So thank you again for inviting me and thank you everyone for staying right until the end. My talk is titled, Using Isostatic Announces to Investigate Diet and Disease in a Medieval German Poor House. This research comes out of a paper that I published in December in Bioarchaeology International. What do I want to talk to you about today? I'm going to talk about what do I mean by poor house? I want to introduce you to my site. I want to talk about the health and diet data that came out of this project. And then what can we say about their lives? What I want to start with though is a question for everyone here. Just reflect for a moment, think back to yourself to a time when your socioeconomic status changed and your diet changed as a result. So this could be when you left the care of your parents and suddenly your diet was not as good as it was. You were putting yourself through school and suddenly ramen noodles were the only things that you were eating. Your diet changes. So there are times in our lives when our socioeconomic status impacts our diet. And when we're thinking about isotopic data we have to think about significant long-term changes as a result. So what do I mean by poor house? Well poor house was the earliest form of social care that we see in this place in time. So not yet a hospital, not where there are caregivers per se, but more just consistent food and shelter for those individuals who could not care for themselves, who could not afford their own food or shelter. So this would include widowed women and their children, elderly who didn't have families to rely on. It could be people who are sick but not really sick, not terminally ill, just unable to take care of themselves for a period, and also the disabled. And what got me thinking about the bioarchaeology of care of course came out of this text. And I really like this quote because it applies really well to this research project. Community responses to care requirements are affected by cultural norms, belief systems, and access to resources. So again consider for yourself when as a community member you've taken care of other members of your community, whether that's by giving donations or perhaps if you attend services you may pay tithe, you may give to hurricane relief, those kinds of things that come up where we act as a community in response. And we have all different kinds of reasons why we feel we need to provide that care. So we need to look at why this community would care for people in a poor house. So there was this Christian obligation to give to charity, to give alms. And it was part of your spiritual salvation. So if you want to go to heaven you better give up some of your wages. There is a big important distinction here between people who deserved charity and people who did not. So who can tell me who would not deserve charity in a medieval community? Prostitutes. Prostitutes, you're out, you're not being cared for by the community. Drunks, vagrants, people who are deserving are those good Christians who for whatever reason are on hard times, down on their luck. Those are the people that get into the poor house. And the people funding the poor house include wealthy residents in the community. They include trade guilds. So if you are part of a brewer or a baker guild, you may be contributing to a poor house that would support people from that trade and their families later on in life. Or possibly lay religious orders as well are helping to run and contribute to these. Poor houses. So the poor house I'm talking about specifically today is in Regensburg, Germany. So the southeast there along the river. That was a picture of it top right last Monday when I got to visit it. Which I was very excited about because originally when I did the data collection for this I only got to go to the museum in Munich. I never actually got to the city. That bridge is a 12th century bridge still standing. I highly recommend a visit to the city if you can make it. How did the skeletal collection get discovered? Well, it was a cemetery sometime between the 12th and 16th century. After that it became a garden. I don't have soapworks on there, but it was a soapworks from a while. People forgot that there were people buried there. It became a parking lot. And then that apartment complex had to go up in 2006. And they discovered almost 500 burials in that parking lot. And for my project I was able to sample 111 individuals as well as some of the fauna remains that were mixed into gray fill that date to that same time period. So how do we know this cemetery was a poor house? Well, there are several lines of evidence we're pulling on to make that conclusion. One is that there is no physical evidence of a church or a monastery in the immediate area. We don't expect a community cemetery to have a chapel or church or some kind of structure nearby that doesn't exist. It was also located on what would have been the city's fringe. So you don't put a poor house and poor people in the middle of the city. You would put them on the edge of the city and that's where it was. And there are historical documents that suggest that people were living in willing poverty nearby as well as the cherry office or the alms office actually owned the land right up until the 1800s. So those are the pieces of evidence we're drawing on to conclude poor house. So why did I get involved in this research? There were sort of two questions that I pursued. The top one I was looking at whether or not isotope values can be affected by pathology because if they can be that's a big deal. Turns out not so much unless you are directly sampling lesions which we don't like to do anyway because the lesions are the coolest things to look at. So if you avoid the lesions you're more likely to get a representative sample. I also wanted to look at this segment of society so it's not often we can take a population and say we know for sure that this is a minority population within this larger society. So what can we learn about the medieval poor by looking at these individuals? And we know there are norms around taking care of people in the medieval period. So here is a frequency of the kinds of pathology that were observed in this population. So in my sample of 111 you can see the most prevalent disease there is dental pathology, so curious lesions, painful but not necessary terminal, and then followed by degenerative joint disease, so non-vertible joint disease. So basically saying these people are aging but not necessarily showing, there's no signs of lots of trauma. Trauma is pretty low. There is one congenital disease so top right there, craniocynostosis. There are more individuals with craniocynostosis in this population than we would expect in a regular population, but we don't know for sure because of the different ways that this presents, whether or not it had a cognitive impact on these individuals. So we can't say for sure how disabling that particular instance is. So there are a few other pictures there of the kinds of pathology that we were looking at in this population. So moving on to paleo diet, I wanted to interpret the dietary practices of all of this group of individuals using stable isotope analysis. So there was more stable isotope expertise in the room than I expected from the titles. So bear with me, think you are what you eat.  If you give me your pinky finger, I can tell you without asking. So I looked at both carbon and nitrogen data. The carbon, what is the biggest difference we're looking for in medieval populations? It's the difference between C3 plants and C4 plants. C3 plants are most plants and vegetables, fruits. C4 plants, the two big ones of course are millet and sugarcane. We would not expect much sugarcane consumption in this population at this time. Millet was a socially inferior food. So that's why it's interesting because if we see it in this population, we have another line of evidence that this was a really poor segment of society. For nitrogen isotope data, we're looking at protein source. So are you eating mostly terrestrial? Are you relying on freshwater or marine water fish? How carnivorous is your diet? I would like to explain my isotope graph. So you have carbon values on the x-axis, nitrogen on the y-axis. So as the individuals move up that y-axis, you're getting more protein in the diet. As you're moving down the x-axis, you're getting more C4 plant foods in the diet. So this is just example data. Can you find this individual? See if you can find that person on this graph. So you can read isotope data. So the first number is carbon, the second number is nitrogen. That individual is up there. How many people got it? A couple. Yeah, it's excellent. If we were going to interpret this data, this example data, we would notice that there are two distinct populations. Often isotope data is not this pretty. So what are my actual results like? This is the Regensburg data. So you can see there's 111 circles up there. The human average is the blue dot in the middle. The funnel samples are also mapped on this graph. And what we know right away from looking at this is if those human circles were overlaid on top of my funnel data, we would know everyone in Regensburg was a vegetarian. They're not eating meat. But because they're much higher, we know that they're eating terrestrial animals, or at least some kind of protein like milk or eggs. I have a pig and a cat, the square and the X there. And humans are much higher than that. I'm not saying that they were eating cats. That's not that at all. But we know that from this visual, that these individuals were eating a diet that's even more than a terrestrial carnivore. So we're thinking that this means there's freshwater fish in this diet. We don't even have any fish bone samples to map on here to confirm that. But because it is higher, I suspect there's at least some freshwater fish. This is what it looks like when you break it down by age and sex. So if you look at the very top, you can see that the