Well, you wish they could distribute some of those kits, because they could have been like three to one, and then they could have saved a couple of the rest of this year. Right, right. There's today that they're worried about. Are we good? Okay, welcome everybody to the Essex Junction Trustees. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one mission under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And if everyone hasn't done so, there's quite a few folks here, so if you get a chance, if you haven't signed in, it would be great if you could, because we'd like to know who you are. Appreciate it. First order of business, Evan, do we have any additions to the agenda changes? We do. We have the capital spreadsheet to be added under new business 6E. Okay. And those who are passed out there? Yeah, we've got this here. We've got a hard copy. Yeah. And anything else? No. That's it? Okay, go ahead. You're in motion. We'll approve the agenda, isn't it? No. She just won it. Okay. I think we have another, I think we had another, no, I think this was just to be, this is just part of the information. That's part of this? No, part of the other thing. No. No. Don't worry about it. The other memo which says, assistant to the manager, that is just for information. Only one of the trustees asked for something. I passed it out tonight. So it's not on the agenda. It doesn't need an amendment. Okay. So we only have the one amendment to the agenda. Just a spreadsheet. Okay. I'm sorry. And we were second. I'll second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay. The agenda is amended. We're going to move on to the next item on the agenda is for audience. And we are going to be, for audience to be heard, comments from the audience now for, this would normally be for things that are not on the agenda. And so the senior center and discussion about the senior center growth and needs is on the agenda tonight. So when we get to that, I will allow members of the public to make a comment or ask questions at that time. But if someone has a question about something that's not on the agenda tonight, now would be the time to ask it or to make a comment. Is that clear? Everyone understand what I'm saying? Yes. Okay. So moving on. We have a presentation from Charlie Baker, executive director of the CCRPC. Welcome, Charlie. Good evening. Thank you for the time on your agenda tonight. Thank you for coming. My pleasure. So this is my kind of annual check in customer service call with the village. For those of you not familiar with the regional planning commission, the organization is made up of the municipalities. Our board has representatives from each municipality. And you thankfully have appointed Dan, who's an active participant. We appreciate his participation. And the report I sent you is, I think it's in your packet. I'll just run through that real quickly. And I'd be happy to take any feedback, either questions, comments, something we did good, something we could do better. Feedback would be really appreciated. The first paragraph kind of gives you some background. We're 52 years old now. We have a 29 member board, municipalities, a number of transportation representatives, rail, the airport, GMT, et cetera. Financially, the municipal dues that we get is about 245,000. That's matched with another 5 million or so of federal and state grants. So there's a 14 to 1 leveraging of municipal investment in the regional planning commission. And then you can see your representatives in FY 18. I don't think that's changed for FY 19. Thank you for that. Question? On the second page and going on to the third page are specific things that we did in the village last year, including the sidewalk and path study, a Route 15 sidewalk path scoping study, the bill of transportation plan update, some emergency management work, some municipal roads general permit assistance, a waiver road survey, traffic counts. Happy to answer any questions, any feedback? Good. Everything was good with those? Yeah. Down at the bottom of the third page, enrolling, expect down to the fourth page. You know, just at the bottom of the third page. You have a few projects that are in our transportation improvement program, also in the state's capital program. A few, actually mostly water quality type projects, also Crescent Connector, which hopefully you'd like to see get done next week. Next. I wish it was. Snap. I mean, next year, week, year. You're tired of taking calls from Robin, aren't you? Yeah. Thankfully, yeah. Thankfully, they've heard it to someone else. Working with VTrans, I'm sure, on that. Happy to answer any questions. But those things are moving, and I think you've been very successful as a town in tapping into some of the water quality grants that the state has made available, so that's good. The last three pages or so are a list of regional activities that we do for the entire county. Things like updating our regional plan, legislative forum, the Building Homes Together campaign, working on clean water issues, Brownsville issues, public health, regional dispatch, energy planning, the active transportation plan. Happy to answer any questions on any of these topics or activities if there are any or take any feedback. Okay. I'll throw it open.  That is the end of my report. Great. Does anyone have any questions, comments? I just have a good question. So the section of S6 Junction activities, those first ones, like the sidewalks, the transportation stuff, or the transportation plan updates, those are competitive or those are allocated to us because we're a member? We compete against other municipalities for these opportunities, correct? Yeah. So in our work program, well actually one thing I should add in this conversation is around Thanksgiving time we put out a request for projects for the following fiscal year. Call our Unified Planning Work Program or UPWP. Apologies for the acronyms. Love them apparently. And so it is somewhat competitive although I will say that I think we have found a way to work on every request that we've gotten unless it's ineligible. Sometimes we get a request that's not, we can't use our federal funds for it. But other than that, I think sometimes we may defer six months at worst, it may be to the next year, but if it remains a municipal priority we will eventually get to it. So by, I guess just for my own identification then, so by being a separate municipal entity we are able to take advantage of this. Whereas if we are not, we compete against ourselves or others.  I've heard this question phrase in different ways. If this is going to be just, if this is... My answer to that is no, if you were one municipality instead of two, can I start off like that? Without upsetting anything. It would not harm your ability to get this work done. And how do I know that? Because we really, it's not like we allocate a certain amount per municipality. And so you would obviously be a larger municipality, right? Now you're coming into this 20,000 person municipality, the second biggest municipality outside Burlington. But we have done this much or more work for South Burlington, Colchester, Burlington on a pretty regular basis. Frankly, Essex does in general, if I can use that term to include the village, does not... It's okay. Doesn't ask quite for as much services from us actually as Burlington or South Burlington. And sometimes there's ebbs and flows. So I think they're still in that capacity and I don't see any negative impact if you were one instead of two. Or two instead of one. And in essence, from what I'm hearing, it sounds like we can ask for more. I think you could. I don't know how to phrase that.  