6.2 and we got a collection of folks here so why don't we start as chair of the Rochester Select Board. I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to addendum 6 to executive order 01-20 and act 92 this public body is authorized to meet electronically. We're providing public access to the meeting using the Zoom platform and you can find out how to connect with that meeting by looking at the posted agendas around town going to the town website or requesting an email notification from the town clerk. Anyway we're here we are and I would like to invite anyone that has any additions to the agenda to bring them up now if we could and hearing none I will move on to the the minutes we the last meeting we could not confirm the meetings for the December 14th meeting because we didn't have them so I looked over those now and they look correct to me so did you guys have any corrections or no? I do. Page two of those minutes from 12-14. The pair says that Joan noted how we are moving forward on the Mount Cushman project and I think it should be how we're not moving forward. Yeah okay I saw that too you're right. Yeah we could clarify that. Frank any? We're still gonna try. We're still gonna try it's just it's just tabled for a little bit. Tabled exactly. Alright so I'd move to approve those with that correction. I second it. All in favor? All right got someone else coming into the meeting and then we go into the minutes for the the birthday meeting on December 28th and I found those to be complete and clear and I'd if you guys don't have any corrections to those I'd move to approve those minutes. I second that. I don't care. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Hello Catherine I see you just got in we were I'd asked earlier if anyone had any additions to the agenda and which there were none but I'd give you the same opportunity to to add something if you wanted to. I wanted to sort of update about the high school building and what's going on with that. Okay. Hey Joan I met I was on mute I was gonna say I just want to give a rundown of the town meeting schedule. Yeah great yeah just some dates and that are important to the community. I've got them listed down here. Great thank you Frank. Yep so we get to so let's um why don't we why don't we start with that Frank because that's kind of an important thing that's coming up and a lot of people are curious about that. Okay the the rundown for town meeting is Tuesday January 12th which is tomorrow is the last day for signed petitions and then Monday January 18th is the last day for consent forms at 5 p.m. Julie is going to be open all day that day and then Wednesday January 20th is the first day that we can post the warning and Friday January 29th is the last day we can post the warning. February uh Friday February 19th is the last day to mail out the town reports and Friday February 19th the worn virtual info information meetings that can be addressed on February 22nd and we felt that we needed two informational meetings on that and I it's up to the board here to figure out if we want to do it because we have a regular scheduled meeting on the 22nd and I prefer not to do it on a regular scheduled meeting I'd rather see a couple of meetings and some of the other stuff I did put out to the public only because they're they're the town report stuff that we have to do in-house and that's about it now maybe Nancy has something she wants to address there yeah Nancy can you hear me yep yep meetings have to be warned in advance of those meetings like around the 20th and no later than the 20th right that's what I said so we need to we need to have them properly warned which would be I had my calendar here February for February 22nd we would be probably warning it at around the 16th and if you do another one that week of the 15th we would have to warn it probably around the night excuse me I'm confused as to did you just is there a meeting on the 22nd or what I mean I know there's a regular meeting regular regular select board meeting on the 22nd what Frank was recommending is that we have the informational meetings for the the town non-meeting and separate from the regular select board meeting so their meetings specifically focused on that that on that are you are is the board deciding on those dates tonight I think they're pretty well set 22nd is what used to be the pre-town meeting it's one week before when we'll be voting I I think we should probably set those a little bit later because we have a regular meeting on the 22nd and then warn them for the week of the 22nd sometime during that week we could are you are you picking out the dates now so people will know ahead of time because we haven't discussed those yet Martha so a little bit of our decision now one of the issues is since people cannot be nominated from the floor at a normal meeting if they want to run for an office maybe we want to have a meeting a little bit earlier so this is all really clear to people and and they don't feel like this is um too compressed and in terms of the time frame June yeah um the people that complete the consent form by five o'clock on the 18th their names will be printed on the ballot anyone else can be considered a write-in there'll be lines on the ballot to accommodate the write-ins okay so there will be write-ins with that will kind of satisfy the the possibility of a nomination from the floor I guess it would have it so now is it um do we need to have an earlier meeting before the 18th so that that is clear to people that that's that's the deadline that that I I would suggest that you have something that that week of the 15th that makes sense to me it would not be very nice to hold a meeting to say oh the the deadline was last week but um I think we should post it around town and also put it on the on the computer there the front page forum and and all that yeah it's out everywhere if anybody is looking around or listening it it's in print everywhere for the consent forms so in terms of the um the informational meetings um we can't have them until we get the town reports back true so those will be the week of the February 22nd so we just have to pick a couple days for that a couple nights and we could do two meetings that week right so what's your pleasure on that whatever day you want if we already have a select board meeting that I don't have a calendar in front of me it's the 22nd it's money that money is the 22nd yes okay Monday's the 22nd you don't have to announce that right now no we can wait on that and we can figure it out talk about it if you want um I just wanted something to put in my article could I just say the meetings will be uh the week of the 22nd would date to be confirmed soon I wouldn't do that yet you've got another select board meeting on the 25th but of January people will want to know oh okay fine yeah we can have the dates ready by then yeah okay okay but we can't have informational meetings until we have the town report right exactly that's a good point I'll just say the dates of the information meetings will be decided at the next select board meeting here we go so the February 19th is the deadline for the reports to be mailed is it possible that we can have them sent out before then only they'll go out the day they come back from the printer right right so that's all I can tell you I mean I would not ever give you a date except they will be in the mail by the 19th yep we have to we have to have all that stuff delivered to the printer by the 21st of January yeah the the town report will is will go to the printer on at least by the 21st yeah yeah no we're on on line to approve the budget tonight so that's um we're um we're in good shape for getting that information to them what are we uh when is the deadline for appropriations is what tomorrow that's tomorrow yeah yeah yeah okay let me just okay um Frank thanks for being on top of the all the scheduling around this and you Nancy so I guess I'll follow the agenda down here Joan welcome this evening what have you got for us tonight uh just one item I need to discuss with uh the select board and that is um the uh maybe you saw the email I sent last Thursday I think it was about uh information getting information to Chris Bumpett v trans regarding the route 100 paving right we were able to get there to the trouble spots and um they want more like more information uh so they can go take a look at them as I said the email um ordinarily of course they would do it with someone from the town but these days they're they're prohibited from doing that so they'd like me to send them some information and be more specific a little more you know we have to give them a lot of detail but it's more specific about exactly where these trouble spots are and uh I you know maybe do a GPS point and a little description of what's been happening and for how long and then they will come out and take a look at things and get back to us and probably schedule a Zoom meeting for us to discuss them um I did find out also that quite well while they're getting into design phase now I don't think they're very far into it and um he was able to describe the work they're going to do it's simply a new layer of asphalt new layer of pavement they're not going to grind and and redo it no no it's it's a patch job it's a patch job well yeah basically it's a patch job Joan did I hear correctly this is route 100 you're talking about that's right that's right um what was the other thing oh and the paving work is actually not going to be done until uh 2022 but I guess it takes this long to put things together uh whatever those things are so uh I wanted to find how you have find out how you wanted to address putting together these trouble spots I'm more than willing to come in walk around with cooter if you'd like me to do that then put together the information or if you want to do it some other way um I want to make sure that I had all of the sites that I've heard from you um in previous meetings so uh can I do that I just list them I've got one two three four uh you can tell me if there are any more one is uh somewhere between Pierce Hall in the library maybe that whole stretch or is it a specific spot within that area that in terms of puddling of water yeah ponding whatever the problem right right it so yeah no that's that's been a been a problem plus with a lot of um a lot of traffic into there okay so it's the entire stretch between Pierce Hall and and the library entrance it's um yeah basically I mean whatever okay that's that's where the issue seems to to crosswalk is in that crosswalk is that in is that in the section there crosswalk is south of the crosswalk is south of the library uh the pool is at the at the area that comes right down there steps onto 100 so I'm sorry it's more than it's ponding but it's also safety um yeah I'm basically with them just the ice that builds up there over and over because of the there's no drainage yeah okay so there's no drain there now it's not like there's one that's not unfunctional or something there's nothing there now I don't think so I think I talked to Pierce Hall too yeah I'm sorry sorry Tim did you have something to say about that nope okay bar okay bark yeah um that's true that if someone at Pierce Hall would I I think that um talking to um Pierce Hall and the folks at the library they'd have the I mean they're walking there every day they they know what the um okay dude they did a uh repayment job in front of just all the little driveway and everything to that have any effect on where water would pond and everything no no okay I haven't noticed I just wanted to talk to Bruce Bruce yeah okay and then the next one is Sandy's I know where that is yeah yeah um and that's a long time thing right that's been like that that is yeah yeah we've brought that up to to them a few times in fact I had a conversation with Chris Bump this last week and um right yes yeah okay and what were the other two sites that you had um yeah I'm just taking notes here um then there was a sink hole due to a uh e-trans storm drain somewhere between the skit mark and Sandy's and Chris knew about that he did say