Ladies and gentlemen the railroad hour and here comes our star-studded show trade Tonight the Association of American Railroads presents the rousing Rudolph Fremel operetta of three musketeers Starring Gordon MacRae and his charming guest Dorothy Warren show Our choir is under the direction of Norman Lubeau and the music is prepared and conducted by Carmen dragon Yes tonight another great musical success is brought to you by the American Railroad The same railroads that bring you most of the food you eat the clothes you wear the fuel you burn and all the other things You use in your daily life, and now here is our star Gordon MacRae Good evening ladies and gentlemen tonight. We're going back to the adventurous days of Louis the 13th Dorothy Warren's shoulders the lovely lady in waiting Constance. My name is Darthanian and may I present? Mr. Portals at your service Mr. Artos, Mr. Miller Mr. Aramee, your humble servant, and you know who we are It all began when I first came to Paris a very young recruit from Gascony, and I stumbled right down to the free musketeers How can such a fat man dual so magnificent are we not musketeers and what is a musketeers duty to fight to love Don't live and the devil take rich lose guys. We do not take them first Musketeers my lady Constance. Oh my dear friends Atos the melancholy portals the portly one and our amese the heartbreaker The Constance you must choose one of us. Yes. Tell us what kind of a man do you wish to marry?  My name is Darthanian I am from Gascony and I have come to Paris to become a musketeer Well, you've made a bad beginning young sprout. I challenge you to a duel I accept only because I am the best swordsman in France behind the Luxembourg at noon agreed sir You have equally insulted me. I challenge you to a duel behind the Luxembourg at one He won't be alive to be present as for me. You've insulted both my feet and me Behind the Luxembourg at two very convenient. It is where I live. Good It is where you will die. Come musketeers so your duties Oh, monsieur you should not have accepted their challenges They are the musketeers the best swordsman in France on the second best Thank you for your concern mistress Constance Constance Lovely name for a lovely girl. He's romantic. I guess I'm not only the greatest swordsman in France But the greatest lover ha ha you are not the most modest man in France, monsieur Well, I haven't talked to speak frankly Mistress Constance Gascony when we see a girl who is more beautiful than any we've ever seen before We do this We take her hand. Yes We look into her eyes. Yes, and then we say I Must see you again. Tell me where and when you must not duel with the three musketeers. They will kill you Concerned mistress Constance There are only two things I wish in life love of a good woman and the chance to become one of the king's musketeers Only by proving I am their equal Can I become one of them? They didn't expect all three of you at once but There may not be enough of me to go around We're each other's second. We'll take you on one at a time. No Why not let me fight off three of you at once, sir You're a brave young man, and if you survive my sword, I should be most happy to make your acquaintance. Thank you See you for those you are first Boy, I like your spirit. What a pity.  You insult my man. We challenge you just a moment She's like surely even you wouldn't attack three men with your five. There are four of you This young gas can he's no musketeer. I feel like a musketeer retire young sprout and save your skin I'd rather stay in puncture, Mr. Jusak very well Jusak. It's three and a half to five Honkers musketeers. Let's serenade them with our motto as they die Haha Taking away here On your fuel normally would like to become your friend and I thank you gentlemen Are you are still alive? What's this constant such concern for us? Oh, you're not dead, Mr. Dutton. I thought you would be lost This is the he father. Bye dear lady. My eyes are still open We'll be looking only at you The most beautiful girl in France loves me How can I fail? All I wish in life now is to become a musketeer perhaps one day you shall wear a uniform May we say there is hope. Thank you my friends I hope a man lives I have read history and I've heard tales of brave men, but none were like the musketeers Fish and poets have extolled. They seem small do these men the home on here True for you true for you this beside the king So Last week and on several previous occasions We discussed on this program how important it is to all of us that our railroads receive adequate revenues Revenues that today can come only from freight rates which are in keeping with current prices And the higher cost of doing business Because railroad freight charges enter into the price of virtually everything you buy You might think that freight rates constitute a much larger part of the cost of things than they do As a matter of fact railroad freight rates are a very small percentage of the cost of most commodities According to calculations based on studies by the bureau of transport economics and statistics of the interstate commerce commission The total amount collected by the railroads in freight charges Average is less than six cents out of each dollar of the wholesale value at destination of all the commodities moved by rail And of course when it comes to retail prices freight charges represent a still smaller proportion Probably no more than three or four cents on the dollar Because their operating costs have gone up so much farther and faster than their revenues The railroads have found it necessary to ask the interstate commerce commission For authority to increase freight rates a little more than seven percent above present rate levels But that would not mean a like percent of increase in average prices It would mean only an increase in those three or four cents out of each dollar of retail prices Which are represented by railroad freight charges So that the increase would be on the average only about one third of one cent in each dollar of retail prices If freight rates are such as to enable the railroads to meet today's costs And to continue their progress in efficiency and economy through improvements in their facilities The resulting increase would hardly be noticeable in the prices you pay But it would mean that the industry in which we all have such a big state Could go ahead with its expansion and improvement program A program essential to meet the transportation needs of commerce and national defense Now here is act two of the laurence and lee version of rudolf frimmel's the three musketeers Starring gordon macray as d'artanian and dorothy warrenscholl as the lovely constance My friends the musketeers malady the queen is in great danger. We live to serve her tell us constants Tell us what we can do harish lure has discovered letters of the queens in england Letters such as any girl writes when she is young the queen is a woman now. She loves france She loves the king then what value are the letters harish lure plans to use them to split the royal family To split all of france and and thus come to power himself One of us will go to england.  No d'artanian. We will never see you again. We will all go together One for all I will go along No Not alone My oldest friend will go with me Lord will clear my way Lord will make them pay Who's afraid or who will face the blade That brings you blood and death and judgment there Who dares my will defy That's your handle here is my report stand alone.  