Yeah, I mean Yes, we'll just call the regular August 16th select board meeting to order Got Bradtown, John Quinn and myself Justin Lawrence from the select board along with Vince Conti For changes or additions to the agenda we have an addition for the Vermont agency of Transportation bridge replacement on us route 302 as an update. We'll add that in Any public comment hearing none We've got Jamie Smith with GMT Hi, hey, welcome. Thank you So I'm not sure what's best should I share my screen or do you all just want me to kind of talk about the service a little bit? I think most people might have the presentation We can we can try to share the screen Jamie if you like, but everybody does have a copy of the presentation Okay, I think it would be good It's it's saying host has disabled the screen share Vincent want to get up. I'm sorry Did you are you not the host on that one? You're the host over here none on that one isn't technology fun. Yeah, it's great Still saying it is but that's okay. I can just walk through it Sorry, I'm just gonna open my presentation up. So thank you everybody for having me I just want to first sort of apologize that we have not looped in the town of Berlin into this process yet We did launch my ride service in January And it sort of shifted from being a v-trans project and a community project to being one that was led by GMT so we were really sort of focusing on Downtown Montpelier where the bulk of the service is but now that we have you know the first two quarters under our belts And we're starting to iron out the kinks of the service You know, we had a conversation about bringing the town of Berlin in I hope somebody from The select border of the town is able to join our my ride advisory council meetings So it's you know GMT and then we have a series of community partners including Sustainable Montpelier coalition. They're our main community partner And then we have a number of area Businesses and organizations who come together every other month To talk about the service how it's working for folks and how to make improvements. So With that, I'll just sort of jump into the second slide So the service that I'm referring to is called my ride by GMT. So it's Sort of think Uber for public transportation. So it's a flexible route flexible schedule. It's technology enabled So folks who have access to the app on their phone can essentially call the service In whatever their schedule is so they can they can book the trip same day In advance, however, they want to use that Operates Monday through Friday from 7 to 6 p.m. And then Saturday is from 8 a.m until 6 p.m And so if you're familiar with downtown Montpelier service, this This My right service replaced the capital shuttle the Montpelier circulator and then the Montpelier hospital hill route So I'm clicking to the next slide with the map The service area that we cover is roughly 12 miles It started as a seven square mile radius. We've added some geography since launching So you can see that it covers some of Berlin I'm clicking to the next slide with the app photos So, you know, I'm not sure how familiar folks are sorry. I have kids in the background So if you hear cartoons and kids, that's my apologies It's it's very similar to uber where you put in your starting destination your ending destination number of passengers and then you're given a series of proposals that meet that criteria so you can really customize it to Go to your, you know Whatever location you need to go to within that service bubble versus a fixed route service, which, you know, we had fixed fixed stops And so at some point or another somebody might have had to walk from the bus stop to Their appointment or their location Now they can be dropped off door to door, you know You can essentially be picked up right at your house and dropped off right at the door of wherever you need to go So I'm just clicking to the outreach light sorry um, so at the start of this as I mentioned Sustainable Montpelier and V-Trans really took the wheel They identified a series of folks who needed some Very specific outreach and discovered a cohort of folks who might Need a little extra assistance at the start of this service So we did a lot of onboard communication to passengers We worked with the community centers the senior centers And really did these sort of one-on-one meetings and interviews with folks You know folks in the Montpelier housing authority locations in Montpelier And really walked them through that obviously Technology is not something that everybody's very comfortable with and so we do have A few other options for those folks. We have a call center Um, and you know, folks are able to just call and book their ride directly on the phone if they don't have the app So we did a number of onboard passenger surveys. Um, as I mentioned, uh, and then we did a lot of work with the advisory group Sorry, I've got a crying three-year-old Um, so I'm just clicking to the early engagement slide. Um, so these are metrics so far, uh, through the end of june we've done 12 000 Over 12 000 rides to this point Uh, the average ride duration is about 11 and a half minutes So if you're familiar with the regular fixed route service, it often took 45 minutes sometimes longer to get to your destination depending on whether or not The bus had to detour Um, and so, you know, 11 and a half minutes from start to finish is actually a pretty good ride rating Um, or ride duration The rating for for app users and I'll get into For app users is about a 4.8 out of 5 The utilization numbers is essentially, you know, how many trips per passenger per driver revenue hour In the aggregation shows the percentage of time that uh, but that rides are shared So we're using our regular vehicles our same buses that we were using for fixed route service And uh, as much as as possible The algorithm in the app is connecting people Who are going in similar directions and putting them on one shared vehicle To make the service a lot more efficient So the the booking behavior slide Shows a little bit about how folks are using the service The circle on the the left shows The light blue is the number or percentage of passengers who are booking using the app So right now it's only about 33 uh, and the darker blue is Passengers who are booking through our call center. So they're calling they're working with our csrs at green mountain transit to book their trip And so that's just about 70 of people who are using the service are booking through the call center Um, and then the circle on the right is uh bookings by type So whether somebody is doing a recurring trip Or a one-time trip and you can see an overwhelming majority of folks are using the service For one-time trips. So if they decide, you know, in the morning or middle of the day that they want to go to lunch They can just call up that service for them And just, you know, do a one-off trip at that point I think the you know, I Anecdotally a lot of folks are still working from home or working remotely or teleworking So I do think that those recurring trips will start to increase as folks start getting back into the office Uh, so the next slide that ours booked in advance. This just shows some behavior A lot of folks are using it on demand as I mentioned, but you can see The folks who are booking their trips in advance This just gives an indication of how far in advance they're booking. So about Half of the folks are booking 48 hours or more in advance. So Likely those are folks who are using this service to get to and from medical appointments The ridership to date Has has fluctuated but it has grown considerably As of March, it was it had met and exceeded the pre-pandemic Ridership that we were seeing on the the routes that it replaced. So for us, that's a really good measure Obviously our pandemic ridership is about 50% lower Than it normally would had COVID not happened. And so there's still room for improvement there, but We're seeing regular increases in ridership. So we're pretty hopeful that that will continue The utilization number again, that's The number of of Trips per Driver revenue hour. So it's just showing for us. We look at this number and we just see How efficient the service is When we launched the service in January, we had a lot of Restrictions on board our vehicles. We had only 50% of seated capacity. So we only were allowing eight people at a time on buses. We've since lifted those restrictions And so we we're starting to see these utilization and these aggregate Numbers coming up. So more share shared rides more people Taking similar and like trips So the use of my ride slide is showing The origin and destination information. So a majority of folks are traveling from, you know, Montpelier out to the Berlin mall to Walmart. That's one of our main locations being served And then that's sort of it for for this Slide deck I have I'm happy to answer any questions folks might have Anybody have any questions Thank you, I appreciate your time. I don't I don't know if they were anticipating questions, but it appears that you've answered them all so No problem. I look forward to continuing to work with the town of Berlin and like I said, I hope somebody can join us for Our every other month meeting And figuring out how this service can, you know, better serve your town I did write a note for that. So we'll have a discussion on maybe john would be willing to do that Sounds great. Thank you. All right. Thank you Thank you Bye Oh, hey plow. Hi everyone All right. Next up we have the vermont agency transportation Thank you bridge replacement On 302 update. Yep. We have Mahindra and Amy joining us Hi Hi Hi Yeah, I am Mahindra Thilliar. We transfer project manager for this project And I know you guys asked us to make this presentation short and we shared The slides with you. Hopefully you have had a chance to look at those and We I am here with Amy Sparer our consultant With gill engineering she's the project manager for this consulting project And with that I'm leaving it to Amy to answer any questions that I may not be able to do Otherwise, it's all yes Okay Um, this is a I haven't reviewed these slides. I I didn't have an opportunity to you too You had some questions about the abutments, right? Uh, the the abutments are the are you taking out the old ones and pouring new ones? Yes, we are so at the end of the project the old abutments will be completely gone Reading this correctly. It's going to be 30 35 feet longer Yes, that's correct. So the new abutments will be behind the existing Um, so the span's increasing significantly to 95 feet So during construction in order to accommodate that there will be um temporary support of excavation involved The I may have just missed it, but the other