One of the things on here, and I don't see where anybody left us, something to sign, was they want the, Lister's wanted us to sign the certificate to officially close 2019 Grand List. And I talked with Jan about it, and she said it gets signed this time of year, and I think I remember we pointed out that this needs to get done this time of year before it used to get done when they lodged the Grand List. Anyways, the idea is to close out the year for the 2019 Grand List, and you could only do that if you don't have any pending legal actions on anything. What we do? No, we don't have anything. We don't have anything for grievances. Oh, I see. This is grievances. So this is grievances. We don't have any pending board of abatement stuff. We don't have any pending grievances with the Lister's. It's all been done. And I thought they were going to leave something for us to sign, but they didn't. So next time? Well, I would authorize that, do we all have to sign it? I don't know. Well, I would authorize, make a motion to authorize Denise to sign it on our collective behalf. If it shows up tomorrow and you can do that, if not, just deal with it. Is there a second? There's no second deal. Right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. I'll ask them, because I thought they, I said, are you going to leave us something to sign? No. I don't see anything unless somebody else does. Okay, we already talked about UVM tree. I'll look at that tree word, I mean that tree or thing. And did everybody see this from VLCT? There's an article here, the real losers in the cannabis tax fund. And then there's one. Is that current as of last week? What? Well, I talked to Karen last week. There's a whole thing about cybersecurity. And we've talked about it some here. We've talked about it with Ruben. I know it's a concern. It sounds like they're going to have some, they're going to have some trainings. And there's a House Bill 692. The bill would require the secretary of the agency of digital services to inventory and identify any municipality, blah, blah, blah. So anyways, just to keep everybody in the loop, there is stuff going on about cybersecurity, which I know I've been concerned about with staff. And we asked about a training, remember? That might be across, you know, maybe it's a webinar thing that somebody puts on that a bunch of towns can participate in to identify cybersecurity. I know they had an incident here a while ago where it was a scam or a phishing thing. I don't remember what it was now, but there was one. People get good to identify it. I just worry about people like staff working in the town barrage that might not be as sophisticated with the use of computer stuff. How do we make sure that they don't sign on to something? You know, some of this stuff looks real. I get stuff at home. But they don't access our server. They're not on the network. They're not. So we don't worry about it. Just be there. There you go. That's good. All right. We get an app that tracks the trucks that be married to the website. The truck takes them on the road. They're actually worried about that with these autonomous cars. I bet. I bet. That they're really hackable and someone could just, until he could go by and they hit the go fast button. It's really scary to think about those automated cars. It really is. So do you want to do minutes? Do I want to? You want to or do you want to go home? I want to go home. You can do minutes. Well, I got them. I didn't read them. Yeah, let's do a couple of them. Maybe we got a lot of them to do. Let's do. Yeah, I did too. I read. The only two I didn't look at were the last two. All right. You want to start with 12-9? Yeah, 12-9. And I don't know, usually Rose reviews them, but I don't know whether she did. These are Rose's minutes. These are. But some of the ones we're going to look at, she will be glad they're done. Yeah. This thing is in my... Yeah. Change firstly to first. Was this the one where it was really long?  No, I think it's the next one. Okay. This is extended into another date and time. Yeah, here. This is the Morb Council. It's a small thing about taxes. They came in... I guess it was here. Yeah, they came and talked to us about it, but we didn't... No decision was made because they were going to do research regarding the legislative exemption and you just updated us today. Right. We need to get that paperwork done. Right. But I want to make it clear that we didn't make any decision. That's all. I don't remember if I had any put anything. When there's a whole bunch of comments like that, it's hard. You can't put in another comment or else it shows up five miles away. Yeah. Oh, really? But if you're suggesting it should strike and replace in the tax... You see it. Yeah, like that one. Yeah. And then the comment is redundant. Yeah. You had a double comma there, Katie. Oops. After recording Secretary Segel and I went up. Okay. On the bottom? Mm-hmm. Yeah, the second line on the bottom on page two. Good. I... Yeah. A lot of times when I import them to Word, to get them to PDF, I'll do one more grammar check because Word will identify it more easily then. Okay. And then the yellow block up above. And we move that. The box is off. It is. It's like board statements. Yep. That's all set. Wait, wait, can you watch that? Sorry. It's fine. I just resolved it. We can go back and hold on. It's fine to see it as it's resolved. Yeah. With the budget, yes. Yep. Anybody else have any changes or anything to those minutes? Nope. All right. Is there a motion to approve the December... Yes. Or at least December 9th, right? Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay, John made a motion. I'll second. All those in favor, will the changes please say aye? Aye. Aye. All right. Even if we can get through some of the December minutes tonight, we could... No. Yeah, absolutely. Right. This might be the one where there's like three... Oh yeah, 12, 14, 19, 20, all this. Mm-hmm. Go on. Mm-hmm. Because they kept getting continued. Right. Right. I did have a question on this one. Before the technical... We said we would look at creating one, but then we were educated by Sandra that we already had a technology fund. So I don't know if we want to revise this. Mm-hmm. I don't really think you can. It was something that was discussed at the meeting. I think it was discussed in subsequent meetings, though. Oh, man. But tonight's meetings can reflect that... That as a point of follow-up, Katie, that we learned that this was not required because we already have one. And then you can just refer it back. The technology fund was not required. We already had an existing fund, so we didn't have to create one. And then you could make a note to refer back to the December, whatever one those are, budget development, December budget development meeting that went on for days, right? Right. I'm just making a note here, so I have it. I'll put it in tonight's minutes, though. Yeah, that was approved by the voters. Yeah, I forget. It was a couple of years ago. These two or three years ago when Donald was in charge of it. Yeah. But what the upshot of it all is, is now we will be better educated every year with our annual meeting, with our IT service provider, with what amount of money we should put into that. Right. So there's a reverse order thing. Is that indicating that the town halls did not, not been under this one from paragraph, the next paragraph. Now with the highlighted one. Oh. Can't have this. Katie, make your notes and we'll jump over it. Okay. Okay, I'm going to try with that. The highlighted paragraph. Uh-huh. The town hall. Yeah. So it has not been, not been not. Oh. That was the only thing I had on that. Uh-huh. I think you could do it. The heat exchanger budget is right in there. Yeah. What is that? I don't know if it's tall enough to be there. 1,400. Yeah. I'm going to align.  Cause for heat exchanger maybe. Uh-huh. I mean, when it's all, you know, that smell doesn't go away and stuff. 1,200 dollars is not that big of a price to pay to have some clean air. Yeah. It's going to, it's going to off gas for a while. Yeah. So green line builders is gone, right? Yeah. They're gone. Yeah. Are they out of business? Yeah. Yeah. Sadly. It was horrible. And we have a special. You'll fix that. It does weird things on format anyway. Yeah. Yeah. And then when you put them online then it fixes it. Yeah. I'll put them back to work. I think that's finally the end of this. Good. So. That's two. Okay. This is so helpful having it up there. So. Yeah. Move to a group. Second. Move to a group. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. Do we have any more dissentments? That's called everyone. That was all the December one. No. It was called 16. Because those are like special meetings. And this is, well, this is a special meeting. But this is the fire department one, I think. Yep. Yep. This should be fairly quickly easy to get through. That was me that said we're fine. Yeah. I didn't know how to change the rules. I don't think I did. I didn't see anyone looking at me. And I'm a kitty kid now print. Oh, yay. Yeah. Yep. Yep. All right. Who did that? It was me. Holland, right? Holland actually did it. That happened on Wednesday of last week. Yeah. Quick. You had to come in on the computer. Yeah. So it's wonderful to approve these special meeting minutes with the East Montpelier select for fire department data, 1217 to 16. Oh, that's a date of submission. Right. Second. All those in favor, please stand. All right. I think I got through the first. Anybody else start? I went through them all today. One, two. This was a special one. I want to make sure we have time for a little bit of an executive session. I'm going to make this the last one. I'll let her energy on that. Okay. Let's hear the last one. I read all your changes. Yeah. I think I made a note. Somewhere I made a note about this because I remember we decided the comments. Yeah. Then we decided to move forward with that. And now the total is already, you know, we did that. So we did. We absolutely did. So at this meeting, should I change it to be more clear? I don't think I wrote all of that. I think I just, like, maybe moved it so it looks like it. Yeah. Right. Was all of that. So I think he moved it so it's all, like, moved. You know what I'm saying? Here I wrote, if the town opts to join Roger Hill's service. So maybe it should just say, maybe we should take it out. Yeah. I'd say it will send a bill to the operations manager before this service for this season. Yeah. And I remember the discussion about it would allow the drivers to communicate directly. That was the whole point of having the Roger Hill thing. Wasn't it at the next meeting? Was it at the next meeting? Right. And why don't we? Well, let's defer these then until next time. Yeah. Yeah. So we have time to go into the second session. Okay. I don't think we ever, I don't think, I have to go look at the other minutes, but I don't think we ever, like, made a motion. I think we just agreed. That was a no-brainer. Yeah. All right. So we have these guys. Groovy. All right. So we want to go into the second session to what? Personnel. Personnel. One PSA section 313A3. Okay. Am I in trouble again? I would not. I thought I was young. Some of that in trouble.  