No words. No signs. Stop worrying.  Oh, yes, porthas. Abel your constance For love is the law of the universe Listen Don't hand him. Don't hand him. Oh, he's coming back We met this young sprout of callae and raced him back here in the fastest carriage We knew there would be somebody waiting Mr. Constance May I report that the work is accomplished the deed is done Her majesty the queen is safe musketeers About face this young sprout has some more who work to do Oh Your majesty Rise monsieur d'artanian I've heard from my musketeers of your service to our country The house that I appoint you musketeer but What you're already wearing the uniform I was not certain of your intentions sire So I put it on so you could see how well I look in it You are an anxious young man Tell me in exactly what manner did you serve us in france? The sire it was a question of love Of love your majesty Love of one of the queen's ladies mademoiselle constance But I'm afraid she will not have me unless I'm a member of the great camaraderie sire A fourth musketeer Deal monsieur d'artanian Your majesty I louis king of france Appoint you d'artanian one of my musketeers to love To live To fight for france Your majesty I serve you with my life And mademoiselle constance I serve forever Years and years No folk can hide his fears When faced by musketeer Ever sharing strangers through dangers Indeed I can turn or ride a bowman down There's one more all and all for one We stand before united we must begin Lady Dorothy Warnshaw will be back in just a moment Meanwhile our very heartfelt thanks to the other members of our cast Francis X Bushman Bill Conrad Ted DeCorsia Bill Johnstone Carlton Young and to our entire company The three musketeers were booked by William Anthony McGuire lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse and Clifford Gray and music by Rudolf Frimmel was dramatized for The Railroad Hour by Lawrence and Lee And now here again is our delightful leading lady Dorothy Warnshaw Wasn't that romantic though? Well it certainly was Dorothy Frankly I swashed the buckle right off my belt It certainly is good to have you back Dorothy You know we really consider you part of our railroad family Well thank you Gordon and of course you know I never miss one of your broadcasts Tell me what can I listen to next week? Well sir maybe Benzel will be our guest Dorothy and we're presenting the delightful Romberg Hammerstein Operetta East Wind Well now that sounds like a nice breezy show Good night Gordon Well you come back with soon Dorothy All aboard sir it looks like we're ready to pull out And so on to next Monday night and East Wind This is Gordon McRae saying goodbye The three musketeers was presented by special arrangement with the Tams Whitmark Music Library Gordon McRae can be seen starring in Warner Brothers Starlift Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon This is Marvin Miller saying goodbye until next week for the American Railroads Now keep tuned for your Monday night of music on NBC Hear the voice of Firestone with Eugene Conley Next on NBC


Okay, good evening. I'd like to call to order the Monday October 16th regularly scheduled grown slick board meeting to order to my left is Flow Smith my far left is Joe Stob. To my right is Tor Nelson. I'm Brad Town Additions or changes to the agenda tour. I do have one a right-of-way permit for Addison Drive Okay And public comment Hearing none churches report budget status Okay, so I just want to go over I went over it last month that now updated it. This does not include the Pables one tonight And so there wasn't really much change in here, however I was looking at page one as far as the licenses and fees Right now we should be at like 25% in the actual budget And we're at like 23% as far as town clerk And I don't know if we're going to meet our budget on that or not I'm seeing a lot less traffic in the vault and we do have people that are coming in electronically, but still we don't have many places for sale here So I got the feeling that we're not going to be making the full 40,000 Just to give you a work, but you never know. I mean something could happen and it could change And then on that same page pilot revenue I'm still looking for Blue Cross Blue Shield for the second they give us I've sent out a bill to them last month and I sent out a second bill last week So because they're the only one that hasn't paid yet I just want to make you where I'm anticipating they should but I don't know I know there's some changes going on there I don't think that should be a change for us, but that's the only one I'm waiting for There's no other big change in the next few pages. On page four There's a few other things at the very top Ambulance service Contact a very town because they have not sent us any invoices for the year at this point before month's behind and They contacted me today said they will be sending out the invoices In that hundred and thirty one thousand budget hundred twenty one thousand So in November we'll probably have four or five payments so that will come into where it should be And the next section down under town offices The admin advertising is up and a lot of that is because we're advertising for a treasure and assistant treasurer And then under maintenance that at this point is like 45% of the budget However, the mowing is done for the season So I think that that will you won't be seeing any more mowing bills for a few months So come December or probably by January that should be you know at the level that it should be after the year And then general expenses under the tax refunds and abatements, of course, we've had a lot of abatement hearings And so right now it's 14,000 that we've written off And I think there still might be more work-vated meetings in regards to the flood Okay, and then the next column down the police services the overtime is up and we know that and we still think we still might have one person out on family leave and I think the one that was on a workers comp. I think he's coming back either this week or next week So I think that we should be having a full staff Hopefully by the beginning of November so then the overtime should be coming down And then on the next page page five under media and data That expense is higher. It's over budget already However, we've had a lot of issues with the police server and their server has to communicate with the state of Vermont and It has not been working right and I know that our Company architect is still working on it trying to make sure that everything is functioning correctly. I don't know much longer that's going to take And then lower on that page under summer roads I'm looking at the wages for summer roads and overtime right now. All of that really is flood-related There's very very good. That's not especially all the overtime especially is definitely then on page six Highway equipment and structures if you we bought a highway truck You saw that that check I said that check out this week and they do have their new truck And I do believe a lot of that is in the reserves But we can't take out the reserves until the end of FY 24 so though that amount We need for the whole year and then it's not showing in here on this statement However, we did gonna be police vehicle and I put that that's also And that's all the changes that I had