So we are going to get started and call the meeting to order. The first agenda item is a potential and anticipated executive session. Is there a motion? I'll move to find that premature public knowledge regarding confidential attorney client communications made the purpose of providing professional legal services to select board would clearly place the town at substantial disadvantage. And further move that we enter executive session to discuss confidential attorney client communications made for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the select board under title one sections three one three a one at the Vermont statutes and invite town attorney David Rue Public Works director Bruce for and town manager Eric Wells to join. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. We are in executive session. Doesn't have a red light on. There we go. Now I exist. Scott you set. Okay. So we are back at 718 from executive session. And is there a motion based on our discussions? Well, actually looking at the presentation for this so that people know what super secret stuff we're talking about. Sure. Mr. chair. I'm Dave Rue from the firm of Stutzel page and Fletcher where the attorneys before the board now is a settlement agreement to avoid litigation between the town and the Oak Hill Estates Association. This originates from a 1995 water storage tank agreement. So almost 30 years ago, whereby the developer of Oak Hill Estates exchanged land for a water tank and conveyed that to the town in exchange for certain commitments, including being provided water from the water tank and that the town would monitor and test the water in the neighborhood. The water system up on Oak Hill Estates remains a private system, but the town committed in this agreement as part of its receipt of the land for water storage tank to monitor and test the association's water system or water in the water system. Shortly after the agreement was signed, the town's obligations to monitor and test the water were forgotten. And they only came back to the town's attention approximately two and a half years ago. So what this agreement does is it reimburses the homeowners association for roughly five years of testing expenses plus pre-judgment interest on those expenses from 2015 to 2020. The amount is $26,715.40. It resolves any claims the HOA would have against the town for those back expenses. And going forward, the town is reimbursing the homeowners association or to have a third party contractor monitor and test the water in the association or test the water in the association system. If there are any problems, the association remains the permittee and obliged to address those. So really this is the town holding its end of the bargain up from almost 30 years ago. And the reason why we're only looking at 2015 to 2020 expenses is due to the timing of when the claim arose and the application of the statute of limitations, which would bar the association from recovery of costs going well beyond six years, going back before 2015. So that's what's before the board in this agreement. Questions or comments? Is there a motion? So I'd move to approve the settlement agreement. We'll kill the state's association and authorize the town manager to sign it. Is there a second? Second. Is there further discussion on the motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. Okay. Great. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you, David. Next on the agenda, the minutes from July 25. Move to approval with any changes necessary. Is there a second? I'll second. Hearing no modifications. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. Public comment. This is a portion of the meeting where any member of the public can make any comment to the board. It does not have to be something that is on the agenda. It can be for whatever you want. I would ask to please reign yourselves in in terms of time. But is there anybody who wishes to make a public comment? Okay. If you can come forward, state your name and... Sure. Sure. I'm Dave Yandell. Live on Oak Hill Road. I'll be really brief. I, in regards to the rising contract and the brick church, I think that would be a mistake to pursue it. And I think I'm... There are a lot of other people that feel that way as well in the community. I would urge you to take a little deeper dive and to hear what some of the community have to say. People that have used that building and have knowledge of that building intimately over many years as I have, but there are many others also that have concerns about this. All I'm asking is that you give yourself an opportunity to hear that, those concerns before you move too far ahead with us. That's all I have to say. Great. Thank you. I won't give you my reasons now. You have a busy agenda. And we are going to be taking that deeper dive. Thank you. Other opportunities. Appreciate it. Thank you, Dave. Any other public comment? Nobody in the room? Eric, is there anybody online? Nope. No one online. Okay. Next, interviews. Candidates for the Planning Commission. And I understand that all of the candidates are actually physically here, which is, it might be the first time in a long time. So anyway, so folks, if you can come up and sit in the chairs. There'll be just five candidates. Only five. Yeah, one candidate is dropped out. Yeah. So welcome and thank you. I think what I'd ask is if people introduce themselves and give a thumbnail sketch of who you are and why you want to be on the Planning Commission, then I actually, there are questions that we were asked to present by the Planning Commission. So I will actually moderate that moment and ask the three questions to each of you individually going down. And then after that, the board will have some questions for you. So if we can just go starting with my left. And just tell us who you are and a little bit about yourself and why you want to be on the Planning Commission. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm Stephen Shepard. I've been a lawyer since 1991. My background is not in the Planning Commission. That's not in the Planning Commission. But I spent a lot of time working with communities in a variety of topics. One of the areas where I only need, you need assistance is communications. And what I mean by that is that you do a good job of putting everything that people need to know. What I'm not going to tell you soon is what I'm doing in organizations all over the world all the time. The second thing that I bring is a career in health communications and IT technology. Not so much from the technology side of the house. I mean, I had that, but really more from the, now that I had it, what is the human thing that this could mean. And as a result of that, I spent a lot of my time all over the world working in areas like smart cities, smart agriculture, developing organizations, decisions about technology that will really help them make their, their entities more livable as a city, bring more services, bring public safety, more transparent government. I'll stop there. I'll tell them to really get through. Thank you. My name is Victoria. I need to list them among some in July. I'm new here. Part of the local government is a local part of the organization. I've been posted here. And it's sort of a part of the community. It's in the local community, not in my year. What I bring you is that from my experience and what I see among my colleagues. Living here has been tough. Especially for people of our town. Like many employees, no one would establish it. But I think I want to do something wrong. So that's why I think the first thing I'm here, I split for the recommendations. And I stated in the past to planning commission, maybe try to understand, you know, what is happening here. And I really find that many other things have to be long-ranging language so that we can see three years down the road, five years down the road, whatever we did. Becoming a reality. So I really find that we should do something about it. We shouldn't be limited by housing and any other activities to grow the town. We have a lot of opportunity here. We all have to work together to make it work. And I'm very glad that there are so many people. Because I look through the minutes, you all have a past to commission appointment. There's only one of you just to apply. So it's happy that we have so many of us. I think definitely this is a good sign for the town. Thank you very much. Ron Bliss. I've been here since 2006. I have had the advantage of, if not living around the country, I've been in parts of the country for a long period of time to see how they tick. This is very, Williston is now very similar to where I came from out of Connecticut. And it was, when I got there, it was on the very edge of a farming community that turned in now to a suburb and probably one of the largest grand tax lists on the East Coast. And I had the fortune to see the things that they did right and the things that they didn't. And I would like to share that here on the planning board just to make sure that we do it right. And we don't give up beauty we have, but also meet the needs we have. With probably a lot of emphasis in my opinion on moving forward with building our infrastructure so that we can keep the things moving forward that we need to. Yeah, hi. My name is Hanna Kessler and I've been, I've lived in Williston for the last three years and I commuted to Williston for the four years before that. I moved to Vermont from the Chicago suburbs. And in that time in the seven years, I've seen Williston change a lot. Some of it like has been really exciting like seeing our the town plan come to shape for a more walkable pedestrian friendly bike friendly town that has more housing. And you know, I think with like some also like incredulous maybe when I first moved here and didn't see kind of the full vision. And so yeah, my background is also not in planning, but I'm incredibly fascinated by housing and transportation constantly reading and listening about like how are other towns doing this? How are they kind of making towns like livable, equitable, kind of really resilient to the future changes that we kind of have coming. And so something I can bring to the table is asking good questions about where we need to go, where we want to go. I had the experience recently. I live on 2A and it's not a walkable road. There's no sidewalk. But when they were redoing the power lines, we they ended up having like this little walking path for a while and it changed our house from somewhere that we were going to be maybe for a couple of years to somewhere it's like, oh, like this is great. We love it here. Like the ability to not be constrained by somewhere that you must always leave by car. It's like the built environment changes how people can interact with it and live with it and feel about a place. And so I'm really passionate about making kind of like contributing to the work that Williston is already doing to that and helping move us forward in that direction. Because I want to stay here forever. I'm Kyle. So I've lived in Wilson since 2018. I grew up in South Burlington. I was recently a member of the laser specific plan committee and that really enlightened me to how impactful citizen engagement in the public process can be. Personally, I really enjoyed working on the committee and I found myself learning a lot from other people as I shared wide ranges of opinions and experience which helped me broaden my own