Call this meeting to order at 5.40pm and now is the time for public comment for things which are all not already on the agenda. Can you all hear me? Yeah. Yeah. I'm in Waterbury and there's a lot of construction here. I'm sitting in my car. So I just wanted to give an update on happenings at the library. The Friends of Kimball Library Bookshop has moved to a new location. It's on 28 Pleasant Street. And the shops open on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. All the proceeds go to Kimball. We also have a new Tiny Table Podcast episode. And we're launching a journaling project, a community journaling project where there's going to be a workshop on September 11th that folks can sign up for by reaching out to Lynn at the library. And it's going to be like a daily journaling project during these tumultuous times for the community. The downstairs restroom is under construction for the next three weeks to bring it up to ADA requirements. And we just still have the limited open hours side door for browsing. And we're open on Mondays and Thursdays for that from 11 to 6. And then at the door services continue the hours on the website and you can do that at the door services from the front area, the front door of the library. I think that is it. Are there any questions? Not for me. Oh, I'm good. Thank you all. Thank you, Libby. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to a quick reminder to everyone that I have just hit record. And so you may see a notice on your screen that the meeting is being recorded. And no orca this time. Yes, the screen box named Adam B is from orca, but I'm not sure if they are recording on their end or not. So I just would rather be safe than sorry and record. Other other public comment. Okay. I'm going to sign off, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about your resignation and also, and thank you for all the work you've done here. Thank you, Libby. Appreciate it. Very kind. Thank you very much. Hope you all take care. Thank you. Sorry, I gotta go. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thank you. Okay, hearing no other public comment, we'll move on to approval of the agenda. I move the approval of the agenda as stated. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of approving the agenda say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Move on to the consent calendar. The first part of the consent calendar is the meeting minutes from both August 13th, our regular meeting and the September 3rd special meeting from last week. We also have warrants. I need to be approved. Larry, I have a correction on September 3rd minutes. Okay. What's up, Pat. Thank you. Thank you. Public attendees. I know there was at least Marty strange was there and it talks about him later on. And was sunny hole there. I don't. I think he was there briefly. I'm not sure. Yeah. Center was there for a little while. Marty and Sonny should be in the public attendees. I will. Thank you, Pat. I'm taking note of that now. And we'll make the adjustments on the, on the minutes. Thanks, Pat. Good catch, Pat. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? The consent calendar. Second it. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Motion passes and move on to new business. First place of new businesses that tax warrant. You'd like to tell us about that adult though. Yes. The tax warrant in your packet is the annual process where. First document is a document issued by the clerk's office. I'm trying to look at the actual. Title of that document. Oh, it's. Hmm. It should forget the title of it, but yes, it's. Where is it? Oh, here we go. It is a PDF document. It's an action item sheet. And it is to essentially grant the. Taxing residents of the town for their property tax. It approves the tax collector, right? So it wouldn't necessarily be the clerk because now what you said. Correct. Yeah. Tax collector. You're correct. Yes. I read your stuff. And the Pat's point, he is correct. It is a tax collector. It is part of the annual statutory process. It's something that we. That the select board would have to authorize before the clerk can. Perform. I'm sorry, not the clerk, but the tax collector can perform their statutory duties to collect tax. Move we approve the tax warrant. Second it. We have a motion and second to approve the tax warrant. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Move on to property in town of. No, we have to do the approve the tax rates too. Yes, there's also the tax rate in your packet. The tax rate has been set by, by the listers now that they've received all the information issued by the state. It is a document in your packet titled. And it will show what the municipal rate is at the very top of the list. Bold. We'll also show what the rate is. For the police district. And the rate for local agreements. And then on page two. It will show the total townwide tax rate. When you start calculating in the state. Portion. Do we need to approve the tax rates? Yes. Please. Yeah. Before we, before we do that, just have a question. Obviously we need to do this, but. My understanding now, this is, this is based upon the. The budget, right? That we are, that we have already passed. Yeah. And it's based upon the value of the property. And it's based upon the property. So, you know, we've, I guess what I'm saying is like. This is the suit. Like what would happen if we said, actually we don't like this. What would we, what would we do? We'd have to go back and change the budget so that we could say, oh my goodness, wait, we didn't mean to. Make the tax rates be what they are. Yeah. Sort of thinking like, why are we doing this now kind of thing? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, much of it is it does require a local approval. However, it is a state process. So the state. Essentially is granting municipalities the right to approve the tax rate. However. It is a state requirement. So it's almost like a just checking boxes because we have to do it anyway. And if the select board chooses to not approve the tax rate, then it would create a problem locally because. Essentially, if we did not, if the select board chose to not approve the tax rate and then also chose to not authorize a tax collector to collect taxes, the state would still collect its state component. And would force the town to collect the state component of it. And would probably throw its hands up and say, well, you probably should collect the local tax rate as well to fill the local obligations. But we probably would be sued by the state so that we. Fulfill the statute requirements and then. Send the money along to the state. It is, it is a. Yeah. It's one of the things that we do. It's one of those checking boxes that the state forces municipal governments to go through. It's essentially confirming. Re-confirming what the local rate is that we've shared with them and then also saying that the town accepts the state rate that they are then sharing with the town. Yeah. Just. Maybe. Larry. Larry. Yeah. In actual fact, it's, they have somebody to blame now because we voted on it. Yeah. Of course. Okay. Well. Moving on, we have a motion and a second. I don't think we have a second yet, but I heard a second. I did. Oh, you did. Thanks. Yep. Okay. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Motion passes. Thank the listeners for their efforts. If I may, I can point out that we've. We've had. I believe Trini log in. See that. She's muted right now. I am here. Hi, Trini. Oh, you did. Thanks. Yep. Okay. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Thank you. You want to, you want to take over? No, go ahead, Larry. I'm. In the vehicle. Okay. We're going to move on to property and town of Bethel, then. Yes. Approximately two years ago, two town meetings ago. We had asked the. Residents of Randolph to grant the authority to the town to. Be the style or transfer the property that the town owns in Bethel. The information that we had shared with the voters was that we are paying property tax to residents in Bethel. And then I'll, I'm sorry to the town of Bethel. And also. I don't recall if we did or not, but communication from the town's attorney. To the town of Randolph was that it was not a good idea for one town to own property in another town. So two town meetings ago, the voters authorized the town. To sell or transfer the property. I don't recall if transfer was there, but sale was there, but there was no amount. I don't recall if it was there. And at this point. We have a local nonprofit. That operates. Kids camps and then also young team camps. And they have expressed the desire to take possession of the property whole. Which would then eliminate the town's liability over the property. We would essentially be. It could be sold slash transferred for a dollar. But it could also be sold to the town. The nonprofit in Randolph. So. There's, there's been a lot of talk about the, the sort of the obligated to the town because of the way this property was given to the town. To it being used by a boys group. Is, is you're thinking that this group would satisfy that. Obligation. Yes, it would. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right, Larry. What specifically mentioned in the deed was that. The town can. Sell or I don't recall the specific words. I think it was like, get rid of. And I'm paraphrasing here. If there was no. Boy, Boy Scout or similar boy organization in the town. And that the property became a financial liability to the town. And that the town would have to pay the taxes and pay to insure it. And also there is currently no Boy Scout. Group within Randolph. But there is a group that does operate a similar type of. Camps for youth. Within Randolph. And I believe they also have kids from outside of Randolph come to the camps, but it. I don't know if they have kids from Randolph. Who would be allowed to attend. This camp that would want to operate out of this space. It sounds like it's through a church. Would this be only open to people affiliated with the church? It would be not necessarily affiliated with the church, but affiliated with the nonprofit. So they are. They're not affiliated with the app. They're not affiliated with the church. But they have to have a technical gain on profit. They do offer the camps. I don't recall, you know, I'd have to ask them again. If they'd have to have membership to the church, or if the. The events are open to everyone. I don't know that off the top of my head, but I. I do know that they would fit the requirement. In the deed. They do allow kids from outside of their organization at their camps. Okay. Thank you, Trini. thank you Trini. This is Pat I have two comments the first one being that I believe the Boy Scouts have reorganized in the state and have a new plan of how they're running everything and I think it would be worthwhile to check with them again to see if they have an interest in this property. Can I answer that Pat? The Boy Scouts the folks that were running the Randolph group and the Sharon group have all been at the table for these discussions and the Sharon Boy Scout troop is actually affiliated with this group so it will still be available to the Boy Scouts. The statewide organization has repeatedly said they have zero interest in owning property. They said that recently. Yes. I mean within the last month or two. I can confirm that I had a meeting with them personally over a year ago and within the last 12 months I sent them a letter