Denise, I'll message you and ask you about the entity, the entity. Oh yeah, that's great. Because Rosa's in here, I'll have to tell you what time we adjourned. Yeah, we're done. My dogs are over 30 years old. So anyways, I think let's, I'm going to find out why Toby didn't come tonight. There might have been some incident with the fire department that he had to respond to. So I want to give him a benefit of the doubt. Yep. That he doesn't have that other function that he does. But I want to ask, I think. Next week. Next week, the 24th. So 24 is more questions for Toby about GPS stuff. And I'll also see what the new year's project will have some information. I'd also like to know if we have a big storm and because there's a big storm, schools are closed. Do the truck drivers do our plow guys go out as early as they would before school open? That's a good question. Did they come, did they lag an hour? I mean, do commuters, are they, I mean, I really feel like when you have a storm like that, they should be out regardless of where the schools open.  Early because, you know, everyone's lives matter. I think that's a really good question to confirm with Toby. And if it's not the case, why isn't it? And let's make it so. And I'm just remembering. I did a little investigative work on the school bus type. Oh yeah, I was going to ask that. Yeah. Is this the right time? Yeah. Did I mention last meeting, I was in East Montpelier Center and the bus pulled over the top of the hill where you dropped down the other side heading to Montpelier, but just above the Ostrom House. And I slowed down and I creeped and I stopped and I looked in this bus and still had this, that bus still had those, what I call, summer tires on.  So I called the school board chair and he was, it was timely because he was heading up the door. It was like, when I called it to meet with the superintendent, he was going to have a conversation with the acting superintendent and he was going to have her call me. She would. And so they had the meeting. I called Scott back or he called me, said she was going to call me and I called him back saying, well, she didn't. And he said, well, she was going to investigate and then call. In the meantime, I went down to the bus storage yard and I photo documented every single Washington Central bus and I could only find buses with snow tires on and the rest didn't. So, so well, so let me finish. So I have a voice now I could play for you. Let me play it for you. Rather than miscarriage right now, explain everything. I did not call her back because I felt like my questions were answered and... They were or weren't? Well, yeah. Let me play the voice now for you. I'll play it by the pickup there. You might want to join them. There it is. Okay. What was that pickup? The name is Deborah Taylor, the acting superintendent and hopefully you all can hear it. Hi, John. This is Deborah Taylor calling 220-553. The superintendent and I was giving you a call as I had last week to touch base with you about a question you heard regarding a bus tire. So I wanted to, I'll give you a quick message and then you certainly may call me back if you need more information. So hopefully this will fit into your voice mail box. So first of all, all buses have snow tires in the rear. And in November, we examined snow type winter steering tire and some of our buses were changed to this. The driver of the buses that were equipped with this new steer tire provided feedback about the handling of the bus. And in those cases where a bus were to drive primarily on pavement, there were challenges and this became a concern for first student. The drivers who had the new steer tires were expressing concern. And as a result, those steer tires in two of our towns including East Montelier and Berlin were changed back to the original steer tires. The buses who travel a majority of dirt roads including Calis and Worcester and Middlesex have the new winter steer tire. While the buses that travel the majority of paved roads have the original steer tires. I hope that answers your questions. And if you have further questions, please feel free to reach out 2290553. And if you can't catch me, we should speak with Chris to my assistant and she can make a phone appointment so that we can touch base personally about these matters. Thank you very much, John. I hope you're having a good day. So, reportedly the Calis buses have steer tires. I had asked a couple of months ago before the tire meeting how many buses serve Calis and I believe they said there were three buses. Sounds right. So I counted three buses with snow tires so it still begs the question that I need to return the phone call. It begs the question if buses covering Worcester, Calis and Middlesex all have steer tires. I did not count the buses, I don't believe, to read that requirement with snows. At least in the yard, unless they were out running around they could have been out running around doing late night sports or hockey game or something. The buses would have then been probably buses that travel on the pavement. I don't know, I don't want to conjecture like the Valentine Road thing. I'll check in with her. But I photographed... Did you get the numbers? I got the bus numbers and the tires and went through all the buses. Did they come out and ask you why you were taking pictures of the buses? So these are the... You have to tell me what I'm looking at. These are the snow steer tires. I don't understand what steer tires are. The front tires as opposed to the back tires. See, that's got an irregular tread. Because they were supposed to put snow tires all the way around. Right there, see? Those are the front snow tire types. So that's good. Here's the summer tires, what I call the summer tire or over-the-road tire. And that was... So that one was on a U11, had that over-the-road tire. U7 had an over-the-road tire. U14 had an over-the-road tire. U1 had an over-the-road tire. U4, these are all the buses that took pictures of our over-the-road tire bus. Oops, there's a snow tire. I was going to ask Katie, you don't know, I think... U17, U8... I think it was... It's been a few years, so it could change. Never mind, I'm not going to say. 18 or 3... U22... I got a lot of blackouts for some reason. I goofed up, but... So you're going to follow back up with that one? I will, I will, I will. U6, I mean... What's on that one? U16? Yeah. These are the ones with the regular conventional tires? Yeah. But they must have a list... So I think there was one on the end that had this tire. Which is the snow? So they must have a list of all the U buses in which buses typically go to Worcester. That's right, that's right. Buses typically go to Salas. They absolutely do. So that, because they told us that they were going to put snow tires all the way around on the buses. Yeah, so... I guess it would be great if the school board... and I should... Scott Thompson called back and kind of slowed the stuff down here. I was going to suggest to him that he print out... he got a print out of the bus numbers and which ones have which tires. So they know which communities are served with the various tire applications, so... And he might get it a lot faster than you ask him. So I just want to... I mean, if first-year student is doing it as a superintendent, as they told the superintendent, then we should be able to see, I don't know, three buses serve Calis, maybe they serve... Which ones are they? I would have thought Calis was served by E32, but maybe a Calis bus on the west side of town is the one that also serves... Worcester. Yeah, it might be. I don't know. It very well could be. It could be just three buses that serve those. I don't know, so... All right, so you're going to follow up with Scott. Yeah, I'll just keep going at this. I don't think they're the same because the elementary schools start at the same time. But if they're picking up kids to go to U32, they might... Those are probably going to be different than the elementary school buses, right? They are. That's my point. Is they do... There might be overlap with the U32 7th grade on, but there's not overlap in the elementary schools. No, because all the elementary schools are going to Calis. Worcester kids are going to Worcester. They all start at the same time. But the U32 buses, it might overlap. But they're the same buses. They just... They are the same buses. I think that's why U32 starts an hour and a half before the little guys. And there used to be, I think, three buses serving Calis elementary. So that means that, yes, let's hope there were a bunch out doing the sports programs because three is insufficient to be serving three towns. Right. And so I did this that night, but that's when you have to do it. The buses have to be in New York or have to get up pretty darn early and it'll be dark again. It's... You might be able to find them... If you want to chase us down, but you might be able to find a bus schedule on the website. You might be able to find it on the Washington town. But what's A and B? They probably don't want... That's probably some kind of thing. I think they probably don't want to post that. I think that might be right. Child safety, you know... I think we always had to call get better and came with the parent factors. But, you know, Scott Thompson should be able to get the list as chair of the... Bus number, school assignment, route, school route, and which tires on it. That's all. Yeah, that's what we want. You've got which tires are on it. Yeah. Yeah, but we should be it. We need to... What do they say? We shouldn't have to go and make our own list. And we can check what they say by what you have. I'm going to bite my tongue before I