perspective. As for the planning commission, I really appreciate the long-term view that the planning commission town here in Wilson has taken. I was impressed with the form-based code project and the foresight they had for taking 50 years into the future. And the future has really never been approaching faster. So it feels to me an inflection point with growth and where are we going to go. As a volunteer, I look forward to doing the work to bring the town plan to life through the public process and writing new bylaws. The planning commission asked questions. So this isn't the way these things usually run but I'm going to take it upon myself to ask the questions and we'll go in reverse order. So first question, are there people or community members who are not adequately represented or served by planning practices in the Williston currently? Who are they and how could they be brought into the conversation? Yeah, that is a good question. And I could say being on the specific planning committee even though it's small, hearing from different perspectives from people I kind of became aware of, there is a broad group of people in Williston and you sort of maybe have this narrow mind of what you think the representation should look like and I will say, I thought like with the form-based code the town did a good job of trying to meet people where they are in terms of availability of when sessions can be and so I think that that is a good way to do that is offer different times and venues for people to be able to participate or have different schedules, availability of jobs when they work and so I think just offering a range of times and forms for people to be encouraging them and going out and the 4th of July I think it was a plan in Williston. Just be present in the community and run into people. Great. Do you need the question repeated? Could you? Yeah. Are there people or community members who are not adequately represented or served by planning practices in Williston currently? Who are they and how could they be brought into the community? Yeah, so I think like the Planning Commission does a really great job at putting out the information. I think you touched on this earlier. Like with the newsletters setting out the form-based code and even some of the like the sessions that they have but also opportunities online to provide input which is good for people who saw that that opportunity was available and then were able to take advantage of it on their own timeline. A population that might be getting missed, I know I personally get a lot of my information from Forge Forum and I think a lot of the town does as well and so all the Planning Commission stuff is really well available on Forge Forum. But something that I was just, it kind of comes up over and over when you're reading about like towns and growing kind of strong towns. Like you need to like actually walk your town. And so I had this experience where I was like, oh, I, long story, but I was at working from Panera one morning and I was like, oh, I need to go pick up a prescription. It's like, well, I will go walk there, right? And you have a totally different experience walking somewhere than you do driving. And I think that there's this population that does walk places. It seems like a very specific odd group to target. But I think that catching people in the midst of what they're normally doing, like you mentioned the Fourth of July parade or like at farmers markets I've seen kind of pop-ups to kind of get people where they already are instead of kind of in this formal fashion through formal meetings that might not always work with people's schedules. Kind of meeting people in the events that they regularly go through kind of in the pop-ups or in speaking to people kind of out in the town, I think is one way that that can kind of continue to be a really great way to solicit input from people who might not have an opportunity to or really the time or be able to make it a priority else-wise. Great. I think they've covered it.  We have people there have people available to answer the questions, get the word out. And it may be time where the town has some kind of almost alert system as well as an informational system where you can, you know, people can sign up for it, you know, and it'll have a multitude of options. But one of those would be to get out this information that is out and not just rely on the hope that they get on front porch floor. It just may be another added perk because we can get them in on, hey, they need some kind of alert or if something goes on in town, and we can use it for that as well. Can expand it into, you know, town planning, town information and get it out that way. You need the question read back? No. I will say if you're interested, the information is out there. I mean, I've been through all the meeting. There are only two or three publics. If they are interested, they will be there, right? It's, I mean, these states and age, if you have a faster interest, you will be there.  So it's all up to individuals, right? How much they want to put in their plans and accordingly. If they are interested, they will be there, right? I see many people come up and talk about chickens and dogs and all kinds of stuff. So how passionate you are? That's all there is. Awesome. I think one of the challenges that we face that we need to really front is there's an active problem of athlete in the community, in the state, in the country, in a big place. We have athletic issues. And people come to the conclusion that my book doesn't count. I'm not going to understand it. I can attend the meetings, but it makes no difference. It involves an MBA comes into my field. The definition of leadership is about painting a picture of what could be not a picture of what it is. And I believe that it is the mission of any town's leadership to do that, to paint a picture that says, let me show you where we're going. Would you like to come along? Would you like to help us get there? Let us show you how much better things could be if you were involved. Help us. And when I talked about the communications issue, this is what I was talking about. We have all the information. Friends of yours said, I think we could put it out there in a more guarantee after the story makes way and it will cause people to say, I had no idea. I had no idea. You're point about walking around the town. It's fundamentally important because you don't get to know the town until you're at that level when you could stop and do it all the time and then unconsciously start to find and what I then understand but I didn't understand. So I think that group of people that are not being underserved or being underserved is really not because they are being sampled out of this issue. I think it's because the information isn't being presented in a way of pausing the water movement. Next question. We'll start with you in the middle. Williston will soon be rewriting its comprehensive plan through the lens of livability, resiliency and equity. This plan charts policies for the next eight years with an outlook to 2050. In your opinion and vision, what does a livable, resilient and equitable Williston look like in 2050? What kind of policies and programs are needed to achieve that vision? I think one of the things is the longer we can go out, the better we are. We know we can plan what's coming. We can plan how to pay for it. How to deal with it. Have the time to implement it. Waiting until tomorrow to figure out what we need by the weekend is probably livable. I think we need to have a mix obviously of affordable housing and just housing in general. I also think we have to do it in a nature that keeps the town affordable. I think without at the current rate we're going the previous town I lived in you could buy a house which you could buy a house for when I moved here. Now the median cost for houses $2.2 million. I don't see that happening here but we've already seen a massive increase in the houses doubling in price and things like that. We have to find a way to keep this affordable so that we can continue to generate more people to come here, build the tax base without causing it to only be one tenth of the society. I totally agree. I also saw and read some sort of reports when we are today we have many people who walk here but they have to come out of town from different areas of town. We have so much then, we have probably 80-90% of the town is not developed we have land, we have people here and we think in our house then so which means we have many opportunities for us to grow the town in a more responsible way. Of course we cannot just pay all the single-family homes that's not how we should be but we should have all the so-called different type of housing options or all different layer of life who are residents of the town so we've got to make sure that we're going to plan that. Another thing that I can think of if we don't have it here, there's some sort of transportation system more sustainable it could be a lightweight I don't know whatever it is if the town is getting bigger we should think about that. I'm pretty sure 20 years down the road 30 years down the road don't need to be affordable so we should start thinking about that kind of stuff whether it's connecting from here to downtown, I don't know whatever it is and many cities that I live in they have marked about different options not just driving a car driving a car for me but every day is a common option of transportation we should think about that. Would you be the question we'll talk a little bit short. Williston will soon be rewriting its comprehensive plan through the lens of livability, resiliency and this plan charts policies for the next eight years and we'll look forward to 2050 in your opinion and vision what does a livable, resilient and equitable Williston look like in 2050 what kind of policies or programs are needed to achieve that vision the three qualities that you listed are qualities that define what we want Williston to not look like but feel like going into the future we have to balance the very wheel of need for growth something all towns go to it's part of their existence it's part of their evolution but we have to balance that against the reality of people who have lived here for a long time the perceived culture of what this town is and what it represents the kinds of jobs and environments that we want to have here the types of businesses we want so those three characteristics I don't believe guide Williston so much as they flex I believe that if we make the right decision as a community whether it's the job of this group or the job of a greater community itself I think what we want to see is a town that through its own actions results in a community of people defined by those three qualities that's what I want to see it's going to look different about what new buildings are going to look like old buildings are going to come down the city center compress and expand in a variety of ways like in Geneva so what if I wanted to feel one and the way I wanted to feel is the way that it is defined by those three qualities so yeah it's a good question I think the infrastructure resiliency piece when we talk about wastewater and stormwater and all those types of things where we are in 2050 in terms of growth and rain events so taking a long term plan waiting to kind of cross that bridge now before it becomes very difficult to cross in the future and I think a variety of housing types is