On Tuesday, October 3rd, Pikeville City officials and local business representatives gathered at the Appalachian Wireless Arena for coffee and commerce. The goal of the meeting was to discuss current workforce development strategies alongside networking with one another. Pikeville's Executive Director of Community Relations Jill Dotson tells us more. Coffee and commerce is something that we extend to our business community as a way for community partners and businesses to come together to talk about issues they are facing, some places they can get help for their workforce and that's what we're doing here today at this particular coffee and commerce. I think the one thing that was a commonality between all of our businesses and city leaders that were here is that we want to find the right employees for our businesses. We want to find the right skill sets and the right workforce and sometimes you have to branch out and look at different areas and different avenues and different skill sets to accommodate those needs. So having those conversations and being able to talk amongst people that might be facing some of these issues has really been beneficial to have those conversations. You want to save money and Appalachian Wireless gets that. Right now you can get up to $650 off select devices including the latest and the greatest on the advantage and limited plan with a trade-in. Did y'all hear me? Up to $650 off select devices including the latest and greatest with a trade-in. I'm not a math whiz but this deal it's amazing and you'll be on the region's premier network. We are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. One of the main talking points was how large and small businesses can create jobs for people who want them. They want to not only generate interest in jobs but equal employment opportunities. Well I think first of all just looking for people who are hiring, looking for something that you might have an interest in or maybe it's not something that you've worked in in the past, something that you've always had an interest in that you may want to delve into that aspect of the workforce. But certainly if you are looking for opportunities to gain employment and to try your hand at something maybe a little different than what your career had been in, you can reach out to Big Sandy and their workforce solutions. They have a lot of different people who contact them that are looking for those right people to fill those positions and just keeping an open mind to keep an open ear to where those opportunities may be.


Good evening, I'd like to take and call the Monday, February 5th, 2024, Berlin Select Board to order. My left is Flo Smith. My car left is Joe Stob. My right is Tor Nelson, who was also our town administrator, and Karla Newiesel. Any additions or changes to the agenda, Tor? No. Any public comment? Hearing none. Oh, to entertain a motion to recess the select board and open up the public hearing for the charter change. So moved. Second. All favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. As you should know, the Berlin Select Board is asking for a charter change to allow us to impose a local options tax. The charter will be amended as follows in section 3-2, powers of the town, addition of paragraph D as follows. The town of Berlin Select Board may assess a 1% sales tax. The town of Berlin Select Board may assess a 1% rooms tax. And the town of Berlin Select Board may access a 1% meals and alcohol beverage tax. The tax imposed under the authority of this section shall be collected and administrated by the Department of Taxes in accordance with 24 VSA 138. The revenues received through this imposition of the tax imposed under this section shall be designed for capital projects within the town. Any comments? I think I hear the Perkins term. Well, I would just like to say as a comment is that this 1% local options tax would allow us to take and do road and equipment purchases, road projects and equipment purchases. It will also take and help control the budget as far as capital expenditures go. Anything else, Flo? I concur with what Brad said. I think it's really necessary. And we've come so close to it being approved that I'm in high hopes that it will be approved this time because it will be beneficial for the budget, like Brad said, and really assist us with the capital projects. Joe? I do believe there was a report where 78% plus would be paid for by non-town residents. So I see that as being a benefit. They're using the roadways and such of the infrastructure of which they don't typically pay taxes on. Good point. Gary, good point. Carla? I can't think of anything else to add, just that I'm certainly in favor, and I do hope that the residents will support it. Dora? Yeah, it's been said before, you know, Brun's resident population is about 2,900, but that swells to over 12,000 during the day with the shoppers and workers that come to town. Brun hosts regional health, retail, and institutional organizations, all of which use our infrastructure, our roads and bridges and police force and everything like that. But they do not contribute to the maintenance of this infrastructure, and that falls entirely on the Berlin property owners. This options tax, if enacted, would allow us to continue and even expand our investment into our capital infrastructure, our bridges, roads, and culverts, while not increasing the tax load on the