infants, the youngest people in this population, are the red cross at the top, so much higher at one trophic level above the parent population. Why is that? Breastfeeding, right there, carnivorous little animals, those babies consuming their mother's tissues, so they're one step higher. Another thing to notice, and I know the data is really tight, that tells us that there isn't a lot of variation in this population, but you can notice that my males of both ages are virtually identical in their diet. The women of the two different age groups differ by about half per male. And my juveniles between 5 and 20 years are the lowest in protein consumption in this graph. So we can come back to that. I did a quick regional comparison just with data from the literature to see how different Regensburg was from other nearby contemporaneous populations. So we see that we have basically very similar carbon values here and a little bit of variation in nitrogen, but nothing hugely different. So coming back to those norms, we have to think about what were the rules around food during this period. So for the German poor, they were considered able to handle a coarser diet. And I put coarser in quotations, but coarser meant things like beef, millet, oats, cabbage, chestnuts, beans, and turnips. Not necessarily coarse foods, in my opinion, all the time. Animal proteins across the board were considered appropriate pretty much for all classes. So things that we would expect in the final evidence we have match up here. Again, we still don't know for sure how much would have been milk eggs versus actual access to terrestrial meats. I have millet highlighted there because when we did some isotopic modeling with this data, we found that there was probably, maybe about 25 to 30% of this population probably consumed a little bit of millet. You can't really read that from the data that I showed you, but it's there when you do some of that cluster modeling. So of course, staffs and laws would have been in effect. How well people adhere to them is another question. Everyone has agency, but the thought that there is fresh water fish in the diet that perhaps these individuals were sticking to a more strict diet. It is a surprise that we see no marine fish in the diet because at this time there was bigger trade in cod and consumption of marine fish, but it's not here. It's not at Regensburg. And the last thing I wanted to touch on was whether or not foods would be appropriate based on age and sex of an individual.  We can't do any fine detail analysis from isotope data on that, but I do put the question out there. We do see some of this difference between the juveniles, the younger individuals, and their parents. So the individuals between 5 and 20, they have the lowest protein consumption. Is that because they have the lowest socioeconomic status in this group, so they're just not getting access to protein like their older counterparts, or if there's something in the social rules around whether or not it's appropriate for people of this age to have the same kinds of protein? And same with the women in this group. Is there a reason why we might be seeing this little bit of difference? So just to conclude, the individuals in this group were aging and inferred, but they were not critically ill. They have unique, but similar diets to those sites in surrounding areas. There's definitely a big range in access to dietary proteins, over a 5-perma range there. No marine foods and slight trends in age and sex. We see a minor consumption in that socially inferior food, which can suggest that these poor house residents may have been from diverse backgrounds. So go back again to that question I said at the beginning, when you have a change in your socioeconomic status and your diet changes to adapt, that could be what's happening here, right? So we're actually seeing the diet from before they made it to the poor house. They may have only been in the poor house for a short period of time. Children perhaps, or elderly who lived a longer time, may have had more time in the poor house, but it could be a reflection of that diet before they fell on hard times. Thank you.


Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, fighting the many enemies of nature. This is the job of the guardian of the forest, Ranger Bill, pouring rain, freezing cold, blistering heat, snow, floods, bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions. Yes, all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. This time of the year is always a dangerous time for young people who love to take chances, especially who live out in the country or in the suburbs of a city like Notty Pine. The great shady river flows swiftly by the city and it seldom, if ever, freezes over. It's too swift and powerful to allow ice to form, except along the edges. The river does carry huge chunks of ice rapidly downstream, however. The people of Notty Pine have long expressed a desire to have the river fenced off where young people could get into trouble with these ice flows. And our story today is about what happened while people were arguing who was going to pay for it. So we bring you the story of Prisoner on Ice Island. Right now the mayor of Notty Pine and the alderman in his council are in session over this very thing. Mr. Mayor, I hear a petition here signed by 50 residents of Forest Hills Park, demanding that the city of Notty Pine fence off the banks of the shady river adjacent to their properties. Gentlemen, please, let's wait until the floor is open for discussion to make comments. Go ahead, Bob. I have another petition signed by the 200 residents of Pine Hills requesting the same action. It's my opinion that these petitions should be given serious consideration at once, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Robert. Gentlemen, I agree with Bob that we should do as the steering committee suggests. The problem of fencing off the banks of the shady river to protect the children has come up several years running. And I think we should do something about it. Mr. Mayor, the alderman from the fourth ward. I move that the city ask for bids right away to fence off these areas before somebody's children drown. Can I demand immediate discussion of the problem before the chair asks for seconds for the motion Neil made? We can discuss the matter just as well after a second as before. Can't we, Fred? No, I'd like to stop this thing before it starts. Well, I must say that's a bit irregular. Seems to me you're putting a price on children's lives. That is not the question at hand, sir. Why should the whole city pay for fencing that'll benefit only a few? Well, we can't overstate that. Very well. If the alderman from the fourth ward is willing to hold his motion over, we'll put the question in special committee. I so do. Thank you. Fred, Neil and Hal, will you three gentlemen serve on my special committee to bring the solution of this problem before the council one week from today? Mr. Mayor, I object. You're out of order, Fred. The matter's in special committee. I want the facts one week from today. Hey, folks, and now the pine are getting kind of head up over this here fencing problem. You mean fencing off the river banks? Yep. That's what I mean, sonny. No, the kids won't fall in. Ah, that come up now for a third time. No, I'll say it has. Look here at this article in the paper. Boy, some of the people are sure getting excited. One alderman says, why should the whole city pay for fencing the river off when only certain sections are benefiting? Maybe he's got a point, and maybe he hasn't. Seems to me he'll do the whole city some good. How much would a fence like that cost, anyhow? I don't know.  Maybe Bill knows something about this when he comes back. He did mention something about making a turn along the river so as he could get a look at the ice flows. Well, that there ice is pretty dangerous stuff along the river bank. And up in the tributaries, too. That there are floating ice draws youngsters worse than a fire. Me too bad if one of them fell in. Mightn't find his body till spring. It's here. It looks solid. It's dangerous. Oh, what's the matter, Pat? Are you afraid? No, I'm not afraid. My dad says we should stay away from the river ice because it's dangerous. That's right, Rick. My pups is the same thing. You can't tell how strong the river ice is along the banks.  I'll show you guys. Don't do it, Rick. If you fall in, you'll never get out. What's the matter? You chicken? Don't do it, Rick. Look, it's hauling. I'll go out some more. Let's get him before he gets out any more, huh, Slim? Yeah, right around the back of him. Don't you guys try to get me? Come back, Rick! Look out! Ice is breaking right back over the edge of the ice and hang on, huh? I couldn't get him out. Ice keeps breaking off. I know. We'll make a human chain. I'll go first. Slim, you hold onto my ankles. Mark, you hang onto Slim's ankles. Sid, you hang onto Mark's ankles. You got it, okay? Keep swimming, Rick! Let's catch up with Bill Jefferson. Bill's just coming out of a shallow valley and heading across an open clearing. Suddenly, he spies Lefty and Sam running like scared rabbits. He senses that something might be wrong.  Lefty and Sam come to abrupt stop. Bill breaks into a run so he can find out what's up. What's wrong? Rick's in the river. I gotcha. One boy's in the river. The other boy's trying to pull him up, right? That's all right. He's running to the nearest house in town. Get him to take it and arrange your headquarters. Tell the fellas there what's happened.  