Thank you so much for the overview Diane. Oh and just one more thing as far as a flood so far We spent about 717,000 and that's what Okay, any questions for Diane? Thank you very much. Thank you, Diane Tax sales discuss authorization of town bid. I don't know When the last time we had a tax sale come up, so I might be going over this a little bit I don't know Over the elementary for what you need But I don't think I don't know if you ever had a tax sale Actually go through and I was previously on the select board. So it doesn't come up that often Okay But we do have three tax sales coming up on the 25th And what you may not realize is that we as a town or select board Under state statute can put in a bid on these properties if No other bids have come in Might be Property that we want for town business to move for town hall or something to or it might be more of a speculative Nature that you know, we might throw in a bid hoping that you know We can sell it in the future at an easier process than having to go through the entire Taxial process But what are the reasons we do have some options here and I threw in the You know the statute and our policy Describing that We are no way obligated to to or required to put in a bid on any of these three properties And in fact, I would make the recommendation that we do not enter a bid on any of these properties but wanted to Give you Information so you can make an informed decision Which way you want it to go I don't know that we need a motion not to Just Give those three properties They're not listed in our packet though, right? Yeah, they should be should be included in the This is one of the first one Yeah It's just a few pages down in this one underneath the statue Then of these three how many are actual properties is real estate So that's the one on Name The other two are structures The thing else on this there's nothing So the auction the bidding takes on the 25th of October, okay Okay Amtrack visit letter support tour So Tom and I met with representatives from Amtrak about two weeks ago they're at our station in Berlin and We had to interrupt the safety briefing to let them know they were in fact in Berlin at the time There's just a little meet-and-greet type thing they're doing some renovations of the loading platform there but they did You know ask us for a letter of support which I included for their for their budget proposal which I have included Draft in your packet Tonight I've already talked to the Economic Development Council and they're in favor of sending it out And they said they will Change the signs on the station that's now say Montpelier Barry To Montpelier Berlin, so I was happy with that I was gonna ask if they've changed the signs if we sign it That's I think they're gonna change the signs regardless It was bad enough to this in Montpelier, but then when I saw it said bury about to a gasket with them Little sensitive to that could have it out for medical for wings So I will be sending this out in the next couple days Okay, thank you to it Anything else on the Amtrak? Nope. There's a little literature going around that they left with us well on that on the letter of support a motion to Go with the letter of support. I make the motion to move forward with the letter of support Regarding Amtrak has presented to us this evening a second any further discussion all those in favor Motion carries Central Vermont solid waste management district host town agreement draft So we have Dan Casey and thrown lay sleeper with us again We've on the labor here a couple weeks ago talking about Property on Granger Road. They are interested in and we've been meeting with them Reviewing the draft the host town agreement that we think we have about ready to go copies included in your packet tonight Basically we're looking to limit in some areas what they will or at least formally limit what they will Accommodate there's their depot. It will not include a commercial composting facility Limit some of the other items they will not deal with Any class one explosive material small arms ammunition fireworks anything like that They will not deal with poisonous gas Dangerous from what materials? Poisonous solids that have an inhalation hazard And radioactive materials except for your household Smoke alarms and other things carbon monoxide Detectors which usually contain a small source a lot of times it's an americium Those would be allowed because we do want responsible Recycling and treatment of those materials Everything is going to be handled and stored in in accordance with the EPA limits And the management district will abide by the town zoning and land use regulations So they are preparing their application for the DRB poor development review board. Do you have an idea when that's going to be submitted yet or Well, that's going to be once through the same episode. Okay, so they're doing it. Okay Application process Okay a couple of the things they do agree to a pilot And then they will waive the per capita assessment to the town during the time thanks to the agreement That's mainly them big changes. So I Think unless you have concerns about this I'm ready to send this to the attorney to have him take a look at it Any update on your guys aside if you approach your board with it yet or The next board full board meeting is the first week Of next month. So they haven't seen the latest draft of this We're not anticipating that they're getting any issues with it. Um, but Um, yeah, I mean They'll take a look and I figure what It's the first Tuesday of the year First Wednesday Question well actually first state statement is When you guys were down in Paris city and the state of Vermont showed up and asked what did you have on site? And you were able to give them that the list of materials Within minutes of being asked Thank you very much That that makes me feel very easy about you coming to town Um, and I was very happy to see the trained personnel that you're going to have up there to handle this And you have containment systems for the material of which is going to be stored there as well as you have a plan for You know the the whole The transition if you want to call it you do have other maybe Equipment that may not be listed in this agreement Um, you know booms and and shields of some sort. Do we have any drainage DI's up there on site drainage inlets That's during the property or yeah inside not from the inside from the outside So if there was a you know a spill that got You know that got away from you You do have maybe equipment in place to to Fill out to collect so we have spill protocols and okay, um, we usually use some absorbent barriers Yeah, however, I will say that that everything is going to be taken in Undercover on an impermeable surface on concrete So there shouldn't be any anything, you know, unless I don't know a car crashes and Tags rupture or something like that in which case we'd use that absorbent material Well, I think yeah more on the lines of Large amount being transferred to a truck to be hauled off site So it's not like what could happen today or tomorrow, but just down the road when we do that transfer I don't think there are any drainage inlets there I can't recall but we part of the part of the The permitting process will be a survey We're also planning to do an underground survey and find the sewer in our lines So we will be able to report on that once we get a little further Okay Thank you Okay, no, were you folks going to do any soil testing before? Let's see. I recommend a question. The samson is recommending that we do Get a baseline. Yeah Okay, and I understand that it was it was a Spill there while it was a truck stop. Yeah, so we'll do an environment assessment Okay, any questions for these folks? Very good. Okay. Thank you. John. Thank you for your thoughtful response And next there was to be a discussion on a replacement of the town office furnace I was talking with mr Well from well the glass be there steve and he had They have done the service work up here And he was he mentioned that might be time to replace the furnace now I don't know what the board's feelings are on that and I don't even know how much is in the Town hall budget for a building maintenance. