discussion of road form and vacancy expected October 16. Paul, do you have an announcement for us? I do have an announcement. Can you hear me okay now? No. Little marginal. But go ahead. Pick up your video, maybe. How about now? No, it's the same. It's a little bit better. Yeah, we can hear you though. Go ahead. Okay. So guys, after 11 years with the town, I have decided to take a position at another establishment. That would be effective the 16th of October. So that allows us hopefully to find some replacement if possible before then. And I discussed with Steve, I'm hoping to be able to help make the transition as smooth as possible even while I'm here and then there after as well. Are we going to hear any of that? Yeah, we did. We did. So I guess the first appropriate thing to do is to thank you for your years of... Yeah, are you able to hear any of that? Yes, we heard it all. So what I was saying is I guess the first thing we should do with all sincerity is thank Paul for his years of service to the town of Middlesex and also thank him for the orderly way he's working with us on this transition. Obviously, it's going to be a challenge to find the right person to fill his shoes. We have already, with Sarah's help, widely advertised the position. I called all the board members to tell them we were going to do this. We didn't want to wait. Even with the 16th, that's only barely a month away. We didn't want to wait to get the ad in the paper and there's an ad running for, I believe, Williamstown for essentially the same position. So I don't know any update. Have we any response yet from our ads? No. Zero? Zero. I never did see it in the Times-Argus, by the way. It is there. It's finally there. Okay. So I've been gone a couple of days, but I think I looked at Saturdays and it wasn't in Saturdays. At least I... I haven't seen it either and I get paper every day. Could we send it on Front Porch Forum now that it's official? Yes. The answer is yes. Front Porch Forum and there's also a municipal listserv, right Sarah? Yes. The Clerks and Treasures Association has a listserv. I'm not sure there's an equivalent... I don't know if there's an equivalent in the road foreman world, in the highway world. Well, there is Sarah. We can get that information over to the folks at our Regional Planning Commission for some help. Great. Okay. We just have to see who we can stare at our net. It appears at first blush without going into details that none of our existing employees are interested in applying. Is that correct, Paul? That's correct. As of now, I've kind of prodded as heavily as anyone cared to and it does not seem like there's any interest as of now. The other thing we might have to consider, I suppose, and it's premature to do that at this point in time, is... I can't hear you. You can't hear me? No. Can everybody else hear me? Now I can. Yeah. Now we can. Turn your volume up, Mary. Everybody always here, Peter. I was just saying potentially appoint someone on an interim basis, but we've just got to see. I mean, even if we can hire somebody, it's going to be unlikely that they'll be ready to start by October 16th. But who knows? The other thing I would encourage everybody to do, especially Paul and Steve, who are well connected in this world is Network Network Network. I've been... Everybody I talked to who was remotely associated with a contracting business. I've been trying to put a bug in the area. I think what we have to emphasize is the advantages that the town has to offer. Their obvious disadvantages and Paul has been subject to all of them. The erratic schedule in the winter being the largest and most difficult one to deal with, but the regular paycheck, the good benefits. There's a lot to be... A lot the town has to offer. So someone who maybe doesn't have a working spouse and doesn't have a small children would be a good target. But we just have to see. We just have to see if we can find. But the idea of networking, I think, is important. Do you think of anything else, Steve or Paul? No. No. I don't think so, Peter. No. I think all good points. It's certainly, which I knew, which is why I wanted to give at least a sufficient amount of time as I could. The fact that there's a lot of health wanted, especially in this field, which I knew would be tough. Yeah. No license? Yeah. Yes, you do. Oh, this is a working foreman. So this isn't... You know, this is a all-encompassing position. You've got to be ready to do the administrative work, the paperwork. You've got to be ready to drive the plot truck. You've got to be ready to, you know, supervise mechanical repairs. It's sort of all-encompassing. Is there... Do all towns, I'm just curious, do all towns, road foremen take on as much responsibility as Paul has done, like Paul's known to write grants and things like that? Or do some roads have an administrative assistant that helps out with those kinds of sort of the minutia paperwork kind of thing? I think most towns are similar. My impression is that most towns... Yeah, until you head up into either a bigger city or, you know, anything like that, there's typically not a lot of middle-level management like that or upper-level management in that regard. I did challenge Paul to think about ways that the job could be improved from a personnel satisfaction point of view and also from a town performance point of view. You know, the big bugaboo and the big problem is and Paul experienced firsthand is, you know, he has small kids, schools closed, daycare crisis, irregular schedule, wife working at the house. I mean, it's just like the full-court press on him that's sprung. Well, Paul, I appreciate all the work that you've done and I haven't thoroughly enjoyed working with you as a select board member and I wish you all the best in your new job and I hope it brings you some sanity and easy living that you haven't experienced recently. We don't want a bill of doing. Anyway, Paul, I'm sure that that is shared by everybody on the board and as I've already stated it.  But we need a little help from you in the meantime. I want you to stay in the middle. Yeah, absolutely. He's still going to, the good news is he's going to be a taxpayer and resident of middle sex for a long time. So, we still can reach out and touch him some way, manner, shape, or form. Yeah, Steve and I have spoke just, you know, I know there's going to be probably a good time duration of transition and of course with everything that we've got going on in several different facets. I'd let Steve know and we agreed that I would certainly, when I'm available, make myself available to you guys for anything that we need administrative-wise. There's just going to be a lot of back story stuff that will need to get passed along in that regard, especially with grant stuff and a lot of different scenarios that I'm always happy to help with when I'm available. I appreciate that. And we, you know, we need to think about a fair compensation arrangement for your time doing that. I don't expect you to do that gratis. That wouldn't be fair. So, you know, if it's an occasional phone call now and then that's one thing, but if it's real time, that's a totally different thing. Sure. Anything else, board members? I guess it's gone by our next select board meeting, correct, Paul? Steve, that again, Mary? You'll be gone by our next select board meeting. Is that correct? No. I don't believe so, no. No, October 16th, Mary. Oh, okay, so maybe we can force you to come one to one more meeting. I'm happy to. I always attend. It's just trying to be in the right place to be able to actively engage in the meeting is always the difficult part. Yeah. Well, Paul, are you going to hang around for the highway report, which is coming right up? I will be. I will be, yes. So, Steve, onward and upward. I'm here. Yeah, highway report. Okay. So, we've been working up on McCulloch Hill Road and Upper Barnett Hill Road, got the culvert done up there. We did the Wood Road bridge deck repair, which is a good thing done. Starting tomorrow, we'll be doing some hydro seating up on Upper Barnett Hill Road, and we will also start roughing in the new parking lot area at the town, the Notch Road pit. And that parking area is for the town forest. And next week, we'll be at the Notch Road pit pretty much all week. We need to finish cleaning up the pit, get ready for water runoff so that we're not polluting anything. Do a little hydro seating there. And also, the area that I asked Paul if we could put all that overburden in on his property needs to be seated most. I told Paul we would help him seat and mulch that. He is supplying the seat and the mulch for that, but we're going to help him seat and mulch that, get that done so that's off our list. That needs to get closed up. We are going to be doing it, I don't know if it'll end up being next week, but it's in that mix. We're going to be starting clearing up at the Wildlife management area parking lot on Notch Road to extend that. They're paying for all the gravel and the trucking. We're going to do a little tree clearing, a little grubbing and leveling that stuff out. Also, as time permits, Paul has got a bunch of road signs that need to go up and speed limit signs. So we'll be working on that over the next week or so, two weeks, whatever it takes. We're kind of getting into that as soon as we can. Let's see. I guess that'll pretty much take us over the next couple of weeks, but then we will be going back up to McCullough Road. We still have some more ditching to do up there. So we will be back up there to try to get as much of that done as possible. I doubt if we will finish McCullough Hill Road this year. That's just we've been having to come off that project to do other stuff and take care of things. So that will be extended. I think that's about all I have unless I've missed something, Paul. Yeah, I just wanted to update the board, Steve, on I did place a call last week to Ed Pierce. Regarding the solar speed limit signs, he reached back to me on a Friday. I wasn't able to reach back to him. So I have another return call that I've made to him. I'm hopeful and in his message it did sound like we would be able to do an onsite meeting at both spots. This is a first for us. So I definitely want to make sure that everything is the way it needs to be. Sarah printed off all the paperwork that I need. So I have all that. But my biggest thing is just to be able to pass it through Ed through the whole way that way there. I do want to make a point to have those in before I go. And my biggest thing is to make sure that everything leading up to that is the way it needs to be. So there's no mess left behind that has to be figured out with being in the right away and far out of our jurisdiction in that regard. Paul, have we identified the signs that we're going to purchase? We have not. I have some calls into other towns. Actually, Montpelier is one of them. Berlin has some. So I've reached out to folks to see. I've also got a call into work safe where we get our normal traffic signs just to see what the options are for pricing and size. My biggest thing with the state is I have to figure out from Ed sizes and things like that. Because when you when you go from different speed limits, the size of the signs change as well. So that's one thing that I need to nail down. So I don't even have pricing yet because I don't know what size they need to be. But are you saying you need signs for the solar array? Or are you just talking about signs in general? I'm confused a little bit about that. Those are the speed limit signs, Mary, the solar radar signs that were voted on during town meeting. We're finally getting around to working on getting those in. We, like I said, the town voted to approve those signs and the installation of it's just when you go from town to working within the state right away. And I think I don't know for a fact, but I'm not sure if we're going to be delving into private property on those and be needing easements. I it's just it's there's a lot of footwork to be done on this on route 12, right on route 12. Correct. I just want to make sure that it's all done the way it needs to be to avoid any issues down the road. I would strongly recommend if at all possible, we have them in the state right away. I think that's where they are going to be, Peter, from one of those emails that I saw, they are going to be in the state right away so that we don't have to have easements from private landowners. We don't have to get any kind of written documentation that we have the right to be in the state's right away. Oh, yeah. There's significant paperwork with it. Yeah, that and again, that's why I just yeah, I just want to make sure it's all done correctly because I don't want to leave that a mess and there have to have to do in Redo's or anything like that. So can I ask a question about are you doing any part of McCullough road that's that's the part we moved up to class four or we moved it up to class three? Yeah, we just we literally had we've stopped right there because we've had to finish now that we got the culvert from Barnett Hill. We had to pull off that quickly to be able to finish Barnett Hill and then we want to close the pit down before we continue ditching. But we literally just just stepped into where the new class or the old class four was or where it was upgraded. Yes. But you don't think that you'll be able to get to that this year? Is that what you're saying? No, we will. We will be back there. We'll be finishing. Okay, yeah. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Anything else? Anyone on the highways? Okay, thanks guys. Okay, considering central Vermont Regional Planning Commission grant to create a process for identifying town's capital spending needs and capital spending plan for prioritized needs action possible on resolution to pursue grant funds? Liz? So Susan, after our conversation at our last meeting, Susan and I said we would pursue looking into applying for a grant to help us support this process of potentially building a capital spending plan for the town. And so what we did was I reached out to Sandy Levine and she quickly informed me that the deadline is October 1st for this grant. And there's support of the idea that we have behind applying for this grant. And so what Susan and I did was we had a conversation with Claire Rock from the Regional Planning Commission and talked with her about sort of the ideas we had and were they worth pursuing for a grant, for a planning grant. And she thought they were based on what sort of the goals of the grant are this coming fiscal year. So the grant is due October 1st and in order for us to apply for it we also have to include with it this resolution that basically states that the select board is supportive of the select board applying for this grant because it really is the select board applying for the grant. And Claire made it sound like the Planning Commission, yeah the Planning Commission didn't need to sign it but when I read through this it looks like they do. I'm watching.  Eric put yourself on mute. I'm sorry about that. So at any rate it does say that we have to do a 10% cash match. And so what I wanted to share with you tonight is just sort of a brief overview of what Susan and I and Claire had talked about in terms of what this process would look like. So we were what we'd really like to do is engage based on what the conversations that we had at town meeting we want to make sure that our community is engaged in some manner of this process. And so this grant would be applying for not just support in building the plan but in also facilitating a series of community meetings where we could invite the community to hear about our upcoming expenses over the next basically one to ten years. These plans can go as long as ten years and many of them do where they sort of have a one-year plan then they have a ten-year plan and each year you revisit it to see where you're at based on how you know based on last year's plan. And these if you got a chance to kind of peruse that 36-page thing I sent you in that particular town you know they had a bit like they included so much stuff in their capital plan. Anything that was basically over $2,000 was included in their plan and it included roads as you know capital and as a capital that you would invest in. It included things like your buildings and your equipment and so you know ours doesn't have to look like that but that's a model of what it would look like if a town if we adopted and created a plan that allowed us to envision our long-term spending needs. It also sort of allows then for a process for people in the town like other groups for example who may want to be included in a capital spending plan like for example the village has just done a big plan for the village and there are many line items in that plan that cost thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars like sidewalks and you know bike paths and things like that so those are sort of items that could be sort of presented in a capital spending plan. So really what by applying for this grant we'd be asking for money to help us facilitate meetings and then also work with the regional planning commission to build this plan. So how much money we'd be applying for? I don't know yet but the maximum you can apply for is $22,000 so at 10% that would be $2,200. I don't anticipate that kind of money at all you know I'm sort of thinking along the lines of not having something as grandiose as that thing I sent out but that more of the money is spent on the meeting facilitation and hiring someone from outside the town to guide the conversations that we would have so that we're more transparent with our spending and offering this as a you know opportunity for towns people to hear about what we have in the works and weigh in on it and have some I mean we know that we need a greater for example it's not like you can't there it's not like there's some things there's there's no choices in the matter right but they still get put into your your your capital spending plan but then there's other things that that aren't necessarily you know mandatory like sidewalks for middle-sex village or a new town clerk versus a new town clerk building rather versus you know building so this is just an opportunity to to put everything out on the table look at it in in a in a bigger picture and get some guidance I guess I'm asking you all to support this resolution that would allow us to pursue a fine for this grant that's due did you prepare a resolution or do you it's just are you it's a green you're getting a little bit less loud um because we can't hear you yeah we can't hear you I'm shouting move closer or turn up your I thought it was me so I clogged myself in but sometimes yeah yeah yes it only got uh not so loud about three minutes ago connection I don't think there's anything I can do with my computer we heard you so the size of the grant that you would apply for costs like five thousand dollars I think um to that we got maybe it was a little bit more um we got that from the community foundation that grant um and that hired the facilitator I think we can hire central Vermont I think Claire this woman Claire is actually um well versed and has done this with other towns so we could hire someone directly from the regional planning commission to help us facilitate the meetings um why do we have to hire her if she works for them doesn't she work anything included like how much people are louder am I too loud now no anywhere between maybe five and ten thousand dollars yep yeah I guess my I I mean I I think we need to do this we've discussed it yeah we've discussed it at ten maybe whatever I I absolutely think we should go ahead my my only other concern in this is and I only spent about 20 minutes glancing through that sample that you sent us Liz but there's an awful lot of work in there for our for our town staff as well I mean you know it's great to get input from the community but you know the the highway folks have got to do a lot of work the you know the town clerk's office is going to do a lot of work I mean there's a lot there's a lot to do from a town employee point of view when there's going to be a cost to that as well of course yeah and this this process just so you know it's about it could be a 12 to 18 month process so this isn't something that happens overnight and and it you know I I sort of see it akin to what the road crew already does right like they have a five-year plan of their roads but we don't really have like a five-year plan of of our buildings or our you know other infrastructure or or the vision that we have for the town and so I think that this is sort of a and the other thing too is that none of this is set in stone this is like a plan right it's not it doesn't mean that we have to then go to our budget and say well this is what our plan does but this allows us to incorporate in our plan as our budget committee is meeting to present options based on like what our plan includes so the plan can change all like every year you might be adjusting the plan now what is different about and I asked Claire about this because this is different from how we traditionally purchase things we traditionally purchase things by borrowing money and saying okay it's time for a new truck we're gonna get our you know five-year note on the truck and and in this in in many of these capital spending plans as they're sort of referred to um many towns put money aside each month i mean each year in their budget to to put toward that larger expense that they anticipate down the road yeah you know if our plan to go ahead just interrupt you for one second so you know all all this is all this is going to come out in the in the wash as we go along the one comment I would make is in the old days that's exactly what we did we had an equipment fund we put money in the equipment fund every year when we bought a truck or whatever it was front end loader greater whatever we took it out of the equipment fund or took money out of the equipment bar of the balancer or whatever our philosophy for I don't know I forget what we did away with the equipment fund but a long time ago anyway was you know pre-funding sounds like a good idea but what you have to keep in mind is you're charging the current taxpayers for something that they may never see the benefit of and when interest rates are low which they have been for quite a while especially for municipalities by borrowing the taxpayers who are paying for this equipment are the taxpayers who were seeing that equipment run up and down the roads and you know it's it's a philosophical difference when you get to us we go through this process I think bill yakivoni didn't like us having those funds sitting around either did he as a matter of principle no he doesn't mind they don't mind you having you know we have a paving fund we have a bridge fund we could have an equipment fund that's no problem what he didn't like was the undesignated fund balance yeah right he didn't like so I mean we could we could go back to doing it that way all I'm all I'm pointing out it's it's a it's a philosophical a philosophical question and especially if it's really money really big money which it's going to have to be you know to charge people now for a truck that they're going to see in five years or six years or who knows when I just don't know if that's what we want to be doing but that's a decision we have to make as a town I'm not I'm not suggesting one way or the other but there's a reason we have made it our approach to do the borrowing route so I would recommend that we approve this resolution and see if we can go ahead and get this grant and if we can then we're off to the races I'll move approval of it is there a second oh second okay all in favor of the resolution wait hold on could you also authorize peter to sign it if you can stop stop stop bad idea to have me sign it because I'm away okay I could sign a scan and scan it back but I can't sign it I'm around okay we'll just pick somebody to sign it well I would if Mary's around I would have Mary sign us okay vice chair address the the grant you listen and Susan or yeah it's a huge grant it's like a 36 page think about 36 pages that you saw the grant itself is 36 pages I mean it's a lot of work and you know the regional planning commission is going to help us out with some of it but you know oh this is a well before we before we move this this is something that I want to bring up and I don't know if I should just have an offline conversation maybe with peter but the grant in order to be competitive there's a couple of things in it that are that like are addressing COVID for example so you know has your town been negatively affected by COVID and and