I'm getting near the edge of the ice. As soon as I grab, Rick starts pulling easy. If the ice gives way, pull back hard. I can't hold on anymore. The arms thresh rapidly through the freezing water. He not only has to keep an eye on the half-frozen boy, but also watch the large pieces of ice so he doesn't get hit in the head. Bill turns on all his 200 pounds of muscular power and he soon overtakes the drowning boy. He grabs a hold of Rick's hair and heads for shore. Meanwhile, Sam and Lefty are carrying out Bill's orders. They burst into ranger headquarters like frightened deer. Rick's in the water. Red hat. Tell what's wrong. Big home's fell in the river. Man, the river's colder than the North Pole. We take fire engine plenty quick. It got blankets and everything we need. Let's go boy! Stumpy, you get boys in cab. I drive. The blanket around me, Gray Wolf. It's heavier blanket and you plenty chill. I'll take I am. Right by the bone. Henry, how's Rick? He's coming around fine, Bill. Stumpy and I gave him a good going over with rough towel. Oh, sure we did! The way we rubbed him down was a circular... Rick, I want you to be quiet. No talk, you understand? Yeah. Let's get him into the truck and head for the hospital, fellas. The Sandy River lost its victim. Yeah. Thank the Lord. The winner isn't over. Mayor speaking. Wait till someone falls in the river and goes all the way down. You tell them they better get that fence up and get it... You tell that there's any council to get that fence up. I've lived here and I on to 50 years and I tell you the river's getting on every year. And that's what I've been trying to do for a week now, old timer. But I haven't gotten very far thanks to Fred Petrie. Sure I'm sorry to hear about the narrow escape Rick Holmes had. Who wouldn't? It doesn't change my feelings one particle about this fence, Fred. Agreed. I don't see why. We will live three miles from the river. Should have to pay for fencing off the residential areas along the river banks. It's absurd. Gentlemen, gentlemen. Will you please come to order? Gentlemen! Certainly you should be ready to vote on the question of fencing off the residential areas along the Shady River after the narrow escape Rick Holmes had. We could very well have lost a courageous and fine ranger, Bill Jefferson, by the same token. I have received literally dozens of phone calls voicing pro and con opinions on this subject. We can't ignore our responsibility any longer. And so at this point, I'll ask for the special committee appointed by me to report on this fencing problem. Fred, go ahead. You're the chairman. Mr. Mayor. Hal and I have secured bids for the fencing end of the proposed area along both banks of the Shady River. The bids were all very close to each other. Now the one we recommended is by the Simmons Company. Their bid is $10,000. And we've recommended it because it best meets the city engineer's specifications. You have heard the committee's report. Are there any questions before we put it to a vote? Mr. Mayor. The chair recognizes Ottoman Petri. I don't have a question right at the moment. We'll come later. I do, however, want to make a statement. Proceed. You have the floor. I want it clearly understood that the manner in which I gave the committee's report in no way reflects any change in opinion on my part over the problem at hand. I merely acted as appointed by the Mayor. And if this thing comes to a vote, I will most certainly vote against having the city as a whole pay for the project. I'll cage your conscience while you are working on the special committee. I agree with you. Because someone has a near tragedy, isn't there any reason to levy a special assessment against all the citizens of Nadi Pine? I don't believe in the taxation of money for the benefit of a few. You believe in the taxation of a few for the benefit of many? You know as well as I do that children from all over the city visit the river to play on the ice. My son doesn't. We live five miles from the river. Yeah? How do you know that he never will? Please gentlemen, if you wish to speak, address the chair. I move that we have an oral vote on this proposition. Now, second that motion. All right. You've heard the motion and the second. Are you ready for the question? Yes. Nothing on the question? You have anything to say, Fred? Go ahead. Put it to a vote. All those in favor of an oral vote say, I. I. Opposed? No. No. Well, it looks like everybody's... I am out of taking of ballots. Tellers, pass the ballots. The motion again is that the city build a protective fence on both sides of the shady river within the city limits that cost to be paid for out of city funds. Gentlemen, gentlemen, here's the result of the ballot. The teller is fine. There are five against, four in favor, and three ballots unmarked. The motion is lost. Meetings adjourned. I'd like to see Alderman Petrie in my office this afternoon. Be glad to, ma'am. I also wish to say I didn't fight the test vote because I wanted everyone to see for himself that the council is deadlocked on this issue. Hey, Gene, this ice here looks real thick. Yeah, it sure does. I'd say it's about six inches, huh? You're right, Gene. I'd say it's plenty safe. Oh, yeah, sure. This is solid ice. Not rubber ice like that stuff Ricky fell through. Those little kids don't know how to take care of themselves. You think we can go out a little farther? Oh, sure, it's okay. Look, I'll stamp my heel on it. See, it doesn't crack a bit. Little do the boys realize that when Gene stamped his heel down on the ice, it did crack. Not on the surface, but underneath. Now as Gene and Stan walk out on the ice, their weight weakens the already cracked joint. An island of ice glides out into the swiftly running river. Gene and Stan are prisoners on an ice island. Suddenly one of the boys on the riverbank yells, Hey, you guys! Once Larry yelling, Whoa! We're falling down. You never! Right on the middle. Hey, you guys! Let it get up! Go get my dad! And get Ranger Bill! Hurry! We don't want to go down to the rapids. We'll get help right away! Boy, what a mess we're in. Well, what'll we do? Well, let's try to paddle to our chair with our hands. Come on. No! Your hands will freeze. And don't get near the edge. Remember what happened to Rick. You're right, Stan. What can we do? There, there, there's just nothing we can do. Except stand still, so this cake of ice won't tip over. Fred, I guess you know of why I asked you to come to my office. Yes, mayor, I do. But I'm telling you, it's no use. But you're the leader of the opposition group.  The ones who abstain from voting. It's no use, mayor. I won't do it. Why? You know why. The people in the wards away from the river don't benefit one mile to buy a fence. Their children don't play along the river. Are you sure they don't, Fred? Certainly, I'm sure. Do you think my son would travel five miles to play on the river ice? Ridiculous.  Hey, hey, Fred. Hey, Neil, what's the matter? Fred, I just got a phone call about your son. What about him? He and another boy got onto the ice in the river. It broke off and they're floating down with the current. What? They'll drown. Neil, I'm going after Fred. He'll need help. Call the rangers, will you? Right. I'll be with you just as soon as I can. Right now. Will you all right when you last saw them? Yeah.  I'm going after those boys. I'm getting awful cold. We should move around to keep warm. No. We've got to stand still. Moving around might crack the ice or tip it over. Yeah. And I forgot. I sure hope help comes soon. I'm getting scared. Me too, Stan. You know something? I think we're going faster all the time. Sure we are. Crout's faster here. Pretty soon we'll hit the big bend. And then we'll head right for the rapids. Yeah. Now after the rapids is dead man's gorge. Is that all, Larry? That's the whole story, Bill. How long ago did Mr. Patri leave you? About five minutes ago, I think. Sonny, that river ain't waiting for nobody. We're taking off after them right now in the trucks, zombie. Neil, you bring the mayor and these boys with you. All right, let's go, Grey Wolf. Hop in. Aye, ready. Head for the bridge. We ought to be able to spot him from there. Fred races along the highway to the bridge. Bill, Henry, Grey Wolf and Stumpy are about seven or eight minutes behind him. Fred has a million thoughts racing through his head. Thoughts mostly about the safety of his son. Then another thought enters Fred's mind. Who'd ever thought this would happen to Gene? If only that fence was up. Oh, there's the bridge ahead. Maybe I can spot him from there. Fred's car shoots up onto the long bridge and slows down. Fred looks up the river first and doesn't see the boys on the ice float. Then he looks down the river and his heart jumps with joy. There they are, about two blocks below the bridge. He steps on the gas and takes off across the bridge. Fred's car races to the other side of the bridge and down the road along the river. Soon he overtakes them and gets ahead. He slows, slams on the brakes, jumps out of the car and heads for the river. Gene and Stan find new hope as they watch the car stop and a man jump out. Quickly they glide opposite the place where the man's standing. Hey look Stan, that man sees us. Maybe we'll get rescued. You think so? I sure hope so. I'm so cold I don't know if I can stand up much longer. It's going to be hard. We're right out in the middle now. Gene, Gene, can you hear me? Hey, it's Dad. I wonder how he's going to get us out of here. Can't swim too well. He'll get tired out before he gets here. Push the gas pedal in the floor, Grey Wolf. Boys get around the bend before we get to him. It'll be a tougher job to get him off that ice float. Ah, not able to go much faster, but I'd try. What's Fred trying to do, Bill? Great Scott. I hope it's not what I think he's trying to do. He's not jumping in, is he? Oh no, he won't make it. That won't help matters anyway. He thinks he's lies across from the ice. First piece ice, alright? Larry goes to the second. He made it, standing up. It sure takes a lot of courage. He goes again. He made it too. No, it's too far. He'll never do it. He's going anyhow. He made it. There ain't no one look at him. Something's wrong. He lost his balance. That piece of ice is too small. He's in the river. Grey Wolf, race another half mile and stop the truck facing the river. Stumpy, Henry, climb out the back of the cab and get the long ropes ready. Grey Wolf and I will tie the ropes around our chest. You fellas tie the other end of the ropes to the front bumper. Then we'll try to get the three of them holding onto the ropes. The current will swing us ashore. It'll knock. I'll be sure to lock the brakes after the truck stops. It's likely to be fast if we're gonna make it. Oh, you're right. River bend just ahead. If we miss them, they go into dead man's guards plenty quick. Get a move on, fellas. Grey Wolf and I will have to be in the river and swing seconds after the truck stops. The truck to a sharp stop. Locks the brakes. Stumpy and Henry have tied bowling knots into the ends of the heavy ropes. Grey Wolf and Bill grab the ropes and put the loops under their arms as they run for the river bank. Two men draw the loops tight around their chests and into the river they go, clothes and all. Soon the two expert swimmers are in the middle of the freezing river. Grey Wolf grabs Fred and begins to swing ashore like a huge pendulum.  