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Thank you so much No, I'm sorry matt Okay, so in maintenance, we have $12,000 budgeted and so far we have spent about $6,000 Okay What is the year of the current furnace age, I'm not sure Just really old Well, we're not necessarily we don't necessarily have an issue with it. Do we not right now? Okay the what mr. Look the steve was saying was that um, if you look back Historically, we have had We have spent a lot of money on it and it's getting up in age enough that you mentioned it to me So whether you want to or not is I mean you could look into it a little bit more Um, but it was just I told him I'd bring it up to the select board Did he give an estimation of what he thought it would cost to replace no, you're gonna be well over 10 grand I would say And I would I would suggest that we we budgeted it for next year If that's what the board wants to do Um, do do we get it inspected? We just get it serviced. I think we just have a service. Okay um I might be a uh might do a little digging and see just what the age of that thing is I think at some point it was replaced once I know it not in the last 10 years since I've been here Yeah But I I think years and years ago it was replaced because it I think the uh, I think well the fire chamber uh got Compromised and started to leak Then I think also there was one was there one time that the door somehow got opened And if it free it froze So I don't know. I mean Might be well worth looking into So But I just told might bring it up and now we have a We can budget for it this So I know a facility down the road that we have it inspected and serviced and such I'm also being it's 33 years old and There there are some people that are talking about the age and getting a little nervous about it But during the inspection servicing I'm being told that you're not going to replace it with something that's going to be as efficient Okay, and And there was there's nothing wrong with with that one. Yeah, so that's why I asked if you had it inspected Yeah, or is it just going off somebody who's saying it's it's just old Well, because we'd replace this whole board right now if we're talking about just old Yeah Well, I think I think what he was referring to was some of the some of the Money's we've spent on that furnace. Okay, as far as work goes um Another concern is the older the furnaces get sometimes you cannot get um, they don't support them any parts Parts become scarce. That's why we ended up getting rid of the one across The house wheel oil or gas Okay But anyway, I just thought I told my bring it up. So I did Much appreciated Diane so We're currently about halfway through 50 percent of our 12 12 000 dollars. Do we typically use that up? Yes, yes Okay, because we typically typically put money into our furnace every year. Oh, okay I mean it could be 500 some years but other years is 34 thousand But we do put money to it every year and they normally come to it three times a year And I think even they can inspect it I can't be certain. Were they just servicing it or were they actually doing the inspection? But they are here fairly often to look at it So typically every year we put in 500 to something greater, okay You're replacing When you get a budgeted. Yeah Well, that's why I said I'd bring it up Okay, and anything else on this? If not, we'll move to fema mitigation program potential buyouts So as a result of the floods The state has looked for expressions of interest People who were damaged and would be interested in having their properties spot out by the state We did this about 10 years ago after Irene That's how we got the friendship park. They're off of a mussy road in around 12 basically fema buys out the property or they give us the money we buy out the property the town becomes the owner of the property We remove any structures on there and then Perpetuity it has to be some type of green space or open space or something like that We can't ever build any type of a permanent structure on there To This is all on the outside of the mobile home buyouts. That's a different program There are two properties that have expressed an interest in these buyouts One is 1026 junction road the fair property mobile home on on two acres They came before the board of abatement last week And the other one is msrv on row 12 and they also came before the board of abatement last week They've both expressed an interest in the buyout and Reiterated that interest or at least keeping their options open last week So If the town wants to pursue this We got two potential projects there to move ahead with So They want to take and go through the they want to have the town buy them out I think I mean I I'm you know Trying to figure out what they're looking to do, but I I think they're Interested in keeping their options open at this point I mean, they're you know, they're looking to they had one building that was clearly destroyed and would need to be replaced and if replaced would need to Be raised above the base flood elevation and they've already done a lot of work there as far as raising the building So it's going to be even more Raising that they would have to do So they you know, they expressed interest in still pursuing this, but I think it's just a matter of Keeping their options open. They they have until we actually close on the property to to back out So at this stage of the game, they're not You know by exploring this and us exploring this we're not committing committing to anything um, but It is at best a several month process and in reality Probably closer to 18 months to two year process if not longer three was what I was thinking. Yeah, so um Yeah, I think at this point we're not doing any damage by pursuing this and Um You know SEMA comes out of this so just those two properties at this point correct There was a third one of their clearly on that expressed interest, but they're clearly under the mobile home State process and totally different from this one Well fairs is a mobile home, but because it's a land it's on the land And and the and the state mobile home is capped at 41 000 and their properties a lot higher than that so We're kind of exploring possible hybrid types project But then that the state would take the mobile home And then the land would fall under the the FEMA program, but that's very early there I haven't heard back from them yet on from the state yet on this I think I concur with keeping our options open and theirs too And My only concern about the fairs is The the state mobile home program is moving a lot quicker than You know the FEMA product, you know, like