into our budget workshop we did get this afternoon budget from Darinda hopefully all of you have that it is the one where the $1,371,378,273 which is a 4.11% increase and that budget I'll let you Darinda give us a quick review of the updates you've made since the last time so that makes sense yeah I think you're muted Darinda our lips are moving but we're not hearing anything yeah color did sign back on and sometimes that helps if you can hear us get off and sign back in okay thank you still can't hear you maybe she has to press that button at the top that doesn't show that doesn't show that she's muted can you see anything Sarah from your end no she looks good here that's muted by your computer not by zoom right yes no but on her computer Darinda if you go to the top there you can unmute okay so she did that and now she's doing that but we can't hear there she is no am I back you're back okay well I muted it and unmuted it so I guess that worked all right um so the minor changes were we had gotten confirmations on like few of the organizations that we were still waiting to hear from like the court Washington County court and that the other changes that were made were within the payroll and the benefits we made some adjustments there and then there were a couple of insurance changes that came through so for business insurance so those were really the highlights there wasn't anything really major other than there was a significant savings on the health insurance so but Darinda how much did you put in for the increase for the payroll it's all based at 2% percent and 50k for the new position yeah it came out I think I thought I had sent everybody the updated thing what I basically did was I booked 28 hours a week for the bookkeeper and it came out to a base pay of 47,000 by the time you put in taxes and all it came out to 51 755 questions you said you want a couple of questions yes I did yeah I just was working for clarity on the highway budget under winter saying you show that as a 37,500 dollars I guess you'd call it 2021 and then you have a figure in there for screening of 21,000 you have a savings some percentage and then the same thing on the trucking but with that winter stand there's no there's no value or when do you put a value in there for establishing the pit I mean you worked quite a while this spring on that you had hired help and I mean how I mean you won't have a savings I know you said four or five years you figured to get the standout but I mean is there any place that you put an accounting in for for establishing that we took it out of some budget items that but we didn't I don't have an ongoing thing for that there will be a savings in there it won't be this year because of the money we spent establishing that right you're saying like four or five years maybe you should have four or five years I understand that but how do you know if there's ever going to be a savings if you don't know how much cost you to establish but we do know how much we spend is there accounting of that somewhere that's what I've never I've never seen anything on it I see what you're saying and know that's not all written in one place like this is how much it cost us to do that I can go back and get those figures from everything we've done I mean I don't yeah that would I can do that for you okay the answer the answer Vic is we did not we did not capitalize it like we did not say we created a hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of value we believe we did but we're going to with our capital budget this year there will be put in there but it's not in but it's not in these numbers it's there but it's not in these numbers but we can certainly get you what the cost of opening the pet right or establishing okay thank you and then the other question I had is and correct me if I'm wrong and maybe that's what you need or what the town needs last year had that line item there for forty thousand dollars for an excavator trucks an operator right pitching and I know you put that out there and it said that you hadn't used it yet but I was under the impression last year at town meeting that that was a one-time thing but yet we're going back and doing it again this year even though we didn't use it and just well there's some different there's some different things in there we're not doing it exactly like that but I am going to be using or we will be using at least a portion of that money that was allocated last year and doing exactly what we were going to do but I wanted to do it like at the end of June and into the first of July so that we have our next fiscal year and doing a little bit more of that ditching yeah so and then I mean that's fine I mean that's logical to me and but so but you you feel I think it was said last year at town meeting that it was a catch-up thing so you in other words you want another thirty two thousand five hundred to catch up some more no that's not all that let me and I don't have all that those figures right in front of me bet okay I guess I need to I can get that folder and grow that whole thing with you okay all right thank you you're welcome so hey Peter while we're like this is Randy guess while we're on that whole topic I'm wondering if if the up-to-date budget that was put together is available to the general public and where I would need to go to look at what's included in all of this at this point the answer is we can send it to you okay I believe we can Dorinda can you send it to him yep thank you do have do you have his email I believe so okay yes we can send it to him we will send it to you right now so I really don't think unless somebody wants to but it's worthwhile at this point in time to go line by line through this budget I think the big potentially the big gorilla for tonight is if there is one is if we're comfortable with the two percent wage increase and are we comfortable with the money we have allocated for a financial person which is built into that that wages that wages line item also I think for me the answer on the financial person is as yet undetermined because we don't we have I guess Dorinda correct gotten in a couple of a couple of resumes but we are nowhere near ready to hire anybody so we don't know we don't know whether that's a realistic number or if it's way high I hope it I hope it is not way low the good news is we'll know we will know the answer to that question by the time we set our set our tax rate in July so we can make an adjustment that way if we save some money in that in that line out of Peter what about that $25,000 that we just got that thing this afternoon well that's that's yeah that's that's on my hit parade also I did want to talk about one other one other item on wages before before we deal with the with the Lister's email I have been trying to carefully look at you know where we are overall on wages where we are with the road crew where we are with the office people where we are with where we are with everybody and the one thing that keeps keeps popping up to me is that one of our most important people and I'm talking about Sarah who of course is on this call which makes the conversation a little awkward but it is what it is you know to me appears to be on the on the skinny side of the of the pay situation and I don't know what we what we do about that or what we think about or if other people other people feel feel the way I do Dorinda if you could just tell us tell us where that rate is now please currently it's 25 97 25 97 an hour which amounts to how much money total well I'd have to go back and I don't have the total annual in front of me I'd have to do the math because it's split out between two different departments and I think if we look at last year's book it you got the select board system is 22,000 463 right I'm just looking in town clerk is one there's 21 right that's with the 2% increase in there though that you're looking at right that is right so that's not with the 2% increase it would bring it at 2649 an hour and that's the totals that you're looking at I thought you were looking for color yes right yeah 32 hours a week yes I mean technically I don't know how people how people feel about that I did I did do some work last summer looking at this and I believe I determined and Sarah if I'm wrong tell me but from the numbers I could I could see and I could find out for the and it's very difficult to compare to other towns what what we pay versus what they pay because of course you know some are clerk treasurer some are clerks and select board assistants there it's it's all over the place but it does appear for for full time four days a week we're on the low side and that that hourly rate is on the low side compared to what others are what others are bang how much lower on average it's all over the place Mary but I was I was thinking I was thinking of proposing a a dollar an hour increase for both those physicians for the in addition to the 2% if you do it if you do a dollar an hour without the 2% it's like a 50 cent is roughly the 2% increase and then we'd be doing another 50% or another 50 cents excuse me but I was thinking I was thinking the 2% plus a dollar I mean with a lot of help from other people she's the glue that that holds our town together I'm not ashamed to say that in front of her bring it to 2749 I'm sorry do you mean bringing it to 2749 and 2% plus a dollar yes and a dollar plus 2% if you do the dollar first and then the 2% it changes that a little bit a little more so that so the total the total cost of the dollar would be roughly 38 dollars a week times 52 weeks just to do it by my slum dog way of thinking so it isn't it isn't in the big ebb and flow of things a lot of money more than anything else I think it's it's making a statement to her about how much we appreciate her and value the work she does for us I agree whole-heartedly that we bring it to 2751 an hour you okay with that yeah yeah yeah yeah okay thank you guys that's very nice of you thank you your efforts more than more than yeah whatever and I wouldn't say that's that's enough either hopefully that's a step in the right direction so then to deal with the bombshell I got to get the right piece of paper in front of me we got that email from the Listers literally at the last meeting at the last minute before this meeting I know saying now and I am confused so Amy was Amy and Sarah were on the zoom when I first came on before anyone else came on and I asked Amy this question and I got a very confusing a very confusing answer because my memory is when the Listers presented their budget they said that the cost of this software would not be in next year's budget meaning the budget were considering now but the following year and she is saying no that they all along expected to have this cost in there but yet they didn't put anything in their budget requests to even an estimate of what this would be they just hit us at the last minute with a with a bombshell and none of them are available this evening to talk to us the evening we're trying to find our budget so hey I don't understand my misunderstanding I'd be curious to know what what other people remember of what was said I know that was almost two months ago my notes agree with you I have no idea I had no idea that there was a chance that we were going to have a $25,000 additional request from the Listers and I do understand and I don't have this year's budget update but my memory is from when I when I looked at it last that there's a significant savings like 12 or $14,000 in what we budgeted this year for wages versus what the