I think you should. But I think it really is. I think you have a great staff looking at what the needs are for the village and the town. I think you're getting what you need, I hope, and what you asked for. If there's some more needs, we'd be happy to listen to them. Thank you, Charlie. Charlie, just very briefly, what is the federal funding horizon? What are you looking at? Do you anticipate over the next few years in terms of money flowing from the big spigot in Washington? Do you see... Is it... Do you see increases, decreases, anything predicting? No. Too hard to say. It keeps flowing. I'm not predicting it. So I guess they could keep it flowing. I think that's the big existential question for the country. We're going to get into the situation. But all reports are out. Every time a program comes up, they're finding ways to keep it funded and keep it going, or even some increases in some things. So we really haven't seen... I was thinking more specifically for the CERC alternative. Some of those projects have been approved, but there's no funding. Are we looking at that the funding scheme will be more or less as we anticipate? You're in the capital program with that. So there's a commitment to funding. Okay. And it's FY19 dollars I'm expecting. So you're in the budget this year that the legislature approved. So that is committed. I mean... I can't imagine that would go away. That would violate lots of trust principles with not just the village, but a lot of things are being violated. Well, wouldn't be the first thing that happens. The thing that does happen is when things are in maybe the second or third or fourth year of the program, those things often move. So I think that's the thing that I think as we centered our table pay attention to. Where's the thing that was two or three years out that's next year. It's still two or three years out. Which I think that this project was a little bit in that situation for a little while. But now you're really there at construction stage. I mean, we have right-of-way acquisition happening. So they don't tend to do that. You're on the glide path now to do it happening. The only thing I'll say again, I really, really appreciate the economics of housing meeting that Regina put on. I thought it was outstanding and it was extremely informative for me from my civilians perspective looking at housing in Chittenden County. It was really great. She did a great job and she had a great group there that at the hotel in Suburban technically. It was really nice meeting. There's another session coming up October 29th and I think it's focused on housing trust models. Oh, yeah, okay, good. Trustees, other questions? Comments? All good? Well, we won't keep you. I'm sure you've got other and you're making the rounds. We appreciate very much for you coming by and sharing this with us. Underhills next. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Charlie. Okay, so we are on to old business and we are going to discuss continuing discussion of the senior center growth and needs and let me Allie and Luanne do you want to join us up here? And I think Luanne you had some additional, you had a thing that you said you wanted to hand out. With the data I was compiling I did not do this because it wasn't something that was specifically asked for but I thought it might be of interest. It is the attendance so far this year by month and also demographics by age. And see what the ages are and I thought you might enjoy seeing newsletters because we're up to. Let me start off by saying that with this discussion is not about this discussion is not about cutting back any services, cutting back any funding, cutting back anything that's currently being provided to the senior center. We had wanted this primarily because we wanted if anything are thinking do we need to be putting more into the senior center and with budget season coming up now would be the time to be looking at that and if we're going to be doing any significant things that would be the time we would need to have that discussion. So I want to ease anyone's concerns that what we're about here is looking for some way to cut a program or cut back on some service. That's not what we're going to do. And let me I'm going to guess how many folks would like to have have something to say or would like to ask a question or have a comment. Okay. I will give you an opportunity to speak now or you can hear us talk for a little while and then maybe you'd want to make a comment then I'll leave it completely up to you. I think it would be better if we made our comments after the presentation is fine. That sounds good. Thank you. And I'll give everybody else the same opportunity. So where we left off before we had some questions about busing. We had questions about the organizational structure. We had questions about how the senior center has grown in terms of population. So we had just a lot of general questions about what's going on and we asked Ali and Luanne and Evan and staff to put together some of these things and I'm happy Ali do you want to do the presentation? Do you want to go through these numbers for me or should I do that? Would you prefer to do it? I have a general discussion about it. Luanne put a great report together and added more things to it in the memo that you all received last week in regards to the top 6 or 7 items or so that were narrowed down to for the time being from the August 28th meeting and so really just tried to touch on those to get those answered for you and just start providing that information to help your discussion and your thoughts going forward. Okay, great. So one of the things that I've noticed that just looking at this is that as far as I can tell the senior center populated a number of people who belong to the center has basically tripled over the last few years but it seems to be holding steady or do you have a sense that it could get bigger if we had more space? I believe it could get bigger if we had more space parking. It's right now it's a flux because we lose members but we gain members. We had 76 new members since January. I had two just since I wrote this report. So we have a constant coming in of brand new members but we also have members who are aging and come to more nursing homes or pass away sadly. So there's this constant flux so I think right now word of mouth is growing. Winooski has just started sending members our way. We had six or seven going about two weeks ago and they said that they expect several to follow because our center is more active and just doing more appeal to them. So I think as word of mouth comes out about the things that we offer and the success of the center that you're going to be seeing more people. I also think that if more senior housing goes up as it's proposed that's going to bring in. We gained a lot of members when the second building on Joshua Way went up. So I think a lot of it is going to be the trends that happen within Essex and the population isn't going to be the same or this for sure. And not just with the senior housing on the membership side but also people purposely moving to Essex because of the senior grants service. So both of them combined. Not every rider is a member. Not every member is a rider. So those are all a little bit different as well and then you have some that are both. But again with the transportation service that is five days a week and the full time hours at the center for the most part. I just have to say, just comment I think that's wonderful to hear that. Now other people maybe they may think it's bad but I think it's great to hear that people are moving here because of our senior center and bus service and that's a good thing. We're being touted as one of the best places for senior services right now in the area. And the senior van has a lot to do with it and we know that when they can't drive anymore they don't want to be stuck at home. And the senior van is a huge plus and we are the only place right now in the state of Vermont that they have Cedar in the north country but it runs a little bit differently that offers any service like a senior van that's free for residents. And it's not just the residents themselves it's their children finding homes for their aging parents who want to be close to family and grandchildren. Great. And let me just go over the numbers here. So we have it looks I think out of 303 total I think the two that are relevant for us there's 124 from the town outside the village and 79 or so from within the village and then trickling down from there Williston Burlington Colchester and then we get into single digits. So they really are coming from all around but primarily they're coming from Essex so that seems about right. That's fantastic. And just having gone through this