I mean and I think that you know planning a you know our argument is there in terms of you know we want to be transparent and have the town's people understand what our upcoming expenses are and involve the town in this process because you know everyone is pinching their pennies and everyone wants to know how much things are going to cost right and so one of the things that I'd like to do is create a short survey to send out on front porch forum in like the next week which basically will give us a little bit of data to use in the grant sort of situational data so like one of the questions I want to ask is you know have have you been unable to pay your monthly bills because of COVID right we can all say we've been affected financially because of COVID because you know the stock market right we're all worried about you know so I need to word it in a way that makes it gives us some data that people are potentially impacted financially by COVID in a detrimental way so peter is that something that like because it has to go out fast I don't think it necessarily needs to be approved by the select board but I would like someone to see it and Susan and I will work on it together we're getting together on Thursday I'd like people to see it so that we so that you understand why we're asking these questions because it really is so that we have a better informed data to present what I would what I would suggest that I know it needs to be quick but when you have it draft ready or kill it send it around send it around to the board and give us you know 24 hours or something and you don't do anything with the the open meeting law then I can do that is that is that right Sarah um well I think what you're trying to do is get input on something that you're talking about tonight I'm just walking through this so if you don't have a group discussion where you're all talking about it at once you do it with individual emails to each person's probably all right so I'll send individual emails to each person so it's only about whether people were effective financially because certainly in terms of doing communication about and being transparent it's a lot harder doing everything by zoom then but in person but I'm assuming that you'll raise that issue yeah so like another question is would you participate in a series of conversations either by zoom or in on phone or in person um like in playing field for example they did a socially distanced meeting in the rec field right so so and they had like you know some white some you know sandwich boards where people could make comments and things like that so there's there's an opportunity not right now like because it's going to be winter but like maybe in the spring where you could have something that's in person um but but yeah I mean that so this is another question like would you even be interested in doing this do you um uh so so anyway so we're throwing together some questions that um that I'd like you guys to review so that you understand why we're asking these questions yeah okay perfect well we need to vote on the resolution it's been um I'm lost so is it Peter uh who made the motion Mary Skinner Mary who seconded it Steve Phil Steve beat Steve beat me oh okay Mary and Mary's gonna sign Sarah okay okay we're ready to vote all in favor of the resolution please say aye aye aye any opposed you've got it Liz all right thanks so Sarah I'm not sure if it then has to go to Sandy to sign you know we'll just work it out okay let's print it out fill it out Mary can sign it we'll just have Sandy sign it also if it's going to go to the central Vermont planning committee CVR's PC right yes it goes with the application I believe with the application okay because I was going to call Claire and say what do we have to do yeah um I think it has there's something about September 30th they have to have something before the October 1st deadline but I'll look into it I'm going to be reading more about it on Thursday okay I probably wouldn't hurt to just send it in now okay it's possible all right um thank you Liz yeah thank everybody for all the work and and Sarah for all the work you've been uh doing on this so we'll see Liz if there's any any part of that that I can work on to help you out I'm happy to spend some time working on it also yeah that I mean I may definitely call on you guys I mean there there may be things that I can't answer I mean I'm sure there's going to be things I can't answer that are going to be related to the town um I will need a copy of the latest town plan um which should be on our website right yeah it's on our website because we have to sort of tie tie in what's in our plan to this grant as well and Sandy did send me the town um village uh draft that that she just got from Du Bois or whoever it was that was doing it so Du Bois Du Bois yeah okay okay well thank you everyone because I suspect they're gonna be they're gonna be opportunities for a number of people to work on this a little bit if we could divide it up a little bit yes that would be good okay thank you very much yeah thank you okay Darinda you're under a report yeah so I sent out a budget status report um and uh which brings me to my first topic I think the first week meeting in November we probably should start the budget process um so uh I don't know like I'll talk to Sarah about you know um so I don't know how I don't know how we'll address it this year like as far as um the boards they're gonna have to do the presentation on zoom or something like that yeah yeah so I'm just I just want to interject here that the first Tuesday of November is election day right yeah so we need to move that meeting yeah period end of question there was no question Sarah well no it's not like we could just squeeze it in that this is going to be no no no no no this is enough for discussion but that's not like a question that's a statement Steve and no and I don't think we should start the budget meeting until after the elections okay good no I agree yeah but I would I would leave I mean we need to figure out when that meeting is going to be but I would uh I would leave it up to you and Sarah to parse out who's coming when and all that I'm sure we'll get pushed back from the fire department whenever we ask them to come but and of course you want the data for the whole year anyway yeah anyway it's it is what it is it's time to talk about it I guess the question is I would presume that we should not try and have a meeting that whole week of the election it's going to be an ongoing process and it's going to be a circus in the town so please don't please don't I'll I'll go insane if we can just move it to next Tuesday that would be very helpful or Monday or something so November uh so what is the date the second Tuesday the day of that the 10 probably the 10th and that's the day that doesn't work for you right well right oh the second week right that's why we move to the first and third what time is your meeting six can't get it we meet it could we meet at four on that day I know that's probably problematic for you lez hello lez lez she's muted could you repeat that question well the question is if we weren't asleep were you I see that I see that sleepy smile yeah um just checking Facebook is that pretty working on the grant any grant okay the the question is we don't want to have our select board meeting in November the week of the election no the question is if we push it off for a week that conflicts with Phil's uh computer meeting yep could we possibly meet at four o'clock would that possibly work for you sure it depends on the day what day we're talking November what Tuesday is a 10th but Tuesday November what 10th 10th okay sorry I didn't hear okay so so great and we're going to start at four well then we could start the regular time at five then right why because it's Phil I mean because oh because of Phil okay that's right no no no we're gonna have the meeting we're gonna have the meeting from four to approximately six so Phil a long tiring evening but I'll be able to attend both meetings so we're just deleting the occurrence on the third and we're having on the fourth and then are we gonna have it again on the 17th no no no we're having it on the 10th 10th Liz I know I meant that really was asleep and then are we having it again on the 17th no she's saying our second meeting is on the 17th well we're gonna you know we either meet on the 17th or we meet the following week and then we then we run into Thanksgiving now leave leave it on the 17th so do the 10 two weeks in a row yeah yeah that won't that won't kill us okay it won't kill us okay thank you okay Dorinda um other thing just so you know that we're in the middle of our auditing of our books for year-end so um we're just getting information off to them now so um but that's ongoing and we're still holding on to the Du Bois and King um check I still have not received any information on when we're gonna receive this money for the grant oh you're holding on to us can you remind me I I remember this vaguely but I don't remember it that well you're holding on to their invoice we wrote the check and you told me not to mail the check because we hadn't received the grant money I still don't have not received the grant money and now we've had the check for about a month the one for the village plan that Du Bois and King just did the study on so is this the planning commission that's holding it up no I don't know yeah well they're the ones that apply for the grant yeah but one week I'm sorry Dorinda I can't remember either but I mean isn't it isn't that that the planning commission has to draw down the funds for the town and they haven't done it so it is well I I brought it up at the last meeting and you guys were gonna talk to and Mitch I talked to Mitch I had reached out to both Mitch and Sandy I never heard back from Sandy Mitch called me and said that he had reached out to him but we still have not heard anything more reached out to who Mitch had reached out to who said the people for the grant I guess no isn't this the one where Peter I think you and I were named to be able to go into the portal correct I think so fine off Mitch had contacted me I was out of town and so I know I think you were around and I said you know contact Peter he's around never did there's the holdup well why is it that Mitch seems to be in the middle of all our problems lately that's a subject for later tonight but yeah yeah okay if in fact if in fact Phil or I need to need to sign something we need to find out what it is and get our hands on it I will I will reach out to Sandy tomorrow morning I mean she's got a she's got to take charge of this and take control of it the the question is Dorenda at some point we probably void that check I don't know in terms of best practices can we hold a check for 45 days or not like so okay so as as far as we know just to be clear Sandy or someone from the planning commission needs to approach whoever gave us the grant and say okay we need to draw down the money to pay this bill is that correct that's that's my understanding of the process yeah Sandy have a copy of the bill we don't know they're the ones they're the ones who submitted it to us they forwarded the Du Bois bill to us yeah okay all right okay well I'll reach out her to her tomorrow I'll circle back with you okay okay but don't send the check messages don't send the check right okay I think that's everything I've got okay I did I just would uh would reference your uh your your warrant uh report or whatever call you calling it that you you sent out this time and I found that very helpful it made it easier to understand so if that isn't too if that isn't a big problem right it's just pulling that report yeah yeah I don't know how everybody else felt but it was a lot easier for me to tell what was getting paid and yeah yeah I like so I would I would say we should continue that okay we'll do and thank you for that I I thought that was uh I thought that was helpful I spent I mean we we ever get back to in-person meetings when we have the file of the bills there maybe we won't need to do that but in the meantime in the meantime I think it's a good uh a good practice um okay move approval of the minutes is that the next item uh sure second second to the minutes second all in favor of approving the september 1 2020 select board minutes please say aye aye abstain okay uh