informing them of the previous offer and informing them that they had declined accepting the property and informing them that if they insisted on using town property that they had to coordinate use with the town otherwise it would be considered trespassing and insurance coverage would be a problem because it was an unauthorized group on town property. The letter went with I didn't get a response from them. I called the Boy Scouts again six months after I sent the letter to inquire on whether or not they received the letter and asked them to call me so that we can discuss the property and they did not call me back. So every communication that I've had with the Boy Scouts was driving the same message home to the town that they do not want the property. They have an access amount of property already and we're working to deal with that. So you know on multiple occasions they have driven the message home to me into the town that they do not want the property. Was that recent as of this spring or summer? It's within the last six months that I've that I attempted to reestablish communication with them and the only thing I can arise from their lack of interest in speaking with me is that they're just not interested in the property. Correct me if I'm wrong everyone but I believe the Boy Scouts of America within the last six months as a national organization have filed for bankruptcy. I believe that to be the case and that suggests that if that sort of financial condition filters down the line to the state affiliates I doubt the state affiliate is in a position to consider this now if they wanted to. That's right Tom and on top of that this group that's willing to take on the responsibility has is works with the Boy Scouts. So it actually gets the camp more use by other youth groups than just the Boy Scouts. And Jenny did you say it would be open to anybody that wanted to use it as long as they were doing it responsibly? Well I don't know that it's just gonna be open to anybody that wants to use it. I think it's gonna be under the same conditions. I mean they're we're at this this is getting it out from under the town and so they're gonna have to work with this group if they want to use it you know I don't think it's fair for us to say set that kind of condition on it. Trini if I may add additional information I think one of the challenges that and then it was briefly touched on by our attorney over two years ago why one town should not own property in another town is not necessarily just the financial liability but also just the insurance liability over the last over my tenure with the town I received calls from neighbors of our property they're saying that that they hear people on the property they hear parties happening on the property they don't know what's happening there they occasionally hear gunshots they don't know if it's hunting or if people are there on Randall's property shooting we can't have a staff member at that lot controlling who does and does not enter so it's not just a financial liability now but also an insurance liability in keeping it under the town's umbrella is from my perspective just to share with the board it it may not be a good idea to do so especially if we now have a group within Randall that will use it and and we'll make it available to Randall people it would get rid of the financial and insurance liability from the town and still service Randall president with that I'd make a motion that we authorize Adolfo to complete the transfer of this property I think before we do that we need to talk about the condition the condition that Adolfo put as an example about selling the property right now Adolfo's example which it sounds like we are free to use that user or come one but something different is some is that the property shouldn't be sold within 10 years and if it was to be sold within 10 years the town would receive 75% of the revenue generated by the sale I think that's a good starting point I my inclination would be to make that period of time longer I'd like to since we're basically you know giving it away and I would like to I would not like to see a private organization you know profit in a significant way from us you know bequeathing them this property just just to be clear once it's transferred at whatever a dollar or whatever minimal amount we might does the covenant that it be used only for use I mean historically it's said by boys but let's say youths in this case does that go away with the transfer of the deed to the East Randolph Baptist Church no it's on the deed okay so they could only sell it to a youth service organization regardless of what timeframe they sold it within is that accurate that is the same as the same condition that we have right right exactly it would have to be in the new detail it travels with the deed would have to be in the new deed be enforceable so so to that end does the gender identity boy carry forward transaction as well issue that did come up in my conversations with our attorney before we brought it to the town meeting for a vote this is not uncommon when you have long-standing deeds with these types of conditions where they're just not they're just not what they should be in current times and so our attorney had previously understood that even if it does specifically say boy organization that a legal proceeding would not violate law by you know not including protected classes like you know on gender and everything else so those old deed as they come up would be updated to include all genders so even though it does say boy similar boy organizations the deeds themselves would be updated to be more more inclusive and more in accordance with current law so it might for example just refer to youths yeah rather than the trees correct the restrictions move forward they just don't disappear well to that end then I'm comfortable with leaving it at the 10 I personally am comfortable leaving it at the 10 year time period cap 10 years from now the likelihood of who knows another youth organization stepping up and offering a substantive quality quantity excuse me of money for this property is seems to me fairly relatively remote and I think if we're transferring it for a dollar and when they transfer for a dollar you're gonna get 75 cents right right what I mean if as long as it stays in some form of you know youth entity you know I'm fine with it if I got transferred along as that was part of the Covenant the deed so it doesn't matter to me what they sell it for if they were able to move it forward and could continue those type of programs I'd be fine with it yeah same here and that's why I wanted to be sure that the Covenant was remaining in the deed because if somehow they found a way to sell it as a you know residential building lot further down the line I'd be a heck of a lot more concerned about it but as long as it's going to remain in the service of youth in the region in perpetuity I think we're I think we can be reasonably assured that it is not going to be transferred for a substantive amount of money that's going to put us at a disadvantage if it's helpful to Trini's motion for me to complete the transfer I could speak with it with the the group that's willing to take possession of the property when I did speak with them already they were they were open to it they just want to continue to serve the populations that they already serve right so I don't think that they would object at all to if for some reason the Covenants don't transfer which I firmly believe they do but if they don't we could just modernize the language to say you know to use of Rand off ending including other use they do transfer otherwise we would have been able to sell this for residential yeah and it's taken us two years just to find anybody willing to come to the table and play this role so I don't believe they're gonna have anybody knocking on their door to take this over I don't think they want them to to tell you the truth they're they're planning all kinds of things with their programs for the youth around this I agree I over the years I've heard that they do operate well attended youth camps Rand off students to participate in them so I have no doubt that they would use the property for what it was intended so I must confess I'm not familiar with the property or never set foot on it are there outbuildings or ancillary structures there that are part of the camp no no there is what there is one building one building and then there's an outhouse the one building that's there has seen better days photographs in the deed which I believe were taken in 1942 are of the same building it's been updated a little bit here and there but it's for the most part the same building okay so I want to be clear as to who we're transferring this to because it says in there in your notes Adolfo that it's a group that operates sort of underneath the umbrella of the East Randolph Baptist Church it is actually and I'm sorry I may have miswritten that it is actually the nonprofit East Randolph Baptist Church that is the name of the nonprofit organization okay so the East Randolph Baptist Church is the group is the nonprofit and they run a camp that they would like to have use this this property yes but they will also they will also control or access to it by other youth groups is that I guess I guess to give you an example if an LGBTQ youth group wanted to have a summer camp at the East Baptist East Randolph Baptist Community Church's property that we're transferring to them would they automatically grant access to that I don't want to get into a theological discussion here but I just want to make sure that all youths of all gender identities and all persuasions whatever you want to call it are going to have access to this and they're not going to be proscribed by the occupants of the you know what once the property is transferred it would be it would be owned by the group and they would set youth parameters the town would be completely out of it it's not the town's property anymore yeah would control scheduling and I mean not that it's going to be any different than the voice cast they don't exactly have a track with strong track record of equitable programming but anyway I just you know I kind of hear a little bit of what Larry's speaking to me my my concern would just be that you know there'd be people in the community who might like to attend a camp at that property and if it's run by a church that that might not you know be a thing you know or if you're not a part of that church or you're going to feel welcome joining a group that that uses that property it seems a little more exclusive than and I agree Tom the Boy Scouts have had issues which which I think are highly problematic but it does seem even more exclusive than something like the Boy Scouts yeah I can we currently do not have the town does not and I don't see it having the capacity moving forward to operate a camp for Randolph residents in Bethel and I understand the concern and I understand the points that are being raised I think the challenge that that I see for the town is that we just it's challenging enough for us to operate and have activities here within the town boundaries let alone on a property that is well outside the town boundaries and it's it's in a fairly remote road once you get there you're really away and the greater liability is that we just it's it's a large lot with the you know as unmaintained a driveway as it is folks have learned that no one is on that lot and