like Diane said we're talking two or three years On the FEMA process whereas this may be done in a matter of a couple weeks Um It's why I want to keep that option open for them. You know, see what well we can get to them the quickest but but still preserving everything that they need so Okay, that's great tour I don't see any vote on that. No, not yet um Okay, if nothing else on FEMA then review of draft pilot policy so um I'm snooping around on other town's websites Um, I came across the berry city council payment and lieu of tax policy um That they adopted back in 2020. I thought it was kind of a Uh Eat little thing and and have a draft here for Roughly based on the berry city policy for Something we may want to consider in the future I don't know if you've had a chance to read through it or not, but it also included I also included the berry city policy and a listing of um, I think just a couple years old of Properties that are exempt in the town And what their work is now some of these we do receive a pilot from already, you know, home health home health and hospice Uh, we cross the shield like Diana was saying earlier But uh, you know the big one the hospital. We don't receive anything from them at all regarding the uh, pilot, um, and they're looking at um Purchasing if they haven't already property on fine street for daycare um You know the waste management district was just in here And I was one of the first things we said well, you're going to have to pay us a pilot if you want to come They were very agreeable to that Uh, and we do a lot of churches in the area. I know that the Career centers looking at a couple different areas of property in town And you know, it just seems to be that everything we do to grow the grand list Somebody comes in and takes more property off of it. So just trying to protect our Interest as as much as possible and and we do still have to provide police service to them We still have to provide fire service to them And you know these the roads and everything like that Absolutely, I think this is a wise move. This is I mean it's technically not really enforceable on them because it's only a A policy uh to have anything With with a real teeth to it Uh would require an ordinance and in order to do that. I think we will need a Charter change to give us a state statute authority over properties that they've previously by statute exempted. So I'm not saying we shouldn't take that eventually take that further step, but I I think that's going to be a much Much longer much more involved Process and I think just puts our expect our expectations out and riding at the very front that you know, we do expect a pilot from us. So This is just a draft for tonight and You know get you thinking about it and we can revisit it at a Future meeting sounds wonderful. Have you seen this thing? Would you be able to Maybe even add to this list but mark the ones that do and don't participate in the pilot That would be wonderful That's excellent, I think this is wonderful put it at the forefront and yes, it may require, you know substantial effort On all parts, but I think in the end it'll be very worthwhile and uh straightforward Anything else on the pilot policy? if not approval of Licenses permits vouchers and applications I make the motion to approve payable warrant 24 g o 8 with checks 23 4 38 to 23 478 For payables in the amount of 354 290 dollars and 95 cents payroll warrant 24 dash o 8 for payroll from september 24th to october 7th of 2023 Paid on october 11th 2023 in the amount of 59,250 and 59 cents and the a ch payment number four to vita For fisher road culvert loan what's that Any discussion Hearing none those in favor i motion carries Approval of minutes from october 18th 2023 wow i had a What do you call that when you jump ahead in time? It should say october 2nd I make the motion to approve the regular select board minutes of october 2nd 2023 As a as presented to us this evening i'll second Will you approve the discussion? If not those in favor all right motion carries Round table floor I was just going to ask if we wanted to discuss as a board and further elaborate on Last week janet richardson last select board she had mentioned about the roads and the concern and People that she knew and the condition of the roads I wondered if we wanted to discuss that further or if you have any update from tim as to whether some of those locations have been looked at and dealt with trace road has Been complete in fact there's a note on from porch forum wonderful. That's good. People are happy with it same with the Muzzy road. I know there's another one that got a lot of interest. So there's great. They're moving along on those That's wonderful. Good to hear That was it for me but I think there was also paint turnpike north And we're still waiting for the state to give their report for Yeah, doing anything correct. Yeah Yeah, that one's on hold awaiting the state Hey joe I'm good. Thank you door uh In the coming weeks, uh, I'll be bringing to you the Revisionings to the animal control ordinance um I know something that's been on my radar for years even before Last time I was on the select board Needing to take a look at that ordinance and do some updates to it. So I'll have some proposed updates for you coming up Last do we the economic development council met to review the Gary Montpelier, which is the the comfort in tax stabilization application um That was approved by the economic development council and will be coming Um before us at the november 6th meeting for approval Um, and also keeping in mind next meeting at the november 6th meeting will be the pre town meeting on the five uh bond boat initiatives And that will be held at the school That is Thank you tour uh Executive sessions. Do you have a right away? Oh, yeah, that's right. Yes. Uh, That's right. Addison drive Two locations on addison drive. This just came in this afternoon 76 addison drive 94 addison drive um It's consolidated I'm using a contractor to install underground Um cabling Uh across the street in those two locations. Um I don't believe tim has had a chance to look at that yet So I would recommend approving on the condition that He approves it That's just they're going boring to the road Okay And I'll make their motion so moved Any further discussion All those in favor all right Motion carries And we do have executive session for um assistant treasure hiring in accordance with Not many yeah one vsa 313 a3 then also for contracts which Uh, we I do um moved that Premature general public Knowledge would place we declared place the select board Involved at a substantial disadvantage And that is motion second Your second second All those in favor going to executive session for personnel and contract not quite yet. This is just the premature public knowledge All those in favor of that all right Motion carries Now I move to go on to executive session for assistant town treasuring in accordance with one vsa 313 a3 and contracts Uh one vsa 313 little a one big a second Any discussion all those in favor all right Okay Motion carries Executive session I make the motion to exit executive session and re-enter a regularly scheduled select board meeting See me second Further discussion all those in favor. I Entertain a motion to adjourn no action was taken on an executive session and I will move to adjourn second All those in favor. All right We are adjourned