you got enough people who approve the orders thank you everybody Brenda I didn't I'm sorry yes um yeah I think I've heard from three of you so no problem you're all set yep I like what Amy did thank you for that that was helpful good I'm glad yeah it shows a little more detail so yep yep uh correspondence uh nothing nothing of import okay and uh do you want to talk about the the conservation commission thing under correspondence yes yes well or under any other business whichever it's time yes so I think Lee's here hi hi Lee how's everyone doing good so I remember when I believe it was you came to us with this that this was that this was likely to come up but now it's uh now it's bubbling to the surface so and I don't have I don't have I read the stuff but I don't have it up in front of me but purchase this is a resolution to spend five thousand dollars of our conservation uh uh what's the name of the fund conservation fund yeah um to assist in the purchase of the development rights of the peas farm and I believe the development rights and correct me Lee if I'm if I've got the wrong number but I think it's 327 thousand is the number it's close to three three seventy two seventy okay I have the wrong number so our our share of this 372 thousand is only five thousand dollars and what this does is maybe you explain it like you're the you're the man all right so the Vermont land trust is purchasing the development rights um for the seedman harrower property um and they they're encouraging continued agricultural use they had a number of applicants um that they worked with and they selected this this person Nicole Dutch who has experienced farming in central Vermont and is looking to expand her farming operation was currently on Leastland in Callas I believe um she has a good successful farming models uh sells at the farmers market in Montpelier into local restaurants so the Vermont land trust by buying the development rights ensures that that property but it's not the entire property it's I believe 88 acres um that's subject to the to the project would be um the development rights would be held by the Vermont land trust and they're leveraging um obviously other other funds are paying for the majority of it this is more of a political um it helps leverage those funds helps their applications to the larger pool of money and um shows kind of solidarity and support from the town so as a conservation commission we we've reviewed the application um back in June had a number of comments and received a revised application in August um the revision was focused around having at least some language that there there would be willingness to discuss public access there was kind of came down to know hard and fast set um way to bake public access into the conservation easement um at this time but the Vermont land trust broached the subject with Nicole and she seems eager to talk to the town about having community events and and other ways to involve the town in in the property whether that's developing some trails or just hosting events at the farm so in our last meeting we reviewed the revised application and unanimously decided to support it we stepped through the conservation fund guidance document and looked at the criteria that they they had pointed out in their application and agreed that um it hit the nail on the heads in a lot of in a lot of respects and um moved to recommend to the select board to use to to provide $5,000 from the conservation fund as applied for balance in the conservation fund now do you know it's a little bit over $9,000 and we've been putting in roughly five thousand a year yes yep as a special article um right on the right correct so when we discussed this my memory is when we discussed this the last time there was some concern and I think I expressed some concern that really this was a private landowner situation and was it really appropriate for the town to be involved even in a relatively minor way I guess since then in thinking about it the real question is is it in the town's interest to because by let me back up a little bit the way this works and correct me if I'm wrongly is this makes it possible for someone to purchase that land someone who wants to use it for farming at a reasonable viable price so that economically it's possible for them to farm whereas if they had to pay the the pool that what we'll call a development value or the full value it would be so expensive that it would be unlikely that they could succeed in agriculture so for me it's exactly right I've come around to the point of view that I think it is in the town's interest to maintain agriculture and middle sex that's a beautiful piece of land I would hate to see uh and I I don't know what I don't remember what what zoning area it's in but I would hate to see it that divided up in and a number of new houses built in those in those beautiful fields so I personally am supportive of this I think it is in the town's interest and I think our contribution to the whole project is is relatively minor but I think it does show uh our support and I also think uh it's in conformance with our with our town plan which is uh what was a good thing to be able to point out when we're dealing with our town plan um one of the criteria um in in other criteria there's natural resources scenic resources uh recreational resources and other criteria and the application has to have some you know um relevance and at least two of those and in the other criteria they pointed out that it meets some of the goals outlined in our town plan and conserving agricultural land but there was actually something that was relevant in each one of those categories and I don't know now's the time to step through them if you wanted to in detail I'm happy to do that and remember um if the acreage included like the forest on the other side of culver hill rode across from the farm um it includes part of that um and they at one point provided a map I could send around that shows the breakout of the part of the parcel um I wouldn't mind seeing it I use that land a lot to ski on and Sarah's always let us use it and I'm just curious as to what what yeah it's about this is here is a tillable land and the rest is forested okay so what not included of Sarah and scott's land what part's not included maybe that's an easier do it yeah it's been it's been a while since I've looked at the map um I will just um say that I did have a neighbor reach out to me um to just ask you know if I knew what was happening with that property and they had some concerns about you know that that big barn that's there right now being used for some commercial reason um you know it's not in a commercial zoning and but you know I I said to her I didn't think that I mean you know looking at what what these um farming is allowed right and you're allowed to have like a home business there um so um I just think that we'd want to I don't know keep an eye on what the plan is for that barn I don't the barn is a horse stable it's not insulated or anything like that um it's made out of I don't know plastic or something I think there's a there's the old what I'll call horse barn and then there's a hoop barn which is a which is a riding arena I think isn't that that's where it's made out of plastic well whatever it is it's it's like it it's I don't know whether it's meant to be a permanent building or a temporary building but yes it's it's there but you know I think the I think what the concert and and you know I don't know how how urgent is this lead do we need to act on this tonight or is there no and I don't think it was warned in time to be able to vote right and it was not it was not warned so you know we have time to uh to circulate the map and and uh and think about this so uh if you would if you would do that Lee I think I think actually you sent all that stuff to us once so I may have it but if you would resend it that would be helpful I can resend it to to all you guys I just great thanks sir that would be great and I would also encourage uh at the time I went over and drove by there and peered around to try and uh I mean it is it is an absolutely and I'm sure Liz would agree it is an unbelievably beautiful uh piece of land and uh I don't know I like the idea of a farm in middle so you know this neighbor was worried about oh if it's going to be a really big farm or they're going to be migrant workers illegal workers living I'm like we're not going there I think I just said I sent that to you this evening guys so it's also with your current email the picture the map everything yeah if you look at the whole thing okay I think the fire department is trying to get in the building here I don't know why but hold on well uh can I Lee um the purchase of the development rights was done just between Sarah Scott and the housing conservation trust fund or wherever the source of the money is is that correct that's one of the sources of the money but Vermont land trust is the is buying the development right and they'll be the that's who's that's who's purchasing but that isn't before us that was done in a separate transaction is that correct I don't think it's happened yet but it's gonna but it's separate from this correct it's it's part it's separate and that it allows um Nicole Dutch to purchase the farm at an affordable price no no I understand that but we're not paying any money just gotten Sarah we're paying the money to make the trust keep a farm here the money would go Vermont land trust to purchase the development right we are not gonna we mean in the town of Middlesex certainly not gonna own the development rights the land trust is right I understand that but I mean it's a one-two process they you sell the development rights and then the property is for sale at a reduced price because the property the development rights were transferred so it's correct being there connected because it's the same piece of land but they're two separate transactions correct correct okay so we will uh we will take this up at our uh at our next meeting thank you ready sorry I'm back is there anything did you do I need to do anything for you since the time I left no okay Lee didn't you want to talk to us about the delay on the on the forestry project or that was just an email to us um I guess I got forwarded um I could mention it real quick with there was an opportunity to um potentially um do some harvest hard timber harvest in the town forest at the same time as the joining property Scott Bowden um he's delayed his timber harvest at least a year because of market conditions we also um had the Chittenden County Forester because Washington County doesn't have one right now went out and assessed um that where where on Scott's property we would skid logs out and it really didn't make sense it's way up at the top of the ridge line where there's not really any trees worth cutting and it's sensitive habitat that should probably be left alone anyway so it even when Scott decides to do his timber harvest it doesn't really look um like a reasonable way to skid logs out thanks hey Sarah I don't see the map of the if you click on one of those email one of those attachments it all comes down I will send it to you again just to make sure yeah I I didn't see any map when I was looking but um yeah it's it's it's in the two there are two attachments and you click one and it's all cut there's like a bunch of PDFs and the map is there but I'll send it resend it of course it's always hard to skid on your cell phone right so uh so Sarah I guess the only other thing under other businesses uh congratulations on getting grant for digitizing the town record so that's great yeah we're gonna we're gonna try to pull some um fast action here actually my computer recording computer absolutely had a breakdown meltdown today almost as though it knew we had a grant for that so we might have to just uh work with avenue for them to uh buy stuff we may have to buy stuff right away and use that grant money to pay them ahead of time for digit for indexing because all this money has to be expended in a ridiculously short amount of time um I've also talked to the state about uh possibly getting an extension because this is just crazy there's no way that these these vendors can keep up with the demand that's suddenly been created by COVID so I don't know what the state's thinking saying you get a grant in October or in September