wages are going to be so her point was that's going to pay pay a portion of that but that doesn't help us with our budget I mean our fund balance may go up a little bit if we were lucky enough to end up at the end of the year not spending that money somewhere else but that's a big chunk of money to get presented with at the absolute last minute so looking for my Listers on what page is that on right they don't have a budget itself it's just Lister wages Elias said his notes were the same as yours Peter so I'm a little and I'm trying to be I'm a little miffed at our at our Listers because if they knew this was coming why didn't they why didn't they tell us and she acted tonight like well you know this is beyond our control well I don't think it's beyond their control they knew they knew it was coming I understand they got the final number at the last minute but the hit us with $25,000 15 minutes before our meeting begins I think is a little tough maybe more than a little tough and I'm a little upset that that they don't think it's important enough that they can come and talk to us about it they don't have do they have to have that software yes they say I mean I read I read the email all I know is what I read the email Amy really wouldn't tell me anything else you just confused me she didn't help me it and I speak they said anything it says it has to be implemented by July of 2022 but in her letter it says she's only asking for 15 because she plans on using the balance out of this year's budget if they sign the contract before June 30th of the current year they will have that money left over because right now they're only at they're at a very low portion they aren't anywhere near what they budgeted for this I understand that so yes I understand I understand that they hope to sign the contract by the end of this year that we're in and spend that extra money there so all they are all we're increasing next year's budget is 15,000 correct okay I just wanted to clarify that you're you're right I mean you're reading the letter the same way I but I guess the bottom line is we have to do it we have to do it I think yeah but you know I don't know I don't know what it is about the way the listers operate but it doesn't make me very happy the only comment I made to her was it's a hell of a way to run a railroad and I tried not to say it in a snarky way but anyway well we are painting the first payment being made in this budget year or is that what she's saying in her email Mary but you know but I have a chance to really talk to her or confirm that well I mean she's wants to add 15 to next year but I expecting us to to have the other money available in this fiscal year well they're hoping my understanding is they're hoping to sign the contract this year and use the balance that's in this year's budget as a down payment or I don't know I don't know how they think they're gonna work and we have to be you know I can tell you and and Dorenda will tell you also we sign a contract for $25,000 this year our auditor's gonna put it all into this year whether we pay it or not right Dorenda well you can I don't think the whole expense will go in if we're only expensing 50% of it this year I don't think the whole expense will all show in this year because I believe the way the contract reads is it would be 50% down and 50% balance I think that's how it works I will hold me to it but I think that's what it is okay well there's there's two different things going on right there's the software license and then there's the cost of having all of the land records entered into the new system is that correct they're they're asking for the full conversion where right that all gets entered they don't have to sit I mean her and again all all I've got paper I got a chance to ask any questions nobody had any time to talk to me it's a little frustrating but they're recommending that we go with the $25,000 version because we'll save in wages the cost of records yes yeah so Dorenda if you plug in so there's the other question if she's thinking there's $14,000 to spend from this year's budget then all of a sudden she's up to $30,000 no she's planning on using 10 out of this year's leftover money and 15 from us into the next year's budget is that what it says in there Steve I miss that yeah I think so yeah all right okay but now make our budget what makes it a 5.39% increase how much is the school this year beats the heck out of me who knows I ask a question from the budget committee what would happen if you put off this purchase until a year from now I don't I mean and again I was trying to ask her those questions because that's when I thought it was gonna happen that was my understanding of what we were told before and she just had no no good answer for that Sarah did you understand anything any different than what I understood from that short conversation I did not and I did send the listers the agenda and the zoom information so they could participate in this meeting and they are not so it's not like she told us that they couldn't I asked her that so I don't I don't understand it that well at all it seems to me as though I don't know I try to get I also don't understand if we are if we had allocated money for the Nemricks camera then is that offsetting this cost since we won't be using the Nemricks software but I couldn't get an answer on that wasn't that in the letter as well how it would offset it I thought I thought I saw something she mentioned something about the Nemricks camera camera well I don't see that anywhere you know yeah I didn't see it I mean I think you're right somewhere down the road it's the last sentence we will yeah somebody read it I can't I don't have it right in front of me it says we will negotiate to reduce the cost of the annual software maintenance since we will have three users at most and to have the support and maintenance cost deferred for a few months more over together with the cloud hosting costs these ongoing support and maintenance costs will be offset will be offset the annual fees we are currently paying Nemricks and are already in the FY 2 2022 budget yeah that sounds like mumbo jumbo to me yeah I think that any words I would think that the Nemricks has to be continued for a period of time while the conversion is happening you're going to have to run parallel systems and I mean George had asked what if we put it off a year which you know as was one of the first things I thought about too but if if the state is moving to this system we have to be a part of that to be able to generate tax bills to you know for the grand list and all of that so this is one of those cases where I don't think we've got a lot of choice I'd like to see the state actually become proactive if you're going to do something like this and tell everybody you have to participate then the state ought to just pay for it and give us a user name and a login and we all use them and we're paying for taxes one way or another they should be able to negotiate a hell of a deal as opposed to each of us doing this town by town by town by town so but you know I've been down that road before and don't ever get anywhere so but anyway I don't I just don't see where we've got a choice or a really a path toward deferring the cost because we've got to we we've got to get all those land records in there and be up to speed when the state goes live so yeah this would be my thing guys unfortunately and I hate this but I think we put it in the budget just the way they requested it and that doesn't mean we spend the money that way that doesn't mean we follow that plan we we've got some questions that need to be answered before we go ahead with this and authorize them to uh to sign that contract so if it's yeah absolutely we don't spend it we don't spend it I don't know can I just ask a question I what did you put in um Darinda did you put in 25k or 15k I put in 15 yeah okay and that made it up to that brought it up to five percent okay yeah well that's five percent because we also just changed the wages so that's yeah so you've already added it to this budget not the one that you've got I'm adding it as you guys talk okay gotcha is that going to be a separate line item or where are you going to put it I will create a separate line item for it but right now I just put it in under computer maintenance yeah this is fun isn't it I'm gonna have to have a cocktail if we do this for too much longer yes Randy so uh Phil was mentioning you know running parallel systems anytime you're trans you're transposing information over to a new system you've obviously got to run the two systems side by side hearing the conversation here I would be worried that the numbers actually match up to what they're asking for and what we're putting in the budget because if they're counting on savings from the existing system to buy down the cost of that twenty five thousand dollar contract I don't I don't believe that that's going to be the case I don't think that was the case Randy I think you were counting on that uh offsetting their their annual maintenance cost right on the road and not necessarily anything to do with that twenty five thousand but I think that the point is well taken that we might have double maintenance costs for some period of time yeah I agree with Randy yeah and I don't know how we account for those other because they haven't given us any indication what they're going to be well we've got some we've got some work to do between now on now and June and I don't know what our uh our authority is to tell them how they do this you know this this is where we run into that question of can we tell them how to do it or do they tell us how they're gonna do it you know why do you say that Peter what because we don't have their election directly supervise them I don't believe no you know they present their they present their budget and we we approve it or we don't and they they they do their own I mean it's that's the way that's the way it works unfortunately so it's a little difficult I mean and I would tell you uh trying to and I'm not going in any personalities here but let's let's put it this way they're difficult to deal with difficult to talk to different difficult to get straight answers difficult so being recorded I know that's why I'm trying to be polite but I I agree with you Peter that we you know we've got a lot of things to figure out about this but I think for now you know putting in the 15 and you know it's there for right now it's a placeholder we try to get as much information as we can before decisions are actually made um you know about what we're gonna do but I agree with you I don't I don't think there's a whole lot of latitude that we have but they're they're elected on their own not appointed by us and they are charged with a certain task and they're saying that's what they need for money to do it so I think we go forward so I think we're I think we're beating a dead horse I think we I think we put it in there um I was hoping to keep I was hoping to keep this under five percent but yep I can live I can live with a five point one I can defend it five point three nine okay okay so live with a five point three nine during the thank you maybe we can I can't round that down to five if you want to start cutting somewhere I'm just teasing you yeah we should what's the what's the number Dorinda it is one three nine five two three eight peanuts compared to the school budget not that that has anything to do with anything but we you know when we this budget reflects the fact that we took all the numbers