but if you could just summarize for me either one of you or both in order of priority what would be the biggest other than space, more space what would be the biggest need that you would have what would you say we would like to have or something we're not doing now that we would like to be able to do or do more of. The number I can take the number one desire on the survey that was done before I started working was day trips I mean seniors loved to be able to get out and be able to do things so that it was the number one thing that they asked for it would be nice to have more meals offered right now we just don't have the space H-12 has approached me about being a congregate meal site but we don't have the parking space or the space in the kitchen or whatever to offer that right now or the staff my being the only staff is very difficult so health would be wonderful I can't survive without my volunteers and many of them are here that clock as you saw in the report hundreds of hours of being at the center and helping out and I know that's a budget concern but you know that's the more programs we can offer somebody asks can you ever do anything in the evenings I'm a senior I'm in my sixties but I have to work still and I would love to do some of the things you offer but everything's during the day while I'm at work so it's something else to look at of course right now I can barely fit in doing what I'm doing now in the senior advanced thing so coming back in the evening would be disastrous for me right now but it is something to look toward if you do want it to grow if you want to offer more things just a potluck once a month that the evening would be great but seniors don't drive at night because of division issues and things many of them won't drive at night just a lot of factors to consider moving forward and our transportation stops around the time this has to be that's taking them we've talked about these things over the years and Louvain is constantly thinking of them but it's hard to add more to a very full capacity position and overall service and I think that's kind of where we're feeling pulled in multiple directions and we're in this job because we love to provide and we want to do more but our our wisdom wings start getting a little bit more visible when we stress ourselves wanting to provide more I'll let the other members ask just one last question I have do you feel though you have a really nice quality program now is there any concern that if you get too big you could start to you could get a little too corporate a little too stiff a little too and then you could lose some of your quality is there any concern about that do you have a sense that you don't understand this I do know what you mean I don't think we'd want to grow to that extent but I don't think we would honestly because right now people that are utilizing the senior center is such a diverse population and what they come for is very diverse there are people that only come for meals or only come for cars or only go on trips is a very diverse interest coming forth as much as I'd love to see us grow we would definitely have to have a bigger center and more staff so that we could accommodate to grow so that we didn't become you know very right now everybody loves our space because it's a homie and it is there's not cinder black walls and tile floors it's a homie environment so for many people that come it's their home away from home literally and I would never want to lose that because I think that's what brings people in as they say it's so warm and welcoming here that's why they come and I would hate to change and you know I'd rather have the audience speak to some of the things that you're asking me because they're the recipients of the services so when you ask what wishlist is they might be a better group to talk to about what their wishlist would be for the center to get to that point I'll throw other trustees, comments, questions I have a couple of questions and I'm probably going to get a little bit more into the lead, sorry so this was great information so I'm just going to kind of, this may not be an order you talked about the service hours the volunteer hours are just incredible but that those hours were not the busing is not part of those hours so can you tell me a little bit about those hours that the volunteers that do busing and then who supervises those volunteers yeah and if that's in here I apologize no that's okay because I too am trying to find so the drivers are paid so the drivers are not volunteer but the the phone line is typically 2 volunteers per weekday from 9 to noon and that's taking all the calls it's one person is, you know they each have a role in regards to verifying the information of the appointment and then, you know, Luanne has put on some appreciation luncheons and last year around November we, because it's like the month of thanks there was meeting a luncheon with all the drivers and the volunteers to kind of get everybody on the same page and this is when the ridership application process was starting and we were letting them know and showing them a draft of what we were going to be asking in case they had feedback but also for phone volunteers to let the drivers know what bumps and groves that they come around across and vice versa but heavy it's a lot of work for the volunteers it's a lot of work for the volunteers and who supervises those people Luanne, you? primarily Luanne and when she's unavailable you know, I'm available or like on Wednesdays lately we've had, you know some calls coming in that an additional van has been needed and she's usually at the luncheons getting things ready and then they're calling the office to see if we can get a vehicle and a driver and things like that so, you know, it's nice that it's right here in the building otherwise they call over to us and then the application process so what if someone calls today and says, I'd like to ride the bus on Thursday is that possible or not because they have to fill out this application process first I think it's great that there's there's never been an application process and we've just kind of gone off of things and assumed that everybody is still well and able to get the information that we're providing so until I don't think we've actually turned anybody until recently though the second mailing we sent a large mailing out in January and wanted responses back as soon as possible and gave them a couple of different options and then we were still missing a chunk and so we put together a second mailing and in that there was a bright sheet that said you can't have another appointment until we hear back from you because at that point it had been September and we had been crazy busy and Lori to answer your question about a new rider the new rider called today and wanted the van for Thursday we would say to them is this an emergent situation so if someone broke an arm and needed to get to the doctors for a cast or something like that I would complete the application with them over the phone and then I would tell them that I would mail it to them for their signature but we would schedule them for a ride but we wouldn't do another ride unless it got returned otherwise if they say no it's not an emergent situation but I'd really like to be in the system for the van then we mail them a packet and we tell them to just get it back to us they could drop it off to the center drop it off to the main and they usually get them right back so we constantly again have an influx of new riders and every time somebody joins the center we also talk about the senior van give them a packet because even if they are current drivers come winter grocery shopping and things like that even seniors who drive may prefer to have the senior van door to door service to park through the snow and the ice and it's just a safety issue so we do have a lot of people that even though they're current drivers will still use the van on occasion thank you so in one of the paragraphs we talk about the van operating through events and trips scheduled by the parks and rec program and then smaller trips scheduled by the senior activities coordinator so who pays for the driver if it's scheduled by parks