and you've got to have it spent by December 15 or first I mean I don't I don't know what universe they're operating in that's a that's a federal issue is it the same thing at the internet board that's the same thing with community action all our money has to be spent by December 20 it's insane so how are you guys dealing with it well spending can't for for internet I mean you can't run fiber in a month and a half you know right yours is much worse yeah it's insane but I mean that's why a lot of town clerks didn't apply and I figured the only thing we could do is I'm just going to talk to the state and see if we if we purchase this equipment right away like computer equipment that at least will be covered and that would means that when we get the contract with avenue renewed in May it won't include financing as the current one contract does now for all this equipment that I use so that should bring down our monthly recording expenses at least we could get that Sarah can you get specs from them as to what they want to see in a computer and I could probably get something ordered really so what Phil I'm going to just go straight through avenue because they actually they came in and installed all this stuff they actually they spent a week here installing it it's pretty oh okay it's that's pretty I I have absolutely nothing to do with it you know and if they say you know absolutely we cannot they're obviously dealing with this with all the town clerk so we're not the only one dealing with it and I just don't want to spend any money and then not be reimbursed but right and don't they have the caveat that you have to show that you were affected by COVID for that particular purchase and you well that that's we already got the grant based on that I mean okay you know I made an argument that it's a very small office and that the people of middle sex were underserved and things were delayed because it couldn't get into the office okay okay kind of so Sarah just quickly uh the other thing that I want to talk about quickly is you send out that email about the ballot box yes I talked to I talked to the secretary of state's office we do not have to have this ballot this drive-up drop box I have heard a lot of interest from people in town saying you know that they would because they've been reading so much about drop boxes that they would like to have something like this they um a large drop box that would be bolted to the ground somehow and people would be able to drive up put their ballots right into the drop box and then I would be and it would be secure and weatherproof um but it wouldn't arrive for two weeks and uh may not be worth it the wills the the secretary of state's office says that putting your ballots through the slot in the door is is fine by them as long as the door is locked which it is do we need to install a bigger slot well if we install a bigger slot then I would suggest getting an entire unit where we have a slot that the bigger slot goes with a receptacle kind of like at your mechanics so we don't have anything on the other end of the slot of this door in in the same company sells a slot that matches a receptacle so everything would be contained do you understand what I mean yeah I mean the problem is yeah the question for me would be does it make more sense to to put the slot not in the door but right through the side of the building going into that ante room well in that case I think you might as well do a secure weatherized lock box because you don't have to go into the building you have all you have to do is just install this um this no no no I'm suggesting a slot through the wall from the outside so you walk up to the building you shove your thing in there that's just a box inside that catches whatever falls through well I don't know I think I just want to make sure you know I mean we have no time right we've got three weeks to have this installed it would be easier to order a self-standing lock box that comes fully assembled and then just have somebody bolt it to whatever that seems to me to be much more doable within the time period then cutting into the building install the lock box that seems like a lot of trouble plus people like to drive up and just deposit things they don't have to get out but can you is there a place where we don't want to we don't want to have the thing free standing on its own concrete pad we want to have it bolted to the building right so just bolted to the building just bolted to the building or some people are like bull I don't know bolted to the railroad ties that are out there in the garden I don't like the idea of something free standing that makes me nervous I'd rather that people just get out of their car and slide it into the door and of course and that is fine that apparently meets the requirements so we can just keep it like that we don't have to we don't have to pay any money I kind of like that too yeah I'm picturing someone stealing the box and that's why it has to be bolted that I can I can just tell you for example you have it lag bolted to those railroad ties yeah I hope my mighty three-quarter ton truck up to that box with a chain and I would have it home in my house in 10 minutes just like Liz's car going up east hill right Liz oh I do remember that I'm just saying if somebody really breaks down the door of the town clerk's office to get those ballots I'm willing to live with that risk and I like that better than okay then fine let's just do that um one other thing I want to talk to you guys about very briefly is that Dave Smith makes films has come up with an idea to make a short film for voters about the absentee ballot process when you get your absentee ballot how do you fill it out fill out that signature envelope and then what happens uh back at the town clerk's office um how can you deposit your ballot how can you return your ballot um and then what happens I mean how do we open it how do we process it I think it's a really good idea the quite probably and he would do it for a reduced rate so I'm asking for about 80 to 100 bucks to pay for him to do that oh love it yeah let's do it yep my great um Sarah um I would also make sure he stresses that whole signing of the ballot when it's closed because two people in our family including myself had it all ready to go in the mail and I realized I hadn't signed the envelope and it would have completely well Liz I know that there were 35 defective votes because of that and I have to say that it went across all voters uh experienced voters didn't sign their signature envelopes new voters didn't sign their signature envelopes it was not it was bizarre and even people who came to drop off their about their envelopes on election day on the primary day they were about to drop off blank signature envelopes wait a minute so yeah that's what that's why we want to make this film and we also put people at ease because the I just every day people call with questions how will they access it um um Sarah I think we're going to put it on the website and uh will uh you know for front porch forum we're also going to make it available to other towns and to the secretary I was going to say yes make it available yeah that's great thank you that was that was Dave's idea and I think that was a great idea anything else before we go into executive session okay so we need a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters who wait wait who made the move the move Bill and Liz Bill Liz okay can you also do you want me to be present uh yes so that should be included in the motion that should be included in the motion so we got to get rid of well first you have to vote on it and then you have to get rid of right so all in favor of the motion to go into executive session which will include uh Sarah please say aye aye aye any opposed


Hey Virgo, welcome back to the channel. This is Kelly from House of Virgo. I'm gonna do a bonus reading for you guys Today is Friday going into the weekend and throughout the rest of March So just thought I would give you some messages. I've been shuffling and four cards have popped out So let's get straight into this also if you want to get a personal reading There's a link in the description box below And please do smash that like share and subscribe. Okay, so Virgo looks like there's somebody here Showing up the king of wands in the reverse. This person comes across as kind of weak Struggling with courage just doesn't have the courage to Kind of move something forward. They might be like a self sabotage or is what I feel and their energy is very scattered I feel like this person has an energy of like just kind of quitting on something before even getting started, okay With that tower card that that's just like nah, I'm not gonna do it the king of wands in the reverse that can be areas They are such terriers But they come across as kind of weak a bit controlling somebody who with the Knight of Swords in the reverse is just kind of like gets started, but then is it feels like Like deliberately sabotages deliberately is like Intentionally not trying to move something forward. Okay, whether that's in love or whatever areas of life You're experiencing with this person love career Any kind of connection that you have with them? Here's the moon. Okay? So there's a lot of deception or hidden things that this person comes with okay, they don't reveal a lot of anything really that moon card They shed a little bit of light on a situation I Mean it's not necessarily a bad card, but I feel like this person is very vague That's the message that I'm getting here. They're very vague and maybe a little manipulative With emotions. They're vague. So like if you were to ask them a direct question They're very indirect with their answer and they kind of give you maybe like a little bit of a half-truth You know, I don't know how to give you examples of that because I wouldn't know how to do that But it's just somewhere where I feel like when you communicate with this person They seem to come forward, but like with their words the words might be like yes Oh, okay. They're just saying someone who's kind of passive aggressive. So they say yes But then they actually their actions speak otherwise. Okay, I hope you're not dealing with someone like this But if you are I feel like, you know, whether it's a family member like I said or a lover or someone you're dating or a friend Or a colleague or work There's just a message here Virgo for you to like pay attention to Especially passive aggressive behavior because that's so very unhealthy. Okay, so the hanged man in the reverse All right, this person's energy definitely shows me someone who's very selfish Okay, and they may even play the victim sometimes a Little bit of a traitor So they might use passive aggressiveness like as a victim like playing like oh, I'm the victim, but I really have inner Inner hostility. Okay. I don't like this Virgo. Who is this person? Who are you connecting with? By the way, I'd be like when you set up. Let me see here What tell me a couple more things tell Virgo a couple more things about this Connection with this person. Okay So page of pentacles Yeah, and three of cups so this person kind of comes out with like all these plans and ideas or things that they want to do I feel like they kind of set things up They're definitely someone who likes to party or someone who likes to like indulge with others and just have a good time I But I just feel like this person keeps things very surface The page of pentacles makes me feel like it's someone who tells you things plans ideas What they want to put in motion? But they're not very serious about it. I don't I don't get a sense of someone who's serious Okay, let me see what your energy is Virgo here. What what your advice? And what you need to do if you are connecting this like I said This person does feel like a fire sign. They could also be a Scorpio could also be a Leo a Pisces Okay, possibly a cancer. All right, what is Virgo's advice? Going forward When it comes to this person, okay, well you've got the six of cups. Well Virgo That's weird it feels like you got to handle this person with kid gloves, okay, that's six of cups It's not saying for you to reconcile with them. I feel like you need to You know you do what you want, but your advice here with the six of cups is Okay, if you have kids with this person's spirit saying Take care of your children