we don't have the ability to be on that lot to control who's there what they're doing and so I understand the points that are being raised or essentially you know wanting to from my understanding potentially not give it to or transfer it to the East Randolph Baptist Church but the liability that the town will continue to incur is far greater so you know I'm just I'm advising the board that this is a good way to remove the liability from the town and give it to a group that already is servicing Randolph residents I think the other point to make Adolfo is it hasn't had any use for quite a few years so no youth no matter who they are are benefiting from it right now and instead we've got a vacant parcel that is has no value just has a drain on our limited resources so you know the the Boy Scouts haven't even been using it and we've got an organization willing to step up and try to create some programming little not you know they'll they'll bring it back to life wouldn't surprise me if they build a whole new structure and all kinds of stuff there but you know I I don't believe we're meeting the intent of of the person that left the property to the town by just letting it sit there either no that's absolutely true and we've got nobody else as much as we've shaken the trees and pushed and prodded we have nobody else that has stepped forward to to take this on how many acres is the parcel leave it's 20 acres 19 to 20 acres yeah it is a it's a it's a wooded area there's a you know it's hilly for most of it but there is roughly flat buildable land on you know I I'd say maybe one or two acres of it some of it also crosses the road so it's on the opposite side and it covers the stream so it can't really do anything there other than potentially fish and walk by the river or the stream doesn't sound like it would its property that would be amenable for example to the installation of a trail network through there would it if it's mostly mountainous and hilly well I mean it like everywhere else around here yeah that's true I and I tell him I see where you're going with that I think the challenge would then be would be a Bethel project and I don't know if how you know amenable they would be to well there is one I mean I don't want to throw I really do not want to throw a wrench into the works at the very last minute here but there is at least one statewide organized youth organization that I can think of that might find this product project or this property attractive and that's the remote youth conservation for it's a what it's a long shot but it's it's a non-sectarian and and and more inclusive youth service organization that is specifically focused on environmental protection trail net building trail networks they they have summer programs where kids are working in state parks maintaining trail networks it's it's an outstanding organization I you know I I don't know whether it merits approaching them or not but you know we we've been doing this for a long time we're not under a time pressure it's not like anybody's gonna use it this season I don't see where it would hurt to make that inquiry and then bring this up again our next meeting so how do we then decide who gets it I mean we haven't I you know I haven't seen anybody out there trying to drum up other organizations and now we've got one that's just spent a fair amount of time and incurred some legal expenses is ready to step up and move this into production and we're we're basically saying we're not really interested we want to find somebody else and these people are also community members I mean this is that's that's a good point I think I think it's wrong to go offer this to some other community or some other entity when you have an active group of people right here in our own community who are looking after the best interest of the children that they're working with okay so I know these people personally and I just sold them a tent so they could you know use that to do the same kind of program here and you know I think they're looking to expand their offerings and I think this is a good opportunity for them and the intent of the original covenant in the original deed was in addition to being you know relative to boys it was specific to boys from this community is that yes the deed specifically mentioned the Randolph Boy Scouts for a similar organization so yeah the intent was really for Randolph residents well that goes to Harry's point as well well stated then I wasn't I wasn't clear that it was that specific just to comment from my point of view I feel uncomfortable with the what the wording might be in the deed I would like to see who is interested at this point and then have it come up a town meeting that would be my preference who is interested Pat what do you mean who is interested and how does that relate to the wording I'm not quite sure your point well they're separate issues but I would want to make sure that access was going to be open to all of you the issue that you mentioned right and I would want to I still question whether the Boy Scouts since they're reorganizing might have an interest and I think they've been through enough issues so they're going to be open to everybody this other group that you've mentioned is a worthwhile group I know and I'd rather have the people of the town decide who they're going to give this you know Pat I can I can hear you on that but they we already had this discussion at town meeting and the vote was for the select board to find an entity and transfer it yes and you know that it's fairly specific to Randolph youth and I'm not sure that the conservation folks have you know just Randolph youth no not at all you know this group that's that's looking at it has a lot of you know there's a lot of movers and shakers in this town that's associated with this church and a fair amount of financial backing to actually make it something that brings a huge benefit to the youth they're very committed to giving them activities and places to go and things to do there you know I've seen them take a lot of kids that are in some pretty rough households and make success cases out of them and this in my opinion is one more asset that could really help them continue to reach those goals and I'm not I'm comfortable with with the authorized in the transfer tonight because I've seen what they're able to do you believe the access will be open to all I have not had that conversation with them so I don't know if the religious side of it brings anything to the table for them but I have seen them open their doors at the church to everybody I think the if I could add not specifically to Pat's comment about open to all I think the town has looking at it from a very black and white perspective has already met its obligation where the property was held by the town the taxes were paid by the town and the property had been used by the Randolph Boy Scouts throughout their existence Boy Scouts of Randolph no longer exist the state Boy Scouts entity as it is refused to take in the property we have advertised and the select board has spoken about this topic in public it not just select board meetings but also during town meeting and the result was that the taxpayers of Randolph want to gave the select board the authority to just get rid of the property and I'm paraphrasing here but and I think at this point the voters have expressed to the select board their willingness to remove the liability both financial and insurance from the local taxpayers and essentially get rid of the property I do feel that the town is performing it to do diligence and trying to seek someone who would take the property to fulfill the obligations in the deed we have had very limited success over at least my three years and also my predecessor the fact that we still have the property has proven that it's been a challenge to get rid of it so you know now that we have someone who's willing to bring life to it willing to continue to meet the obligations by serving Randolph youth I think it would I think it would be more of a violation of the public's trust than not give it to a group that wants to continue to fulfill the obligations in the deed. Adolfo do you know if at any point in the course of these discussions over the last 18 months two years whatever it's been has there been any discussion with Rosta about whether they might be interested in this camp as part of their trail network and potentially as part of a youth mountain biking and and trail maintenance program. I have not but I do know that Rosta's trails or at least the trails that run through Randolph run through private property so even if the property was given for transfer to the special Baptist Church they can work directly with Rosta and allow trails bike trails to be a part of the property itself so transferring the property to private ownership would not eliminate it from having these types of trails on on the property. Yeah I'm not sure Rosta has the bandwidth to take on that right now. Yeah I they're taking on a lot I know I'm just I'm trying to think creatively here and I don't mean. Yeah I mean I just think anybody could collaborate with the church I mean I think that I mean I don't feel that given the amount of time that we've spent on this topic you now have somebody who's willing to you know to move it along and like you know somebody said you know breathe some new life into it I don't think that's going to be meaning it's an exclusive and you know you're not going to be seeing some coordinated efforts with other entities like Rosta or some I mean the property could end up you know they could end up developing the property and possibly lease it to you know some group for the week I mean this is what happens to a lot of camps I just did an event for a Jewish boys camp over in New Hampshire because they couldn't use one in Vermont so they at least one from New Hampshire yeah I think there's lots of opportunities that if somebody was to market it I mean it could be used for lots of different things no no I I don't have I don't I don't question anything that Trini or you have said previously about what this particular group has done for some youths in our town by any stretch of the imagination I just want to be sure that try to be sure that this property is available to yeah I get as many as possible yeah I think you know I think you'll find my belief is that like I said I've worked with this group myself before I sold them tents I've given them donated tents to them you know they're very active as Trini said and I find them to be very very open to a lot of stuff so you know they struggled in the beginning you know back when the COVID had thing hit me they were they hit us they were trying to figure out how they could hurt have church services I mean they've got a big following and a big group and they solve problems and they do things so you know Marty Baskham who is in charge of this is an excellent guy who's doing a tremendous amount of work with that church there are actually two churches involved here so you know they he's works with a with a Boylton group he works with this Randolph group so I think you'll find that it would be well served in my opinion they would probably like Trini said that you think they would actually make some investment in the property and bring it to you know bring it to life okay and I think it'll serve the community that's the thing I mean that's not so not so believing that you know if you were to give it to the conservation corps