They can't, they can't see, that's on, that's on their end. So Steve, are we good to go? Okay. Steve, I think that message is yours. That's broadcasting about the reporting. Hey, I'd like to call the town of Essex select board meeting for Monday, May 15, 2023 to order first order business. Are there any agenda additions or changes from the town staff? Just one from staff. Tim Mack was not available to come tonight to interview for the economic development commission. So we will reschedule him. Ray Garrafano may also need to reschedule. So depending on whether or not she shows up, we can either keep her on the agenda, maybe adjust the agenda or we'll schedule her for a future meeting. Okay. Any, any changes from board members? Okay. Then I will make the motion that we amend the agenda to remove Tim Mack from the interview list and possibly interview Ray Garrafano when she's available. So a second. Thank you, Ethan. Any further discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those say nay. The motion passes for zero. Move on to public to be heard. Public to be heard is a time on the agenda when those attending the meeting can speak to the select board on any item of town business that's not on the agenda. If you'd like to speak during public to be heard, either raise your hand in the room or use the raise hand feature in the Zoom application. You can find the button by moving your cursor to the bottom of your screen and the reactions button, I'll click on the reactions button. We'll offer you the opportunity to raise your hand. Is there anyone who would like to speak during public to be heard? That's you behind you. There's somebody behind you. So come on. Oh, she was. I thought I saw your hand first. So Betsy, come on, come on up then. Identify yourself and state your business. Betsy Dunn, live on Cindy Lane in Essex and I've got a couple of questions. My first one is just I was shocked. I wanted to send a note to the chair of the planning commission and I went on to the website because on my conservation trails commission committee, we have our names with our emails and I was surprised when I didn't have the emails there for the members of the planning commission and I'm wondering what was the reason for not having the access to those to the public and also I would like to suggest that when a committee or commission has a draft set of minutes ahead of them and they approve them, I would like to see those get posted on the front porch forum with a link to the, at the bottom of them, a link to the YouTube so that if they read these and they're like, I'm kind of interested in that and they wanna go see what it's about. It might spark more public interest in what's going on with the committees and commissions we have in town. I don't think it would be anything harmful or anything like that, that's that one.  And they went by and they came back and it almost looked like they were coming towards me a bit and then they kind of veered off. Not, it wasn't like a game of chicken. I didn't feel threatened. But as they went by, they went FU to me and I was like, well, okay, yeah, all right. I understand speed bumps, but I'm wondering instead of speed bumps, could we do, so many people are upset about, I have like a black box that has a camera in it and a speed indicator with a little gun, a speed gun kind of thing, you know, so that when a car went by would activate it and you'd get the license plate and the speed they were doing and then you could give them a ticket and then we could have a little more money for the coffers, that's the second thing. And then I think that's all I wanted to say. Okay, I'm gonna make sure I hit all your points. Email. It's my understanding that putting personal or contact information on the website is a personal choice, I don't know. For the planning commission, there is a email address that you can send to and I'm not sure who it goes to. Yeah, so most of our, almost all of them are volunteers and reports and committees have their personal email addresses. We don't have town-issued email addresses for them. That's what we do is we ask people and direct people to email the appropriate staff person for that board and committee. And so how will people know what the staff person's name is? Thought that most of our boards and committees had that listed, but I will check and if it's not there, we'll work on getting it. Oh, thanks, okay. There is an email address in there that's communitydevelopment at Essex.org or something like that because I sent an email to it last week and I did get a response. But I'm not sure, it goes to a distribution list. I'm not sure who's on that. So it's a choice of ours, not to have our email list up there. I thought it wasn't a choice. That's okay. Since you don't have a town-issued email address, yeah, it's your choice whether or not you want to have that out in the public or not. Okay. So that's one question. Your other next question was about having links to minutes. I don't know if there's... I can look into it. We do have a limited number of posts to front porch form and so we try to use them for certain things. A lot of times it's more to tell people when a meeting is coming up versus letting them know when it's done but you can take a look and see if it's something we can do or maybe we can do something like... Here's the upcoming meeting. If you want to hear about the last meeting, check the website for the links for the minutes. Okay. And to answer your third question, the state of Vermont does not accept photographic evidence for speeding violations. So it has to be witnessed by an officer. Oh. They can come stand at my house. I'll let them stand there. They don't have to have a car because as soon as they see a car, they slow down. So there is a small secret though that when those boxes are out there and they do take a picture of your license plate and so the police do know who you are if you go past one of those at a high rate of speed or they cannot write you a ticket based on that evidence. But if they know that they're on our block or one of the blocks and then Burge would... They have to explicitly... They could stand there, great. They have to physically observe the incidents. Like, it's like if I walk down the street with a beer in my hand and a comp doesn't see me, it's not an open container violation. But as soon as they see you and they decide to charge you, then it is. So it's a similar thing. Can you have volunteer police people? So, you went on. There is a... I can't remember his name off the top of my head but I had dealt with this a couple of years before I joined the board. There's a traffic enforcement officer that's the police department. And I think his name is listed for the contact information listed on the police department website. And he is very helpful. If you give him a call and let him know where he live, what's going on. Okay. The resource that we have, so. Thanks, Heath. He's out there. Thank you. What was the other one? The speed bumps. I'm not sure what your question was about the speed bumps. I'm not in favor of speed bumps at all. And somehow, I mean, this was just reported to me that a group of people, would you go? And a thing. But they said that there was a vote. I was at the meeting we had when Dennis Lutz was there. I think, Erin, were you there when you had that meeting? Oh, and we were okay. And we didn't really have a vote, you know, about it. And it sounded like they were being told that there was a vote and it was approved. And I don't think it was. My understanding, you know, a couple of years ago, it was two years ago, we were, the town was looking at an erosion issue in the back portion of your neighborhood was trying to reduce the amount of impermeable surface. And but the question came up about, well, why is the road so wide? And it's because it was, we were told that it was because there's no second access. And so in order to try to guarantee a better access to the neighborhood because you only get one access to it in an emergency, the road, we were focusing your neighborhood requested that the road stay that way or there's some reason that it needs to stay that way. Well. Because the options that were offered were to narrow the road for speeding. So when we had the discussions about narrowing the road to reduce impermeable surface, the discussion about speeding came up. And so the discussions were then, well, if you did two things you do to slow down speeders is you narrow the road, but things in their way so that people aren't as comfortable going as fast or you put either go horizontally or you go vertically. And because the road needs to be 40 feet wide for safety reasons, the only other option to slow traffic down is to put in a speed belt. Well, I don't, I really don't buy this. It was from the beginning of the Tangled or the Birchwood whole thing because that. There was discussions about putting in a bike path with a green area to narrow the road down to put in a, and, but all that kind of went away when it was realized that for safety reasons you want that the road needs to be that wide in order to allow. But it's unlikely that a single tree falling is going to block in a 40 foot road, right? I guess. There's 80 foot trees there and those 80 foot trees that after Glenwood, the second access to on Glenwood when you're coming up the street, there's no access for the people who are coming in for a person who's having an MI at the end of Tangledwood to get out and start sawing that tree so they can get their ambulance past it. That person's a goner. And we have 160 units back there now on that street going back and the regulation says 50. Any more than 50 you're supposed to have a second access. So whether or not that tree can fall down, we are sadly out of tune to what that regulation is and it could mean people's lives. And I think that that's a problem. And I think somehow we need to have a group of people get together to figure out how do we mitigate that? Because if it was your life or your sweetheart's life or your uncle's life or your grandfather's life who's back there with a lot of old people back there, a lot of young people too who can have an emergency and we need to fix this in some way. There's no one who automatically is gonna have a saw that they can get through that to get the ambulance back there. That's a non-starter for me. That's crazy.  And if they're calling and there's any interval to get there, I mean, we need to do something. This town needs to do something. That's all. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Thank you. There was another hand. Come on up and identify yourself and. My name is Steve Jeverek. I live at 75 Philis, 75 Philis Nation Road. And the reason I am here, I like to voice my disappointment that we weren't informed about the condition of the dam, the Indian River Dam. I don't know whether you aware of it or not, but it is in a, it's a high hazard dam and it's in poor condition. You know, it would be nice for the people that are affected because there's about eight or nine horses involved if we would know about it. I'm not, I'm not sure what you're asking. You're asking us to. Well, why didn't the town inform us that you know, we have a dam up there that's a high hazard in poor condition? I'm not sure that's the answer to your question but to give you some information when the dam is ranked as high hazard, it's not because the dam is about to fail. It's because if the dam were to fail, it would create a hazard downstream which it sounds like is where you are. We have a grant, we're working with FEMA in the state to do an analysis of the dam to figure out exactly what type of condition it's in, what type of repairs are going to be needed, improvements, maintenance, stuff like that. We are working towards that and so we are aware of it. It's not about to break, it's not about to send a flood downstream but that the reason is called a high hazard dam is because of what could happen if it were to break. Yeah, I know, sir, but it's been, I get it from the state and it's in poor condition, right? You guys must have the information on it. We're doing a study to figure out exactly what condition it's in, we're working with the state and we're gonna start to look at what the upgrades and maintenance and any improvements might need to be. Can I jump in too, just in case it's helpful? Every year the state does actually come back to us with an assessment and so every year if there is something that needs to be looked at right away, we do any of that. And I don't know if Erin is sitting there or not but it's from the rec department and public works and so they are made aware every year of these changes if for some reason there is something that has to be fixed right away, then those repairs are put into place. But it is something that the state also pays attention to closely with us because like you said, it would affect people and therefore they also have it on their radar because of their own part that they play in taking care of these dams throughout the state as well. So it's not something that we're just waiting and not paying any attention to until that FEMA study is done, it comes through, they look at it routinely. And this FEMA study is actually just a fast-tracked more intense kind of way to look at a few of these high hazards as you said to help get more money, more focus on them to help get that condition up from poor to higher. Because right now, it's just like, we try to just chip at whatever is absolutely necessary to make sure it's safe and maintain that. I don't know if that's helpful, but. But shouldn't the people that are affected being informed that something could happen? No, I'm not too concerned with my property, but seven to two last nation road and 66 last nation road, they would be really the one that would be loaded out completely. I think we can certainly look at identifying the homes that are in the hazard area, letting them know that the study's coming up and making them aware of it. I hope we could do that. Yeah, I got from the engineer, I got the map, I got all the information. I'm just wondering, why aren't we informed about this? Why do we have to find out from the free press that there's a problem up there? Do I answer? I don't know how to answer that, I mean. I think it's something for us to look at going forward, but again, it's not, I think part of the reason we hadn't done it to this point is that it's not as if the dam is about to break. It's not an evacuation, imminent evacuation type of situation, but we'll take it to heart. You guarantee that, sir, yes. You guarantee it. Everything I've heard, dam is not about to break. You know that the low-level overflow has been on operation now for 10 years or more? You are familiar with that? I know the dam is not in perfect shape, but I also know it's not about to break. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you. Have a nice evening. Yep, thanks. Anyone else who'd like to speak, I'm staring public to be heard. I don't see any hands in the room. I don't see any online, so let's move on to our first item of a business interview for Economic Development Commission. Do them in order that they appear on the list. Public hearing first. Oh, boo boo boo. Reset. Public hearing. Sorry, thank you. Thank you. Whoops. Ha ha, Farron. Ha ha. Oh, I think there's a... Didn't hear about that agenda change? No, kidding, I'm kidding. Okay. The FY 2024 operating budget closed the 24 water budget has an overall increase of 12.5% of the 74% increase in water usage. I'm sorry to interrupt. So, I can't touch it. We're usually told not to touch it. Okay. There is no increase in proposed in minimum water charge and it will remain $190 per year. The proposed sewer budget has an overall increase this year of 14.2% in budgeted line items resulting in a 6.28% increase in the user rate. Both the water and sewer connection fees will remain unchanged this year. Although there are a few things impacting this year's water and sewer budgets, treatment costs have had the most substantial impacts on both. Nearly a third of the water increase is due to treatment costs from Champlain Water District. And nearly half of this year's increase in sewer is due to increased costs over at the city treatment plant. The proposed water user rate will be $6.18 per 1,000 gallons of usage. The minimum rate will remain 190 this year for all accounts using 100 GPD or less per day. And the sewer rate this year proposed to be $10.91 per 1,000 gallons of usage. To kind of give some insight on what this would do to the average residential user, we estimate an average home uses about 200 GPD of water and sewer per year. Those connected to just water will see an annual increase of $20.44 this year for the total annual bill projected to be $451.14, which is $37.60 a month. Home connected to both, a combined bill will see an increase of $67.16. And again, that will probably be around $106 per month. We still think for safe drinking water and municipal sewer is still an exceptional deal in comparison to other regions of the country. We're getting a quality product, safe, and we're able to send waste away as needed. So I want to best any questions, comments for this this year's budget. Thanks, Aaron. Don, go ahead. Why no increase in the connection? We didn't feel this year it was needed. Right now, those costs seem to are are in line with what is required not only for staff time, but actual replacement costs for allocation within the system. Any other board questions? Any questions from the public? Either in the room or online? Betsy, come to the microphone. So, Aaron, when you're doing this, I won't touch it. And you're talking about the stormwater, is this also the stormwater? Does it come under that? Okay, that's all I did. Any other questions or comments from the public? Seeing none, then I'll close the public hearing. And we can move on to what I tried to do before. Elsa? Oh, capital plan. I didn't know how you wanted to do it. My apologies. I think I made the same mistake last year. During this. So, we'll continue the public hearing and talk about the capital plan. Sure. So the fiscal year 2024 to 2028 capital budget. The capital budget. Water and sewer capital plan and budget are separate from the general fund. And as it can be supported through user rates, impact fees. Good resource management over the years by both finance department and public works. The town has been able to accumulate cash reserve. Assist in financing capital projects. Impacting user rates. There are currently 15 capital projects identified in our five capital funds. Seven of which are water and eight are sewer. There's currently 993,412 dollars of designated funds. For future capital projects and an additional 3,692,144 dollars. In unrestricted capital. For fiscal year 2024. The requested expenditure this year will be. 418,000 dollars. In capital. For water. And an additional 415,000 for sewer project. That will continue to. Air scoping and pulmonary. Engineering reports with this funding and leverage future capital. Funding her final design of some of these projects on the plan and construct. We're also going to. Try to. Get as much of. SRF funding as we possibly can. We'll be back to you with. More information on that as these projects do progress. Skipping. Alright, thanks. Alright, any, any questions from the board on the capital plan. Seeing none, any question. Oh, go ahead. The SRF funding the matching. Is that one of those matching ones? As. We'll likely be eligible for loans. Low interest. Any questions or comments from the public about the water and sewer. Capital plan. Isn't anything. That's it. It depends where they're located within our transmission system. We're going to try. Yes. Yeah, so part of the, there's a line items that are stabilization funds that are. Sometimes called depreciation. That are intended for replacement of. Of infrastructure. Hopefully before it fails. When it gets to its expected lifetime. Or before. And another, another item that we do have been in a project we have been doing over the past. Two years and this will be our final year for at least for our water system is a leak detection survey to go in there and take a look and address all these small leaks within our system. Well, they don't become large leaks and. Make some. Keep it cost and. As they break. And to be clear, all of the capital associated with water and sewers paid for through water and sewer rates. So it's not from the general town. Capital tax or. Or there's no. Operating transfers from the general fund. It all comes from the water rates. Well, I would hope that they wouldn't all fail at once. We don't. There are a number of things that we do have a substantial reserve funding where we can do that, but. That would be the route to take would be to go after loans to repair anything that we could. Something catastrophic, but. But as part of some of the studies that we've done both in sewer and in water. We're hoping to kind of. That not go there. And address our issues that we do see and the concerns we do see now. On our terms versus we. And it's it's been over a decade since we've had to borrow any money to repair anything. Yeah. We've been intentionally setting money aside to pay for the stuff is it. Hopefully before it fails. All right. Any other comments or questions. And now can I close the. Close the public hearing. Thanks Aaron. I'll try to remember next year to do that one right. Okay. Moving on to interviews for Economic Development Commission. And you're up first. Your name is on the list first. Just get past him back.  Introduce yourself. And here before share whatever you think. In here before. Might be interested to hear about your. Good evening all. My name is Ken Signorello. I live on Brigham Hill Road. You may not remember, but this is actually my third time at the Economic Development Commission. So you probably heard the standard spiel quite a few times already. So I'll try to trim it down a bit. 19 year resident of the town. Operated results incorporated in 1981. Since 1981 that's 42 years have the darkened gallery down at the five corners. I operated a newspaper called Harbor watch. I do photography the green destiny images. And I have occasionally written and produced media for the Essex I don't know if I've ever mentioned my education person. I have a bachelor's degree in forest management. I did graduate work at UVM for forest mapping. Actually it was the early days of the geographic information system developments, which we all depend on so much now. I was actually there at the beginning. So why am I applying for the EDC? I've been attending EDC meetings for about two years now. And I'd like to try to accomplish three things on the Economic Development Commission. Just like in my last interview, I mentioned that there's some technical issues that kind of need tightening up on little things like the last meeting, for example, they forgot to post an agenda. So they had to call the meeting. There couldn't be a meeting. The website says they meet twice a month. They meet once a month. There hasn't been an organizational meeting yet this year. So the vice chair, there is only a vice chair. There's no chair. The little things like that, I think would be handy. The videos of the meeting, I haven't been posted to YouTube at all of all the committees and commissions that have been posting that one is missing. So that's the first thing I'd like to try to get just a little bit of tightening and make sure the eyes are dotted and the T's are crossed. Second thing, I noticed that in the select board's list of priorities that you developed from the last strategic planning meeting, Economic Development Plan was on the list, but it got a low priority, which of course makes totally good sense for the select board. But for the Economic Development Commission, it should be the top priority. Very, very important, I think. I noticed it's not even on the EDC's work plan. I did notice that. I went onto the website and I noticed that this Economic Development in Essex has been published three times. I think it is. It's a document that the EDC produced in 2010, updated in 2013 and 2018. I think that needs to be updated. It's five years now. And we supposedly have this business directory or business database that's been produced. I haven't seen this updated. It's been five years. I think I've heard that the inventory had been done maybe a year and a half ago and I still haven't seen any results from it. So one thing I'd like to do on that commission is try to get some information out of that data. Maybe even figure out some knowledge from that information. Not only just how many businesses do we have. And I noticed this document is very focused on employment. And employment is only one metric. There's a lot more in the economy than just employees. There is the land the businesses take up. There's the sectors. None of this information is in here.  Not in here at all. Those are some of the things I'd like to focus on a little bit in terms of an economic development plan. I do think there should be one. I think it should be the top priority for the Economic Development Commission. Third thing, secondary agricultural users or producers, those are things that you actually had one here just the other day. You approved the liquor license for the Vermont Cider Lab, I think it was the name of the business. These are businesses along with our two breweries that use agricultural products as raw material directly and produce another product. Kind of like a sawmill takes lumber and turns it into a lumber. I'd like to attract more of those types of businesses here. And I'd like to see the raw materials for those businesses produced here. I'd love to see grain being produced for the breweries here. We already have apples here, possibly more. So I'd like to see that sector of our economy focus on a little bit. That could extend to, and we have lots of forests. We have a lumber mill here now. The lumber process is softwood only. But our forests are now growing into hardwood. We have second stage forests now.  The red pines in Saxon Hill, that was a plantation that was planted. Those will be gone and hardwoods will be the understory. We have no lumber processing for hardwoods at this point in the town. Other than firewood. Which as you probably know, biomass is not the greatest use of forest products for heating. So those are three things I'd like to do on the Economic Development Commission. I'd like to see some technical tightening. I'd like to see an Economic Development Plan produced by the Economic Development Commission. I want to make sure that we don't get overging the information that it has gathered, I believe. I haven't seen it yet. I believe it has been gathered. And finally, try to cultivate some of the things I'm starting to see happen. The secondary agricultural product users. One last thing. You now have, I've been on the Conservation and Trails Committee now for a year and a half. So there's a track record there. You can check out. committee is that it gets things done. So I'm on a committee that actually does, in fact, do things. You have seen the Adopt the Tree program, for example, Allen Betula did that. The town plan work group, I participated in that and was partially responsible. Actually, I kind of was my idea to have all of those meetings all around town to engage the citizens. I actually organized three of them myself, particularly at places like Lemail Lumberer and the Essex Country Club, places like that. That's easier. She did the pollinator gardens. The thing about that committee is people actually take charge of things and do things. They don't necessarily depend on others. They just get it done themselves. I did the spongy moth outreach program to the HOAs. First thing I did when I got there, Shannon organized the cleanup over at Indian Brook this last weekend. What a lovely day. Didn't see any of you there, but it was a lovely day. So I can see what works on a committee. I have that experience now on the Conservation and Trails Committee. You have evidence right behind you. It was my resolution that wanted to see the picture of the whaling ship Essex taking down and replaced with something that represents our town. That resolution I wrote and I had our committee, they passed it unanimously. It was not a question. So I've also gained that aspect of being on a committee, trying to get something done, got that done. So not only am I eager to serve, I think I have some skills to contribute. I