thing I was wondering It said the the bridge width was sub substandard and the proposed bridge is 56 7.7 feet What is it now? Um, yep, let me pop that open the reason We're calling it substandard is because it doesn't match the approach roadway width Um, so the road kind of next down to get to the bridge. Um, so now we're widening the structure So the news Structure will match the approaches on each side with that center turning lane Okay So I'm just flipping through my plans to get that um existing width for you Existing width is 41 and a half feet and wearing cream Which is those were the only questions that I had Great questions On which side of the bridge are you I or is the bridge going to keep the the sidewalk? Yeah I want a five foot sidewalk On which side? Yes, sorry Keeping a sidewalk was that the question? Yes On which side? Okay. Yes, the proposed bridge will have a sidewalk on the same side that it currently is to the north side North And that'll be a five foot sidewalk Is that going to be just a sidewalk or is that going to be multi-purpose? Just a sidewalk. Um, the bridge will have two eight foot bike lanes Yeah, five foot on the summer paved area There are the eight or five because it says five on this summary So they're um, they're five feet with a three foot wide buffer Um, so sorry for I misspoke there So it's a five foot lane and then there's the three foot of kind of that diagonal striping and then the travel lane Okay Any other questions? You are wondering the construction will be in 2024 Is there is there anything that the town of berlin is going to have to do for this? No, okay Probably probably during the construction. We might need some, uh Some help uh to do with with the public in a public in we will have some public information officer So that person might need some help from the guys if they need it Okay Okay Perfect. Well, we appreciate the updates Of course Thank you Thanks All right next up on the agenda we have uh The arc of fund usage discussion so we got around 145 thousand dollars coming in this year It's in or that we've already gotten and then next year we'll get another one but that doesn't mean Some additional Right, I don't know What the board's thoughts were on that but Where we could spend it or where we should save it We can't save it while we can You have to give it back if you don't use it, don't you? Right it has to be spent it has to be spent by the end of the year just for a year So you have three weeks to spend it right so we can use that for about I think when one of the Go ahead Sorry about that. Um I think when you add it all up between the municipal money and the county money that we'll get it It equals out to about 350 dollars a person Uh in the community so You know the quick math showing against 2,800 people were we're just under a million dollars total That's what I Yeah And that what what are the what are the spending restrictions on that other than the time frame that we just discussed obviously Is there anything that we can I mean, what do we need to use the funds for? Basically, we can use it for infrastructure projects that We can use it for anything that Is it related to proving a situation we'll let go of it again, right space Or if you want to look at an expansion to allow Safety involved type of thing, you know one at a time and enough space for two people to be working There's there's things like that to be used for wastewater clean water projects also Qualified for the use of those funds as well the other one that Can be used for For example, the police force. I know last year Barry did Barry city Did some things with theirs and I looked into that What I found out is any Basically COVID related incidents calls that they've been on Over time or whatever they can get a bonus stipend from the airport funds for that Anywhere from like eight to 13 bucks an hour for that So I did take a habit had a short conversation with the chief On that just to see how many hours did we have roughly Just for the hilltop alone That we're attributed to basically COVID calls, right and it's about 800 hours So we could look at something there if again if we wanted to as well for some of that I think From my perspective, this is this is a one-time shot for this money, right? What are the what are the things that the town wants to do long term? That we'll never have money to do or that we're going to have a lot of trouble paying for whether It's bonding for a bridge Replacing a bridge that we haven't been able to fix You know wastewater to expand our wastewater and to be able to either put more people on it or more businesses on it Look You know Those are the things that come to my mind as far as you know the the big ticket items that the town is going to have a really hard time with doing in the In the future because of the price tags. I mean this is uh, this is a one-time shot at this money and that One of the things that I think that would be nice here in town Is I don't know if you've ever done research on records in berry city or any place like that, but everything's digitized So you can research your land records. You can actually go online and get land records and pay for them and print them off There's I mean everything's available there Which makes it a lot more convenient should something like this occur because I do remember when we were doing title searches through covid Getting complaints that you know the access for title insurance for example was one of them. So That's one of the things I definitely think we should consider Actually, I really think we should do it. Anyway, then it would be a great use of the money Now are you coming with your thoughts on the wall? The wall the wall is going to be repaired. We put the uh the expansion on hold until We knew the money we were getting and had the discussion about what we wanted to use it for as well We put that Basically on hold but the wall itself Is is going to be repaired in september But only a final date from color construction yet. You assured me that They'd have done their schedule in de september to do that repair So what were the other big ticket items that were coming up? We have rich sin road Expansion of the sewer or water lines should be paid by the users You know realistically, it's a pay-for-play type of system so What else what were your thoughts any specifics john as well? No, and I I don't know enough about our wastewater, you know system It was just one of those things that The governor talked about, you know a lot of the towns where they've had You know wastewater treatment plants that are over capacity and they they don't have the money to be able to upgrade This is that opportunity I would give you some information. We we've had an issue with the The the wastewater station down on very Montpelier road the pump station the pump station. Yeah But you see the our wastewater all goes into Montpelier All the sewers so Montpelier is running some capacity Yeah, and that's the station is going to be in my walk. It's 30 plus years now, I believe and We did a tour of it a couple of weeks ago without in there and it's it's It's going to be significant work and it's not going to be cheap And I I agree with brad that you know, it's uh, you know It should be paid for by the users, but at some point The what's happened in other towns is these systems have gotten to the point where You can't you can't put that on the user base because it's so expensive Um, and I'm not saying that that's the case here. I was just trying to think of different Long infrastructure projects the other one and I know you looked into this vents is we're right now. We're set to bond for You know a million four Do we need to bond uh for that money? That's a long term financial debt to the town. Is that Is that really in our best interest? It's another option for sure To be considered what's what's you know, the interest at the bond bank for this Uh, I don't have it from me, but I think it's Less than two percent Well, the inflation keeps going it's going to be cheap money Do you have a have you Is this here initial less or do you already have a list started? No? of ideas I mean, I'm not in favor of having the town in debt, but at the same time It is cheap money I mean it sounds like we have plenty of different ways to spend all that money We have fasted goats So I think I think we should definitely look at a lot of different options Oh, I think we need to prioritize it and narrow it down that way But between her notes in mind what I'll do is I'll take and I'll make a list and I'll do some High-level number crunching to see what things are going to be and then I'll present something Back to you guys. Yeah at the next meeting I think you're right about prioritizing just because there maybe there's some key pieces of infrastructure that if we Didn't bond and pay for that. We wouldn't do otherwise and then vice versa So it's a good initial starting conversation for this And I you know, I think I think we'll as we kind of think about it a little bit more Some probably other things will pop up Both in good use and we'll just have to figure out what's the best The other thing the only thing I was thinking is is if we take in Can we use that money to leverage or is it no so Because I was thinking these two culverts out here on Crosstown They say they're in good shape. I don't know how long you know, I I can't remember the last time those things were replaced But you can't replace them with culverts anymore. They have to be Bottom whatever The only thing now is is that they're not in too bad a shape and they're still round It might be time to see about sleeveless. You're right. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah And we can we just talk about that to help vent out Give some kind of general direction on what we'd like the money for not specific projects But maybe specific types of projects So it let me give you an example For me personally, I do not think we ought to be paying wages with With this money. I I think that would be just money out the door and a wasted opportunity I think I agree and I think that because that's an ongoing expense that once this money's gone to It's going to become an expectation potentially I agree I think I think if we could just agree or not agree that this should be You know infrastructure projects whether it be like the richerson road types or those culverts that someone I could just hear mentioning things like that those things are great opportunities for us to You know Avoid those costs in the future and you know set us up for you know the next Well, and even to brad's point where the two percent bond rates low If we were to use that money to maybe amend the situation that's going to go bad in the future and interest rates Could potentially rise that might be a better use of the money so that we didn't have to borrow Had a higher interest rate down the road, you know So yeah infrastructure Infrastructure Yeah, and the kind of the big as you mentioned john the big like Ticket items that are kind of once and done You know the only thing with infrastructure is is that it it helps the community and it Makes the town more pleasant more valuable And I think I just think infrastructure in general is a good use for it Well, it'll help us from potentially going deeper in the debt down the road and Having an increase in our property taxes as a result And and I did I did um Indirectly uh secondhand Uh get some information from Vermont leagues of cities and towns and they can certainly Help guide us on some of those bigger projects on what other towns are doing to give us, you know some thoughts in case You know, there's something that we haven't thought of in the infrastructure space Uh, and they're they're certainly willing to help where they can is from what I'm told Because I think I think Vermont leagues of cities and towns receive close to a million dollars to help towns uh Not make these decisions by guide them on these types of decisions got you so So my homework at takeaway is uh, I'll look at the number of infrastructure projects I'll talk to tom on the white wastewater and clean water outside as well Dr. Rosemary. Yep. Yep, and I'll see I'll put something together With some Rough ideas and maybe some multi costs What we know and then I'll have something to the board And the next the next leak or so To pick and choose from Get right on it Thank you very much anything else you want to add john or brad? All right, perfect Thank you all Oh flow. Yes. Anything you want to add? Sorry For putting that together and let us know if you need a special meeting as well Okay, thank you You can't see my face. Can you flow good? All right final review and approval of the traffic ordinance I made the The changes that we talked about in the uh from the public hearing in that as well Again, that's all I'm looking for is the approval to move forward with that so I can put it out in the public Get it posted go through the 40 whatever days it is for it without any uh to see if there's any uh any public comment on it or The fire line stuff did we get I put that at the 50 from the 25 Yeah, okay Is that what they is that what joe said? It's what he mentioned. Okay. I don't know. Yeah, I just guessed Still seems And then the big one Tell the the big one is entirely the both sides of the road with the exception of the sign parking spaces Starting 100 feet east of the culvert yard rails extending 100 85 on the south side shoulder of the road so that was the mirror lake That was the that was a big change we made that accommodated the one lane of parking, right? Yep On the south side of them I'm a little slow, I think Uh, so we're saying that you can park on mirror lake road with the exception of It's it's worded in there.  You can move off Okay, we had we had had that discussion at the last meeting because Yeah, I remember is just the way it was worded was making me think It wasn't clear to me, but I'm a slow reader, so I went out with tim and we measured it and looked at it and tried to choose the best spot to keep it safe as possible as well There's no any any questions any concerns brad None for me. Thank you though Entertain a motion Move to approve the new traffic ordinance is written Anybody care to second that? I'll second that second Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye Motion carries He just made vince's day. He's side huge relief Uh town attorney discussion That one you you all have a letter in your package our town attorney is semi retiring as of uh september 1st. I believe the date is The question I have is do we want to take his recommendation and and Look at someone that's still in that firm to take over for him or do we want to go out and look for another town attorney I'd take him look at it from a point of view that because it's over the $5,000 spending limit You're going to have to put it out to Bid Or at least rfp the question is if you want to stay with um main street law You would have to get they would have to bid on it too so Being that is however. However, I'm not sure when we put it out to bid If we were bidding for robb's services, or if we were bidding for may or Zowler and your camera and lambrick services at the time You'd have to look at the wording from the previous from the previous. Yeah That's what I was going to do. Okay I'll see what was done before and then the next question would be is I don't know if that was a Contract with robb or the main street law or if it was a How it was worded because it's kind of open-ended. It's been a while since we Put that out to you, right? What's that? I mean he's been the town attorney for There's this rob curly. There's this rob curl. Yeah Okay, so I'll look up was what was done and when it was done last and then again Bring it back to you guys and Excellent Thank you. Okay. Thank you for that and for the insight Just looking up for the town All right next up Who do we have from the conservation commission joining us this evening? Uh, because we have the vast and the conservation commission discussion I don't see anybody on there. You do not have anyone so I guess I would represent That's much of it. So so before before we get into it. I read the the letters that were attached to our packet and I went out to the conservation committee website and maybe I'm just looking in the wrong spot But there doesn't appear to be any minutes whatsoever So I'm wondering If there if someone just forgot to post them, but there aren't any meetings warned or minutes since june I'm gonna follow up on that john. I I agree with you. I don't I don't know where they are or what they've done with them So I keep you told that they do I never got there. I never got there I'll follow up on that to your point. I got it. So you So you went on the website. You didn't see anything you'll follow up on it. Um, I'm kind of I feel like there's I don't know if it was the select board's fault the conservation commission's fault But I feel terrible to have vast in here. Thanks for joining us today, josh I feel like there might have been some lack of communication somewhere along the line and relaying some of the information Along with the timelines and that may be very well Due to the fact that that maybe there wasn't meetings or or an active involvement there On that end. I'm not sure But anyway Thanks for looking into that john. Where where are we at with this fence right now? Do you want to give us just a quick overview of where Sure, I think the commission's Yeah, kind of in the middle. I've had conversations with phil recently and obviously with uh with dave as well I think where we're at right now To move this forward is it Probably an on-site meeting with dave his group and the conservation committee there Just to review the issues and phil is on board with this After talking with phil and walking the trail myself Phil basically also agrees that there really are minimal issues at best From the tower down darling hill trail The only areas that really seem of Any real concern are through the town forest itself Um, there's been as you said justin as well Everybody agrees in the in the start the timelines were off. The communication was off probably on both sides a bit Probably the best way to rectify it. Let's go through it walk the trail agree Be done with it get it documented and be done with it once for all. I think is is the solution There are some questions that uh that were brought up by the conservation committee about um Tracks the trail being used and so on what I can tell you is it it's not and I'm not taking any sides It's not the vast guys Also because of a bordering landowner There are other people using that so those fresh tracks that they believe they saw were not from these guys Because the only access that they had through there was one night the first night And the reason I know that is they came they called me to come down through my property to leave Okay, they've been going up to do the other work up my property and not through the town forest So I know that they haven't been going through there So there's there's other traffic through there. Thank you. So yeah, so I can tell you that and this is This was coming out in my frustration at the last meeting towards the police department Monitoring the area Is I'm all for and really don't care as a personal landowner About ATVs going up and down the sides of the road But we've been seeing dirt bikes and ATVs that Are local people flying up and down including coming down across our land across the street Um, so it's you know, these these machines are not vast machines I can tell you that just from looking at them and the people on them Um, and I don't know where they're coming from or where they're going But it's happening more and more so Um, I got pictures if you want some Yeah So I think there's two things that the board needs to address at this moment according to what you just told us Number one Is we need to Well confirm we know the communication. We know how that's going to work moving forward. What is that? I'm going to be Dave's point of contact And to the and I will take the message to the conservation commission So I should be the point of contact to you. They'll come to me and I'll go today Excellent and then as far as scheduling the on-site meeting I think we should we need to do that now so as not to cause any further delay because I I appreciate Everything that the crews have been doing up there everything that vast has been doing They've been doing a great job in our forest. I think as far as I've seen And I'm happy with all the It's amazing the volunteers that you see coming out of there on a weekly basis And I really I really hope they realize how much we appreciate them So Is it possible to schedule this? I mean, I don't know what the wishes of what you guys are thinking But I'd like to schedule the on-site meeting to resolve any of these issues tonight and the other concern that I have is I these minutes in the open meeting law and what the board feels we should do if We're I mean I one of these they sent a letter off to the looks like Vermont land trust And if that wasn't voted on and approved on by them I mean number one Do they have the authority to send that off to land trust without since their advisory only we've been informed by them? Do they have the authority to send that off on behalf of the town? And also if they did send that off did they vote on it and where the minutes from that meeting This shows that approval