something like that you know I don't know how that's really gonna benefit a lot of folks in the community I think this this group has an opportunity to reach out and provide more you know more outreach within the community than an organization like that Gary is the group and Royalton is that Boy Scouts or is that another no no that's that's part of this church group Marty Marty works the two Marty has the two churches okay so that's why I think it might involve more youth in the region I mean I don't think it's just Randolph I think there's an opportunity for them to do programs that involve you know Brookfield Braintree Randolph kids probably Bethel maybe Royalton kids so I think they'll do an excellent job with it that's my personal opinion any other comments question what's the deed gonna have on it for restrictions same ones that are there now Pat be transferred to the new deed except Adolfo said earlier that the attorney advised that for example reference to boy would be changed to use or am I misunderstanding that I think that's what I heard yeah no you you're both correct I would work with attorneys for the transfer and we would modernize the language but it's not in violation of a protected class and and on that note who would challenge that I mean would we get anything from boys to youths you mean yeah yeah nobody would challenge that so yeah so I just you know I think you just make that change and I think that gets us to the to the goal that we want to see here is you know off the town's sheet and on to moving something productive and possibly some really future good stuff coming from it yeah yeah okay that's like we're ready for a motion may I jump in here for a quick minute please this is Dave Crosby sure Dave I'm looking at the town report from a couple of years ago when this issue came up and a town meeting the voters voted to change the term boy organization to youth organization the town approved that on a voice vote at town meeting well that's helpful Dave thank you that goes to the mic one of my concerns yeah we don't need to we don't you know to me we don't need to go over that again right yeah it also I'm saying it also suggests that any youth organization that applies to use the property regardless of who holds the deed should be granted access I don't think I want to be in the position of policing that yeah that'll be a challenge yeah I think what we're trying to do is get out from under this right so I can if there is a motion from the board I would ensure that the restrictions that had previously been issued by the Randolph voters which is change boy organization to youth organization work well with our attorneys during the transfer yeah so the way it'll be written will be that it'll have to remain a youth project that can't be sold right to a non-youth oriented organization yeah right right so correct me if I'm wrong wasn't there if there was no organization then it could be sold yes that's correct so if it is if there's no current language is no boy but if we just switch boy to youth it would be no youth organization and if it becomes a financial liability then it can be sold so we were on the verge of putting it out to anybody who wanted to buy it at which point there would have been no restrictions whatsoever on the deed and it would have been gone to whatever use use the buyer wanted correct yep well what is the assessed value of the parcel I believe it is the land value itself I have to look through my file get that number for you the number 70 000 stands out in my head but I'm not sure that sounds about what I would expect yeah building a lot 20 acres probably but there's no improvements on the building lot guys it's not a real building lot no it's actually just a yeah it's just 70 sounds high to me yeah let's see here no that's not it but we'll have it in a second so a serial map I mean it kind of goes it kind of well kind of goes to the question of you know what due diligence is required of the new owner in this case the East Randolph Baptist church to document that they've reached out to if they sell it five years from now for 70 000 dollars to a non youth I'm just putting this out there a non youth oriented organization claiming that they haven't been able to find a youth organization to purchase it I mean what what do we have to hold their you know hold them accountable for that that's why we want the 75 percent little clause there right if they sold it to somebody then you would have to challenge it first off right and that's at the time you would then ask them to show what they did for outreach the same as somebody if we had sold it to somebody and not kept it for youth we could have been challenged also and then we would have had to produce sure okay you know if we sold it to Perry to build a tent business on today we would have to prove probably to this group why we felt that we hadn't you know why we felt they shouldn't have gotten it yeah right so I think we've done it and I think I don't see them ever getting rid of this to tell you the truth with what they do but you know if they do then first off somebody's got to challenge it so I imagine it's by filing in the court to challenge the deed I have a homestead value of fifty thousand two hundred dollars more and I'd pay for it but no yeah it's very high for the lock for what it is and that's what's on that's what's assessed on the bill too yeah thanks well somebody want to put forward a motion the treaty started one yeah pick a motion that we authorize adult vote to complete the transfer with the changes discussed on the deed and adding the condition that if it's sold in 10 years the town gets 75 percent of the net proceeds I'll second that we have a motion in a second all in favor aye aye aye all opposed no okay the motion passes so just said I'm just took notes here for the motion authorize adult vote to complete transfer with restrictions on on deed and 75 percent of sale is sold within 10 years of the net proceeds from the sale okay okay I got it thank you okay so our next item on the agenda is tax sale and property acquisition so Cliff and I have been discussing a number of different issues related to this and they really have spurred from one of the properties that we had in Randolph on tax sale for a number of years since before I arrived in this property Cliff correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's it was 13 park street and it was a property fairly close to the park between potentially the village fire station in the park and that property had remained on property tax sale for a number of years because the owner had passed away and the trust had just no money to pay for it so we had been approached by a number of different people that wanted to buy the property but we're expecting the town to abate the fees and we could not do that so the property just remained on on the tax old tax rolls and became the liability of the town we eventually were able to find a way to get rid of the property and it has since been removed it was it was a blighted property it was torn down now there's a tiny house there somebody purchased it and it's now making generating revenue for the town tax revenue so taking the lesson learned there and then also trying to apply it to other laws in the town Cliff clean up with a strategy to more quickly bring blighted property back on to become an asset to the taxpayers so I'll hand it off to Cliff. Yeah I think that you know I know last year we had a property that went to tax sale and it was not bid on and it's if the if the town bids the minimum bid on on a property that's not getting it they're really not out of any money because we're not we don't have the tax revenue and there's nothing to hold their feet to the fire to pay and then after a year if we took possession of those properties we would turn around put them right back on the market with a sealed bid requirement and a minimum bid to to get back our money and any excess proceeds above what our investment was would go back to the original owner that's that's settled case law so it's I'm concerned that if we if properties don't receive a minimum bid at tax sale it's really did people aren't paying the taxes anyway and they will continue to accumulate creating a a barrier like what we had at Park Street and and we won't we won't ever get our money out of it the tax money out of it and it places a burden on the on the other taxpayers in town so what we're asking for is for the select board to approve minimum bidding criteria for somebody's properties that don't get a minimum bid so that we could potentially take possession of them after a year and turn around and sell them to get the tax dollars and put them put the properties back on the tax rolls with somebody that'll pay the taxes so Cliff uh if I go to a tax sale and I bid on a property I pay for it that money goes into an account and the individual who owned it has a year to basically pay me back right so I thought so if I'm a private person and I bid on that and then I turn around and sell it I don't have to pay the guy a penny of what I sell it for why does the town have to because the town is not allowed to enrich itself at the expense of their taxpayers and we do it all the time private citizens can do it but the town cannot that's the nature of taxation isn't it that that was there was a cake point about I don't know 30 or 40 years ago that the Vermont Supreme Court said no you can't do that you have to um you can only take your taxes interest penalties and fees out of the proceeds and the balance has to go back to that taxpayer that you took the property from and what Cliff wouldn't it be that way whether the way we do it now or if we change the policy of them to a minimum bid we still have to give the owner the extra right I'm not completely understanding your question Pat right now if if we sell it for more than is owed on it we have to give the money back to the owner still yes just anything above what we um we had a situation last year where somebody paid more than a minimum we hold that in escrow right um and they if the original if the person who bought the tax lien ends up with the property the property owner gets that excess the the the original property owner right so there wouldn't be any change in that anyway right that is correct we um we only get we only get the money that we would have gotten if they they paid their if they have redeemed it so what happens if we turn around and go to sell this and nobody wants it I can think of at least one property that that's probably going to be the case are we then obligated to clean it up probably if we want to get rid of it yes um it's a that is a possibility training and the the issue is that the taxes will continue to accrue on the property if we don't do that um and we don't have an opportunity to put it back out on the tax rolls and we also probably wouldn't have an opportunity like we did at park street um with the right process in place to abate those taxes and I guess it would still burn over time to the other taxpayers in town so it's still on the tax rolls it's just we would get paid for it um if if we if we owned it we would not yeah it would still be on the tax rolls but we would not be collecting taxes because we would own it right but if we didn't buy it it would still be accruing taxes we just wouldn't get paid for them that is correct yeah so the longer it is on the tax roll the the higher the liability is climbing um and so if this year it's a