Seven o'clock we have two sets of minutes to look at tonight. And the first is January 7th, 2020 I'm looking for a motion. I've moved to approve the minutes of January 7 2020 with any amendments or additions This is a second second page one Page two And page three Two things under Number 11 town manager's report the first one the second bullet down it reads common level appraisal report from the state And it says will not be appealed and I wonder if it should say should not be appealed per the advice of the assessor henman I Think we agreed that it won't be appealed so right. It's just That was our recommend that was a recommendation So the recommendation is you shouldn't as opposed to you will I don't know. It's just it's not a big deal. I just picked up on it The next one is maybe a little bit more important and it's under the last bullet Which is a letter of resignation from the town manager and shouldn't that reflect that select board said no Anything else on page three Proving the minutes of January 7th 2020 say aye. Aye. Any opposed and no extensions And we have the minutes of January 14th 2020 is there a motion I'd move to approve the minutes of January 14th 2020 with any amendments or additions there to second Pardon me page one and page two Hearing no changes offer those in favor of approving the minutes of January 14th 2020 Say aye. Hi Time for public comment if anyone in the audience has any Issues to bring up either on the agenda or not on the agenda. This is your time See no hands raised. We'll move on to item number four in the Champlain water district report Joe Duncan our general manager and So it isn't the willest of us here Thanks if you'd introduce yes So Joe Duncan general manager everybody president Wilson as well. Thank you very much for your service Liz Royer is your commissioner reference from the town of Wilson She was planning to be here this evening, but unfortunately had a sick kid So she is not able to be here. Otherwise she'd be Presenting on this as well, but with me tonight is Nate peon he is our chief engineer director projects the programs at Champlain water district also a Future resident of Wilson potentially on January 31st when So what I wanted to do this evening is just to give you a quick update on two items One is where we are at with our proposed fiscal year 2021 budget as well as give you some information on the upcoming bond vote that we have on town meeting So I'm also I'm happy to discuss anything else that you have for questions of us I'll try and keep it brief and let you guys do Ask any questions that you have so as far as our FY 2021 budget goes We are looking at a eight point four million dollar budget That's about a three hundred thousand dollar increase over lashed over the the current budget that we are in That represents going from our current wholesale rate of two point two three Dollars per thousand gallons that we charge to our wholesale Municipal users from two point two three to two point three one three per thousand gallons that represents a 8.3 cents per thousand gallons increase and what we try to do is look at that on a typical family a Typical family uses about sixty five thousand seven hundred gallons a year So that represents about a five dollar and forty five cents increase per year To a typical family which amounts to about a forty five cent per month increase for the typical family So we've tried to keep that in mind over the years as we've developed our budgets Our cells sustainable as we move forward in a percentage base that represent about a three point seven five percent increase all together so There's a lot of information in here. I won't go through it all with you, but I will let you know that There's some charts in here. Our revenue is primarily through water sales and the water sales are our Sales to each of the 12 municipal water systems that we wholesale water to the town of Wilson being one of them Of our budget a lot of the majority of it about 75 percent is out of our operations We have some debt service that represents about 13 percent and I bring that up because we'll talk a little about that Talk about the bonds The rest is minor amount in water supply fees of the 75 percent in operations about a third of that is salaries 20% is is maintenance another 15% in benefits and then Another 25% in treatment supplies and in you electric utilities. So Everything's kind of split in in that regard as far as our operations are concerned There's a chart in here on historical water rates and as you can see we've Historically Held the rate way back when we held the rate from the 90s through the 2000s And I think that was very problematic because we wound up having a couple big hits as as we went along and realized that We weren't being sustainable with our rates So now we're trying to look at somewhere in the three to four percent increase per year to try and keep up with inflation Also tightening our belts a little bit, but then also focusing in allowing us to focus on long-term maintenance. It's a real Focus of ours these days is managing our assets and making sure that we have enough funds to to Put ourselves in a position where we're not reacting to problematic Surprises but putting our money into the things that we know will eventually age Trying to get out ahead of that So one of the things that we usually do is give a comparative summary of retail rates so each community charges its Consumers a rate and so as a homeowner and in Williston that is That is made up of what the town purchases from us plus whatever Operations costs the town has Through its own operations through its own water department whatever debt you may have from your water apartment whatever Operations force you may have for employees on that and that all makes up the addition of our 2.23 so Williston is about middle of the pack and in the county for rates our wholesale rate currently at 2.23 Williston's effective rate is about five point three seven and the range in the county is anywhere from four dollars and nine cents in South Burlington to about six dollars and Willston has done a very nice job as well over the years of keeping their rates our opinion sustainable as well You'll see a chart of annual water sales in here we we had a spike in the early Early 2000s and then a quick downturn That was related to IBM and the economic downturn that we we had there things have since generally stabilized and We sit somewhere around 9.5 to 9.8 million gallons a day on average over the past few years and that's Generally been fluctuating a little bit with the weather last year was a very hot year We had a a lot of water sales over the summer So that's that's where we might get up to closer to nine point nine compared to the the nine point five that we sometimes average around The last thing I'll point out is our debt service There is a history of an projected annual debt service chart in here and what's important with that as I transition to the To the bond vote is what we've been trying to do and what the board is has directed us to do is As debt service falls off to try and maintain a level debt service by reinvesting in our system and so what you'll see is is that in in in 2020 we had some debt service fall off and we backfilled that debt service in 2021 with projects such as the the Williston tank project as well as a Project that our filter water tanks on 2021 will be start to repay those so that'll backfill from 2020 to 2021 in 2023 we have another drop-off The projects that we're planning to construct As part of these bonds coming up will come do in the 2023 time frame And that's when we will backfill that debt to bring us back up to around at 890,000 Yeah, so Important thing here is we've been trying to reinvest in our infrastructure as debt service falls off And in doing that we wind up with a net neutral impact on the ratepayers So the projects that we're looking to bond and I'll talk a little about in a second in March We'll ultimately not cost the ratepayers A Rate increase to our ratepayers Projects we're proposing in in our opinion It's actually a real benefit because it's infrastructure that we need to improve to provide a benefit to our to our regional supply so We think that's a prudent way to go about it So that's the information that I have for you on our FY 2021 proposed budget. I'm happy to answer questions. I'm happy to talk about the bond and then answer questions. Whatever you prefer Let's see if there's any questions right now before we talk about the bond Well the standard question Joe drivers and Cost whatever wholesale price increase of what? 3.7 3.75 percent five percent. Yeah, the the major drivers are Are salaries and benefits? So there's we are unionized and we have a we have a we have a fixed rate increase in there as well as the increasing Costs us for health care as well as retirement benefits And then the other one is our electrical costs and the increase in treatment Chemicals and the treatment chemicals are actually a really big one that we're trying to look at how We every year we shop those around to try and find the best price and one of the things that it's really struggling We're struggling with right now is that there's a limited number of suppliers that supply the quality of chemicals that we're looking for We've gone down the path before accepting some lower what we some lower prices in hopes that their quality would be what we needed to be and it wasn't and A lot of those suppliers that we rely on are actually out of state. We've got one in Mississippi We've got another in Pennsylvania and the increased cost associated with With carriers is really you're seeing that a lot in the chemical prices because there's a shortage of drivers and And that has driven the cost up for the Thank you Any further questions? If not, let's do the bond. Okay so on On town meeting day on March 3rd, it'll be an Australian ballot item We have one article that is it'll be on the ballot It'll be on the towns along with all the other articles on the town ballot And what we are looking for is one article to approve two projects those two projects are our Essex West pump station project and our Colchester South Tank Loop project and both of those They they probably sound like they're very town specific projects culture you hear the word Colchester and you hear the word Essex but the reality is is we are a regional supplier and When we take on projects we take them on to improve the our transmission system as a whole so the Essex West pump station There's right now the town of Essex Receives water from the village of Essex Junction area to pump out to the 289 section of In the Essex outlet area as well as out towards Jericho and then over to Jericho. We do that through one pump station So we're looking to add a second pump station on the west side of of Essex To allow us to have some redundancy to feed those areas But there's also another challenge for us in that there's one tank located on the west side of Essex called our Essex West tank highly enough and that tank is very it's 2.2 million gallons It's it's only 15 feet high and a couple hundred feet wide So we have a really hard time turning that water over in that tank and what happens is It drives our whole hydraulic gradient for getting water out from Colchester and Winooski through Essex and and through South Burlington, so what we're looking to do Is to put that pump station in and have that pump station be able to ease the hydraulic gradient That we're required right now in order to we have to really vary our hydraulic gradient Across what we call our our high service area. So everything that comes out of the plant pretty much can serve Colchester Winooski Essex Williston and In Zell Burlington and so that Essex tank really drives Essex West tank drives How we have to pump water throughout our system so taking Putting a pump station on there that allows us to turn the water over without having to Manipulate our our system from the plant really allows us to move water more efficiently throughout our our transmission system so it's actually System-wide benefit to put that tank in granted Essex also benefits from it because it now has a second feed into their Into their service area by the Essex outlets, so That's the idea behind that project that project is a 2.6 million