and documentation Here's my problem with that I don't know if it's one member of the conservation committee that spoke for the entire committee or all of them And that's all I want to know is that that it was voted on it was agreed upon and that's the The rightful path as far as they see it But again, I don't know if it's one person two people it it's very unclear of the structure of that group on how Decisions are being made and I get there a volunteer group and uh, but we need to I mean the town and Everyone needs to know these things Absolutely. I mean we're a volunteer group so Justin since since there's no one here from the committee. I'll take the action to coordinate the meeting And I'll I'll work on that tomorrow. I'll get a hold of Phil and and company and I'll coordinate with Dave And then whatever we can reach for an agreeable date. I'll let you know Chair of the board. Okay. This isn't the first time the conservation commission has done this called for a meeting and then not shown up I understand. I think I think that that's I understand your frustrations and feel that it's a lack of wasting my freaking time I could have been doing something I got a better than this I'm very happy about this I'm glad you get your smile Uh anything else It's not my time. It's his time too. Right. Oh, no, it's the time that Dave wasted for us to get this off that Dave can take a minute. No, I I respect that. I appreciate that and I completely agree But I think this is a good opportunity as well For Dave to talk about this was our opportunity to talk with them people Well, I think it's also a good opportunity for I agree with you But I also think it's a good opportunity for Dave to share some of the work that vast has done up there Some of the things some of the I mean, we don't need to worry about the timeline so much I don't think but some of the work you've done the the people you've had involved and what they've done that to help us Good. No, I'm happy to be here at the table to discuss anything. That's part of the partnership that we signed out for If there's any issues, you know, we got to come together and address them. So I appreciate that time I was a little disappointed to receive these uh Letters and stuff, but I think some of it was initial communication when you get up in there We don't really know what the kelly lot is or isn't so take part of the next on-site Visit will kind of let us all understand where that is and where we can go I know right near the tower. There was a section of land that we were going to Kind of established around the guide wires to me. That's what I was thinking was the kelly lot So this next meeting will certainly clear all that type of stuff up Then, you know, we were thought we were in the clear to work up there Obviously, we weren't until we had this corridor management. So We'll get it there on the darling trail. There's a lot of detail in people that counted trees and what we cut You know, I my felt when we did the initial walkthrough up there I mean, we were kind of talking about how wide we needed what we're going to cut Established a canopy and stuff like that. So to me working for like almost two decades with landowners such as the town of Berlin And the conservation committee is like you do that walkthrough you do it And this kind of comes across that before we cut any tree We needed a blessing to me that original walkthrough and establishing what we were doing that kind of was the blessing So very surprised to see this You know, I saw that walkthrough and I completely yeah So certainly if this is going to be kind of the expectation going forward I think somebody from the Berlin conservation committee should be up there on every work crew because we had a Lot of volunteers with a lot of passion up there donating a lot of time Doing this and it's not efficient if we go up there and say well, we need this one Well, we'll get their permission and then if they get to us by next week we can cut it It's just not how it works effectively. So but on a positive note We did the bridge. I've been doing this like I said for a couple decades. I've done dozens of bridge by far That was the most challenging bridge we've ever done because of the lay of the land Uh, you had the city of Montpellier land. We had to get the elevator on the other side We got it done. We nailed it. I was jumping for jail I was in the end zone and then I get this thing to see that they're worried about a tree that I thought we Had already had a permission and like really that wasn't the bridge that got everybody's attention It's it's his other stuff. So I got it. I'm like, are you kidding me? But again happy to be at the table happy to be able to have the opportunity to address things and move on and get us on The same page the same track that we keep going and so looking forward to having a snowmobile trail Go up through there and show you what we vast The Thunder chickens can do for all the other recreationals out there I think this is going to be a great thing and we just appreciate the chance to have that opportunity Well, thank you. I yeah, no we I I was a little shocked when we got this and that's where I I know that I've seen we had gotten emails before thanking you for the amazing work you did on the bridge and all in the volunteer time and I know you put in More time I think than anybody But so I was a little shocked. I think that's what John goes back to what John's saying is You know, we get one email that says thank you. We appreciate what you're doing and then I don't know how this was shortly after we get another one saying Hey, this is where we have issues and it's almost like it does come from two different sources Um So I think I think as a board we probably need to take a good look at that once we get the answers to some of these We have any specific things we want like when we talk the ridgeline trail You know, I don't know like I don't know you walked it. You see did you see Approximately a hundred two hundred trees that were cut on the ridgeline trail. I didn't count stumps I was looking at the way the trail. Yeah I mean there were a number of again small trees There were a couple of big ones, but if you look at the stumps, right, they were growing over the trail Right, they had to come in and I don't know where it was see it. Do you that's what everybody? Yeah, I personally walked it myself one night My wife and I kind of went up there because I saw this it's like I got to get up there and see it personally for myself and I didn't see anything that fell out live out of line of you know Best snowmobile practices that we follow in our agreement with the conservation committee In fact, with my safety hat on I'm a certified safety snowmobile instructor I would love to see that ridgeline a little bit wider in the line of safety I know Steve Coro and his crew has been very sensitive to the burling conservation Concerned as we went up through there and they really minimized what normally we would cut to establish a safe trail Both for grooming and for riding and other pedestrian use So but you know, we kept it tight on purpose because of our arrangement So so the other while we're on the topic one of the other things is do we while you were up there Did you happen to censure representing the conservation commission? I can ask you this question Thanks Do you happen to know if they've done anything to take action against the illegal mountain bike trails that are up there that were cut in? Have they done any enforcement on that? And have they also provided the certificate of insurance we requested for mamba They did request it from mamba. I believe they have it now. They have they but they haven't given it to you I haven't seen it yet. Huh? I think they have Makes me feel like they're picking on one crew and I'm just going to say that publicly Because I I it does feel that way. Yeah, um, I have talked to to uh to fill about I mean There's no signage up there that says that says what you can and can't do Right, so and they we know we know they had some savings on the bridge So they I know again, I know they're looking at it, but I don't know where they're at it for some Signage time the information on the weed the conservation board John and do we just lose everybody?  Oh, no, I just went I didn't I was wanting to make sure we still had a quorum Because it looked like everything dropped. I can still hear you too Oh, good job. Well, I couldn't see you so I didn't know Brad what do you do any questions comments concerns No, I mean, I'm not a snow bealer. I mean this No, I get it, but uh I mean as long as as long as the trail is safe as long as it Doesn't cause any damage to the to the The town property I'm good with it Yeah, just my my my concern is like is having um, and yeah, no, I've agreed with all those things, but just uh I just I don't know. I feel like we need to have one of the nice things that I know I'm the dog in the fight Yeah, you can play middle ground But I'm not I'm not much Any of this stuff. It's just the I feel like My concern I guess is a lot of different level than having a dog in the fight If we're firing off letters, so land trust and they're not voting on it I just like to see the minutes or I Or and I'd like I'd like to just know there's some uniform uniform action there In another thing I get and I also I get a phone call You know a bit jump in a voicemail and telling me You know all this stuff has happened and then there was going to be a And I wanted to follow up on it You know and get some questions answered and my answer was go to the select board meeting Is it where it's going to be talking about it at the select board meeting? From the conservation board and then for me to come here ruin my whole evening when I had other things to do And then have not then have not show up That I'm beside myself about that. I really am and I've worked Really close with mr. Connie on that too to kind of establish and as we said here with the bcb To patch this up. We're trying to make it right with these people We've established kind of a better communication chain too. So, uh, we're kind of hoping that your nasty grams like tet will not Come any more and I think they get the message through so You know I don't mind them John flow, do you have anything else sad? now So on this map here The blue line is where the where the trail was laid out I think the blue line may be where those guys relocated the trail because the existing line Was the line that the conservation board was supposed to walk with me Back a couple months ago and they were supposed to contact me when they did it and they never did They told me right to my face. They were going to contact me and it would maybe be this thursday They didn't they