important that includes a variety of housing densities with growth density and efficiency kind of go hand in hand you talk walkability that just comes with density and so we sort of have to accept if we want to get this is what that actually looks like if you want to achieve these things this is what that looks like and I think governmental processes can be slow it's hard to be proactive and so designing bylaws and such that are flexible to allow us to respond to needs of the community over a long period of time without obviously fitting the need for the resources I think there's a balancing act I think the form-based code did a good job of providing this is what it's going to look like this is how it's going to function this is going to get us to the next 50 years but it's flexible enough to do that while providing guard grounds to work through what we want I think that the form-based code that was put out provides this really good blueprint for getting us there in terms of talking about equity you know the one I'm talking about in resiliency in terms of transportation infilling buildings we get more of a park once and then you walk around environment infilling with more apartments and things that can have multi-use spaces that can transition say instead of a box store transition between offices studio apartments to apartments that can change because the things that we need now or in 10 years aren't going to be the same things that we need in 50 years I think that blueprint in some ways gives us the sense of this is what it will feel like when I think about what I want it to feel like in 50 years when I'm at Williston I want to take a bus to maybe the park and ride down the road and be able to get on a bus and connect to many places when I think about those three aspects it's like multimodal transportation again not relying on my car to get everywhere and again that does give us this density but it also gives us this human-scaled walkability right and so kind of that again gives into this like this is what the town feels like yes those are our goals those are the things we want to achieve but again it is kind of like this guiding sense for how the town goes and so real quickly like when I think about an example right so Ghent is in Belgium we really want to be bikeable and they looked at Amsterdam Amsterdam was like we put all this investment in we built all this stuff specifically for that and Ghent was like we can't afford to do that and basically overnight we're redoing how the roads we introduce certain roadblocks in certain places and these roads became car traffic this way but anyways all that to say we changed traffic patterns kind of like overnight and they were like we can't afford to do this massive infrastructure project but we can take this shortcut to a pedestrian friendly future and make that our ultimate goal and so I think thinking creatively like obviously that's a city and that's a really big stretch right but like thinking creatively about how we get there knowing that like maybe it's not massive massive massive projects maybe sometimes it really is but like thinking creatively what's the actual end goal that we were trying to serve here and what's the way that we get there so I think that's what that's perfect okay thanks I will now turn it over to the well actually let me I'm going to I'll ask the Jeff Beers question okay we had a select board member Jeff Beers who always asked this question and it's the reason we let him do it is because it's awkward but just let me let me go down the line that if you know we we have a relatively small town and therefore it's possible that there could be a conflict of interest that would arise between you and the board that you sit on so how would you recognize it and what would you do about it let's just go on down I've sat on the number of boards that I've based this in the past and I think the way it's been handled with almost every single case is number one by being deliberate about the kinds of things that can lead to conflicts of interest I'd rather I know I'd rather I discovered through my only work and present it to the board because I know that if I don't and I've seen this in the past if I know or someone else does and it's found later on it further complicates the issue of dealing in whatever situation it was so I think it's two things we join a board like this whoever we are to to serve the community and to come in and know about conflict challenge that is destructive so if I knew about it I would instantly come forward with any one board and I would expect someone from the board to come to me as well this is not one of those personal things this is professional and if it's an issue then we deal with it and I step away trusting the other members to deal with the situation it just works it's the way it's supposed to work thank you I think I work with a conflict of interest form we started off filling up day one so that's what I would like to do make sure that fill it up all the things that you know are personally of interest for hopefully they will keep us in check and of course we can keep on going back and I've read it again so that everybody know where everybody's interest is and to me I don't think that should be anything but of course we should to be keep on us right if there is such a thing on rice step out for a while make sure that the conversation can go on and you don't have to take the best decision I don't really see there's any customer gain out of it this is more of serving the community kind of things and so far everybody that I work with quite straightforward people so I don't think we're going to have that kind of problem yeah I think that you know they pretty much covered it it's pretty simple if you have a conflict of interest notify them step out and if someone else sees it doesn't I would hope they'd come forward to me and I would step out immediately I don't think there's any question as to why we should impugn the process over something like that yeah I have to echo that like it's pretty obvious to have to say yes this is a conflict of interest and there's a reason there's alternates there's a reason that there's an entire commission and that's so that ideally it's a team and trust everyone there's not one person ideally there's never one person who's like I will make the massivist difference and it really matters that I'm on this one specific project for the mission of our team that's not what a commission is for and so if there is a conflict of interest I would step back notify and I think everyone else as well I hope yeah I think it's pretty straightforward even if there's like an appearance of a conflict that you should just err on the side of being overly transparent and just work through that I always think about when making any decision what would this look like on the front page of the paper tomorrow and you know is that going to be something I'm happy with so I think it's just err on the side of being transparent and dealing with it ahead of time if it arises okay board members so that if we all have chance to preview some of the work that the planning commission has been really focused on one of the things that is of utmost importance recently is the Court of Housing and several of you have mentioned as an issue if you don't mind talking about how how you view the planning commission's role in promoting affordable housing and what if you've had a chance to review the report certainly your thoughts on that and how to to engage the planning commission one of the questions from the planning commission involved this but how to engage folks many of our boards and commissions are very it's hard for folks maybe of different socioeconomic statuses to get involved in them because being on boards and commissions having the time to do that is a privilege you know so how would you get folks who would be the beneficiaries of more affordable housing to be involved in the process that's a very multi-part question maybe try to clarify I felt like Jack there for a moment yeah so I'm going to start to be here and we'll work our way I think meeting people where they are is important like you said it is a privilege to be sitting here and being on a board and so finding ways to interact with people where they are on a couple of days making it easy to get the feedback and I've learned you shouldn't assume what somebody's perspective is and it's best to hear from them because you may often be surprised and learn something I think that's really important affordability it's just shocking to me how expensive things have gotten and what we call affordable housing is still quite expensive and so that's the flexibility of having different housing types and making the growth management and development process efficient to produce costs and offer different housing types that we may not allow or harder to build would be helpful yeah and looking at the housing reports I think that was put out a couple weeks ago something that really stood out is the big mismatch in housing types that are desired and housing types that are available and so even when I think about when I was first moved to Vermont and was commuting to Williston I was working in Williston not a lot of apartments were there seven years ago I would have wanted a single bedroom or two bedrooms to share with a roommate and so it's a big area of focus matching the need with what's available so that people can readjust and then in terms of the planning commission's role in it it's setting up like the planning commission is setting up the town plan and I think one of the goals of it moving forward is to kind of set forth some rules standards like if X percentage is affordable then we'll allow this type of building and kind of set some of those ground rules with the select board but kind of from my understanding and talking with Matt to kind of help the select board understand and like kind of remove some of the burden and so of like every single decision has to be made for every single development like okay let's rethink it from scratch let's start over it's like so I think that's something that will be addressed and I think you know the best way that you know I could contribute to that move forward what's worked elsewhere what's working now what's not working now and you know participate in that conversation I think a couple of things one is obviously when setting up the town plan you can either do it on a development basis or a town wide basis that a certain percentage of it has to be affordable housing whatever that's determined these days to be because it probably changes by the hour but the other thing too is once these plans are made these percentages or guidelines are put in you reach out to the housing authorities and get that information out there so they can share because the people they're gonna they're gonna see are the ones that need to help and if we have the housing then you know they're the ones you approach with it and let them know what our plan is what our goal is and what we expect to have in a certain time frame I think there's a lot of adjustment to the existing home in requirements and all those rules they can't do that for the last month I think those are good then we'll also reduce I know like bureaucratic reptiles that people are facing especially I've heard about this this is what they are doing today they're trading lanes some kind of adjustment and all that I was told that that's been talking about it for the