have a demonstrated track record of working on a committee and I know what makes a committee effective. Thanks. All right. Thanks, Ken. Any questions for Ken? What happens when you're in the minority when making a decision? How do you you make your best pitch? Do you try to convince people that what you're proposing makes sense? Evidence-based? Not opinion-based? It works or it doesn't? Anybody else? I'm going to ask, do you see any conflicts between this potential position and your ones that you currently have? Well, that'll depend on the leadership of the Economic Development Commission. Right now, it wouldn't change things a bit. I'm going to the Economic Development Commission meetings now. I would still be going to them and there's no extracurricular activities required of anybody in the Economic Development Commission currently. Hopefully that would change. I'll make this promise. If it turns out that something does change and it's too much, if I decide to resign either position, I would not do that, or I would make it effective my replacement. I would not leave either of the committees high and dry. Just thinking of your question. Yeah, guys, I had a piece to get there for a second. I don't remember what that was. I'm still my normal question. If I should come out with a blank. Long day. Yeah. I know what I want to say. I just can't put the words in my mouth. I can fill in the blanks. I'll just ask a different question because I can't remember what I'm trying to say. You were in the time of disagreement. How did you convince others to agree with you? Oh, it's another question. She might have asked. I'm broken. I'm sorry. That's okay. Any questions for us? No. The only other thing I would say is right now, the Economic Development Commission has three city residents on it and from my observation, and I will be in the same boat, I think, their hearts just don't seem to be in it. I really think that we need people that want to move the town forward. There's a lot of change that's happened now. We have tremendously changed economic climate with the split, and I think that we need to get in gear. Okay. There are three seats that are being reviewed, being, I guess, three terms that expire at the end of June. Since nobody is actually resigning, we don't have an empty seat to fill, so we're waiting until the second meeting of June to have discussions about appointments or to make appointments. There's three, right? Because in order to avoid there being three again in three years, some of them will be staggered. Staggered. We're going to shorten some of the terms, just making making you aware of that. And so we may or may not go into executive session later, discuss what we won't be like. We won't be making appointments this evening, especially since not all of our, not all of the candidates, we're able to make it tonight. So thank you for taking the time to talk to us, and thank you for stepping forward. Okay. Irene Renner. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to apply to the Economic Development Commission Open Seats. As you know, I've spent a lot of hours in this building, and if appointed, I would spend a few more. My energy and passion for Essex would make me an asset on the Economic Development Commission. Not to mention, I know a lot of people in this town and now throughout the state, and I'm eager to reach out to meet more of them, especially those who do business here or would like to. In fact, I'm known for reaching out to people asking informed questions and listening hard. I've lived here for 25 years. I've been involved in local government in some capacity for almost 18. It's hard to follow Ken, but I too have three goals. And I based them kind of on what was and wasn't in a report that was prepared in 2010, all the Economic Division, Economic Development Vision and Plan for Essex Vermont. We had hired consultants. We had paid $50,000, a lot of money back then. And some of the things that were highlighted in here are still relevant. Some of them are not. Back then, people still wanted us to finish the Sarke Highway. They wanted us to find a replacement for IBM because there was a big fear that IBM might leave. Saxon Hill and the Town Center needed development. Right now, they have been quite well-developed. Affordable housing was already an issue then. Climate crisis, the climate change was mentioned. And yet there are some new hurdles, I think, that we need to address. And I think that this is a good document still, maybe as a jumping off point for folks to read through it and jog our memories as to how far we've come and what we still have to do. And of course, there's legislation like S100 that's just come out of on Peelier that we will need to address as it changes, to some degree, the Act 250 constraints for building and development here. As to what else is new, we're going to have a somewhat re-innovated wordy-than-allon tower. And so I was reminded that that is one area of Essex that we don't want to forget when we're talking about economic development. At one point, Citizen Cider was there, but they left. And it could be a very different place right now if they had stayed. So what can we do to address the New Town Center, Fort Ethan Allen, Saxon Hill, maybe other areas of Essex? And perhaps it would be thinking about how the Conservation Commission kind of divides and conquers maybe if each person of those five people on the commission took an area and became an expert in it. And really focused. You know, I love the opportunity to go over to Saxon Hill and knock on all those doors and meet all the people running those businesses and, you know, just make that initial recent outreach from the town. We've certainly toured a number of those factories and manufacturing plans already as members and friends of the EDC. But to just have more of a one-on-one sort of contact with them and just have them feel that they could pick up the phone and talk to the town manager at the drop of a hat. And they wouldn't have to be such a formal process, maybe just more of a relationship building that goes on there. So that outreach to different areas is important to me. And having a specialty on the EDC for each member, I think would be really one way to immerse ourselves more in the business environment of Essex. Because I feel like EDC for the last four years that I've been watching them closely has had more of a hands-off and sort of big picture view. And that hasn't led to a lot of real boots on the ground action. And I tend to be about that. Another thing I thought about that's recently changed is we are now a smaller, more nimble town. And so what does that mean for Essex? What is our new brand? You know, Vermont has a brand. What's the brand of Essex? And once we do enough outreach and community conversation about that, maybe we can come up with our own story and out of that can flow things like a new logo. Just a new way of engaging with the public. I happened to have spent quite a lot of time in Milton recently, as you may have guessed. And they have an Economic Development Commission meeting that has anywhere between 20 and 25 people every month. All kinds of stakeholders, the school superintendent and local business owners. And there's real synergy when you have those folks in the room and you start to talk about current events and what's going on and possibilities. Milton also happens to have a big push on right now, a multi-year push called Milton on the move. And they got some help writing up a plan. And once again, they've divided and conquered. They have three tasks forces, one which is looking at developing a downtown core, one that's looking at a recreation and fitness center, one that's looking at how they support the small businesses that are starting up everywhere. So again, if we could do more of that sort of boots on the ground, picking a project, we might see a more effective EDC in the future. And the third big change for me that I've noticed is now that I spend more time in Montpelier, I can talk a lot more often with people in other rural communities and see what they're doing to promote agriculture and sustain their working landscapes. And now that Essex is more rural than ever as of last July 1st, I think it's important that we celebrate what makes us unique as the new Essex. There was chatter on Facebook about how much fun it is to drive down Towers Road recently and see the cattle grazing. How do you put a price on that? That next to the suburbs, you can still see some of what makes Vermont unique and Vermont special. How do we preserve that? Because when I checked the zoning map, that's not even zoned as agricultural. It's low-level residential. So is there a way to re-examine the zoning that we have to make sure that those working landscapes stay interspersed with the housing developments? South Burlington recently asked itself as a community if they had enough land to feed themselves and they came up just a little short. Can Essex do that? Can we find a way to preserve the Matthews Farm at the end of Chapin Road or is that going to turn into something we don't recognize? Serving on the Senate Agriculture Committee, I learned about all kinds of opportunities that we have besides dairy in Vermont to use the land and really promote products that come from here that can really command a high price on the marketplace. Grapes are one of them, but you need a lot of time. You need three to five years for vineyards to be productive. But we have some very ancient soils here and it's an incredibly big potential to grow grapes in Vermont and you don't need to be just along the lakeside. It can be anywhere in Vermont. The nursery growers, namely Sarah Salatino from Full Circle Gardens in Essex, came to testify along with other folks in the landscaping products business. So many of our plants have to come from Michigan or beyond. It's really incredible in this day and age when we're trying to cut down on transportation. We don't have enough people growing nursery stock here and that's a great opportunity because we still at the moment have plenty of land to do these kinds of things. So how do we engage folks who are interested in doing agribusiness and show them Essex is a great place to do this and then support them by what's going on here at 81 Main. I could go on and on, but I won't. We'd love to entertain your questions. Thanks, Irene. Questions? Oh, you can use that one. I thought of a different one. We have about 20 minutes. Irene, how do you handle the situation when you're in the water? In other words, if you want something and the rest of the water doesn't? Well, it depends on what the ground rules are and I'm always very good about checking the ground rules. I know that when the select board makes a decision that one must say the select board has decided X. I, however, feel this way. If you're interested in understanding how I got to my decision, I would be glad to tell you, but that's with my select board hat off. I would remind myself how busy I am and maybe that's a gift and not have to go out and discover everybody in Saxonyl and figure out what their issues are and solve them all single-handedly. I'm an optimist at heart. I'm curious if there's something recently they've been a part of or accomplished that you're proud of? I'm really proud that I knocked on doors for six months and landed a seat in the Vermont Senate after all the years in local government and I always said I have no desire to go Montpelier, but when they redrew that district and gave this part of Chittenden County that I live in a voice of our own where many of us felt that the six pack of senators in the Burlington area really were not as close to us. Just given the number of constituents that they had, when you've got over 120,000 constituents, it's really hard to get to know people and I just thought this was a very valuable opportunity for any single senator to get to know a district and I just feel very privileged to be that voice for those people and I have brought a different voice at the House this session. So thanks. Do you foresee any conflicts with your current responsibilities with your other commissions and positions? I don't. I've been dialing into meetings remotely during the session and I would do that again next year when the session is on. I would plan to be here in person otherwise because I really think being in person at a meeting is the most effective way to be. Do you have any questions for us? I guess just playing off what Ken had said about having non-resident members of the EDC, I think that's a really interesting thing to consider and maybe reconsider. Yeah, that question has come up among the board. We haven't had a discussion, a complete discussion about what we want to do about that. I guess I would have another question which would be how do you feel about having the EDC meet off-site because I know it's been very effective in Milton to go to different places besides the town hall for EDC meetings because it's a nice way to not just meet and talk about the issues but actually explore the businesses and in fact this month we're going to Vermont Sports Car in Milton and we're going to see what they do there to detail cars and fix cars or whatever Vermont Sports Car does but apparently they are unique in Vermont in doing this. I've been to nutritional pet manufacturers, like nutritional snacks for pets manufacturer. I've been to the winery up on East Road, Duffy Road in Milton. So there's a lot of unique businesses there. There's like a number of unique businesses here that I'm not sure we've sussed out and it would be really fun I think with permission of the staff here to perhaps take the meeting on the road at some points. The select board's not imposing any restrictions on you around that around you know any of the commissions around that. If you do I would be disappointed but I would go. Thank you. All right. You heard what I said before about we're waiting till we get all our interviews done and we're not replacing empty seats. We're considering seats that are expiring so nobody's resigned and we'll get back to you later in June or toward the end of June. Thanks so much. Thanks for. Great to see you all. Good to be back. All right so let's move on to let's see is Ray Garofa. Oh here