residents, but spreading out over all the users through the options tax. As the chair stated, when he read the text of the Charter Change, these funds would be used towards capital improvements, greater road repair and maintenance, bridge repairs which have been lacking in the past, a lever-slinged bridge, which has been closed for several years. We had the Fisher Road culvert, which was closed for a significant period of time a couple of years ago for repairs. And we're facing significant expenditures this year with the repairs still needed from the July flooding. All this would go towards that and more without burdening the already heavily burdened Berlin taxpayers. Another thing to keep in mind that all the expenditures of these projects would still be approved by the voters at the annual town meeting budgets. So it's not like they're just giving us a blank check to spend all this money on in the future. And rough estimates are between $640,000 a year that this tax would generate for the town, which is about 150% of our usual capital budget. So it would be a nice increase there. And like Joe said, it's estimated between 74% and 87% of this tax would be paid for by non-residents. Things that are not subject to this tax would be groceries, clothes and shoes, drugs and medical supplies, motor vehicles, fuels, gasoline and diesel, and residential and firm utilities. So there's a lot of items there that everybody buys every day that would not be subject to this taxes. So here again, also I am in favor of adoption of this local options tax. And just keep in mind, the overall scope of this, I went out to one of the fast food places the other day and burgers, fries and a drink was $10. So a family of four, that's $40, the 1% would be an additional $0.40 on that meal. And if you do that once a week, every week for a year, you're talking about $21 total for the year. And keep in mind, if you go to the grocery store and you buy some chicken and potatoes and lettuce and bread for dinner, you pay nothing extra on that for the sales tax. Anyone else, any comments? I wanted to also add, I think it's wonderful that it will be administered by the state as opposed to our staff here. I think that that's a huge benefit too. I think it might be worth noting too that people may not realize they already pay this 1% tax when they go out of town to Montpelier, to Barrie, or to others around in town, and they may not even notice the difference. So while if we are able to pass the low options test here, the impact to the individuals and be so ministerial that you might not notice. But the benefit to our town with all the visitors coming in is going to make a big difference. And it would improve the experience for the Outertown residents as well, having better roads, having the paint turn pipe north open, and things like that. So it's a benefit to everybody, not just the permanent residents.  People have been concerned. This would really, truly help in that regard. And other entities as well. Good point, Rachel. Well, one other thing is that we're not burdened to town businesses. The money just passes through. It doesn't come out of their operating costs. OK. And like Flo mentioned with it, being administered by the tax department, they just report it like to do their regular quarterly sales. It's not an additional paperwork burden on them either. Any other comments? If not, entertain a motion to close the public hearing and reconvene the select board. I make the motion to close the public hearing and reconvene the select board this evening. Any comment? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Appointment of social balance, solid waste management district representative, and alternate. Do we have some changes here? Yes, so Matt Levin, who is our long-term, long-time representative on the board, stepping aside. And Tim Shea has volunteered to step up to be a representative on the board. Matt is interested in serving as the alternate to Tim. So I would make the motion that Tim Shea be appointed as Bruins representative to the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District Board and that Matt Levin be appointed as the alternate. Any second of that motion? Any other comments? Question. Who's our current alternate? Any other comments on this? Those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. I would like to express a certain amount of gratitude towards Matt. I don't know how long he's been doing this about. At least 10 years, that I know of. Maybe even longer. I think he was on it when I came on the board and that was 20 years ago. 20 years ago, so OK, so you doubled what I was expecting. So we do a great, huge gratitude towards him for his service. He has a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm. He's done a really great job. OK, approval of permits, applications, licenses, and awards. I'm going to approve payable warrant 24G18 with check number 23692 to 23702. And the amount of $29,934.33. Any discussion? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Approval of minutes of, there is one set from January 25. I make the motion to approve the Thursday, January 25, 2024 minutes, and just one change in the first paragraph under FY2, just including the letter C, other than that. You missed one, I don't know. Again? FY2 budget. Oh, yeah, I didn't see that. Very good. That too? OK. All those in favor? Looking for a second with that, it's there. Thank you. OK. Sorry about that. Any other discussion? If not, those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And roundtable, Joe? Pass for now. Well? Same for me. Thank you. Dore? Excluded in your printouts, a letter I received from Town of Berry, just this afternoon, acknowledging the one-year contract extension for the EMS. But they are also looking for a $9.39 increase above the pre-programmed increase in the capital rate due to the increases in insurance and rental for them fire station. And they are offering to come and meet with us if we would like to take them up on that at a future meeting. Any thoughts on that? I'm not opposed to them coming to a future meeting and having a discussion with us. That's just my thoughts. So how many people are in Berlin? Well, per capita is around 1,900. Do we get charged for 1,900 people? The rest are covered by the Northfield ambulance. Yeah, I don't know what that information has. So that's what, a $20,000 increase, which was not? That's high, I mean, a rounding rate. Yeah, but that's not budgeted in our budget group. Yeah, that's in the committee camp. OK. I won't bite them until I meet them. OK. That's all I have. So just a question, so if the contract doesn't specify the rates, they can increase them? The contract does provide for the rates, but also provides for a provision that of certain expensive exceed amount, they can increase it, which their exercise I get it, I'm just curious. So basically, this is just an increase to cover their cost of inflation. But what they're, what they're, what they're tightening. Well, we certainly know insurance rates have gone up. We saw that in our budget. Right, right. Any else, Carla? Nope, I'm good. Did I do good? Yeah, quicker than any of your meetings? Yeah. So the local options, tax, social media, any post recordings by select board members? This was intended to be a recording, you making snippets of, you know, sound bites about the options tax that we could use on our own social media pages. I think that kind of felt a part this afternoon, so. Well, so the big debate is how to. Get across some of the little messages that we have that may give people a better understanding of why they want to pass this. And so while we could do little video snippets of here of you guys just saying why you support it and the benefits, there was an idea bounced around this afternoon about doing those videos in certain locations that may have a bigger impact. Maybe in front of the town garage down near the closed road on the intern pike. Maybe with the police chief and some of this guy. So I don't know if you guys were prepared to do any kind of video today. If you have a strong desire to do it, we can certainly record that now. And but if you prefer the idea of being somewhere else, I mean, I know I'd be happy to go during the daytime. If you have time to record a video with them town scenery as well. I'm happy to do it in front of the panther quite close son. Okay, is that something that you're comfortable doing on your own? You can certainly record it with your phone and send it to us or we could come out and record it with our phone. We also can set up a laptop or you can set up a laptop and record a video as well. I can just do it on my phone, right? Yeah, if that works for you and you're comfortable with that, that's certainly easier.  Okay, perfect.  So what are you looking at? 40 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds. Something real. Something has to be quick. It can be whatever you want. And that's the benefit of this. You know, we're not trying to do a 30 second spot or you could be whatever you want. So if it's 17 seconds, that's still work. Right. And I like the idea of the location. It can be an odd number, so. Locations are key. Right at the fire apartment. And the other beauty is that Rachel's been editing. Exactly, that's right. It is, it's a great idea. Do you have a timeframe when they have to be done by? I would say the sooner or the better because we really only have a few more weeks to get that message out with some kind of discussion. I was thinking this Friday for me. That would be great. I think that works. Mm-hmm. I think that's great. And location, I'm up for suggestion. Okay. Just like you did with. I think Lover's Lane Bridge was right. I was just going to say that. Sure. Sure. If that works for you. That makes total sense. Yeah. And I'm not opposed to Lover's Lane, Lover Lane. Lover's Lane Bridge. But the exception, there's some hold up on the state side. It's not. It is, it's going to be a financial burden. Okay, I get that. But it's not a matter of having the dollars to do it. Is that not? You don't want the message that, one, if we pass this. Yeah. So you're going to have Lover's Lane Bridge. We're still waiting on the state. Right. Right? Right. So, great idea. I didn't think wrong message. You're not going to be incorporated in the message. Well, I think you're saying we'd go with the fire station as well. Because as of right now, the fire department will not benefit from it. Right. Maybe in the future.  I think so. Local options, taxing more on this, the media part. If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. And I will make that motion to adjourn tonight. It's regularly scheduled select board meeting. I will second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. That's amazing. We adjourned.