that they had done some work there they had fixed it and it was a bigger job than they expected because it wasn't just the drain it was a section of fight they had in place which they don't ordinarily do um but any case I think I heard the last meeting that there was still a problem there is that correct now wait you just meant that's the same spot that we're talking we were just talking about between the no no no this is um not right in front of Sandy's and the driveway there but then going from there up basically along the skit mark up to the intersection somewhere in there I'm not aware of that one no okay so there's no issues there well there's some shrinkage there that probably should be addressed shrinkage yeah it's kind of a rough spot there it's it's got a couple sags in it and I don't know whether there were some pipes that we'd worked on in there over the years that it's kind of settled there a little bit you can see it if you walk by it okay so I'll just say it's pretty obvious okay and then oh yeah one thing Chris did mention also is that when they do these jobs V-trans will do in the in the state right of way but they don't do anything that goes underneath the roadway so like they could drop in a new drain or or fix a drain or replace it if necessary but they won't put in a new pipe even if it's needed for this kind of job because all they're doing is you know putting another layer of pavement over looking to dig it up but we did talk about the obvious thing point which is that there is something that needs to be replaced that goes underneath the road roadway it would be best to find out now rather than later yeah um okay uh and then the last one I have is this the perennial one where uh somewhere in the neighborhood of the the new park um or something connected with brook street brook I'm not really clear about where the problem comes from there except that all the water runs down drains down there and maybe doesn't have a place to go so a better description of that would be well that was uh there was a pretty significant sinkhole they actually had a steel plate in route 100 for um for a month or two um a couple years ago when that that had caved in and I believe they did a bunch of repair to that um at that time so it's um it's interesting that would that show up on their their list of problems so maybe that's the sinkhole that Chris was talking about um he wasn't really clear about where it was so is that sinkhole still a problem no they they repaired that okay the one down by the park now that's um and that that pipe then just dumps into the um the um that creek there it doesn't um you know that's that that's the terminus of that that's the swell is that the brook it dumps that too or is there a swell no there's no swell it just jumps them's just just um downstream of the bridge yeah um so they're saying they will they're not doing any improvement of that infrastructure in terms of adding um adding um drains well he didn't say that specifically uh I think he was starting out by saying well let's take a look at things and see if there's some things we can do you know you also know a certain amount of this is going to be the town responsibility and I said yeah we understand that but if there was a way to cooperate um in some way because a lot of these problem areas are in the state right away then we want to find out what can be done so I mean it's probably like don't expect too much but they'll give it a try yeah we should keep keep bugging them about it I mean it's yeah usually not until all of a sudden I have to put a steel plate in the middle of route 100 that they really pay attention to it but yeah yeah should we uh uh take a look at these here with cooter or possibly walk through them yeah I think we should definitely go see them yeah so Frank you want to you you may include her that work that's fine and are there any other sites that you know about that I might have missed or well not that wouldn't include adding drains adding um drains to the system you know I mean there is um we have a lot of issues um there is um the storm drain that's um just at the the crosswalk going down to the school that um drains into a pipe that kicks out that bank that pipe separated and now it's eroding um pretty significantly there was a um there's a swale down at the bottom of that hill that those that pipe was originally fed into and now that pipe is broken in the middle and it's it's eroding that bank Lee um pretty pretty good that's okay we'd pointed out them to them uh was it the state or was it the um oh the stormwater for the stormwater master plan right stormwater master plan I know they spray painted the you know mark that spot but that's that's um that's not showing a problem in the roadway but it is an issue um you know back to bank there yeah okay okay probably not something that they would consider is affecting their their skin coating the road probably not but I'll tell them everything you know that we have and maybe I'll come up with some other ideas for us yep okay that's all I have all right well thank you um yeah it's um a process working with the state on stuff like this yeah well I have to say I know they've been very responsive at times we know that like with Bethel mountain road and all that are pulled in a lot of different directions on the other hand I was a little frustrated and not hearing back from anyone um just to know that we were in touch and that they knew we had concerns until I contacted uh Rita Cito and then she just sent a friendly email to v-trans and all of a sudden there were like six people on this email saying hey what's going on you know uh we're a little flustered by it and you know I just said yeah yeah when I talked to Christy's like oh we'd really appreciate it if you just came to us instead of going to the the planning commission because then it gets more complicated but yeah well it's it's good to know that I you know I'm not looking we're not looking to get them you know in trouble or anything but one question he did ask and I didn't have an answer for he asked well you had these problems I'm going for a while why didn't you talk to the guys at the state garage facility and I said I I didn't really know um you know there's nothing I'm gonna say to him about it but I was just kind of curious I um I never thought really that that was the the initial direction to go they would usually send uh you know work on instructions from their higher-ups not making decisions on their own but yeah okay yep okay fair enough right um thank you um we don't have um Tony here to talk about the library at all um I am here I don't know why that's oh I see you're just called Brenda yes all right computer I guess all right yeah you have you got any reports for us and do you have any input about the the drainage out in front of the library yeah I'm glad that you're talking about that because that has been bad for a long time and and it is dangerous and slippery and miserable for people to get through so yeah that's a good thing I was also glad that you are putting money into the building maintenance fund apparently uh we're trying yeah you're trying that's good and let's see as far as the library is going it's uh we're still doing uh porch pickup and we have a trustees meeting uh tomorrow afternoon at 545 and that's of course on this thing okay on this thing meaning the zoom thing the zoom thing yeah zoom thing okay all right all right um thank you thank you um so I'm gonna move on to the the first item on the new business which is the approval of the 2021 first class license and outside consumption permit for maple sole and I guess outside consumption is because they have the porch there um I guess this is they're anticipating um perhaps being able to move away from the takeout only but I guess we will see so I have um no problems with approving that and you how about you too no problem no I'd move we approved um seconds oh sorry um favor hi all in favor yep yeah Martha I'm sorry I was just speaking of maple sole I don't know if you saw the article I had in the paper this past week about what maple sole and CV oil are doing to help people in the area maple so the whole month of January uh five percent of their sales the money is going to go to CV oil and CVL is going to use it to give credit to customers who are having trouble um you know who are needy and and um to help them pay for their heating bills yeah so I thought that was really nice that too you know there's been a lot of people helping each other out during this hard time you know and um it it was nice to hear about that too when I when they called me no yeah that's great where I'm lucky to have them so yeah that's the silver lining to the cloud all right um so now to the um the piece on the agenda that's um taken the most amount of work from the budget and finance committee is the approval of the fiscal year 22 town budget it's um so it's um it's this will be um this does not include voted articles um like the werva library recycling and reserve funds or appropriations which would amount to 167 344 dollars 167 344 dollars they're not part of the budget will be voted in addition to the budget so the um we're looking at um the total fund expenditures for the operating expenses of 1,095,483 of which 766,670 dollars shall be raised by taxes and this results in um Greg what was the final um increase on the the tax rate we kept it under 3% right you're muted hey Greg you got it you're muted I think it's around 2.28 2.28 yeah which is um so of course this is the the um just the municipal aspect of the taxes it's the school taxes that really um wield the big hammer and have the big effect on their taxes so we have um yet to see what what that's gonna happen with that but um I um do we need to approve that or just present that so okay I guess I would move to um move to approve that um setting of the the budget and the amount due to be raised by taxes for fiscal year 2022 uh second that no in favor right all right yep and thank you everyone um for their hard work on actually I found the zoom platform made it a little easier to navigate that and Greg having us all look at the it's a paper on the screen and we're all on the same same page that that was very helpful so um thank you all for for your work on that yeah yeah I agree June yeah much easier okay um and we don't have to go out and snowy cold weather not that it's been that terribly snowy or cold yet but knock on wood so um another agenda item on new business is to appoint Becky Klein to the vacant planning commission position and um we're lucky to have her join the team she's been around and has a lot of um knowledge about the town and I think she'll be an asset to the the planning board so I'd I'd move to appoint Becky to that vacant position a second that yeah in all in favor all right all right is she replacing someone or has this been vacant no she's replacing um you've had a a couple people step out Joan Panias has stepped back and um Eric Bowman has just stepped off of it so we had um yeah had a need for for more more energy there and could share field Eric Bowman's right right all right they've been around for a long time so thank you they had been put a lot of time in there yeah okay um so Catherine you wanted to um to chat some about the the status of the high school building well I wanted uh to know know what the budget committee's final thinking about you know the possibility of the town acquisition whether they were intending to put any funds towards that potential I also wanted to get an update from Pat who met with Ethan today to know where the negotiations are between the school board and the select board because we haven't had an update and it's important that the committee have been working on be in the loop in terms of conversations that are going on with the powers that be i.e. the select board and the school board Pat you want to handle that sure I did have a meeting this morning at 10 o'clock it was the first meeting uh uh to have any type of discussion about the building so uh we've all been in the dark uh up until this morning um the only point of