With all his strength, he fights to rest it from the control of the river currents and headed toward shore with the boys on it. The rope tightens and strains. Can we help you do it? No. Just stand still. Bill, I hope you can do it. I can't do it, fellas. The river's too strong. Grab the rope. Jump in. Hang on. I'll help the hold. I'll keep you tight against it. Quickly the rope reaches the full length of the arc and strains. The rope holds and the fellas begin swinging toward the river bank. The boys against the rope and holding them, helping them to hold on. Finally Bill's feet strike shallow water and he pushes the boys ahead of him to safety. Henry and Stumpy wade into the river and give Bill a hand with the half frozen boys. It's okay now, young man. We've got you. It's more than easy. You're inside ground now. Let's get everybody into the cabin. Head for the hospital. All the members of the polar bear club today now we're recovering, Mayor. Boy, I'm sure glad we got out of that mess. Yeah. Bill, I guess you've had more than your share of swimming in refrigerated water, haven't you? I sure have, Mayor. If I knew this was gonna happen, I'd have paid for that fence myself. Which reminds me, there's something I gotta do. Mayor, I want to put a motion on the floor. You have the floor, Fred. That is, if the dock lets you get out of bed. All right, I'll make the motion from my bed. I move that we get the fencing project started at once. Tell the council all my objections have been overruled. I know what you mean, Fred, and I think we've got enough Alderman in this room to carry the motion. Are you ready for the question? Question. All in favor of Naughty Pines building a protection fence along Shady River and the city bearing the full expense, say aye. Aye. Contrary, no. Motions carried. We'll vote aye on that, too, Mayor. See you next week for more adventure with...


So I joined the Air Force for a multitude of reasons really. I joined because I have a tradition of serving in my family. I have grandfathers that served. Two great-grandfathers that were in World War II. My family comes from a tradition of public service. My dad's a paramedic. He's also a firefighter. All my cousins are firefighters. My uncles are firefighters. So serving the country and the public is something that I was brought up in. It wasn't something that was mandatory, but it was definitely something that was encouraged as something positive to do in your life and lots of others. And I didn't like school at first. I didn't like high school. I didn't was a very good student and I didn't want to keep going to college. And so I decided that the military sounded good for me and then the Air Force sounded like my best option. So I've been for almost three years. I'll be hitting my three years in the next month. And I am a senior emin or E4. So my AFC is one Charlie six X1 also known as space systems operations. I got this job in depth. I got the job and I waited a year to leave for basic training because I still had to finish high school. So when I sat down with our recruiter and made my list, this was my number one job. I wanted to do space. I didn't know a lot about it. There's not a lot of info about it, but it sounded really cool. After that, I had several other jobs, but this was my absolute favorite. So the rest of my list looked pretty similar to the job I have now. It was all intelligence or cyber operations or more in technically focused jobs like that. So I believe I had like cybersecurity, cybersecurity, knowledge, operations, operations, intelligence, stuff like that. So it's kind of for your contract. I already had A1C coming in because I had the opportunity to JROTC in high school. So there was a little motivation for me to sign a six. So I signed a four. I took school to that Vanderbilt Air Force Base in Wampoak or Santa Maria, California, depending on who you talk to. It's about two hours north of Los Angeles and about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara. The next school for me was four months, but the talk around the career field is going to be up to six months in the next year. I really enjoyed my time out of Vanderbilt. It was a really, really great opportunity. Central California is beautiful. And I was there at a really cool time of the year. I got to see Vanderbilt if not a lot of people know this, but Vanderbilt is considered the western range. So it's one of the two areas in the United States that we launch major rocket systems. So I got to see several rockets golf while I was there. I just got to spend time on the beach traveling down to Los Angeles, traveling to Santa Barbara, just really enjoying the Central California region. The school was challenging. It teaches you a lot of observation that you never learned at school. It's very rewarding. It was very interesting. It's something I've been into my entire life. I always loved space. I was at posters of astronauts everywhere and rockets and stuff. So getting a little bit of a taste of that world at 18 was a really, really cool opportunity. So there's several ways that the R bases scale in my career field. So it starts out where you just basically have five options. You have Buckley Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, Shreve Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Vanderbilt Air Force Base in California, Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. After your first assignment, you have the option to do a couple of fall assignments and those brought to Beale Air Force Base in Northern California, Cape Cod Air Force Base in Cape Cod. Truly Air Base, which has a remote one-year assignment in Northern Greenland, Clear Air Force Station, which is in Northern Alaska. And then several smaller joint assignments that are more difficult to get, but possible. But those are pretty much your major bases that you're going to be rotating between for most of a career in my career field. Space systems operations is really interesting because no two bases or units do the same mission. You could work at a radar in California or in Cape Cod or in Toolier and Clear, where you're basically watching for missiles to come over the horizon. You could work at GPS, which is running the GPS system. You could work for satellite communications. You could do other forms of missile warning, so a lot of different things you can do. But while the missions change and the mission areas change, the primary way it works is you go into a secure facility because all of our stuff is secret, mostly.  So a lot of it's inside, all of it's inside really. It's looking at computer screens, manipulating data, analyzing data, lots of things. But it's just you at a console looking at a screen doing whatever they've trained you to do. So it's inside for 8 to 12 hours a day for however many days in irritation. Some units do 4 days, some units do 5 days. Some you only come in for the weekdays. A lot of them you work on the holidays. It depends. Someone's always going to be doing it because these things don't just turn off at night. So it's a lot of shift work. It's a lot of sitting down, doing whatever they train you to do. So what's helping me is learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. Talk to engineers. Our career works with a ton of engineers. These are civilians that have been doing this forever. They've got huge brains full of information to ask them questions, learn about the system, talk to people that have been around for a while, depend on them. They know their job better than you do. So listen, pay attention, write things down if you need to, ask questions, but just keep learning. There's so much rich information for you to discover and become good at. Skills you can always be honing but you're not going to get good at this kind of job unless you're learning. You're pursuing the information about your system that you work on, other systems taking opportunities to do professional military education. Not necessarily bigger for stuff, but just big stuff about what you do, how space works. It's a very complex environment. It's a new environment. We're still learning about it, but trying to be on the cutting edge of that and trying to get yourself involved in any opportunity you can have to go out and learn and just keep learning, keep asking questions, keep seeking opportunities. And when you start out, we'll hold that stuff sounds really exciting, should absolutely be doing it, but also just learning your job. Look to the guy next to you who's been doing this for a long time, ask him questions, do what he does, learn how to do the job, grow on that knowledge, build that knowledge, then grow, expand out and just learn, just keep learning. It'll provide you so many opportunities if you're the guy who has the answers. It opens so many doors for you and it makes you feel confident because when someone asks you a question, you can either know the answer and can give them the answer or you know the person to go talk to that has the answer.