thousand dollars in next year it'll be another thousand but if we the town acquired it at a thousand dollars and we could turn around and sell it for a thousand one dollars but if the town just allows it to sit it's still generating on paper generating revenue for the town because it's it's still owed the tax money but every year that tax liability is growing and if the town had the ability to sell it at a thousand as opposed to ten years down the road for ten thousand it would be easier to sell right off the top for the thousand dollars so does the list of properties that you believe this is going to happen to come to the select board to approve that minimum bid before the tax sale we can um i'd have to double check uh with cliff the the scheduled tax um let me be more specific for the record we'd have to double check with the town's delinquent tax collector which happens to be cliff on when the the tax sale is is scheduled for and we do have a meeting a special meeting of the select board next week slash hearing so we could potentially present that list to the select board at that meeting my only concern would be that we place a minimum bid on a property that has has met and all kinds of other stuff on it and we end up so upside down in the property that we can't get out from under it yeah that's why i think it's good to have a list and some type of due diligence done on them before we you know what's our exposure there's one over in east randolph on the chelsea mountain road that's down over the bank that he's going to cost somebody a fortune to clean up that's probably the one i'm thinking of training well it's not anything the town wants trust me naughty yes you said naughty pat yeah that's the one is that the one we're not gonna we're not gonna do anything with oh i i would adamantly vote against it knowing what was there and what happened there i grew up right down the road from there yeah that's probably got some problems for sure now where you had all your parties oh no i was somewhere else we didn't want to glow when we walked out of there we wanted to be able to sneak back in yeah i noticed that the language uh under recommended or required action does reference very specific properties um does that address trinie's concern in other words will this will the select board have purview over those properties that we designate our authorized agent to submit a minimum bid on or do we delegate to the authorized agent that decision making i'm not clear you can certainly authorize specific properties time i do have a tax sale list it's current um that i can get out to you guys between now and i'll get it out after the meeting um it's the list that's being published in the newspaper um there's probably in today's paper actually but i will i will forward you the list that's posted on the front of front of town hall okay i would certainly want to say that you know we should be selective in this process i don't feel that um we should be just you know picking up everything that happens this way i'd much rather look into this because i can only think of some situations that happened years ago where you know there was certain things that happened on certain properties and then all of a sudden you know there were issues and couldn't transfer title and those kind of things and so i think we should have the the right to do our due diligence and be somewhat selective i think the select board should make the final decision on which one is going to met them i'm dead yeah i would agree i would also i like the concept of it so with some of those thoughts i think you know this would certainly be a way to move those properties along a little faster so yeah someone will like to make a motion to that effect before you get to the motion i also just want to add that the designated agent for the select board we're i would suggest it being a select board member i can't do it as delinquent tax collector i think it's a big conflict of interest i think the town manager being the person that i report to is also a conflict of interest and so i think that the next logical place is to have a member of the select board be the one that actually bids on any properties that are approved it makes sense cliff i like a good job for the chair so i was just thinking he knows all the properties from her yes she does not all of them pat close enough the one's not to party on so what's the motion look like here um memo here could we simply insert it says authorize the purchase of tax liens and very specific properties with select board approval in randolph with select board approval that was listed for sale through the delinquent tax or utility fee process and designate the select board chair as authorized agent to represent the town during the tax sale process and put forth a minimum bid if and only if the alternative minimum bid is not received does that capture that sounds like a motion to me i will make that a motion if that captures everything we've just agreed to and trini as the current uh chair is amenable to being authorized agent i'll second that okay you have a motion in a second on favor what i like about that motion is that i could cut and paste that's the editor in me okay so let's move on to surplus allocation uh we uh cliff mostly has been uh very focused on closing our books for fy 20 um as you all probably already know we are in a much better place in terms of being able to determine how much money is available how much money is uh or was expended in the previous fiscal year um and so over the last several months we've had a very good idea of where we would end fiscal year 20 uh and now that we've essentially the 60 day period of allocating bills to the previous fiscal year's past uh cliff now has a very good if not much more accurate understanding of where we are and so we were hoping to bring a topic of discussion to you and uh cliff go ahead um i've been probably since may i've been projecting um a couple a surplus in the general fund and hoping we could break even in a highway fund now that we're like adolfo said past that 60 day rule um those projections have held in fact we've done we've got a very sizable surplus in the general fund of um somewhere around three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars um and in the highway we've got a modest um of approximately ten thousand dollars um those surpluses have traditionally been allocated into the reserve funds and at last town meeting we did not have those articles on the ballot because we overlooked them and so now we have the opportunity to go back to the voters and take care of this in november um with a special vote um and so i think you've got two um things in your packet one is a an allocation of this a proposed allocation of the fiscal year surplus spreadsheet um and the other is a proposed warning for the november third election and it would have to be a paper ballot um it may be easier to see um what i'm proposing by looking at the the proposed the draft warning um um and allocating some to five different reserve funds for the general fund um to bolster those reserves a bit um and then taking the entire surplus from the highway fund and putting it into the paving reserve the bulk of the uh general fund surplus i'm proposing go to the highway paving reserve fund we've got quite a bit of paving um that could be done in randoff if we had the money um and then as we move down the list facilities reserve would get 50 000 um the gravel road reserve would get 40 the highway equipment reserve would get 25 and we were planning on putting three into the recreation reserve with the balance going to the highway paving fund if y'all agree so cliff right now the recreation reserve is negative uh that is correct larry that was a conscious decision because of the repainting of the pool um and so we use the appropriation from the current fiscal year that we're in fiscal 21 um we went negative knowing full well we are going to get the the approach we had the appropriation already approved um to do that project um it seems like it would make sense to at least zero that out no it zeroed out on the first day of the year on july one so then what will so then what will the reserve look like on july one people that three thousand dollars you'll have three thousand dollars if the voters approve it so the so the negative amount goes away i guess i don't understand how that accounting works the negative goes away on july one with the with the new fiscal year appropriation pending approval of the voters so no no the voters have already approved that transfer okay yeah so so the so what you're saying is that the the the current budget that we've already approved for next year will will make that reserve whole for this year it's this year's budget yeah yeah yeah for this year that's right yes i'm sorry for this year's budget okay it's almost half over right right right we knew when we authorized the painting of the pool that we were tapping into this current year's budget to pay for it right this is just the accounting to catch up to it so what um so what do you think that paving number is going to look like because we've got some residents on fish hill that are needing some attention they've sent a petition in so is there is there going to be kind of money in there to take care of some of those problems and then how much those problems cost perry i get that part i understand that the approximate number is about 200k okay we have asked um morgan or i've asked morgan to speak with some of our local some of the pavers that have done some of the more successful projects in town um the one that comes to mind is is um uh pike because they did a fairly decent job on furnace street and then also on windover road so we've asked uh i've asked morgan to reach out to them specifically and then also others to see what they would charge for maybe just uh you know some of the the lightest work that they can so it would it would hold up for at least a decade or hopefully a decade but also not be too expensive so we can do maybe one road two roads and be able to work it out over the next few years so we don't have a cost yet uh but morgan is working on on a painting amounts to present to the board i have a question about the paper ballot uh presumably this will be distributed by the town clerk um along with all of the ballots that are being mailed out for the national and state and local elections is that accurate i don't believe that's accurate tom um the the vote needs to be warned and this vote cannot be warned before it has to be warned within 40 days of the meeting okay but we're 40 we're well well well oh it has to be warned only 40 days in advance it can't be worn this far out is that what you're saying yes i believe that i believe that's the case okay so that means that only people that are willing to vote in person on november 3rd can vote on this am i correct no that doesn't make sense no it doesn't because we vote all the stuff for town meeting by absentee ballot right and that's that's generally where this would have been i gotta believe if it gets worn within i think it's within 40 days of the vote yeah so then people would have to request this as an absentee ballot independent of getting their mail-in ballot for the presidential and statewide election i think part of the challenge here tom is that the secretary of state is stepping in and mailing out a lot of those ballots right so it just it would be hard to tell who's gonna who's gonna send it