the meeting today was to submit the preliminary subdivision lines for the property physical divvying up of the property um they want to keep that confidential at this time because it's preliminary so it's not until the uh what is anyone else having trouble hearing hearing Pat yeah I can't hear you Matty maybe turn off your video you'll get more bandwidth here comes the green bay packer cheese head um my team um is that is that better that's better I think so yeah um so we had a meeting this morning and the purpose of the meeting was to submit the preliminary uh lot line adjustments for the subdivision of the property um no decisions were made today I'm not I don't have the authority to make any decisions on my own um in order for the school board to continue down the path of a wastewater permit for the secondary septic system um they need to submit the actual lot lines so uh one hand needed to take care of the other um I have that in hand and we will have an executive session at the end of this meeting to discuss the the proposed lines how they're divvying up the property um and then we will discuss um whether or not they're going to bring it to the zoning board which I'm sure that you know they probably will and um if we can approve if we can approve the way the lot lines are adjusted on this new proposal then they can go to the next level on getting a secondary septic system um they still have a lot of work yet to do um oil tanks and and uh removing their systems from our building if we take it and um so it's it's a very slow process for them um and they you know we talked about how we still have much to do um and um um they they know it and um that's that's all we had for a discussion today it wasn't a big major decision-making thing I cannot do that on my own right just wanted to have uh information update I remember at one point you actually uh question the need for executive session on this since we're not negotiating a sale price so why why is it necessary to go into executive session about these property boundaries their attorney asked if we could keep it confidential for this initial show and tell of the lot lines when they present the the lot lines and um they they want it to be final so once we approve it then it can become public knowledge and um the question can open I have a question this is big um what's your best guess about when the property would be available for acquisition in other words if you know some oil millionaire came in from Abu Dhabi and put down a bunch of money and wanted to buy it or you know I'm just trying to get a sense when all the the process is completed the process that's underway right now just to get a sense of timing I don't understand the question because you're acting because I would be in commercial sale all I'm saying is I'm asking when the process of the division of property and it's availability for acquisition by anybody whether it's a town or anybody else would be available it's got to be approved by the zoning board and they have a time schedule on that so it's whatever they have to present it to the zoning board the zoning board's got to rule it and uh and go from there I'm not sure what it what it entails for time wise it's it's not a huge amount of time but it is some time so they'll have issues with that I'm sure so um just it's up to them they got to go through the process okay well they also have raised an underground oil tank which they haven't even started that process they had a discussion with a contractor and that's all they've done about that so that would need to happen as well if the underground oil tank is stable um that would be fine and dandy but um it's been underground since the 70s so um if it has any type of seepage or a pinhole of uh oil leaking down there that that's probably going to take another couple months to resolve so following up on uh what vic and frank just said before it goes up to any kind of commercial sale the town would have to refuse acquisition is not correct because we get first we get the first offer of a dollar right we have first right of reasons yeah that's right so what is the um attitude of the select board right now about that option opposed that I know yes I am but you're one of three you're one of three people but I am opposed could you go on record as to why yes there's only three options there Catherine to my knowledge there's one to keep it as a school and it's still going to cost us a hell of a lot of money the other is put it on the tax rolls and tax it by somebody if they're going to use it for a commercial property and the third one is to wreck it tear it down a strength for example there's the auditorium there and there's all kinds of value to the town it in my it doesn't matter we can't afford it in your opinion you look at you look at our budget yeah yeah there is um I guess the fourth the fourth option which would be um is the bigger challenge and has the possibility of um more creative use of it is for the town to take possession of it and facilitate a reuse of it in some way that is going to support the town and and help that some there's a lot of unknowns there and that's um and um my take on it is that nothing to be rushing into there's a lot of in terms of the committee working on trying to come up with a reasonable proposal to the town about what the building could be used for they need more time this is not something you put together right away you asked earlier did the budget committee put anything in the budget to potentially support the building and and we did not because it's um and we're we're scrounging to just keep the budget as um as stable as we can and there was no guarantees that um this is going to happen that soon and that's um so we we did not put 20 000 in the budget to anticipate buying the building that's not saying that that couldn't happen but you've heard frank's um feelings on it and it's um it's a complicated thing um there's a lot up in the air the whole issue of the stock bridge requesting to uh a vote to demurger throws the whole bunch of balls in the air and we're not um they they don't have the power to um force that demurger if rochester doesn't vote to support that option but if all of a sudden we were um the whole school was thrown back in our lap then I think we would reevaluate the the situation with that building in a different light so it's um it's the the pressure to make decisions right away I think are um there's a lot of resistance to that well that's why Vic is asking for a projected deadline by which you think that the building will be a formally uh offered to the uh select board and which and and when the select board has to make a decision I mean nobody wants to to to spin their wheels in working and this committee has put a lot of effort in and it sounds to me from you know that frank you know has just summarily made up his mind because nobody has proven to heaven of another option but certainly there are other options and as we've gone ahead and started to explore uh funding options and so forth I think we really need to have a lot more confidence than what I'm hearing tonight about from the select board that in fact there is a potential repurposing we've always said that you know the school could still be uh used for education this school was closed for this school year because of the pandemic and the pandemic now the vaccinations have been rolled out could potentially you know be in person again and the building be used because I do believe there's a greater vote from Rochester than there is from Stockbridge in terms of where the level of the building is usage so I feel like whatever the size of this group in Stockbridge is Rochester is a bigger voting block than Stockbridge and why why is it that suddenly you know we're being squeezed into this corner about this building now why is that happening why are we like being put into some sort of corner about it well that's it exactly and then to to time push the issue um into to a situation that is not properly unfolded and has not been properly explored it's not um there's a lot of resistance to that when you say properly explored what do you mean properly properly I mean we're some realistic and clear um offerings about what you know what could happen you know what what's you know not just um we would like to do something but we would like to do this you know that's what we are working on right they're working on but what is the point of working on this and pulling in you know state agencies and funding sources if in fact you guys aren't even giving us you know anything in terms of like the work that we're doing are we just spinning our wheels out of here I understand that we we formed the committee you're on the committee to present to us potential uses of what could happen with the building so aren't we kind of waiting on the committee to answer our question which is why we ask it's done it's it's a good question pat and I think what it's done is in collaboration right so there's three entities here right and two of them have legal authority with the school board and the select board we are a volunteer group who's been working in coordination and collaboration with the powers that be trying to get funding and people and so forth all organized to actually go forward to create a repurposing concept a proposal but if Frank has already made up his mind that it's not even possible and and you know doing is saying something like you know proper I I guess I'm not feeling the confidence of the select board that that you know there's credibility in the work that we're doing well it's um it's it's still a long ways out no matter what happens that's a ways out so what is a ways out right give me an idea I don't know Catherine it's a whole process it has to go through it's up the ball is in the hands of the school board and they have to do what they need to do subdivide it and then we figure it out from there we need to have voter approval to even think about this because it is going to be a massive undertaking financially and I don't care if you get grants for this or anything else that building's been there for over 50 years and we haven't put any any money into it at all and now it's going to come do where it's going to need a lot it's going to need a roof it's going to need many things the outside doors are all gone the sills are needing work there's just a lot of stuff that's going to need to be done to that and I don't see where the money's coming from and if you put it right down and you get grants for all this stuff you're not going to get grants for the maintenance and it's just going to be a burden on the community and I don't see us being a landlord I just don't see it it's just too much if I might be the notion of the repurposing committees to come up with a proposal that would be self-sustaining that there would be programs that generate revenue that would be desirable for grant-giving organizations we haven't got the whole picture yet and you know this pandemic has has just you know made it very very difficult to have meetings and get input and you know do all the things you ordinarily do my my primary concern is around time availability in other words is is the school we're going to call the question before we can come up with a reasonable proposal that's my primary concern and mine too I mean and as of tonight I just I want a clarity on that point what are we looking at and it sounds as though nobody knows what we're looking at in terms of time and we are in a pandemic I mean even if we created the best programs we are still limited by the pandemic in terms of actually offering things getting people in place we're talking about a place for congregation at a time when people can't congregate right and so that's that's hamstrung us you know I mean tune you have the you know the building down the block which you're gonna call the vellum on in how how long has it taken you to pull the funding to get that thing up and going so that's a viable business right it takes time you certainly you certainly do understand what it means and who you have to meet with to get the the funding committed and