Okay, so how many moles of oxygen are in 12.23 grams of water? Okay, so on the surface, this might seem like a very difficult problem, okay? But in actuality, it's only a couple of steps that you need to know, okay? So if you look at the periodic table, that will tell you most of the information that you need to know for this problem. The first thing I would do is figure out the molecular weight of water, okay? So how do I do that? Molecular weight of water, okay? Well, we remember how to calculate the molecular weight, hopefully, right? We add two hydrogens because there's two hydrogens of water. So two times the atomic weight of hydrogen. So H, two times H plus one oxygen there, one times O. The periodic table will know that hydrogen plays 1.008 AMU. Oxygen, of course, multiplying one times anything is itself, so we don't have to put that one there. Oxygen is 16.00 AMU. If we add those two numbers together, we get 18.02 AMU. I just did that in my head, but I would suggest you guys do it on your calculator just to make sure that you know what's going on, and I got the right answer. Okay, so we would do the two times 1.008 AMU. So what is... I mean, you guys can talk, we can talk, but I mean, we can talk about it afterwards. That's 12.23 grams in here, is that... Wait, that's not this cool, and the question isn't finished yet. Oh. This is fit... I figured out something totally different than what I'm saying. This doesn't say anything about moles. All right. Okay, so let's just finish the problems, and then we can ask as many questions as you want, okay? I mean, but if not, we can talk as much as we want to. Everybody else is seriously too, forever, you know? Think about that. Okay, so now we've got this 18.02 AMU, right? The thing we know is the amount of AMUs is going to be equivalent to the molecular weight of the... or the molar mass of the contact. So the molar mass of water is going to be equivalent, but it's going to have different units. The units are going to be grams per mole. So we're going to have 18.02 grams per one mole. Like that. That's the molar mass. So now we'll figure out what this 12.23 grams had to do with anything. So the next thing we've got to do is figure out how many moles of water we've got. How do we figure out that? So the variable for water or moles is N. Okay, so I'll just put N of water. N means moles of water, do we have? 12.23. And we've got a conversion factor that takes grams to moles, right? We're going to get the number of moles of water. 23 divided by 18. I got 0.6787 whatever moles. 0.6787 whatever. In fact, I could take this even to more stig figs for right now. Let's do that, 6.98 for right now. Because this isn't the final answer, right? This is where we have moles of water. And we don't want that. We want moles of oxygen, right? So how many moles of oxygen are there for moles of water? So how many oxygens are there in each water mole? One. One. So for every one mole of water, there's how many moles of oxygen? One, okay? It's a one to one ratio, right? One mole of water equals one mole of oxygen. Just like for every heat, there's one head. If I had two heats, how many heads would I have? Two heads. So now all we've got to do is take this to figure out the number of moles of oxygen. And in fact, it's going to be the same number. But we've got to get our units out. Multiply that by our new conversion factor. One mole of water, mole of water cancels out. And we've got mole of oxygen. So it's going to be 0.67. And we've got to take it to four significant figures. 6, 7, 8, 7 moles of oxygen, okay? So you could write it like that. That would be fine. Or you could put it into scientific notation, which would be 6.787 times 10 to the negative one. Okay, so I mean, you don't need to use Apogadro's number, but we can. Let's do this problem again using Apogadro's number, okay? Like everybody always wants to do. Makes it so hard on us. I don't want to do it.


Welcome everybody to the December 13th 2021 Rochester Select Board meeting and we have advertised it publicly in three places and on the website and emailed it to interested parties so we satisfy that open meeting law requirement and we have, if anyone has any comments they want to make afterwards we'll have five minute increments to do so and we'll start out with the minutes from the November 22nd Select Board meeting. Does it look good to you guys? I have right then. Yeah they look good to me. I have a move to approve. I second it. All in favor? All right, all right. And we also have the meetings from the emergency meeting minutes that we piggybacked on with the warned budget and finance committee meeting to award the mowing and sidewalk contract and that looked good to me. Also I move to approve those. I second. All in favor? All right, that's okay. And we have, as a guest is Diane with us on Zoom. Not yet? All right, so we'll wait for her. She sent an email. She wasn't going to be attending. Oh, she's not attending. Okay, so basically we're, she is volunteered to be the representative for research of the EV level three charger for the town. I thought we had to approve it too. Anyway, I approve of Diane's volunteering to work on behalf of the Select Board for that, you guys? Can I just look at that? Yes. With what that conversation is about, and this jump friend deal with it now, is the Green Mountain Power has offered to sponsor a level three charging station in the town of Rochester on town property. And they want to have a conversation about where that would be likely appropriate to do. And in my mind, thinking about it probably right outside the town clerk's office here is that is as good a spot as any. The only drawback with that might be doing that if that requires three phase power, they'll have to run three phase power from the street up to the end of this street here. The only other places we have three phase that I can think of that would be non flood plain would be the school right off the bank there where you drive into the school to the right. And there's three phase at the telephone building and there's three phase down here. So telephone building is not really our property? It is, because we own between the sidewalk and the road. The park is considered everything from the sidewalk through the park. Its acreage is four acres, but there's only like two and a half maybe that's actual grass. All the rest is the roads. So that's an option, but I don't think it's really the right option. I think this would be a good spot if they would be willing to run three phase out here. So would we need to change the rules of a parking lot or no charging after 10 o'clock? Yeah, we'd have to do something like that. There's no parking after 10 o'clock, but I guess if they're sitting in their car at a charging station that would be an exception. Should be noted that we can't park here after 10. Or we could change the rule on something like that for EV parking could be extended hours. What is a level three? That's a fast charge. Fast? I believe so. I don't know that for a fact theory, but I would say it probably does. Jeff Gephardt is saying yes, and he has something to add to his conversation too if he could. Go ahead, Jeff. I spoke with Diane earlier because she had not been aware of green mountain powers reaching out to us. And so I don't know whether she still is interested in working on that. I did provide her with time coming up on Wednesday at 2 30. I believe we're meeting at the town clerk's office for that. I didn't see where the meeting was to occur, but I'm assuming GMP is coming down to meet with us at that time. Is that correct? Is that Wednesday or Thursday? That on my calendar for Wednesday. We have a budget meeting on Wednesday at three. I will go back to the email. And try to determine that. About other business. Yeah. Might be good to get another day there, Jeff, if we could, because that budget finance meeting starts at three. And everybody here has to attend. I would like to attend that EV with green mountain. So is Diane teacher was not aware of that green mountain power. Do you know if she's still interested in working with us on that or is that she. This is renders her her efforts. redundant. Well, I don't know that it necessarily would take her away from working on it. I know that Maureen Gannon was also interested in working towards getting charging improvements in Rochester. So, you know, I'll check with the members of those two members of the energy committee and see if they're comfortable teaming up or, you know, or want to work on something else as a result. All right, well, I guess. Should verify it whether it's Wednesday or Thursday and if it is Wednesday, maybe we could push that off to Thursday. But I guess if they're there, they're scheduled since they're the ones putting the bill for this. I'll contact them tomorrow and see if they can reschedule for Thursday. If not, and, you know, my. Take notes and. Yeah. Yeah, that would be okay with that. Jeff, do we know if this charging station is going to charge all electric cars or just certain types. I don't know if there's any charging station that can do all EVs at this point in time. So we just want to be transparent that if this charging station does not do Tesla's let's say, you know, we want to be clear about what we're installing. Yeah, and I don't know whether they're thinking of two types one type, or, you know, what the status is I've been hearing rumors of adapters coming down the pike. Yeah, a lot of a lot of people in general public don't realize that they're there are different chargers for different powers. Excuse me, could I ask a question. Sure. If Jeff or whoever else is involved in this would keep me in the loop as far as what's going to happen if a decision is made about when this is going to when and where it's going to be, you know, the charging station and what type and all that kind of stuff like you said, you know, because I'd like to do an article about it I think it'd be very interesting for people. And also, like Patty mentioned, you know, if, if we could find out, you know, if I could have, you know, eventually in my in an article, you know, what types of cars could be charged etc etc, you know, I think it would make a good article and be very informative for people in