past four or five years and we'll stay on the final phase of doing it so think about it right so this is only one portion of it which means there are many other things that they drag on for so many years so we'll figure it out a way to accelerate and make it more accessible affordable so if I'm a businessman I'd rather be a senior family because that's where I can make more money unless there's an incentive for me to build a multi-story building more affordable so we'll think about it from different angle to make there is an incentive for people to do this if it is that local developers are not then I should reach out to all the rest of the US for such people who are interested give them some incentive that's what the town is needed all the reports are showing that that's what the town is needed we don't have it so we should have to think about it figure it out how do we want to draw all those activities because another day all the people living in the town we are supposed to solve them if we cannot solve them why are we here I have a question to the country I'm one of them believe that we all have blind spots every one of us organizations, individuals, companies and those blind spots can cause us to become complacent and when we become complacent we start to worsen the steps we start to look at the way things are and say it's good enough it's good enough it's good enough one of the challenges that we face is simply that we've got this weird dichotomy going on that all communities go through which is I want to live in the town it's rural and there's no traffic and I can walk and bike everywhere I'm in the same boat but I want the kind of services I can fix it I want gyms and I want coffee shops I want good restaurants in a little bit that's right but there's more to it than the general it's the people that work there and the people that work there can't live here or close to here and they can't deliver the service infrastructure required for those businesses to be successful and just to add to what everyone has said which I wholeheartedly agree with whatever we do I think needs to be addressed in a deliberate fashion to eliminate that potential blind spot and make sure that we're thinking about those folks too because I'm afraid they may get overwhelmed Mike, any questions? Yes kind of tough questions here how to word them I'm not good at wording questions sometimes but I feel like and do you believe that the new town growth plan is that public based is that based upon the public input and is inclusionary zoning based on public input or is that planning commission input we will start Go ahead Steve I think it's well I think it's guidance from the planning commission but I think it absolutely requires input from the public but in a way that will cause a representative to the population of the public to actually respond in other words what can we do Mike to get them to understand it is very important that you speak up and have your moment to share what we believe what we think about this engineering plan we will provide guidance because we have professionals that will do that but we need to hear from the people that are going to have to live with the results of that so I think it's an interesting question because on the one hand and yeah you need public comment on the other hand you need public comment so what are we going to do to ensure that we get an adequate an adequate representation of that how do we incentivize people to come forward to move I don't know if I answered your question yeah it was a hard question to come up with you know trouble wording it make it clear I feel like the town growth plan is something that the public puts together and then the inclusionary zoning is something that the planning commission which may not necessarily go with the town growth plan I think you answered it very well thank you I will see I think the staff and commissions are trying to come up with that well 12 questions with three different variations that's a solidary harmony for you to come up how to get the opinion of the public so that we can use that as a base to create this you know this so called 20 years plan so that's where we are to be and I will say what I was trying to listen to all these 12 different questions or variation of it it's a honest interest to get the feedback from the from the public and then we really need to see all those feedback use those as a basis foundation for us to plan because another day as I mentioned why are we here for we cannot listen of course people will not know all the nitty gritty or all the rules and regulations for safety or environments or of course those are part of our job but the thing so that let them speak up and get as much feedback as we can and I'm going to use that for the so called planning of this for future so that's the topic thank you there's no question that the talent has to be involved in the process we need their feedback their position their belief their feeling but I think that's a challenge that we're going to have to figure out how to overcome tonight there's a meeting and there's the five of us you know and maybe there was no big draw on this but for people not to come out it's very hard to get people engaged here when it comes to anything under the government domain and it's not Williston it's everywhere I've ever lived we had 220 people on the town representative committee in the town it came from and they would have this massive room for all these people and 11 people would show up and so I think the trick here is going to be to get the information out get engaged I think it was brought up here several times we have to go out knock on doors get in community be part of the events but I do believe that you know there has to be public input and filter through the planning commission to come up with a final result thank you I want to add to that I think everyone touched on pretty much everything I think it definitely obviously has to be both and I also think that people will surprise you or at least maybe they surprised me when there was the meeting about the task task foreigners form based code adoption I came to speak in support of it I was expecting there to be maybe this is going to stereotype a bunch of older people who lived in more rural Vermont who didn't really more rural Williston who really didn't want it to change and who are kind of opposed to seeing growth in the center of Williston and the building housing was just going to like kind of mess up this rural thing that we have but a number like a surprising number of people at least surprising to me we're really in support of it and so I think yes it's both also people will surprise you but the other part of it as well is it needs to be structured feedback like people need to have something to respond to getting wide just like what do you think about X is can be not always the most productive and so giving the town something to respond to is always a great starting place and I can't the exercise that we were a part of on the last planning commission meeting we had a lot of questions there were a number of them but it was a brainstorming session it was like what's the most controversial about housing in Williston what questions do you have about housing in Williston who do we need to ask about housing in the question who do we need to ask about X in brainstorming who do we need to ask about this I think is specifically important in something like this and it goes to like how do we reach them from this conversation but we decided we need to ask them how thank you a lot of good points have been made I guess I'll say personally I sort of could have been asleep at the wheel I guess and Matt the planning director put a post on Front Forge Forum 2019 about a new 500 unit development going in and it wasn't a real post but it was just sort of something and I sort of was like I have no idea what's going on and whether we're involved or not the town is changing and I've been surprised sometimes you look at how many people vote in the local election here at these meetings and it's a little bit scary because decisions are getting made whether or without people participating sometimes and so that has kind of spurred me to say this is I live here in this town and I want to participate and as everybody said it's both the town and people and how do you engage people is probably a challenging question everybody's addressed but it's important because we all live here together and we'll kind of be in it together one way or another so thank you any other questions from the board I'm going to piggyback a little bit on this now one of the things just to just to make sure you all feel comfortable with you are going to be on the planning commission making hard decisions and sometimes making decisions that are unpopular with a subset of people, people are going to be speaking out against the things that you feel passionately about or the planning commission just how you might handle that you know somebody disagreeing it's a small town still ultimately if you're at the grocery store coming up to somebody who maybe disagrees with the decision you've made and your general feelings of comfort or discomfort with that and how you might handle it we'll start a few rounds in the middle and work our way in law enforcement that was pretty much a daily occurrence I lived I went to high school in the town I started my law enforcement career which I will never tell anybody ever to do because when you start locking up your friends you went to high school with you know it's one of those things where all adults we've all been you know faced with conflict before somebody doesn't like what you've done someone more vocal about it than others and it's just another day I've never had a problem with that I know what I did for a living was not on anybody's top 10 list if I met him professionally and changed their life's course and I got a lot of that and I would run into people at dinner with my family that didn't agree with me and we'd come we'd walk outside and discuss it and we'd move on it was my wife got used to having people greet us at public events or dinners it's just the way it was thank you for your service thank you I hope we don't have to deal with anything extreme as that over the town plan oh however I think part of it is would be some of it may be able to be alleviated by communicating a vision more I think when I first when I first moved to Vermont it was amazing Chicago suburbs everything was flat why do they keep building things here I don't understand it became more clear there is this overarching plan it's not this vision that people feel like they can come along for that's one aspect that's the prevention aspect like actual response aspect I think there's the knowledge one that it's a commission right there's a number of us and it's not one person who's making a decision that the whole town has to live with it's the planning commission the select board and ultimately the town is giving input and so there's that aspect but not everyone agrees with everyone and that's kind of the nature of how things are now and so communication is part of it and that's to some extent that's the biggest that's one of the biggest things that you can do in terms of prevention and also like alleviation yeah I mean it's tough on the specific plan committee there was times when people disagreed and ultimately you just you're making the best decision that you think you can't have and even