there's all different things about funding yes there's funding for renovations and changes and capital improvements but there's also you know you need you need regular income for people who are actually going to use the space whether that's an adult day child care maker space whatever that is you're going to have to establish a an ongoing funding source and we are talking to people about those very very specific things but if we don't have the confidence of the select board that you would actually like to see a Gifford medical center adult day in there which would be good revenues right or a child care center which would be solid revenues I mean we're looking at things like that right now and talking to people to try to get commitments but if we have a select board that is saying impossible is not going to happen it feels like it's sort of putting a little cloud over anything that we're trying to muster and lift you know what I'm saying I'd like to hear at least a little bit of optimism to kind of inject that into the work we're doing it's important that we have that right I would just want to say for the record that Gifford has not indicated that they would partner with us to not yet the acres well then I mean say not yet that's that's not even you know for discussion but but there's facts that we know about the adult day more facts that we know about the aging population yes but don't assume that I don't want it to be on the record that we're not putting it on the record Vic I'm just saying where those conversations have started no negative we're only asking them for some help in figuring out feasibility that's it and I want to be very clear about that well then I just understood your your conversations apologize for that maybe I apologize if there's bad communication there yeah it's all we're all kind of caught in a little bit of a catch 22 because you know where everyone's looking to everyone else to to give the clarity of like okay this is what's going to happen and this it's it's a it's a long process you you ask how long it's it's it's been five six years we've been working on this project next door here so it's not something where um the select board has the power to say this is going to awesome we're going to buy this building and make something cool happen that's not the job of a select board the select board but we are here to support the town and into and invest in things that have vision and that will we be positive for the town but we are legally we're we cannot just be a landlord you know it has to be something that is is involved with the town so it if perhaps it's a a transitionary stage but you know I I I don't think we should tear the building down you know I personally think it has the potential for something creative and and you know more than just becoming the town garage but it's to to be able to answer the question is like you know yes we're we're gonna whatever it is something's gonna happen and we put money in the budget for it we couldn't do that like I understand that so I think we all understand that right now because of the the economy and how it's been affected by the pandemic there's a lot of uncertainty across the board about a lot of things right now and in some level I think it's it's unfair that we're being pushed up against the wall to make decisions at a time of great uncertainty I agree and we we pay into the school budget and the cost of keeping that building last year was 0.9 of the school budget so oh in a way it seems a little artificial that we're being driven to a decision at a time when when somebody said earlier that we're not even clear whether Stockbridge is going to attempt to demerge you know and then what the building will come back to us anyway right right so so so where is this push coming from I mean what is the percentage of the voting population that has got our backs up against the wall about having to make a decision at a time when there is so much uncertainty political pressure from those Stockbridge people on the school board I mean there's a sentiment for every nickel that is spent on anything having to do with Rochester and that they're putting that on the school board and they're under a lot of heat it's a very complicated and difficult situation and I understand your position entirely Katherine but you know I think Frank is kind of courageous to just kind of make this absolute point because the numbers are very serious and and that doesn't mean it'll never happen it doesn't mean anybody's saying no but but I'm gratified to see Frank just being realistic about it because it's it's very expensive and the budget process we just went through shows how thin the ice is yeah that doesn't mean it won't happen but it's very complicated and it should be done very carefully and slowly as Doon is saying I think careful is is right I agree with careful but uh but I also do not like if there is a small group of people that are is driving this because I don't even know what kind of numbers we're talking about even sort of pushing the school board towards a decision because it's become such an unpleasant and and chronic complaint you know I just I question the fairness of it that's all I question whether it's a a reasonable representation of the voting public in two towns well the fairness of it and and the wisdom of it because as the uh at the last school board meeting that I sat in on and the um the the superintendent shared the information about the tax rates for the individual towns and what they projected would be with a demurger and and regardless of what happens to the high school the tax rates for both towns would go up with the demurger so I think this drive to to um demurge the schools is is shortsighted and and um and there's you know this the building has been brought forth is this um this you know topic of of concern and and and a lightning rod for this um the force for for whatever the animosity is but it's it's it's kind of a red herring there there's there's more play here and and it's um I I think that's we've been playing a waiting game there's no question about it there's no sense in trying to jump in and say we know what's going to happen and this is what we're going to do but we'll see what happens at the the vote and Stockbridge and that that does not determine that we will demurge that it will just force the town of Rochester to then take up a vote in response to that and the um more that people are educated and understand the ramifications of what that vote is that you know we'll see what happens but it's that's that's why we're all kind of in limbo and in trying to work towards you know and understanding you know what could happen with the building what will it really cost to support the building what what creative forces could could rise to to want to do something with the building you know I still wonder if it's not going to be an asset for if we move into a a time in the future where increased distance is required I mean the the outdoor tent thing is not that sustainable you know and this may be a big asset for the school to have a lot of room I don't know but I think that rushing to decisions is the mistake and being pushed by by a relatively small group I really think is is also a mistake I mean this it seems like the building has become a symbol of of something a bad marriage or something like that but it really isn't the building it's a something else now even though that the building's on a path to resolution one way or another they you know there's still a lot of anger and among some Stockbridge folks so I think it is a red herring a lot of I think state of limbo that we that that we have been in for the last few months have been a gift of the committee to to get some work done saying that you need another year to come to conclusions at all um perhaps you need to throw more members at this you probably need some help so that you can uh so we can make a little bit faster progress I that's what I'm hearing here I'd also want to mention that the the building is an asset to the town for simply for the section with the auditorium where we've always held our town meetings when we didn't have a pandemic and our theater group and other organizations have held things there I mean that auditorium is a real asset to the town yeah it's not cut and dried by any means no well I also feel that you know yes this committee is a volunteer committee and it out it grew from the envision group and the reason that the end or one of the principles in the envision group was a recognition of the elder demographics of this town and I've become pretty much an expert on the elder demographics of this town as being the you know the senior advocate for 23 years and I got to tell you guys we got to bring young people in we have got to bring young families in otherwise who's going to get your services you try right now to get a plumber you try to get an electrician we need young people and that school is a possibility that building is a possibility I would like it all to be education quite frankly but I'm just saying we can't lose sight of what we need to put into place to bring young families into this town and I know patty feels that way too because she said that and it's just we can't just settle on being an older town afraid of our taxes going up and I guess that's all I have to say and thank you for the time yeah so thank you and I did hear that a number of new families have moved into town via in the past few past six months the school helps us do something good and and bring more people that are living full time into our town I heard that there were new kids at the school that's just what I was going to say so that's good news so you know hurry up and wait right I mean there is there's pieces of the puzzle you know floating around and they're getting more information but it's it's um you know it's patty you know chatting with Ethan this morning it's not you know it's not happening next week it's not happening next month it's not happening this winter this is um this is a big project so um so thank you for your energy on the committee to try and come up with uh envisioning of what could happen and and how it could be turned into an asset and and turn it's um it's um it's not not easy but it's um it's what we have to work with right now and um hey something something to do right it's just off the street yeah yeah you know not going out to eat not going to movies might as well work on one of the creative projects yeah um does anyone else have anything they want to say about that the issue yeah I just add that if if the town were considering selling the the facility then it would be about three thousand dollars for a commercial appraisal of the building and I've been quoted about ten grand for a realtor to to market and and list and sell it and that's something else that patty has said that I've agreed to it's just like why doesn't the town sell the building if the repurposing ideas don't come to the kind of fruition that they need then at least the town would get the money for the building yeah well yeah when it comes down to it that'll be something to consider you know but it's not ready to be sold right no but you know yeah I do understand that the town has to vote on any kind of repurposing idea and I would only want it that way too but um in terms of an asset to the town it is an asset to the town and even if the town decides to put it on the commercial market that's still an asset to the town whatever that would sell for so all right um in the end we'll all get schooled by this experience what we know well it's important to work together it is it is um that um and really I think um that was pretty much everything that we had on the agenda for tonight but you guys have an executive session to discuss the property lines divisions for this particular subject right yeah okay thank you um and is that anything that you'll be making a just I'm sorry to interrupt but it may be probably not based on this conversation we just had is this information Jeff can you send me what you read from at the beginning the act uh 92 yes yeah yeah I need I need that language for the uh tri-town yeah yeah well let me um I'll um find that it's um it's a whole you know a couple pages but you can summarize the the most important aspects of it is and I'll send that to you yeah thank you okay yeah it's got that one word that we can't pronounce well oh um that um and it's so fun to say though contemporaneously yeah we all need to be able to contemporaneously um interact and contribute to the meeting um let's make a note okay did it very nicely do yeah I have a lot of practice all right well thank you all for coming and have a good evening yep thank you thank you