Hi guys. There's at least four of you here. So the reason we're here is because earlier when I was on, and it seems to be per usual these days, since I upgraded my computer system, I'm having issues. So we fixed the issues with the video feed and the picture is great. 99% of the time I'm happy with that. But the sound was bad. So right now we're using a different microphone and the microphone on the webcam is not in use. So we're here to unbox.  I thought I would share since I was going to come on to test the mic. But we are I'm also interested to know while we're doing this, if you guys could let me know how the sound is and hello, Eve. It's great to see you again. Hopefully this time the sound is much better. You can let me know or not. Let's see. And in the meantime, I'll start unboxing things. I think these are all aren't related. I did also order some Stullin or German Christmas cake. I order it from Germany and every year. And we give some of it away. I love it, too. But I don't think any of these boxes have Stullin on them. Oh, see? Okay. So I did some Googling after we got off the air before. And hey, Ann, hey, Krissa.  And it wasn't great when I had a PC. But now that I have a Mac, it's worse. I got is called a snowball. It's so cute. You know, bonus is cute. I was thinking that I was going to have to get something different because my local staple store didn't have it online. They said they didn't have any snowballs. But when I went there, they did only have one left. But I'm going to move it. So if we get any weird noises, it's because I'm moving the microphone, all right? So it looks like this. It's just a round white ball. There we go. And so I like it. It's cute. Yeah, I saw the Yeti. And so I was thinking I was going to have to get a Yeti. And because I didn't think they had this in stock, but they had this one. I did have to buy a 16 foot cable because it needs to reach across the room. And the cable it comes with is only six feet. So hopefully, yeah, they may are made by the same company and they both have great reviews. So I'm hoping this solves our problem and it can like live right off there to the right, you'll probably always see its feet when we're broadcasting. And I'm okay with that. And I can move it around. But you know, now that we've got the picture solved, I wanted the audio to be equally as nice. And so hopefully we've done that. So this these this was from an Amazon shop. And this is called what who is this by? Meyer Imports M E Y E R. And this is called Sea Glass Glitter. And yeah, so my other headset wasn't great for voiceovers on the new computer either. And it was inexpensive anyway. But my husband likes it for doing Skype phone calls on his PC. So I think I'm going to give it to him. And I'll just use the snowball. See now it's going to be really good. And you hear all that crinkly paper. All right, I'm not going to try to rip it open. Let's see bonus because I bought it at Staples. And if it didn't work, I have two weeks to return it. Um, so this is a really pretty sea glass glitter mix. And I think it's actual glass glitter. But look at the colors. Aren't they pretty?  So now you get to all see me open my mail because I wanted to test the computer. Now, of course, now, like I said, now it's working great. You're going to get all these sounds that you don't normally get. You know this big for these. So I was watching some Wanderlust and she was using these ice red resin things. And they're like an embossing powder, but they're like color mixes. And they intrigued me so much. I got a couple of them. This one is ivory. And they work like embossing powder. They just have a little bit different finish and they have like color blends in them. And this one is turquoise, because, you know, after turquoise. Oh, thank you, Eve. It's much better because you were here earlier. You were the one of the ones that suffered through the good picture and horrible audio earlier. Snowball microphone and it looks like a white snowball. So FYI, the C920 HD webcam is fabulous for the picture if you have a good enough internet connection. It does a really good picture and it's not an expensive webcam. But if you're going to buy it to do live broadcasts like this, then just know that you're going to need to buy a microphone. See, now you're going to hear the dog barking really well. Here's the liquid part that goes with the ice resin. It's more seed beads.  These are microbeads. Sorry, not seed beads. These are microbeads. Martha Stewart microbeads. I actually was running low on a couple of colors. And I think this is a book from half.com. Normally, like anymore, I don't get any art stuff in the mail like not every day. But when I do get it, it seems like it all comes at the same time. Now, Mike has a really good price point. What cost me a lot was the 16 foot cord because I had to replace the cord. It only comes with a six foot cord. And I broadcast across the room from my desktop. So I needed a cord that would I would be able to do that without unplugging things. Yep. So this is probably one of the books. Yep, I ordered from half.com. So my dear friend Cindy Utter is always telling me when I'm buying art books that I should get them from half.com. It's so much cheaper. So I finally decided to do that. You know, you get in the habit of ordering stuff from Amazon and then, you know, it's just kind of a habit. So I got this one that she got. She recommended. Yeah, it's usually like the Mike, like I said, the Mike, you know, was a good price for a good Mike. But the cable cost almost as much as a Mike. So this is Journal Thotter 365. And I saw Cindy did a flip through of hers the other day when we were doing Google Hangout. And it looked interesting.  