when you disagree with someone you both have the common ground that you're trying to make the best decision and you have good intentions and it doesn't mean you agree and it can be uncomfortable but you know I think you just you have to accept that that's part of it and everybody here has good intention and that has you know that sort of makes it easier and you still have that common ground even when you disagree that's part of the part of the job it is going to be a weird answer I believe that the answer lies in doing the follow-up we have to change the engagement focusing on the what focusing on the why we tend to focus on the what which is very technical this is what we get in this but oftentimes we're not well enough farmed to say but let me explain you why let me walk you through the process to that point we know that they're going to be feeling a little like so the second part of that question is a question of story if we proceed the decision when they brought a story that says this is what we're trying to accomplish this is why we're doing the things that we're doing is we're looking for this ultimate outcome that will serve everybody better in some areas better than others and so on the third part is myths and legends there are a host of myths and legends running around about this trouble called planning commission that makes decision number of blanket and it's fits and on and that's two of every organization and we've got to get ahead of that to part of the story and then I think the fourth piece and this is much broader based it's a question of reverence and I don't mean that in our religious what I mean that is reverence for the process that has served well for many many many decades you may not like me out she must hold dear to the process that I'm talking about because in two years or four years or whenever we make another decision relevant to this there's an opportunity to change it it ain't no so like I said we are the answer but I think I think those four there really are I will listen and I will thanks for their feedback and I will definitely invite them to attend next meeting so that they can understand how the things happen behind the scenes so that they can hear about all the dogs and cats and all kinds of different things that we have to consider but we are not just looking at making a decision by throwing the dice there are many aspects of consideration that need to be made by the commission, by the staff and everybody else we really need to appreciate the people because somebody come up and tell you something mean they really concern about it and they step up right which we really have to be thankful for and then we can get the engagement engagement from them we will definitely double the pressure for us to get anything at all okay thank you everybody for your interest and for your dedication this has been great so we are going to close this part of the meeting and then the decision that we will make is scheduled for later in the meeting significantly later but you are free to stay and watch the rest of the meeting we have a temporary events permit and tax sale legal authorization is also on the agenda so that's pretty exciting but anyway seriously you are allowed to stay and and watch but in the meantime thank you very much this has been great I wish to give a point to all of you thank you very much and there are other boards and commissions too in person where you end up please there are other opportunities thank you all so much so next temporary event permits can you bring us up to date on that so it's a UVM collegiate cycling event called the Bermie senders there's a pun there somewhere I thought that was a typo seriously I just read it the berms on the cross it's at the catamount community forest it's at 7am 7pm partnership medium cycling team eastern collegiate cycling conference about 200 people some tents this event staff reviewed it like any temporary event permit comments from police department fire department they've mapped it out it's there where the staff comments no objections to them I think it's well-organized staff just had some conditions included so no other objections from staff questions for Eric is this the first time event for them we know? yes it's the first time this particular event but I think the UVM cycling groups have been involved in this I believe one of the events I can't find it here right now required it or they did not require that they're having EMP personnel present and one wasn't I think that's the second event that I can let me double check this first one yep this one with the bike race they're going to have a fire EMS on site and they'll still handle firing individuals so no further questions is there a motion we'll move to approve a temporary event permit for Bermie senders at the catamount community forest is there a second? second for the discussion all those in favor say aye aye the ayes have it second one this is the third here they've done this it's a Richmond ultra trail fest put on by the outdoor family center with the Richmond trail running club it's actually an overnight event it's a 36 hour celebration of the running community the two course loops one aid station I think they'll have about 150 people 75 on the site at once you see their application they describe their plan for safety especially since it's overnight with monitoring of the course headlamps this has gone on the last two years they haven't had any issues or concerns with staff comments we're not, fire's not recommending that they stage on site the whole time but they were comfortable with how they've outlined it for safety and raised officials a couple people I think that work there we didn't have concerns about similar staff doesn't have any further concerns we're recommending questions for Eric are there facilities for restrooms overnight they provided there's portal ads on site I really appreciated how they addressed each of the fire department and police department's notes individually I think that was really helpful and this is their third year and great stewards of the land we're finding the process is working well especially for the catamount events we chatted about the license those are these larger scale events on the property just to make sure just good diligent at that plan for the questions if not is there a motion to approve a temporary event permit for the rest of the catamount community forest is there a second second further discussion all those in favor say aye aye guys have it okay next on that's it right those of you okay so next the land acknowledgement Eric let's back on the board's agenda the board originally looked at the first chapter 2011 presented by the partnership meeting a substantive board member to develop a second draft that's included with the agenda I'm sure with the board some public comments received on the draft document following the initial discussion back on the agenda for the discussion so my reason I asked that we have further discussion on this is the letter that came in from the Norwich history professor Dr. Bennett and I'll just cut to the chase what I was hoping we might consider is possibly putting this back with Christa and having this gentleman meet with her and her folks and whoever else wants to go and just further get more information on it before we make the final decision I would in some words on this back to the partnership there's been a minor change in the draft there's also the there's still one type over there the higher elevation set of evaluations so but we did just some good feedback public feedback from the two one that had a lot of pages of stuff that did not read the whole thing I did read the professor of Norwich I thought he had some interesting comments and so like to see what the partnership has to say and get some feedback from them I also read the professor from Norwich I thought he had some valid and some interesting points and the current draft you know the second sentence it says Wilson recognizes that colonialism and oppression are a current and ongoing process I think that's unnecessary so it sounds like we have consensus too I agree I think and I think to the professor's point in the hope and I think I have not to speak for the racial equity partnership too was that this is the beginning stages that is not that we would adopt a land acknowledgement and move on that there would be you know other efforts in town for education opportunity for inclusion and so forth but yeah I definitely promote the the racial equity partnership and further exploring it so Eric can we ask can you to send that message back and facilitate or ask that the meeting be facilitated between this person and the partnership whoever else wants to attend I guess would you want any member of the select board to attend that meeting I don't express an opinion on that I think if people on the board want to go they should I might be interested in going but it depends on what else I have going on so I can arrange that meeting and form the board if we end up having a form of board that's going to attend I can inform it I'll reach out I actually did read about maybe six pages of the long study that he included and you know I'm a lot of people don't know this but I'm a lawyer and I was I had to read the sentences over and over again it was one of those kinds of things that's a lot of cost but anyway I processed the stuff that I read and I thought it was a very fascinating area there's nothing I usually study okay next on the agenda tax sale legal authorization 2023 we might recall we looked at the possibility of a tax sale last year we ended up not moving forward we were able to get some accounts current at that time love this is the timing of not wanting to have a tax occur when there's a year redemption period and we don't want that during the term so just to back up set the context here our policy for collection of payment property taxes process for conducting a tax sale it's a method for collecting delinquent taxes from taxpayers will not play voluntarily this step is certainly taken after many attempts to communicate with property owners are not responded to one of the roles of the town manager per the town charters the delinquent taxes and that role makes a termination of which properties to include in a tax sale the role to select for is tasked with a tax sale process we've identified four properties for a tax sale and by a notice to them to make a full payment of the outstanding balance as of yesterday the 14th August or we would be planning to proceed this next step we didn't receive further communication or payments for those properties so the next step here the board authorized legal counsel to assist we would send a call extending warren link tax the second notice we would set a date for the tax sale those properties can still pay their delinquent taxes and penalties these up to the time of the day of the tax sale they can the tax sales conducted in the property success bid for the property it's held in escrow for a year for redemption here is so owners the property can retain their title if they pay the price plus 1% interest per month so recognize the finance stats but a lot of work into this over the last year we had an board that we had our delinquent tax balance she was about $350,000 in May of 2022 and it's currently just over $100,000 stating back to the 2012-2013 tax year so we're certainly we approach is always to work with people to make a payment plan we provide notices