Back in the day, the way I would know what works, what doesn't would be, am I skinny? If I'm skinny, it must be working. But I didn't realize that it's just like a ticking bomb, that it's going to blow up sooner than later. Can you give us a quick summary of what your life looked like before going into biohacking? I was a travel influencer for over a decade. I was on the road 300 days a year. A lot of gelling about 60 countries a year. And I, you know, constantly changing time zones. So my circadian rhythm completely disrupted on daily basis. From one hand, I love it. I love being in nature. I love learning about new cultures from the other constantly exhausted.  We all are exhausted. We all drink coffee three times a day or four times a day. It can't be that different. But at 30 years old, I got, I didn't even know what God was at 30, which is embarrassing, but I didn't. So my, I was forever bloated no matter what I did. My skin was like just like painful. I had acne that was genuinely painful. My hair has been falling out in patches and I was just like, dang, I think my body is trying to tell me something. And so I decided to slow down and figure out what I can do about my health. Did you think at that time that traveling was a part of this or I mean, what went through your mind that we're getting all these signals that, Hey, this is really worrisome. I think it was such an interesting mix between being a massive people pleaser and being hyper vigilant about everyone else's and overworking and coming from a place of like proving myself all the time. So working really hard, traveling all the time, not getting enough sleep, being vegan. I mean, the list was endless and really just not having the education to even know where to look. That was the hardest bit. You were a vegan for years. Eight years. Eight years. And you most of the time felt pretty terrible. Is that right? Yes. So the first six months were awesome, right? Like when I first got into the vegan diet, I was like, this is great. I feel fantastic. My goal was to lose as much weight as possible and I did. So, you know, I thought I was like, cool, mission accomplished. I'm good. And only over time, first thing I didn't realize was a bad thing was that I was constantly hungry and nibbling and snacking. I thought it was a good thing, right? Like they say have seven meals a day and have little meals. I would always have snacks and I would have breakfast in the morning and less than two hours later, I would need to have something. But I thought it was like, oh, good. You know, that means that I'm going to be skinnier and they tell me that it's a good thing. Then I just was constantly tired, feeling quite anxious, like that low level anxiety of just like being on edge and just not feeling great in my body. So that's how it started. Obviously we know the rest, what happened after eight years. So feeling like maybe I'm not trying hard enough in this vegan thing. So I'll go even more vegan and even more raw and even less fat. And that just got even worse and worse and worse. And that's the annoying thing that people often say, like, oh, you didn't try hard enough. I'm like, eight years is a long time to try something that isn't working. So that has been true to me. Maybe there are people out there that thrive on vegan diet. That's amazing. I just wasn't not that person. Yeah. Some of my sickest people when they come to me are vegans and they come to me because I was a professor at Loma Linda University for many years. And Loma Linda is a vegan slash vegetarian, Adventist institution. So obviously I know a lot about that diet. But question for you, would you say that there is a massive difference between vegan and vegetarians when it comes to health or for you that would be, would you put them in the same category? My problem with particularly the American vegan diet just as a generalized statement is that in general, they're pasta and grain and bean attarians. And if I was going to select some food categories that are really bad for your health, that's what I would select. Can you successfully be a vegan? Yeah. I joke for a lot of my patients that what I want them to be is a gorilla who lives in Italy and they look at me odd. And I, what do you mean by that?  That's the thing, right? And when I was a vegan, that was in 2016, where it was just the very beginning of all the vegan cheeses. So I now look, I think about it, I'm like, I don't know what I was thinking, but I was like, Oh my God, it's vegan, it's vegan cheese, it's vegan butter. Instead of questioning, hey, it's pure seed oils with God knows what's inside. I was just like, Oh, if it's vegan, it's like healthier for me.  I was like afraid of butter, but like, no, it's vegan butter. So I'm good. You're right. I think a lot of people say, well, I'm not feeling well because I'm having a lot of fats on this vegan diet, even though they're healthy fats.  Yeah, I mean, even, you know, and again, I don't want to ever get, talk about anyone, but I have personally tried medical medium diet that has worked for a lot of people. And one of the things he recommends is to eliminate all fat and try lemon, lemon juice to put on your vegetables. I was so miserable, like I genuinely felt like as a woman, we need fat, you know, we need good fat for our hormones. You know, we get infertile, we lose our period. We'll talk about it in a second. But like that has been like the biggest thing for me that I, there's such a good indication where the diet is good for you, right? And back in the day, the way I would know what works, what doesn't would be, am I skinny? If I'm skinny, it must be working. But I didn't realize that it's just like a ticking bomb that it's going to blow up sooner than later. And I'm still very fat, but I'm not doing it at a cost of my own health. Sounds like a good idea.  And many of my patients have seen six, eight, ten different health care providers, physicians, medical medium, whatever. And before they get to me. So how did you go on a journey to find answers? Oh, just so painful. You go to a doctor, I was like, oh, wait, you have skin issues and then hair issues and then bloating. So you need three different doctors. No one ever thought. I was like, maybe it's the symptom of a root cause of something that is going on in your body. No, it was like, no, no, you need to go to one doctor. I was like, I want to see their metallurgists. She's like, oh, you need to accutane. For those who don't know, it's basically a prescription for destroying your liver. Six months, destroy your liver, start a pack, basically. That's the most frustrating thing in my health journey. Or for anyone who wants to heal, that it feels like we're being sent from one doctor to another. It's two weeks in between. And you're in this limbo forever trying to find answers and feeling like one expert is telling you one thing about, okay, for my skin, I'm doing this drug, but then this drug is making me, you know, I can't get pregnant. And so I have to get on birth control because of that drug and birth control is making me depressed. And also I lose ovulation and all of these crazy things. So it's just like, it's a chain effect of from one drug to another in this health journey. Was there an aha moment that you finally said, wait a minute or what was, what was the tipping point? I met a naturopath and she suggested a gut test. And it turned out that I have so many food sensitivities and high levels of inflammation. And she was like, oh, I think you have leaky gut. Just like a, you know, that's the case. Why don't we do a couple of things to help you heal your gut? And if you can just introduce a little bit of butter, for example, to your diet, and I was like, no, no, no. And then took another year, I was like, screw it. I'm at this point where you feel like really, really sick. If it was, I treated it as medicine instead of thinking whether I'm being a good person for eating butter or a bad person or, you know, introduce a liver.  You don't care about animals, but you can deeply care about animals and have like the reference for their life. Right? It's like for the circle of life and appreciate that what they do for you. It doesn't mean that I'm unconsciously just being so quote unquote, whatever about it. And so that, you know, I remember having chicken liver it would taste terrible, but the next day I had so much energy and I was like, wow, this is better than coffee. So that was the beginning. You basically call this biohacking. And that's a great word. You were successfully running biohacking courses online. You got so good at this, right? Yes. And the thing is I didn't even want to. I just asked the women in my community, hey, I want to share with you everything that I know. Would you be interested if I shared with you via email? That was a few years ago and got over 15,000 women that signed out to this little email challenge. And I was like, wow, like that's crazy. I thought I was all alone in this. Turns out it's very common for women to feel that way. And so that was like the beginning of my journey. Cause obviously I'm not a doctor. I don't consider myself an expert. I'm nowhere near the caliber of view. But like my whole thing is like, I just help women figure out where to look and show like this, you know, Dr. Gandhi, Dr. Mindy Paltz, you know, like these are amazing people that you can follow and learn from. And I'm just like almost like your bestie, your support group into helping you navigate this crazy landscape of misinformation that's out there. So what inspired you to write a book? Why not just keep doing this online stuff? Well, I think you can relate. It's like when you learn something, it's great. When you have to teach somebody, it's like, oh, I all of a sudden need to clean up my knowledge because I know all of these things. So as a challenge, I decided to just give it a go and see if I can organize myself. Number one question I get on social media every day, where do I start? And I don't want to tell people go buy my course or follow somebody, I do. But then I was like, what if I can just put everything, the basic principles of how to live according to your cycle, what are anti-neutrients, you know, how to support your gut, how to avoid all the toxins that are in our environment. And if they want to learn more, that's totally up to them. But just, yeah. That's what you did. That's what I did. So now this book is about women, but it's not only for women, right? No. What can men gain from a book of bio-acting like a woman? Great question. I think first of all, I read so many books directed towards men. It was just all there was, right? It was just neutral, but a lot of times it was with men in mind when it comes to fasting or whatnot. And so I wanted to create an alternative and just kind of see, okay, how about all of that advice that I read about? Can I, what does it really mean to me as a woman? So I worked with a medical team. I don't do these things alone. So I have a group of medical team that helped me kind of like clean everything up and just check studies and I consult with them. And I always like to think, you know, you're doctors, you already know these things, but most men are not aware of the female circle. They don't know where his partner, you know, is, right, is it day 14? And if it is day 14, what does it mean to him? What does it mean to her and how we can support her? And I think that would be, I think the biggest like health trend in the future is for men to also be so aware. You are surrounded 50% by women, right? So for you to know what we're going through is gonna be a superpower. You can use it to your unfair advantage at work and dating it with your partner, with your daughter. I mean, the list is endless. And I even get dads these days. It was like, oh, I wanna learn my daughter's cycle because she's struggling and I wanna make sure that she feels supported. So I think that's like the new wave that's coming. Perfect. Well, a lot of your book is devoted to living, you know, with the female cycle. Yes. So women in general are never taught much about this maybe because for years, most physicians were men. Even most physicians in gynecology and obstetrics were men. That's changed recently, but let's get into that. Why should women and men understand cycles? Well, just because as you, when you look at just like a simple graph of what's happening in your body every day versus my body, we need to move through life very differently. And having that grace and understanding that women are different. They're just not less hairy version than men. And we need to be celebrated. We need to be catered for very differently than men need to be catered for.  