dollar project. So we're looking at a 3.5 million dollar total bond So of that 3.5 million 2.6 is represented by the Essex West pump station project The second project is our Colchester South tank loop project Colchester South tank loop by is also a Colchester South tanks are the water tower hill tanks So if you're ever driving out by exit 16, there's two blue tanks at the top of the hill Those are Colchester South tanks those tanks service Winooski Colchester town water system Malzbe water company system Colchester fire district number three and Also the town of Essex in the fourth Ethan Allen and Susie Wilson areas And right now we have one line that feeds that that tank through Camp Johnson and our goal is to add a second Line in there to give us redundancy for getting water both in and out of that tank and relieving the the issue of Relying on only one feed the other thing that this also benefits is there is a there's some AC lines asbestos cement lines within the Hercules Drive and Orion area down by Costco and Baker distributing down in that area And there's some dead-end lines and because of that AC pipe It does have some vinyl lining in it that has deteriorated over time and because of the dead ends We do see some tetrachlorite ethylene spikes Above the five parts per billion limit for the state So having a loop put in there eliminating those dead ends also eliminates that potential PCE issue as well so While that project does provide a benefit to the Colchester town system by eliminating the PCE We get a strong benefit that that helps out multiple communities by having redundancy to our Colchester South tanks That project is a nine hundred thousand dollar project combined with the two point six million for Essex West pump station Bringing it to three point five and as I mentioned this we're looking to secure a drinking water S or F loan for both of these projects and in doing so and the construction timelines are building these in the 2021 summer, we would be looking at debt service coming into Into effect during our FY 23 budget when our debt services falling off and therefore as I mentioned before Back to our ratepayers as a result of adding three point five million dollars in debt. One of the things we're also hopeful for is The state is is offering a subsidy with the drinking water S or F We're not guaranteed to get it But there's a potential for another 25% loan forgiveness associated with that SRF project so passing the passing the bonds now and Constructing it in 2021 Should set us up to be able to receive some of that subsidy because it's first come first serve as of October 1st of 2020 We're planning on it not and we've we basically have set ourselves up on the most conservative So it's only it actually becomes better than net neutral if we wind up getting any of that subsidy Thank Luke to that some of that project cost is shared with the Colchester Town water system as well That's true. Yeah, so it's a 41% split for 41% on CWD and then 59% on Colchester Town water system as Colchester Town water system is covering the plumber engineering and final design and then we're splitting the fraction 50-50 So that's where the percentages come out. It's 41% CWD 59 That's very similar to what we did with the Wilson North Tank project Questions for Joe on this Probably not important, but what does hydraulic radiant mean the hydraulic gradient is I'm sorry No, no problem. Yeah So the height if you think about it, it's it's basically how How hard you have to push the water? So, you know In a in a perfect world everything flows by gravity from some high point down to you as a user Well in order to get it to that high point in the tank you have to pump it up to there So there's a there's an energy requirement to get it up to there So that's the hydraulic gradient is that Delta that you have to lift the water to to get it to the Tank level that you then want to have to come down and so the The higher it is the more energy it takes and so if we're able to get the Essex West tank to turn itself over With the with the pumps We don't have that hydraulic gradient pushing against the rest of the the rest of the system because a low in fat tank It has it has more gallons per foot And because of its diameter And so if you have a if you have a taller tank with less width and you're drawing the same amount of water out of it That one will go quicker the one that has less gallons per foot than the one that has more gallons per foot So it won't drain as fast and so because it's not draining it fast It keeps the gradient high whereas a tank that's draining fast if it keeps the gradient at low So we're always have to push out to accommodate the Essex West tank And if we get the Essex West tank to to fall faster by pumping out of it into Essex town We can get the tanks to operate on the same level Other questions So you mentioned that the The split was similar to Wilson. Do you was it? Wilson was a 50-50 split. I don't remember the number side. Williston. Yeah, Wilson was a 50-50 split on the tank Costs and the town own the water line up to it So the town paid the extra for the water line and so What Nate is saying? It's a 50-50 split for the construction cost But they're responsible for the preliminary engineering and the design which was similar to how Williston was done and so Williston the Yeah, it was Boy was it like 54 5545 I think something like that. So it's not too far off from that But so then I understand that but in the other project Is there no cost-sharing with the town of Essex? No, it's not because we are responsible for We're responsible for the pumping similar to Williston where we own the two pump stations for Williston This although this does benefit them by providing a redundant feed they don't They don't need it although they you know they do but it's not something that is It's something that benefits them But wasn't something that they necessarily needed whereas we need it to turn that tank over so there wasn't a Cost-sharing element. We are actually bringing it and tying it in there Almost was a cost-sharing because there was a thought that they were going to extend their extend the water main some But we brought it to the closest point of their system and tied it in and that's where we end You said that this is going to be part of the Towns it'll be it'll be on the ballot on the ballot So I want to just clarify you don't mean that it'll be on the town meeting the town's town meeting warning No, correct. Yeah, there'll be a separate warning for it But when people walk up to and receive their ballots this article will be one of the articles on the ballots that they receive at the at the voter Pole those ballots then go somewhere else to be countered No the way because of a lecture I call it electronic balloting The because of the fact that everything is counted Electronically these days we used to do it separately where the we would have hand counting of our ballots And I think it was 2016 when when we had our last bond and Karen Richard who was one of our board members got the clerks together and said is there any reason we can't have them Also on the on the ballot so that there's electronic counting So just report the results from each community to you and then you combine them all into one correct. Yeah Correct So how does that work Joe because not all all parts of all towns are part of the Champlain water district. So So any There's 12 water systems within eight CWD communities and We have one One board member for per community even though one community may have more than one water system That's Colchester as an example And so you actually don't have to be on the water system in the town of Colchester to vote Similar to Williston where you may be a resident on the water system, but you have the right to vote So that's the case or for each of our interesting. Yeah So, okay Two questions So if the bond vote were to fail, you know hypothetically What would I mean first of all, what would you do and won't be the repercussions of that? so what we would do is the The Colchester South Tank Loop is the more of the priority than the Essex West and obviously that's the lower cost of the two It's the 900,000 versus the 2.6 So a couple different potential options are we take a look at the we take a look at the Essex West project and see if there's anything we can change the The Colchester South Tank Loop is pretty bare bones. It's a it's a point a to point b water line And we need a 12 inch main hydraulically so there's not much to change there so we would look to revote the bond either with a Change in the Essex West project or dropping the SS West project altogether. Okay, and the I'm The church you gave us that show is projected Historical and projected a note that for the hits the projected Does the debt that's being shown include the amount that the Colchester South Tank Loop will be financed by the town of Colchester In other words, it doesn't assume that the district is taking all that cost on you are correct Yeah, it if you do happen to have a colored version of the annual debt service We don't see there's a little tiny. There's a big. There's a bigger line over the 893 that Under 2023 that represents the 2.6 million for the Essex West pump station Then what you see is another smaller line underneath there represents the 41% of our 900,000 for the Colchester South Tank Okay, you're sitting in similar to We carry the we carry the overall debt on paper, but we Reduce it based upon what we're getting for revenue from The Colchester, which is similar to what we did with the Wilson North Tank We're the we're responsible for the entire debt service, but we're receiving 55% payments from the same thing with any forgiveness That you haven't taken into account. Yeah Okay, good Any further questions? If not, thank you very much for coming tonight. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you Our next presentation Sarah is not here yet, so let's she's not gonna there's been a change in play. Ah, okay We're not doing this tonight. Yes. Are we Eric has the story on it? But I guess some things come up and they weren't able to be a sir We we prefer that you took the sidewalk thing later. So yeah, something other than that Regional unified planning work program. You can do that too. That's wait, so yeah, that's thanks. I'm sorry So we're not gonna be discussing this tonight, okay It looks like we're gonna have them on at your next meeting February Okay, and it looks like they've pretty much selected Willis then They've never been down. I don't know. Yeah Okay Wonder what is the audit report gonna take half an hour No, well, let's do that anyway, and we'll come back and do the regional unified planning If we have time before you to the public hearing So we're going on to the audit. Yes item number nine I might put you to sleep So I'm gonna start by just Highlighting a few things in the memo that you received So to begin with you normally would have a final audited financial statement right now But just mind being new and working through the books of the town We pushed back the field work of the audit and then a couple of big projects. So this is a draft I've made some changes and sent them back to the auditors and it's still in their second partner review But by the end of the month, we will have a final audit report This year we have a single audit we just think we ended up like 732,000. So we just squeaked below the 750 What is what is do you mind if I interrupt what is meant by a single audit? It is the audit over any of your federal government grant funds So they have very specific Audit steps they have to take over each of the different types of grants And they have like they select a sample of all those grants to figure out what they want to test and it's detailed testing of your expenditures So but it's only over your federal so it's the audit and then more on the grants Okay, thank you In the governance letter the most important thing there is all significant transactions There is a little piece about the four adjustments that were not recorded and During their field work and discussions with the auditors They were just in not material financial statements And we were both beyond a point of wanting to go back and take more time. So we agreed just to pass on those adjustments