and rec does it come out of the budget of the parks and rec or budget of the senior center or just when you schedule like the purple brochure that went home that our program coordinator put together theater trip at the Moreno Hall then that's just paid through operating because special events special event hours are budgeted in the operating approved budget for the drivers to work those additional hours throughout the year rather than just their scheduled days so those are already budgeted it's the additional hours that there is a pass through and that actually I was curious about that because I thankfully still get both brochures from both departments at my house which was great and I noticed that ERP still has a 55 plus section and ERG ERP doesn't so I'm curious what those just be all 55 in over activity there's no answer that's fine there's no distinct answer Luann's things that she hears so this transition in a way of a higher position that was part time to a little bit more hours full time and still continuing those things and Luann's at Hermatics and we have another three to five trips scheduled each season that Adrienne is working on our program coordinator I was just curious it is very cumbersome for seniors who are members because I can't register them for EPR trips even though they say why aren't you a rec employee for the town why do I have to go over to 81 May to sign up for our trip so it's very cumbersome so I do get a lot of feedback can't we just sign up for everything here more in place Thanksgiving meal coming up I've probably got a dozen people already coming and say hi I want to buy a ticket for the things we have to go over here EPR so that is for seniors to drive someplace else but when they've already done it it is a big deal for them and it's programs like where do I have to go to sign up for what we're just providing everybody and on the registration aspect just this past spring we got an upgrade to our registration software and we just haven't gone through a training that doesn't need to be just on the Lance desktop and a whole new license it's in that beautiful thing called the cloud so you know she could have access to it and get training for that and then be able to see is there even room in there I can sign you up and then when she sees the van driver she could so it's not saying no to things and the simplest thing is picking up the phone to say is there room in this and this person has a check and I can make a copy of the registration form great you can add them in it's like it's in the mail sort of thing so there are possibilities and things to make happen it's just I know I understand that and then there were a lot of things in here and this is really probably for Allie and Evan but there were quite a few things in here about the busing and obviously we have a problem with bus drivers in our state and we just can't find any but I know EJRP has buses and so if there's any you've been coordinating with them at all just you know something to look into helpful so I am sure that's for those the senior buses are through a lease through the transportation agency we provide the trained bus drivers for the senior transportation as I understand it the EJRP buses are driven by employees of the village that have CDL right and our drivers do not have CDL it's not required and so we have coordinated in the past or tried to for example last year in December we had the lights tour scheduled and the roads were horrible and and then we had a van breakdown so we had 22 people wanting to go there are two staff that ride the vans with everybody as kind of their tour guides and called over to EJRP there was a driver available there could have been a way to make it happen if everybody was still comfortable once we made the road decision but again it's then it's contracting out in a way of hiring and seeing if somebody else is available to drive the EJRP van who is an EJRP employee who is also being paid on an hourly basis similar to the drivers with all they may be on overtime right but one of the items that you will see in your joint meeting this coming week is a proposal to actually consider moving S6 REC over to EJRP on 75 which will eventually help with some of these mechanisms because you're working together your question before is also the senior center here wonderfully run it is not the only senior activities that the town or the village offers they have other programings because there are other facilities available for that programming and other teachers of those classes available so we have what we have here and what's being done with cars and lunches and other things and the people are welcome to do it but they're also able to partake in other things and it was quite interesting and thank you for the age breakdown which I happen to know because one of my former buildings have a senior center in it and it's interesting you have very few people from 50 to 59 they that age they may not consider themselves seniors so they are they are probably partaking of other programming in and around the community until such time as they want to meet these lovely people and do those types of things too it's just I just realized I'm going to be 50 next year oh I just always thought I was 55 but I appreciate that and you know we're on the air I know it's fun I'm sorry I just think as we continue these discussions those are the types of policy decisions we should think about should we have two, should we have one how should we do this so it's just good to have the information so I will stop asking questions no they're all good questions and on Evan's point with what could happen with the presentation on Thursday in regards to both departments you know that really goes along nicely with aligning refund policy who's doing what streamlining because right now some of us between both departments have our fingers in everybody because that's our capacity and that's what we're doing and we're still providing all these things and then other people that are really streamlining it can really give a full 100% or more to what they're scheduling and providing what they're like streamlining for and then if there's extra they may have that time and right now it's not happening for everybody and I think if you get all the programmers with one another then they get to streamline all of that which is great and right now yes we're one department part of one department but the center is which department that is overseeing and we know that lovely mix we've made there but it's just another unique aspect of our community yes it is we do I like the idea though that if we can bring IT to the center to allow them to do some of that scheduling and registrations we do take checks we take checks for water and sewer in this building so we can take checks for programming I take checks every day we can figure that out we can figure that out do we see opportunities if the two boards approve the move of the town rec to maple street do you see more opportunities for synergy in terms of the senior center program do you see any changes does that impact you one way or the other with the senior center no I think it just gets the programming and the scheduling and the policies whether it's like I said refunding or cancelling or processing or renting they start to all mirror one another so if we ever get to the point then it's much more seamless I guess what I'm getting at maybe I'm being I'm sorry I'm being obtuse in terms of just like you were talking about having seamless registration signing up for programs and so forth at maple street here having the same software everyone has the same software on their desk maybe even at the town office you hit one desk you can sign up for anything you want that's the hope is to get there so it doesn't matter even the idea of this is the one brochure you get in the mail and it's not this half on the left side of the staple is one department and this is the other department you're just going to one place or one place to register whether it's physical or online so it's starting to look seamless even though the GL accounts behind the scenes are staying separate to keep our finance land that's Lauren's problem the back office nobody