get myself in trouble. All right. I've got a stronger opinion that I'm evidencing here. You need more facts. I'll leave it at that. Yeah, more facts. We don't have to argue about this. But Deborah Taylor was great. I will say that. She did a great job. She was very responsive. Thanks for that. She investigated it. Yeah. So I need to be getting back to two folks. Facts and facts. Yeah. So just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts, ma'am. Facts, ma'am. She did a great job. So I was really happy with that. Good. Her response. Okay. Do we want to hear about friends in the town hall? I want to know why they're friends and not lovers of town hall. That comes next. Yeah. Because we love the town hall. We have to be friends first. Okay. I think he is friends. Why can't we just be friends of the town hall? Okay. There are benefits. Friends with benefits. Oh, this is digressing. We need to make sure we get out of here early. Yeah. Too late. Not really enough. Just to touch quickly upon your question, Sharon. Thank you. The way it will work is we're going to build a website. It will probably be something like callistownhall.org. And if you look at the playing field model, you'll see that they have a calendar that shows events that are happening, cultural events that are happening at the town hall. And that's what the friends group is really managing, is the cultural events. If someone wants to use the town hall for something, they will go to the website, fill out the forms that they required to submit, requesting that date and time. They want to use it, the nature of the function, et cetera, et cetera. And already will likely be the one who ends up managing that events calendar. And his first order of business will be, and one of those requests come in to go see what is the town municipality functions scheduled around that? And are they compatible? Or is it out of the question because there's something already scheduled? Yes. Can I interrupt? So right now we put all the town events on the town website calendar. And we did that even before we had the renovation work on it, would say town office or town hall where the meeting was going to be located. So that will still be the same mode. So basically the downstairs. Right. So already we'll have to go to the town's website calendar to see if some town function is scheduled there for the same time and date. Wait a minute. So they're going to be booking downstairs too? No. But in order to book upstairs, we don't want a rock band session going on if there's a seven o'clock planning commission meeting downstairs. Exactly. Right. So he's going to have to go back and forth. So municipal functions will always take priority over any of the culture. Wow. As they should. Great. Does that answer your question? Okay. And we just manage our own town calendar. Right. But sometimes there is a function that they may need downstairs or if they're going to have some food and they need to use the kitchen device or whatever. And the bathrooms are down there. Exactly. So it's going to probably get mixed up a few times until you figure out the best way to work this. Right. We have the advantage of a town that has gone through a lot of the growing plains and we've got big communication with them so we can avoid some of the pitfalls that they experience. Right. But there still will be an adjustment period. There's no way around that. There are things to be aware of. As mentioned, the friends will have a table at a town meeting and maybe we'll make a pitch with regards to the membership for people who want to join the friends. What we're going to do is make a pitch of anyone who signs up to become a friend and part of this group. As long as they do so by the end of March there's no charge for their first year of membership. There you go. And then there's going to be an annual meeting. Sounds like the town meeting wants to deal to you. He's always got an angle. Actually, Barbara came up with that idea. Really? Yeah. Part of that too is because we haven't finalized what are all of the benefits one will experience by becoming... Just by the end of March. By the end of March. By the end of April. The town meeting will be a big push, but if people can't make it to town meeting they can go to the website that will be birthed next month and do it there or they can come here and request... So people can go to this website and request to use the town hall for an event on a specific date and time and they're going to need the kitchen area and then David will be getting back to folks first he'll check the town. Artie. Artie. Artie. He'll check the town website to make sure there's no conflict. But what if a conflict comes up after somebody's booked the town hall for an event but then we find out we need it for some town committee meeting in... Then what? That's going to cause a problem if the conservation commission wants to use it on a specific evening but they're rehearsing a play upstairs and it's really loud because they've reserved the room to do this rehearsal. I wonder if there would be... Is there a way to... Well and... It wouldn't seem fair if they got it first. Right, but I was thinking the same thing. I don't know how far out the town folks its meetings but we might have... The group... The friends might consider a... One of my... Not a deadline but a... A drop dead date. No, like you can book... A maximum amount of weeks in advance. Yeah, you can book no more... The private room... The trouble with that is that if somebody wants to book a wedding or plays or something like that that's not going to... No, exactly. But that question is going to... That is... Right. I mean if somebody's like... It's two upon days of the week that we're booking that as well but as I recall there's something in the playing field agreement that we're going to know. So I'll make the point... Maybe bookings beyond a certain number of weeks need to be approved to a select board and then we get blamed. So if they're going to do a play and they say the play is going to be the first two weeks in August and we need to know in March we could do that and then it'll be on us to try to make sure the town meetings don't get scheduled and we get the word out in advance of the approval then we approve it. Right. Sometimes... When everyone's had fair notice then the conservation commission wants to bring in Louis Leakey's grandson then they're going to have to do it somewhere else. I mean it has to be fair that everybody has to be fair to these people that book it ahead of time because they're being responsible and booking it ahead of time because they're going to have a wedding and then the rehearsal is the same night that the conservation commission is meeting downstairs. Right. You know it's just... I don't know how you deal with that maybe you deal with it as it happens. It's a fair question we should see if I'm sure it's come up before with playing fields so we can see what they put into place I seem to recall that there was something in their agreement Do they have town functions in that town house too? I was wondering about that too. Yeah. Do you do from time to time? I've been here at this time. Is there an issue for them? For us it could be a real... I mean I do think it could be a bigger issue for us. Maybe it's the days of the week and the holiday maybe on the weekends and federal holidays. That's right, weekends. But we meet on federal holidays. We're meeting next. But that would be a place where I would say well that's on us. Yeah. Oh well. But I think like I said if somebody is responsible and they're scheduling a play with rehearsals and two weeks before somebody needs to head to the meeting place because you have to warn a meeting or even a week oh we want to use the town hall because the town office is booked Well... Right. I don't have anything for that. Maybe you waited until the last minute. The regular schedule like we should be able to put our regular schedule on the town calendar. A year in advance and private functions except for weekends and holidays can't be booked any more than six months in advance or whatever. Yeah. Something like that. But I... Let me just follow up with John's comment. I would hope that we'd be really conservative about having to inject the set select board. It seems like something that we ought to be able to leave to the friends to figure out the rules make sure the rules are really clear and transparent. I can see I can see a time for us to get involved is when it's a board or committee or commission of one of the town functions and then there's a there's a problem that keeps happening. Yeah. And we have to... Right. We have to figure we have to help figure that out around the rules and the policy whether it's working and not making things like that. So we can set out the expectations in advance and then they have to go and check in with the various committees to make sure. A function of the part of the function of the management agreement could be developed. And there's bugs that we need to get worked out. And some of them won't even some of the bugs won't even be apparent until we start using it. Right. You know. Yeah. Right. Good point. We're not going to look three years in advance. We'll have one test a year and we'll see. Right. Sure. A few other quick points to be aware of because there'll be this big push at town meeting to make people aware of this newly formed group and encourage start encouraging fundraising efforts and what not. The friends group will be meeting weekly and up until town meeting. Oh. We are working with Bob Hannon to create a logo that we can put on some collateral materials that will appear at the table that they'll have at the town meeting. Great. You already heard about how the town lunch is being handled. I guess I thought they weren't going to do potluck the last I had heard. But they must have gone back to that. I think it became a necessity because of all the other things that were going on around that. It just was decided that would be the easiest way to do it. I think that is pretty much it. Nope. I think that's it. If there's anything else I'll shoot a quick email. That was just what we discussed last meeting. Sounds good. Oh, no. There was one other thing. The question came up. I know we're putting money in the budget. How do we imagine our part of what would be necessary in janitorial services for maintaining just like we do here. Well, we have the crew that comes in. It was anticipated that we would ask them to also clean the town hall. I think the lower section. I think we talked about even at a town hall committee meeting that when the upstairs starts getting used for private events we're going to have to have some kind of a way to get the town to get reimbursed either by having the person who currently doesn't can do it or if they're going to hire their own people to clean it. Yeah, give them the number. That's going to be included in the rental agreement that's already agreed upon. But it was just a question of curiosity. What is the town's plan for? Right, because if there's a play over there people are going to go downstairs to use the restrooms. And we'll encourage them. But if the cleaners are going to come every periodically. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. You know, if the toilets get a little bit of extra use and evidence and they're still swishing around a brush it's still the same work effort. And you would imagine... I think if there's a big event that needs to be cleaned off cycle Cliff, when you say it'll be in the agreement is the agreement going to require covering cleaning fees period? It's not like go or check here if you want to clean it yourself. That hasn't been decided yet. I hope not. Right, I'll check here because we're going to clean it ourselves. That probably isn't going to happen. The context this question came up in is whatever we ultimately decide upon how this is going to be handled is part of this agreement. Somebody has to sign off on it. Yeah, they cleaned it to our satisfaction. We're cleaning deposit back or the appropriate amount of it. And that would most likely be whoever we have doing regular janitorial services there.  They didn't put it back like it was. They left a big mess over here. Well, I think some of that is right, it's going to be trial and error too because it's going to depend on the group. Somebody is using the upstairs and then they're also going to have light fare downstairs in the kitchen. Did they clean up the kitchen? Is there stuff all over the counters and stove didn't get wiped down? Those kinds of things. They left or whatever. Those are all bugs that have to get worked out. Okay, so this is not that I anticipate this and not that any folks involved would commit this but I'm thinking about damage. So I just thought about this idea. So there's an elevator and people are doing play practice and the kids are going up and down the elevator. And they break the elevator. See, they're not supposed to be using the elevator. It's only supposed to be for handicap. No, I'm just saying. That might not be the right scenario. Something gets broken. How does that? Well, once again, I think it's going to come down to what these agreements look like because there is the whole question of insurance when a special event occurs there. Somebody flushes diapers down the toilet bowl which is not unusual and we have to call Rotoran or go and service the septic system. Who eats that? The friends group isn't far enough along that process that I could answer these questions for you but I can tell you they are coming up to add to your list. Things to think about list and these kind of considerations are on there. I don't want us to be so wrapped up in red tape but I just want to make sure we just kind of at least thought about it. Well, and it would be good to know if we don't already know the answer how does this affect our insurance? Our insurance. I think that somebody on the friends may want to talk to either Sandra or Kelly Avery or what's his name? Larry Smith. We asked those questions when they were here. I don't remember the answers I don't think we were far enough along to really kind of push it but we're getting close. It's a separate nonprofit separate from the town that's organizing these things that may create that division. They might have to whoever's having the event might have to have proof of some kind of insurance. What's the membership fee right now anticipated to be? Because it may not be enough covering insurance if it needs to be or whatever else. The membership would be we haven't decided upon the amount if we go with the playing field model it would be a suggested donation of $25 a year but that's just community that doesn't have anything to do with insurance. I'm just thinking for something to put on the friends radar is they might want to check and see how does the town's insurance cover it? Is it going to be more costly to the town if that's the case? Is our rate going to go up? Or can they and by how much do they have the 501C3 can they be part of the town? I think there's a lot of insurance questions. I can tell you from the limited discussions that we have this is on our radar and that likely we will have to have some kind of policy that's extant to what we already have and that the fees that we charge for the rentals will be designed to cover that. Okay. And one other thing because you mentioned the things to think about we're going to have to start thinking about having a grand opening. We are. Of the downstairs. Yeah. Well the upstairs other safety bars there's a window there. We won't have this occupancy until all safety requirements. Upstairs too. They look at the whole building. That's what's supposed to happen is they're supposed to come over and start looking at that and also to get this the grant that was mentioned earlier, the monies that grant has been there and there's a lot of that has to be looked at again so that's ongoing. But the question around the grand opening is it feels like this is probably going to be something that's orchestrated in concert between the Friends Group and the Select Board and so just to put it on everybody's radar unless the Select Board decides no we totally want to orchestrate the grand opening No. No we need help. I didn't think that would be the case but I promised everyone that we would be involved in that planning. It could be we don't have to decide what it is right now but we want to be involved. So your friends will come up with some ideas and then at one of the Select Board meetings the group will come in I like that. Can you add to the list the Artist's Open House weekend that's usually Memorial Day weekend? Yeah. On the end of May. Oh yeah on all those yellow signs. That might be a good weekend to do it.  Weather's nice, the roads aren't muddy. They may or may not be but it's a time when people are there's a lot of publicity and so people are all Do they have the Kent Open then for the art? That would be a good time to do it all together. With the renovation of the artistry and we may even be able to get on the local central artist tour. On their posters. I think that's when the Kent also has because I've been there when they've done it because it's not it's usually not real warm out so it's probably about that. It's one of those weekends when sort of in between. But if we could have planned it when we'd get more participation we wouldn't be we wouldn't have to have the party. Right. Anything else? We had the whole discussion about the school tax Did they actually request it? They sort of did. And we had the discussion and let's wait and see what happens after this legislative session. So Representative Ansel was going to introduce a bill that would allow the exemption to be maintained on that property but I guess she must have consulted with the tax department. Right. She was tax commissioner. So I just wanted to be assured by Chris that this wasn't a political thing that it would be we'd be secure in that opinion going forward no matter who was at the helm. Well that's good news. I don't think that it was consistent with but we want to get that guy in his document and attach that opinion. We want all the records that he has seen so before yeah whoever would pursue that. That's just probably it. But yeah that's good news. We don't have to make that decision. It's wonderful. Where we were was looking at budgeted expenses and what the tax rate estimated tax rate would be on just those budgeted expenses. The next line talks about raising taxes with the articles that are proposed in the learning and so that would raise the amount of expenses of $146,000 and the tax rate would go up accordingly. So in 2019 well if you just put them like that when you add up your articles they add up to $146,375 so therefore that raises the if all are divided out that raises the expenses by that amount and it also raises the tax rate. So what you have at the bottom it says in 2019 your property tax if you have a property assessed at $200,000 on the grand list in 2019 your property tax was $5,065 in 2020 the estimated tax rate based strictly on our budgeted expenses is $5,112 and that includes the school portion. Correct. But with the addition of the articles it's $5,258 so for every $200,000 of assessed value of all the articles are voted up the tax obligation on that part so it would go up by $145 $1,061 that's the difference between $5,258 and $5,112 yes it's rounded and that's for every $200,000. Correct. Which is 2.8% increase over the no it's a 2.8% increase over what we never no it's I'm going to go in 2019 your property tax would have been that's what we want right $5,065 divided by the 2.62 number $5,258 right that's more like 4% and if all of those things don't get passed it's 3.8% but that's because it includes some of those the stuff that's on the morning includes school right because our overall budget increase was like 2.96 well that's your budget expensive right but your articles are not in that your articles could be voted up or modified they actually were Santa when we did the math I'm going to go back though because the chipper came in later and the Wiemers math was slightly but yeah we did what we did is took out all the emergency and then but we added in the townish stuff like social services and no no it did not include any of the war no emergency we included the town hall painting the chipper yeah we did I didn't think we did the server we put in like the stuff that's town stuff that we are choosing as a select board we did this for the town so the server yes was in the chipper the chipper I think was in but social services we I can't remember we put those out the cemetery was out and all the emergency stuff was out anyway this is the whole package well it is the whole package it includes an increased education text and we have that broken down but it would be nice to know what the education piece is you can't do it for the