or protect your children, okay But I know I wouldn't always usually when I if I see somebody's like dealing with someone who's very manipulative obviously You you know, you want to say like you got to have really strong boundaries with this person But this might be some kind of an attachment Where you might have a codependency Attachment you might not be a person who feels codependent but with this person I feel like something may have occurred that caused you to want to hold on to this person And I'm asking for your advice. I feel like your advice is to try to like take a look at How kind you have been to someone who has been Manipulating you Yeah, okay Virgo four of cups reversed It looks like you need to kind of like Look at other options if this is a love relationship I really feel or if it's just someone that you have this emotional connection I really feel like you need to take a look at What your attachment style is to this person if it was created for you to become very anxious or Feel very insecure. I feel like your advice is to take a look at that because a clean of cups in the reverse Can be someone who has become or feels very insecure or feels addicted To this person like kind of waiting for that phone during or waiting for that text waiting for that response making you nuts and I feel like and then this is a tough subject here Virgo But I feel like you might someone's taking your kindness for weakness Or taking advantage of your good nature and I just feel like Virgo you need to pay attention to that. Okay Yeah Because I feel like somebody might be like kicking the can forward with you and then Drop in everything and then leaving you in a not a good Position if you're dealing with someone like this whether it's a friend family member lover whomever it's I feel like you need Perhaps to just kind of do a 180 and look in a different direction and put up some boundaries with this person. Yeah Some real you got to put some roots down elsewhere is what I feel like because I just don't really like the energy of this person I I don't feel like they're in like this very Sadistic kind of energy, but I do feel like this person like they struggle and I'm not giving kudos You know, everybody's got their issues, but when I see the strength card in the reverse Yeah, this kind of makes me feel like someone who's maybe a little Like they're a self-sabotager. They have great great fears. They want to do something Do something or fulfill an expectation or a need you might have but it looks like they're really not capable of doing that and when when it's time to get going this person Like was time to move forward this person kind of turns the other direction and goes that way Where I kind of feel like your advice here is to do the same with this person. Okay, you have a fair male So this could be so many who has Lighter than darker hair. Okay, so they could be fair in their eye color skin color hair color Okay, let me see what else who else this person is showing up as for Virgo Okay, wow freedom Okay, yeah, this person is very casual. They're showing up very casual Being single and lightness again. So I feel like this person is really not trying to go heavy or deep or anything like that I feel like this person likes being single. They prefer casual relationships Something you need to take a look at here take off any kind of rose color glasses or Detach your emotions to be able to see the situation logically. Okay, hmm This might be someone Who is a past lover as well or you had a relationship in the past? There still might be a connection that you feel in your heart. You might be waiting for this person to Kind of change or come back around. I'm not saying that they won't but I feel like you need to get Perhaps real with yourself about what your situation is currently if you're currently in this Okay And or put something in the past and open yourself up to new love a new person or someone that you don't know going forward because I feel like somebody might be stringing you along and Now they're doing it in a very deceptive way Even if you just recently met this person and you're just slowly dating But it's not really going anywhere. This person's not really pursuing a relationship with you Yeah, I mean whatever their issue is that's their issue. They have to deal with it It doesn't mean that you have to oblige someone who's You know Not going to meet you halfway Okay, if they're not going to meet you halfway then you have to turn around and find somebody else perhaps or you know At least open yourself up to the potential of having a new love in your life Okay, it really just depends on what you want like if you're looking for a casual thing with someone That's what that's what they are able to give a casual connection with this person That's what they are able to give nothing deeper. Nothing deeply committed or anything like that Okay, if that's not something that you want see it for what it is Detach your emotions and your feelings and move on and try to find someone who's looking for something that you are If you're someone who's only looking for casual and you're afraid that this person might be trying to get more From you then you're able to give understand That that they're not they're not you don't have to fear that I don't this person has their own set of issues Or whatever or maybe they just can't or they're not capable or they have other things going on in their life Okay, this really more so about you.  I'm gonna stay optimistic I know that my needs will get met spirit will not never bring me someone that isn't meant for me And whatever is meant for me won't pass me by so that's the energy of staying optimistic. Okay, I Also feel like yeah, here you go separation. So some of you might just decide maybe over this weekend or sometime in March You know, you love this person, but they just can't seem to it doesn't seem to go in the direction you want I don't know. There's I'm just seeing an earthquake right now. There's like this I don't know slipping and sliding but not really like connecting in the way I feel like you want they're not connecting in the way that you want You're not connecting in the way that they need. So there's just this difference Misalignment not in alignment. Okay, not in alignment. Okay, somebody's having a struggle with finances right now The challenges could be affecting this relationship as well. Okay money lack of work unemployment extreme debt Let me see what else Okay, but there is a longing. I do feel like this person has a longing for you Definitely or or someone new there. There's definite like I mean Virgo You're not You're not desirable. You're not unattractive. You definitely are okay Now, I don't know if it's that person.  Okay, like that's what they're looking for strictly sexual connection Not passionate the connection is passionate but not enduring and that's why I feel like in this reading this person is not capable of Going any further than a casual kind of thing being single enjoying being single And dating around or they might even just be fine with friends with benefits, you know If you're looking for more than that, I don't feel like this person is really gonna I mean, they might turn around when they're ready to settle down, but I don't really think It's the exception to the rule Virgo and it really just depends on what you're looking for.  It doesn't mean that, you know, okay Well, they don't love you. I don't feel like there's a lack of affection With this from this person towards you. I actually feel like they they really think that you are like pretty You look good. You're you're attractive. You're like Everything they could want but I don't feel like they can meet the need that you have You know what I mean? I feel like if you want to have just a strictly sexual relationship with this person They're down and they can make that happen But nothing more and I feel like if there's something that you want more from this relationship They kind of sabotage it. That's what I feel like happens here. So it's really I feel like for you Virgo Just being clear with yourself what your objectives are what you're looking for and if you're trying to get water from a dry well You might like need to like go find a well that's More nourishment for you. Let me take a look and see what the Chinese signs are here between you and Or this person Okay, so we've got year of the pig Year of the goat All right year of the dog year of the dragon year of the rooster year of the monkey Year of the rat Okay, Virgo, so that could be you it could also be this person Let me see if I can get some physical more physical features Physical features Okay, this person may be plus size now. This could be you or it could be them. Okay Okay, we've got someone who's also of average weight could be a little bit in between Someone who has very wavy hair Someone who is tattooed lot of tattoos This person here is completely like arm sleeves galore up to the neck Male or female all the way like completely covered Also have someone here who has brown hair and Someone with a mole right above the upper upper lip. There's a mole These are very specific Also have someone with brown eyes and two more please Someone is also showing up here with freckles and Also someone with very long hair Okay, or just long hair in general. Let me see what your moon messages here for you Virgo Virgo's moon message This Virgo needs to know Okay, a Time to give rather than take new moon and Virgo. So okay Virgo listen that completely contradicts this reading But if you think of it in the sense of like a time to give this to this person then take Um, I don't feel like that would be your advice if you're not looking for what this person is Looking for if you guys are on different pages. I feel like it's time to give to yourself Instead and ask yourself, you know, what do I really need and be sure about that? Like what is gonna work for me apart from the emotions like what is gonna be who's gonna be compatible?  You make a list you have a pretty good idea like why you're going there So it's kind of like you need to make like a dating grocery list of what you're Kind of like what's your intention? What's your dating intention? There you go? Your dreams need a practical plan full moon and Taurus So, you know if this person isn't meeting your needs or you figure out that they're just not capable of that that's fine let it go and You know if you're going into the grocery store and you're trying to get bananas and all they have is oranges Like you got to decide our orange is gonna do it or am I trying to get that banana like what? What am I looking for ask yourself that question and let go and cut away things that just don't Fill up that don't satisfy that don't give you what you need. That's all it's very simple I know it well it sounds very simple. Let me see a couple of other messages here for you going forward for our Virgo Virgo sun moon rising. I'll see you guys. I'm going to go live Saturday evening. I will post The live stream prior to going live, so you'll know to be here I'm going to be doing answering questions So if you guys want to pop on you can make a donation ask your question. I'll pull a card for a reading Most likely like those who ask With a paid amount will probably get answered first. So that's going to be completely up to you But keep your eye out for that. Okay, you have victory recognition and applause So this is good Virgo looks like if you make a decision to meet your needs I feel like you're gonna feel like in a much better place. That is right there the six of wands. Okay, that's an energy of like Success right and I feel like if you're intentionally dating You know success is like going to the grocery store and finding everything you want and walking home with it Or driving home and saying yep. I got everything I need. I feel good This is this is it and I feel like that's what you Going for it in this month if you're in something. That's just not Wedding your palette Find something that will right whatever works for you. Okay, you also have secure home Whoops. So I feel like this here You need to place your roots I feel like I said that put your roots down in something that you know is going to grow plant seeds with someone Find someone who's willing to plant seeds with you. Okay, the secure Relationship right where you're both understanding what the other wants and what the other needs Okay, you've also got time to go get your GPS set and take off You might have a trip or a road trip or going somewhere You know or you will know where you're going and how to get there and that's all that grocery store analogy It's time to go don't waste any more time Just do it go after what you want or put yourself in a position to receive What is going to be in your best interest? Don't hesitate time is going by Let the blockages be removed allow them to be removed or remove them yourself. Okay, let me just give you a quick charm See what you have here Wow, okay, so you have And see if I can show this to you You have the black swan Okay If you're able to see it Black swan a lot of you are like outliers in your family. You're you're very I'm picking up an energy of being a bit rebellious or feeling like the black sheep of the family Virgo you have a tendency your natural self to Not go in the direction that everyone else is going just because that's the that's the direction everyone's going You're very creative. You can be rebellious. You like to do things your way.  