that were submitted and we were supposed to spend this session going over and cutting what we thought might be excessive so um what would you like to cut Mary well that's the point I don't really know what to cut but what I'm saying is that everybody who kept notes maybe there are some people who said well this looks like it's a little bit too much this looks like it's a little bit too too low you know because you would I would just Maya I don't disagree with you Mary but all I'm saying is I think we're I think we're talking about peanuts and I know I give I know I give this speech every year but this is a budget this is a plan this isn't you know we're not counting the roles of paper towel and toilet paper and hand soap we're trying to look at the at the high level picture and I think the people have presented us you know most of the spending 85 percent of the spending is is stuff which is directly in our in our control and oversight the roads being the biggest thing so if you're talking about if you're talking about cuts basically we've got to cut the the highway services or we've got to cut or we've got to cut the wages that's the only place there's any real money that's going to make a difference it's true well that is true I mean that's that's the way I feel I don't know how everybody else feels I don't know how the budget committee feels but you know we can we can go down line by line and say we can cut a hundred dollars there and fifty dollars there and twenty dollars there and I'm not sure we're gonna come up with anything that amounts to anything but others may others may disagree and I'm happy to listen we discussed it at our budget committee meeting before this and we didn't have any brilliant ideas for how to drop the numbers a little yeah you know who knows we're you know we're gonna have a we're gonna have a different kind of different kind of town meeting this year with informational meetings in Australian ballot there's always a chance for the first time in history and I hate to think this that the budget would get turned down who knows I'd be with that with with that and with a little hesitancy in my voice is somebody willing to make a motion select board members so move Mary yeah second I second okay so this budget doesn't include um the um the petitioned items the non petitioned items you know it does not so it's going to be a this is the town budget without all those items that's all right correct so it's 5.39 and when we add those Sarah do we know what those total those add-ons no and we're not the you know they haven't told about the 14th I believe to submit well that would be what they'd submit for petition articles um so I don't know it's weird this year because there are no petitions but so far we're looking we're it's kind of it's kind of funky in that with some of the big names have not shown up um and that includes the Waterbury senior center um the who else hasn't shown up how about the library so the oh the library showed up um but and the central Vermont uh hospice showed up it said 4,055 the conservation commission reduced their budget requests to to 2,500 though so they have it um so we may not have as many big ticket ticket items as before weirdly enough so but aren't we um allowing all of the ones under $200 to be on there automatically they were on that's the same policy you've had every all throughout your history which is that if you're under 250 bucks all you have to do is just a letter saying you'd like that but this year we didn't even require the letter we were just going to put them on anyway not so well every week we require some I think everybody needs to send a letter yeah I think we need it for our records we can't just automatically you know we have to request but as for the the big ticket items the rule the rule you guys approved last fall was that if you'd been on the warning in 2020 for a special article which is something over 250 bucks that you did not need to solicit a petition as long as you were asking for the same amount so I'm a little surprised that um you know we're missing a few we still have community connections that's $3,000 um and I know that the North Branch Nature Center is currently circulating petitions and they have until the 14th to get that in so I don't know how much they're going to ask for but something like the Central Monte Economic Development Corporation has not they haven't submitted their petition uh or they haven't submitted the request Peter take care of that and and neither they'll be they'll be submitting don't you worry and neither has waterberry so all you know they all they need to do is a letter so I'm surprised they haven't gotten those in yet how about the senior center in Montpelier they submit up like they have no you're talking about a magnitude of like $70,000 if I remember correctly from last year that's pretty much it randy yeah about 60 to 70 thousand dollars so what's the deadline Sarah again the 14th the 14th if we're going by the old petition deadline yes okay I think North Branch is going to ask for 2000 that's what someone had asked me they said me do you think the town would pass a 2000 yeah I don't know well guys not to not to cut off the discussion but truly what we need to do is approve the budget that we have control over right now those those things are going to be whatever they are so Peter can I can I just interject one thing seems like we do have the biggest budget and and uh Victor brought the thing up about the specialized services I left it in that area however I just went back into my budget stuff and looking in there I had 12,500 in there for this coming year for a subcontractor to do some ditching and I also had mud mitigation in there $20,000 for a subcontractor to do seems how a lot of people in the town didn't like us doing it because it it took us away from our regular maintenance so to speak so those items are in there so there's 32,500 if you want to cut that well like I said that's that's the only place we can I mean that in wage is the only place we can cut so I don't know how people feel do we want to do we want to nudge it down under what would what would it take to render to get us down under five percent so Steve are you saying take out the entire specialized service line well we I put that in there um because we had no other place but we've done mud mitigation before I don't know where we put it in our budget um but I'm saying it was under construction before I believe okay so anyway these so I left it in there in the specialized services for whatever reason but again there I've got 12,500 in there for ditching we've already got some money in there we lost him we lost you Steve he's frozen up yep no I think it's I think it's uh it could be Lee Roseburger he's still there is everybody there there yes the the conservation commission was attempting to sign in to create a new meeting so that wasn't it right this year back back okay um oh let me take out the 12,500 okay that would bring the budget down to 4.45 ooh okay could I just bring up one more little wait a minute wait a minute $12,000 reduces the budget no it's $32,000 $32,500 Peter no no $12,500 $12,500 that's all you added in basically for um the listers was $15,000 so you know that you basically need to take the $15,000 out so I did $12,500 and that brought it down to 4.45 I like that number a lot better um can I just um bring up one more cost that maybe and maybe it's not even my place to do it but I've been corresponding a little bit with the fire department about the the firefighter equipment grant through FEMA and if the it just opened yesterday the grant portal and it's basically available for one month um although come to think of it I think that would then be this fiscal year the match it's a small match it's five percent of non-federal funds um and I think they said something about the cost of those air tanks would be around 40 to 50,000 so you're talking about you know two to 2,500 as a match but that would be this year's budget because I think the grant starts and the award is in April but I they call the fiscal year 20 grants um well I would tell you we could get $40,000 worth of air tanks for $2,500 we'll find that money somehow all right so I will let them know that's not a worry and that they should go ahead and apply oh tell them to worry but tell them to apply yeah don't say anything about yeah just tell them to apply Peter I can ask you how does so Steve just I mean that's a relatively small amount of money out of the road budget but the bottom line is that's doable and it's not adversely going to affect well no there's there's I mean I had a 20,000 in there for mud mitigation the way I had this thing figured but I can change that around a little bit I think we need to do more ditching but I mean we can survive with that do we excuse me do we still have some of that extra 40,000 that was voted last year we have all of that all of that we have all of it we haven't used to get George so could that be used yes that is one of the statements I did before by intent was to use part of that money or as much as I could prior to July one and then continue on with the contractor past July one to get a lot of ditching done okay that was the intent well maybe we can get a little more done earlier and spend it out of this year's budget where we have the money if we do yeah you're good so Steve I just had a question about uh with the mud mitigation that you had in the special services line item yeah I noticed that the the road gravel purchase is up like 95 almost 95% over last year and I'm just curious to understand if part of that purchase for the road gravel was was for some of that mud mitigation work or if that was all inclusive no that yes part of it is for the mud mitigation that wasn't all inclusive that was and I got a note right here in my stuff brandy I had that mud mitigation subcontractor equipment only for 20 000 so that that maybe if that work isn't going to be done then I guess where I was going with that is that could potentially be some more savings well yes that could be but we we need some gravel in this town that's for sure I don't dispute that okay so anything I can get for for gravel purchases I'm going to take but anyway yes I see your point one of the things that that we can do if we're unable to spend the forty thousand dollars which is in this year's budget is buy a bunch of gravel and and stock pilot at the town garage yes and you know believe me we're going to use that gravel we can use every bit of gravel we can get is the bottom line yep Peter yes wasn't or Steve wasn't he didn't you say which is a good idea I'm not that you saved 27 000 in sand winter sand and you're kind of putting that towards gravel which I thought was fairly prudent isn't that how that got that way yes that's that's some gravel in there yes kind of trading sands for gravel or gravel which is a good idea I mean yes we can use more gravel on a road anyway yes we can't have too much we have some of that slimy ground up slate um so where we are it's been moved in either I accept me just a secondary so where we are right now just to be clear is it's been moved and seconded to approve the budget at a million three ninety five two thirty eight since then we have had discussion about reducing that by 12 500 per Steve's discussion so uh we need to amend the motion or I accept the amendment okay I do accept the amendment Phil yeah okay so now any any further discussion okay so let's so the budget is now Duranda can you give me the new number one million three eighty