in and who's gonna attend in person i think that's where your challenge for this one is yeah yeah i'm just trying to get clear on on on making this ballot is accessible in the case of our presidential and state ballots we've received postcards from the town clerk's office that entitled us that that asked us to ask for mail-in ballots for both the most recent primary election and for the general election and you could check off a box that said you wanted mail-in ballots for both but they came from the secretary of state but didn't i understand joice to say that for the election in november that the secretary of state is actually mailing the ballots out to everybody yes statewide so our problem would be that this would be i mean we could do it as long as we mailed the ballot to every every registered voter if it's helpful and i normally would not yeah it would be um but if it's helpful and i normally would not suggest this um but given the circumstances that the board is going to meet again very soon and next week um in that short time span uh both cliff and i can can speak with joice we could potentially ask her to research ways to make this topic available to everyone for a vote and at the next meeting before the next meeting we could email to the board as part of their packet the information compiled by joice and then at the meeting next thursday uh the board can then decide on on a ballot question or at the very least make a decision based on updated information that we were able to get from the clerk who may also get additional information from the secretary of state and we don't want to make it confusing for the voters it's already it's already confusing enough yeah i'm already confused what's the difference between this and and you know somebody doesn't want to personally go to town hall to vote why can't they just request an absentee ballot well what's the problem yeah no i'm not saying there is a problem that's what i just want to make sure what the process is i mean that's that's just always been the standard procedure if you couldn't attend and you were out of town or whatever yeah just request your absentee ballot you fill it out you return it and you're good to go yeah yeah that seems fine to me i mean this is this should be pretty simple yeah so but joice about it she thinks i think the problem is they're getting all the other ballots from the secretary of state so they aren't going to necessarily know that they'd have to request some others separately but is it our job to make them aware of that if we notify this the way we're supposed to notify it i mean if we publish a notice it's in the paper special town meeting to art to board on this article and you put it in the paper and you publicize it the way you should be publicizing it um why are we obligated to we don't mail everybody a ballot when we don't know and i'm not suggesting that we should i just want to make sure that people are clear on what the process is because if they're expecting to get mail-in ballots then it makes sense that they would have that same expectation of this ballot but but i'm fine with it being an absentee process i just feel like we've got some work to do to make the voters aware of that um it'll be interesting whether the secretary of state there may be a deadline by which you have to have ballots to them to send out so you may not be able to do it separately i don't know next question that is there an urgency to do this in november do we could be scheduled for december that's less than march or march yeah is there any reason why we can't just do it at town meeting next march it holds the books open and doesn't give us um access to that room all right okay totally get it that's what i was afraid of right i want you to close your books the townspeople haven't told us what to do with it i see okay well what how do we normally deal with this i don't recall us having this issue before we missed out the first time we have some sort of a surplus that we need to figure out right yeah previous usually on the ballots yeah and we i i'll say i goofed and i didn't put um this question that we normally have on previous books or previous ballots in last year's ballot um and so now you know it gives us the opportunity to break it out because we know what the amount of money is whereas before the previous process was any surplus that we have goes into this fund right so in in some ways the process that's happening now i'll be it's a little confusing because of the timeline and working with joys for now so the first one's always a little more confusing it seems like this may actually be a more efficient process because it allows the finance director and the town manager to know how much surplus will be left and how to better allocate that surplus whereas the old process was any surplus that is available goes into this fund um so this is much more efficient and more targeted and i think if the board chose to go through this process next year it would be more like clockwork and and the finance director and the town manager will know how much is left and how much of that surplus can be moved around it gives the board more control over where to move the surplus got it all right that seems like a reasonable way to move it so okay and i asked two questions about the allocation larry please go ahead pot um one is gravel reserve should we be putting more than the 40 000 in i know several of the back roads are needing gravel is the 85 000 enough do all the back roads we need to do it's a quite simple question simple answer no there's there's you know i'll just be honest there's never enough um but i think that the challenge is that we we there's a limited amount in distributing we're trying to distribute it as best as possible and um you know although there's never enough i think that the paving project typically costs a lot more than the gravel projects how much would 85 000 how many miles of gravel road would that allow us to uh i would have to speak specifically with with morgan but it seems like cliff maybe has a response yeah i think i think maybe about five miles that putting three inches down my other question is people over in the east valley have been working very hard on uh doing something with the building with the 50 000 going into the facilities reserve allow us to do something this next year on that building i was wondering that as well it it there are you know and i don't need to disparage the work that the valley community group is doing and i think the challenge that that i feel the town has kind of laid out for them is to fundraise as much of it as possible because we do have buildings that are used much more often that are in great need of help granted that's only the recommendation that we would make to the board if the board said no x amount needs to go to this project that's what we would do the town manager and the finance director but i think allocating any large amount to that particular project um would put other buildings at potential risk i i think they're they're just there are other challenges uh that should be addressed well you've got 60 000 in a couple years for two years in a row wouldn't it be possible to move some of that up so they could start making progress well the the challenge is that one of our highway garages is is we'll need a new roof either a whole new roof or a big section of a roof and and i'm talking about the the Randolph center garage and that's that's a very large building that's just one of the projects for for facilities um a Randolph pool house building has been in the pipeline since at least since i started and i've taken a back seat because of the repairs to the swimming pool um we you know it has as far as i can see it has not physically leaked the skylight here in Randolph town hall but the paint around it looks like it's seen better days um and town hall is used every day isn't that part of the capital budget committee's job yeah to look at what we have for funding and decide which projects should be coming forward so maybe this isn't i mean we're not going to solve this tonight you know i think we're getting into the weeds the what projects come forward to go in the budget that group is supposed to be looking at all the needs and prioritizing them yeah thank you Trini's point we did also just send to all directors a blank spreadsheet to make it more inclusive with a project that cliff has been working on with some of the directors um we sent them a spreadsheet to say fill it out with every capital need that your committee is going to have so once we receive those spreadsheets we'll know exactly what some of the major issues are um more directly from the managers than what the previous process was which which was less inclusive of their thoughts well with what you said Trini if it really is developed in the capital budgets committee i'm satisfied with that because i'm representative to that but it didn't happen last year so given that it does seem to be responsibility of that committee i'd like to say that it would be nice for us to at least allocate some money to the east valley group so that they could you know at least be eligible for some sorts of you know matching grants you know it would be nice for them to for us to be able to say to them well if you find twenty thousand dollars you need a twenty thousand dollar match that you know we could do that um you know for these other projects we're we're not going to typically see that we're just going to have to you know put a new group on that building and do it but it seems like it'd be a shame to turn away the opportunities to get some grant money if i may make a suggestion i think that the select board has as um really created the atmosphere of working from the committee's upward and then the select board will see what the committee members have decided essentially empowering them to make their decisions look at what's available and then if any tweaking needs to happen the select board then can make changes if in the if if in the the process that we have where the capital committee and other committees review what's out there listen to directors listen to projects that are available and then they can make the the a general allotment of where money is going and then once that makes its way up to the select board the select board can then say okay we appreciate what this committee did but let's take a little from here and a little from there and put it toward potentially the east randolph hall so that this way the committees are still empowered to do their work and the select board then can then take some of their work and then move make suggestions as opposed to telling the committees what to do and also when uh when the east valley group is come in with their grants to date we've provided the match for those correct we have and would this be the pot of money that we would tag for some of that if they came in with a grant that say 20 000 and they needed 20 percent or a 50 50 match if the board accepted this would be the pot of money we would go to right that's right it would typically come out of the facilities reserve i guess i'm uh i feel like we've encouraged them to go after grants and to you know come to us to let us know they're coming where we could make the evaluation of if we had the funding i'd rather earmark it then than earmark it today and not have it if we needed it for something else so you're saying trinny as they come up with uh something that needs matching that that