No disagreements with management Let's see I'm gonna hop down to the Financial statements themselves that little paragraph and just to explain I actually hadn't worked with modified accrual accounting before myself So I did a little research, but I just wanted to talk about the difference between We have two sets of statements in these financials One is full accrual accounting where you record all your fixed assets as assets On your balance sheet and you record depreciation expense You record all the debt on the financial statements and the debt payments are not an expense, but they reduce the liability So those are the major things and then the pension plan. We don't account for the pension plan So those are the major differences between what you see when I'm presenting financial statements when we do the budget Modified accrual and then the financials we have modified accrual and then we have the fully accrued financial statements So that's the two pieces of those and unless you have questions on the things between I mean I'm skipping a couple things because they're fairly obvious and you've read it And then I'm going down to in the internal controls report The audit did not identify any deficiencies Or any instances of non-compliance Which is a really good thing and now I want to take you in the audited financials If you go to page 25 for a minute, we talked about this I think for a minute last week So I'm looking at page 25. It's schedule F And I'm looking at the three lines from the bottom and it's net change and fund balance So if you look at the middle column called final budget, we anticipated Spending fund balance to the tune of 875,000 We actually only spent fund balance to the tune of 300,000 the biggest reason for that difference is Our local options tax was 384,000 greater than budget that represented 60% of that favorable variance and there's some other things in there But everything else is small in comparison to that one number And that was all I had so other than questions from you And there are the questions That appears to me that's a clean report, which is always good So surely I'll be honest I am always left Completely in left field when it comes to this report Usually somebody else is a little better than me and I but I think the key things that I'm picking up on is that there And I'm only quoting don't these aren't my words. I'm only quoting from what I see in the Memo that you put together is Four missteps, but that those four missteps were deemed immaterial. So they're very minor so Guessing what I'm saying is that I'm second seconding Terry's comment of this is a very clean report They don't not booking those does not material state the financial statements So do you do taxes on the side? My family The other questions for surely no, thank you I mean well and Jeff you made your comment about the financials as I said It was my first time working through these it it took me a long time to Work my way through the different schedules and follow it and understand it so and I and I still have some more to do and some more work with the auditors, but Certainly made more Congratulations on surviving it You know without any problems or I shoot that make my right without any apparent problems Thank you very much We'll move back then to the regional unified planning and work program Have unified planning work programs developed by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission each year CCRPC receives local state and federal funds from a variety of sources Their user various planning programs and the UPWP committee decides how these funds are allocated This this plan is updated annually and requests are taken from municipalities on how public funds should be invested towards transportation and other planning programs in Chittenden County So they're preparing this for FY 21 right now With your packet The request of the board this year we combine the planning and public works requests into one document to look at Planning director Matt Belanger prepared this this packet for you today So in his memo he summarizes each of the projects and then we've included the summary application sheets within the packet Questions as you were reading this One thing I will point out with talking to Matt at the end of last week. He had a conversation with the CCRPC As you recall the budget discussions last week the funds were put in for the Form-based code study and Matt learned from the CCRPC that this may be eligible for UPWP funds Due to the transportation component of it with the grid streets discussion So Matt's proposed in the UPWP To use the fifty thousand dollars allocated in FY 21 Towards doing the whole study in one year if the CCRPC will pick up the rest of the amount for that and Knowing in his research that the hundred thousand dollars Maybe a leaner number. He's proposed a hundred twenty five thousand dollar project with UPWP funds Then using the fifty thousand dollars as a forty percent match in the application The the positive takeaways from this are if it's funded the town wouldn't have to pay a hundred thousand dollars for it be all complete in one year so Matt's proposed this for review by the CCRPC If the board supports this and then he was also planning has projects in here for an official map and mode shift facility projects We had these in this current FY 20 UPWP And we heard were at the end of last week as well that when they did their review They have some funds allocated this year for these projects, but it's recommended also Have them in the FY 21 UPWP as well in case there's additional work to be done Based of Matt on that today, and he advised us that we keep these Public work side Lisa prepared those documents, and I don't have a lot of additional details to share But I could definitely dig in if you have any additional questions here, but but what the Action for the board question tonight is to support these projects with a motion and would reform the CCRPC accordingly Thank you Questions on the board regarding the projects Do you know what the sort of for lack of better words or maybe it's not the best word the process that Matt and Bruce and Lisa use when outlining or determining what projects should be recommended I'm not sure exactly how they internally in their departments, but I know they have a number of Projects that are forecasted out for number of years and they can think what may be eligible for some of this grant funding And then prioritizing what's kind of the short-term project to accomplish them looking to see if these funds can be activated Certainly not meant as a disagreement. It's just it would just be helpful for me to know, you know what that I Mean if you could get that to me fine, it's not going to affect how I vote tonight The one that was I thought was a little bit surprising was the traffic count requests, but I'm guessing that's because it's actually the The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission that provides the staff that does the counts. Yes, that's correct I know they usually I think interns Something along those lines during the summer and those may not be the exact traffic counts We actually end up requesting. It's the concept of would have for I think might be What's important there? Okay There questions There's a suggested motion to approve these Move to approve the project's proposed for inclusion in the regional annual unified planning work program for fiscal year For discussion on the motion Who's just showed up? I don't know if it's worth getting an answer from him or sure Real quickly Bruce. I asked Eric. What was the process you Matt and Lisa used? We're coming up with the projects that are recommended to be included in the UPWP Okay Yes Yes That's path, yeah, that's almost more like a recreation path here. It says path Same basic thing Okay No rush any further discussion on the motion if not all those in here the motion say hi So we're in a little bit ahead of time, but let's so maybe we can go to the end of the Order in the town manager recruitment process and talk a little bit about that for 15 minutes before we have a public hearing and so joy and Jeff and I met Yesterday along with on a conference call with Elaine Haney from S.A. Junction who I think is the current chair of the village board regarding the process that they used to recruit a new town manager for the town and village combined See Today we received something, you know, which we haven't I haven't had a chance to look at from a member Mr. Brown with his thoughts about what they did as far as the process goes and also some information on Other Organizations that they Looked for as looked at as far as doing a project so they did a They hired a firm called municipal resources incorporated and It was about a four-month project that they entered into and Don't have an exact price that they paid for but I think they said something around 16,000 for that They we talked quite a bit about the process that they went through with public Input to to the process the board's input into the process and how much We might be interested in having As far as the town goes so at the moment we have sort of a subcommittee of the board with the three of us that are doing some of the groundwork and What I'm suggesting tonight is that we send out a request for proposals to two firms we have one from VLCT that we got last week and My thought is to send I have Rick's and out or make phone calls at requesting Project for the admissible resources incorporated which was hired by Essex and One that Nick that Rick knows is GOV HR, and I think they're based in Illinois and MRI is based in New Hampshire To the big concern for the three of us when we're talking in that Essex was really running home with us was make sure we have somebody Who is familiar with New England with New England? Absolutely? Yes Which is why that first company we were interested in yes So At this point, I think that's where if there's agreement by the board to send that out then we would Have the information sent back to all of us to look at and if you wish to continue With the three of us to look at them and then come back and make a recommendation to you We could certainly do that or we can do the whole board and have What certainly will have your input I Think a smaller group is better in this circumstance Be interested in hearing the recommendation Yeah, it's not that I don't want to be involved. I just think you've already got the ball kind of rolling Understand no, I'm fine. I just think we're looking at options I know time is of the essence as we spoke about last time, but I do think it's a good idea to look at some options. I Think it's a good idea for us to Give all of the information to you to look at and we'll certainly be glad to do that and then make a recommendation and Ask for your input at that point And hopefully the sooner the better to get this ball going and down the road so we can hopefully have a Person on on duty by July 1st, and that would be our goal certainly the two takeaways I Came away with one is We I think we are going to need a firm that is really going to take the lead and kind of We're going to have to trust them and and to To do a lot of the groundwork the leg work because we just aren't going to be able to as I Know myself. I just can't spend that much time So we really need I mean we'll need to pay for it, but we really need that assistance if you will the other one was what Essex did is they actually Solicited proposals from various recruitment firms. I'm not sure we need to do that That ended up taking them a good I think a month or a month and a half if not longer I don't know if you felt this way, but after listening to her. I felt like they had done a lot about Well, that's a little bit of I didn't want to quite say that publicly, but yeah, that's a little bit of it Is I figured out so much in that New England thing was the one that just I really walked away with doing okay That was so important I think that they actually went out and advertised with the s2 groups the ICMA and the VLCT Who actually do the advertising? More or less themselves. I think then have the information go back to the the company You know it seemed like they had two major efforts going on one was selecting the firm and then using the firm to Do the whole recruitment process