Ovulation is my superpower. My bones get stronger. I get more insulin sensitive. Like I just get more attractive. I'm more likely to get a raise. I'm like, these are all like some nice perks of having an ovulation. I have never been sit down in my life by anyone and be educated about how amazing that is to actually celebrate your ovulation instead of just getting on the pill and numbing it and pausing it for years. And unfortunately, you guys are not told that it increases your risk of developing blood clots in the veins. And it actually really manipulates your microbiome, probably in a bad way. I can see that way. I mean, first thing you do, it's like having a pill on an empty stomach or whenever you choose to have it, it's really interesting that it's not about not being on the pill. And I always say that it's about having an informed decision that if you take it, you know exactly the potential of what's gonna happen in your body. And then you can make an informed decision. But I think a lot of times someone tells you have mommy brain and that's it, find a better doctor. If you feel like you're not being treated seriously or your exhaustion is not treated seriously, find a better doctor. And so oftentimes women were treated as if they're dumb. And so she doesn't need to know the side effects. She's not gonna understand what's in that pill anyways. You'll be fine. Kind of like really dismissive. And at the end of the day, women are intelligent. That doesn't mean that we will stop taking the pill, probably not because sometimes it is the best solution for where you are in life. But you just have to know everything at the potential of your depression, of your bloating or weight gain, and et cetera, et cetera, right? Yeah, you have the right to make an informed decision. Yeah. And it's true with most medication. You know, a surgeon, we had to get informed consent. They knew all the risks that was associated with me, you know, slitting their chest open and operating on their heart. Yeah, you couldn't just say, oh, you'll be totally fine. Like you had to inform everybody that you were operating. This is what the potential is. It's one percent, but... But, yeah, that's right. Yeah, but a lot of times with particularly prescription medications that in particularly with women, it's not an informed consent. Exactly. And so that has been my biggest mission to kind of just help them and understand the side effects of what they're putting into their bodies. All right, now you say in the book that a woman's period is the fifth vital sign. What does that mean? Well, it's our superpower again. So imagine you and I have started a new diet. It's gonna take you a long time for you to figure out whether this diet is making you sick or not. I'm probably just gonna lose my period sooner or later and that would be a very good sign for me that this is not, this something is not working. And so a lot of times I see fitness experts that are sharing this, you know, high process carb diets with their followers. And it's like, you know, I haven't had a period and I have a PCOS, but I look great. And I'm like, well, no, because the way you look is not an indication whether your diet is healthy or not. And so fifth vital sign is for women to understand, okay, body temperature, if it's high, I'm dealing with some sort of infection. If my period is gone, this is your body telling you like, yo, like something massive is happening in your body that it's a sign and we're not thriving. So again, much faster feedback for you unless you get a temperature, it would be really hard for you to realize that your diet is not great for you as a man. For a woman, we're gonna get that feedback much sooner, especially with fasting, especially with exercise routine. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit later, but let's do that right now. A lot of particularly male biohacking is really interested in fasting, intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating. And I personally am a big fan of it for a lot of people. But I think we have to use a lot of caution for women. Do you want to go into that? Oh yes. So I don't know what you even think. I got SIBO a few years ago and I did the elemental diet. I don't know what your thoughts are on that. First of all, I actually have never seen SIBO in a human being. Really? Really. Wow. And that's a controversial statement, but. Wow, I already feel like we're getting in trouble here, but yesterday. Yeah, that's right. Everybody's gonna write in, you're supposed to have bacteria in your small intestine. Oh wow. And those bacteria are supposed to make hydrogen gas and methane gas. And the way we test for SIBO is to see if you make hydrogen and methane gas. The small intestine is the last frontier of the microbiome because we have had really no way to test what is what was living in there. But the evidence that hydrogen gas is a postbiotic signaling molecule of incredible importance. I've been spending three books trying to convince people of that.  And so yeah, but you go to a doctor, I know. What does he say? He said, I'm not a biotech, not one, you get two. And so I decided to try elemental diet, which is like a form of fasting. And three weeks in and lost my period. And I was like, oh, okay. So I guess I can't be really doing extending fast. Something is off. And then I started doing research found work of Dr. Elisaviti and how she talks about the fasting, according to the cycle, I got really intrigued because I actually, I love fasting. I just always did it every single day for 17 or 18 hours because I would listen to Dave Asprey when he could ask 20. I'm like, I'm gonna be better than Dave. I'm gonna do it even harder and even better. And finally, when I started doing it, according to my cycle, I realized I'm like, oh, I can get the benefits. I still get to keep my period. That's how I know it's good. My period is healthy. I'm not really PMSing. And that gave me so much permission to try everything that's out there, but just with the right mindset without pushing myself too much. And I think I always say that, that men thrive through challenge. You know, you guys love a good challenge. You love building things, big companies, this and we have that too, but that's testosterone, right? Like always going better. We thrive through nourishment and through love. Like we're known for like nourishing. And I think we often forget to do that to ourselves. And so that's what I have been testing for the last couple of years. I was like, oh, I can get the same results without the stress and without the whole like masculine mindset of like pushing myself every single day. And how about if you're trying to get pregnant? Does that change things in your fasting routine? I think it's so individual per woman, right? Like it would be super hard to tell. Like I know that with, if I was to, I mean, I'm hoping to get pregnant this year. So we'll see, like I can talk from experience, but I definitely tone down on fasting because my stress levels are so high and I'm not getting a ton of good sleep recently. Book launch, this and that, you know, getting married in a couple of months, which is also really stressful.  And so I realized, I'm like, I don't need another stressor to add to that. If I had a slightly slower schedule, I would continue fasting according to my cycle, probably even more. I just love the autophagy and I genuinely feel incredible after fasting and I see the benefits. I just feel like for me right now, it would be too much and I kind of wanna just make sure and send a signal to my body, it's safe to procreate and that safety comes from there's enough food and you don't have to worry. Right, exactly. So we're dancing around the issue, but infertility is bigger and bigger problem for, I mean, sperm counts are 50% what they were 50 years ago. Infertility in women is going up. What's going on? Got any thoughts? All the endocrine disruptors, like there are studies that, you know, we're exposed to 168 chemicals a day as a woman and that's a very conservative number. And so no wonder is all you do is consuming seed oils that create inflammation and toxins that confuse your endocrine system. The body doesn't even know if it's, you know, whether it's safe to get pregnant, whether, you know, the estrogen, you know, it's too much estrogen, right? Cause all the estrogen mimicking chemicals and we need more progesterone, right? So like how do we actually support our progesterone? And another thing that annoys me is when I see a video on Instagram with a woman eating a tub of ice creams, like this is the time of the month. I'm like, no, it's not this time of the month. It's time to have healthy nature carbs, like sweet potato or whatever. You feel like that will nourish you. Yes, you need a little bit more carbs because progesterone needs a little bit of carbs, but it's not time to have a tub of ice cream and chips and all the processed foods because that's just gonna scrap your hormones even more. So like we make the problem even worse and we normalize these ridiculous not to be as like coping mechanism that are making our hormones even worse. Well, since you brought it up, what foods did you cut out that made you feel better? As you know, I get into trouble by telling people, it's not the foods I tell you to eat that's important. It's actually the foods I tell you not to eat that are actually really important. I agree with you. Like that's actually your work has been monumental. And I think all of these diets and a lot of books are like right focus so much on what you should be eating and you have this like very strict list of 17 things and that it out. And for me, it was just like cutting up like absolutely non-negotiable of glyphosate, right? So like what's worse, glyphosate, wheat, soy, corn. I'm not gonna have that. I'm not gonna have seed oils just because they create inflammation.  Start eating fish. What fish did I have? The highest in heavy metals. Did my heavy metal test? Super high mercury and extremely high. But I was like, whoa, but I was eating sushi. I thought I was like doing something better for myself. And so cutting out just these three alone and then anti-nutrients has been monumental in my health journey to just, you know, the processed foods. And it's almost a little easier because turns out that if you eliminate a lot of vegan products that like cheeses, the butters and whatnot, that's very easy to eliminate, you know, that. Were there any foods that you added in that you said, oh my gosh, then, you know, this is, I feel better eating these foods? Red meat, I always avoided red meat and I had anemia growing up, but I just was so scared that red meat would make me fat and give me cholesterol and would age me. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm trying to think what I was thinking a few years ago, but I think it was this big like idea that only like big men would eat meat.  