town. Absolutely. And GMP is looking to get some PR out of this as well. Thank you. All right. I think Nancy had her hand up to do you have something Nancy. Oh, I was just going to say, um, we could move the budget meeting perhaps to five o'clock if that would help. No, let's not do that. Let's keep that. We could also, Jeff, you could also, you could also ask Green Mountain Power if they could come at two instead of 230 because it shouldn't really take that long to have this conversation with them. I wouldn't think. Right. Okay. All right, to be continued, I guess we'll know more after these after that meeting. So we've got Joan is not here tonight, but we do have an update from her. I'll read that. And she last Friday she filed the reimbursement request for the large project close out with the state for the second part of our road repair work referred to by FEMA as incomplete roads and cross drains. This covers all work done in 2020 and 2021, which is which was completed on October 15 of this year. Total cost of this work is $157,466 and 51 cents and attached is the state's letter to this is the state's letter to the state certifying the close out. Probably the state's letter to FEMA certifying the close out and asking FEMA to approve it. She does not know when we'll see this reimbursement though it seems to be moving faster than her previous submission for complete roads and cross drains, which was submitted in November 3. There's one more submission she'll be making for this project, which is category Z for administrative costs and she's been told were approved for a maximum reimbursement in that category of $25,000. Which she believes is based on a percentage of our total costs and her time alone on that project and probably will be that much. And she's moving on next to the easements for the West Hill Bridge and the backup generator bid and that's Joan's report for tonight. So that's be nice to see some of that money come back from FEMA that's been a long project. Excuse me, used to easements for the generator and. The easement would be for the West Hill Bridge, not easement for the backup. It's for the bid for the backup generator. For the town office. Thank you. Yeah. Anybody have any questions for me as Joan? No. Okay. Tony, welcome. Thank you. The library is still doing porch pickup. And we have a trustees meeting tomorrow at six o'clock. And that's on Zoom or at the library. And I know we, you and I had a conversation. You're expressing your concern that the library doesn't fall along the wayside and the queue for repairs to town buildings. But the, I think that, didn't we know anything about that meeting for the grants from the historical preservation folks? What is, do you know when we'll hear from them about that? I don't. I think that was way too soon now. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. The meeting went pretty well. I thought, you know, the gals went through the place. I have reservations about going through this historical part of it. I think that's going to make the project be quite costly and looking at how the building was constructed. There might be, and Jeff also had something to say about that to me anyway. That there might be easier ways to deal with it rather than go through historical preservation and yet keep the integrity of the building. So he's got some ideas. I'm not sure really ready for public comment on those yet. And it's just something that we need to address going forward. Yeah. But just rest assured that we're not ignoring the libraries. Just not a lot of money to dole out. I think we need to find a way to get more. Yeah. Maybe sometime in France, but I don't want the library at the bottom of the town's building with either. Because it's right on the main road. It is an important building for the town. Yeah, understood. Yeah, Jeff. Yeah, I think Jeanette will be asking at the trustees meeting a question as to whether or who has the authority to approve a building. I think it's an intrusive disassembly of the. An exterior wall in a couple of places so that we can see exactly what is there, how it's constructed and. You know, be able to. Diagnose and prescribe. A repair that will shed water in that building. So the question really is the library trustees that have that this termination. The trustees that have all the power and decision making over the library budget. Well, I would think when I think the town took that on back when Charlie Biederman and them. And Danny McIntyre and those guys were on the board. I'd like to read what they had to say about that before we say that the trustees have any. Because I know the town. For whatever reason took over the maintenance of the outside of the building at that time and I don't know what that agreement says or how it was constructed. So I would think we'd want to go back and check the minutes on that. Back then because that was quite a few years ago that that transpired. So I think we should probably go back and check that before we determine that. The trustees actually hold the deed to the building. It was originally deeded to them that they are the owners. The town agreed to take care of maintenance on the exterior, but we've also taken care of maintenance on the interior. There's a there's a lengthy file in the town office on it. So the major renovation that we did within 10 years ago, whatever that that was run through the town budgets. That's a bond that we pay through the town that we are paying. That definitely entwound the town and the library. All right, again to be continued. So wait a minute. Nancy, would you be willing to go through that with me? I will. Tony, do you want to be involved in that too? Sure. Okay, that'd be good to have somebody there from the trustees too. Okay, moving on. I think Jeff has something. Jeff is okay. Go for it. Yeah, I've talked to Jeanette and she is going to provide me with the information she found further information about the weatherization work that was done. So I will get a chance to take a look at that. But I think really in order to understand what's going wrong in that building. And we need to be underneath the cladding around the window and where the upstairs and the first floor join so that we can clearly understand what the why there's leakage there and what we have to do to fix it. Probably that storm the other night drove a little bit of water into that. The right direction. Yeah, yeah. All right, moving on from the library now, everyone agreed? Okay. On to the highway. Thank you, Terry, for picking up some of the slack after Cooter's little mishap there. And they've been off to grab my trucks and more sand because we've been going through it. Yeah, steady as she goes and who's healing from a few 14 stitches in his palm. You may not want to. What happened to him? He suffered a cut on his hand and changing a cutter blade on one of the plows on a nasty cut. Are we checking that sand in ourselves? Yes, we are. It's actually saving a lot of money that way. I saw him go through a couple boats today. So, Terry, you are here. Do you have anything on the utilities front? No. Fire department? Fire department? All right. As you know, in the budget finance committee there, we said about new trucks. So, at some point, I'd like to get firm prices, but I haven't gone to see anybody because, you know, I didn't know where we should have done that. And it's no sense to wait for salesman's time at the end of doing things. Well, the budget that we're talking about is from July 2022 through June, the end of June 2023. Correct. So, that's the time frame. But you can order it before, so you get it in July or August. I think we're just kind of waiting to see how, when we finish up more on the budget, I think, before we make a decision. We don't matter getting this truck in and having a bunch of work done for it. Well, it's, we're talking the... We're talking 30 days. Yeah, at the most. So, we just need to get through the budget business. Oh, like my first few years, so... Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, February, you're going to be able to tell me. Yeah. You're going to be able to tell me. Yeah, you should be able to know. That's what I want, because they aren't going to start making it until now, I think it's mine. I guess the ballpark price of the taxi is like 52,000. Yep. Yep, we have that. So, and then the body will be in another form. Yep. And then everything will take off. This truck can put it on the moon. It's called... Man, I think all that. Because I mean, the case in that truck is really good. Yeah. Getting high is an issue. That's why I'm getting down where I'm staying. You know, after what's going to happen, you know, I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone. I don't want that for the way it is. That truck ain't safe, it's not legal. But it is going to be legal. So, and like I said, the first three quarters of its life was living in a bad place. Right. Yep. You know, there was no way to wash it or anything. Now, the trucks all get washed whether it's two o'clock in the morning or not. That's why I was trying to get washed. Mm-hmm. I'm glad you're not going to practice with it, but I make them do it. Mm-hmm. No, I just want to... Yeah. I just want to keep going on. It's a good practice. Yeah, yeah. All right, so yeah, we should... We're going to start making 2,000.3. You should know before that. I mean, we just are trying to get through the budget process and figure out where we go from there. Yep. All right. Jeff, back to you as the energy coordinator. Do you have something that you'd like to elaborate on? The only thing that I mentioned is on the 6th, we had another meeting with the Rochester area climate initiative. Over 40 people from the hometown area participated in the Zoom. We broke into three groups, looking at the prioritization, if the program has done both in terms of developing ideas and then prioritizing those ideas. And we looked at them for current status and next step. There were probably 10 resource people that were brought in by the Vermont Council on World Development. And 40 participants listed on the Zoom, but I saw at least five to six people where there were two people listening in from the Clinton town area. The areas on the energy side that were of most interest