and I'm hoping we can shorten up the selecting the firm piece of it Because I still am worried Six months. Well, it's not six anymore. It's more like five and a half Maybe even shy of five and a half is going to go awfully quickly. Yes, it is Yes, I may yes, please first I should point out three members of the board constitutes a Majority board if you have a subcommittee it should be hosting notices of your meetings and having minutes Okay, secondly, what was the use you mentioned? Two firms municipal resource Inc. MRI and what was the other one gov. HR, which is one of them that you had to read Actually, I don't I just picked that up from Essex. I okay. Oh, okay I'm actually with maybe the Essex manager had mentioned him that group It seems to be those were the two wells or the two that I think that Essex Looked out as well. Yeah, those are the top two that they eventually chose one from and is there a more specific scope of services that you're looking for at this point Is there anything I did you? Did you gather from your phone call about the scope of services? I guess well, we would like Not to have any burden on town staff if possible and Or at least a limited amount Of a burden Certainly we need to know Maybe perhaps a number of things when they if they have a sort of a staggered Information system that they use Then what is the price for doing certain things like background checks? Advertising Reviewing the applications, which I think probably we would like to have them do Other thoughts and then present us with their top whatever picks. Yeah One of the pieces I liked about the way Essex did it is they had a public involvement aspect of it that I I Just really think it's a good idea. You know if we can I'm not exactly sure but they had some Members of the community to work with a select board in determining who might be a good fit And there was definitely an interaction between some of the candidates and somehow they assembled a Citizens committee to help with the process That's an important point because to the extent you're going to be using a consultant to do a lot of groundwork or Setting that up and running that that will greatly affect the price if it's something you're going to be doing internally Just deciding to involve some people. That's maybe a different matter So I just caution you if you're public involvement component is important But it's wide open as far as what that means. Yeah, and so if you're trying to narrow the What's that? I was thinking smaller as opposed to bigger will not get good decision That's going to be the problem. I definitely think you should bring the public in but I don't think you should be having a Citizens group and a select board group. I think you're going to just you won't get it Just to be clear. I'm not advocating I'm just trying to help you narrow or define the scope not narrow it but define the scope because I'm just pointing out that that component of this is can be wide open and can be very labor-intensive If that's what the board wants, that's fine, but then I need to communicate that to the consultants Costs is one aspect of it. The other piece again is time That was what I was thinking My thought was if we needed to Have a citizen input we would ask people if they were interested in serving on a small committee Have two or three people from the community who are different points of view and along with The gang of three here The gang I like that Yeah, yeah, town manager was hired by a gang I thought VLCT you see the other way around he's right out of town by a game I thought when VLCT presented last week that they mentioned that Doing a search like this we didn't have to abide by the open meeting law But I'm not sure as far as the actual interviews being held in executive session. That is correct Okay, but but that's all but our meetings we if you're having a meeting you still have to warn it Okay, stop regardless of as long as it's more than two right board members, right? Okay, well I don't think I participated because of the static or whatever That might be something we want to think about whether we want two or three select board members on the committee Because it may streamline things just to have to as opposed to having a meeting every time Oh, it's not that it's not that burdensome to just post it You know, that's something the staff could you know if you tell us the date and time We can get it posted and the minutes can be very very brief So I wouldn't use that as a mechanism to decide how many should be on it Anything else tonight That be with you Rick or with Eric or sorry when we when we have that communication about I would probably have a go through Eric Anything else before we go to the public hearing All right It's just by the clock and on your notes of public hearing on town charter amendments under the authority of 17 VSA section 2645 the Wilson select board will hold a public hearing to receive public comment on proposed amendments to the Wilson town charter Hearing will held will be held on Tuesday, January 21 2020 at 8 p.m. At the town hall meeting room located at 7900 Wilson Road This is the second of two public hearings required under state law before the amendments can be considered by Australian ballot that town meeting So our proposals are three in number as far as the charter amendments go Eric, I think you have an Memo to us tonight, but you perhaps you'd explain and we'll go to public hearing Pertaining to the letter from Bob Fletcher on Friday Terry. Yes Yep, the so the town received an opinion from council on Friday Review the language that he proposed in the town charter and also the MOU draft that we have with the library trustees Which is later on on your agenda this evening One one point to raise that that mr. Fletcher say in his letter If the town should proceed with the MOU it would not be legally enforceable unless the charter changes currently under consideration pertaining to the library are approved These changes effectively transfer management authority over the library director from the trustees to the town manager And this proposal to set some some background was introduced formalized past and present practice by the town and In addition, mr. Fletcher offered language changes to the charter proposal So staff is recommending tonight the select board choose one of two following pathways to proceed to revise the charter changes and recommendations from the town attorney And proceed the warning these changes at town meeting I have some language that would accomplish in a single article if the board makes that decision The other path though would be to remove all charter changes pertaining to library from the charter proposal two possible pathways that that staff is recommending to be considered tonight and Regardless what the what the boards the side staff Board still entered the MOU with the library trustees and that's there on the agenda But thank you, so I'll open the public hearing and Steve. I presume we'd like to talk about the literate son to me and Every select board member has received the letter that I sent to you Terry So everyone has that the board of trustees of the Dorothy Island Library has not changed its position That we feel that the language managed the library, which is in the current town charter Should remain so if there are no changes to those sections or if language were to be changed that it does include manage the library We have two Main reasons for that one that we are an independently elected board by the citizens of Williston To manage that library that follows our current town charter as well as current Vermont state law And We feel that's very important. It's part of Vermont tradition and part of the operation of towns and free access to materials and knowledge As imagined going back a couple of hundred years Also by changing that language It it would Be in conflict with current Vermont state law at this point Which says manage the library is part of the duties of elected trustees This statute as well was challenged by the town of Hartford in 2002 and the Vermont Supreme Court affirmed that the above mentioned statute supersedes the authority of the select board in management of the library And I do understand that changing The the town charter would affect state law However, we do feel that This is very important that the board continued to manage the library and come at a way that we can work with The town as we have for for many years to manage the staff and the resources of that library I did want to read one piece that was not in my letter And it's actually a portion of what the Vermont Supreme Court wrote in their Ruling in 2002 and they write the overlapping duties of town managers and other municipal entities require a spirit of cooperation For the efficient daily administration of the affairs of a town in this way library trustees and town managers across the state of Vermont can agree to a wide variety of power sharing schemes that best suit the needs of each particular town They go on to say and this is in regards to Hartford But as in this case when that spirit of cooperation is lost the town cannot in the name of administrative efficiency And fringe upon the board's full power to manage the library The board is directly accountable to the voters of the town of Hartford if the town's people are unhappy with the performance of the library Trustees either because of a lack of administrative efficiency or for any other reason They may vote the trustees out of office or they may decide to undertake a system in which the trustees are appointed by town officials rather than elected I Missed the meeting in December the second reading of this. I apologize for not being here to comment on it I was in Ohio teaching a two-day course on Vermont history and culture and politics to a group of 45 social studies teachers in southern Ohio and It really jumps out at me. We spent half a day doing a mock town meeting with these educators and This was completely foreign to them and the idea of how transparent our government is In Vermont and you know asking questions like just that is just not efficient. That doesn't work How do you guys even function? And and my response to that group was that you know Vermont the way we govern It may not be necessarily efficient It may not be the the quickest way to the end But in my mind and presenting to them and talking about our state that it is the best way to do that so our feeling as a board is that oh We continue through our town charter and state law to manage the library Thank you any questions receive I Do have one for you are you this library board still Interested in pursuing the MOU absolutely We think that is a wonderful way to address the the you know the questions and answering some questions and Coming to effective management of the library Right any questions for Steve? I'm not sure how to exactly ask this question. So I might stumble a little bit. Hopefully it will it will come out It seems to me that there The library boards position is managed the library is the appropriate language and and town staff has recommended different language and I guess my question is is is there a possibility that the two sides and maybe it's through the MOU process I don't know and I guess this is maybe even a larger question than just for you Steve is Is there is there a way in which the two can agree on the language that should go into the town charter? We strongly believe that the language manage the library Should remain in the town charter and it should mirror state law Within that that's that's what we're elected to do Creating an MOU or other agreement of that type that defines how That takes place We're completely open to and in in practice. That's how that has proceeded in the past So if and I'm sorry, I'm not Again, I don't know how to ask this question directly. So if I end up being blunt or kind of off the mark Please please give me some latitude here. Doesn't that then? Prevent if the insistence on the language manage the library be in the town charter kind of diminish the ability to have an MOU down the down the road because The language that's in the charter will be the language that governs That that's true and I we come to an agreement on how you know the functional piece of managing Managing that is you know, we