she's not in the room. I don't see her online. We will circle back if she shows up. Okay move on to zoning word of adjustment. It says Robert here but Mike come on up. Or have you changed her to preference? Okay. Okay. Introduce yourself and. After the play online they ask for formal. Usually when I'm called Robert I'm usually in deep. I prefer Mike. Thank you for this opportunity. It's been my privilege to serve the Essex and I'm just I'm just going to call it Essex. All of it all of my service for the last 25 years plus has been for now. If you really want to get technical about it. It started with the planning commission. I was on both committees that cited the new police department building. I've been on this board a couple of different times. Two terms on the select board. So it's been my privilege to serve this community. And Catherine and I moved here in 1985 and we have we have thoroughly enjoyed the stay. Our daughter has flourished here. She has flourished in the school systems here and we just Essex is home. So I'd like to do another term on the ZBA. If you'll have me. I'm a village resident but I've been serving on this board for a while now and would like to continue if if you'll decide if you decide to have me. I'm not ready to give up my public service yet. All right. Thanks Mike. Any questions from board members? Who wants to start? Ethan go ahead. I'm sure you're familiar with the charter change that got passed and it didn't get taken up. Someone happened but are you familiar with the zoning board of administration of adjustment being turned into a development review board and would you be willing to go through that transition? I am willing to make that transition. I have read it with interest. I knew that that the select board was moving in that direction and and that the charter change had gone through and like I said I'm kind of looking forward to the change. Like I said if you'll decide to have me back. Thank you. Anybody else? I can't ask my question. He answered it the last time we interviewed him. So Mike do you have any questions for us? A couple of previous applicants, Mr. Signorello and Ms. Renner have mentioned village resident serving on town boards. I I guess I'd look at it a little bit differently or I wouldn't be sitting here. I enjoy serving Essex and again to me Essex is home whether it's whether it's city whether it's village or city or whether it's town. It doesn't matter. I enjoy serving Essex. So I don't know if my application is a one-year application or whether terms are going to be staggered or what the story is but I guess I would say whatever you decide or my application I will accept and look forward to serving. Right so we did we did appoint you for just one year the last time right and what's what's and as Ethan alluded to yeah the ZBA goes away. Yep possibly possibly January 1st 25 yeah assuming that the the charter change goes through the whole process right next winter. With regard to we as I said we haven't had the discussion yet about whether to have only town residents be on our boards and committees we we've already made at least one exception where we are our GMT or Green Mountain Transit got the right one right. Green Mountain Transit Rep is a city resident someone who's been doing it for a long time what expressed interest in continuing to do so so but again I can't you know we haven't had that discussion so I can't say we've taken a position. It's hard to break old habits. So all right thanks Mike again we're nobody has resigned from this actually there's an empty seat isn't there there is an empty seat yeah yeah yeah so but you're you're asking to be reappointed so yeah in any case we're not doing reappointments until the second meeting in June so we'll be writing back to them. Okay so right thanks. Thank you again for your opportunity I appreciate it very much. All right all right so next we have Yubi come on up introduce yourself tell us what we need to know about you. Well when I usually introduce myself I say those who know me and for those who are trying to forget my name is Yubi Norton and I'm an Essex resident I live in Nine Maple On Drive in Essex Center. Lived in a town for 53 years now. I've been on the zoning board for a while and would like to be reappointed. A little bit of my background I worked for just short of 35 years for the telephone company I started to work with New England Telephone Company and then became nine acts and etc etc anyway same company same desks doing basically network planning for this Chittenden County area and so in that capacity I oftentimes met with town officials and or developers trying to get a handle on how things are going to grow how we needed to expand network and so on. So I'm familiar with town officials and the the basic municipal processes. Last several years I've worked for a consulting firm where we contracted back to the state of Vermont to do highway construction inspection work and that's basically summer employment and I've been working at that for about 15 years now. Probably last year was my last year doing that my wife says we need to take more time off so. But I'm involved in the community. I do history research work. I've written a few papers on various aspects of Essex history. As a matter of fact just today was corresponding with someone about Essex history. I'm also on the board of directors of the 251 club. I'll give you a pitch. I'm not sure if you know what the 251 club is but it's a club that encourages Vermonters or excuse me encourages anyone to visit all the towns in Vermont which by the way towns and cities by the way which is not 251 that's 252 because of Essex the city of Essex but anyway so yeah my I've started on the board for for quite a while. I really believe in the process that it being a quasi judicial board you follow the rules and there's not a lot of room to create new processes or whatever you're following the rules and acting on the rules as a quasi judicial board and we have to be careful about giving our opinions and not try to design things but rule on applications as they're presented and I'd like to continue on the zoning board. I think my experience is valuable and particularly well we've had a vacancy on the board for quite a while doesn't seem like a lot of people rushing to want to be on the board and so I wouldn't want to leave it high and dry. I'd like to continue. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the zoning board they get asked all the time well why do you create that we do not create zoning rules and regulations and that's you know we're ruling on them and and I think it's important for people to understand. Yeah that's that's my my pitch I guess and I would ask for any questions and I understand that because the legislature has failed to move on the charter that things may change timeline-wise who knows as far as if the charter does get approved well it would be next year now what happens regarding zoning board DBA and so on but that's that's down the road so. All right thanks Evie. Any questions? And what happened when you want to follow the rules and other people don't on your well well I think it's important to bring people back in line and say you know yeah you know excuse me we we can't and we get into this once in a while where that you you have to resist the temptation to design something somebody comes in with an application and this is the application and you're really on it a or nay basically and and you're not saying well if you did it this way maybe we would approve well that's that's not our role our role is to rule on what is presented before us and and so on so yeah you know there's there's there's sometimes tendencies to don't want to you know slide away from the rule a little bit and so you have to have to keep reminding folks that yeah this is what the statute says these are the criteria for granting of variance you know and you know you can't wish that one away so I'm gonna expand a little more on what you mentioned about the Charter Change when I should say if and when it takes effect are you willing to reapply for one of the other boards and continue to give us your yes I would I would look forward to being on the DRB from my my experience working for the phone company and working with development plans and then particularly with the highway construction inspection work I I can read plans I can visualize plans I can look at a plan and say I know what this is going to look like and so on I know the nomenclature and I don't have to rely on somebody well what does that symbol mean what does this symbol mean and what's this going to look like so I think my experience there is would be valuable you know from the DRB perspective and it's been valuable from the zoning board too because we we end up reviewing plans and so on as well so thank you candle can you're good any questions for us no okay camper all right thanks UV you've heard this feel about we'll go back to you after our second meeting in in in June if you have any buddies that want to apply for that empty seat send them our way well I think about some of my neighbors but then I said well geez I don't know it might be a conflict there you know they think we're teaming up or something but no I know it's it's difficult to to get people to apply and so on I think there's a misunderstanding about what's involved I think it's some really difficult burdensome thing and it's really not you know it's a yeah you have to follow the rules and and and and have a conscience and so on but most people can do that all right great thank you so much thank you okay let's move on to this item 6c consider approval of fiscal year 2024 water and sewer rates so we had this public hearing earlier we've we've discussed this previous meetings or at least one meeting maybe two any other questions from board members anything you want to say okay so at this time and I'd like to make the motion that we approve the FY 24 water sewer budget plan and capital layout for FY 24 to 20 second all right thank you Don thank you Ethan is that adequate do we need to actually read the rates Aaron do you remember what we've done in the past we've read the we've read the rates last year but the the memo doesn't have it doesn't have it in it doesn't have them split apart either it has them in one recommendation okay to reflect the FY 24 increase the water for 4.74 water and sewer to 6.28 percent that we wanted have a recommendation here page 11 pretty like ours is like page 86 I my page doesn't say I don't have an 11 here 88 it's on page 14 of the pdf 14 but we ignore that first part there or it's the only timeline that this discusses gave it to you right right right I got it I got it here pass it right here and helping in the following yeah to the rate he has it on his right you want me to read the whole thing the way it's written on your recommendation yes yes please yep two three one two okay so at this time make the motion at the select board accept the water rates and fees a increase the water rate from 590 per thousand gallons to 618 per thousand gallons be the water initiation fee at a thousand base fee per connection plus five dollars and 90 cents gallon per day of capacity to remain the same see set the water minimum charge per year at a hundred and ninety dollars be I'm sorry I'm terrible English interim interim our final billing request at thirty five dollars to sewer rates and fees a increase the sewer operating fee from ten dollars and twenty seven cents per thousand gallons to ten dollars and ninety one cents per thousand gallons be the sewer initiation fee of a thousand dollar base fee per connection plus ten dollars and sixty cents gallon per day of capacity remains the same see interim or final billing request at thirty five dollars and three the rate change and interim final billing request would go into effect on all water and sewer usage the billing with the billing period starting after the spring 2023 billings thank you Ethan you have a second thank you Don any further discussion just want to thank Aaron and Annie for all their hard work Dan too and Dan don't forget us I didn't see Dan on it all right all those in favor of that long motion um they say aye aye both say nay no okay motion passes three one and let's move on to the next one water would be the uh water and sewer capital plan is that one on page 16 read the motion are you got any comments not as detailed as the other one okay I'll make the motion that the select board approve the future year 24 water sewer budget plan and capital layout for future year 24 to 28 thanks Ethan thank you Don any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay nay okay motion passes three one um thank you so much thank you have a good night we will move on to our next business item 6e presentation discussion of town of Essex logo proofs it's Greg or Marguerite I believe Tammy is with Tammy oh there is Tammy no oh yours is split up different you ready all right okay Tammy go ahead all right hi everybody um I'm with you tonight because I had approached a select board back in December about moving forward with a town of Essex logo and trying to get that completed before we could move on to doing our website redesign work um so I and you had authorized me to go ahead and start that process so the first thing I did was assemble a committee made up of various department representatives and we decided to um first of all we just kind of laid out like what it is what our needs were um we need we decided that the Essex logo should provide an identity and and that speaks to who the people in Essex are um the logo needs to have be available to do several different types of applications um such as website and social media obviously for the website redesign work um and all of that um it would also need to be in published materials that are used for everything from rec programs to you know other brochures, annual reports, whatever the posters um letterhead and business cards so whatever it is we have must be able to shrink down to something very small and still be readable and legible so that you you know if you get too far too detailed you're not going to be able to see those details in something that small um vehicle decals um if the public works or our fire or any of other vehicles