I don't know what's going on in this relationship where You're kind of hanging around with someone that's not capable meaning your needs I feel like you might because Virgo you're very giving person And I feel like you might be just kind of sticking around because of your emotions and You know if you've created a soul tie with someone that's very difficult to break and you know There's a lot of videos out there on YouTube with how to break a soul tie if you if you need to just kind of let your emotions Settle so you can think logically about what your next steps are I feel like you can do that because that black swan does feel like, you know You're a little bit of a bad girl bad boy That's kind of what I feel like and I feel like you might have got a little too soft Way too soft not, you know, what's normal you might have got yourself a little like way like the pendulum swung too far in the Weak area for somebody don't beat yourself up about that happens You know if you can't help people you love you can't help how you feel But what you do about your feelings you can help you have control over that so yeah Virgo This was just a quick bonus. I don't know who needed to hear it. I wasn't planning on doing a reading I don't generally do them on Fridays So this just kind of came out of nowhere and I I don't know I just felt like somebody needed to hear this so hopefully gives you a little insight and Hopefully you'll be able to make some good decisions for yourself. I think you can Virgo. I think you could do it So yeah, I'm gonna leave that there for you. Please come back Saturday I'm not exactly sure the time but it I'll have it posted So if you want to pop in and get a one card reading with me Definitely those card readings are usually like I used to do them for like ten bucks I think we could do super chat. I'll figure something out you guys So yep, hopefully I'll see you tomorrow and have a great weekend Virgo. Love ya. Bye


This is MXUX, this is a video about Amazon's recent purchase of Zooks and I think just about Amazon in general. I'm going to talk about the design of the Zooks, the issues I think there are, their goal of getting into the self-driving and then we're going to have a summary of, excuse me, what we did here. So let's just get started with this slideshow real quick here. Alright, this is the Zooks, this is the vehicle, this is a purpose-built vehicle, people move their autonomous electric taxi. It's got four-wheel steering and it's ambidextrous, ambidextrous or whatever. You can see it's got a lot of hardware on it, we'll go over that later. What I just want to point out right now is we have seats facing each other. So someone's always going to be sitting backwards. And we have a kind of a shielded view here and there's a small view here. And I'm going to go to the next slide, it's going to show that these front and rear windows are blocked about up to here. So really it's kind of claustrophobic in that you don't have a lot of visual cues of where you're going. It's like you're in a funhouse, I think. Anyway, that's how I would feel. I wouldn't feel comfortable. This is more of a detail, this is the front and the rear of the Zooks. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but this is blocked. And this is open, but that is out of the line of sight. So the area that's open is out of the line of sight of the passengers.  But they don't have any cues of whether they're going forwards or backwards. I don't think there's a lot of cues in any case, but I don't think a lot of people notice this. They didn't release a lot of detailed pictures of the interior of this vehicle, but these are some things that I personally noticed. Anyway, this also has four-wheel steering and it can go 70 miles an hour. So imagine yourself being in this compartment and not being able to see where you're going. I don't know. Anyway, let's move on to the next slide. And again, these are the seats and, of course, designed before COVID. So I don't know, maybe they could put a shield up in here or something, but anyway, they're facing each other. And you can see there's not a lot of view here, you know? I mean, it's okay, but these headrests are blocking and then behind the headrest is blocked as well. So really, you got like a panorama roof up here.  It's up high. You just see the light coming over the transom kind of over the seats. So it's kind of a weird seating arrangement. And of course, someone's always going to be sitting facing backwards in this thing. And just by way of comparison, this was the prototype and it was, you know, much bigger inside. And, but just to give you an idea, it was roomier versus Zooks is quite, quite small. Now, this is a sample of a Zooks self-driving system.  And what's interesting is, you see the hood of the car here? This isn't done in the Zooks vehicle. This is done in a, you know, RS or some kind of three box sedan. And anyway, it's they chose to use a car to demonstrate it. But anyway, you could see it's got this, I believe they use mapping as well as the onboard sensors. I believe they map the streets. They use some satellite based mapping as well as to as well as mapping these objects. This is, you know, pretty much, we've all gotten so bored with these self-driving systems now. It's really amazing. But that gives you an idea of their self-driving system. And we just saw that. Let's go to the next slide. Now, this is, here's the interesting thing. There's a notice down here. You can't read it. It says, driving autonomous on closed city streets. This was in San Francisco, but this was closed off. All of this was rehearsed. These are extras. You know, these cars are rentals probably. And it's made to look like it's live, but it's not. It's stagecraft. So let's just play this video real quick here. And it being stagecraft and it's still quite slow. And you can see it's stopping for some vehicles there. And it's, again, quite slow. I think Tesla's going to beat them. It's like Jimmy DeSnail. What does that Elon must say? DeSnail? Anyway, that's a tunneling. Anyway, it's pausing here for people walking in front of it. And again, this is on closed streets. These are all actors. This is all staged. I mean, it's not a pusher, okay? But this demonstrates the four-wheel steering, the front and rear wheels steer. Now, can you imagine being in that thing facing the wrong way with four-wheel steering and not being able to see where you're going? Just my opinion. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. But it doesn't sound too inviting to me. Personally. I don't know. All right. That's the end of the video there. That gives you an idea.  It closed the closed street, closed street, closed demonstration. And we just saw that. So let's go to the next. Okay. Clean up in Zooks, Iowa. What is Amazon thinking? Got Zooks plus Amazon here. There's your Zooks taxi. And what's this? Uh-oh. What's that? All right. I'm going to try to explain this. Clean up in Zooks, Iowa. This is through my own research. I mean, I thought about this and I looked a couple of things up. And I just, I thought it would be an interesting video. This is a motion sickness study. It's from this site called Research Gate, which is really cool. You can discover all kind of scientific research. You can hire researchers.  This is a study that I'm quoting out of here that was written by these four guys. I want to give them all credit. And motion sickness and automated vehicles with forward and rearward facing seats. Orientations. Well, it's just what I was talking about. I was surprised to find this actually. And this is February 2019. So according to the data, this video, this is fairly recent. And this is a PhD, it's probably a thesis for a PhD or, but anyway, this is the study. And these are the people that were quoted as being authors on this study. Because, you know, you can look this up for yourself. Again, this, I highly advise this. I recommend this site. It's great. I mean, it's got all kind of information on it. Anyway, this is an abstract. This is their abstract, which is kind of like a, you know, the executive summary that comes before the thing. But anyway, automatic vehicles, blah, blah, blah, cabin design, no physical driving controls. Okay. One common concept for an automated vehicle is to have both forward and rearward facing seats. And it says traveling backwards can increase the likelihood of experiencing motion sickness due to the inability of experiments to anticipate the future motion trajectory. And I think this goes into play with them having their vision blocked as well. So not only are they facing the wrong way, they can't see what's in front or behind respectively in the vehicle. Aim to empirically evaluate the impact of seating orientation on the levels of motion sickness. Automated vehicles with forward and rearward facing seats. And it just says how it was done, blah, blah, blah. The participants conducted tests twice, forward and rearward seating, randomized crossward design. Levels of sickness was reported was relatively low with an increase in the mean level of sickness recorded when traveling rearwards. As expected, this increase was particularly pronounced under urban driving conditions. It concluded that rearward traveling automatic vehicles will compromise the passenger experience. And they kind of understate things there, but what they're saying is it's very uncomfortable and I guess you wouldn't want to do it for any length of time. And that vehicle can go 70 miles an hour. They're planning on highway speeds with that. Anyway, significant increase in the mean level. And this is a second study that was done and there's more detail on that. You can read that. They go into facing backwards does what you think would do. And this is another study by increased bone vibrations, reduced blah, blah, blah, automated vehicles. And that's by these guys right here. And this is February 2020. And this is off the same site. Signs of APs with respect to motion sickness is distressed and concludes the design should maximize for the ability for occupants to anticipate the future motion path of the vehicle. That's the blocked windows I was talking also been demonstrated as a significant increase in motion sickness within an AV concept in a real world or when fitted with rearward staking as facing seats. So again, anticipation of the future motion is blocked and rearward facing seats significant increase in motion sickness. The study demonstrated by if you made people stare down at the floor at one spot, they didn't get sick. But when they when they're not told to stare at one spot on the floor, 100% of the passengers noted increase in sickness in a similar urban AV driving environment facing rearwards. So 100% the benefit that forward seeing passengers joy is a plethora of anticipatory clues from the road ahead, which is completely blocked. So in other words, not only is that people sitting backwards, it also removes the cues, the visual cues that allows you to anticipate what's going to happen next. In your route, 100% they're an increase in reported sickness. If you stare at a spot, maybe they could put a dot on the floor, say that lights up when it starts moving, then you stare at that. I don't know. Anyway, these are two studies, both of them understated, but they indicate, you know, statistically significant outcome. So I guess the real world will be the real test on that. So is the zoos an autonomous vomitorium clean up in zoos aisle one? I shouldn't have made that's not fair.  