every month but we get to a point where we need to move forward on these accounts so questions for Eric any of the owners of the four properties attempted payment plans there's been limited communication as I'm aware at least one property made there's been some payments there's been some communication hopefully we might be able to still gain some momentum with that property but no one set forth a payment plan in town if I accept I'm sad we had one success and a person who was looking for abatement of taxes who was property taxes went back a long time the tune of like $76,000 the abatement committee worked with her to get it taken care of and we offered her certain suggestions which she took and was able to clear that up so at least that one property is not in the lineup for the tax year resolving that one part for a number of people involved so that's the effect of our balance further questions certainly not one of the more glamorous parts of this and is one of the tougher things to consider you know but we did put a process in place for this and I really appreciate that the town and surely in the staff have been working with folks to really get this to help as many people as possible and to avoid the tax sale as much as possible so are there any safety issues involved in any of these properties the unsafe conditions someone you know not that I'm aware of, not that we pursue any dangerous building statutes or anything the next step in this process is the title search conducted on the town's behalf which is what the town attorney will do and part of the price will recoup the attorney's fees of the town in cumbers to provide that legal research in the sale thanks it's tough to make decisions without knowing all the circumstances you know I think two of four might actually be trying to make demands which is that I don't know if they have so I'll have a hold even now but on a decent level the other department where it's at we are still working with them we have probably actually we might not have been working with them but we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have so if there are no further questions is there a motion? I'll be the hard-hearted Hannah and move to approve the use of this little page and lecture PC to conduct 2023 text seal process is there a second? second further discussion? all those in favor say aye all those opposed nay the ayes have it next investment policy amendment the wolf of wall street good rate so good interest rates definitely had some very exciting interest rates and even looking at last fiscal year the numbers I mean were 200% plus above what our budget was so to do the revisions to this policy there was really one thing in particular that we needed to revise it for but Eric actually got a bunch of policies from our neighbors and so we just included some of the other language like we beefed up the purpose on the policy we expanded so the one piece was it just had the treasurer we will have assistant treasurer hopefully in a couple months is to have that other person be recognized in this document as well to act if Mary is not here but the one piece where I am going to confess that the town has been out of compliance with this policy even when Deb Beckett was here we have a relationship with great eastern management and we pay them a small fee and we get CDs but those CDs are from banks within the United States so all covered under FDIC we don't invest more than FDIC limit but that is not currently covered and that's the main reason for the change because honestly the rates we get are so much better through them than any of our local banks so like 50 to 75 basis points more than we are getting locally so it's a huge difference when it comes to return so well worth it there is no more risk this currently says just Vermont financial institutions there is no more risk to the California bank than Vermont bank as long as where our CDs are under the FDIC limit so we are fully insured and the other the other and you can say no we want three but whenever we invest this current policy says we need to go out and get three quotes for rates but we are always going with the banks we currently use and we are continually asking the same people over and over so we changed it instead of three quotes to two quotes because we typically know the few banks that give us the best rates and that's where we go there one being the great eastern management as well we always go to them first now because like I said the basis point difference in the CDs that they can provide to us even when we pay them 15 basis points deducted we are still saying 50 to 75 basis points difference in the CD rates so well worth it so unless you have any other questions I'm sad the spelling of some of the names on the signature you like those old ones? I couldn't believe it that was yeah yeah yeah so hearing no questions is there a motion? a move to approve amendments to the investment policy as presented is there a second? second further discussion on the motion? hearing none all those in favor say aye thank you thank you Vermont League of Cities and Towns annual meeting voting delegate Vermont League of Cities and Towns and the property and casualty inter-municipal fund and the employment resource and benefits trust or VIRV the town has members of all three of these will hold their annual meetings this year in South Burlington killing them I'm a member I sit on the property and casualty inter-municipal fund board of directors for that role for a couple years passive that's our insurance trust for property and casualty we'll hold our annual meetings for all three of those boards I'm planning to attend should the board wish to appoint me the voting delegate for those three meetings questions for Eric? I'll move to a point Tom I'm sure Eric Wells as well as some delegate for the VLCT passive and VERB annual meetings all second further discussion all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed to nay the ayes have it congratulations Eric hope this comes with a thank you your home this time a plaque and perhaps a hand ham thank you town manager Eric Wells next on the agenda appointments consider appointments to the planning commission actually creating a chart I wouldn't get up for you if you like oh no you can why don't you be the clerk okay I'm not quite sure how the board wants to proceed and we just ask general comments if our like two and then first alternate and then see where we're at let's rely on the experience of Terry because he went in this we've done it on numerous occasions when we have multiple people so what I would suggest is that we've heard the discussion it was a good discussion with all of our candidates my suggestion is that we have five candidates we have such that two openings and an alternate if we vote for three candidates to begin with I have a handy any chart made up and the top two if they're or if they're title it's for the top two they become the the planning commission members and the third one is the alternate it's one person who is not interested we'll see where that that falls but if there's a third person who gets the most would be the alternate unless there's a tie then we go back and do them that's good consensus on that okay go around so I think I was so impressed with everybody who interviewed I really just admire everybody thoughtful answers and stepping up to do this is a huge it speaks volumes to their commitment to our community and their really passion to be involved in all of that so I'm really just so grateful to everybody but I think the three I think would be Hannah and Mickey and Steven so Maya and Chevron so yeah I agree that this is actually one of the more difficult choices that I think we've had to make and my choices for the first is Hannah and secondly is Steve I just thought they had great insights and great bunch of skill sets did Hannah indicated that she actually reads books about municipalities and planning and I was actually going to weigh that against her what kind of what kind of person but anyway, but those are and the we have three so there's three I didn't hear you for two would be Hannah Steve Shepherd and then thirdly so Shepherd and Bliss it is it is a tough decision I like Dr. Steven Shepherd's three qualities that are not look like but feel like that was a good comment I liked you know communication and story giving it out to the people it's I like I like you know, I think Ron Woods for his service somehow about not giving up the beauty but meeting the needs I like that comment I like Hannah's comments about more bike and walk friendly she really code at taff corners I thought that was important I think the form based code is good some of the comments that stood out for me so who are your three they you're voting for you know Dr. Steve Shepherd Ron Woods and Hannah I'm Bliss and Hannah Kessler yes and that leaves me and I would I would be voting for Shepherd Kessler and Myott that leaves Shepherd with four Kessler with three and a tie of Bliss and Myott with two votes each I think we all didn't we all vote for Kessler didn't we all vote for Kessler I had had you as Myott, Sulla and Shepherd did I Hannah Kessler Hannah Kessler okay that goes okay that goes a different story we have two with four we have Shepherd and Kessler with four Myott and Bliss with two each so we would need to for the alternate we would need to have a tie breaker among Myott and Bliss both said they would serve as an alternate pardon me wasn't there one person who said they did not want that was Sulla well interesting procedural question then I mean do we do we talk and work that out amongst ourselves or do we postpone for Gene to come back and the other two Shepherd and Kessler Gene can't change the result of that anyway to do with the number of votes but on the other hand I don't want to delay the appointment on nothing but I don't have a strong opinion but what do people think I should I mean I think if Gene would be willing to watch the interviews and be the tie breaking vote I think that would be the best possible outcome Gary what are you what's your and the alternate probably is not critical at this point but we had we do had did have to find candidates in both of those our folks are interested in being on it I like to resolve this tonight but well Mike what do you think we should proceed I think the chairman should make a decision that that that okay let's let's take it up tonight let's get this done then so we're deciding between listen my up does anybody want to weigh in I can lead off or somebody who's the weight of the chair influence you guys are like wielding the we didn't listen to him before he was chair I I actually would go with Ron my I think just because the tiebreaker for me is the number of longevity of the town perhaps I think it's a valid that's that's what we're going to go so you're voting for bliss yes what a what a terrible choice I mean terrible one and wonderful I mean in the best possible way obviously to have so many folks again who were dedicated to the town and really want to serve the town this way you know I think just ultimately just came down to just certain responses to certain answers and I think either would serve very well as the alternate and to vote as needed so but yeah I mean I would still go with my personally yeah I think we should I agree practicing inclusivity and I think having someone with a different opinion would be important on the board so your vote is for mickey