we'd like to have um some sort of a decal on there we may want to use um like metallic gold which is often used in some of the decals um and embroidered clothing um many of our departments have work for clothing and they do embroidery so if you start working with embroideries again the details get lost if you're um going far too small so we want to kind of stick with something simple and bolder um it it must take on different formats so we must be able to um put you know a town of Essex, SSBT, different types of committees and um and in our committee work we also discussed the existing logos that we have so Essex Police Department which also covers um the city would be keeping their logo um and the library um just put money forth um to have a brand new logo so they're going to be keeping their logo but we did invite them for their um to participate as far as like to provide us feedback and one of the things that um we got from Tatlin at the library was you know if we could stick in the same color palette that probably would help to tie things together um some common themes we were looking at um were town kind of town meets country so that um we have like houses and businesses with barns and file fields um the mountains in the water um representing Indian Brook um and the water tower um possibly maybe trees and forest um and then the the final step of all this was to kind of do a preview of what other Vermont towns have for logos um what works what doesn't work and also what's other Civic Plus um municipalities who use Civic Plus are are doing um we started off with a graphic designer um some of the work was what we were getting for product was very very small and detailed and we were having a difficult time bringing it into other applications um so we decided to shift gears and um try doing this work in house so I have been working with um Robin Earl Designs um and who is provided um some free consultation advice to us um Robin's very um experienced he has a degree as a business he's he knows what he's doing and he was very helpful in helping us put together some vector design in house um and this provides us um flexibility to be able to create um a primary logo but also have this logo be able to change colors it can we can adapt it to um apply to different um signage um you know many different uses um so in your packet you have a presentation that has um there are actually six logos in there one of them is actually basically the same thing but just different and in in those I provided examples of some of the different variations that we might want to use um those are just concepts these are concepts only and they're not approved designs by any department I should stress that but that's just to give you an idea of like like how really kind of complex this project kind of became um but uh you know nonetheless we're this is where we're at so um I wanted to just give you an idea that this is what we were thinking of when we were working on this project um my suggestion would be that if any if these designs are um I guess if they pass the mustard with all of you folks I would suggest that maybe moving forward um you could select maybe at least three of those designs you could select all six if you wanted to or maybe four maybe choosing one of the the colors of the first three um and then the recommendation would be to go ahead and put this into a public survey um that the public can vote we can have people just send in which one they like the best and then I could provide those results to the board at your next meeting um or hopefully maybe we could do an approval um and get this logo implemented so that we have a lot of things waiting on um getting this logo in place um not just branding and and such which is actually mentioned a bit earlier in this meeting but that's that's one of the things we're anxious to do um but again the redesign work is really kind of unfold for all of this we have a sign downtown we're waiting to put the sign up so um definitely a little bit of um fire underneath to try to get this done so um I would open it up to all of you if you have any questions or comments or suggestions questions or comments well I guess I'm gonna open a can of worms here but I like the one that the library came up with better than any of the ones that I see here I like their colors and I think that their colors and their scheme could be fit into what you need to uh put on to both fire and rescue and the police and the town truck I just I like it because it's plain and simple and it it's more inviting than what I see in the rest of these so the police department's going to change your logo no no no it's good no just the fire the fire is going to fit in the logo will fit in there I'm gonna jump in and say that I like some of the idea of the design um I don't understand the copy paste with the blue circle from the police department on all the public works design um do like the operation of the tower and the barns and the fields one of the mountains and the triangle pond my favorite um I just didn't know if fire department was involved in helping create their logo yes so um we had a member of the fire department on our board I wouldn't say the whole fire department was involved um I've had a couple of emails with Charlie and um we had um one member on the on the board one of the um we did discuss the existing um sx free library logo and as I mentioned Kate went also participated in this um so there were a couple of problems with using their logo as one that it was paid for by the friends of sx free library um it wasn't actually a town the town didn't pay for that logo from my understanding um it didn't sound like they were really wanting to give up their logo and their identity to over to the town they kind of like their logo um the other issue we had with that was that um one of the comments we received from the fire department um representative we had was that they really weren't interested in a rainbow look on the fire department trucks so they were very they were pushing pretty hard for the water tower um the the I guess one of the really difficult things in all of this was trying to uh meet everybody's kind of wish list um because there's a lot of different uses um trying to keep it as simple as possible but trying to keep as many of the elements that um we were hoping to target such as the mountain with the water the tower the barn the town um we removed kind of like the little path that's in the existing logo just because we really didn't know where the path went we said well that's really not maybe an important part so we put wild fields there um kind of instead but yeah so to answer your question as far as fire department was involved in this um also even the the blue or the round blue public work that's that would be a public works example I mean they can change the colors of that um public or the police department doesn't have they are keeping their logo they have the F6 Saxon knives on theirs the it's the coat of arms so they'll be keeping theirs but um but the it just reminds me of uh if it said Colchester on it reminds me of the old Colchester logo that used to be on all their trucks the bright blue sticker so I've just cured it very similar to the police department I'm no fashion designer but baby blue on red isn't my right well we do have um there's some versions of that with um an orange kind of an orange color there's um so we have other different versions we can do with that so again those are just concepts and only to kind of provide you with the the full picture of what it is we're trying to publish I was just going to suggest that you put it all out to the public give them all the options to look at and I would also suggest that maybe you include a question with that public survey to ask the residents what they think of when it comes to Essex I mean you think you think of Jericho you think of snowflake Bentley they have it in their logo you might be surprised if you ask enough people in Essex to find out that everybody has something that you go oh yeah that's right that isn't represented on the logo so I would just give that as as a suggestion in the red mill in the red mill in Jericho and the round by the church is that right Richmond I guess I would ask why is it so important to have the tower in this yeah it was just something um I think to that partially answer that question kind of we were thinking about it as staff and um I shouldn't speak too much but Tammy because she she did and her team did a lot of the work but we were looking at what is something that identifies as Essex and the tower was something that is not anywhere else except for someplace in apparently Wisconsin um yeah but something that stood out as Essex that was part of the reason behind the tower specifically being in a lot of these designs but Tammy feel free to elaborate on that when I look at it I have to say it reminds me of a silo near the barn it doesn't tell me that that's a water tower or historic anything it's like it's too far away from the barn see that's why I would suggest that you ask residents because you might be surprised maybe everybody in Essex thinks oh yeah the water tower is at Essex so that was yeah sorry I was just gonna say that was you know remember I didn't go back and look at the the minutes from the planning meeting that we had but uh my first planning meeting on the suckboard this is one of the topics that came up and we addressed as a priority for us was a brand and a logo and during that conversation um you know we had a million other things going on last year but during that conversation one of the biggest things that we stressed was that you know we did a bunch of community outreach to you know however we were going to design it so I'll just echo what Kendall said you know really send that I would send out all the designs and say the same thing you know what do you what you know a simple question what what do you see when you think of Essex you know or whatever and then you know maybe like a you don't have a drawing contest of people to draw their own but maybe some ideas of how they'd like to see it and then like what colors represent Essex I got and I'm not saying this out of like to say it the wrong way but I see all the blue and gold and I just think of the of the high school I think that that's you know we're incorporating ourselves as the high school I'm not opposed to any colors I just want to be sure that we pick either neutral colors or colors that represent Essex as the town of Essex and only the town of Essex I just wanted to bear my couple spots on that so yeah a lot of these are variations on a similar theme um I like the one that's that says red barn because it has the more color to it um because it has the red barn in there and it and I also like the one I really like the the plow fields out front in the front I like that a lot I think it it brings stuff together I also like the the one that's called the town tower and barn but it doesn't have the plow fields um it doesn't seem like there's any reason why it can't but I don't know I I did this just my my uh my thoughts on which ones I I prefer um the the the triangle one I thought was interesting but I didn't like the way it looked on the truck um but again it might be just be because you're doing examples um it is yeah so I'm I'm I'm the only thing I just I want to you about the I like the barns and stuff too but the one the town tower barn looks like a farm in front of a city with a little bit of a lawn that's just my perception of how I looked at it but I see a a old farm sitting there with a city growing around it but that's just how I saw it I agree with Kendall that we really should put it out for public opinion and see if they come up I do see a hand up in the room different ideas so Betsy come on up give us your comments so um I think if you were going to look for something what what is the identifier for Essex is Indian Brook and shaping farms I think those are nice and I think people all relate to them right thank you any any other public comments come come on up so in marketing a logo is supposed to represent a brand so my question is what is the brand this logo represents I think I heard one suggestion Tammy if I heard it correctly it was where farm meets town was that right town meets country country which might be a valid brand but brand is it's the whole town right it represents the whole town so it's really crucial to have buy-in um if you remember there was a fiasco for Vermont the Vermont came up with a brand a lot goes on when the skis come off that was developed by a marketing company it did not last not a good brand not a good slogan so that's why it's so important to make sure you have buy-in right from the get-go the logo represents the brand the brand comes first so I think that needs to be nailed down first then the logo would follow it'll be a lot easier thanks thanks Ken any other public comment or questions so board members what do we want to do Ethan go ahead I just have one more comment to I was just going through the other logos real quick because I was thinking about what Ken just said about you know representing the whole town who that really stand out to me is Heinzberg Stowe because I can envision exactly where it is like Heinzberg it's Mechanicsville Road looking over I'm not gonna remember the name of the pond now yeah like Urquay I know like that's probably uh Antvale Road right there if you know looking down but I just I think that that's important I didn't think of that until he had mentioned it I think that that's important to reference or maybe not reference but to see where you are don't I mean if that makes any sense but I just rambled but I was inspired by that so thank you Ken yeah our view like that has telephone wires going through it it's every now route 15 it's all utilities in the way but yeah telephone wires on towers but yeah yeah I think I think right the question is and I guess you could do a version of that you know and I'm not saying this one exactly but if you had to do one that had fine detail in it you just leave out the fine details um represent where you are in kind of yeah and I don't I don't know what that point that sparking point is in in Essex right I think I think there was the