county but just so we know what your education the influence what percentage is the education text compared to what it was oh yeah I can figure that out for you yeah because we have to look at the whole picture but you wouldn't have had a whole picture when you were budgeting we barely got that number in time to give it a print but it would be good for us to know when we say 3% we are definitely not talking about education but it would be nice to know not to blame anybody but just to know what that percentage increase is for our new combined district would be good for us to have those figures to be able to talk to people about when we are talking 2.96% increase in town stuff but then if you look at the school what percentage we can't offset we can't offset all of the education increases then take them out of the town budget now we can it just has where it is but I think it will make people pay attention to in case there is future legislation to make any changes but we did that when we sent our tax bills last year with this maybe just having another sheet school stuff would be helpful could be that anything else anything else for me I don't have anything else for us you are very welcome so we will meet again on the 24th you can I think tuck me deeper into the if you put me on at 7.30 that would probably be fine my daughter they have a state meet it is at the range on that Monday the 24th before our meeting it will be during the day sometime and I imagine I will go she has asked me to go to that is that a school off that week when the school schools off the week of the 24th that's a Monday that's for our vacation it goes through town meeting oh good we have the second half of the state meet it is the skate half so that means it should go off early and I will find out what that is I was thinking it would be after school but since school is off it should be maybe at 10 o'clock in the morning and then I wouldn't want to have to be on the schedule at 8 o'clock just let me know I'll let you know we'll know soon enough whatever works best for you then somewhere like I would think somewhere between 7 and 730 however it goes whoever else you have ahead it should be fine alrighty thank you very much alrighty alrighty alrighty I'm just starting to think cause I knew I'd be here and I just couldn't put the words together I came in at 8.30 or 9 thanks for doing it alrighty local hazard mitigation planning team remember when they came and talked to us and wanted us to put together this team people planning team the core work responsible for making decisions guiding the planning process agreeing upon the final contents of the plan really the final everything final the local hazard mitigation oh hazard I'm sorry that group really doesn't have any authority to approve anything that has to come from the board so we need to be clear about that right up front I don't know how many people stakeholders individuals or groups that can be affected by a mitigation action or policy um and this is their kind of their guide to you know who you might consider and I can't remember what we've had this before and it's been usually like the road commissioner or Toby somebody from conservation somebody from planning um I don't know what somebody from the school district would actually do or how that would be beneficial but um does anybody have any thoughts on I can check with planning conservation you can ask Toby to represent for roads maybe school is is this a sort of emergency planning thing no it's different this is different than that um I guess if you had a hazard that required an evacuation of a set area then the school resources would be something that would happen to yeah we could see if maybe um we could see I could check with Kat Fair and see if she's got somebody school person um and I'm willing to serve if you want me to on the representative select board just as all you do is really is you go to a few meetings and then they do a report and it comes back to the board yeah that's where I am too I mean we've got big fish that we're trying to fry oh yes of course we have yeah I don't imagine this is going to start until how could I forget that I don't imagine this is going to start until probably people okay probably then we would be done for that one I think the one thing just to follow up with close comment is you know you're the chair it shouldn't necessarily be the chair of any particular group and if you have all the chairs of all the groups then it's just more and more and more on the same shoulders so if you know not the chair from one of those other groups so that your participation actually is going to be that's what I'm trying to say usually somebody from the regional planning commission kind of heads up the group and puts right they send they would stop so I mean I think I'm not sure I guess I got to go back look I'm not sure by when they want this I might also ask no I already asked Nick Evelyn because I happen to see him in the co-op because it says somebody that deals with the emergency management stuff and he's kind of been our person that's helped develop the emergency management plans and that's the but he's not available so how about Elizabeth okay see communications yes but I got to go back and check their stuff I'm not sure when they want names by they said but I don't remember you know but I can go look and that will help something about like June you know we don't have we don't have a recreation commission other towns have one we have a private association that's totally different because of the ball field and all that stuff is owned by that organization anyways just what else alright next what okay first off the IT update we have on last Thursday Judy and I met we signed the new agreements and they will become effective as of the beginning of March we won't have to go through that 60 day threshold so we will start saving money quickly they have already begun the process of updating our backup is that that sort of thing yeah and it's not a moment too soon because it was the week prior to us meeting the week before last in other words it was the server? no no no the backup device not the server there's a cloud there's a device that sits under the table over there a mechanical device an additional one exactly and so the new system is much more efficient and will give us that full cloud based backup as well so yeah because they move the stuff over to the cloud based backup and what you're saying is it was good timing because yeah because we were backing up some here you're saying and then backing to the server and then in between what did it fail? it was just getting overloaded how many terabytes was that I am not sure at any rate the timing was very fortuitous so that's underway getting very good feedback from the office staff in terms of how their issues when they arise and yes everybody's everybody's being responsive and they're getting what they need in terms of the support so it was thumbs up all the way around on that that kind of will segue into the next thing I need to bring up with regards to replacing the server this is something we know we have to do hopefully in the morning article gets approved and then we can take advantage of the loan but if we don't get an approved loan then then we will have to find the money in our budget if it were approved if it were authorized to get the loan if the loan is not approved by the town because it's on the morning so the issue that came up is they are getting backlogged on big projects and the server upgrade qualifies as a big project so we need to get on to their calendar they understand that we're looking to get a loan and that we have to wait 30 days after town meeting before we can lock in the loan so it's approved but if we can agree tonight as a board that we are intending to replace this server regardless of the vote they will put us on their calendar so this can happen as soon as the new fiscal year kicks in the year I don't think we have a choice I mean the servers kind of already has its projected life so we can find money elsewhere what's the number we're going to have to find if we have to? 18,000 and again the law is anytime we obligate ourselves to a loan no matter what the size because we remember we were going to just get the chipper and then we found out because it's a loan we have to go to the voters and I was confused about that I thought longer than a year oh it's a term not a dollar beyond the fiscal year correct that makes sense so in other words we need a kind of straw-pull consensus that means yeah we want to put a motion and vote on it so I can say to RVTEC the board has approved this so it's just now a matter of lining up the financing and we want to be able to pull the trigger as soon as the new fiscal year so bid us on to your schedule please so is that your motion? I make a motion that we as a board approve purchase of RVTEC yes second all that are in favor discussion just I would like to clarify that we're going to purchase it is it after it's in the new fiscal year right? yes adding that to the motion I'll accept the amendment me too second all those in favor aye good so you'll let RVTEC know yes you want to do 10 on all things? yep so while he's making the note did anybody have any calls about the storm on Friday? I didn't have any calls I didn't see any postings on the porch forum I know the guys were out did anybody have any if you're not in the issue control schools were closed right so that would be good that helps I did speak with a resident Friday morning and I know that nice Sandra the Valentine Road was not the truck was entering Valentine Road at quarter to eight which despite school not being in session that was really late given the storm so we had one guy out sick right we didn't have one guy out sick but all trucks were functioning as far as I know and Toby said they were all up and running that's pretty late yeah I wonder what his decision making process was in that known school was canceled ahead but that didn't mean people didn't have to still get out and get to work so this individual was not complaining but I was pulling this individual said that they were coming down the hill that little alleyway beyond Peter bike the north side of Peter Brough's road there where it comes down it's very narrow it's like incised and hills on both sides and it's and there's nothing we can do to widen it it's just the way the topography is but this individual said they were coming down and it was scary