and that would be my vote as well so we have so Mr. Myott would be the alternate so we need some motions at this point I can do it for the board there's with the open positions there's an unexpired four-year term through June of 24 unexpired four-year term through June of 27 and then this is the first time the town's had an alternate role and the select board can decide the term of that but I'm suggesting a one-year term unexpired through June of 24 and typically when watching with appointments those are when someone's up for reappointment they're asked they'd like to do that process in June of this year just do alphabetical for a term okay we'll do Hannah and then Stephen okay alright so I'm going to move to appoint Hannah Kessler to the planning commission for an unexpired four-year term through June 30th 2024 we'll also move to appoint Stephen Shepard to the planning commission for an unexpired four-year term through June 30th 2027 and also move to appoint Mickey Myott to the planning commission as an alternate for an unexpired one-year term through June 30th 2024 further discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye aye the ayes have it thank you all so much very appreciative and please please please we could very much use your service and other boards and commissions please consider applying okay that is that brings us up to manager's report so the quarterly report for the fourth quarter of FY23 was included with your materials certainly let us know if you have any questions after review there good news our local option tax report also came in for the fourth quarter of FY23 really staggering numbers we collected over a million dollars in that quarter we budgeted about 3.4 million in FY23 for revenue and we collected 3.9 million so we had a positive variance of just under $470,000 localized tax revenue so that will follow the unassigned fund funds at the year in financial state some other good financial news we close on our bond for the summer bond pool with a bond bank for our ambulance financing we got to a coupon rate or an interest rate of just over 3% do recall we the select board put this question back to the voters a bond rather than short-term borrowing would be an expectation we could achieve a lower interest rate I believe I didn't check with you the slower than what the banks would have offered so be able to save some money for the town and interest would take that approach here so that's good news our ARPA outreach I've been working on this the last couple of weeks I went to truck in Tuesdays for the board meeting I was up the library I'll be in some of the locations throughout the month I've gotten some good email comments as well all the select boards, policy advisory boards and committees are also taking this up in the next month and a half my plan is to prepare a report for the board and I tried with Ted about holding a public hearing on September 19th select board meeting as well so I looked to compile all that to the board in early October discuss next steps there as well and there's been a number of project staff had brought up in our capital plan so I'll package that and work to kick off the discussion with the board kind of coinciding with our Y25 budget process I'll be back in a couple of corners that's exciting and then spring your attention I include a 45 day notice for a large solar project 3.5 megawatts over 20 acres at Global Foundry's property up Redmond Road the scope of this is interesting I think over 8,000 solar panels previous installation on 20 acres you might recall Global Foundry's became its own electric utility last year so this is part of green energy requirements this certainly meets a lot of our local energy plan goals for renewable generation with our enhanced local energy plan we have a preferred citing policy as part of that so basically it's a local policies that we can provide comments to public utilities commission to receive substantial deference which carries a lot of weight in making for these applications so process wise the planning commission would submit any comments to public utilities commission we'll have the energy committee reviewing this in conjunction with our local energy plan where they want to offer comments on it it provides the select board the select board had comments like before certainly a big project and it would wave the 45 day period last meeting for the Delco project much different scope here this is a 45 day notice that they require to review these so that is what happened with this no idea how much 3.5 megawatts is but I assume on 20 acres and that many solar panels that's a lot of energy I guess I don't really understand I agree with what you have I just wonder Global owns the property and we are only just approving that they do this in the town of Williston Global Foundry's property for this installation the state public utilities commission would need to approve it I believe there will be some I'm sure there will be a local zoning permit administrative permit but the town can provide comment on a public utility so that's where they are on the process right now before it goes to the state commission okay thank you for the questions for Eric other business recatering permits this evening I can go through them if the board wants to pick them up in a batch here yeah that'd be great first is a wedding on August 26 at the Eichan family farm another event August 31 at the Eichan family farm there's going to be a concert that evening just beer from Frost Brewery they'll have an open air tent in a rope bath area outside drinks allowed and then on September 2 a wedding at the red barn garden that required a temporary event permit but it didn't meet the thresholds for the select board to review it the staffs reviewed that I've approved a temporary event permit with some conditions that we're going to follow up on for the events but staff has approved temporary event permit which I've won as a prerequisite before considering the catering permit so staff does not have objections to these three applications great questions for Eric is there a motion move to approve the three catering permits is there a second further discussion there's moves from voting all those in favor say aye all those opposed all those abstaining abstaining okay final thoughts on agenda items from meeting anything we need to sweep in and scoop up from tonight's meeting before we move on okay the executive session I just started getting ready and I discovered I forgot my homework there are a number of things that I had compiled that I don't have with me sorry about that it was embarrassing but I'm wondering if we can schedule this for the next meeting is that possible okay is that okay with people yes it is so that's September September 5 okay yeah technically we'll pass to your con but you're showing up we just appointed him the VLCT it's the discussion on the contract still okay alright so there will be no executive session because of my ineptitude so with that there's nothing left on the agenda and we are adjourned


And in business news, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has made numerous attempts to defend the Naira while the currency has massively declined by 29 Naira in the second quarter of 2022. This is an indicative of the second worst quarter, this precision in Nigeria, depreciation in Nigeria, I beg your pardon, while the worst quarter was seen in the third quarter of 2021 when the Naira fell by 44 Naira. The Naira to the dollar exchange rate at the official investors and exporter I&E market has remained largely stable around the 420 Naira to a dollar in the region. On the other hand, the Naira is heading towards 650 Naira to a dollar on the black market, which has continued to downward trajectory. To defend the Naira, the Central Bank has introduced a new slew of regulations from the bearing the sale of dollars to the BDCs to the ROT 200 scheme, which is designed to provide 6 to 5 Naira rebate on export revenues. Nonetheless, the CBN intervention comes at a cost in terms of Nigeria, foreign reserve, which have not been growing the expected rate despite the high oil prices.


my name is Emilia Az. I'm a Shi'a activist from Indonesia. I work for OASA, Organization of Ahlul Bayt for Social Support and Education. OASA have been established in 2001 when I convert to Shi'a. I was planned to establish OASA to make a Shi'a real work for people because that's what I get the message from Imam Ali, salamu alayhi alayhi. When I convert to Shi'a, I was in love with Al-Quran. Then I went to Hajj in the year of 2000. I found out that the history of Islam has been changed a lot. Then I learned a lot about Shi'a and I think it's really the great present for me because Allah showed me this path. I know, I always remember that Imam Ali told me that if you love me, be ready of the Bala for the Mus'ibat. So I thought I was prepared at that time but I didn't know that was so hard. The Bala that Imam Ali means is the thing that you have to be ready to lose everything and I mean everything. I mean it could be your family, it could be your money, your status, your existence and that's what happened to me. Then I established OASA, this organization to love the Mustad Afin. So in my being lost of everything, I'm teaching the poor in many places and I'm showing them who is Ahlul Bayt, salamu alayhi alayhi, because most of people in Indonesia, even they are Muslim, they don't know Ahlul Bayt. They even didn't know who is Seda Fatima to Zahra, salamu alayhi alayhi. They thought that Seda Fatima is Nabi's mother or wife and I keep on working to introduce who is Ahlul Bayt in many poor areas. I teach them not only Ahlul Bayt but I also teach through children's songs because Indonesian history, the Muslim that comes to Indonesia is Shia. But then there is a man I didn't want to mention his name but he became a hero. He arrived from Saudi Arabia and he changed everything. He killed most of our Ullama and finished Ahlul Bayt, only the culture. So most of Indonesian Sunni, they have this Shia culture. After that I am teaching them and everything and I also work for many national disaster like Tsunami, Natcha, Nias, Jogchakarta and everything with Ahlul Bayt flag and people start asking me who is Ahlul Bayt, salamu alayhi, and I'm starting again explaining them who is Ahlul Bayt. And after this life began harder because they knew I'm spreading Shia even through only social life, social activity. For instance we give free food for the poor people on the Ramadan. We also make, will I say that to Fatima Zahra in the Sunni mosque and we make like queues and for ladies and children if they win their right in their answer we give gift. And so people start liking us year by year. People know OASA because also we get some presidential medal because of our social activity and they know that this is Shia women organization. But then OASA grows and I started, I starting got a lot of fitna because they told me that this woman is very dangerous and they think that I'm Kaffirah and you know all this bad image come to me, be careful with this face because they make a picture of me and they spread it out everywhere and they said that be careful with this woman because she is Iblis, you know, Saitana and everything. And so my face is everywhere being notorious. Then I starting writing books because I think if I go out maybe it's not really safe to me. And I starting writing books and I have made eight books until now. I protect Shia teaching from the Sunni book. I made some books that most of the Sunni accuse us like for instance Shia Kaffir because of they believe Ali is God or the women, the Shia women they're mostly they are doing zina because they believe in Muta and they show my face and this is the queen of Muta. And I show them that if Muta is not around for Sunni, there will be no zina in the world. And I wrote a lot of books for this. And one of the books has been translated to Arabic.  