My name is John Conching and I'm bringing you another episode of Hospitality of Hawaii, a 30 minute insight into what's been going on with our industry. And usually in the past, I've done it every two weeks, but take a little hiatus. And I think the last show was somewhere maybe at the early part of summer. And I just thought that there was too much verbiage and news going on about the industry. And the last thing I want to do was was regurgitate the same information that was already out in Civil Beat and the Star Advertiser and all the news channels and so forth. So it's been a few months. So now here we are nearing the end of the year. And I thought it'd be a great opportunity to somewhat recap some of the things that have happened throughout the course of the year and also talk a little bit about you know, how different parts of the industry is looking at how 2022 might shape up. So let's give it a whirl. So here we are. You know, if you can even think back on how January of 2021 was, I mean, for me personally being involved in the industry for as many years as I have been, you know, as I look back on what I can remember of the first quarter, it just seemed to be, you know, things were seeming to settle down.  There was a lot of angst and panic. And you know, no one knew how the impacts of COVID-19 was going to, you know, further change our lives as well as change the industry. But it seemed like we got through that. You know, you know, government across the country started to, you know, have a variety of different restrictions, different responses to the pandemic situation. And I think we read every day in the news or definitely every week about the ongoing progress towards vaccines coming in. And so the end of 2020 and into early 2021 held a lot of promise. The vaccines were now available to different groups. And probably by the springtime a good portion of those available in Hawaii could get vaccinated and a lot of them were. So fast forward, you know, I do recall that when we came into spring, the Hawaii industry actually did very well. You know, there was a resurgence of visitors. And partially because there was no one else, nowhere else they could go to. You know, a lot of the other states were either had restrictions or were, you know, imposing a lot of different mandates on visitors. And at that time, Hawaii had eased up a little bit. The Safe Travels Hawaii program had begun just around there. So although there was confusion about the regulations as they differed from county to county, it ended up with a great result. So hotels were very busy, businesses were thriving again, the ones that were open and could open with the different restrictions in place. But spring break right around that Easter Sunday before and after, you know, did very well. And then that trend somewhat continued. And then summer was literally fantastic. You know, there are hotel and industry companies and partners that I've worked with that said that based on the experiences they had in the summer of 2021, they were some of the best summers that that different hotels have had. And and if you somewhat reflect back on some of the statistics that the white tourism authority reported, especially for neighbor island hotels, you know, the room rates and the Maui hotels were through the roof. I mean, high double digit increases from the same July of 2020. And of course, even exceeding July of 19, which was the watershed year for the state. So summer summer did great. Then the usual softness in September, October, and then in November, where although not bad, and you compare to 2019, of course, and it varied, like for example, November was down. Let's see, November results haven't come in. But then September was down 31% in the number of visitors, but only down 15% in total expenditures. October was down 31% in the total number of visitors, and down 15.3% in spending. So although the number of visitors, you know, is still pretty high, the deficit from 2019, because hotels in general have been able to keep their rates up to a respectable level that has eased some of the drop in spending, or the either drop in revenue. Now, neighbor islands have actually benefited from it. So all through this time period during the summer, and as I mentioned a little bit earlier, their rate increases even into the fall, while Oahu room rates have dropped, neighbor island room rates have actually continued to increase in the 15, 20, 30% increases over 2019, which is actually a pretty interesting statistic. But, you know, we don't know how November is going to turn out, but just anecdotally, from what I've been hearing, it seems like it's like October and September, where you've got, you know, generally middle, medium occupancies, and during these shoulder periods, but then you have some spikes and peaks. Like there was definitely a spike over the Thanksgiving weekend and businesses were full. You know, it's interesting how you can somewhat have a gauge when you look at some of the crowds that are at certain places. If you look at the crowds that are in front of Cheesecake Factory on Calacao Avenue, you look at the crowds that are actually queued up and around the corner at Marocame Udon on Cuyo Avenue. I know it sounds a little crazy, but you can actually kind of gauge that. And even the crowds that line up early in the morning in front of point of coffee purveyors on the backside of the international marketplace. But so here we are, December was looking like it's going to was going to be pretty good, but then more news about the Omicron variant and some of the impact that that could have. A couple days ago, Peter Ingram, the CEO of Hawaiian Airlines came out with a press release and an article that was carried about how the different country governments and how quickly they acted with respect to imposing or reimposing some of the restrictions against the potential growth of the Omicron variant has put a little setback in Hawaiian Air's plans now. And I believe they are still going to open up their flights to back to and from Australia, which is great because it had been somewhat suspended or minimized for quite a while. But this is definitely putting a chink in what everyone had thought that market would have produced, especially in the Japan market. Japan is a big part of our success. They'll continue to play a big part in the success of the overall business to Hawaii, but especially Waikiki. And at one point it had looked like that business was going to start coming back before the end of the year, especially over the Christmas and New Year's period. Now everyone's thinking that that business won't start coming back until March, April, May, and then hopefully if things don't escalate on the Omicron variant, then summer will begin to look like a little bit like the summers that we might have enjoyed in the past. So a lot of changes. I think I would personally characterize 2021 as a year where nothing great actually happened. As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of wait and see in the first quarter. There was a big boom in the spring time, a big boom in the summer, and then not a whole lot in the fall. I will say though, for the Waikiki hotels and a lot of the small businesses that are around that area, there's been a somewhat of a little silver lining over this last weekend and maybe for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, it comes as a result of what could be