way this look you know it was put together as you take the you know the the water tower at one end of town and farms at the other I don't know let's send it out so I'd rather get public input before we make a decision yeah yeah no yeah I guess you know I you know the question was do we just go back for complete redesign or are these ones okay to go out with I think that's maybe the question that and do we want do we want to use all of them or I would send them out and let people have input and or suggestions and then if they come up with a better suggestion then we'll or Tammy I'll have to try to implement yeah I mean that's that's what I see personally I see a lot of good ideas and different designs in each one of the logos but not particularly one that grabs me I mean one of my one of my favorites was the was the the country gold because it you know to me I sell the that you couldn't really tell the buyer and the only thing I would say is throw some white some white in there to give some outlines in the building but I see Indian brook I see Indian you know the reservoir and then I see you know possibly my man's field that was my thing when you come down the roof 15 corridor especially as the sun is either it's shining on what the white when it's got snow on it and it's just that whole corridor because you're coming down it's so beautiful and there's you know there's nothing I don't see that in any of this I just don't and then the plowed the plowed field I think of you know crossing on to 128 right right as you're in between the double bridges and look into your right and there's a there's a cornfield and Mount Mansfield is broad right behind yeah but that's where I was only I was gonna you know having a vocation to just picture maybe it's not maybe it's not a reservoir maybe it is a brook maybe maybe that was a brook in that original logo not a pat you know what I mean I don't know is it the brown river is it is it is it Indian brook is it is it say brook is it you know I don't know but to me and I think of Essex I don't you know and I'm not saying Indian brooks not a big part of Essex but if you were traveling through Essex where would you be able to locate Indian brook just by you know driving along now you gotta know where it is you know so I don't know it's it's a little difficult to like um put a picture of like you know that like the scenery that you're explaining without going into a lot of detail and I think that's where there's we're at a little bit of a I'm not sure if I can give you what you want because um even if you added like say you were to add some spruce trees into this like oh that would make sense right we have forests so we have you know trees but you end up with so much detail in those trees that it would look good in many applications but in some other things it's going to be really difficult for us to use so um you know I guess this is kind of a where we're trying to have the elements there so that you have you do have the mountain line you've got the water which is Indian brook you've got the tower whether you want the tower or not it's it can be considered even part of the city if somebody doesn't recognize the tower the barn shape the plow fields and the elements are all there does it really look like that one particular spot probably not because there's not probably one particular spot that has all of those things unless you were to subtract some of those things so if you hadn't wanted just Indian brook for instance but then you're going to end up with just some pretty simple looking mountains and some pretty simple looking water and I'm not sure it would be recognizable well when you scale it down like that does that make sense at all I'm not sure if I can I don't know if I can really give you what you're looking for I mean you could you could do some highly detailed work if you did something like Milton's there's got like a lot of stuff going on but it really doesn't translate well into something small sorry Milton if anybody and maybe they've got something else but I think that you know um that's kind of where the struggle lies in trying to make something that's going to meet all of the needs that we have for it I'm from Milton and I see the I see the Lake Arrow had Dan there is that it is it is good yeah and everybody drives through Milton sees it yeah I was actually told that um that you can recognize really well but there's a lot of detail there there's a lot of detail there and I think trying to embroider that would be really you know you blew some of that yeah and I didn't mean like Hinesburg that that's like a picture because it's definitely it's just like probably four different sceneries like you know views on a drive that they kind of just overlaid on each other I mean I'll be honest I'm no designer I just I just went through the logo process and I paid a guy you know almost 200 bucks to sit down with me and send it back and forth with me 25 times to to pick it out but there's I incorporated a lot of different things and into one picture and then like the color thing that's where it's really important to either have a picture like like with Hinesburg or to have like with the silhouettes that you did there like there's got to be some sort of more neutralized distinction in the in the breaks in the buildings and and things like that like for example with the silhouette you know there's breaks in the buildings and the barn has a door in a window because that logo can be changed this is how he explained it to me when I waited the process is you can change those colors to go on a gray shirt on a blue shirt on a red shirt on a red truck on a on a fire truck on you know whatever so when you have that it's either a picture that's going to be encapsulated as a picture or it's a logo that's going to be changed in colors and but it has to be fairly distinguished and I think that's the problem with the other ones is they want to be a picture but they're a silhouette that have no distinguish in the in the boundaries if that makes any sense I think it makes a lot of sense even actually um what you really do what you're saying is very spot on um I think that the silhouette my own personal view on this is that the silhouette is the best one because it does have it's very simple you can tell if that's a barn the tower all of the things um and just exactly for the reason you just explained um I think that's probably um one of the best options very easy it can be um change the color can be changed you can throw that onto a t-shirt you can reverse it um you know there's a lot of um it would be the easiest one to use and adapt to many different things and it's um it's clean it's really um and I think the colors um regarding colors we were trying to stay in that so the colors that are chosen there are the exact colors that are in the library logo exactly like the same green the same blue um and in some of these instances such as in the silhouette one you have just blue and green which are those colors and I think you know uh blue and green is just the you know the water the mountains I guess that's where we were going with that but um you know I would be surprised if people came back and said I think red represents us I mean I would be surprised by that but I mean you know we I suppose somebody may decide that there's a different color out there that's more representative of the town right so do you want to have Tammy do just take take all the designs that that are here and and get opinions on and uh is that going to work for you Tammy or do you really want us to will it down um I'm fine with which yes if you think that's what you would like to do um I think my only question would be is that if you want me to add a question in there about what do you think represents your or what do you or what do you think of when you think Essex or um am I am I asking that question so that if if people say I don't want any of the options this is what I want is that how you want that question to be asked for we want to have an open do you see Essex represented in any of these logos and if not what would you like to see right yeah I mean I'm I would think you just want like a like a poll from the public you know I mean if you get a hundred answers that say water tower and that's the top one well obviously the most of the people that responded there's your top Essex representative or India brook or whatever it is does that work have you word it that way so what do you do with that information I guess it's the question yeah yeah because the then we go back and look at what we've got the the intent here is to is to try to try to turn this around reasonably quickly so that we can start work on the website update and I do understand that but I just I think need to have a say in this this is what Essex this is our brand and this is devoted as a new town where I need to come together to make it to see you know I may be I may be mistaken but when they did the Vermont quarters and stuff I mean they were a lot of people got involved with that and they they narrowed a couple things down of you know what was a camel's hump that buckets and things like that and then they put those into the logo the the public didn't really design the logo they basically just pick the top representative of Vermont right so if they come back and they say Indian brook or in mountains I mean if they pick some of the options that are already there unless um you came up with say set buckets came up as the number one thing that's about feeling that it's not there right yeah how about if we um we put all the logos out to the public we we have a question to the effect of um I did does one of these really strike you as representing Essex or should we take another attempt and uh regardless what do you think of what's the first one or two or three things that come to mind or do you think about Essex we'll ask for really short answers and Tammy you and I can talk maybe we do an open ended question um just about you know what's your general feedback on the options here and maybe we can see what we get and come back in a couple weeks or so Tammy does that sound right um it does it right does that sound doable um it does I would only caution that if you hear you know if there's a comment saying well I think this um just keep in mind that's however many people in the scheme of however many people are going to answer this I guess um I guess I just wouldn't want to just throw everything away just because one person said something different you know we're a handful of people said something different um there is a lot of time put into this so I'm just going to say that um so I'm fine with doing that just make minor changes right we could certainly do that so like if say people are like I don't think water tower say water tower doesn't show up there oh we could remove the water tower we could do that um that was a you know it was really something the fire department wanted in there so that's why it really did kind of make the mark because that was one of their requests but maybe we could put the water tower just on the fire departments you know I don't know I mean maybe they'll just go with a different designer I don't you know that that's a whole other idea too so it could happen that way I can work with Greg and we can come up with a another question so that if none of the options are popular we can just do something different I mean I guess that is a a question that I didn't ask when I asked it before but if the Essex police department is keeping their logo does the Essex fire department have a desire to change their logo or were they happy with what they had or they just want to represent the 50 year anniversary it was a little confused in the way that was written right um my understanding they do have a patch that has a logo on it but I don't think they have like a vectorized logo something that they can use and adapt on to other things um the original intent was you know we'd like to possibly get a 50 year commemorative piece out of this and working with with you um whether or not any of these concepts are going to work for them I don't know um I do have a few that have like a 50 year on there um and I've had a couple of conversations with charlie conversations with charlie on that um you know they may very well decide to just go ahead and do something different because they may be having different uses for there so that's fine if they wanted to do that but um I other than I I think the initial request was to try to come up with something for the 50 year okay so I don't know if that's a pretty good point or not but do we focus more on not the fire department but because we're not focusing on the police department we focus on public works and town you know the town administrative what do we need to decide that tonight I mean well no better just if you're gonna you know if there's gonna be more work put into it and it's and it sounds like it's been a lot of work I mean we're not changing parks and rack we're not changing the police department we're not changing x4 sx we're not you know what I mean I guess I didn't understand so if I think what tammy's saying sorry I was just you know just thinking it they weren't gonna be on board and they wanted the water tower they wanted to design their own maybe we should let them design their own and bring it to us separately as a 50 year patch and the water tower and however they saw their their department and then like we did with you know parks and rack and police department so you know so if the the public comes back and say we hate the water tower take it off and we can go to the fire department say you know the public really asks us to take it off you're free to do your own logo they're free to do their own logo in any case I don't think we should explicitly exclude them and say you can't use our logo I don't think you'd say that so I'm not sure what yeah I just didn't want us to you know have to try and come up with a logo and say here's your logo and then I want that logo we spend time to incorporate it to fit the fire department and then they don't want it you know I mean that's wasted time and stuff so I guess the question I was asking is do they actually want a logo from us or did they have an idea on how to come up with their own