And that adding beef liver, grass-fed beef liver as well as like a big one. And I think just actually giving myself permission to once I eliminate the things that are making me sick, just experiment what feels right and what doesn't. But the biggest one has been definitely introducing red meat. It almost, I eat more red meat than I do chicken or fish or anything like that. Which for me, that was like the biggest change. Interesting, all right. Let's talk about weight loss to cut calories, to lose weight. Why, is this a problem? What do you think? I think it's ridiculous. I have no calorie counts. I have no macros in any of my recipes in my book. Because one of the things that we didn't know about until the Human Microbiome Project is that there's a whole bunch of folks, I call them gut buddies, that are capable of eating a lot of the calories we eat if we eat for them. And you can often get away with caloric murder by eating things that they're going to eat. Yeah, 100%. I mean, for me, it's the same, you know, when I was vegan, I was calorie counting, kale smoothie drinking, ultimal latte drinking girl. And so I was constantly hungry. And, you know, I probably was living on a thousand calories a day. And then fast forward within two years, I was probably on 3,000 calories and I was the fittest, skinniest. Because I started working out. For me to work out, I need to eat to build muscle. The more muscle I'll build, the more insulin receptors I have. You know, the muscles are more metabolically active. I can get away with more food because I keep myself busy. On top of that, right? Like I'm feeding my gut. So I'm able to metabolize food very differently. And there is, I mean, so many things that we touched upon. Colour restriction often leads for a short-term weight loss, right? Because you eat and that's the idea that there is the basal metabolic rate. And please correct me if I'm, you know, I'm not a doctor, but there's the basal metabolic rate, which is, let's just say 1200 calories for you.  But your body is smart and it's gonna adjust over time.  I mean, you'll have to yoyo back. There's no other way, right?  And you're gonna have feel constantly exhausted and tired.  So you can do that or you can just eat as much as you can. Not as much as you can, like according to what feels right, right? And it's like, I think there is another layer that I find really interesting with women that a lot of studies are done on men or post-menopausal women. And if you've worked with women and you know women and we're constantly bombarded by so much diet advice that it's very, very hard to find a woman who has an extremely healthy relationship with food, you know, who's struggling with weight. Because the chances are there is this psychological issue that she's afraid of eating full meals or she is overeating or has a refeeding syndrome. So if she decides to cut and then she goes to the fridge and she eats more. And so unless you actually have worked with women 101 in your life, then it's so easy to say that certain calorie restriction would work. But once you're a woman and you work with women, you realize actually, no, that doesn't work. I watched my mom being on a diet for 20-something years and constantly losing, going back. And then after a few years, no matter how much she would restrict, she just wasn't able to lose weight.  Plus I have a female wife, two female daughters and three female dogs. So you had to learn. So I've had to learn, but you're right. Social media is a big part of this. There's a massive pressure through social media in general that even if you're not trying to lose weight, you're gonna hear how to lose weight sooner or later. And the message is the skinnier, the better or whatever it might be. Not like, hey, you should just focus your period. It's like the most important thing. Actually having a healthy, thriving menstrual cycle where you actually feel like you're not in pain and it's not like, you know, it's like why is PCOS or endometriosis and all of these conditions so common right now and infertility, right? So it's clearly we have, that's a real pandemic of women not being able to figure out their hormones. I don't think as, I think the generation after us will not even care about weight. They'll be like, I don't even care. I know that if I fix my hormones, weight will come. Hey, the generation after us will all be dead, unfortunately, if we don't change something. Unfortunately, if we go the way we're going, baby boomers, me will be the longest living generation and everything looks like unless we do something that the baby boomers will be the longest and everyone that follows will be shorter. And that's actually really scary. And I mean, there's so many things you can do, right? Like the information's out there. It's just, we need to stop waiting for people to save us and just take responsibility and educate yourself as much as you can. So let's talk about eating in restaurants. You apparently used to be very afraid of eating in restaurants. Yes. But you're not anymore. I don't think, you know, having a lifestyle of going out is the best lifestyle on the planet. I'm not going to lie. But I, because I know what I know, I would go and I'm like, oh my God, I, this I can't have and this would not be good. And it feels like if they somehow mixed one good ingredient with four ones that you can't have. And so I moved to Bali in Indonesia and that's a very different approach to food where you most likely make your own food. So they let you pick and make your own salad. But at the top, it says we use ghee and coconut oil to prepare your dish. Let us know if you would like it steamed, fried and what oil to use. We're in 2024 and no one ever talks about how the food is being prepared. You're almost being, you know, difficult about asking questions. If you're like, I'm sorry, what oil is this? You know, or can you use olive oil or this and that? So I realized that again, this is going to be another food trend when the restaurants need to be way more transparent where they're getting their ingredients from and what oils they're actually using. And the moment I stopped caring about what people perceive me as, I was just like, I'm just going to ask for coconut oil or I'm just going to ask for habits, you know, with ghee. They give me, just made me feel a little bit more relaxed. And I think that's another thing that if the diet or a wellness practice is making you stressed, is it a wellness practice or maybe not anymore, you know? Because it's like, part of it is like, you meant to feel well. And if you feel like that certain role is making you feel miserable, then perhaps it's time to take a step back and realize I'm like, what can I do to adjust it? Yeah, I think that's a good point. And I've mentioned this through the years. One of my good friends, Tom Guy, years ago, said, Steve, the menu only tells you what the chef has in the back.  And this ingredient I want, but that's in that dish. But that's how I order, unfortunately. Yeah, and that's how I order. And if the chef won't do that, then you don't want to come back to that restaurant. I agree. It's very simple, but quite frankly, I can almost always find something to eat using that method. And that's what I teach my patients. Look, just say, look, you've got it back there. It's just always spread between different dishes. Yeah, mix it up for me, would you? One from column A, one from column B, one from column C. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's exactly what I do. And it's been a very good trick. And I think a lot of people say, oh, you know, this is so unrealistic, I don't want to be difficult. But at the end of the day, it's a little bit like Oldsmoke. Why is Oldsmoke at every coffee shop? I went to my favorite coffee shop and he's serving now on the Oldsmoke. And I ask, why? And he's like, honestly, because people just kept asking. And we can do the same about Cedars, about using ghee, about not using even, okay, sure, if you want to have a piece of toast, maybe just have anchor wheat or organic. So you avoid glyphosate, if that's really what you have to live with.  So if you're not demanding these things from restaurants, of course, if you want to continue trying to get away with Cedars and, you know, not so great ingredients. All right, with every book I write, there's always a few major surprises that I discover when researching. In fact, I try, make it difficult for myself. I try not to write an outline of the book I'm going to write because invariably, I go down rabbit holes and it completely changes what I set out to write. Was there any big surprises in researching your book or one that you could mention? Yeah, so the way the book has been created is me having some ideas then asking those questions to my medical team so they can actually do some research through different papers. And then we have a meeting and they see it. The biggest one is about ovulation, I'd say, just because there are studies that, you know, strippers that were ovulating were getting twice as many tips as women on the pill. For example, they were considered more attractive. It was like, wow, that's really interesting. There are studies about our inability to smell pheromones of men and the other way around so we can't really mate properly with another human being because pill numbs that ability to pick up on whether or not the partner would be a good match. And we obviously, you know, we call it chemistry or whatever the fancy word we're using, but ultimately we have a very strong internal intuition for our own biology that is helping us keep the species alive.  And same goes for men, right? So that's completely over, you know, it's just not, the system isn't working as well if we're constantly surrounded by endocrine disruptors and men have low testosterone and women are, you know, full of toxins. And the second one is, I guess, it's just unprocessed emotions and how the trauma lives in our bodies and how the missing piece sometimes is someone just like not being able to process every emotion, like anger for women that is just kind of like living there. And it could be a root cause of a lot of disease, like your body keeps the score. So yeah. All right, based on your experience, give our audience one thing that they can start doing today to make a difference in their health. I would love to encourage all women listening to this podcast to start living according to their cycle. And if you don't have a cycle anymore, try to live according to the moon cycle. I think we're by nature lunar and it just doesn't stop happening the moment you and Perry or menopause. So that would be my biggest invitation. And for men to actually educate yourself about your partner cycle, your mother's cycle, your sister's cycle, and just see what is it that I can learn from to use it to your advantage really. And just see like, oh cool, can I use that information to become a better partner or a better friend? Perfect, all right. Now, before I let you go, I usually have an audience question, but since you're here, I'd like to invite you to ask me a question that maybe you want an answer to. I don't know if I can give one, but. I mean, I feel like just even our podcast the other week, I wish it was going on and on forever, but I think my biggest one is, is there anything throughout your career that you have changed your mind on and why? Oh, absolutely. The biggest one. There are people who aren't nutritionists who have not changed their stance on anything in 30 years. And they, despite the research, despite the discovery of the human microbiome, and I think one of the things, if you had asked me 20 years ago when I was just starting this, what I thought about leaky gut, I probably would have told you it was pseudoscience. And if you had asked me, it's good science and the more I think we realize how important intestinal permeability is, leaky gut is, that's something I really changed my mind on and that's all I concentrate on now. Because apocrates was right, all disease begins in the gut. And it's also like a metaphorical way of understanding that because I think a lot of times you can't understand it literally, but