a very serious situation or what is a serious situation but and hopefully doesn't grow into something much larger is the contamination that's occurring in the Redgill area. So last week, the Army and the Navy relocated a number of their Army-based families into Waikiki hotels. There have been statistics that say anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 hotel rooms are being used and were secured at the last minute. And thankfully, it worked out that the hotels had availability that they could accommodate some of these families. But here you have now thousands of relocated military families in Waikiki and are struggling to fit into a hotel room, some with pets, some with families, and then not knowing what the situation is when they can actually get back to their home. For the hotels though and for the residents that are actually employees of the hotels and the shops and the businesses in and around Waikiki, it's been somewhat of a boon because now they can keep people working, they're not going to have that normal early part of December slow down before the holidays. We'll see how that works out and then hopefully it works out to the benefit of everybody and they get everything fixed and these military families are able to get back to their homes safely and within a few weeks. So now as we look at 2022, a very, very interesting year. So the Hawaii tourism has recently issued a couple of RFPs for major contracts. And the first one would be a $22.5 million contract for the marketing and management of its leisure market for the US market, not US only, not including Canada or any of the other areas specifically for the United States. And the other RFP that was issued out was a four and a half million dollar contract for the global marketing and management of the meeting convention and incentive markets for the state of Hawaii. Now both contracts are effective January 1st of 2022 and they are for four years with a one-year option, so a potential five-year. Now the incumbent for both contracts is the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau that I'm sure has also bid on that contract as well. So as we progress in the weeks and months ahead, it will be very interesting to see who the HTA selects to carry on the mission and the objectives set forth in the RFP. Now one thing very different and it will reshape the way Hawaii markets and manages its tourism business is the resident sentiment. So I'll speak to myself first as a resident and secondly as an industry professional. So as a resident it was great to see Honolulu and Waikiki streets not crowded, beaches clean, waters clean, and I know there have been a number of articles about that. Lee Kataluna from Symbol Beach wrote a great article about you know oceans being clean and visitors not being around and in general residents having more of an ownership and kind of regaining back their island or island so to speak. From an industry perspective it was a disaster. So you can imagine you know the industry barreling along 2019 and coming to pretty much a screeching halt in March of 2020, thousands and thousands of people out of work, although supplemented fairly well with unemployment and the various supplemental checks and the various supplemental weekly unemployment stipends that they got. But now that's over. That's over and done with and it's you know there are a lot of jobs open. Hotels and businesses that have stayed open during that time period and all through the pandemic have found ways to survive. They've found ways to survive with less staff. They've been able to optimize the existing team members to service gas. They've curtailed some of the guest services. You know I think most hotels that were open had restricted or limited housekeeping services in the hotel room. Some of them have brought daily maid service back. Others are still on demand. Some are every other day. There's a whole variety of different guest services limitations or or restrictions that are still in place. But you know again the Omicron variant is going to play a very interesting part of our recovery in the business. You know the resident sentiment is upfront and center in the Hawaii Tourism Authority's RFP. It's not all about you know getting as many people in the hotel beds and in the airline seats and spending as much money as was the direction in past years. The pandemic and the institution of these destination management action plans by the Hawaii Tourism Authority for every island county has created a very vibrant platform for the islands and the individual counties to have a say and have input in how they want to see the recovery of tourism. You know the term that's used not just in Hawaii but in many other destinations around the world is regenerative tourism. How do we create a more sustainable regenerative tourism model for our state where in essence the destination is better than it was when the when the visitors leave. How can we educate our visitors pre-arrival during their search as they're searching through what destination, what island, what hotels they want to stay at. During their stay how can we remind them, how can we remind them, how can we work with all the major companies like hotels, airlines, retail merchants, transportation companies. How can we work with them to help us educate those visitors to be more mindful as they're walking down the trails at Manoa Falls, as they're going up the Nepali coastline on the Kapiai Valley, as they're going up to Volcano National Park, as they're going through all the different waterfalls, hiking trails and as they're driving through the neighborhoods. How can we educate them to be more mindful of our natural resources. So that's the challenge ahead for the Hawaii tourism authority. It's a challenge ahead for all of our businesses and it's clearly a challenge to any of the organizations and entities that are bidding on any one of the contracts whether it's the leisure contract or the global meetings and conventions and incentive contract. So we shall see. It'll be very interesting. You know, recently in 2021 there were a number of hotel openings after major construction and renovation. The Turtle Bay reopened, the Holly Kalani reopened and both hotels expecting to see a flurry of visitors that would come in and enjoy their renovated facilities, but that wasn't the case. You know, getting back to the destination management action plan committees. These committees are comprised of individuals and professionals from all walks of life. They come from a diverse range of experiences, a visitor industry included. And it will be both a challenge and a positive experience for the visit industry as they interact with the destination management committees to determine how each island, each county can work more effectively as they move to Hawaii in the future. So it's interesting. There's certainly going to be a lot of change coming up in the future. We're looking forward to a lot of activity and a lot of news information coming forth about the progress of the Omicron variant. And with that, you know, I will sign off and I look forward to bringing you more information and updates as we get them. I will not be having a bi-weekly show anymore, but it will be every few months and I'll work with the Think Tech Hawaii people to provide an update. But until then, I wish everyone aloha, mahalo, hui hou, have a very happy holidays, and Merry Christmas.