are elected to to manage the library. I don't know charity probably has better language than Okay One question for you. There's one part of the Changes that are recommended here that Puts new language and it says the library director shall be appointed by the manager with the advice and consent of Hannibal add the majority of the board of trustees is the are the trustees in favor of that part of The charter changes we were fine with that because we read it as the board of trustees have the the final say Actually, that's been modified that language Appointment and removal Which we agree with Are there further questions for Steve? Others who wish to speak I'm charity Clark. I sit on the board of trustees for the door Library I wanted to address your point because I think I understand what you're saying is it feels like there's this Chasm and how is the MOU gonna work and what Steve said is right that as a board We are elected to manage the library and the MOU would be an expression of how we want that to take place So right now we have a great town manager and this is what we think the town manager should be doing Every month we meet we you know learn from the library director and a staff person kind of what's going on we get updates Oh, I met with Rick. Here's what we talked about. Here's the budget. So, you know, we're involved But the MOU would just help us articulate how things are going to work day to day and Does that answer your question? It does and Again my questions aren't meant to relay my position if you will it's just try to make sure I understand It just seems to me that if the language in the Charter is managed the library and even though there might be an MOU that's agreed upon Because the language in the Charter that says manage the library at some point the board could just say We're not going to honor the MOU anymore because we stand behind the library Language that's in the Charter. That's exactly right. So and the point with the the legal Determination that the MOU isn't legally enforceable I think that means the law is that that library manages the library board manages the library So just because we were saying oh in the MOU here's what we should do. Here's what we let me give an example from the case that Steve mentioned the Hartford case from 2002 the issue there the the power struggle between the library board and the town manager was over the salary of The library director. So let's use that as an example say the town manager decided, you know We can't afford this library director. We're gonna have her salary the library board could say nope. No, no, no You know, we don't want that. We're managing the library. That's not what we want person Hartford was the opposite It was the the select the board that wanted to cut the salary, but just to use that as an example So even though the MOU has these specifics. It's just a memorandum of understanding. It's not like a, you know, a legally binding document Okay So I Just again, so I'm clear that the language that is being proposed by for lack, but you know the town versus language being proposed by the the library board We can't come to a common ground. Well, I think it that would be hard. Are you saying you think we should co-manage? I don't know what the answer is. I'm just asking the question of Are we are we at a point where we just can't come to an agreement? There's still room such that the charter language could We both could agree on the language in the charter. I Think that's part of the beauty of the MOU is yeah, the buck stops with the board But here's what we're envisioning this is gonna look like and I mean I should add that because it's in state statute My hunch is that the norm is for the library board in a town to manage the library and Every town who doesn't want that has to go through a pretty dramatic process to undo that So I my understanding is this is sort of the norm of how things are done And for my way Wilson isn't normal. We're extraordinary Thanks Jim Good evening Jim McCullough, I reside in the Northeast Kingdom of Williston and I want to thank you Eric and Rick and Tireless members of this board who come here regularly in the evening when they have other family Obligations, thank you very much I'm coming to speak in behalf of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library and I'll just start out by saying This is a quote that we're all familiar with If it's not broke, don't fix it and And I'm I'm struggling and and people that I've inquired of have struggled to find out what's broken So in the late 40s, I went to the Williston library in the the Warren store Which is now torn down across the route to from the Federated Church with my mom and old Floyd Mr. Putnam to me. Thank you very much was working the library there and Some years after that I went to tea with my mother in a ridiculous little suit with a vest and cap and shorts to visit Dorothy Alling. I'm at her home and When I was in the seventh grade we had a brand new Library Built where it sits today the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library and I recall my seventh grade teacher saying This is a beautiful building too bad. There's no books And I thought, well, jeez, there's some books here, but truly there weren't enough since then our library board and Our library directors have combined to not only fill that library with Overabundance of books More books than they can store. They built an addition on the library. They added computers They added all kinds of programming There they're not just a library. They're a town center We don't have a town center by the way, that's another topic. I'd approach the board with another date But as close as we can come intergenerational town center Not broke Don't fix it. I urge the board To just say, you know, we don't need this charter change period work on an MOU Which I understand is well in progress But I don't know if everyone can agree on it by vote time tonight About whether it ought to be printed in In the town report or not But I just urge the board to say, you know There isn't a big rush. There's always next year if we do discover that it's broken You know in the interim we can we can we can find out what that problem is And they may find a real solution a lot for your attention Any questions for you if that are there other folks who wish to speak tonight? Yes I'm a trustee at the Dorothy Allen library One of the reasons that we moved to Williston is the library When we moved here, they just had opened the children's wing and It was so impressive When we were visiting that that we decided that we would actually look to to build a house here in Williston and so being Familiar with things I've been here for 22 years now and I've gone to numerous conferences for libraries in in Vermont and Every time that I'm there I'm always impressed about how how amazing Our library actually is and I agree with Jim McCullough It really is about as close as we can come to to have a community center The it isn't just the books that are there There's a genuine love for This library and I think people in this town take it very seriously When they elect people to sit on the board went for instance when our Bookmobile died And we debated would we just let the whole program die or will we look into what else We could do if we had one that was specifically made for the library on people contributed Amazingly they contributed enough money for us to be able to get this beautiful bookmobile and One of the most impressive things Jim was talking being a child going to the library That I remember being there one day and a little boy came in and he had his piggy bank And he opened it up and poured all the money Wanted to contribute it to the to the bookmobile so Sitting on the board as a trustee I've taken really seriously and I think everybody that's on there feels this very same way I think there's a difference between being elected or being appointed because I sit in other positions in this town And the ones that are appointed While we really Put our heart into it We are appointed we can be taken off point Being elected by the people in this town and we all know how hard it is people to go out and vote I think that message to the people in the town if we kind of seeded the The authority to run the library To someone else While we've been working on it together. It's been a pleasure to work with Rick Again, he has a wonderful reputation and we've really never had any noticeable problems that I've heard of anyway but Rick's leaving and If you pay attention to politics All you need is to have one person come in and decide they're going to change everything I don't think this is the time To make changes we're going to have to adjust to a whole new town manager and Rick's shoes are going to be very hard to fill but I think the way the charter is and that the Authority for the general running of the library really should remain with the trustees and Again, I'm very proud of the library that we've had here As I said as a child, I spent so much time in the library I'm and even taught my sister how to read and we got our picture on the front page of the paper Because we've read so many books in the summer and that's just a tiny little program compared to what this Does now I'm amazed at what we're able to do So I don't really see any reason to make a huge change and especially not now Anyone else who wishes to speak tonight before we close the public hearing See no hands raised the motion to close the public hearing would be in order Is there a second second and discussion on the motion Although some favor of closing the public hearing say aye So I have a suggestion under the charter change proposal And my suggestion I can't make a motion, but my suggestion is is to leave the language the original language under 14 J 5 where the library trustees has the full power to manage the library and only the words that existed before in there and also to Include that the language under 16 J which now talks about the library director Shall be appointed removed by the manager with the advice and consent of the majority of I think it's a majority of the library board of trustees That's my suggestion to you to discuss That's in the charter changes that's the proposed charter change itself that you're amending you suggest that we Suggesting that do we change the wording in the proposal that we have before us to do The two things I think I'm on board with that Does this mean we have to have another public hearing? No, okay Not that that would affect my decision just When you say two things I just want to clarify you just yes It's really only one change to the existing chart. It's one change. It's going back to the original wording 14 J 5 which doesn't will not show up as a change. That's okay. That's right. Thank you. It's good. I do On board So many would give somebody would make a motion to that effect Zero second second discussion on the motion just a Legal question, I think I know the answer but Our charter change has to be approved by the legislature It has to be first approved by the voters voters and then approved by the legislature And then if it is approved by the legislature, it trumps the state statute Found at 22 VSA from 143 a anyway, right? Yes for discussion on the motion All those in favor of the motion say aye. I So thank you all for coming tonight. Thank you. I think we solved our problem No clapping or joy in this room clapping or joy in this room Laughter but it has to be derisive Yes, it doesn't have doesn't doesn't have very often just Say about the chart or the number one understanding Do you want to address that? I There's no immediate time pressure on this draft MOU But I wanted to get the because of all this discussion. I wanted to get you to latest draft and keep this process moving When I first had a conversation with our attorney on this and he described that Do you understand that this won't be enforceable and I do you still want me to review it and probably comment I said absolutely because I think there is value in it Regardless of whether it's enforceable or not just as a select board policy you have lots of them. They're not enforceable But yet the board follows them This is a little bit different because there's multiple parties involved and there's a lot that can go