likes to see the sausage made they just like sausage that's fine and then ultimately then we also have to deal with residency not so much the Essex and Essex Junction residency for people completely out of either what do you mean by deal with residency some things are done you have to be a resident you mean through the programming that's interesting even on the center side Luanne and I have briefly talked about it and with budget stuff coming up we'll be revisiting it but the membership rate when it became one flat rate for the whole year it's the same for anybody from Arizona to Essex you know on the residency list for the center to be a member it's the same rate, there's no difference in rate similar opposite of how the the programming registration works from the two department brochures where it's resident versus non-resident so that's slight change in price so just thinking of membership revenue and things like that which really came up recently we co-sponsored a trip with the JRP and there was a set price for or at least that Essex residents or non-residents and non-members so you could be a member of the senior center and not live in Essex and pay the lower rate because you were a member but what happened was I had somebody on the trip that came in and said to me well I had to pay the non-resident price because I live in the town of Essex and they signed up at EJRP and they had come into the center to register I would have said if you were an Essex resident they would have said yes so those kinds of things happen a lot that have to be kind of straight down and I felt so bad because everybody else on the trip didn't pay that extra $10 as a person and I felt badly so those kinds of things that we're going to start working together and other things that we know how to work out for sure and just when you thought that you covered all your bases with kind of the four different categories other questions, trustees questions, comments my only other question so besides the additional capacity for day trumps and meals what else is being held back by only having one amazing Luan instead of additional amazing Luan the biggest problem is the I'm a union employee the biggest problem is the constraints in time because by union rules I have to work an eight hour day so there are times when I have to be later we're setting up for events or our craft fest is on a weekend or you know there are just times and trips that are longer that take longer than eight hours a day and if I take more than eight hours right now they have to pay me overtime which wasn't budgeted so that makes it very difficult and if I had a flexible 40 hour a week I wouldn't make as much money because I wouldn't be getting overtime but it would serve the center better because then if I did have to stay till six o'clock one night I could come in at ten the next morning and you know I still had my 40 hour week and it would just be less overtime being the longer trip days or you know the weekend events or things like that so there's that that's a very which is new since I became full time in the union has been a very difficult thing for me to navigate I'm going to be honest because I'm doing a job in half I've done a full time job as a senior center director and I've done a part time job overseeing the senior van coordinating the volunteers and doing all the slips and putting all that in the system and maintaining this spreadsheet and getting the mail out it's all time consuming work that takes me away from the business of the center which thank goodness I have the people behind me because they are you know doing things like making sure the kitchen is clean and the dishwasher gets run and the floors are swept and the tables are set up and if I had to do all that it would be impossible it would really be impossible so you know you ask what we need we're running well but it's a little stressful trying to stay within the constraints of the time more flexibility within the schedule would be wonderful so that we could do the things that we need to do the mission of a senior center is to provide services to seniors and that's what we do and we're just so much more than just play cards I mean if someone dies or has a spouse that's getting Alzheimer's we talk about those things we have people come in and talk about those things I'm a referral source as well they'll come to me and say you know where I can go for this age well or jail or I'll hook them up with other agencies in the state working right now very closely with other agencies in the state as the senior population grows we're just much more than just people might think is a social club it's much more than that so I think that people need to understand more what we do over there and how much is involved in it than just you know setting up a car game here or there I hope you don't assume that oh gosh no I know and it's very hard for me to say what do we need I mean honestly my wish list has always been more parking spaces which we get and handicapped accessible, handicapped front and doors has been on my wish list for a couple years now another bathroom we have one restroom in a senior center which is not ADA compliant gratefully the village allows us to use your restrooms and one is ADA compliant so wish list yeah those kinds of things are on my wish list in the budget just back up what parking spaces did we take away and not clear historically we talked about the budget last year and we talked about the parking spaces along the fire station being senior center parking we had talked about handicapped parking but we couldn't because of the grade so then you said what we're about this year we said we can at least be senior center and you all voted yes unanimously that there's any reason why those parking spaces so seven signs were put up one day four three were removed has the parking has it helped at all with the firefighters parking oh absolutely let's pick up some parking then definitely but yeah I do remember we voted to have more and this is for you all I had been all week trying to remember to send you all the Dale did a big survey on senior centers I didn't send that to you all did I so I will send it as well because a lot of what's being agency of disability I knew I was going to mess that up but it's a state agency and they have done a lot of research on senior centers just recently so I did perfect with our conversation I'll send that to you all okay why don't we take I won't say we're ending the discussion but why don't we take a break right here if folks in the audience have something to say or a question is that okay yeah so anyone in the audience now if you have a question or no I'm sorry oh yes and please state your name clearly because we want to put you in the minutes we want to thanks I was here last week and on page four when you started the meeting you mentioned that the programs at the senior center would not be cut you're not here to cut programs if you read starting at the overtime hours have not been incorporated into previous budgets but will be considered accordingly in the upcoming budget approval process a reduction that word reduction of programs and senior center hours will also be considered as an alternative to the cost increases now that kind of sends the seniors a message that the Essex town and village is thinking about cutting the hours for the senior center and programs and taking away programs that most of the seniors work on different activities to raise money for these programs we pay extra to go to some of these programs to help fund them so this is a big concern for the seniors okay I'm glad you pointed that out we make note of it because that's not our intention is to cut anything back just to clarify it really comes down to all the extra time Luanne is logging like she just mentioned with her position and the restrictions around it so those trips and everything are great we know you all want them but then that puts a staff member on them on the trips that's currently not budgeted for and so we need to take a broader a closer look really at how many and when and what trips are done and what that requires of Luanne and see if that's feasible to keep doing with her position with the town the