two seven thirty eight and the percentage four four four point four five yeah I like that better thank you Steve yep okay all in favor of the motion all of us at some point I just was asking Duranda will send us the updated spreadsheet sure of course you will okay all those in favor of the motion please say aye raise your right hand whatever aye aye any any opposed okay we have a budget thank you Phil is that your did you get the surgery on your hand yeah I had the surgery on the 23rd of December so you said I saw I thought I saw some wrappings around yeah this is they just put this cast on today I came out of the surgical splint early this afternoon then they put this one on great I hope and so it sounds like it went well the surgery went well yeah there's a there's a pin in there that's fairly long keeping everything in place that actually hurts a lot more than the incision or the area where they they took the bones out but uh I'll live well when you're ready Phil I can take that out in my shop we'll just stretch you out on the workbench give you a little bourbon and I'll take that pin right out of there for you no problem no problem your rates got to be better than the doctor okay guys so we're we're behind schedule here and we've got some uh we've got some mountains to climb thank you very much uh budget committee for your uh for your work and uh collaboration on this okay you're welcome can I appreciate the support thanks thanks for all your work so uh now we're gonna move ahead to our to our regular meeting and the first item is considering whether to send middle sex voters postcards ASAP alerting them of petition requirements for candidates and that the town meeting will be by Australian ballot and also I believe and I'm not sure I picked the right agenda because I think there was a an amended agenda that brought up the issue of uh informational meetings and I think we should set the date of at least one of the informational meetings so we can put it on the postcard if we're gonna send out the postcard good idea um this is was one of my neighbors strongly encouraged that we mail out um Australian I mean that that we mail out ballots to every single person so that we have ensure you know that so that we don't make it hard for people to to vote um I address this Peter sure so Liz towns do not currently have the statutory authority to do that um we are all the town clerk's been going back and forth the legislature just came into town today right or is it next right so they have the legislature was supposed to pick that up in December and they didn't and so the considering considering the lateness of the hour most of the towns are just sending out postcards like you got in the summer saying you know this please please call this please send it back this postcard so that you can uh get on the town get a get a absentee ballot okay so do you think that the um that the legislature is not going to vote on this I think I think that the um I think that if we wait until January 19th to find out whether which is your next select board meeting to figure out whether or not they're going to do that and we set it out it's going to be really late if we can send out post I'm thinking that if you guys approve um this tonight including whether or not there is return postage for the for the postcards I forget whether or not the secretary of state's office had that we can uh have those postcards ready to go on Monday um so if we send out the postcard does that mean that I mean I obviously want to send out a postcard but does that mean that um there's that that we would it would be unlikely that we would do a um town-wide mailing because we just get too confusing for people because they got one message in the postcard originally I think that the postcard solves two problems one it gives people a heads up about what's going on with town meeting you know because a lot of people if we just send out ballots to everyone we're also going to have to send out postcards or something of pride letting people know um that there is going to be no in-person meeting the other um the other thing is I think that a lot of voters are already tuned in for this we got a huge turnout for the august primary using those postcards and people were even though they knew that the secretary of state's office was mailing everybody in November 3rd general election ballot they still mail back their postcards to say I also want to be on the November I want a November 3rd general election ballot so I I don't know I mean it's up to you guys what you want to do I just think that waiting for the legislature is a little risky but that postcard is the same one that we got that actually has our name on it and we return it to you and say yes we want it right I'm using the same template that the secretary of state's office is is uh yeah and I'm going to redo the words with information that you guys want to have on on the um on the car and you know and then and then people will send it back I'm already getting requests for absentee people it's we have I have it on the website so people have already been asking I I I just think that I think it'll be a lot of a lot of information pretty confusing if we're doing everything back and forth it seems like a lot of work for you is it not more work for you to just be mailing them out piecemeal I'm just curious I think that mailing out 14 1475 absentee ballots to people who do not want absentee ballots is a waste of time and money and resources I do think that letting people know through postcards that we're doing this is really valuable because among other things we'll tell them that you can run for office without a petition you know so we at this point cannot statutorily do it we do not have that legal authority thank you so I think the bottom line is I think we definitely need to do the postcards I think we need to have pick a date for the informational meeting so we can put that on the postcard and if all of a sudden the ledger legislature passes something and the whole world changes then we can figure out if we want to do something else but uh I am I am I am getting every time I am out in public people are asking what about town meeting what about town meeting what about town meeting they want to know so uh we've made our decision and I think we need to let the community know that but but uh she also mentioned she Sarah mentioned that we should tell people they can run without having to get a petition that's are you proposing we put that on there too Sarah well that's what she that's up for you guys to decide but I mean that is what that is one of the key changes is that all you have to do is file a re submit a consent of candidate form the one that Berlin sent out basically says there's there's no in-person town meeting we're doing uh ballots they'll be available you can request an absentee ballot now and we'll send them as soon as you get them town reports will be available in the middle of February and if you want to run for office you need to just submit you don't need a petition but you need to submit a consent of candidate form by 5 p.m. January 25th that's all it says so if you guys don't want to put that on there so who who's out for a reelection uh peter and steve um well i just did the warning let me see uh let's see uh the treasurer is up for reelection because that's a one-year office the collector of delinquent taxes is up that's a one-year office uh we have several members of the budget committee that are who are up of the moderators is up there is a lister position that'll be available um that was that's occupied by dick alderman uh let's see he's not running again no we haven't heard a i haven't heard anything from dick and i don't expect to uh the cemetery commission uh the post currently there's a position currently held by jennet mckinstree is up uh on the planning commission uh sannie levine's uh position is up for reelection and so is mitch oh shekies and i think they um i don't know about the grandeur i think the select board can appoint a grandeur i don't think that the town age or it's vice versa well i guess at some point the legislature got rid of either the grandeur or the town agent but i think that can be elected by the select board i i've got to get a clarification of that from this voice would move to have todd dalos be the grandeur at the beginning and the meeting one of the first items right let's just like people move to alex susan clark but now susan clark is going to have to submit a consent of candidate form and have her name on the ballot yeah so i think that i think grandeur has to do that yeah yeah so my recommendation would be i want to make this process as open and public and me too whatever it can be i think we put it on there running for running for office you need to sign a consent form and submit it by the due date yeah i agree i agree so i think the only other thing then of what we want to put on there is the informational meetings correct and that needs to be so the question the gigantic question on the informational meeting is how many people are going to want to participate and how we and how we control that and i don't susan clark i don't know if you have any any thoughts about how that could go but we need to schedule one meeting at least within 10 days of the town meeting and my concern is as much as i don't really expect this to happen and if all of a sudden we have a hundred people who want to participate in a in a zoom informational meeting it's going to be a circus but maybe i don't know what do you think um let's see i mean i think i i think um that there might be 100 or 150 or more people that would like to sit in on an informational meeting i don't think it has to be a circus i think that um you can i mean i i think it wouldn't be a bad idea to find somebody in middle sex who has the expertise to be the you know one or two people who could be sort of the tech person for the call to make sure that um there's somebody in charge of you know troubleshooting any tech issues that people are having somebody who knows how to make sure that everybody is muted and uh and and then unmute them if they use the hand raising you know there's some tools i think that the regular um system can can can use to have this because because it really is it's not a town meeting it's an informational meeting which is really different it's more like a public hearing where you guys are it's the select board that runs it it's it's your meeting um and you know you can make presentations and then have a q and a session so it's it's really not you know the people's meeting the way a town meeting is um so so you can have way more control what about uh even deal with i mean i'm i'm looking at the screen on my laptop here and we have two four six eight ten twelve fourteen people we had 25 people the little images would be really small if we had 125 people what'll happen is there'll be there you can scroll through screens there'll be like this screen and then there'll be the next screen next screen next screen but um you can have somebody in charge of um the the raised hand function that would and all of all of the names would appear um in their toolbox and um so they could you know inform whoever it is who's who's running the meeting um you know okay the next person in in q is you know joe smith um and so the it i do think it takes a team um you know somebody who's monitoring the the raised hand function somebody who's monitoring people who dial in because they're having trouble getting in through zoom or you know somebody who's