wrong and the whole thing could easily fall apart yeah, but Yeah, I do think it does serve a good ground Leads a good groundwork for a relationship that hopefully will continue to be very positive in the future and I chafed a little bit when Jim was saying if it isn't broke don't fix it because That's not quite the situation here But the board's already decided and that's fine What we were trying to do is prevent a problem happening in the future because What we have now is not consistent with what the state law and our town Charter says, but that's okay Could I that went over my head a little bit? Could you say that again or say it differently? Well the As I said this earlier and I'm not again. I'm not trying to change anything. I just yeah, no Yeah, my point that I made earlier was that the Library director manages the library just as the town manager manages town and both persons whoever serves in those positions are Supervised and given policy direction by the respective elected boards and so the all the responsibility for lots of different things Has been worked out between The library trustees and staff and it's worked quite well and they're quite right if there's a change neither the manager or in Potentially on any board member that can fall apart pretty easily. Yeah So but my point is that It's good to have that discussion even if you know It's being resolved. That's fine But I think that having that discussion was healthy and hopefully will set the groundwork for a Stable relationship in the future regardless of who's in those various positions Yeah, well anyway, how do we get off of that? Well, it was I was responding to a question sure so we're getting close to having an agreement Yeah, so we've there. Oh, they're There aren't a lot of substantive changes from their earlier draft We the attorney had a bunch of warehouses, which I actually kind of I knew I was thinking of Jeff when I raised the issue But I do think it helps Set this the table so to speak for the issues There is one issue in there that we have to think about And I think the answer is Well the issue is What happens if there's a grievance Involving someone at the library it comes to the manager's office it's whoever Brings that grievance is not happy with the way the manager decides it who hears the appeal on that grievance for a normal town Most town employees it comes to the slack ward If it's a library employee should have come to the slack ward or should it go to the library trustees now I brought this issue to the attention of library trustees and After some discussion they felt it should come to the trustees And in fact, I kind of thought it should too given the relationship there But but our attorneys are raising the question that it's inconsistent with the town policies and So I I don't know I haven't had a chance to discuss this with the trustees But that's an issue. I think we need to have a little bit further discussion on before we finalize that one Wouldn't it automatically go to the trustees because they manage the library right? So I guess that's true but well, of course a lot of other things and this is the problem with a lot of other things should be done by library But they're not And they haven't been yeah, but this MOU will help to define And give some comfort to the manager I mean the issue that was raised about setting the salary is extremely important to me as a manager because if I'm responsible for managing the Some responsibility over the library director That person's got to be within the same pay structure that everyone else is And to the extent that either the library trustees try to change it by either reducing it below or raising it above Then I'm gonna have a manager's got a problem with that because it's not consistent with the the pay structure We have and it's it's a well-thought-out pay structure and with a whole series of criteria that are used to evaluate a position every time we create a new position and So someone from the outside changing that can Really then it's a major issue. That's why it was brought out in Hartford and went to the state Supreme Court So and then this MOU will help somewhat, but it will eliminate that Problem, but I'm not here to argue that raising that is an issue in the MOU So I think I'd like to have a discussion with the trustees on that But are there any other issues that the board has a concern with in this latest draft of the Townshater. No, no at the MOU You know, you don't we the board doesn't I'm not asked the board to approve it tonight Just trying to get it moving inches closer to a resolution on this between the two boards I can't honestly answer that right yet. Okay. That's fine. I'm just I'm more concerned about the word isn't concerned. I'm sorry. I just wonder is The MOU is gonna be good to have the policy in place I just worry about the concept of down the road Could it be deemed almost to be the word isn't meaningless, but just disregarded if the Library board were ever to take a very strong stance and just say yeah It's just a policy. You can't enforce it and we have that language in the charter that says manage the the library But we answers yes, correct I understand libraries would ever get would it ever get to the I mean not that I'm at all Envisioning this, but would it ever get to the point where the town and the library have their own separate budgets? I'm probably not but it could happen. That's the library gets power to impose a property tax So oh my goodness. Yeah, so no You can create as many budgets as you want Those book fines are gonna go up similar conversation with my teenagers at home Anything else on MOU tonight? If not, we'll revisit this at some point in time. Thank you. Thank you So we're on to our next problem and that is sidewalk winter maintenance requests and our next opportunity Eric I think you have a memo for us But the board's requests after our meeting last week, I put a memo in your packet that breaks down some cost numbers And some different scenarios here to call on the request We got to this point. We have requests following the board's policy for sidewalk maintenance to include an FY 21 Our next winter for the Hamlet neighborhood and Indian Ridge neighborhoods So I'll hit the highlights of my memo. I'm happy to take questions of how I arrived at these numbers but three scenarios to look at the first one the current cost of plow Portion of sidewalks which is our current practice. It's about 15 and a half miles works out to be 16,675 dollars per year is our estimated cost amount using a number of variables the Cost per linear foot breakdown there works out to about 20 So the cost of plow all sidewalks So adding additional 14.1 miles Running a second sidewalk plow would the cost about additional 17,000 so are 17,000 dollars each year and on the operational side Since the personal costs are already budgeted the added cost associated with the enhanced level of service would be capital costs and operation of the second sidewalk plow we have Within the budget a part-time public works Employee who most likely be running this plow For numbers wise I've blended I've blended some rates and because Positions open right now full-time person could end up running that at some point but That cost parents isn't very high So if the board were to move forward with this option and decide next winter You want to run a second sidewalk plow you essentially would need to add about 43,000 dollars to the FY 21 budget That that covers mainly the capital cost for a lease purchase agreement for the second plow and in that short term and the operating expenses there So this bottom line number to run both plows plow all the sidewalks would be Just under sixty three thousand dollars per year And that works out to about forty cents per linear foot or Then the final option we've discussed is the fee for service model and And Bruce can jump in here as well the town's about a critical mass of sidewalk mileage when a second plow Necessary probably sooner rather than later And pull for some manage a single plow as long as needed But as the mileage increases the amount of time it takes a single plow to complete a route increases as well So part of the ongoing discussion will be the level of service piece here But I've run numbers looking at our two requests from Indian Ridge and the Hamlet based on cost per linear foot with the Amount of feet in each of these neighborhoods, and you'll see a schedule off the bottom of the memo running it from Charging 40 cents per linear foot down the five cents per linear foot I'll highlight our current cost of 20 cents The board would go with that amount or do something higher than that that Additional costs from today's operational costs added on to it Those funds can potentially put towards capital savings for a second Overall, this would add adding these two neighborhoods would add just about over one and a third miles plow Who's the numbers that kind of a high level have to take any questions from the board on this? Questions Indian Ridge, we don't have the mechanical ability to do that now anyway. This is a smaller sidewalk. Is that correct? We will do more long damage than we do It's not going to hurt to plow It's going to hurt to green space in the south end of the yard If I may, with the Indian Ridge The service is brand of low to five feet Which? The only reason I ask is because Whatever the width of the plow that they're using is the same as ours and it Seems fine. Again, we have a spring to see what kind of damage there is but with the amount of snowfall there is It doesn't seem to be having any impact from a plowing perspective to To use that same equipment We don't we don't plow Brennan Woods, do we? That's not a town plow that's doing Brennan Woods I was wondering if it was four feet there Plows five feet wide That's not a problem when everything's frozen up, but the first snowfall in the fall And the last one in the spring that's when you get the most damage This is not a perfect science They're going to have to be, you know, the sidewalks We go out and we put all those brain states you see all over the place So the guys know where to go with the sidewalk plows And somebody comes along and takes them and throws them all away on us So when the guys go plowing, they don't know exactly where those sidewalks are So it's just not it's not the same as a curved row or a row That's this nice big defined So what he's saying is that even if we had a five foot plow and a five foot sidewalk We're still going to do some lawn damage Just part of the game We the community of Indian Ridge and the town of Willison We understand that, you know, because the sidewalks are this size There could be some reseeding that's done in the spring And that's the cost of doing business or not That's what we're talking about in terms of damage, right? Like a little bit of grassy It's already on a policy just to let the select or no States right in there we don't go and do We want to repair a plow damage But we do So if you want to go by the policy You don't have to go repair a plow damage anymore We're more than accepting it and we would do that But that's not what's going on But I'm just wondering if perhaps in this situation Because our sidewalks are known to be well below the size of the town's plowing equipment Whether or not we as the representatives can obviously if our community agreed that Yeah, we'll take care, we'll be responsible for any reseeding in the spring That occurs So that that issue is not the one that the town would have to go and do clean up in the spring At least in our community Other questions or comments? It's important that we make a decision tonight What is going to affect the budget or not We're perfectly fine with the plow damage We'll figure it out But I don't know what is something I've always brought up That we'll certainly figure it out When we go to snow blowers all bets are off anyway Wait, say that again, I'm sorry We go to the snow blowers We can't angle snow blowers or anything else They're five feet wide They're going to do a five foot swap Regarding what we try to do with this gentleman's right We can angle a straight plow We can't angle a B plow, B plows over the angle That's the plow we plow with 90% of the time That plow is only 52 inches wide When we go to the straight plows or