the truck was coming up from route 14 with a load of sand on and it was not and it was like everything went well but another driver less confident driver might have hit the brakes and hit the truck on so I just I was wondering why that truck was running so late with the sand and that Valentine road was right near the town so I don't understand it so is it due to a lack of staffing full staffing or with one person out was it the staffing fully covered with our temporaries Friday morning so I think that probably that individual there was one still out sick but we're supposed to have coverage by our temporaries did we have that extra person covering and if we did then the next question is why was that truck running so late when we knew that with a major storm coming was it because the snow was so heavy the trucks ran low did they have to go back get more load of the sand I just I think that's this was a good test I didn't get any complaints but I did notice that and I have four wheel drive it doesn't really matter but I'm paying attention now to get a complaint and I don't think our it seems like our road didn't get still that this is Thursday morning last Thursday just before nine we had snow on Thursday as well absolutely yeah not as much remember Friday yeah schools were closed Thursday too the schools were closed Thursday and Friday and it I think I'm really disappointed Toby's not here because it because I think the opportunity for us is to both understand the challenges that we have but then but then really clearly communicate them like even possibly to a micro level like if it's you know this is a lot perhaps a longer term goal but if it's the you know the Tucker Road loop driver who's out can we just be a little more transparent about those kinds of things but I think we're really paying attention to be aware of that so keeping that one as a question to ask Toby next meeting or even sending an email and the problem is the longer this goes right the memory fades quickly well do it do an email and send it to Toby and CCS because I'd like to know what the answer is to yeah and I'll ask my question too the warrants and I don't think the warrant I can't remember now if the warrant for this week's pay is in there but there's several couple of weeks there where there really wasn't much overtime and then you know it's kind of storm based and then we have you know the three guys and then we have the two fill-ins and those are a rate and they don't get benefits those fill-ins help me here those fill-in I know who they are but they come in they cover when we're missing the guy or they drive the extra truck and they're the storm so they're covering Alfred they are covering Alfred they are covering Alfred and I know Toby said when there's going to be a big storm like we have Friday we should have been a perfect time for him to have the five trucks out with the you know the additional two temporary drivers and that would just didn't make sense and I wonder if because the schools are closed do they come in later because they were out early this morning really early like earlier than I'm used to them being so that was good that's a really good question I don't understand quarter to eight commuters are gone they're in their office with their coffee quarter to eight the truck was coming up to sand and if you work with state government you've got to be there at quarter of eight and then they let you go home so commuters should be able to leave at six or six thirty say six thirty and know that road's going to be sanded especially that dangerous section there do we consider that a main artery road no but it's dangerous yeah I mean if there wasn't a truck you could conceivably come well I guess it flattens at the bottom but route 14's at the bottom you slide into route 14 who knows who's going to run into likely attract a trailer it's going to hit you sideways that's right that's a really good question I think we should ask Toby I think we're really staying on top of this I think it's going to be really helpful it might be annoying to the road right now that we're asking all these questions but I think like when Toby told us the two trucks were broken down well hello that makes a big difference when we get calls to say we have drivers but we don't have trucks or we have trucks and we don't have drivers you know I tell you I'm a little bit obsessed with that stretch there and I went and looked at it after they did all that ditch work and I really feel like what's the crossroad what's the name of that I don't know I really feel like from batten road to 14 we should make that one way I do not enter going downhill because folks can always on the between 14 and the brough road because brough's they're kind of at the height and you could escape up the brough but I really feel like if that were one way then it's not a question of a head on and they could always go up through the village through south woodbury village and this leads me to the I'm sorry you were supposed to talk about friends but you saw the update we got from the UVM John Lanz the presser lens about the road study I did not read it all but everybody got it I asked him about some kind of way to it was in spring spring it sounds like but I really think we need to be looking at one of our buddies will be very happy if we could figure out a way for people to have something they can go on the town website they can sign up for an app something where you can see the truck came by at 6 3 inches in GPS something like that which would be able to your question was was this the first time around or had they been around maybe that might be that was my question too that close to the town garage maybe it was maybe they started at 3 or 3.30 like Toby says he hasn't called in it was about 8 unless he was running 5 trucks that would be about right that it was the second time around so that might be the answer but it would be nice to know that some of that information with regards to that subject as well there's numerous possible solutions out there one of them is a device that plugs into one of the outlets on the truck the smart device they cost about 40 bucks a pop what inlet you know how your computer plugged in to do a diagnostic on the truck there are multiple ports in your vehicles for different accessories smart accessories so they have these that work at GPS satellite driven there are also a number of software solutions for managing and knowing where your vehicle force is and where it's deployed to and what not it sounded like they sounded like they were going to be looking at some of that right and that's probably what they're going to be looking at the other thing that I found out is that remember they were telling us that if there's a service alert pops up on one of the vehicles Toby usually knows about before they do because it all goes to his phone Verizon also offers an app that allows you to track where the vehicles are well you know I know the guys don't necessarily like it and I understood it and feel kind of weird to know that people are tracking you but on the other hand I think it would help to educate the residents you know if you're going to take the county road and they piled it at 5 o'clock in the morning and you're going to be leaving at 10 and probably it's not going to be plowed again until 1030 the real issue to me would be if we are imposing another duty and creating another thing to do this would just be automatically right and I think that that would be welcome because we keep hearing from Toby and Alfred and we understand that there's a lot of demands and the guys work hard so having that being able to communicate it to the community right you know facts there you go could we have something on the town website for people to go and look because for instance I don't have a smart phone so I don't have cell phones anything you can do on a phone you can generally do on a website and it doesn't sound like it's that expensive I don't think it is and Toby may already have that with this service alert that he's running I think it's something we really need to it could be a game changer it could be a huge piece of our response to the issues about roads now you can even see I wonder if the new trucks have a GPS position it's very possibly maybe Toby knows a little pet thing he comes with the pet the pet a little free guy is that what they did now when you get a pet at the shelter it comes with a little chip it's already registered I have my dog's microchips that's he has thank you guys see you at town meeting if not before thanks Gus thank you any other words of wisdom open Gus runs on a post you may not make it be kind with me he took it oh come on alright so we knew Rose was not going to be here tonight so it's just the four of us alright Rose is she's in where it's nice and warm I hope we're reaching out there I know this mother that's what I love it was clear skies at moon it was just chills up your back it was beautiful not just my coat up in the chills then you go back in the house and look out the window that was great I loved it, I was out in it all day thank you Gus when we go out and walk Betsy at night you go around that corner of Tucker Road and Orion is just right right there I think my dogs are at 9 o'clock at night my husband said it looks like the aliens in the community because I have these flashing boxes on them and a flashing bell where do you get those I see people with them it's cool it looks like the aliens have landed so let's start meeting the order public comment for items not on the add-eva additions or changes hmm I'm assuming Toby's coming we kind of told him he needed to show up at every needle so maybe he'll show up and he'll have to sit through the treasurer's report Madam Treasurer are you back for me yes we might get out here early tonight we might because there's another one that's going to be canceled what there's one agenda item I can just let you know right now while Sandra's getting ready the Greta Grant program they have decided not to apply for the Greta Grant program wow it's just it got way complicated you know ANR it did not seem to get that app to correctly to input the data so the kids were having to do these excel spreadsheets and it was just and the reporting requirements and stuff have gotten more significant they're a short staff person so there isn't a real good content person to ask for help or questions so they decided to mix it which I think was a wise decision on their part this