right question first of all I mean the fire department has had a representative on this committee so they know what's happening they know that we're working on it and that Tammy's working on it and the team is working on it and someone from the fire department is working on it okay I think when it's you know part of the goal behind this logo is to find something that any department can use and maybe it has a ton of Essex around it when it goes on the public workstruck or could you go on the fire truck that way you maybe you put the the axe behind it or it's you know it can be something that goes into bigger logo whether that's the logo for Parks and Rec or police down the road or the town of Essex but it's something that can be used on for any number of departments any number of equipment any number of of clothing anything like that yeah I would I would say that those examples that you see in front of you are not meant to be examples of oh this is what we're going to have it those are is what we have a possibility like is that something we can easily put on to something else and I think that's what I think that's primarily why that exercise is important to be able to create those other decals and to see like oh this is might be what how we would use it on a shirt or how we would use it here and so to show that it would work and able to do that as a matter of fact like if you get something that we some of the early ones that we were looking at were had so much detail in it the first test I did with those was shrink it down to the size of what I would see like on a letterhead or a business card and then I couldn't even tell what the details were anymore so it's kind of these are kind of like tests they pass the test type of thing I think if they were to go to the public for a vote you would just want to put forth the primary logo and vote on that one logo you wouldn't have these full pictures these these are more examples for the select board to see this is why these are simple this is why they are there's not a lot of telephone lines and fences and things have the little tiny lines in them all right we okay with uh sending Tammy off to do more work but the big thank you yeah thank you Tammy this is uh this is a big big step all right can you move on okay we'll move on to presentation discussion of fiscal year 2023 budget versus actual update hi good evening everybody evening so the purpose of this memo is to kind of give the board a synopsis of where we stand in the general fund for the first 10 months of the year so as a reference point you know 83% represents 10 out of 12 months so that's kind of the percentage number that I use to just compare where we are and kind of where we need to be I've been reaching out to departments starting last week having conversations meetings emails about their expectations on where they're going to land um barriers that are in the way or also opportunities to spend money where we are currently under spent for example in public works we've had a lighter winter season so there's an opportunity there to increase our springtime projects if you will whether it be streetscapes sidewalks other maintenance items that might not be available to us within the current budget framework based on the dollar amount that was proven earlier so in the memo I've gone through and quickly discussed kind of each department so you know some are obviously larger impacts on the budget than others you know especially public works Aaron and Ann and I met last Friday to discuss some of those opportunities as well what I did not mention in this memo is we also had a discussion about where the water and sewer budgets are landing as well but I've kept this memo just to the general fund so generally speaking you know there's also unfilled job vacancies and some supply chain issues that are affecting some of our purchases particularly in the fire department and with the police department vehicles so there may be a a need to possibly assign fund balance to next year as the board has done in the previous year with some fire equipment and some other items like that so that is kind of the basic overall overview I don't know if you have any particular questions about the memo or anything that's finest director do you have any real concerns with what you're seeing I do not have a lot of concerns with it generally speaking we're spending at about 75 percent as of the end of April versus the 83 percent in terms of a normal timeline obviously some funds will spend more this time of year like the rec department and other areas so I don't feel like we're going to be overrunning our budget yeah thank you thanks I was just curious for the fuel cost under buildings is that heating fuel or diesel fuel yes I believe most of that is heating fuel but maybe Tom could speak gasoline it is diesel okay yeah and then my next question was going to be I don't know if anybody knows this up top or how I'm sure Tom does but how many gallons of storage do we have over there for for diesel fuel I believe the tank is 2000 gallons and we when periods like this happen we like to try and fill it okay that's uh that's gonna be my question right it's the cheapest it's been in three years so that was my question thank you I'm sure that's I was curious as to did we just fill up all of our tanks at a record price and that's reflected in this 88 percent spending so that would answer my question and will help us next year thank you any other questions I don't get anything it's good I assume the revenues are good too so yeah the tax revenues are in line um you know we we receive some grant revenues as well so the revenue side is is also on par thank you so what is your intent with this so the intent with this is to make actionable plans with each department so that the ending expenses for the fiscal year end up near the budget um obviously that won't mean every line item looks the same um you know so we've underspent for salt sand and gravel um there will be continue to be some spending and purchasing there with the idea that current rates will be less than future but there is also a capacity for us to you know use some of that line item for an extra sidewalk or more streetscape maintenance or things of that nature using public works as an example okay is it is your intent to publish this periodically is it there's just this just a end of the year um getting close to the end of the year user to lose it question or is it a well I think in in terms of this memo this can be you know I intended it's going to be a breathable document where we're going to be continuously looking at it we're already starting to look at numbers from May 15th if you will because we've gone through a couple AP cycles and another payroll so you know it's going to be a continuous working point with the departments and if you'd like it to be continued to be reflected in future board meetings we can do that as well yeah that was kind of um what we've talked about Dan and Marguerite and I have quite possibly making this more of a periodic thing and um I asked Dan to come here tonight in the future probably just going to be your reading file item something for you to see but um wanted to have Dan here tonight as the first time get your feedback on is this a useful format is there anything that you definitely want to keep in there is there anything that's missing just giving Dan some feedback because he probably is not going to be before you every time this gets presented I really appreciate what I read it may help me understand where we were and what was going on so I really appreciate it okay thanks this is great because now you can see where you are I mean you should let the public know this I mean just about everybody's either dead on target or under or just slightly over in this crazy year kudos great awesome keep it coming yeah and the idea is obviously we still have six weeks now you know seven weeks back then to to act on it and to you know try and land fiscal year 23 where we anticipated and as you said not not everybody spends linearly right yes yeah we certainly want to you know consider seasonality and uh other influences that might not be in our control you know with the assigned fund balance and the way supply chains are operating yeah the other thing that I see it could highlight and you mentioned it was um if you're you've got something that is out of your control that you can't spend it in the current fiscal year yeah and you're going to you know make sure you always come and ask for the fund balance to cover that if it's something that that goes across into the next year I know you know Dennis you just come back and ask for paving all the time since you know we couldn't get all the paving done in the in the before June 30th yeah and we're going to lose the money if we don't but we got the you know ability to do the work yeah those kind of things and of course on the the police car we don't lose that exactly yeah that's the biggest example Ron's been telling us for months that it's just probably not going to happen in time so yeah so you're anticipating a quarterly update on this kind of thing for us or I think uh a quarterly would be appropriate I mean obviously at the at this time of year it's something we're going to monitor a lot right as we get towards June 30th but I think a quarterly one is certainly yeah it's a working document for you on that you're you're working it week by week yeah yeah for us I think quarterly seems reasonable yeah so I might just suggest that maybe towards the end of the fiscal year maybe the last two months other than that quarterly just so that we could see where it actually goes yeah I think that's fair you know maybe the first three quarters are quarterlies and then as we you know get to these decision points and where departments can take action then it can be you know whether it's a monthly or or interim even more so is that getting too much into your business not really I mean this is we're trying to do this we can inform you inform the public of where we're at um Dan and I and Marguerite can talk a little bit I um can't really write but it's this is the time of year we're paying more attention to it it's also the time of year we're there spending a lot of time on fiscal year and wrap up so I just want to figure out what's the right balance of making sure we're on the right pace and making sure you're informed about it we can talk about that and propose something yeah and I think just generally speaking for my department I mean we've hired an assistant finance director at the end of March so it's helped with our capacity and obviously we've gone through all the budget process now that the water and sewer and that capital plan has gone through as well so it allows us to be a little more proactive rather than developing budgets we can you know look at what's going on with a little sharper pencil and I think it goes to the improving communications so that the board knows what's happening yeah yeah it's transparency to the public as well yeah that's good sure yeah I just don't want to overburden you with too frequent reporting if it's if you know we we also get the the audit report when that comes out later in the year too so this is easier to understand yeah and if I could comment comment really quick I would say you know really after month of June you know like at the beginning of the month or wherever our meeting lands I think it lands around the 20th right 21st you know at that point we don't need him to do an audit of himself to give to us you know just you know the updates up until that point then once the year's over it's like go through the audit process and then the kind of marvison informational here's where okay that's our last meeting by the end of the year would you want to do this or that or whatever or maybe it's nothing and then when the end of the year comes it's just wait for the audit to make sense yeah June 26 right so you can Dan figure out what frequency you want to give it to us this time of year what quarterly other than that yeah sure pretty good for that all right all right thank you thank you so much yes um you don't need anything more from us on that I'm good do you have anything anything else you're looking for any other direction okay all right okay now let's see next item too much I can see oh right here finally yet um we're on G now make sure I'm not skim anything okay discussion about charter changes proposed by the charter review committee so back when we uh got the recommendations from the charter review committee there was a lot of content there and we chose five questions to go to the to the um to the voters with and so the the the question here I mean at the time there was some discussion about following up throughout throughout this coming year to be prepared for another round of charter change questions for next year I guess the question for us or the is how do we want to have that go forward with that path do we want to go forward with it and how do we want to do it there's two ways I see we could do it there there were topics um like there was there were I did pull up the the memo here somewhere that has um there were revisions to our ordinance adoption process there was an um there was an option for select board members to decline payment or different topics that were in there do we want to go through the list of topics and prioritize them or the other the other way would be to go chapter by chapter just go through the document the proposed document so that we're catching all of the wording changes that may not necessarily be associated with a specific topic so two questions if you want to should we go forward with all that and the other is which how do you want to do it Ethan so I have a little bit of dyslexia and computers really bother me in general and I have time to print this out I had a really hard time scrolling back and forth and trying to remember what is said here in there um so I would personally I would like to see it more in front of me on what's different or maybe on top of each other of what's different one in red or just the changes in red yep and then my only other um spiel I wanted to say was you know maybe we could just kick us to the to the charter committee real quick and say do you have three