And then many police told me that you need CCTV to protect you and don't go out alone. And I said no, I believe Imam will protect me. So I said no problem. But really after my dog being killed and really the head is broke into pieces. And I started to get serious to be concerned. And then finally my house had CCTV for that. And another my last book is about in Indonesia we have Majlis Ulama that saying there are 10 criteria of misleading or Mun Harif Islam. And from there you will know that this is Shia. They mean Shia, but they don't want to say it directly. But then at the end of the day we knew that they said that look at this according to 10 criteria from us, the council of Majlis Ulama in Indonesia, Shia is really misleading. And I wrote back in three weeks I write back to them that actually they are the one that is misleading. And I wrote another book and I was called by religious minister. I was called by many people that you are too brave. They have been settled for such a long time. This Majlis Ulama they make fatawa. So Shia is kafir, this one kafir, halal haram, halal haram. And everybody is kafir and everybody is haram according to them except their group. And I said too because they said that we have different rukun iman, rukun islam. And I prove it that rukun iman and rukun islam is all different even in Sunni. Sunni also they have different one even in the Fikir and everything. So why should they think about us? They have their own problems among the Sunnis not ours. So I prove it to them that it's not a Shia but I can prove that they are also kafir if this 10 criteria is applied. And they were more angry to me and I just prayed to Imam. Imam I said to Imam that Imam you must help me because and my team in Oasa because we work to make this religion Islam is the real Islam. The real Islam Muhammadi is not Islam Sahabi.  We are so far away from from Nabi Isrullah Wale Wali and Ahlul Bayt. How can we believe we can follow the the message of Nabi to follow Al-Quran and Itroti. We don't know Itroti who will who show us Itroti. I mean you know we are majority Sunni we work hard and even me I I have to to convert to Sunni first then I I have to convert to to Shia and I work hard. I really work hard and I don't want anybody to have the same the same experience it's very difficult to find this path and I want this religion to stand up in Indonesia because everybody loves Ahlul Bayt but they don't know how so they love Ahlul Bayt and they love their enemies too because in Sunni if you don't love this Sahabat you are kafir so they are afraid so you know now I become the target of this Wahhabi. Every time Wahhabi has a conference they always mention Saitona or the women of Iblis they men me they don't mention my name because if they mention my name they got this law I can put them in jail so they don't mention my name but they men this bad names is for me and then after this I go to I starting to always working and working and I become I have I was invited to for United Nations I speak for human rights for Shias rights and then I said because after I work for Shias rights I realized that a lot of other minorities religion in my country also oppressed by Wahhabi the church are attacked and the Hindu attack the Buddhist attack the many people are attacked even the local faith and they come to me and help Emilia help so we need your help and then finally we establish this law firm for minorities so Oase grows again for minorities rights and and now since we help churches we help the local faith and everybody's the minorities and if one the last time the Wahhabi asked me to move Bala that she is right and if she is wrong they will send lot not to me and they were 18 guys from Daesh Indonesia we call it isis in Indonesia and I said okay fine and I was alone and with this 18 guys and then suddenly came the army from the churches and they said to them if you bother this Shia you will face us and they are from Papua Papua is the eastern part of Indonesia is belong like like Africans look so it's their bigger and darker and stronger compared to these Daesh people which is Indonesian you know you're small and and white and Alhamdulillah they don't come up and then we don't do Mubahala so after this I realized that Islam is really the religion of love and peace because um um when uh I in 2010 I doodul from my previous marja to Ayatullah Sadiq Shirazi and what happened to me I got another one another enemies not only Wahhabi Sunni now I was attacked um by Shia because they said that Emilia you go walk to a long path for Islam and now you choose a wrong marja so I am confused I don't know what's going on I mean why is Shia like this but um I go to visit Ayatullah Sadiq Shirazi and he said to me be patient you work for Islam and he is very humble he asked me to be patient and they changed my name from Emilia to Zanuba before Zainab but I said no because Zainab is Jabal Sabar I am not I'm not deserve to have her name because she is so great and I am too small for her and give Zanuba it's very small Zainab and even small Zainab I have too many too many too many fitna and they called me Zionis before they called me Zionis from this Wahhabi Sunni and now I got Zionis from from Shia they called me Munharif Islam from this Wahhabi Sunni and now I say when Munharif Shia so I don't care I just keep working I believe Imam Zaman Jalalov Rajosh Sharif will be my witness I love a little bit with all my blood I have been crying since I converted to Shia even until now I see so many oppressed people and I I always said that I cannot help them I wish I can help all of them to to be out of the oppression but this is us I just do my best for my country for my people and I really hope all of you my sister and my brother who watch this this channel to pray for us because we are not like you you know you who is born Shia you know Shia from the beginning it's not like me I mean I lost everything just being Shia and and it's been tears and blood for me and now I have friends and I came to Karbala and I hope when I return to Indonesia I have more energy I have more spirit of Imam Abbas, Imam Hussein, Salamu alaikum, Say the Zainab please pray for us pray for my country I hope Imam Zaman Jalalov Rajosh Sharif will come soon this is what we all dream of thank you Salamu alaikum


How much can I earn teaching English abroad? In recent years, teaching English abroad has become a popular and profitable job for many native English speakers around the world. This is largely due to the rapid increase in demand for the English language in many countries, leading to teaching salaries becoming more and more competitive. When looking for a teaching job, it is always advisable to weigh up the salary and offer in comparison with the local cost of living, as this can vary considerably from one country to the next. A monthly salary of US$1000 in Bolivia would allow you to live a very comfortable lifestyle, while the same salary in a city such as Barcelona would probably not be enough to provide all the comforts you had hoped for. Other benefits included in the contract are also worth noting, as free housing, health insurance, paid vacations and reimbursement of airfares can all add up to an attractive overall package. Let's take a look at the most popular regions for English language teachers around the world. Asia has long been one of the most popular regions due to a combination of good salaries, a low cost of living and a wide variety of fascinating cultures to explore. Traditional hotspots such as South Korea and Taiwan continue to be popular as the average salary is generally very high at around US$2000-2500 for new teachers and up to US$3000 for those with experience. China's huge demand for teachers means it's also very popular, particularly with new teachers who can expect to earn between US$1000 and US$2000 per month in their first year and up to US$3000 with experience. These countries all offer a great opportunity to save considerable sums of money during your stay. One star in Asia that has faded in recent years is Japan, a country that was once the most popular in the region. Although still worth checking out, Japan's increasing costs and stagnated salaries means it is no longer the best destination for saving while you work. Alternatively, Southeast Asia is a very popular region as it is seen to provide a more adventurous and exotic experience compared to the more developed countries to the north. Thailand and Vietnam have the most numerous opportunities with salaries of up to US$1500 per month and relatively low cost of living. If making money is your top priority, then this is the region to head for.  Here, you can expect to earn between US$3000 and US$5000 per month, including benefits such as paid housing, health insurance, and round-trip flights home. If that is not enough, also consider that these are tax-free countries, so what you earn is what you keep. Having said all that, this may not be the right destination for everyone. Competition for jobs is very high, so you probably need a few years teaching experience before you can expect to be hired. The conservative nature of society in this region also deters many teachers from coming here. Female teachers in particular may find the strict social norms hard to deal with in the long-term. Other countries in this region worth looking at include Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. Europe is the automatic first choice for many people setting out to teach English abroad. However, from a financial standpoint, it may not be the best option, as the cost of living is generally quite high and salaries are often similar to those offered in far cheaper destinations such as South Korea or China. If you want to save while you teach, this probably isn't the right choice for you. However, if you are one of the thousands of people who dream of living and working in this fascinating region, there are plenty of places to choose from. Central and Eastern Europe is often a good choice, as costs are considerably lower than in the West. The Czech Republic is one of the most sought-after destinations, thanks to a healthy job market and a long and fascinating history. Other popular countries due to lifestyle rather than financial gain include Spain, Italy, and France. As with Europe, Latin American countries naturally attract many teachers due to the exotic culture and lifestyle that can provide. Unfortunately, it is one of the toughest regions in which to earn a good salary. However, if you are keen to travel this region and explore its varied attractions, there are plenty of countries where you can earn enough to get by. Chile is often regarded as one of the best options in the region, whilst other popular destinations include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. If you find that your salary is not quite enough to live as you would like, private tutoring is often in high demand and provides a great opportunity for English teachers to earn an additional income.