the snow blowers We're in a whole different ballgame So I'll start out with just a couple of thoughts One is I'm hesitant to increase the budget But I also recognize that we are looking at a new plow Sometime in the near future Probably no matter what Because we're growing Our core area is getting more dense And I just assume that we're going to need to be doing More plowing in that area My concern, the part I'm uneasy with More than the cost is It's the concept of who's in, who's out And the kind of almost the annual request coming in I just don't know if that's the best way To decide who's in, who's out Repair afterwards If you've got a policy right now that's going That we're repairing And even if people are opting out I'm worried about how that's going to play out The policy is that we don't repair I know, but I just heard you correctly Saying as a matter of fact you actually do That kind hearted public works department Yeah Before I got here, it's always happened That's a concern for me More than some of the other stuff actually I think the repair should be similar to plowing the road Just when the plow goes by Whether I like it or not Snow is going to end up in my driveway And I'm going to have to shovel it And if your neighborhood is getting plowed by the town And dirt gets pushed out of the way Because of how you're just going to be out there in the spring Pushing dirt around and reseeding In terms of what's specifically before the board now My, I don't have a firm decision 100% but I am leaning toward saying That we should plow Indian Ridge Because of the proximity to the school I think that makes sense The hamlet on the fence on And I'm not sure I would do that Which does make it so that there is a winner and a loser But that's Because I think the factors are different for the hamlet Than they are for Indian Ridge If I could, since you want to start doing more walks The last time it was taking us four hours Right now to do sidewalks That was with a four inch door That six inch storm, it took twelve hours They were eight hours one day And four hours the next day Because the trucks going by and plowing sidewalks back in And us having to go back out So we do not have a lot of wiggle room To add any more sidewalks to what we're doing now Without having more equipment Yep So last week we had a suggestion I think by Ted to add Something to the town meeting Warning to discuss the issue Which would be perhaps more than just Warner neighborhood But plowing in general Or plowing all the town sidewalks I still would like that It doesn't really relieve us Of the responsibility we have tonight But it does But I would like to hear from the entire town Such as we can in a town meeting What people I'm sorry, what people are thinking Because it's one of these issues Where you're talking about an increase in $17,000 in operating As I understood it Which is not the entire increase to the budget Because we'd have to increase Our equipment expenditures as well So in a budget that is now As big as Willisons is now That's not huge But it's one of the reasons that we have I'm going to brag The second lowest municipal tax rate In Chittenden County Is because we are old curmudgeons And stingy And well Most of us are old But I do think that I would like to hear what the whole What a town forum would have to say About it and a town forum That isn't dedicated just to this issue Because if it's dedicated just to this issue You're going to get a skewed sample As with any issue before the board Where the room is full Or at least occupied by people Who are, you know, You're going to get a skewed sample Or at least occupied by people Who are, you know, passionate about something But most people don't even know the issue exists But if they did they'd have an opinion I also think I would have made Possibly different decisions on earlier Discussions we had about expenditures we made That's a good point If you were going to pull this in And well I think it's important And I agree with Ted and I agree With the fact that more so right now Indian Ridge needs to be I am really low to mess with this budget Any more than we have I just, I would have a big problem With that right now So we, I think we need to Have some motion to either Do with the plowing or Reject the request I would move to accept the request For sidewalk plowing for Indian Ridge Is there a second to the motion? Very no second and the motion dies Is there any other motion to be made? I think it's I would love to support you I just can't If we have no other motions Then I think the request Actually dies just before lack of action What if Indian Ridge were to be willing To pay the twenty cents Or thirty cents, whatever it is Since the linear foot It's not a matter of That's not to concern for public works right now It's that we're, we don't have The ability to add more Of what we have right now We can, we can do it If you want our sidewalk plow To be operating eight hours For a regular snowstorm We can do that That's not the norm We try to keep it the same As doing the plow rates Because four hours To get around one time If you're going around twice If you're going around three times There's twelve hours So the longer we make that initial push The longer it is To get all the way around And then you go The minute we get the big storms Where we have to go to the plowers We can be days We can be days as it is now And remember we have one machine If it goes down Nobody's getting them So there's lots of good reasons But the length of time It's taking the door right now Is the big thing And I haven't been very consistent With saying we're getting to the point Where we just don't have any more room To add more sidewalks So it may be that the In fiscal year twenty-two If the board decides to include That in the capital budget That might give them a little more leeway To add additional sidewalks If they should choose That's what you're saying Yes If we had another machine And we were just to keep doing the policy The way we're doing now We had years of being able to And if a machine breaks It would take us longer to get things done But we'd still be able to get them done So it's else, okay So that would be another Years of budget that we'd consider next year It's been in the capital right along And I think it's actually in twenty-twenty To work for at least half of it or something So can we focus a little bit on town meeting How do we, how will we Foster that discussion? Just before you get into that discussion Okay Article four draft of the draft morning It says to discuss whether the town Should maintain all public sidewalks And pave recreation paths during the winter months Parentheses, bold, or all caps No vote will be taken, close parentheses That was the addition of our legal counsel So that, that is the proposal And I think your question though Gets more towards what would that Process, that discussion look like What will it look like, but What I'd love to get out of that discussion Is some clear direction I realized not all town residents Attend town meeting, it's usually A fairly small representative of But representation of, but I'd like To get some clear direction about How residents feel, I mean It could be everything from, you know Town shouldn't be doing any sidewalks To town should be doing all sidewalks And it would be great if I had Something I felt that I could Advocate for maybe a policy change Because I want more specific, sorry Specificity Thank you, and what's in, what's out As opposed to this annual process We go through of people applying And they may or may not get selected So I think we'll need to discuss that When we get to the approval of the Warning and close out the conversation Tonight on the order maintenance Request, unless I hear some Other motion, we'll call it Quits on that one for tonight Thank you Thank you Angel, just for the record out there I mean, I definitely firmly believe That we have to take some action I just don't know Until it's budgeted to that piece of Equipment, I think that's kind of Where we're at I think the whole fairness of you Shaw are not for the budget It's literally $6 to the $10 amount Thank you Moving on to capital budget and program And I think there's no changes In the recommendation from last week Regarding that Right, I guess The list of possible adjustments And changes, I've taken What we talked about at the last meeting Put those changes that the board Had tentatively agreed to I don't think there's any vote on any of that In the approved column for the select board Which does include the $50,000 For an I'm talking operating budget But there's capital items in there as well And so provided that Those changes to capital are acceptable Then the capital budget should be If they're subtle Then a motion is in order to Adopt the capital budget program We're not talking capital right now If it's acceptable to us For the capital budget We need a motion I've moved to adopt the capital budget And program for fiscal year 2021 Through 2026 as presented Second Discussion on the motion Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion Say aye Aye Opposed Moving on to the general fund budget Operating I see the point that Surely was just making I had inadvertently left that out Out of select board adopted The 10,000 This is item 11 on possible changes So including that Would change the bottom line by 10,000 Yes And really doesn't do much as far as Increasing the tax rate No, it's insignificant But I had intended to include that as well So the net of the Select board adopted will be 10,670 Yes Counting the numbers from January version to the warning Yes So the draft warning doesn't include that 10,000 No, I think, right? No, it probably doesn't Yeah, okay Questions, comments On the operating budget For the motion would be in order Move to adopt the general fund budget For fiscal year 2021 In the amount of $11,661,210 Second Does that include the 10,000? Yes So it would be 671,000 So yes, that number Thank you Second Motion made in the second It's a discussion on the motion Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye Aye Any opposed Moving on to The money book, Brooke Colbert Replacement, an article on the The warning Questions This is just to approve Going through, asking for a bond issue This is to Establish a permanent fix To a temporary bridge That was just temporarily fixed And this is It's been agreed that Williston is paying half the cost of that And South Burlington will be paying Better half So the total project cost is 1.8 million At this point And the design Has already been, or the preliminary What's the word? The design has been kind of Reviewed by the board And the preferred alternative selected So the design is going to be reflecting That preferred alternative There's one typo on the Warning at the bottom And it says Jeff Harris Vice Chair And it should be Joy Lamont Vice Chair Yeah, we'll fix that Pick up The only thing on the warning under It says article 7 And I wonder should it reference that South Burlington will be responsible For the second half I know it says it in the resolution But I'm wondering if the warning should Reflect that It does say Williston will be paying Half the cost, but I wonder if it should Identify who's paying the other half Let me just Pull up the document. Which document is it now? It's the warning itself Not the one we're going to sign tonight Hearing notices Oh, sure. If it's just a hearing notice That's not a problem I think Jeff is talking about the Actual article on the Yes, the actual article that will go Into the Town We'll be looking at that in a moment I'll have to check with legal counsel On that one because we ran this By legal counsel already I think it's Has to have a question, right? It's a question So I'm looking For a motion To resolve Jeff's Question I can't Say we should add it without I don't know what You're going to muddy The already muddied waters Yeah, maybe I will say that I was reading Minutes from A town meeting Called very early in the history of this town Where the town agreed to pay half the cost Of a bridge That was it. Didn't identify Who was the other? No, it didn't And the bridge I think was Van Sicklin That bridge That's the early history of the town And I laughed at it because I said What happened in the other half