it's also the everything that goes in your body can be the root cause of what is happening, right? So I think a lot of times people just get weird about this because they're like, oh, it's like too, they take it almost like too literally, but there is this like deeper level of everything that you put inside of your body goes through your gut and, you know. Well, I happen to think that's women's superpower because you have a gut instinct. Yes. That men, number one, don't understand, but that's a real thing. Yeah, and so when you say like the disease of your body begins in the gut, which is like the lack of intuition or the disconnection from the gut, I would like, that's how I personally understand that even saying that it's not exactly everything I put in my body, but it's like as I'm listening to everyone around me, that this ease in my body begins because I am disconnecting my from gut, my intuition and what my body has been trying to tell me. And I think when you do elimination diet or whatever and see that I'm like, oh, I eat this, this makes me not feel good, but we're so numb and we mixed so many things that back in the day when I was not feeling very healthy, if you ask me what's making me sick, I would never be able to tell you. Now I can because I have it and I immediately feel like, oh, that doesn't sit well. So I think that's just like a really beautiful way of just remembering that your body's always giving you through bloating or constipation or whatever. It's like sending those signals whether this is working, this is not working. And I think it's really beautiful. That's fine. You should mention this ease. One of the first lectures I started doing was about dis-ease and disease is the absence of ease. And ease I defined as eating, attitude, spirituality and exercise. Oh, I love that. And it is a four corner table and literally just one leg of that table will produce dis-ease. And our objective is to have all four balanced. And put your body at ease. If you found this video helpful, I think you're gonna love this one. If you're gonna have a burger, have it protein style and please avoid the cheese. These things like melty American cheese, this isn't cheese, folks. It's actually plastic. Please don't eat it.


Today, we're going to be taking a look at the all-white Louis Vuitton Air Force One designed by Virgil Avlo. And for those of you that are new to the channel, every time Untied LA gets a pair of these Louis Vuitton Air Force Ones in, you know I got to make sure I give you guys a review. We haven't had a chance to do this colorway yet in particular, and if you want to see the other ones from the past, make sure you check those out after this video is done. But for right now, we're going to go through all the details, styles, cuts, and materials and everything that needs to be known about this shoe right here. And if you didn't know by now, my name is DJ, and this is The D&A Show. On this channel, I love talking about sneakers and especially giving you guys dope reviews like this. So if you haven't already, consider subscribing and joining the fam. We're on the road to a million subscribers and you could be the next one to get us there. So before we start breaking down this sneaker right here, we got to talk about the history first. So back in 1982, the Air Force One originally came out and with this year being a very special year of the 40th anniversary, it only made sense for them to collaborate with Virgil to go with the Louis Vuitton Exclusive Air Force One. So I'm sure you guys have seen a lot of hype over the past six months with all the different variations from the museum or the colorways that release to the public, the friends and family versions, and then obviously these right here. So like typical fashion, I like to start with the bottom of the shoe and work my way up, but these ones have special packaging and extra trinkets that come along with it. So we need to go over that first. Starting with the box right here, you have an all-brown box with the monogram Louis Vuitton print all throughout that. And then lifting the lid up right here, you have a big white Nike swoosh right here on the center of the lid.  And then this is a white Louis Vuitton strap that actually goes around the box as well. And it has the Louis Vuitton and the white lettering right here. I'll be able to show you guys in B-roll clips. And then you have a leather white swoosh. This is actually kind of for a bag tag and you can put this right through the different brown piece right here with the Nike and the Louis Vuitton error. And then you can use this as a bag tag. I know a lot of people talk about this and they say they would never use it or they might use it. I don't know. Let me know what you would do with these down below in the comment section. Personally, I feel like this is like a target. Like if you had this on there, you're just letting somebody know what you got inside of your stuff. So I would probably not do that if it were me. But hey, do whatever you want to do. Another thing that I thought was very interesting and they do this on every single pair.  Typically you would think they would switch it up and give you a different color or something like that. But I guess to have a second pair or maybe throw them in a different pair of shoes is always convenient as well. And then on the tip of the laces, it says lace set right here with the quotes around that. And that's going to be the same thing on the shoe, which you guys will see a little bit later in the video as well. These also come with additional dust bags, one for each shoe right here. And it's very nice material. And then on the bottom, you have a leather tab and it says Louis Vuitton error. It's going to be similar to what you see on the tongue of the shoe, just in a different color and a little bit thinner of a leather compared to the leather on the actual tongue of the sneaker. Now starting with the outsole, you got your classic Air Force One bottom with the all white right here.  And then you also have a white error printed right here in quotes just above the error logo on the bottom of the midsole. Now going to the upper, this is going to be actually more similar to the friends and family vibe because those ones, they came in solid colors like the blues and the reds. And then you saw the general release or I don't know if you want to call it a general release, but the ones that came out to the public through the release on the Louis Vuitton website, those were more of a two tone pattern like the green and white or the red and white or the blue and white, but on these in particular, it's just an all white upper. So this is basically like the most premium version you could ever get when it comes to an all white Air Force One, which then is going to draw the question of the value and is it worth it? We'll talk about that a little bit later in the video and ask the poll what everybody else thinks as well. But overall, this is going to be a very, very simple yet very clean sneaker. So one signature thing that we see when it comes to Virgil's Air Force Ones in particular, you got that zigzag stitch right here around the swoosh and then the little leather tab just on the back end of there. Now one cool hit that I like right here, it says Louis Vuitton Paris in gold right here on the back end around the heel. Also on the tongue right here, you got that leather patch like we were talking about, it says Louis Vuitton air in gold. And then on the inside of the foot, you got that same thing right here, Louis Vuitton for Nike. And then you got the Beaverton Organ just below that 1982. Now going to the sock liner, you're going to have a nice white mesh right here and then on the inside behind the actual insole, you got a white insole with the Nike and the Louis Vuitton and the Louis Vuitton Paris kind of ingrained in there underneath the insole. But inside there, something that we all love to see the small details, the all over print right there with the Louis Vuitton and the gray. Definitely a nice touch for sneaker heads in particular. I know we love seeing those little things when it comes to lace tips and add-ons and key chains and stuff underneath the insoles or little details that people may not notice. So that's always a dope touch, especially to see something like this on a shoe that may look very simple from far, but as you start to look at it closer, you see there's a lot of different details all throughout this shoe. So now when it comes to numbers on these sneakers in particular, retail on them was $27.50 and that's not $27.50, that's $2,750 for this shoe retail plus tax, next thing you know you're spending over three grand for the sneaker to buy it at a retail, but everybody's not mad at that simply because what the shoe is now going for roughly 10 to $15,000. That's right, 10 to $15,000 for all white Air Force One. Times are crazy. So I'm definitely interested to see how you guys feel down below in the comment section when it comes to pricing on this shoe, but I know for a fact everybody's gonna love it, but I'm interested how many people are gonna love this shoe, so I wanted to ask that question and I'll always post a poll on my Instagram. If you haven't already, make sure you follow me on IG so you can participate in the polls and see the results here on the channel and ask the people a simple question, is this shoe fire or is this shoe trash? This is what they said. 93% of the people said fire and 7% of the people said trash. That's a lot more people than I was expecting. I was thinking about like 85, 15 or something like that, you know, still higher on that end, but damn, I didn't realize it was gonna be that high. I feel like the other colors that we saw in the past weren't that high, I don't exactly remember. Maybe I'll try to find those on my phone and see if I can look up those results and post them on the screen for you guys, but I feel like either way, that's definitely a very high score and clearly a lot of people like these. Now, is this the most expensive one from the nine color ways that came out? I don't think so simply because it's just a little bit more simple, but at the end of the day, still gonna be a very expensive shoe, still gonna be a desired shoe and still gonna be a shoe that a lot of people love either way. Yo, if you enjoyed this video and wanna grow your collection or make extra money on the side, I built a VIP mastermind that will teach you everything that I've learned about growing my sneaker collection over the past 15 years. This will also give you access to the DNA fam in my VIP community where we talk about investing outside of sneakers. And don't worry, if you don't plan on joining the VIP community, it's okay. I also set up a private DNA fam community that gives you access to all the behind the scenes looks from the studio and multiple chances to win free sneakers and gear from weekly and monthly challenges. So all you need to do is click on the link down below in the description or the first link pinned in the comment section. That will get you set up and into the community. I'm excited to see you guys on the inside. So after seeing more in-depth looks at this sneaker, let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section when you think about the quality, the materials, the look, the presentation, everything along the lines with the release, the prices, the resale. Is this a shoe that you would like to have in your collection? Is this a grill? This is something I would definitely love to have in my collection, but I don't see myself spending $10,000 plus dollars for the shoe. And being inside 13, it is very hard to find my size. Like I can find 12s a lot easier. And maybe I don't even know. We might have seen like 113 so far in one colorway. And there's nine to drop plus. Yeah, it's kind of rough out here for your boy. But if I do ever get up here, I will show you guys someday. Shout out to Untied LA as always. Again, make sure you guys use the discount code DNA show that'll get you guys free shipping on all your orders. I'll see you guys in another video. All right y'all, I'm out.