didn't relocate the trail that that far. They did that much. I think they did. Yeah, there was a little bit of a reroute Yeah, I think it's this. Yeah, I do think that's the flagging area had a 90 degree return. That was what I originally flagged And it was a steed grade so that's what I originally flagged and steed and those guys Was concerned about it was an easier way So they just kind of went right next to it to an adjacent logging trail and kind of made that the trail It's still an existing log trail. Yeah, okay So that I mean that that that honestly probably should have come to the right Yeah, no, absolutely. And that was going to be one of the things when we did our walk through with them Establish any of that stuff and when they don't contact to do it how much more you got to do in the trail Um, I think a lot of it is outside the town forest and now on the darling side The ditch work in the water bars is still to be done But the initial cutting is done and then the kelly power so we got some clean up there and right below the tower I see it says the red line here is the additional trail work completed So You're still a ways from the from david plans. So let me yeah, I can explain that I'm fairly sure back here. I'm fairly familiar with the property. So I think your poster somewhere ran at linking your pen. Yeah So this this is the trail that was originally walked and planned for yeah, right When they came in to do that the the one time they came through early on Um, there was some steep areas here and some things so they they found this old logging road here Just kind of impede a little to it and they readjusted it went that way the only thing that they've done through there Is they've been through one time and they they cut a lot of the brush Um, and some trees that may have been in the in the road Right, that's the only work that's been done there and that that hasn't been a lot down for us So I haven't been back in there since I haven't been on the stop the turquoise line here the blue line That's still a logging road That's a logging. That's another and the red line is also a log correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes And the ridgeline is the same thing it's like a 15 foot right away So we've only cut things that are in that right The ridgeline is basically done. I think they may be we are about a half a mile from the bridge Yes, that's what we're going to do tomorrow night, but that's basically done tomorrow night. We're going to have a lot of that done Some of the some trees that we're approaching on the road it's just been uh, just been uh Low vegetation. Yeah low just kind of brush That's been coming up in some trees that it just kind of been growing out at an angle that are you know Seeking to get seeking the sun and just you know, the snow was going to drop them on there So taking them now while we're there versus dealing with two years from now during the winter And the one night I did go up one night just to see what they were doing from work and I mean, yeah, there was a butternut tree that was already down You know just stuff like that. Um, so I don't know You know depending on where the break was it would look like you got the stuff too, obviously And I remember I had Mason or something and on various work crews too We've had two of the vast trail coordinators Full for the county level that have been out there helping and stuff So I mean they're totally happy and feel like we're we're right on track with how we establish important of the vast best Practices, so it's you know that made it even more surprising to get this known. We had the right hands on deck Right. All right anything else I guess that's it. I appreciate No problem Yeah, and let's let's make sure that You can represent the conservation commission if it's two weeks out and you can go I'll have already walked it before then. I appreciate that. You know what I mean? Like if they can't get up there At a time when that works for Dave Yeah And obviously you're welcome to go because you've done a lot, but I just want to make sure that Dave's My best to schedule this so that someone can be there Yeah, I'm sure you will but if it's going to be if it's going to be anything wrong in the term I want to make sure that while everybody's still And if you can be within the next couple weeks or something that's what that's what i'm asking for Yeah So how'd your bridge your bridge came out all right? It came out beautiful Yeah, I was so happy when I I was out of town when they did it But I went up that sunday night when I got back and beautiful It is a delay of the man and what they had to work with and protect him existing historic wall It's like I don't know how they did it, but I'm a computer guy. So but uh, it was impressive You'll be able to get uh emergency vehicles. Absolutely. I'll show you It's 10 foot. It's 10 foot wide Bridge, I want to spot Yeah, well I shared the the email the berlin conservation commission sent this email it says The completed bridge looks terrific. Thank you vast team. You can read that Three steel i-beams underneath that I don't use those beams Free, I mean freedom Dropped it A chance I'll take and destroy it. Alrighty, we'll get out of here. Thank you very much for your time You bet. Yeah, you know how to get a hold of me and so that had the that had the sidewalls and everything else Thank you All right, uh approval of license permits vouchers and applications Move to approve payroll warrant 22 dash o 4 for payroll from august 1st 2021 to august 14th 2021 paid on august 18th 2021 and the amount of 44 133 dollars and 88 cents Payable warrant 22 g o 3 with checks 21 346 to 21 400 and the amount of 109 thousand dollars 700 109 758 dollars and 86 cents July reconciled bank statements for general fund and sewer water checking accounts July journal journal entries and july budget SAS report trial balance report and delinquent tax report Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye Aye Motion carries Uh, all right. Now we gotta next up. We got approval of minutes. I'm gonna take the may 27th minutes off because if not John and I were not here for that. Okay, so we obviously can't vote on that. Okay um So that leaves Approval of minutes for july 19th 2021 in august 2nd 2021 Move approval of the minutes of july 19th 2021 in the minutes of august 2nd 2021 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye Aye Motion carries Just say your number Um roundtable flow anything? Nothing John Vince I noticed in your uh monthly report that you sent us after the last meeting There was a note in there From the police department basically saying that they couldn't enforce Uh brookfield road because it was because of improper signage. Yes There's no longer improper signage Okay, we put up another 35 mile an hour speed limit sign right at the entrance of brookfield road. Okay, I guess my My comment to the thing was that that doesn't you know, just because you can't hand out a ticket doesn't mean you can't patrol All right, and I think our After the last meeting or at the last meeting we agreed that the first the good first step would be to put up that the sign that uh digital sign that tells you how fast you're going that's the post was installed That's going up tomorrow Okay, you'll be able to see him from your driveway Okay, thank you brad The only thing I would like to say is I mean just this week I don't know what we spend on resources and and with with the corner up on cross town road But That truck was off there this week. I watched the car fly into the corner. It's right by the old boyer It's been built up so much over the years I don't know if you've looked at it. I called tim and asked him a question It's about the ditch is like six feet seven feet deep right there And it keeps sliding off every time a car goes off there and everybody's it's 25 miles an hour but people rip through there um, and so the road's getting narrower And every time a car ends up in there and it's it's usually like, you know A half a dozen firefighters a couple of cruisers and a lot of resources going up there every because there's so many cars Someone's calling 911 um, so I don't know I've got some numbers for you I did get the chief to run a A report yeah from august to august of the number of incidences on cross town And so I don't know if like not even like the radar let's just like a flashing sign because I mean I don't even know what would prevent it, but I asked him. I was like, well, what about guardrails, right? Well, not drive cars to the center. It's too narrow. Yeah, and it's just I just it's right there by Boyer state. Yeah right across from the picket fence like right where the pond was See over the year over the years one of the complaints is that the From the boyers was that the road was getting above their fence. It is the roads Well, it was actually was maybe it's paul irons. It was mentioning that it was a drainage issue It is It I mean, I don't know how I don't know how it got built if it's just for mud seasons or what But the road appears like if you go up there now and you look You know the bottom of the fence is there The road's at least, you know three higher. So no like three or four feet higher than the fence So what that's done on the opposite side of the road where there is no fence Yeah, and and so I asked about even Like what we could do just to even make it a smaller shallower ditch or and I and maybe the quick solution is just some like some Signage of some sort because I know there's a 25 mile an hour speed limit sign But nobody pays to I I didn't I I didn't know it was there was more 25 through there No so Hey, I don't know I just that that's something so how many incidents is there on that road? When you if if you can uh, assume the latest traffic count is on that road I didn't have it Yeah, it was out. It was like 1600 and something carries a day. Yep. That's yeah, that sounds right That was the last round was around 1638. I've got it on a sheet for all our roads last traffic counts I can send that to you But it was something like 1600 Yeah, plus average per day I was surprised at the number I watched the lady the other day go right off all four wheels didn't even head she slid off one end land And almost made it back out up So I mean I'm just Yeah, that's an area of concern that I think somebody could get hurt on too well So I'd like to have maybe get some input from tim or somebody at some point I don't know how you would ever taken take and fix that because you got so much Why don't know to widen to to accommodate the ditch you'd have to widen the road. So yeah, I don't know if it was a Like a He would like me to close it up with a culvert, but then you gotta worry about Well, that's very cold