I mean, doesn't that just look fun? And it's done on a paper bag. I love it. So now tomorrow when we do Watercolor Wednesday Live, we're going to have a good picture. And we're going to have a good Mike. Except for I'm frozen. There we go. Except for now YouTube YouTube is freezing. It's not me. This time it's not me. It's YouTube. I don't know about you guys, but my broadcast froze. It's going to be great. Yeah. So finally, so finally, it's going to be good. You know, after how many weeks of the new computer. So this book is Journal Thotter 365, Daily Doses of Inspiration for the Art Addict. No, it's me Eve.  So God forbid we should have good internet or accurate cell phone service or, you know, anything. Hi, mama cats. How are you? We're just like I'm doing a new microphone test. I had to go out and buy a new microphone. Yeah, see, I like to I have a lot of books on my Kindle and as you know, but they're mostly romance novels, a few self-help books, but my art books, I like to have actual books. And this is from half.com. So it's like, you know, slightly used. It's got some staining or something on the back side. I'm okay with that. I got a really good price for it. I think it was less than $5. It doesn't say on here, but I'm pretty sure they were all less than $5. I'm good. Now that I have my webcam picture straightened out and I have my microphone issues straightened out, I am good now. It's just called half.com half. Is it half pricebooks.com and oh, why am I asking you? I have the thing right in front of me. Oh, yeah. See, it was $4.81. And this is from Goodwill Books in Hillsborough, Oregon. And it's half.com because, you know, I just need to look more carefully because, you know, so I did find when I was looking to buy some more seed beads and glitter, I didn't really need to glitter. I did find this Meyer imports on Amazon and they seem to have really good prices and they have nice glass glitter and they have really interesting microflakes and all kinds of really cool stuff for really good prices. And I do have a little bit more coming. Oh, yeah. No, that's okay. You know why? I don't have to cover up. That's my PO box. That's not where I live. So you all can have that address. It's in the description. That's my PO box. I don't live there.  So, yeah. That's something I learned really early on from it was either Shannon Green or Patty Tolly Parish. I don't remember which one. It might have been both. They said, don't give out your home address anymore. You need to get a PO box. One of them said it and I don't remember which one.  You all are sane, I'm sure. But, you know, you don't know who's lurking out there. So I'm glad the snowball fixed our problems. And it's cute besides little white snowball. So this ice resin, I can't wait to try this. And this is one of those things I was talking about yesterday. We were doing our abstract landscape and I was talking about how you could put a little bit of like, you know, neon glitter or something, you know, in accents and in a painting at the end. And this was one of those things. I ordered a color that was called Chartreuse that looked like a neon green. And so I can't wait to play with that. And this ice resin is sort of like VersaMark for this stuff.  Just like embossing powder. I'd never heard of it before, but I can't wait to try it. And then the glitter, I just couldn't resist that. I mean, who could resist that? It comes in a nice plastic bottle and everything. That's really pretty. And this was so thick and textured, it's still drying. You can see the wet spots in some of the texture, but it's been sealed and waxed. And isn't it just like the coolest thing? I really like the way this painting turned out. And you can just really see, look at all that texture. You can see the places where everything is still like wet, because it's not clear, but it is the coolest thing. And this is the one we did the week before. I was sealing them both earlier, this really early this morning. Yeah, exactly, Ann. I feel the same way. I did notice, by the way, yesterday, after we finished this, and I love this, and I, you know, it's going to probably take a few days for everything to dry and like the nooks and crannies, because it's so textured. But I did notice after we painted this yesterday, I'm going to have to move, I think I ought to move the little soft tooth hanger thing, because yeah, that's not going to work. Alrighty, I think I'm going to go eat lunch now, that that problem is solved. All right, I will see you guys in the morning, Watercolor Wednesday, 10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. And I'll be here with our working HD webcam and our new Snowball microphone. And yeah, I guess I'm an official YouTuber now. I have a microphone. It does look like it reminds me of some kind of encaustic technique. And I can't wait to see what you do, Ann. I am really loving working with texture, and I can seem doing more of it going forward. It's really, really fun. And some of these things are for doing that. You know, some of this, don't forget, you know, some of these seed beads and the glitter, you can mix it with your gel mediums or modeling paste to not only add color, but texture to your pieces. So yeah. All right, I will see you all later.  I can't even tell you. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Bye guys. Have a great day and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. See you later. Bye, guys.