to people were electric vehicle charging, weatherization of existing homes, and working on municipal energy opportunities and siting solar. Those will be energy committee. Green Mountain Power is offered to sponsor a charging station, I believe, outcome of this meeting because they were there at the meeting. And I think after witnessing the focus on that as being a priority, that was pretty quickly that they contacted asking to meet about this. The next day. The next day. Yeah, so that's a pretty quick result. So that's all I have at the moment. Thank you. On to the new business. I want to Martha this going to paper able able ways to be providing their services on Sunday, December 26, instead of Saturday Christmas. So they'll still be here that weekend. And to collect all of your Christmas carnage wrappings and doing I have a question, do you know if because New Year's Day is on Saturday as well, the second of January as well. No, they didn't mention that. I think they'll be here Saturday. Saturday New Year's Day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I just wondered. There'll be a breathalyzer out. All right. And we also have an application for a driveway permit. And that is on 1274 Townline Road, Larry Roche property. And Cooter had looked at that and I think Dave you're going to be doing the work. And it specified you're using a 24 inch 40 foot culvert. But Cooter has concerns out there. You may end up running into ledge there. And then if that's the case, you'd want to size it down to the 18 inch. First, the ditch is already about 40 feet. So I think Cooter's thinking where his old driveway is. That's not it. Oh, okay. It's down the way to 100 yards. And the ditch is probably armpit height. I would jump into it. All right. So it shouldn't be a problem. It shouldn't be a problem at all. Yeah. So it's going to be plenty of cover over it. It's about 40 feet. Because if somebody is going to have to come out there, they don't have much talent on their own shoulders. The trees are tight. So they're going to have to really do it all the time. So yeah. No, I don't. It's a deep ditch right there. So I think a lot of it's there. All right. Yeah. That's good. That's where it's logging. All right. So I'm good with that. Second. I second it. All in favor. All right. All right. Okay. I think this is good. Diane, we already talked about. And the end of the year closing dates for the town office. That's all that posted on the door. But what I should mention that. So the 24th is the holiday. Yeah. And the following week, we're just going to shut the office. So we can get caught up with our books and. Yeah. End of year. End of year and new year. So big close for the week following the 24th. Oh yeah. We can. I mean, we can be reached by email or by phone. If anybody needs anything. But off to be closed for walking. Yep. All right. Okay. Thank you. Did you have something? I suspect we'll have a budget meeting that week too. And I would be the 29th. That'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. I just want to make sure I got this correct about the closing. Julie. Am I correct that it's close for walk-ins for December 24th and the following week to 27th through 31st. But did you say you could call people could call. Yes. Or not. Call or email. Call or email. Yeah. Thanks. But the 24th were totally closed. And the. Okay. But that was second for the week after they can call or email. Yeah. We have a. We have a select. We have a select so meeting that Monday night. Yeah. Right. All right. Anybody comments from the public at large. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hi everybody. I want to do a comment as the. COVID task force chair and I apologize. I didn't get my thoughts together in time to. Ask to get on the agenda. So I thought I'd. Share my thoughts in the public comment. I got two points of information to share in the. And the recommendation. First is that the health department data for Rochester. Is now showing that we've had. 12 new COVID cases between November 17th. And December the 8th. So that's about one every two days. Actually a little bit faster than that. And there's a chart on the. Health department website that shows infection rates by town. We are the top of the charts. The darkest blue color if you're familiar with that. So we're going to go back to that. And then we're going to go back to the. Graphic. Thanksgiving gatherings and colder weather are probably the. Likely. Reasons for that increase. It's just human nature. And now we've got Christmas and New Year's coming. And. And those typically include people visiting from out of the area as well. So. I think we should expect increased infection rates in the very near future to help protect each other. The other point of information is the Omicron variant, which I know we've all been reading and hearing about it's spreading exponentially across Europe. And is explosively growing. Doubling every three to four days. It's in the United States and 30 states. For sure. And it's probably in every state by this point. So, you know, that's showing to be an even more contagious form of the virus then than the Delta version. So, you know, protection against COVID is a layered thing. There's no one single bullet. To the extent that we can do all these things simultaneously, vaccination, boosting, masking, distancing, all that helps. And I'd like to ask the select board to consider adopting a motion to strongly recommend that local places where people gather the. Restaurants, the stores, et cetera. Put signs up to. To tell people or ask people to mask up to come into to use those businesses. I'm not recommending a mask mandate. I don't think that would do anything more than a strong recommendation. And. You know, I don't think we want to be putting business staff in the role of mask bouncers. But I do think that, you know, a strong statement from the select board could be helpful. It's just one more thing, you know, on top of everything else that people can be doing to help protect each other. And try to stem the flow. But I think it's pretty clear that the winter time, because people tend to be indoors and the holiday. You know, I think it's a good cheer that everybody longs for and getting together is, you know, has the risk to it as well. And we're, you know, we're well into that. And it's likely to get worse before it gets better. Vic. Yeah. Do you have any way of getting any sort of. Statistics on. What percentage of people in the area here of the Rochester area are vaccinated or. Yeah. It's on the same website. It's high. It's 80 to 90% somewhere in that range. Right.  I mean, the pediatric. As young as five years old can now get vaccinated. And teenagers as young as 16, I think are eligible to get a booster shot. There are therapeutic pills that Pfizer and Merck are. Going through the regulatory process that should be available within, you know, the next month or so. There's a much more availability of at home testing. People can do. So there's, there's more tools available. And they can, you know, this is just one more thing. I might do. I know the Rochester and Stockbridge schools were planning. Vaccination events, you know, for, for the kids. So. Ken Lee, you look, is that a question for me? You're on mute. Are there any statistics on how many infections are. With vaccinated people versus unvaccinated. I think there is on a statewide basis. I'm not sure about more locally. Thank you. I'll look it up. I had something different when it's my turn. Okay. Anyway, so that's, that's. My comment for tonight. Unless anybody has any question. So. Is that something we'd need to. We're making a official decision to do that. That we'd have to have on the agenda. To. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I want to give you a chance to think about it and discuss it. Yeah. But. Again, I apologize for not bringing this up before the agenda was put together, but. Yeah. Is it too late to put that on the budget and finance agenda? No. No, we say, well, that's, um, I mean, is that the proper place we could discuss? Statement right here and now covers it. Yeah. We endorse it or not. Officially. He's our representative for that. He's made the statement. So yeah, I mean, I think we can all say that we agree completely with him and you know, whether we can formally. Um, you know, take action that, that hasn't been. That we agree with them. Yeah. Vic, if you would be willing to just jot down a. A. Sample. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we can all say that we agree completely with them and you know, whether we can formally.  You think would be a good statement that we could. Um, the town could then distribute to the. The. Businesses and places that public gather. It's like the park house and. You know, Pierce Hall. That'd be, you know. Stories. Yeah. And you can also, uh, they put it on front porch forum, which seems to be, you know, the, the, the main venue nowadays for information. But we do it on night rheumat associative programs. Sometimes we don't get a date to use that and we're like, I don't know fine decision making. That happens. Isn't exactly how we, you know, It's ice running. You know, the company has made up those lists. We tagged that. Something about those things. But it sounds also that your, Your encouraging people in their private homes to be very cautious. Yes. And that's, that's still the posted recommendation from the health department. Yeah. Same mold advice you always get the church. Don't talk to strangers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? It's got public comment up there. Yep. I do. Thank you. I just wanted to quick call everyone's attention to a new release of funds announced on a WCAX article by housing commissioner Josh Haniford. $5 million coming down the line for mostly Vermont homeless initiative, specifically for renovating existing structures and homes for probably mostly homeless. I realize we don't have a lot of homeless problem here in Rochester, but it may be possible to access some of those funds for some of the reusable and renovatable residences around the area. Thank you. Anyone else? I guess I entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Thank you all and thank you everybody for your hard work.