problem has been going on for not just one year the problem's been going on since my husband and I have been members of the senior center and every time we come to a meeting or it's talked about oh we're going to do this and we're going to do that for the senior center but it doesn't improve any no support comes like our coordinator Luanne has been working hours and hours and hours for the seniors and yet every budget year nothing happens to help her why why is it not incorporated into the budget the town the village finds money to employ new employees get part-time employees but never for the senior center that is a problem and you're sending your seniors down and village a really negative message if you don't mind I hear your comments but Luanne's position has been upgraded year it has been upgraded to a full-time position with benefits for the activity at the senior center I hear what you're saying but the reality is that the village and the town have put serious investments into the seniors including the senior van including Luanne's hours we thank the volunteers for helping make this work because of the ability we need the volunteers to be able to make this work so I don't know how you feel that taking someone who is part-time and making them full-time from 20 hours to 40 hours and providing benefits is not investing in the seniors but do you realize the work that this coordinator puts into a day servicing the seniors servicing all the programs because she does so much for the senior center that it's time that the trustees start considering putting a part-time person in there to help her you can find part-time positions in other departments why can't you find one for the senior center I think that that's something I think what you're asking in this discussion is exactly the kind of thing we had in mind as I said heading into budget season and I know the town select will get the same message that we take a hard look at this and say what more do we need to do putting in additional resources than what we're putting in now I think the issue one of the difficult part is that unlike a business where we have that might have a lot of flexibility someone's working a lot of overtime to say okay that's great we can just pay them more municipal governments we have to say we're going to spend on this thing and this thing and this thing ahead of time and we have a little bit of leeway to go over that but we don't have much otherwise the voter is saying well you've exceeded your budget so that's kind of it's a little trickier sometimes in a municipal government structure than it would be if it was a private or non-profit organization something like that but this is exactly the kind of information that we wanted to get okay thank you anybody else yes my name is Ann Marie Dennis I'm here to talk about of course the parking spaces actually three issues the parking spaces, the van parking and also the handicapped accessibility to the building I mean it is for seniors and so what I've done is I've created a petition and I have over a hundred signatures over one third of the senior center members have signed a petition asking for some handicapped buttons right now we have two fire doors we have to get into to get into the building there's no windows or anything and if someone is leaving the building the same time a senior is opening the door and a senior is trying to push the door open the senior almost falls someone has to catch them it's dangerous to not have handicapped accessibility so according to ADA regulations it's not compulsory for the municipality to supply them unless they receive one complaint I want to hand in a petition with over a hundred complaints that we need these asking this to be part of what's done to make the place safer to get in and out of and then regarding the parking yeah we were given seven spaces three were taken away and now that the fire department has seven spaces of their own we're asking can we have our three spaces back I mean it's just one of the questions we were told over five months ago who was first brought up that it would be looked into who looked into it who was supposed to do the research and find out whether it was seven or just a few or what was going on Evan who did you assign to look into it I don't know that we've assigned anybody and it's something that we can look into yeah well that's what we were told five months ago I'm still waiting to hear what's going on but the designated spaces next to the that we did say specifically that hasn't helped at all are those always full? definitely always full but still a lot of people are having to walk back from the library back parking lot to walk out here I think part of the strategy was if we thought if we provided spaces in the front of the fire station for the firemen that they wouldn't be parking behind the fire station but a free and more spaces up for the senior center right you're saying you would like to see some designated spots in the scene well there are some events that we do on a weekly basis sometimes that will have 30 and 40 people there at the center at a time and if you're talking over half of them handicapped as you see 80 and 90 year old folks even if they're not handicapped or musical walker they're not really walking as steadily as they could be and so they need they need the assistance they can't walk that far they can't stand that long so we're just asking you know we promise you would look into it and we still haven't heard so we just want to bring it back to your attention could you please look into it and see what we can do about that and then the third issue I said was regarding the van parking our vm drivers are constantly getting a struggle they can't park in the village area because it prevents people from getting in and out of the parking spaces they can't park over by the fire department where there's clearly a sign that says for van parking because it blocks one of the banks of the trucks getting out we understand that but we were also told that part of the process of helping out with the parking is going to be assigning spaces for the fire department and then getting rid of all that green space next to the cedar center right up so that our vans could pull in and put their lift down so people could get safely in and out without blocking parking and I have been recently talking to someone think how I live here in Essex and found out that Parks and Rec has not ever been given direction to remove any of the grass so why are we told one thing and the department's told another cool I can answer I can answer we have dentists looking into the handicap accessibility it's a very high ticket item to do this so dentists is looking into what is required to address the handicap accessibility the other issue with the senior van is Parks and Rec was not discussed with this this is a public works issue and so we are looking along with the community development director how best to do the handicap ramp with dentists not only the handicap ramp but the bus and where the bus is the bus cannot sit over the lines of where the fire trucks are the senior van cannot back in and out of the space on the other side which is where the access is to the senior center they've had accidents it's a tight space there's cars coming in and out of there it is not the right place for that van so we have allowed him to continue to drop off on the fire site he has to stay there he has to then move the van because if we have to get the fire trucks out that is our number one responsibility is to get our firefighters in and our firefighters out I apologize for the seniors they have to walk a little bit but that is what is the other thing with the four parking spaces versus seven I think we're all keenly aware of our parking issues chips the village hall and the library and operating businesses operating all in the same space trying to get those parking spots that's why we had to dedicate spots to the fire department we are struggling to keep enough parking spaces open and available for daily operations luckily there isn't that much traffic here in the village hall time and time but as you can see by tonight I bet you if you go back out there a lot of these spaces