river froze up Right E.P. Yeah, I don't know. It's just something we should look at talk about at some point Another thing we should talk about at some point is uh, uh, every night hill Yep He's saying but it'll probably be cheaper if we paved it. Yep. No, I agree I agree Got some extra money coming in. Yeah, but no, I don't think it's something you're gonna touch it The well, uh, the thing was uh, the thing was like doing any redoing the roads. It's so expensive. Yeah, and We got something else that will be so much Shorter term, right? We don't have that luxury But it is you're right on that What do you have around the table? In your packets, there's a CB fiber document for review and a Polymorphic Presentation for review, which is something that we're considering. In fact, john knows it pretty well He asked me to meet with these folks And it's something in addition to our our website for improving our Efficiency number one and on how we do things in In the office and also our communication of information To our residents as well. It's a it's a it's linked to our website And it will link To our grand list as well And we can track the report better all our communication all our permitting processes can be mapped and put in there So, you know each step along the way, you'll have access to it to see where it is in the process We look at it Justin and say oh, yeah, you're in this step of the process It's a it's pretty Pretty powerful tool Again, it's something to review that we'll talk about later down the road, but I just want to make you aware I do have a copy of the full Presentation and there's also a letter of intent. They just they're going to have three pilots in the state of vermont this company They've already signed one with sx junction. I have not talked to them yet But from what I've seen so far and heard that they they really like it Um, they're they're one of the first they're the first pilot We're being offered. Uh, basically the third pilot. I forget where the second one was set up Is there anything you want to add john to that? I know you spoke with it briefly Yeah, I talked to them, uh, a little bit about their background their mission what they're trying to do Uh, they're they're really trying to pick three or four towns in vermont to work with they work in massachusetts They're working with the city of san jose. They're a startup out of mit Um, it looks like a a pretty decent product product um, and even if you know as a startup they didn't Uh, continue would be a product that you know, we could we could continue to use um and not Not get overwhelmed or stuck in uh long term, but uh, just watching and looking at its functionality I think could help that the staff And potentially the select board quite a bit with just communications to our constituents and Uh transparency around, you know roads and uh payments and things like that so And I think I think the price is right And you can run yeah, you can run reports like you're looking for something across down the road That's an example database it is but it's also it's a good management tool as well Like basically So the downside would be like so if they're a startup and they didn't continue wouldn't the downside be that Uh, uh, the software or anything like that ongoing or expansion wouldn't that be the only like kind of detrimental or risk Risk that we would have from the town perspective Yeah, I mean looking at um They're their investors um and how much money has been uh given to them Um And the amount of towns that they have coming onto it. They really seem like they're uh focused Specifically on municipal governments. I think there's definitely a place there for them in the market. Um And you know when I when I've looked around at these types of things There's usually a lot of customization a lot of you know tweaks per Department or poor her municipality no one out there really has a product like this that I've seen so I'm not I'm not real worried about you know them Uh getting out over their skis too far and going under Um, I'm more worried about adoption on our end and making sure that You know we do use it that or We're you know putting our best foot forward to make sure we use it to the fullest capability that we get And if we're going to pilot it they must be guaranteeing or or saying that I mean I didn't look at that But there must be a significant level of support because if you're a pilot obviously I want it to be a success Right, I think uh vince and you probably remember the town's better than I do but it's currently working in st. Albin's Um, and were they in fairfax as well? Maybe it was fairfax. I was thinking. Yeah, st. Albin's fairfax I said s extension. Uh, it was you're right. I think it's st. Albin's and fairfax My intent is to before again the whole purpose of this is to get you to review that because I'm going to bring it up We need to make a decision before the end of september with them if we want to sign a letter of intent move this forward with what they're offering us Um, so it's an opportunity for you to review it get some questions back to me That I can get to them. Uh, and at the same time I will talk to st. Albin's to see I would what they think of it and how it's working. I would say put it on the next agenda That should be plenty of time and you'll have unless you don't want to. No, no, I yeah Yes, I do want to I think it'll be quick. I think yeah I and I think the the borage should or vince vince should it on our behalf. I talked with St. Albin's chief operating officer Oh, you did. Okay, and he said that it was remarkable Just the the data he could pull from it to answer questions for the public and to also, you know, not This is going to come out wrong but track his staff and I don't mean it in like a performance. What are you doing kind of in a way? But you know, how many how many, you know, Tickets or how many conversations are, you know You know to kind of And whether or not at some point you need to add resources, right or whether or not Exactly The television things are running. All right. Thank you Yeah, it's I when I looked at it. It's just it's a client. It's a crm. It's just a software platform Yep, exactly Yeah, okay, go ahead I got three three more things. I'm sorry Um, first two will be the easy ones Um Face masks at the meetings. We want to consider If we continue the in person meetings with everything that's going on I know some of the other towns are starting to wear them again and they're face-to-face meetings The drb has started to do that I'm just asking the select board what what they would like to consider at this point Well, my my personal thought would be just to follow whatever the governor's orders are I'll follow the state guidelines but I'll let the rest of the board speak I think if people are uncomfortable and Want to mask I think that's that's absolutely fine I think that you know for people that have been vaccinated and You know want to follow the science and believe that you know, they don't need a mask I think that's fine, too I think we're at a at a point where people can choose for themselves. That's my opinion I'll follow the state guidelines up on there just to make sure it's clear And then I'll make a note in the meetings that masks are optional for in-person if you're fully vaccinated or not Something I'll put something together like that Okay And now the last one The last one involves tax stabilization I've had a The uh Deuchervitz construction, right? They were approved. Yep We cannot find that I checked with the lawyer any contract agreement that was assigned by that The only thing that's been signed and approved is the application I remember when we voted on it. Yeah, there's a there's a meeting approving it The question I have is and the question that he has Is does it start now would this be the first year out of the five years? Or is it at completion when they have certificate of occupancy? I would imagine it would be certificate of or no static is It wouldn't have been a completion. It would have been from the first Static construction substantial completion or start a construction so just From a numbers perspective we started this year before certificate of completion because northfield savings bank We did have a contract and there there's was a little bit different because I think it was a way I read it. It was more of a rehab and not a full new construction There's did not start Until they had a certificate of occupancy For the completion of that work. That's why the question is still savings bank. Yeah, where dr. Butcher's office was I would that's a complete that wasn't a rehab. No An existing structure that may be in there, but so so let me ask you with this I don't know if we're not generating any tax revenue from them now Yes, if we if they cut their tax bill if we go back and credit Credit that will reduce this tax bill. It's a hundred twenty five thousand dollars a year Reduction for him, but that would be the first of his five years, right? He goes 10 20 30 10 20 60 I think percentage I'd have to look again, but the percentages Change for the five years and there's got to be some additional information on it somewhere In the in the lawyer doesn't have anything there's nothing on record or file here other than Again, the only thing that exists that we were able to find so far is the minutes of meeting that documented So there should be an orchard video But that's just going to be the minutes of meeting anyway. Well, there might be a lot that was there might be something That was captured there that and what about what is the What is the planning commission right? Well, I would I would say what is the ordinance? What is the ordinance? What is the Stabilization plan say it does one of the issues that's why I'm out there That's why I'm looking so hard for a contract Yes, I can that everything was there for the Norfield savings bank Then I use that as a benchmark because that one was complete. It had the signed contract agreement The only thing that we have on record for Ducevich right now is the minutes of meeting that said it was approved and then the Application that was signed That's it No, no contract that I even called Rob and he looked through his and he's got he had Norfield savings bank information But he had nothing no contract agreement that was drawn up with Ducevich So whose responsibility was that to draw that would have been Ducevich the previous person in my role So that was the responsibility? Um, I would follow To be fair, I would I personally I would just follow with The template from Norfield savings. Yeah, which means it's going to be Certificate of occupancy Issued and then that's year one for starting the tax break. That's a pretty big decision We probably