year so I did review, did you do us hard copies I didn't they were just about 48 pages I read the memos that you sent both November and December but I think unless there's a real need or a real desire to review November's that's kind of old history maybe we can just look at December's let's take a look at December I think November is fairly remote these reports the November report and actually the December report were delayed in large part because we have one statement that comes in the middle of the month so our reconciliations just can't at this point haven't been able to take place until after that that's the Teebro price statement which I'm going to try and work with them to see why I can't get that online they just won't let me have it is that something that is handled by the trustees that Rod check out for you I'm on the account I would just reach out to them and see it could just be a snag with the with the account because we are online I can see it but I can't get a written statement anyway so that was delayed in November we didn't get it until mid December and the office was our office was closed for four or five days and Nimrod our contact at Nimrod was also on vacation so that was delayed and this January they were short handed someone retired and someone took a full-time job so they really just couldn't get to us I think those two issues have been resolved and we should have reports much earlier now so December reports we look good we have collected 71% of our budgeted revenues and we're at 50% of our fiscal years so revenues look strong as of December our expenses are slightly over budget but really not we have a number of front loaded expenses and we're just not on a budget that is equal every 12 months so I think really I would recommend to the board that we start to scrutinize that budget in our expenditures in February and see where we really are there are general government looks to be on track highway has a few expenditures that look over but I think in the large scheme of things we're going to be good we might want to talk to Toby about those yeah I actually thought Toby was going to show up tonight but I guess maybe he's not with the road commissioner being on leave and we've got some fill-ins and stuff I'm thinking that maybe we'll have some savings in the highway salary hard to tell but in March or February we might have a better feel for that when you say February you mean looking at the February report yeah because at that point in March, April, May, June we are three quarters or actually two thirds of the way through the year and it's a good time to take a look and see if we need to look at February's zone well I can pull February I think February it would be good whether we are reconciled or not to just come in at the first meeting in March and say where are we with our budget to expense picture if that works for your wait that's right before town meeting no that's right after town meeting oh good so it's a great way to do it because I'm thinking that February 24th meeting we really want us to focus and kind of go through the warning see if we assign people to maybe talk about different things will we have enough budget of February by the 24th to we should to be able to do that do you think the goal would always be to have all expenditures posted by your last board meeting I think that's reasonable so if I put you on from February 24th yeah I think that's reasonable a budget update I think we should really look at it I think it would be wise to put it right before town meeting I think so we can there's questions about budget we have more insight into where we're at if we're on track I don't see anything alarming I just think that it would be a useful tool at this juncture in the year to just take a look at things that maybe look a little bit high on balance to the rest of the budget we can put it on the list for the 24th select board time to review a warning all that stuff and a budget update from the treasurer so I want to keep that meeting kind of open to some of that stuff and hopefully there's not a lot of big issues that will serve the selection for town meeting I'm just going to I don't anticipate any big budget issues so alright so let's carry on so highway and we just highway looks good oh sure so we came in well under budget for that yes we did the only ongoing expense is the storage unit at $75 per month but that is also helping us with storing documents that need to be shredded as well as I think still some election there's still election materials and historical materials so that's and where are we with them coming up with a plan for the he has done some actually today he submitted some final very detailed like electrical outlets and lighting and things like that and so I think and I don't know if he's going to submit one more bill I don't think so but it might be an additional bill just for that my own detailed work and so when there's mental capacity that you've had a lot on your place yes so we can all take a deep breath and there's actually space to look at his designs without it competing with a lot of other agendas then I think that would be the time to do it have him come in and maybe do a presentation yeah he could kind of do a preliminary look and develop questions and then we could invite him yeah and the town hall I know Donna submitted the paperwork to get us reimbursed for the accessibility for the accessibility grant I believe there someone is coming out to take a look at that I don't know exactly at least that Ryan's coming out I don't know what the amount is I haven't seen 30,000 that number is going to look very different in the next couple of months those accessibility grants once there's an inspection they turn around very quickly at least that was my experience in Worcester they did the same thing several years ago with their town hall and their lift and that grant was very speedy and sending a check out so that's good so we can get ready of stuff on the town hall and then we can plan John committed today and said that they're very close to being able to set up the inspections they need for like fire, electrical for that I think he's thinking the end of for the certificate of occupancy so they got the heat exchanger I don't know we decided not to do that what? you talk about that thing to let the cold that place needs ventilation it's bad in there no, not since you said that you know, because it's got no ventilation in it it smells like fumes smells really bad I wonder if after a while in the summer or day or after but I thought there was a code requirement to have that so we can double check with John double check with John that was one of the things we knew we wanted to get at some point I'm just looking at minutes today before I came and there wasn't money enough to buy it unless we want to take it out it was only 1500 bucks or something I thought it was 11 maybe we're talking about two different things air to air heat exchanger I thought it was only 1500 bucks we can double check with John yeah because it's really that bad in there we may want to do something sooner rather than later something he did not like that place because I've already had I've already had groups ask if they can start using it from meetings and I don't really think we can until we have the certificate of advocacy oh we know where key is, go and snip it on the way out is it bad? I haven't experienced what John experienced in the times I've been in there and I could understand why it would be an issue having done the remodels myself in the middle of the winter and closed spaces but you're correct until we have the certificate of occupancy we really shouldn't have any meetings there and that's not too bad because if somebody gets hurt our insurance doesn't want to cover it so that's not good and then what we do have that's one of the things that the friends are going to do is manage the calendar for the public use space the program space we'll talk further down about that okay I'm going to give us an update later so let's get through Santa's report so the report that's on our drive the numbers are different is there a newer report? you might be looking at the long month are you looking at November or December I was a guy in November yeah we're well there it is thank you okay so highway highway revenues are collected but for the last state aid to highway checks and just as a reminder as we collect taxes we book over an amount of property taxes to cover the highway budget minus the amount of anticipated revenues primarily state aid to highway so that's why highway revenues are always going to be 100% collected highway has priority and general government has to cover highway so the best practice is to book over all those revenues because we have them and that's what I have done and that's what you see here expenses for the highway are tracking very closely with what we see in general government where about 63% of budgeted expenditures again we have had payments and so forth I am not feeling nervous about those expenditures again let's take a look in February and we may want to just call on Toby to see what his feel is for that also remember our experience last year was that we did go over budgeted highway expenses but the grant revenues which were not budgeted actually put highway in the block and we were able to put money into the highway capital equipment funds so again we will take a look at that better in February I think we are on to page 3 the balance sheet we look good we still have a fund balance the current fund balance is $380,000 plus and that fund balance is built from the balance that we came into the year with a plus whatever we have collected in revenues minus the expenses we've had thus far and that's about they recommend about 3 months worth of funding they recommend about 20% of our budget we don't have a policy that requires that per se there are financial policies that you could put into place maybe you would want to talk about the accounts just with the accounts to see if that was wise once we have a policy in place that says we need to have X percentage in our fund balance then if we didn't have it we'd have to go out and collect it so if we can see ourselves maintaining our fund balance without that mandate I think we've done a good job of that recognizing that we had to dip into it a little bit a little bit last year not by much but it's also great that we don't have to take out a loan in anticipation of taxes and paying