I don't believe the library is open tonight so that's a bad example but if the library was open we'd be at parking maximum we are struggling to keep enough parking for all the activities in and around these buildings and so I did originally start with seven and others gave me and said if you give them seven we will have no spaces for our patrons that's where the change came and so we're balancing day by day what we need there are days we don't have a parking spot for anybody coming in to do business with the village thanks husband you're welcome all I can respond right now is saying as you've seen we are absolutely aware of it I can't promise you anything right now but I think that in terms of the ramp and access to the door we are absolutely aware of it and I know that both the village and the town staff want to do something about it I know that sounds like I'm just kicking the can down the road and honestly we understand that it's a problem we need to fix up that whole area right there we are making progress we did fix that great big white door that was about to collapse we're slowly working our way towards the center and one other thing I have Dennis and Ricky looking into the paving going into this building it is crumbling for those in the audience concrete it's supposedly very durable except when you put salt on it and if you use salt within the first year of concrete it pits it so in the first year of concrete you can't put any salt on it which doesn't help for access to a public building with seniors so we are looking at other options including maybe heating the surface but it's expensive and so Dennis is looking into this it also has to be done at the right time of the year it's not that we don't want to do it it has to be planned and not at the right time and it's never really a good time for a building that's open about 320 days a year so poor Dennis I guess I would say but he's been tasked with it we'll figure it out so obviously we're all aware of this situation this parking lot but I think what would be beneficial because we have talked before about senior van parking and parking spaces and then I know that he had to cap buttons or something so we have a follow up from Robin and Dennis and you know if it's not the next meeting so we can just kind of keep everyone on task with some of the priorities we have okay that's good but why don't we roll that into a general sense of what next steps are and that's coming up we're looking at budget season and so that's probably the time to have a big discussion about it we don't have to decide at all right now we just have some updates on what Robin's creativity has brought to the table Jordan's trying I have also met with Bricky Jones we measured the van one day we measured the first spot closest to the bay and into the shrubbery curb area to see if it was even feasible to start looking more into and it is and I even said is this something that we would have to contract or is this something where the town and village are working together so we're there thank you it takes time and the other thing is we don't want to remove the concrete that is separating the parking lots from each other because then you get passed through people driving through that which would be catastrophe if that was allowed we had to close off the driveway just so that people weren't using the driveways to cut through to Pearl Street which by the way I believe and I've talked to the library and others has really changed the speeds of which how people are coming through the parking lots have you noticed the difference at first the library didn't understand what we were doing and then when we explained it they went oh yeah that is much better just a quick note in one of my conversations with state committees somewhere that was mentioned talking about handicap accessible doors and the cost there is some place I will look it up when I get back to the office and let you know that they do have just handicap funds that have been refurbished and they said please let municipalities know that they can contact these people and that budget is an issue that they are available so just learn something that you want to think about and Lori if the state has any programs that would be great one of the things we are doing is reaching out to the school district as well they do ADA more than anybody and so we are looking to partner with them and hopefully get something but ADA doors are very expensive not that we don't want them they are just very expensive this is an old building so we would have to be retrofitted for sure I had someone reach out to me after our last meeting about the senior center and the handicap doors who was at another local business and took a picture of the handicap button and the door and the entrance and the handicap button was here and then the door went that way and the person and I was a Paul too and it's just one of those things not only do we have to afford it but we have to do it right we would not like to find a senior in our bushes no, not at all other audience members have questions, comments everyone good so we'll be discussing this more later on as we get closer to the budget season trustees and the other comments questions will be good for now and I want to again express my appreciation to both of you for coming here and for supplying the information it's very extremely helpful and for all the helpful comments thank you very much I will move on quickly in the next piece I want to stomach any follow-up discussion we can follow this up as we digest this information I admit it well, everyone is filing out the next piece I can just deal with quickly you all know about the ADA upgrade for the Amtrak station we've been all through this they're putting in the concrete ramp the access ramp that's going to go from the Amtrak station all the way out to Main Street it's a significant project I think you're all aware of it but for some reason I guess they decided I'm the owner of S6 Jones well you are I can guarantee you I'm not these things would be different maybe we should meet you things would be different I'm about to sign off on this and Evan as I understand it Robin, Jim Jutris Rick Jones and Rick Hamlin have all signed off on this they've had multiple conversations all of the bugs and the questions have been ironed out they are going to be coordinating with the village it is a significant project and it is going to have a huge impact on the rail it's going to shut down to the street when it gets done and my understanding is it's not going to get done until next year they're talking about it I think what I last remembered was like spring of 19 when they were talking is that correct Jim do you by any chance remember when they said this Amtrak project was going to get started I think they said next year they pushed it out and we also want a water line project in the area we're trying to coordinate but we don't have set dates for you I'm about to sign this and I didn't want to just sign it on my own without making sure the trustees were aware I'm signing it so I'm ready to sign this they wanted the permission so they could get everything turning next week and just for the board's education if you think pinning the state down on when they're going to do a project try pinning the federal government down on when they believe there's a lot of paperwork that goes on for a federal project so if they say spring 2019 that's a beginning to begin and I will add one thing and it was really problematic with this whole thing the project manager from Philadelphia she was an Eagles fan and the thing that just wasn't visible and she gave me a lot of lip so so she's lucky I'm signing this and the other thing is work that is happening next to an adjacent active rail line that is going to slow things down to a snail's pace they will need flaggers they're going to have to make this a slow speed zone and it's going to take a while it's going to disrupt railroad and central for quite a bit at the same time as the Crescent Connector and as Jim talked about the railway waterline project so essentially east of five corners don't go there make sure you go to the businesses and make sure you the businesses are going to hurt so