troubleshooting some of the tech stuff but um uh uh you know there are people who do um this stuff all the time with hundreds literally hundreds you know 300 what about our guy from uh who lives over near the cemetery that does our our virtual stuff well he doesn't know virtual but he's done all our sound stuff at the time being Bennett yeah hi guys i'm i'm i'm gonna interrupt you i i think we've got i think we've got time to figure out how we work on this i think what we need to do tonight is is set a date and uh what are we thinking sarah have you got a calendar in front of you by any chance my sure do and can i just add one other thing that i would love to see on the postcard i think that it's a great idea to to set the date for the informational meeting so that that can be on the postcard um and you know obviously the date and place and time for the you know ballot voting um and calling it ballot voting it might be a good idea not everybody knows what Australian ballot means um but um i think it would be great to just make it clear somewhere in small print that it's um this is this was emergency legislation that was passed because of COVID and that this is a one-year uh you know so just to make it clear to people who are reading the postcard that this isn't like a change that middle six you know it is making a lot of talented doing this for one year i think that's a good idea mentioning COVID yeah i mentioned the COVID so how about a date sarah okay so if you're gonna get you do how to first of all do you have one to have one or two informational meetings i think we schedule one if we get overwhelmed we can schedule a second one somehow i would be my that would be my thinking based on what what susan has told us well i imagine we would have more than a hundred people we'll record it as well right so the um my recommendation is that you hold it the last tuesday before town meeting which would be that's not ten days two what that's not ten days is it doesn't have to be within ten days yeah within i think yeah that's be within yeah right so that's be within ten days so that would be the 23rd of February okay can i just make a comment i find that ridiculous because with with all the absentee ballots people will have already voted and it's like because they're afraid their ballots not going to get to the town clerks in time and so they're going to submit their ballot on february second and then either not come to the meeting because they've already voted so are we sure about that it has to be held well i'm gonna be ridiculous well most mostly like this let the school board holds their informational meeting they always have uh like the monday before i know but most people come in and vote they don't do it you're just saying this i just um i'm just making a point that that's i'm not happy with maybe we have to have two and the first one will be attended and the second one will be very very small like the school board one is i don't see why we can't have an informational meeting open to the public why does have to be and then we have another one that is within this tent like what mary just said what do you mean by up into the public list they're all going to be up into the public yeah so how can there be like is the state really saying that we as a town cannot hold a warned meeting that invites the public to talk about whatever you can they're just saying that you must hold an informational meeting within 10 that's all they're not saying you can't discuss you're discussing it right now they can't think you just that you must hold at least an informational meeting within 10 days well i think personally then we should have because this is a special year i think then we should have two meetings but that's just my opinion one that's earlier that that that allows people to ask questions and talk before they vote and then after that point i think most people the people who are going to vote absentee are going to vote before the 10 days i agree so i think that's a good idea i want to ask whether we're going to send out the town report because i think that one people should have the town report before they go to an informational meeting well i mean you're asking for a lot because the so the i can't put out the town report i don't think it is a wise idea to put out the town report especially this year without the ballot in it we have always traditionally put out the town report with the ballot in it so that means waiting until the 25th of january most towns are not putting out their town their town reports are hitting are becoming public like in the middle of february so that's the that's the fine line we're walking of course we have a statutory obligation have it i think within 10 days of the town of town meet before 10 days before town meeting or else we have to take out an ad in the paper with the morning but it would be great if we get everybody could have a town report by february first but realistically that's almost impossible so what what date are you saying it's likely that everybody would have a town report well well i'm suggesting is let's let's set up a second informational meeting five days or seven days or whatever after you think the town report's going to be out and that's what i think i think that marica is going to probably our goal is to get submit the town report to jet set printing or whatever they are by by january 28 when we do that that town report will be available in pdf version on our website as it always is in that day so theoretically if you have a if you have web access you'll be able to go onto the middle sex Vermont website and read the whole town report on january 28 when that report gets delivered by um jet service to all the voters is another question i mean where we're all the towns come at the exact same time as you know i mean we've got we're queued up but there's nothing special about us we all have the same deadlines so give me a date sarah what do you think i think the town report will hit mailbox as if we're lucky on february 13th okay well that's that's better than you know scheduling a meeting for the 15 16 17th of february is a lot better than doing it eight days before before town meeting so quick a day so here's what i suggest i think suggest that you guys pick a non-traditional date for or maybe with zoom it doesn't matter you could do you could do tuesday the 16th and then meet again and then hold another meeting on the 23rd those are two tuesdays in a row the 23rd fulfills the statutory obligation and the 16th fulfills the realistic obligation that sounds good to me does that make you happier list yes torinda just out of curiosity i looked up what it meant by the term within so many days and i almost think it means it has to be done by the 10th day depending on how you read it because it's saying if you say something has to be done within seven days that means that the first remer the first refers to the actual date and then it's seven days where today is zero it's really really aggravating i totally agree with you it's very unclear i know that the i know that that's why the school board holds it right within the meeting i mean it's like the same thing with warning must be done within you know 10 days of uh for a bond vote my if you guys do it on the 16th and the 23rd you will have covered all your bases you will have given everybody plenty of information uh within close to the town meet close to town meeting when people are more interested and you'll also have you know give the early voters enough time to talk and discuss so you're i think you're playing it really safe by holding two informational meetings that way all right you wonder the ballot's going to be ready sorry that's what i'm going to have someone you'll be sending the ballots out well uh you know i've uh i've talked to john jess jess emet or what his name is john at jet set printing we have to wait until the 25th when all the can't when at 5 p.m the candidates are done i assume we're going to send the draft ballots out on the 26th of july to the printer how fast john can turn that around i don't know i would assume he'll probably take him about you know again what his schedule is going to be it's going to take him about four to five days to turn around so i would assume that we would probably in our good if we're lucky we would be mailing ballots out february second february first or february second okay so yeah i think that's the best we can do guys yeah i guess it is yeah i mean i was going to say have it sooner it's good to know what what's the date you think the the uh the town report will be on the on the website sarah the 28th of january yeah so that so if somebody calls up and says gee i need to vote now because i'm leaving for florida and i'm nervous about the mail getting there we can say well you can look at the town report on the website and then we'll say to him what the hell are you doing going to florida you're supposed to stay home i just wondered if we didn't want to do it even sooner than the 16th i'm wondering but you know you're asking i mean i just don't know how many people are everybody reads the town report who's going to vote i think but i don't know if people are going to go on the website and look at that well why don't you cancel the only way they can get it mary they will i think the 16th and the 23rd are two good dates and that covers everything there's all your breezes yep so sarah do most people who get an absentee ballot send it in right as soon as they get it i mean you'll have kind of thoughts about that i would say before 2020 the people who voted by absentee ballot for town meeting were regulars who were going to florida or they had kids in school and they didn't want to go to town meeting and they were you know very regular voters everything has changed so i i don't i don't know what to expect i don't know i personally think that like i i get the feeling that people are going to go i mean what is it three weeks i don't know are people going to hold on to their ballots and say oh i can't wait for this meeting um or do we want to have it sort of timed so that it's not you know 10 days after they've gotten their ballot and their um guys i think i think all right fine just do it the 16th i just think we need to make a decision i'm not i'm not trying to cut off discussion but i think we're trying we're talking about things that we just don't know how it's going to go it is going to be whatever it is i think we make we've got to make a good faith effort to get the best information out to people as soon as they can and give them the opportunity to attend informational meetings and hope they do uh whether they do or not is going to be a question i think we need to uh i i agree with susan clark on two things number one i think we need to find and think about quickly because these people are going to be in demand who we're going to ask to be the technical people behind the scenes uh to run these zoom meetings and i think the other thing we need to work on when we have some time but you know we need to put together uh an organized presentation for these informational meetings i just don't want to have it be you know you've all got the town reports anybody have any questions you know that's going to be a downer of a informational meeting so uh well susan can help us with that i have i have some ideas about it but uh you know it needs to be it needs to be a presentation with lots of opportunity for questions i guess that's what i'm saying but it can't just be like you know we have had public hearings in the past where