would come to the select board to be approved at that point the process for grants hasn't changed when somebody wants to apply for a grant that the town of randolph is going to have to be the applicant they come to the board to get approval to apply and then they come to the board to get approval to accept right so we know what we're committing for match funding when we allow an application to go in right so that would be at the same time and even and didn't to add to that um even there they're there have been projects that have had money appropriated to them in the capital plan spreadsheet but um because it is a plan spreadsheet as opposed to a voter approved budget so with the budget the town could only spend money for that specific line item for that specific issue and the capital plan it's a plan that's fluid and even if the select board or the capital committee puts aside 50 000 say for example to purchase a truck in the next 10 years the select board can say this priority project came up we need to use this specific pot of money which is in this reserve fund we can push that truck purchase out another year or two to use some of the money that had been allocated for it so the trainees point it's all still very fluid and even if something is put in the capital plan it doesn't set it in stone it's just essentially a placeholder that can be pushed out a year or two later depending on what emergency projects come up okay i'd just like to go on record i'm going to also support them getting some money to make some progress over there so we don't lose their contributions so i think it sounds like at this point the board was interested in potentially holding off on a decision on on allocating the surplus until we had a question answered by the clerk potentially next week on how the voting process is going to be handled sounds right yeah click with that work with with your timeline it still gives us 40 days until right or yeah yeah i think that'll work fine so we'll discuss this and i'm not i'm not 100 certain of the the timeline with the clerk but i know that 40 days was out there so i think it's between 30 and 40 or 45 minimum of 30 maximum of 40 or 45 so we'll discuss this again next week i'll make sure it gets put back on the agenda great so let's move on to the water wastewater committee membership thanks everyone thank you cliff um we have had there there is a member of the water wastewater committee that has not responded to messages that i've sent to him um and my messages to him had been essentially an inquiry on whether he is choosing to remain on the committee this person the committee member is Dave Farnham and so i i have not spoken with him i've not been able to communicate with him he has not communicated with me and i think at this point um what i was hoping that the board would entertain is a a a motion to remove mr. dame farnham from the water wastewater committee so moved seconds as he missed a bunch of meetings um it's it's more of a lack of communication i think when previous meetings had been held and larry larry's a chair of the committee um and i don't recall when the last committee meeting was held um but just a lack of communication with me uh makes me feel uncomfortable that there's already that there could there could be not the engagement there that needs to be there can can you speak to that larry uh the water wastewater committee has not met in several months there hasn't been a the committee doesn't meet on a regular basis sort of meets as necessary and it's been a while since we've met my recollection is that he was at the last meeting and i i'd have to check the minutes to be sure i know there is precedence in the past where um and most recently during my tenure as time manager where the select board has voted to remove a person from the appointment from their appointment and uh you know i would urge the board to take up the motion in the second that has been made on on the request that i've made to the board move the question yeah we have a we have a motion in a second all in favor all right all right posed motion passes is that our five zero i i heard um i i heard treanie and and perry and larry and pat did you vote uh i got it i voted yes yes okay thank you okay that moves us on to grants no grants um and also no other items other up until the manager's report okay manager um uh i'll keep it very brief um just want to remind the select board or share and update that we have shit we have sent out notices for the cdbg grants that the board had previously approved for us to apply for including the crown advice grant and then also grant for the water wastewater system we are working with julian re cdc for the cdbg cv grant so working very closely with her on that a household hazardous waste event is coming up the next event is in northfield on the 19th that event is open to everyone uh within the mountain alliance including randolph uh i've shared with the board an update on my uh research into the sign ordinance specifically on the banner issue um it looks like there is more that needs to be looked into as far as the banner process so i will as soon as it comes up i will share more with it with the select board the sale of 45 south main street is moving along uh we have the fire marshal perform a change of ownership inspection and uh there were a few minor things mostly on um batteries for the existing smoke detectors in the building but that uh sale process is moving along smoothly we have a proposed policy that cliff and i had been working on mostly cliff doing the yeoman's work on it is a a comp time policy for managers we want to make sure that managers are that do work more than 40 hours a week have an ability to have the time that they need to remain effective at their job so we hope to have a draft to the board in the next few meetings and then also just wanted to share with the board that i will soon start to uh pull together the recruitment materials for my successor uh the materials will include previous announcements for my position as well as um included information from vlct and not necessarily use vlct as a recruiter but just um any updated information that they have any recruitment that they've used in the past and what language would would be suited for for a recruitment document so i will start on that very soon um and that's it that's what that's what i have oh one other thing is um that it may be useful in the recruitment process to pull together a potential committee that includes members of the community you know just some things that have come up over the last few days it could be maybe the executive director of gifford uh the school district superintendent uh bob hains from green man economic development corporation maybe a representative from the agency of commerce and community development um the agencies that have worked with the town with the successes that we've had just to make sure that they continue moving forward so but i'll bring more information to the board as i pull it together for consideration that's it that's what i have for the manager's report okay so are we done folks right we're there huh yes we are i moved it we adjourn in favor of adjournment say hi hi good night everyone thank you everyone good night thank you larry nice bye you nice job larry thanks bye bye see y'all later


And the Lagos State is set to commence repair walks on the ever-busy Pedestrian Bridge at Alakmerie, F-State, Boston. Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwa Sheung Oshiemi, stated this when he led a team of Lagos State government officials from the Ministry of Transportation, Office of Infrastructure, Material Testing Laboratory and Public Works Cooperation to ascertain the level of damage to the bridge. The commissioner disclosed that while access to the bridge has already been condoned off, more traffic personnel will be deployed to stop the traffic intermittently for pedestrians to pass. Also speaking, the Special Advisor to the Governor on Infrastructure, engineer Oluwa Midaramola, said an assessment of the bridge will be carried out immediately to enable the conduct of integrity tests on the substructure, determining the extent of the damage and ascertaining the level of reconstruction works to be carried out.


Hey, welcome back to Think, Take Away. I'm Andrew, the security guy, your Hibachi Talk co-host here with another public safety announcement on this production of Your Security Minute. Today, we're going to talk about access control. Access control is the main component for every security management solution. Access control is your perimeter, in its basic form, it's a wall, and when we place a pedestrian opening in a wall, you know, a doorway, we've lowered the physical security of the contents inside the wall. So in order to bolster the security of the opening, we put a door in the doorway. And then we put a mechanical lock on that door. And by doing so, we've created an access control system based upon someone having a key to open the door. Now this may work well enough for doors that aren't used often or not used by many people. Still, mechanical lock sets do not create a record of who opened them. And there's no way to receive an alert when a mechanical door is forced open without the key. Mechanical access control can be difficult to manage when a large number of keys need to be issued to users. Mechanical keys are also easily copied, further lowering the lowering security of the opening. Now modern electronic access control systems provide for an electronic key to be issued to each door user. Now the key might be a card or a code or a biometric credential, like a fingerprint or an iris scan, or a combination of the two. Of utmost importance is that modern electronic access control systems also track the open and closed position of the door. This allows the users to receive a forced door alarm when the door is open without a proper key being presented. It also allows for door held open alarms to be programmed so that doors aren't left ajar by accident or on purpose. Now this door position monitoring is what separates access control systems from electronic door opening systems. Modern access control systems also track all user transactions by date and time, and can prevent users from entering during unauthorized times, such as only allowing a cleaning crew to enter a building between 9 and 10 p.m. If your facility isn't engaged in retail operations, there's probably not a good reason for your doors to be open to the public. And this common security flaw creates opportunities for criminals or terrorists to enter your facility unimpeded and cause harm to your staff or your operations. So please, considering electronic access control to your company's security management program, your entire team will benefit from the additional protection. Who's got your back?


It was doing a Straight Outta Compton movie, right? So Dr. Jarre, Ice Cube, all calling me. Man, we're trying to get Nip to play you in Straight Outta Compton. He ain't getting back to us. All right, let me highlight the little boat. I hit him up, Nip. Let me highlight you, pull up on me. He come over to the spot. God, they want you to play me in the Straight Outta Compton movie.  He like, no disrespect back on me. But I can't play you in the movie because then people gonna just know me for being you. I gotta be me. And that's what all do respect. I was like, damn, I was gassed and said, good, y'all gotta go find somebody else. Good.