the interest what you have is much a greater comfort level than you have had historically in that you're able to manage your grant expenses and as you say you haven't had to take a loan in anticipation of taxes we've been able to manage our summer grant expenses and also the first two or three months of the new fiscal year without a fund balance and that's what it's meant to do that is what it's meant to do so it looks very good I feel like we're in a really good shape with that it is my personal goal to make sure that you continue to have a good fund balance so I keep an eye on that it would be very valuable to the town to be able to have that comfort level the tax collection effort at the close of 2019 there were 190,000 plus uncollected 2019 taxes it is higher than last year this time the collection process was begun and you do have a copy in this package of the delinquent tax warrant which lists those outstanding tax payers we have very few in 2018 there are as of today $500 left in 2018 delinquent taxes are they on a plan? two are with Gloria one will go to Gloria that person has been motioned that particular parcel was motioned in December to go to Gloria I always give those folks one last shot to know that's what's going to happen in 2018 money in and that particular parcel did not and I was really hoping that would work out but I will be sending that parcel to Gloria tomorrow so in terms of delinquent taxes are we seeing many of the same folks are they struggling or is it just kind of their rhythm? I think it could really be a rhythm thing when I took over from Nadine these same names populated her files so it could just be that folks are out of sync the folks going to Gloria which really is two or three tax payers at this point I think that's different I'm not exact and I can't speculate on exactly what that difference is but there are a bunch of folks who really just kind of are on a different rhythm than what we have did they get behind five years ago and this is just the way it's going to be for them but they end up paying it's like folks who carry a continual balance under credit cards they never seem to be aware of all of that I do think I heard specifically from one person that there is absolutely a seasonal cycle that doesn't fit with the town's tax cycle but that person perhaps reluctantly but gradually does work something out with you then as I've said before my goal is to create a team with our tax payers I really don't believe in punishment folks truly, truly do want to pay their bills that's human nature for most people and recognizing that we make a plan together that is reasonable and most people are embarrassed that they can't pay it and they are and they are and so our office really is sure that they are treated with respect and that whatever that we really reach as far as we can to make it work for them and we just need to be kind to people because any of us could have a time when we're in that same situation and we would want to be treated the same way folks also rely in part on the return of their IRS refunds and so that hits in April and I see a lot of payments at that time on the good note I will tell you that as of today I ran a report so this is today's report not December's report we are down 129,000 so we collect from 190 so we collected a considerable amount of taxes many of these taxes have to shake the trees too hard to get this first several well, several tens of thousands of dollars initially as we get further away that's where we have to work hard people have a time like calling you to set up a plan but we call them sometimes you know open the door a little bit we first timers me we had a number of and continue to have a number of check return checks and that has muddied the water a little bit I don't really know why there seem to be more this year than there have been in the past but suffice it to say that's the way it is it makes me worried that every year it's a little more people are having a harder, harder time and as everybody is aging and on fixed incomes you know it's worrisome it's worrisome that it is indeed that is that is my report at this point I think at 50% of the fiscal year I think we are in good shape I am not alarmed by the amount of delinquent taxes I become more alarmed in April when they are set 40, 50, 60,000 that's when we start to get nervous and that's when we are really happy that we have a fund balance because we have summer coming it was very telling in April from here to last April especially since the school tax went up so much and it's just not going to get any better what can we do anyways that's just my well at some point we don't have the time I was going to say I should give you the you're going to give us one of those sheets the effect of our tax rate on 200,000 dollars give us that tax sheet like we usually get that says if you vote article whatever this is how much do you have a minute for me to run that off it's one sheet can I do that now when you can reflect on it and if you have further questions we can look at that again we can look at that again 24 that page will be in the town report right I usually carry that one around it's really helpful you see the budget in the town report based on what we've budgeted but then when you add in some of these other things people don't necessarily realize I don't really think they realize that if they vote in all these other articles it's going to be an extra I don't know I don't think people understand that so it's $200,000 is that the average homestead value Sandra it's a quick and journey it's a quick number where if you have a $400,000 property or a $600,000 property you can easily double or triple that or have it yes I was just curious if that's where that number came from I just wanted it to be it's an exercise that sheet shows if you pass the thing for the the loan for the chipper it's this many cents like for social services it would be about $25 or $26 per $200,000 of assessed value right so I like it when it's each thing broken down and then we do the total and then I'll sell a four pack of beer for $15 by way of comparison which is crazy that one here what's going on is a six pack going to become a one pack soon I can get a nice bottle of wine for that crazy so oh I know something we can do while Sandra's doing that I got this thing on email remember Joanne Darden from Horse Packs I asked her when did this thing start because it's the first time I'm seeing it we have tree steward award nominations and there are several different categories but I wanted to ask the board what would you think about nominating our conservation commission for this tree steward award I think I forwarded this email to everybody nominating a tree hero but the conservation commission is working they have really collectively done a ton of work especially if it's emerald ash for they're very active I would like to nominate them if that's so good idea I'm going to nominate them in the community group category oh they have that they have several they have three different categories but the one that I think suits us best is the conservation commission thank you all hopefully you'll get some rest see you Judy don't forget Valentine's Day on Friday you can just leave it on the floor so the way this printed out I apologize for it but it had to get to the printer in a way that she could manipulate it oh you mean Laura? yeah it's a top and bottom thing so what you have very quickly is we have budgeted expenses and those are the expenses that are in your proposed budget we have our proposed income so we would subtract the income the proposed income from our expenses and we would be raising $3 million in article 4 that's what's in your warning that's how we come about that so your estimated town tax as you remember is based upon the grand list and it is the expenses divided by the grand list well we don't have a grand list yet this year we have to use the last year's grand list and so this is the estimated tax rate and you can go across and see what that tax rate looks like there's the town tax, there's the estimated local agreement tax the educational homestead tax came from the district and that is the estimated total tax for 2020 based on these variables your proposed budget passing was very similar to last year and there it is compared with the 2019 tax rate now when we add the one, go ahead estimated town tax .6737 estimated local agreement tax that's your veterans and your non-contract is that the county tax that's your veterans and your non-contract tax what do you mean non-contract so those are the we call them non-tax for the sake of ease they are the properties that the town has decided not to tax your non-profit yes no I don't know that anybody is going to really know what that means and so on your page 2 it just calls it your non-tax properties there's a little footnote there so has anybody heard I saw Chris Cochran at the state house I see him every day but we had a conversation with him a week ago about the the hall and there was an opinion issued by the tax department there was we haven't seen it but there's properties current ownership configuration and utilization configuration in the deed and the related documents indicate to the tax department that its use is consistent with the existing exemption and statute and therefore they don't need to pursue a statutory change change to maintain that exempt status at the state level so we don't have to exempt them they're going to continue to be statutorily exempt but we want to get that we want that in the file we want to stick it with the deeds however we do that in case there's a change of philosophy at the tax department which has happened before so that's Chris Cochran we need that and I said I continue to be a little bit worried but he said there's also an accompanying there's a policy document that it was reviewed against their opinion request was reviewed against and they could check all the boxes apparently there are other properties that fall to these kinds of categories we don't have to accept it and everybody else takes the tax there's no education there's no tax liability that would go to the town by virtue of a town exemption they're exempted at a higher level at the state level and we wouldn't have to even if no we wouldn't but just to be just so we're clear no that's right if there were a if this opinion didn't come out it might be a request but remember they came to us wanting us to put it on to be tax exempt