This is the SF Productions podcast network Xtrey Xtrey read all about it mouse house buys out Bart Simpson From the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy and I'm Mark You can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife to read comics on itunes or on our website sfpodcastnetwork.com Well the big entertainment story that doesn't involve people doing naughty things is the intended merger Really a takeover of Fox by Disney for what at least at press time was 52 billion dollars? Still needs to get through the shareholders and the feds, but let's assume that all happens without a hitch What does this actually impact now? Fox when we say that is technically known as 21st century Fox and News core. It's the former we're talking about 20th century Fox was formed in 1935 after a merger of Fox film and 20th century pictures 20th century Fox owns them today and also owns The movie and TV production studios and their subsidiaries 20th century Fox home entertainment the Fox TV network Fox News Fox business Fox sports regional channels the Nat Geo channels The Fox owned TV stations 28 of those 50% of end of all shine group a bunch of production companies 33% of Hulu a minority interest in Sky TV, which is UK's major satellite player Star India a media player in Asia and the Fox catalog of TV and movies Disney is technically the Walt Disney Company formed in 1923 and includes movie and TV production studios The Disney parks a merchandising arm the ABC TV network eight owned TV stations ESPN and all its spin-offs Freeform A&E history channel and lifetime. They have a 50% interest in they own them up at studios Pixar Marvel Entertainment and studios Lucasfilm a host of production companies 33% of Hulu they have financial in real estate arms and the ABC Disney TV and movie library. So the question then is what moves over from Fox to Disney? Well in terms of broadcast TV the production studios and their library including current shows Simpsons family guy, but not Futurama because sci-fi bought it earlier this year. Well, that's lucky. Yeah This is us Empire modern family American horror story homeland just examples of current shows and then library of their older shows including the Mary Tyler Moore show Hill Street Blues Mesh 24 Buffy the Vampire Slayer So what happens to the Fox TV network? It stays with news core along with Fox news and the local TV stations That's all to avoid FCC questions because then you have an issue of too much of a close to a monopoly Yes, the problem is that TV networks mostly broadcast shows made by their own studios Because it's really the only way for them to make money on broadcast today. It has to be owned all by the same people Fox would basic as a television network would be an orphan with no home studio So it's predicted they may choose to concentrate on reality and game shows sports and news and possibly phase out scripted programming Entirely over time. Yeah, and then on cable TV the Fox Sports Channels with the exception of FS one Merge with ESPS. FS one is their big sports channel Okay, and a lot of exclusive deals with Major League Baseball NBA and NHL teams Sky the largest media company in Europe Fox owns 40% and the Nat Geo channels and Star India generating a much larger Global reach outside of the Disney parks Disney would become a majority owner of Hulu with Comcast NBC as a minority owner Disney has already stated plans to create their own streaming service with exclusive content such as the Star Wars movies and the Marvel movies by 2019 wither Hulu a Disney sells their piece to Comcast B Disney buys out Comcast and makes Hulu their new service See and this is what I think is going to happen Disney has stated their new service will be family-friendly So they would keep Hulu just for the rest of the programming that isn't family-friendly It would be place to put the Simpsons and Family Guy and other shows that are certainly not family-friendly So they would have both this Hulu that already exists They would have this new service and in fact, they've already said they're going to be a third service That's going to be sports. Wow speaking of the Simpsons Fox owes a huge amount to the show it got their network on the map And they would probably run it until one of the major voice actors dies even if then But Disney owes nothing to the show and ratings are dropping So they might pull the plug after the current contract which currently runs through season 30. They're in season 28 right now Disney could also use Hulu's mechanism where you can add on other services Like you can get Amazon Prime, I think through it and other services and you pay one bill through Hulu Yeah, so they could use that for what we'll call Disney flicks and Disney sports Resulting in a whole new bundling concept Then there's this company called BAM tech, which most people don't know exists But that's the streaming technology that was developed for Major League Baseball And it's basically the state of the art for streaming in terms of background technology It's now used by many players Disney separately went from minority to majority stock order earlier this year So that'll come in handy In movies again the Fox production studio has a lot of franchises the X-Men in Deadpool Avatar Planet of the Apes alien Kingsman Ice Age the original Star Wars aka episode 4 So again, they kept that one piece they sold all the rest of it to Disney, but not episode 4 Yeah, might we finally get an authorized new whole blu-ray minus the special edition So the original edition without all the extra special effects in they would also get the classic Fox Fanfare music may be included in future Star Wars films. That would be great Fantastic Four is in question. It's owned by a production company not Fox, but Disney would have much more leverage to control it The movie library home alone die hard night at the museum Those are all possibilities for more franchising Fox searchlight has won three best picture Oscars in the past decade. No Disney film has ever done that Then there are the parks and I think you can assume some of the Fox properties will show up at Disney World Universal just spent millions building a Simpsons World of Springfield section of the Orlando Park Now they have a current contract, but will Disney renew such a contract when it comes up or say nope We want that now There's also comic book publishing Disney already owns Marvel obviously But Fox bought a minority stake in boom entertainment earlier this year boom does mostly licensed properties Will Disney sell out their state or try to buy it out and create a Marvel imprint called boom These are all possibilities and we just don't know until we get there. Yeah Yeah, it's probably a year out. Yeah, and even if all of it is approved by the FCC and and the stockholders Still a little bit of leeway there, but you can imagine that we'll be talking about that in the future Oh, yeah, and in the meantime, you can check out our audio podcast How I got my wife to read comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm from the pop culture bunker I'm indy and I'm mark. Thanks for watching