we say well you know here are the new zoning regulations everybody's read them over anybody have any questions well no that isn't going to work i don't think well phil was nice enough one year to write up a summary for us so maybe we can talk him into doing that again i'm looking at you phil to see if your what your response is going to be yeah i can do that well but i but i think it needs to be more than that mary yeah i think it needs to be you know like all of us divided up and we talk about different i i don't know how we do it we've got time to think about it but i i envision this being a good and and you know phil's thing an overview of the budget is great but whether it's phil or you mary or me or whoever it is should be ready to talk about it and ready to answer questions that's all i'm saying i agree so i think what we're hearing and i hope somebody's going to make a motion um we're going to do the postcards we've discussed what the information is going to be on the postcards i didn't hear any uh any disagreement on that and the the two items that we agreed to add were one uh a covid statement explaining that this is a one year special special deal and also the fact that we're going to put the line in there about if you're interested in running for public office what you need to do right somebody ready to make that motion i'll make that motion okay in a second please i'll second thank you phil all in favor of the motion i won't restate it all since i already just did please say hi hi any opposed okay then you're happy sarah i hope i just well you know we didn't do the dates i just want to just be clear the date the date should be in the motion yes i'm sorry the motion to the dates at five p.m is that what we're doing five p.m at uh or do you want to set the informational meetings at a certain time what do you what do you want to do so there's the old devilish questions susan clark whether it's better to have it late in the afternoon before dinner or after dinner it is a devilish question and then i think that sarah nailed it when she said everything's different now um you know certainly back in the day people had to be be at work and then they came home from work and then they went to meetings and nowadays everybody works at home if they work at all so i um you know i your call um i i think with families we don't you know kids and stuff like that i think we should be in the evening i i think we should um have it be at five thirty or six like maybe we start our meeting and we have a meeting for a half an hour and then people join at five thirty or something well if you remember our town meetings we have some people who are there right at four thirty and then we have people dribbling in you know for an hour hour and a half um because they're coming home from work so um and and people work still like that i you know we have jobs during the day so i think we should have to be in the evening but also there are people in our town who have to be in their jobs in town not everybody can work at home right full of that right well maybe we do how about this maybe we do one one meeting earlier and one meeting later i mean i also don't mind five thirty or six i think anything earlier than five is too early so if if you think five thirty or six is the magic time that's that's fine for me that gives you time to feed your kids an early supper and come to the meeting and for those of us who eat a little later we won't starve to death we don't eat until seven thirty or eight o'clock i don't know six and i say um let's turn it to six o'clock yeah i guess we'll go home both of them at six o'clock i think we have different times i think we're likely to confuse people that's the only thing that worries me about yeah let's do six o'clock booktimes and they'll be recorded so people are really interested they can watch the recording at their leisure there you go you might want to include something oh sorry i just had an idea that um just as you're going to record the meetings um you might want to think about ahead of the meetings putting on front porch forum you know reminding people that these meetings are happening and if they want to submit questions ahead of time um they could email them um so that you guys know the kinds of questions people are are likely to have and maybe that means that then great idea they can't attend the meeting they know their question will be in the recording later no that's i mean definitely we should do the front porch forum thing um do we want to put something and i know we just approved the postcard but do we want to put something on the postcard saying you'll be able to submit uh questions in advance of the meetings postcard is going to get pretty crowded can i yeah how about if i can fit it in we'll fit it in i'm going to design a postcard tomorrow so okay otherwise it's a good idea Susan plus it plus it's likely that we'll get better answers if we have a chance to think about the questions beforehand okay so i know that was a little convoluted but you've you've got that sarah the dates the times uh 6 p.m on february 16th and february 23rd via zoom yeah email questions submitted in advance okay sarah this is a question do you want to put the zoom address on that yeah i i will i'm not going to put it in the minutes but i'm going to fiddle around with the postcards well what i mean is the zoom instruction so that that postcard is their way in yep got it in my got it in my i wouldn't make oversight if they said you could zoom but they don't know how to get in there the only thing i so here's my thought about that if there's one thing i don't like about zoom is if you've got printed out the zoom address ending the entering that zoom address and getting it correct with all the gobbledygook that goes into one of those zoom addresses is confusing i i think uh i think somehow we want to send out send out an email or post it on the website so people can click on it i will do that too i like i just find entering entering a whole zoom address correct so i can't do i can't just physically cannot create an email list for the town that's just that's just gonna that's a whole new database and some people don't but i can just to just to say the zoom address will be on the website absolutely yes thank you i was just suggesting you do the meeting id and say one tap mobile and leave out all the rest of the stuff because i type it in each time and i don't have a problem that's what i was going to do i was just going to zoom whatever and then and then put the meeting id there that that never changes yeah never changes and it's one tap so you don't have to have a password makes it simple yep i'm good with that okay okay then we're all set on that one yep move approval of the audit oh sure is there a second yeah sure thank you uh tell us about it now well so i have a couple of comments and i think i think dorinda has a couple of comments number one uh this was a tough audit cycle for a lot of reasons but uh one of the reasons was one of the important reasons is i swear to god i remember when our audit was seven pages and now it's 46 pages and i find digging through all those exhibits and trying to figure out what's really going on to be very challenging and in terms of trying to figure out whether it's whether it's actually correct or not the bottom line is who knows but it is frustrating that it has become and it isn't it isn't uh it isn't necessarily uh bonnie's fault on this uh the the old a icpa is making this tougher and tougher uh every year more expensive every year and more difficult to understand every year um so with that said what i would say is what dorinda always says to me and she'll probably say it again to you in a minute you know nobody's saying anybody stole the money um did we have a few adjusting journal entries we needed to do did we mispost some stuff in the wrong time frames due to lack of training or whatever on on the part of our bookkeeper all pretty minor stuff as much as the auditor in her in her comments and her letter makes them sound like a big deal to me they're not a big deal at all so i'm i'm ready to accept the audit uh dorinda and i did negotiate with her to change things around a little bit not that it really amounted to that much but it made us feel better so dorinda with that i'll turn it over to you i don't have much else to add i will say that um the adjustments were normal adjustments the only thing that the adjustments and they all related to was it's accrued accounting and the journal entries were made as cash accounting entries so it was a matter of getting those straightened back out um but seven entries to take care of all the last minute and the other big problem was everybody on the last minute was pushing through all their bills so had they come through prior to july they would have been in the correct month to begin with so um that's basically what happened yep but i've been through many audits and seven entries is a walk in the park any other questions or comments no i'll just add that i too i i spend about an hour looking at that report and it's just they're if you don't understand that kind of you know audit language it's really confusing um and it's a hard you know i obviously will approve it but like it's it's hard for me to understand or to know if there was any you know inconsistencies or anything you know wrong going on and i just wouldn't know but i guess that's why we have an auditor that's their job right so and in her summary she said there was no nothing going on there were no inconsistencies it was a matter of a misposting yeah the summary is helpful for sure yeah anything else anyone we're ready to vote too it's been moved in second and to accept the audit are we ready for a vote okay all those in favor aye any opposed we've accepted the audit i have i have two other quick things one in the past it's been our practice to have the auditor come in and meet with us however briefly and at least give us an overview uh i found that process in the past to be of relatively mixed benefit i don't know how others feel about that especially when we've already approved the audit it's not like anything's going to change no that's what i would say if we were going to have her in i think we should have her in before we voted to approve yeah well darinda and i raked her over the calls the best we could um so so i will i will say to rinda that we are not not going to have her in and i guess the second item is uh both darinda and i feel not just based on on what happened this year but based on based on good practice that it's time to put the audit out for bit and i would recommend that we do that i don't need to know if we need a motion on that i think darinda can just do it yeah what was that our third year with money yes yeah yeah so it's time to go out to bed yeah yeah yeah yep okay so darinda you will just do that yep okay thank you treasurer's report review of town financial issues action possible darinda um really no issues right now been concentrating on the budget and um as you alluded to earlier we've only gotten actually one physical application um for the job and i really don't think the qualifications on it are anything you're looking for but i've got it in the file and we've had um two people from that are current actually three current treasurers from other towns that have expressed you know they inquired about the job and expressed some interest in possibly applying for it um so that's something i think i don't want to spend any time on it tonight i think we've got other things we