 which was not on the budget. Yvonne's Buffy Raffola said, wash your own car and avoid coming home on foot. All the guys who work at car washes love to drive and they will rev your car until you complain. So I wash my cars on Sundays and I'm safe. J.R. Elias Fransmphathal as I said, this boy opened there at the dashboard and there was my car. He then laughed at me and said ha, eesh, groomsman.