have to have Well, the other thing is No, it's not on the agenda. The other thing would be To take and get some sort of a contract drawn up drawn up with these folks even if it's after Yeah, well, that's I'm going to proceed with a contract anyway, but I just need to know Do we start we'll have to make a decision. We'll be starting year one now The only thing is with uh, I've had some talks with uh, with Tom What about Karla I haven't talked to Karla. Karla may recall as well because she was pretty involved in that So she's made it's clearly to me. It's clearly been approved. Yeah So one of the things that I remember that came out of that meeting as well that I'll bring up was that Um, some of the other board members weren't in favor of approving it Um And I think I don't know what to pass by or whatever but that maybe one of the things we've talked about before was Looking at our tax stabilization policy to better suit our town And maybe maybe haven't looked more like blighted or you know structures and not Not necessarily the structures that are going into the town center Because what what I'm wearing my where I felt do switch It's been a lot of time a lot of money a lot of consulting fees to go through the process and met every criteria And it's again, we were just going to say sorry you've paid everything you've gone through this process, but no So I think we should try to look at that tax stabilization policy Maybe ask the planning commission to look at it in a way that better suits the growth and development of the town Anything else? So I'll have this I'll have this on the next meeting for a decision because obviously we don't want it to I've got to get back to him as well Yeah What else you got buddy? The next meeting is scheduled to be on labor day I don't do we want to move it? I don't I would prefer to move it cancel it Cancel it or move it Well, yes Yeah, I apologize the next the next regularly scheduled board meeting is Scheduled for labor day That a couple of different opinions one so far would be cancel it Another one would be I don't care and one is move it. Um, I I don't know what your thoughts are Fine with moving it and I can be very flexible. So whatever the majority decides. Thank you uh, we got that Put something off to the next meeting anyway, so you probably should take and move it a day or two or whatever you want to do Well, the the only dates that are available that this isn't being used like the rvs have a meeting planning commissions have in their meetings Um, so I can't have it the following monday because it's more Tuesday because it's tied up It would be a thursday or a friday on the ninth or tenth Of september or we could have it on wednesday or thursday the first or second of september if we wanted to move it We cancelled it and had a long meeting I'm fine with that too like I'm fine with an extremely full agenda And just not having the meeting all together as long as nobody's really going to be impacted by expected meeting earlier if we do I could do that too. How do you guys feel about that cancel it and double up Cancel it and double up if we need to on the agenda and just get it all done. Good. Can we have it? I think I think the only thing that ever happened when we'd cancel in in northfield was Um People would have to go in and sign the bi-weekly payroll and I'm not sure What Would want around that or or not or we'd sign it and then approve at the next meeting We could we could potentially do a 15 minute zoom meeting without only on the agenda to make sure people get paid though, right? I can manage that with dianne. I can bring them up. I can bring them to you guys to sign it. That's the Why don't we why don't we just plan on canceling it and doubling up And and then working through the payroll situation if we need to does that make sense? All right, so are you okay with that? Fine by me. Sounds good. All right. What else you got? Okay. No, I think I'm done. All right Thank you executive session. Yes Move to intern executive session


t does not occur to me, as I said, that that may be one of a rare breed that would be interested in speaking on this. This is a rare example of a consolidation bill, and the Delicated Powers and Law Reform Committee first had to decide whether consolidation was appropriate and then consider whether the text was clear, coherent and consistent, and whether the law really did remain unchanged, as it must. The committee found that scrutiny of this consolidation bill was very much in keeping with the other work that we carry out, as we are used to considering technical and complex legal matters. Like the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Consolidation Scotland Bill, which is the only previous example of a consolidation bill and was passed back in 2003, the Bankruptcy Bill was introduced late in the session. The committee was able to undertake the necessary scrutiny of the bill in the short time available, but it should be noted that we were fortunate that we did not, on this occasion, need to consider a large number of Scottish Law Commission recommendations, as they would have made it much more challenging. There are other areas of law that would benefit from consolidation. Indeed, the committee recommended last year that the law on succession, some of which dates back to the 16th century, should be consolidated. That is another area of law that has widespread impact. I congratulate Nigel Dawn on the work of the DPLLR committee, but would he agree with me that the recommendation of the Standards Committee that there should be two justice committees, a road that we have already taken, is entirely flawed? I hesitate to say anything that is entirely flawed, but I will come on to the remit of my committee and what we might do in the future in just a moment if the member will bear with me. I am grateful to our clerks and legal advisers for their painstaking work. I also recognise and want to put on the record our appreciation of the essential role of Gregor Clark as draftsman for the Scottish Law Commission and the invaluable evidence of the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism, the Accountancy Bankruptcy and Scottish Government officials. We also received evidence from practitioners. Their time and effort is very much appreciated. Not only did they challenge some of the proposals, but in the process they also gave us reassurance that the rest of the draft bill was fit for purpose. I would like to reflect on the change remit of the committee. When I became convener of the Subordinate Legislation Committee in 2011, we looked only at subordinate legislation and the delegated powers in bills. Our remit has since been expanded to allow us to progress in non-contentious bills drafted by the Scottish Law Commission and subsequently to consider consolidation bills like the one before us now. That has enabled the Parliament to do more. Three bills fully considered and progressed to royal assent, which would otherwise probably not have been dealt with. I know that the Scottish Law Commission is grateful that the mechanism now exists, but I note in passing that there is a risk that they will now tailor their work to fit in with my committee's remit rather than the wider consideration of the law, which would obviously be more appropriate. The revised remit of the committee has enabled us to address contract law and legal writings bill, the law of succession and now the law on bankruptcy. This list gives me a clue as to the range of other legislation, which it might in future be appropriate for the committee to consider, for they are all part of what would be termed private law. Given, as the convener has already mentioned, the pressure on the justice committee will never go away. I suggest that this area of private law might be an area in which the delegated powers and law reform committee might in future help them out a bit further. I would also like to reflect on the committee membership and our way of working. As a legislature, we enact just over one statute per month, but almost one statutory instrument per day. The delegated powers and law reform committee considers each and every one of those instruments. Members will know that we are not concerned with the merits of the policy, but we do have to consider it to ensure that the powers provided will actually do what the policy describes. We worry about the technicalities—all of them. We are the Parliament's engine room. Not everyone's cup of tea, of course, and I have no doubt that the whips have found that the mere threat of being sent to sub-ledge has been enough to get some recalcitrant MSPs back into line in times past. However, we need the right people to don the legislative boiler seat, and those members need to be prepared to work collegiately. I absolutely empathise with what the convener of the committee is saying, but would you acknowledge that we are also the guardians of the English language and that one of our greatest achievements in this session has been rescuing the word forthwith from legislative oblivion? That makes a perfectly fair point, which will be explained by anybody who cares to look at the official report. We did have quite a lot of discussions about forthwith. We decided that it was not a word that you would probably meet in the pub, but one that we all understood and should not be replaced. Just to return to the fact that we need the right people to don the boiler seat in this committee, it does occur to me that, when you are trying to apply a chisel to the machinery of legislation, it is important to know that the member who is wielding the hammer is actually on the same side. I thank my colleagues that this is how we have worked. Returning to the bill itself, let me reiterate that we have gone to great lengths to ensure that we have not changed the law. I think that this volume therefore has two uses, Presiding Officer. Firstly, I suggest to members that it will be very effective bedtime reading, although that is unlikely to be necessary after a hard day's canvassing. Secondly, for those who actually do need to access the substantive law on bankruptcy, it has been cunningly designed. For its start to the beginning, it goes on to the end and it stops. I have many thanks. I have an unexpected bid for an open debate. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I just wanted to say two things. First of all, I welcome the bill and also the principle of doing consolidated bills, but the real reason that I am rising is because on my last day of legislation, I am reflecting on my first day of legislation in 1992, which was the bankruptcy bill in the UK Parliament. Of course, I think that that was amending the 1985 bankruptcy bill, so no doubt it is featuring somewhere in today's bill, although I cannot say that I have read every word of it. However, it made me reflect on two things. First, I think that we do stage 1 of bills much better than the UK Parliament, but let us just say that the UK Parliament used to do stage 2 in a slightly different way. In that, my first month in the UK Parliament, we sat literally till dawn listening to Donald Dure and others giving speeches of an hour or more on one or two lines of that bill. Perhaps that was a bit extreme in one direction, but perhaps sometimes at stage 2 we go to the other extreme. However, I certainly welcome the bill, and thank you for allowing me to speak. Many thanks, and I now call on Firkus Ewing Minister. Presiding Officer, I would like to thank Nigel Donne for his comments, and thank you for allowing me to speak in support of the Bankruptcy Scotland bill. It was almost 13 years ago to the day that this Parliament passed the last consolidation bill, which became, as Nigel Donne said, the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Consolidation Scotland Act 2003. Consolidating legislation and tidying up the statute book is good practice, and I am delighted that the bill has now progressed through stages 1 and 2. I hope that we will not have to wait for 30 years for this opportunity to arise again. If I may say so, if I have anything to do with it, that will not happen. It is one of the reasons why Malcolm Chisholm referred to Donald Dure and his contribution. Donald Dure remarked once that Scotland was the only country in the world that had its own legal system but lacked a legislature, and one of the functions of a legislature is to bring the law up to date. Although the bill will never be the talk of the steam ace, it nonetheless is extremely important for many reasons that I want briefly to canvas. Over the years, Bankruptcy legislation has been so heavily amended that it has lost its coherence and structure. The numbering of the sections in the 1985 act had become complex, unwieldy and inordinately long. I know that because I used to use it as an insolvency petition in the legal profession many years ago. Now is the right time to update the statute book in this area. The purpose is to bring Scottish Bankruptcy legislation into one place and improve accessibility. That will make it incredibly easier and simpler for practitioners who use the bill day and daily, but also for those who are affected by it to understand what the law is. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and therefore it is our duty to make sure that it is possible to acquire knowledge by reading one document, not a plethora of documents. We work closely with stakeholders who have given valuable feedback on the proposals. That went back to August 2011, when the Scottish Law Commission published their consolidation of the Bankruptcy legislation in Scotland consultation paper, making a number of recommendations following responses to that consultation. Virtually all of those recommendations were implemented by the Bankruptcy and Debt advice Scotland act 2014, known on the streets as the bad-ass act, as you know, which is allowed for a straight consolidation of the existing law in the bill. The evidence provided through the delegated powers and law reform committee scrutiny has highlighted widespread support of the bill. I would like to thank its committee, the committee, its lawyers and officials for their scrutiny and approach in communicating relevant issues with the drafter and the Scottish Government and all of the individuals who submitted their views. The exchanges between the committee and the Scottish Government have always been very positive and constructive at which improved the bill and enabled it to move smoothly and efficiently and also avoided stage 3 amendments, which I am sure is something that is appreciated by many members of this place. I am also grateful for the work undertaken by the Scottish Law Commission, in particular Gregor Clark, who led on drafting the bill. The task involved in consolidating the bill has been enormous, and I mean enormous. I therefore very much appreciate the huge amount of time and effort that has culminated in that good work. If it has passed today, I look forward to the bill receiving royal assent and its commencement, which we are planning for the 30th of November this year. If I may, as well as extending my gratitude to Nigel Don for his great work as convener of the busy committee, I would like to say a few remarks, given that it is possible that Nigel Don may not be returned to this Parliament in its next session. In case that is the scenario, I wanted to say a few words by way of tribute to Nigel Don. His very wide experience of life and work has informed, I believe, his substantial contribution to this Parliament over two terms in the past nine years. Always rational, never personal, he has always played the ball, never the man. Every contribution he has been made has been well informed and closely argued, sometimes probing, gently perhaps, but deftly and with great effect, the case that the Scottish Government has put on any particular occasion. Much about politics is partisan, perhaps too partisan, but that has never been the case in Nigel's manner. If I may say so, he is the least political politician that I have never known in this place. I am sure that all members present would join with me in wishing him well, and I do wish him well, forthwith. Many thanks, minister, and I note your particular skill in sneaking in some unparliamentary language in an allowable way. The question on this motion will be put at the decision time, and I now suspend this meeting until 2pm.


So you just saw the new intro to the channel and then you just saw the trailer for the three new beast designs that we created So this is our new merch. These are the three first designs for our merch launch at amusement insiders I have really big plans for the store So we've launched, you know behemoth inspired Yukon inspired and levy inspired Designs and we're gonna branch out and do other designs as well for other Roller coasters that have like mythical creatures or beasts that represent them or just auras So dragon fire is gonna be one that we do you guys are gonna love the dragon fire design. It looks so awesome We're gonna we're working on a zoom a flume one right now That one's a little more difficult trying to make it a really cool design But we have a few ideas And then we plan to branch out to parks like marine land and just other parks Like so if you have a roller coaster that has a mythological creature to go along with it or some sort of aura or storyline let me know because I am Obsessed with creating these designs now with our artist So I can't wait to launch more they cost a lot of money. So my whole goal with our merch store is not to profit It's gonna be impossible To basically profit off these designs. I just want to come up with something really cool I'm feeling super inspired and creative lately And I just will really want to like create something really cool for the channel and anyone that watches our videos to be able to Go and you know buy something cool or even just look at something cool So you don't have to go Purchase anything of ours totally understand if you don't want to But yeah, if you even just want to look at it I love creating, you know, just the intro that you just saw with those like beasts coming down So that's gonna be something I continued to do I just I'm just having a lot of fun with this and I'm gonna continue to have a lot of fun with it because You know life got really tough for me. And it's just I was in a Blah for a really long time and I'm finally getting out of it and I just it just feels good and I just want to take the channel now with all this energy and elevate it So that's definitely gonna be something you're gonna see I'm gonna bring back some of the conspiracy videos gonna bring back obviously some speculation videos What I think's coming here what I think's going there. What's gonna happen here? What's my favorite things this blah blah blah you guys don't care But nonetheless the channels got a really bright future There's gonna be videos a lot more often not just like one every two weeks like they used to be So yeah, super excited. You're gonna see some new content. You haven't seen before either working on Some super cool content. We have Jazm working on some amazing videos as well that are kind of history kind of Scary stories involving theme parks, but yeah Anyways, I'm trying to think of this anything I missed obviously the logo is new So if you couldn't tell it's got Yukon Stryker and Wonder Mountain two very important things to me Wonderland super important And Yukon Stryker is obviously super important to the channel and then CN Tower to represent just Toronto Our origins being Canadian and just the events that we go to especially around fall So that's pretty much the logo I haven't liked our logo for a really long time the old logo and that's why I designed a new logo So hopefully you guys like it definitely comment down below what you guys think of the new merch again Head on over to amusementinsiders.com check out all the designs Check out the merch like comment down below. What's your favorite? What you'd like to see again? Give me some amazing ideas because I'm looking for some super creative just Empowerment right now. I just want to plow through a bunch of awesome designs and launch them for you guys You don't have to buy them at all. You don't need to support Me and purchasing them just like honestly like even though if you just enjoy them it makes me feel awesome. So Yeah, I mean that's I guess that's everything I have to say the channel's got a really bright future awesome new designs can't wait to keep creating these designs and Yeah, I can't wait for you guys to see this awesome video. I'm working on too But I think wonder Wonderlands front gate Renault could look like So working on that video definitely got an engineer Visual engineer, I don't know what they're called. It could be saying it completely wrong. Someone's just designing My idea and concept for Wonderlands front gate and bring it to life to the point where we're actually gonna be able to walk through it and explore it so I'm just super excited about that. I'm just everything's awesome. Thank you so much for supporting the channel through the years I think we're like in year three or four. I don't even know anymore Like I've lost track of time, but we've made it really far and even the point when I was really low and videos were coming out Once every two weeks you guys are still here. So thank you so much for supporting the channel And hopefully you have an amazing weekend Bye guys