Acuadillo Profundo, we have something to talk about here. Welcome to the channel where fashion meets fragrance. My name is Kevin Samuel, your godfather style. And guys, in today's video, we talk about my favorite designer fragrance on the planet, period, and it's kick-ass cousin. If you like this kind of video, cool, grab subscribe, drop that like down below. Shout out to the CIA. What's going on, you modern, sexy savages? This little bottle right here, Acuadillo Profumo, what I call the best designer fragrance on the planet, period, is just that. The best designer fragrance on the planet, period. You know what I think about this fragrance, guys. And then this big boy right here, Incenza, especially for summertime, looking how much I've used to this bottle. This stuff just is in frickin' credible for the high heat. This one all year round, this one for the high heat. What else do you need? Now, of course, I don't have the original OG Acuadillo because, honestly, I think the Profumo version better and Incenza. But then we had an announcement that Acuadillo was adding a new one to the line, Profundo. I'll admit, I have not been a fan of the most recent Acuadillo flankers. I thought they were kinda, ugh. So I waited a second before this one came out and I said, let me just lay back in the cut and see what happens. Well, as I was out and about, I saw it on shelves and I actually did not look at reviews or anything like that. I didn't wanna be tainted. I saw a bottle on a shelf and they did not have a tester. And I said, you know what? Let's just go ahead and give it a try. The guys are gonna wanna hear my opinions about this one, especially as we're now getting off of the quarantine and everything else. So I decided to cop it. I blind bought it and as soon as I got home, I sprayed it on and I was like, oh, I dig this. Now, admittedly, I only had it on the back of each hand, but it got so good. I just went ahead and sprayed it on my neck. My neck can't, I just, I wore it. I jumped in the shower just to put a fresh application on, guys. I'm gonna tell you, I dig this stuff. Right off the bat, I dig this stuff. And this stuff actually gets compliments and starts conversation. Let's get into the C3PO system. Compliment factor. On my skin, this stuff is superb, really superb compliment getter and a conversation starter. It takes everything that I like about the AquaDigil Perfumo and Incensum. And it's actually like the perfect blend of both of these or an updated version of the original AquaDigil. Performance, a solid six to eight hours plus. This stuff lasts a long time on me. A long time. Projection, two to three feet. Seahash, I get a long trail of that amber kind of, that amber muskiness and that dry down. The style personality, guys, this is definitely gonna be one of those corporate powerhouse, the big boss, because it is signature scent worthy. Signature scent worthy. Now the question is gonna be, wait a minute, Godfather. You said AquaDigil Perfumo is the best designer fragrance on the planet, period. Signature scent worthy.  Yes, I am, nephew. This is gonna be signature scent worthy in your warmer months. Try it in your spring and your summer.  Whether it's during summer days. Guys, I gotta tell you, it is hard to find a fragrance collection that does a three-peat well. And AquaDigil does a three-peat well, but like I always say, don't just leave it up to me. Hit us up in the comment section. Let us know. Have you tried Perfundo? Have you rocked it? Have you wanted it? Have you put it on? Did you like it or so? Not cool. We keep it cool. Keep it classy. We have a winner here. But inquiring minds would like to know. Godfather out. Hey guys, whether look, style, or life, whether personal or professional, you can level up and be your personal best each and every day. If you're interested in any of that, do us both a favor. Follow the link in the description and book your one-on-one session with me. Details down in the description. Peace.


opportunity you know it's been such a challenging year on so many fronts you know kind of all going all the way back to February and all that we've been through as a team individuals have been through personally what we've been through as a nation what we've been through as a world it's been a long ride to get here and we're honored and privileged to be able to still be playing this game and everyone's on equal footing now and we're in control of where we go with this and we're excited about the opportunity the Yankees roster is indeed set they opted for 13 pitchers with Nick Nelson making the cut you could see Jordan Montgomery out of the bullpen he is on the roster as well Aaron Boone said should there be a game three they're leaning towards Jay Hap Mike Ford got the nod over Miguel and Doohar and they'll carry three catchers to give Aaron Boone some flexibility especially late in games as far as tonight's lineup is concerned it's pretty much business as usual with the exception of left field Aaron Boone opted to go with Brett Gardner in left instead of Clint Frazier he explained that decision you know we discussed a lot I've thought about here a lot over the last couple days about which way I wanted to go really feel good either way I would have gone just feel like you know the way Guardi's really I feel like started to swing here over the last few weeks and and down the stretch here and obviously what he brings defensively in this ballpark you know and just to give a different look in there with all our righties against Bieber you know to get at least a second lefty in there a little bit of a different look I just felt like that was the way ultimately I wanted to go left field can be a little bit tricky in Cleveland Gardner is familiar with the dimensions there and you heard Boone mention how he's been swinging the bat the last 13 games at 394 average and 667 slug and he scored nine runs the Yankees are still waiting for Aaron judge and John Carlos Stanton to find their power stroke since coming off the aisle but Luke Voight has been a constant when it comes to power all season long Aaron Boone feels fortunate to be able to pencil his name in the lineup on a daily basis yeah it is really nice having them and having them you know healthy and obviously you know a lot's been said about you know the MVP type season that he just completed you know he's another one of those guys pillars in our lineup that obviously makes it very difficult on the pitcher you know the power presence that he brings I think he brings a little bit of energy to the game with with just the way he is and who he is and the intensity plays the game with so I'm glad he's in this position this year after kind of finishing the season last year a little bit banged up to go in and having him in the middle of our lineup I'm looking forward to seeing him go play