You got them facing the wrong way. You got four wheel steering. It's going 70 miles an hour. Everybody's in there. It's like a funhouse ride or something.  It's like the TILTA world, the carny. I don't know. Just a conclusion I came to. Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, I don't know anything. So now let's talk about Amazon. So all right, so let's say, all right, well, they didn't buy it for the taxi. They bought it for the autonomous driving system. That's what they want to get into. Taking his talent to great disruptor to the autonomous vehicle space, purchase of zoos, 1.2 billion. Amazon plans to work with zoos to create a fleet of self-driving taxis in competition with Alphabet's Waymo, which is nowhere. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is the e-commerce giant in a position to dominate yet another industry? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Zoos marks Amazon's biggest investment to the autonomous vehicle sector. Second largest acquisition they did after Zappos, which is the shoe company, and Whole Foods, which was actually quite a bit more, but cool into Zappos. The country company was marked down from 3.2 billion in value. That's what it was valued at in 2018. So its stock has dropped between the lines, perhaps self-driving, not working out quite right, I don't know. Struggle with management turnover, and they put a billion dollars into this project since the beginning. So, paid 1.2 billion, value had dropped from 3.2 billion, billion invested and had a lot of management turnover, so this is out of force. And, I don't know, I guess it's a deal, you know, got a deal with it, 60% off. Now this is the technology that they bought, and Elon Musk, I'm just going to paraphrase what he has said on this type of system is, it's so expensive to outfit a car with all these sensors that, you know, there's some question as to whether it would be economically viable. And I believe this system also used mapping, so I think the area has to be mapped where it's in. But let's just go through, this is their video from their website. This is the full stack, got a little stutter there. That's the Zooks, and now look at the sensor array they got on here. They got those things, those are the LIDARs, I believe, and then these are what, I'm not sure, ultrasonic or cameras, but perhaps cameras, so, and then they've got the computer system in the bay, and there's their self-driving and autonomous driving, and I believe that's the mapping they have, and anyway, it's kind of a standard kind of a thing. I'm going to try to find, yeah, let's just go through these sensors again. You can see what they have here, and look at this. All these things, all these things, all these things. That's three layers of sensors. There must be, you know, 50 sensors on there, something like that. Anyway, that's what Amazon bought, and this is super complex LIDAR mapping-based system, and again, I believe Elon Musk, who we might consider to be one of the leaders in this field, has, you know, said that these LIDAR mapping systems aren't viable. Well, I guess they're viable in constrained areas, but anyway, LIDAR is definitely against them. Anyway, very complex self-drive, very complex. Now, just by way of example, this is comma.ai. I don't know if you've heard of open pilot. This is, there you go, this is driving itself, obviously. There's no one in the driver's seat. This is a 100-mile ride they did, 100 miles hands-free. In this Toyota, and this is the comma.ai, the comma one, or the... This little thing up here is what's driving the car. And that is the motherboard off a Samsung phone that's in a 3D printed case, and it's got a USB cable that goes down and hooks into the port that the digital connect port in the car. And now, and it gets the power from this camera up here. So it's got its own camera on it, and it's pretty much so, it is self-contained, and it plugs into the car, and it uses an existing, so these are cars that have driver assist systems. They have steering and braking and gas in them. But this provides the visual driving, okay? And it takes over control of the car and drives the car. And the thing is, this is open source, and you could download it. Anybody could download it. It's George Holtz, who was initially hired by Elon Musk to work on his system. And he told Musk, he goes, I'll make a better system than when you got, you know? And he goes, oh, well, okay. And he goes, all right, I'll tell you what. I'll do it for, I forget what the figure was. It's like $12 million. And Elon said, okay. And then after Holtz started working on Elon, he goes, well, according to an interview, well, I have to, I am the one that's going to decide whether it works or not, and whether you get paid or not. And Holtz wanted to do an independent tribunal or something to check it out. Something like that, allegedly.  I think he's in San Diego now, and he's got like five young guys and their rightness. And this is, again, it's all open source. It's all on the internet. You can download this system. And this hardware, you know, is already available. And, you know, I'm sure you can make your own one of these or you could buy them from him. But anyway, I'm just saying, as an alternative to the Zook system, this is, and this operates off a cell phone camera, basically. And this has no mapping and no lidar and visual. And it's, you know, this George Willis guy fights something. He hacked, he was the first one to hack an iPhone. Anyway, I never heard of him until recently. I was so, I'm going to do a video on this. I think this system is fascinating. But again, open source. Okay. You can download the source code from the internet. Okay. No problem. Of course, he's always updating it, but it doesn't matter.  It's a thousand bucks. And I'll show you. And then you hook it into your car's computer system. And you got to have the self-driving in place already. No navigation program. I don't believe this navigates, at least not yet. But that's all you do. And turn this thing on and it drives. And he's been really ingenious the way he's collected the data for this and everything. And you're upgrading it all the time. Anyway. And again, this is a 100, they did 100 miles without an intervention. So, and that's real world. And they do these dodgy tests. They take the car out and let it drive itself. It's quite hilarious. You can check out some of the videos. But this is real world. This is not a closed street. And that's highway speed. Anyway, fascinating. So, if they wanted a driving system, they could have downloaded this. Technically. I mean, I know it's not that easy, but. And then just so we know, this is the unit right here. And again, this is based on a Samsung phone motherboard. I think they do some minor. But they got a camera watching the driver.  But comfortably on your windshield, includes infrared camera for 24 seven driver monitoring. That's this draws power from your car. Custom cooling has integrated Panda and OCPD port. The comma two pairs with the comma connect app. And provides video storage and drives and camera access. So anyway, you buy the hardware and you download the app. Then you go into the open source hardware and then there's some other features. And I'm not sure if you have to buy a fairly cheap subscription at stores or driving data. I'm not sure, but it's about a thousand bucks. And then so that's it. It's the whole system right there. And on the other side of this, there's like a regular cell phone camera. Crazy works. And these are the these are the most compatible cars. And they're all recent models and they have and they have driver assist in them already. They have like, you know, driver assist systems, lane keeping. They do lane keeping and emergency braking and cruise control. They're not self driving systems. They're just driver assist. As long as you have this, I don't know what level it is driver assist functions of adapt. These are the cars that work best platforming functions of adaptive cruise control and automated lane centering. So these are the two systems you have to have in place on the highway.  Anyway, these aren't the only ones. These are the ones they recommend. It's pretty crazy. Like I said, I'm going to do a video on this. So by way of summary. Amazon bots flailing. I'll call it flailing not failing flailing self driving car company for a billion dollars. It's got a carny ride design. I don't want to minimize it. These guys work so hard on it. But the research was there. Anyone could have found it. And in their autonomy, you know, they haven't. I mean, there's there's more video of doing autonomous highway driving city driving. I don't think they I don't know it's questionable. Like I said, that was on a closed course, the sample they have on there. It's not a pusher, but it's not publicly demonstrated autonomy on open roadways. And you know, Amazon is doing this and then they made this giant investment in Rivian, which keeps allegedly getting in trouble for hiring ex Tesla people that are taking IP with them allegedly. And they want to make their own Amazon basics van through Rivian who still hasn't really built a vehicle. Again, I don't know. I don't know what Amazon's I mean, I don't know. What do I know? Maybe it's a good idea. Seems to be another way to do that. But you know, you got that workhorse.  Oh, workhorse. Let's talk about workhorse. This is a little video I did. You can check it out. It's about Amazon's drone delivery program.  I go through it. They spent a billion dollars and then they gave it up and they outsourced it to like a German company and Australian company.  It involves workhorse, the truck company workhorse that's going up now, which is probably what they should have bought. You know, anyway, the point is that you can watch that video. That's one of my videos just go online. So is Amazon losing it? Did Amazon make the right decision to buy Zooks? In the long run will it work out? I don't know. 1.2 billion, you know, billion here, billion there. Pretty soon you're talking about a lot of money. Who said that? Some senators said that. Anyway, like I said, this video here, they dismantled their drone. They were 12 years on their drone program. And they ended up, you know, basically giving everybody the heave-ho and outsourcing everything to third parties. Unbelievable. Anyway, and, you know, they've lost control of the program. This is just kind of an aside. But Jeff Bezos allegedly wants his girlfriend's brother to pay his $1.7 million legal fees for defending against the case the brother brought against Jeff Bezos, which evidently allegedly was a bogus case. I don't know that much about this. This is all alleged. But the brother sued Bezos for saying he released some videos and Bezos and then there was lack of evidence on that. So it was a mistrial. So Bezos is now countersuing to collect a $1.7 million of fees. Okay. $1.7 million in legal fees. He just spent $1.2 billion. Okay. Is the rich guy in the world running the most valuable public company there is? I don't know. Anyway. I don't know. I think, you know, like I was looking at BlackRock, you know BlackRock, the investment bankers or whatever. I'd say, well, you know, and if BlackRock's investing in something, it's got to be good. Well, it turns out BlackRock has so much money. They basically invest in everything. And I don't know if this is where Amazon is. Are they losing their, their edge? I don't know. This is a, you know, strange. But I think he and Musk are, Bezos and Musk are, you know, deathmatch or something. But anyway, the point is, I don't know about this. I hope they don't run it off like they did with the drone program. Anyway, that's my take on the subject. I thought this would be an interesting video. I'm going to get back. I'm going to make some app terror videos and some other videos. I just wanted to kick this one off. Creepy music starting to play here. And anyway, that's it. I hope you liked the video. I'm not a financial advisor. And I'll put a link to that blimp video on here. And thanks for watching. Hope you liked the video. All right. Let those links come up. All right, guys. Thank you.