This is the Jungle Warfare Basic Skills Force. This is the Jungle Warfare trains that are up here in the NPA. So for us, it's very important with the 31st New because the whole, essentially the entire Pacific AO are virtually identical to this. Our Marines being here right now, from the others in themselves, without once we're actually set boots on the ground that we actually have to push into these jungles. Our big purpose is to create an awareness of the Marines, so they're able to conduct organic defense and limited offense in the jungle environment so they can move and survive without the need for all other elements to come in and protect them. They're going to be comfortable and it's not going to be a barrier to entry.


Hello. Thank you for joining my session. Today, I'd like to share some experience and insight that we gained while trying to establish a distributed OSPO. From the perspective of why, there is a shortage of OSPO personnel. Hello. Thank you for joining my session. Today, I'd like to share some experience and insight that we gained while trying to establish a distributed OSPO. From the perspective of why, there is a shortage of OSPO personnel. It will be about 30 minutes session, but I hope you enjoy this session. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to introduce myself briefly first. I am Norio Kobota from Sony Group Corporation. I am now a chair of internal OSS committee and represent Sony as a board member of Open Chain Project, Linux Foundation, and I also participate in SPDX working group and contributed to the SPDX light specification and so on. My background is as a software engineer in networking and security already a few years ago. Now, let's start with the presentation. Thank you for joining. See you about 30 minutes later. This is the background on this session. As you may know, we Sony conducts many different businesses, but of course, you know well, OSS is increasingly used in most fields. As you will see on the following slides, the OSS support scheme we have built was mainly intended for embedded and consumer products, and it worked well so far. But recently, as you know, OSS is expanding into various fields, so we feel the need to work more and more closer to business and technology. Therefore, we are now trying to establish a distributed OSPO for each business unit. This is the OSS support structure to date. In 2019 and 2021, we introduced about our OSS related organizations. Although there are some differences between regions and business entities, we have supported our engineers through OSPO, with several dedicated members, and through virtual organizations with people who are familiar with OSS in each business unit. Members with expertise in legal and intellectual property also join the virtual organization. We have established a system to promptly and appropriately receive inquiries regarding OSS. The system differs depending on the business unit, but basically, as shown in the figure, we take a step-by-step approach to escalate inquiries, as shown in the last flow diagram here. A particularly good feature of this system is members of the OSS committee in each division voluntarily work to resolve issues. However, because it is voluntary support, there is, of course, no guarantee. And when the person is busy, it may take longer time to resolve. On the other hand, when engineers contact OSPO directly, it still takes time for OSPO members to understand their technology and their business. This is a challenge that we are doing now. As shown in this figure, we try to establish a new OSS committee in an organization that has only a volunteer community in the past. As a member of the OSPO, I have been involved in the establishment of the new OSS committee. And I helped divisional leaders to become OSPO members. And this OSS committee consists of approximately 20 members, including legal and IP department members. And this business unit has about thousands of engineers. Now, one year has passed since the establishment of this committee, so I introduce the activity data and analysis results in the following slides. Firstly, the number of inquiries to the newly established committee through the year. The number of inquiries is gradually and steadily increasing and continuing. This result shows that this committee is gaining trust. And I feel this is a good trend. This is compared to the number of inquiries to the head office OSPO. In FY21, the number of inquiries to the head office decreased at the end of the fiscal year came. So I understand that the number of inquiries is steadily distributed. The new committee's inquiry system flow is shown in this figure. The new committee doesn't escalate inquiries. The new OSS committee has established a system. In which members discuss and respond to all inquiries, rather than having each member solve the problem individually. OSPO will also participate in the discussion and support as needed. Most of the committee members are engineers and have some OSS knowledge. And all department members participate in this committee. So I think any OSS inquiries about any technology field should be resolved by someone in this committee. So it seems to work very well for me. But in fact, even after a few months is the number of people who are leading the discussion didn't increase much. In the committee of about 20 people, only a few people participate in the discussion. And now we can see that the people who are you are always the same person from this chat. And the new OSS committee tend to rely on the specific person. But I feel this can't be helped because the committee has to be responsible for every inquiry. So everyone thinks that it's safest to have someone who knows OSS well solve this issue. But wait, they should have some OSS knowledge. Why can't they join the discussion? So I asked to a few people. Their answers were roughly two kinds. Firstly, they have no confidence to discuss. And secondly, they said, I don't know what to do. It's a problem. So I checked and classified the inquiries. The result is that 65% were inquiries about using OSS. And 14% were inquiries about contribution. Hi all. Do you know what is the OSS related to inquiry? Which accounts for 20%? Just like this. I will read this email. Hello OSS team. We are using Unity for our new software. And we are adding some modules that are available for free or for free from the Unity asset store. And the next sentence is very important. We know these are not OSS questions. But we don't know where to contact and what to resolve. The OSS team is often consulted like this question. And as you know, in general, the solution is to check the license and consult to the legal department. However, many, many engineers have never read the license. And after purchase, they break the shrink wrap without checking anything. Close the notice window and press the click button. And worse, we can develop software without paying attention to such things. Of course, a few years ago, I was a similar engineer. For this reason, I believe that each company carefully establishes internal rules and processes. In fact, not many engineers know where to ask these questions or where in the company the rules are. This is the type of inquiries that categorized OSS related issues. Most of the issues required consultation with other departments. Since these are issues about software, there are many inquiries that need to be consulted, especially in legal, intellectual property and audit department. In other words, people who solve OSS issues, like us, especially engineers. In addition to knowledge of software and OSS, you should be familiar with company rules and processes. And of course, it's very important to interact with the people in those departments and build co-operative relationships with each other. Next is the technical side, a little bit. When we are consulted about OSS, we need to know the OSS name, version, and what kind of product or services it will be used for. However, in most cases, such information is missing when the inquiry is first received. The newly established committee received only 18% of all consultations. This is a bit of exaggeration, but here is the example. This example shows that the OSS name and what the license is, but it doesn't explain what product or service it is used for or how OSS is used. Actually, OSPO has an inquiry template, but this committee didn't use it. Of course, it would be good if there is a template that enriches the items required for the questions. However, it is often faster to communicate with them than to have them filled in such details. I think it is important that the person who is consulted for OSS always confirm what information and communicate well with the inquirer, and this is also my personal opinion. But when you work as a member of OSPO, the most important thing to consider is to create an atmosphere where anyone can feel free to consult. I feel that a lot of people in the open source software world are very tolerant and honest. Internal engineers sometimes look at the open source world through the people who work at OSPO like a window. For this reason, I believe that a reliable and friendly OSPO is one of the factors for building a good internal OSS community. Okay, we are nearing the end of the session. It will be knowledge for those who have background in legal and intellectual property. Of course, OSS consultation requires not only OSS license knowledge, but also software technology knowledge. About 20% of the inquiries during the year require software knowledge, and sometimes there are questions that require you to know how to use CICD systems for a structure like GitHub and various OSS tools. Of course, I think the more knowledgeable you are about software technology, the more useful you will be in solving OSS issues. However, even software engineers cannot learn the details of all the software technologies that are spreading widely. The results of this survey also indicate that many different software technology questions are being asked, but if you don't understand the implementation in detail, only 9% of the consultations cannot be resolved. On the other hand, and if you are not good at software, you should have an overview of what that OSS is, and a general understanding of other OSS dependencies such as combining in build time and loading into runtime and so on. And it's more important to have the method to investigate it. If someone can do that, I think anyone can solve more than 70% of OSS inquiries themselves. Finally, my opinion, when we tried to establish a distributed OSPO, a shortage of OSPO talent became apparent. The following findings were obtained as measures to compensate for the shortage of OSPO talent. Firstly, it is important to provide OSPO members with not only OSS-related experience and education, but also training to run internal rules and processes. And secondly, it is also an important part of education, to promote communication between departments that don't normally interact much, such as legal and engineering departments. Thank you very much. That's all for my session. Thank you again for joining. If you have any questions, please comment in the chat box and so on. Bye-bye.