need to get to but maybe at the next meeting we should decide how we want to move forward do we think is our ad is no longer running right um with the seven days ad we ran for two weeks and got a week free so i think we still have another week out on that one but nothing's nothing's and we are on the uh municipal website thing yeah sarah put something out there i believe yeah okay and also vlct's website so yeah vlct times argus seven days and vmcta i'll put another post on the the clerk's website that'd be good thank you okay thank you darinda highway report update on road commissioner status due to hiring of new road foreman i resign whether to advertise the position etc etc you can all read that i resign so officially i am done as road commissioner um and and i in talking about this i i think we need to put it out uh advertise for it but i think we need to uh look at what we've got for a job description in there and maybe go through that before that is done and and i'll also while i'm talking i'll also put in there that i'd like to think and i don't know if this has to be an emotion probably but i would um if i have to do that i'll make it a motion that we put peter in there as interim uh road commissioner second so anything else steve before we vote on that no i mean i would i would just say guys um we've had a couple of people uh expressed interest in the position but um i think we all in discussing this earlier we all agreed that it was appropriate to to to put it out in the usual way i don't think necessarily we have to uh have a complete uh job description uh at the time we advertise certainly we need to have a complete job description by the time people start inquiring and we start sending out information but we need to do the job description as soon as possible so um and i would also say and things are a little out of order here that uh shane did start on on monday steve and i went down and and met with him uh bright and early monday morning and he's out there learning the names of our roads and where they go and what they need and he's uh and he's engaged so i think he passed me walking my dog there you go good i did uh i i did ask him uh i hope he will maybe participate in our in our next zoom meeting so so you can all meet him face to face or or screen to screen um that'd be a good thing and i also uh sarah suggested he he stopped by and uh meet you in person and then an appropriate time to render in person just so we you know who you're dealing with and he knows who he's he's dealing with but as far as i know everything is good so with that i am willing to serve i said i would and i will i've already had my first uh my first road commissioner challenge yesterday which i'll tell you about in a minute but let's let's vote first all in favor of peter being interim zoning excuse me zoning jesus heaven forbid uh you can do that too until we're able to fill a position uh please say hi hi hi any opposed okay i'm your guy so here's here's the quick yes torinda can i ask a quick question has his email been updated so we can contact him through the highway email right at the moment there is no computer at the town hall but no the so yeah yeah as of thursday we'll have him on online okay well it's it'll still be the old highway email or well we're changing over the whole email system remember so i think we're going to put him right into the new into the new system so that we don't have to but what we'll do i think uh dorinda for a while and i i have to find out how to get into those accounts is to put forwarding um on so if somebody sends it to those old comcast addresses it'll automatically forward but anyway well we're working on that okay so uh sarah another issue just quickly we should make sure we update the website yep thank you um so here's the quick quick little story i'm sitting here happily reading one of my car repair magazines after lunch the other day with my feet up in front of the wood stove very relaxed and content and my phone rings and it's a contractor from barry who is building a house on macy road and he says to me so i have a 18 wheel tractor trailer arriving tomorrow morning loaded with 36 foot long roof trusses and i need to deliver them to macy road and i'm wondering if that truck can go over that bridge or access macy road from the top i said a he cannot go over the bridge this is an hour and a half into my new job b b i think it is a very bad idea for him to head down macy road from the top because he won't be able to turn around he'll have to back all the way out of there there's no way and it's it's two and a half miles from the top of macy road to the house site so here i am right in the right in the breach so i said to him i said i think i have the authority to do this i hope i have the authority to do this but here's what i'm willing to do i'll say that tractor trailer can drop off those trusses at our town garage in a suitable place so they don't block the garage doors the sand pile the fuel tank everything else and then you can hire alan lumberer sticks and stuff to come with their boom truck and move those trusses he called me back three hours later and said alan lumber agreed to have the trusses delivered to their yard and they're gonna put them on their truck and deliver them who i was relieved all you can see was that tractor trailer jammed up in that little bridge or yeah down over the bank two and a half miles down macy road it wouldn't have been pretty so i've already had my fire and i didn't even have to call steve so there you go good job peter so steve notch road continuing discussion on town's role if any winter maintenance of class four section etc he's frozen again maybe he's frozen because he's no longer the road commissioner probably back he just moved maybe the air he's gone again you have it on the second here yeah i'm here so plan to up now he's gone again peter while he's coming back in i just have a question about the road along with wma i mean it's a he hasn't no he keeps going out no steve you keep cutting in and out yeah it's my internet connection sorry okay well we've got you now okay so anyway there is a plan in place to uh for us to upgrade that road along with wma because they would like to put in a larger parking area and that would be extending that class four road well it's about a thousand feet all together uh making that a class three section so that we would plow all the way to a double parking lot that would include the town of middle sex for the for the town forest and a section there for wma there'd probably be room for about 18 to 20 cars and that's what we've been talking about um and that's i haven't talked with there's a new guy in the wma and i haven't talked with him so i mean i don't know where this is going yet but i'll stay the point person on it but steve what does wma stand for wildlife management area state of Vermont thanks so the the issue we have there is we have at least one neighbor maybe more who is very anxious to have this happen and very frustrated with the current situation and the safety issue and and uh and other things and there is at least one other neighbor who absolutely is opposed to doing anything to that road so you know i think we need to be very careful as we as we work our way through this to make sure not necessarily that we're going to follow what the neighbors want but that at least we get everybody's input up there and just don't go along with with uh with one person's opinion about what should what should happen Peter i agree with that Sarah so you know there's a statutory process for this correct sure yes and that involves i just want to get in the minutes i just want to get in the public that involves tons of public notification especially of neighbors and opportunities for public for the neighbors to express their concerns so it's not something that can be done just by the select board without public input right we understand that yep okay but it's more important that i want people who are listening in to understand that okay okay and it can either be done by the select board or it's course it can be done by petition from neighbors or from from anyone in middle sex or from anyone correct well i mean the point is the the point is it's it's it's very much a work in progress um and you know i know there's some frustration on at least some of the neighbors that we're not we're not moving fast enough but you know it's a it's a process and it takes time and when you're dealing with the state of ramon everything takes a little extra time needless to say so with that here's my favorite item of tonight's agenda revisiting well districts for excuse me nothing okay the school districts request that the town assume maintenance of a charging station for electrical vehicles at the rumney school action possible um we all received that letter before before our last meeting um we decided to defer the discussion and uh decision until tonight um from my point of view i find request to be uh a little a little outrageous a little a little a little far-reaching but i don't know how i don't know how other uh other people feel about it but we need to respond to their letter so what are your thoughts well this is liz i would say i mean one of the things is that an electric charger is um you know part of our town plan you know for improving energy efficiency and encouraging you know clean energy um and you know we want to encourage people to work in middle sex so you know that is an employee a place where people are employed um and even though it is possibly no one using it or staff using it i believe that in the future you will see much more usage than we have in the past of electric cars my suggestion would be that we offer to go have seats on with them and whatever the cost is we'll pay for half and they pay for half i don't think we should pay for the whole thing right now the situation is um which is really my question is right now it's my understanding that the parent teachers organization pays for the cost of the electricity well it's not the cost of the electricity that's the big deal i don't think i think it's the maintenance and the this the cost of the structure itself and having a contract with charge point i think that's the big cost i'd have to look at that letter again um well they didn't have it the letter was not it was not at all clear and i i meant to look at it again before tonight's meeting and i didn't well you can also pay to charge your car like i mean charge point far as i know i mean you're time for free right i'm saying there's there's two there's two models like the one that i use in berry is free because the town pays for it but if i'm going into my pillar i have to swipe my card and pay for it there you know and it comes off my card and anyone who has an electric car has that capacity to to go to a charge point so it's not the cost of electricity it's the it's the structure itself so is our electric car expert our in-house electric car expert right now there are charging stations at the red hen and there is a charging station at the uh park and ride correct correct and are those pay-as-you-go charging stations are free do you know i i think you pay for those at the red hen i don't know though i've never i don't think i've ever used it um but for the most part they're not free for the most part you pay for them yeah um there's just certain places that will do like like like um like berry they have one that's free to use yeah and they pay for it but for the most part you pay for those things so my my other question and then i'll