Of course I know the answer But in that case they didn't say I don't think it's a big deal But they did Make everybody come in Some time later this week to sign it You will anyway We're not going to have this ready tonight That's right, you can't We can't for some reason Usually You produce a document That explains things on The informational document That goes out It will be there It will be in hearing notice too In any event the muddy brook Motion I'd move to adopt the necessity resolution And declaration of official intent For pursuing authorization from voters For $900,000 in bonded indebtedness For the town's share To construct a muddy brook Colvert crossing replacement at Marshall Avenue at town meeting 2020 Second It's for discussion on the motion Very none, all those in favor of the motion Say aye Second Moving on to the town meeting 2020 So We won't have this ready As I said just to move on to For the board to sign Because we've got to make changes To article 6 We just made a change Article 9 Which is the section relating to library We'll have to make a change And I think those are the only two changes We're looking at At this point And then We had that brief discussion A few moments ago about the Article 4 Which is the discussion on the sidewalk Maintenance The board wants to discuss this I have an idea On the sidewalk maintenance thing I think the article as it's written Is completely fine, but the conduct Of the meeting and my thought is That if we could have a Memo And presentation that Along the lines of what Eric presented It would talk about The global issue Of how much How much sidewalk The town has, how much is being Plowed now, how much that cost Now And then the additional cost For doing all of the sidewalks Both capital and operational And possibly Something Maybe something on the effect of What that would do to If that were a part of the current budget That would do to the anticipated Property tax rate If that presentation were made That would give people a basis Of an understanding I'm still thinking it's going to be An interesting conversation because Some people are going to be Going to be Buried in the principle of the thing But that's That's part of the town meeting So after that presentation That it would be just a matter of Opening up the floor for comments Mr. Lamb With a whip in a chair Jeff You spoke earlier about The spectrum of service And the other end of the spectrum Is the town not plowing any sidewalks And that some towns have Local ordinance or a policy For that issue of it Or at least broach that as a bullet Point within the presentation I mean it's I think we should present the range And we're looking for direction And right now we fall somewhere In between with this Method of Reviewing kind of applications every Year Do we want to continue that way I think I'm guessing the board may want to stay away From that whole policy at this point Because we're just talking about the concepts Yeah I agree Sure But Zero option Where we don't plow any sidewalks Reminds me of when I was one of the last Richmond town meetings I went to Somebody made a motion from the floor To Delete line items in the budget And it was the police department And it was a spirited Debate actually Then in there we're going to kill off the police department We didn't So are we ready to have a Motion to approve The warning as amended I'm not sure what the Recommended motion is but We have amended it I would move to adopt the official Warning for town meeting and Australian Ballot vote to be held on March 2 2020 as amended Second It's a discussion on the motion Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion Say hi Hi Moving along Well we did the Talked about that so we're up to Manager's report If I may there's one other motion The board may want to consider under item 14 That pertain to the charter It's procedural that the town attorney Suggested last year And those were doing a similar Thing with the charter this year The board may want to consider this Motion as well that the town attorney Suggested The attorney had suggested We passed this motion last year And it pertains to having it Available at the voting As a matter of procedure Thank you Yes I remember that So Yes I do I'd move to find The charter amendment proposal is too long And unwieldy to be shown in its amended form For each of the separate articles And resolve that copies of the amendment proposal Should be readily available to the public To town offices and for distributions Those requesting absentee ballots Or voting early if requested By having a full copy located at each Ballot booth on March 3rd 2020 Is there a second There's a discussion on the motion If not all those in favor of the motion Say aye Aye Any opposed Now we're up to So this is the Necessity resolution that was just About a few moments ago on the bond The second page needs to be signed By each board member The finance report Since we have our finance director Maybe I can Catch her off guard Do you want me to give you another minute Or two to get ready The I think the only Other thing I wanted to touch on is The regional dispatch I gave a fairly lengthy Update We had a Board meeting this morning And the board agreed that The cost of Pulling all the communities together And setting up regional dispatch Was In the manner that We were studying was Not workable, it was just Too high. So we're Going to be looking at other alternatives Which might involve A smaller number of municipalities And it might involve Not creating a new Facility but rather expanding An existing facility In the city of Burlington And seeing if there's a mechanism That we can stuff Still managed by the authority But as I said fewer Municipalities but less Expense using The infrastructure And Burlington has to offer So that's Going to be looked at over the next Month or so and Now that It may be very likely that New facility would not be Large enough to accommodate Towns like Williston but on the Other hand as it stands now Williston's interest is Somewhat limited Partly because as I said the cost Was high To bring it down They won't have the capacity so We'll have to stick with our current Arrangement which was with The fires with the town of Shelburne and I don't know The bigger piece of our Dispatch need is in the police Department and there's Right now we received As I explained last week A lot of free service From the state of Vermont now Whether that change or not Remains to be seen Given it's election year It's kind of a huge issue To be tackling it but I'm not a politician so I don't know how that's all Going to sort itself out I do think eventually the state Probably it makes sense to Work out some different Arrangement than they currently have But I don't think it's going to Happen next year So That's kind of all I have to offer At this point Okay Eric did you have anything Just briefly there's an update On the health order you issued in October To the Bevan's property Town officer Health officers made a couple of visits there One of the major pieces was Addressed last fall Regarding the trailers in the Backyard but there Remained some outstanding issues there Injunction with an outstanding Zoning order and staff has worked With legal counsel through these issues Still keep the board apprised Of where we get to What about Going further with legal Proceedings of this or We're currently looking at those options With counsel On the zoning issue A Motion has been filed Because the There's been no appearance On the zoning matter from The other side so But Motion in favor The town is being requested Because there's been no opposition So at least that's on the Zoning side of things That's an overall picture thing That's the lesser of concerns but We'll use whatever we have To keep the pressure on To get changes So finance report So these are the November or your date Financial statements In the very first Revenue highlight I just pointed Out even though The bev's in the peak I just Wanted to Put in dollars the change In that value of the grand list It's $1400 in all and actually It's an increase because of The change to the peak property So even though it Look like big numbers in the change Of the grand list and the total property Text Huge difference Property taxes when I look at that And I say oh we've already built them for the year Why aren't we at 100% we're a little under And the reason is For accounting purposes We get an estimate of the state For what's going to be due To the state and to the schools And in May Or early June we get the actual Entitially so we move Out of revenue and put into a liability The amount based on the state's Estimate and so when I was working On this year and looking at the year before The estimate is always high So towards the end of this year I'll be probably moving some funds Back into property taxes so Those will probably as for the last Couple of years be over budget in the End. Some of the revenue is it looks High compared To where we are through November But some of them are timing differences If you look at the Wreck Revenue A lot of theirs has already come in From their summer programs and what We recognize through the school year Is a lot less I'm just trying to pick out Some of the big ones. Highway revenue Is over budget again I looked at it compared to last year And it's all The quarry fees for the SD Ireland And there's usually a lot In the fall, summer fall And it's not as much in the spring When construction starts again Let's see Expenditure highlights Highway Is slightly over Their budget They're at 97% of budget But they have Expend most of their Retreatment budget already for the Year. The other big expenditure one Is the Town clerk And the treasurer Since those positions Were budgeted to be Split for the whole year But it's not going to happen until March So the clerk looks Like she's over budget all year But it's because all the salaries Year today are all going to the clerk Because we still have the clerk treasurer And then they will be split in March So the budget is probably Too low for the clerk And too high for the new treasurer Department. So I didn't have any other significant Points unless you have questions Of me. Any questions for Shirley? Thank you very much. One other item I just For maybe one or two others. Just a reminder February 10th I think it is Is the date for the Date of breakfast Will be If you haven't sent out Have emails going out yet? If all of the board has The flyer in their packet If you could R-C-P to meet by the Fifth That's always important to know How many are coming. I did that. Excellent. Yeah I said it sounds My flights on time will be there. We'll need Ted In the past has served as the moderator He will not be there unfortunately So we will need a moderator to do that It could be anyone But it probably shouldn't be Terry No So If Joy if you're there Okay Sure Okay If you want this on or Jeff Ladies and gentlemen Thank you One other item I'm not quite sure What the board wants to handle this But Normally in February The board does my annual evaluation And this year it feels Different So I'm not quite sure What the board wants to do with that But you know I don't need An answer right now We can think about that At the next meeting I think we can probably have a Great celebration instead of having An evaluation But I like that idea Is that it? Yeah that's all I had for this evening So under other business We're not having a meeting next week You know it's scheduled We're not having a meeting next week Next Monday So our next meeting will be The first week in February And Hopefully we can We've had a marathon session here for the last Three months so it's time to Get a little bit of a break anyway Is there any other business To be brought forward tonight I just thought one more thing I'm sorry the Each I think one board member mentioned this Or we're going to be doing a flyer just like We always do every year that covers It and the charter Issues So we'll be doing the same again this year It'll be like a four page thing And I'll send it around For each of you to review Before we finalize We won't have a lot of time between When I send it to you and when To get it out because it needs to get out to the printer Pretty quickly but If there's no other business tonight Then we're adjourned