priorities or four priorities or five I mean I mean we have five out right now that are still being worked on so I just didn't know if we wanted to pick one or two or I think but I definitely couldn't I couldn't do the back and forth yeah no so so the comment on that is I actually started doing that I did the first two chapters and I made a a a change control document where it shows the the stuff that's coming out crossed out in red the new stuff's coming in in blue but rather than having presenting that to you and saying this is the way we're going to do it I wanted to ask the question do we want to do it that way or do we want to do it on a by topic and so you know it's it's work to do it you know it could be done we could say you know we could do two chapters a month kind of thing I was gonna say one but yeah how many total chapters are you looking at the there are 12 chapters some of them are more extensive than others no and some yeah so this is just wording changes no well no there there are there are things in there like there's a creation of a commission on public safety there's a creation of an energy coordinator well you the commission on public safety can go because you elected to do a CAB well it can but I think how do you want to get there okay do you want to get there by saying okay the first there's a preamble you want to take up a preamble yes or no okay next chapter is the corporate powers of the town like don't know if there's any changes there but just go through and okay once we get to the the discussion about the safety committee either we just take it out or you discuss it or do you want to say all right let's let's find out I guess some of there are topic by topic do you want to do it in order of appearance or do you want to highlight all right chapter seven has a lot of stuff you want to tackle so you do chapter seven I just personally need more than Saturday Sunday to read this oh yeah yeah we can get the changes in a document and get a sent out ASAP and then say we're gonna do blockity block at a time I can't but how do you how do you want me to present those changes but we're not going to change it until we discuss it Ethan I know but I have to be able to read what we're discussing on what we're changing so we did it you have changes chapters at a time yeah and I didn't give you anything else just the two chapters could you do yeah that way yeah all right so if we did two chapters in June August September October and November keeping July because we only had one meeting yes go ahead go ahead I'm just saying that would do you 12 but some chapters are like some are really short though eight pages ten pages and some are really long and some of them right significant changes that might warrant a fair amount of so some of them could take more than one meeting to get to bring it how much time you know I mean I don't want to do more than two I know that I don't want to be broken really quick but really quick I'm broken record right now but I know we have to discuss this stuff but we have something proposed to us can we at least get that in the yeah yeah yeah and so and so I'm sure we have it from before I could probably go back but we made did we get a cut did we get one of those from somebody I'm gonna have to there was a lot of there was a lot of different ways this was presented and this was what you see now is kind of what we had worked off of when it was presented before if I can hazard a guess it sounds like there's not any burning desire to jump right into this topic or that topic I think it's going to help help staff and and help me if I can focus on one maybe two chapters at a time and I think if we can maybe we'll just start with the let's let's presume that the reorganized charter will be approved by the legislature so I propose that we start with the order of the reorganized charter that voters approved um and I I would say sure one or two chapters but I would say before you plan on two chapters next month and two chapters a month after that let's start with those two chapters and see how long it takes and when those two are done let's move on to the next two yeah and if possible maybe especially for Ethan if we just even if we only did two a month so give us the information for the first meeting but we don't do anything until the second meeting and that gives us a little bit put it in the reading file so you have a chance to right right at it is that would that work yeah because then I can print it I don't have a printer at home so yeah I'm I'm fine with that if you're fine with that and then I I think really to focus on those two because there might I mean some of those chapters you might get through them in one meeting and it's a few tweaks and ready to go and some of them might take two three four meetings of discussion to get through some issues so I think just really being able to highlight and point in on those two chapters at a time because only one sentence well chapter 11 now because eight to 11 is only is only three uh not even it's one and a half pages chapter eight to 11 well we're gonna see how it goes and we could always move it up I mean if we get more than two and they used to be the first two and I don't know maybe I'm right I think I think when we uh we're doing I think we took I think I screwed it up and I added another chapter whatever I'm just saying 11 is better than 12 but if we did two a month and that way we get the information the first meeting and then we could be ready to discuss on the second meeting and I don't know if this is going to confuse things but those really long chapters that are going to be contentious if we just did that one chapter and then those ones where there's only three sentences in them we did three that's right you know what I mean if that helps to juggle some judgment around that yep that's fine and I think I think too that we should leave out the language that's still as in front of the legislature now so that well we can't do that we couldn't we can't change that anyway and it'd be confusing to have that or yeah we can highlight it take a look if something was in there and is voted on we can just highlight it in a section of we'll put it in there we'll show it but it's under consideration of the legislature let's have a good question I don't mean to make this even more confusing that I'm already confused is this going to be one item to vote on just as a revision we it I don't know we're probably going to get some legal advice on that okay okay that was all because if we add any unique powers it probably has to be a unique question but if we're just re-arranging changing words here and there it doesn't change I think it I think it becomes a general rewrite and you can just have one question okay so I think it'll depend on where we end up all right is that enough for you I think I have direction thank you and we can figure that out so okay all right so uh the next agenda item is whether or not we want to go into executive session to talk about the interviews we had this evening or wait till we have all the interviews so wait till we have them all okay you don't have anything so okay we'll move on to consent make motion we accept the consent agenda as presented thank you don't have a second second thanks Ethan but before we vote on it did we just want to double check that raised on the office she's not there okay for that any other discussion about the consent agenda I'm thinking just out of the out of the minutes in the consent agenda yes there's a change to the minutes I voted no on the budget last meeting I wondered about that thank you for that catch is the facilities use policy in that as well that is the consent agenda yes yeah I just had the question about maybe that clause should be put in there for all of all of us the municipal offices as well you ever this would be your emergency headquarters you need the police station no it's yes the police station is designated as the emergency operations for the town okay so you guys all go there and the police use in charge yeah I just had two more items sorry is the unrestricted water and sewer capital is that in the reading file or in the consent that's consent I just wondered if you could just explain that a little more do you have the 3.2 plus the 2 million total or is that it wasn't quite sure it seemed like a lot of money I didn't have a question on the warrants too um I believe as far as the water sewer that that it's just saying that recommendations that we keep that money set aside as undesignated it's available for capital it's available for things that come up if the board's not comfortable with that I can get a more clear answer and confirm that with Dan and Aaron uh tomorrow but I won't be able to do it tonight yeah no I I don't have a question about that I just wondered if that is the total amount of capital or is that just this year's budget oh I I don't know offhand sorry that was all you want to not approve it without that no no we can still approve I just had a question I can follow up with you another questions and on the warrants I was just curious I noticed there were a lot of fertilizer or I assume that's all the various fields and parks and wrecks and all that stuff I was just curious if there are any soil tests done to determine the the amount of fertilizer that you put on or is it just unprofessionally and they determine it I'm going to have to get back to you on that one too yeah just just a question because there's a significant outlay for fertilizer where what was the in the war and your why yeah but what was the company that was written to there were a couple different companies I'm not sure if it's still applicable but um Aaron Smith over here um in town did a lot of work with the rec department in the past and he might still currently and he does do soil samples early but I'm not sure if it's I didn't see exactly which company was written to yeah I would just I'm sure that it's done professionally but there have been a couple places where they just put on a mass just a certain amount of fertilizer when it wasn't needed and I would just mention yeah good question I'll find out thank you yep any other comments or questions about consent so we have an adjustment to the minutes which minutes of May 1st or 8th the change is the May 1st to clarify the uh vote result indicating that Kendall voted no all right so I make the motion and we approve the consent agenda with the correction okay thank you Don do I have a second again thank you Ethan um any further discussion all those in favor of approving consent uh please say aye aye opposed say nay okay motion passes for zero reading file any comments I would like to thank the Essex town fire department for the 50 years of service I would like to wish Charlie Cole chief Cole a successful healing from his surgery and I would like to thank Allen Batula Lauren Gaffney Cohen Mike Yando and Michael Fink for their service to the various committees thank you Don well said anything else Jesus um I wrote this down earlier and it had had come up but um I just wanted to mention that I don't know I might we may already do this and I could have been missed it but um Milton has been putting their public hearings for planning on their Facebook page they've been getting one more outreach people showing up in meetings I don't know if that's something that we do or don't do um but it may be something to consider in the future we are we are doing on taking more advantage of our youtube channel and uh town meeting tv covers one of the two planning commission meetings a month um the other one we're recording and we've been posting them to youtube if I missed one here or there but we're getting into that happen yeah not necessarily posting the meeting on facebook but they're just like posting the the yeah we have to post three spots or whatever just using that as one of their spots to post about a public hearing you know upcoming oh okay I can yeah you know what I mean I can check out I know we do there's this front porch forum I'll check if we do others right then uh that was it all right anything else kind of I just had one question about the FEMA assessment that's going on about the Indian book reservoir dam it looks like there are some grants available and stuff and everything have they looked into hydropower at all there they have microturbines now and things like that will that be taken in consideration when they redo the dam potentially repair it rehab it it's not anything I've heard about but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened and I I can yeah I would just and find out Tom just perked up back here I'm not sure so it's funny that you mentioned that and through the energy committee Tom do you want to come up it and wait you don't have to yell and anyone watching at home can can hear you better on the mic and and see it and see so uh through the energy committee we had that exact same discussion uh because we thought through some of the energy grants that are out there that we could tackle that so uh our president of the committee will dodge he actually got in touch with um the south burlington energy committee guru uh because they do it with their water treatment plant but because when they spill out their water out of their water treatment plant it's almost a hundred foot drop oh and so it's economically feasible for them to do that he kind of looked at it with will dodge and said no it's not economically feasible so we put that to bed okay but because there's not enough of a drop correct where it runs over right correct right yep we tried thank you for looking yep sure all right anything else okay down your favorite part of the meeting hi emotion we adjourn thank you dawn to every second thank you ethan non-debatable all those in favor please say hi thank you everyone for being here okay we are adjourned yes thank you everyone for attending oh lorraine i see your hand up yeah after the meeting's adjourned sorry andy i was just a quick comment on the um the micro turbines there's also ones for wind and will dodge had um then exploring as well like for the overpass there's a couple other places like that it just in terms of um jumping off of what kendall said but oh it's not necessarily just water thank you all right thanks all right