then i'll shut up and listen is it seems to me that a charging station by the school would be used primarily and probably principally by employees of the school and right now they're none who have electric cars so it doesn't get it hasn't been used at all in the last year is my understanding which makes it sound like a bad value i don't think i just can't imagine and maybe i'm wrong about this but i can't imagine for instance you lizz having your husband follow you up to the school so you can leave your car there overnight in that dark parking lot plugged into the charger then he takes you home then he brings you back in the morning to pick up your electric car now maybe you would if it was an emergency but ordinarily it wouldn't it's for no you would never do that no you know so the park and ride right but it didn't make sense maybe it makes sense at the red hand it really doesn't make if there were ten teachers at the school who wanted to charge their electric cars i'd say you know maybe okay and i like the idea of electric cars but i just don't think the school is the place i guess is what i'm saying i don't know yeah peter yeah the other thing i don't have that letter in front of me now but wasn't there a thing in there where they did not want us using it during the school hours but go ahead we can only other other town citizens could only use it as all yeah i don't like that that's a good catch eve i think that alone uh paints the picture that the town doesn't need to take it over i mean if the town residents can't can't access it freely to me it doesn't make sense to ask the taxpayers to to foot the bill for it i mean it would make sense i was thinking about this is if we were gonna have a charging station on that side of town the place to put it would be at the town garage and it would be available to all town residents yeah with it being at the school and and being isolated during uh operating hours the people that are going to be using it are the are the school employees and let the school the supervisory union add that as a benefit to their employees yeah or that we somehow say that it's not restricted to but i don't know that they would never do that they probably wouldn't do that they probably don't want people random people coming and parking in their parking lot i don't know i just this i guess my my my sort of thought would be why would it be much more expensive to install a new one in two years when people have when more people have electric cars because they will i just know that that more there's going to be more technology that's more affordable that people are using electric cars and so is it going to be are we shooting ourselves right now to remove something that will then cost ten thousand dollars to put it i don't think they're ten thousand but how long is that one then there i don't think the school would be an ideal location we were to install a new one it wouldn't be a location that anybody in this meeting now would choose right i agree it was going to be on that side of town it would be i mean my thinking is it would be at the town garage all right so just say now if you were a teacher at the school and you wanted to plug in your electric car you plug it in at the town garage and walk across the field and your work there you go perfect yeah i think we say no fine yeah motion time into the contract and they didn't ask our opinion at the beginning no no i think she made a motion right i didn't like the tone of the letter i didn't i didn't like anything about it to tell you the truth and i i agree with list i think they're going to be more electric cars and i know it's in our town plan and i think it's something we need to we need to think about but i think this is the wrong way to do it i agree wrong look make that motion so i'll make that motion that we we do not uh participate in that for the school i'm gonna second that thank you phil uh all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed no okay liz is opposed let that let the minutes reflect that um okay approving december 15th select board minutes motion please move approval second roll in favor okay uh how are you doing on orders to rinda uh let's see i think i got one two i think i've only got two so far yeah i know i haven't sent it yet i haven't done it either i i think i did my rinda i've got liz who approved it and peter yeah yeah please turn that number rinda pardon thank you for identifying that number i just didn't understand it didn't have any description it's always there and i'm like what the heck this is good yeah no problem so please uh please do that is there any other uh any other business to come before the select board this evening the only thing is the correspondence about the i'm sorry correspondence about the uh you saw the um it's all my papers are upstairs because they had to come down here um over the cla for 2020 the common level yeah oh yeah yeah okay the listers expected it was going to be a little lower so they're surprised but just just going to get into the record that you guys read that inside yeah i thought that was the good news yeah the last thing we need right now is another reappraisal yeah but it's going to come soon yeah i mean i don't i don't doubt that but every year we put it off as a good year as far as i'm concerned yeah anything else sarah nope okay thank you everyone our next meeting is there that we'd be here i just had a question and i tried to ask this when uh steve was in and out of uh connectivity there but uh one is a statement and the other is a question uh i'd just like to thank steve for his services road commissioner it's a thankless job and i i appreciate your effort steve so thank you um my other question was right the uh the advertisement for the position um that you mentioned for the road commissioner is that a paid position is are we moving to uh to a situation where we're looking at paying somebody as a normal position now undetermined yet that's one of the things we have that's one of the things we have to figure out in the in the past as you probably know uh historically the road commissioner has been a member of the select board and it's been an unpaid position but if we end up hiring an outside person can we really expect them to do that as a volunteer i'd say that's a question thank you oh there's there's no unfortunately and i was going to bring it up earlier and i forgot i apologize but i was i was thinking we should maybe put a little money in the budget in case in case that was a paid position but uh well we've got to we've got to work our way we've got to work our way through that process and you mentioned you mentioned that there there are some folks that are interested in um that position and i think from a from a resident standpoint i think the one of the things you know realizing that obviously you've got to look at qualifications and how people look at all that kind of stuff and and what's available um but as we go through this exercise i think just if if it comes down to looking at paid position versus non-paid position and qualifications are are are met and whatnot i just i would hope that you know that is part of the scoring criteria of your decision and that's that's what i'll say about that that's it we mean that i don't understand we have to i agree with you 100 randy i think we have to think about um what we put in the ad because it's fundamentally different if we're looking for volunteers or if we plan to pay or if we're willing to look at both or it's a little tricky how we would how we would uh how we would do that the good news is uh and i'm going to hold hold steve to this he's assured me that the winner is the quiet time for the road commissioner uh it's when the summer construction season starts that that the activity begins so i'm hoping for a quiet peaceful uh winner and we have time to work on this i don't anticipate we're gonna have people uh people lined up looking to take on this position i think it's going to be a challenging to uh define people but maybe not we'll see no i hope i i hope that we've got you know people within the town that are willing to step up and and that are that are able to fill that position you know one of my concerns as a resident is just the the continual creep within the budgets year after year after year and when you start talking about paid positions um you know that dramatically increases the budget you know and i don't know what kind of you know hours you would be looking for in a position like that or whatever but you know when you start talking about staffing wages and and you know all the fringe that goes along with it and everything you know my first thought as a as a resident is that's going to impact the the overall budget you know um we're already looking at other paid positions within uh within the town organization and and um so anyway that's that's where my question was coming from peter no brandy we believe we get it i mean first of all you know it's it's unclear and uh you know we've got some work to do with with steve to pin him down and see how much see how much actual actual time time it takes uh certainly it's not a full-time position whatever it is it's a part time it's a part-time position but you're absolutely right if it's a if it's a half-time position or third-time position and it's paid it's still real money so the money's got to come from somewhere and we know where it's going to come from or have to come from so uh yes it's a it's a uh it's a challenge it's a peter yes feck i just wanted to say uh to steve i appreciate uh you being the road commissioner and uh how a respectful job you've done and thank you and in addition i wanted to thank peter and and steve in the interim since paul got done i i think uh files and bruce and charles have really stepped up to the plate and i got to say the roads have really looked good so far this winter and hopefully with shane coming on board we'll start a new era there you go thank you vector thank you i want to add my uh thanks to steve as well i mean you've done a great job for us and yes thank you steve we're really really sad that you have to step down because we wanted you to be a road commissioner for the foreseeable future well the good news is the good news is um you know we've got we've got elections coming up so who knows what happens after the election steve and i could both be gone who knows but oh god don't say that um steve is certainly going to be you know hopefully still be on the select board and still be involved in this in this road stuff i mean i i consider myself to be a pretty good manager but i am not a road expert by any stretch so uh when i have uh decisions to make and situations that come up i'm going to be i'm going to be calling on him so we just have to see how it goes randy i i appreciate your your concerns it always seems like uh it always seems like there's some kind of bracket creep in the in the in the town budget every year and uh believe me i think all of us on the board and and also the folks serving on the budget committee are very cognizant of that at the same time it seems like there's additional stuff to do every year and more work and more challenges every year i mean the road commissioner thing used to be a very uh a very simple thing it's more complex than it used to be with all the new rules and regulations and everything else so we're trying to manage it the best we can and uh we appreciate your input thank you so with that uh look at this seven o'clock just about perfect timing happy new year everybody yes happy new year