make sure you get there does this kill or just delay the previous work that was done around redesigning the train station it doesn't interact with it at all we had hoped that there could have been some interface and that they might have done some they might have helped us out a little bit there I think it eliminates one of the parking maybe two, I don't remember Jim was it one or two of the parking spots it was minimal impact on parking but it was mainly the ramp and ramp elevation the ramp would have to be there anyway the ramp ultimately is a very good thing talking about handicapped accessibility or disability so it's really an essential thing but unfortunately it would have been great if we could have funds to you know so we're just taking what we can get hoping the congressional delegation just watching ready to await that check so I would like a motion it would probably be good if I had a motion to authorize the village president to sign the Amtrak ADA station that would be great so moved any further discussion or questions all in favor thank you Jim thanks thanks for waiting Jim no problem thank you I think we're on to you right now go ahead I'm here to request modification for a supplemental funding for the phosphorus invasion grant back in May of this year we did receive the grant congratulations it would be a strong proposal we're looking forward to this and if successful I think it'll save the facility a ton of money as far as current and future phosphorus compliance because most of the phosphorus we're dealing with and collecting as part of Lake Champlain limits that are imposed on us we're recycling upon ourselves which makes it kind of an endless story so being able to interrupt that loop will be very effective unfortunately six grants were awarded instead of the anticipated five so the pie cut a little bit smaller so I'm here to request the village purchase one particular item that was part of this overall project it's a unit called hydroflow it's a sole source manufacturer the reason for purchasing that we can use it dual purpose we can use it in a pilot but we can also use it daily for our dewatering operations we originally looked into this to enhance polymer use at the facility and to get a drier final product for disposal and it's important to have a dry final product because we pay for a ton disposed so the more water you squeeze out of it the more money we save the more we stretch the budget focusing this unit it's a wraparound device it's one bolt that's on or off the pipe so it could easily move from the pilot back to dewatering so as a solution to the unanswered shortfall of the budget I'm requesting your consideration to purchase that unit directly any questions? this is not going to impact us getting the grant money is it? not at all we have a meeting next week to confirm that we have to redo the budget in order to meet the criteria but if the billage purchases and supports it as dual use I think that will only help with the next phase other questions for Jim? let me make an attempt at a motion here I will make a motion that the trustees modify the FY19 wastewater facility 2019 capital plan to include $30,000 for purchase of a hydroflow unit second any further discussion? and I'm just going to say in terms of the grant award we were the only municipality that received the award that was so impressive congratulations to you Jim thank you George do you want to add the portion at the end about the unified manager? yes let me add to my motion the unified manager is off the sign the incentive pending any legal review deemed necessary okay was the second? me anyone good? any further discussion? all in favor? aye thank you so much Jim congratulations and your new buddy governor congratulations it's nice that you've been recognized nationally for a few years now and now finally locally it was happening to be pouring out well it was a wet day it was a good day thank you thank you new business we are on to review and discuss grant purchasing policy so the last flood board meeting they have a different process at the town where they have to accept a policy before they approve it and then connect to them for acceptance and now we're coming to you for you and comments so that we can present it hopefully for adoption at the joint meeting but as I explained to them three years ago Dennis was eager to do this policy and this wasn't time we didn't have time and so in the spirit of alignment that Evan got us started with thanks for blaming me it seemed like a really important policy to align between the town and the village although it's quite large and involved so I took the two the village policy, the town policy the VLCT model purchasing policy and then I attended a webinar on purchasing policies that had one from the city of Golden, Colorado so I used all those pieces and parts and put them together we sent it out to the department heads they made comments and changes they sent it out again made comments and changes and it came back and I don't know how many times it came back but it was a lot and so this is the draft that we've come up with a few things I think that the old policies didn't have it has this it has a an ethics policy it has a table of contents which I was so thrilled that was what they gave in the webinar they said put a table, I said what a wonderful idea worth the price of a webinar I thought of that and have the pages actually be correct I know with word you just updated and it doesn't fit up so we have a table of contents we have an ethics guideline signature authorization for purchasing let's get signatures we have no idea who's written who's been authorized competitive bidding Dennis and Ricky and Jim are going to put together a model bid and pricing forms we have information on pre-qualification departmental exceptions which our departmental heads have gone through and authorized leases, contracts, real estate it's pretty comprehensive and credit card use policy the one thing that I think the trustees and the select board really need to look at is those authorization thresholds so I made a mistake at the select board meeting as I I had run a calculator an inflation calculator but I started with the wrong number so that wasn't right so the policies I was working off of the select board policy was from 1989 and it had a major policy a major purchase identified as $4,000 and then the village has one it was updated in 2005 and it has it at $10,000 when we started this process we had a major purchase had been 25 and then it was suggested by the department heads that that was too low that we would be wasting your time with sealed beds at that rate so we increased it to 40 so that's that's the big one those purchasing thresholds I mean I when this came through I just I think you've answered on the question just wanted to make the comment that I as long as village department heads think this there's not going to be any hindrance or this isn't a step back from what they currently have I think you said you answered my question before I've been saying you've checked with them already as you can see just five minutes ago Jim came to you with a single source hydro flow whatever that really is and I know what it actually does but I don't know how it does and I don't know but there's a company that makes it it's not like something you go out and bid you're not going to you know and why waste your time and they're not universal they have to be built for what you're doing so those types of things we take into account in this policy we will be having a discussion in the near future about websites and we've done a lot of research but ultimately we might ask for a sole source provider because we've seen their work and we know what they're capable of doing and that's what we'd be looking for so instead of going out to bid and taking chances that you might save a little money you might save your money but you might not get what you want so those are the types of things but the department adds ample opportunities to weigh in they did I think they put Lauren to the test sliding to Lauren and Sarah and their work on this it was quite thorough they were collaborative they took a lot of what-ifs and ultimately with this is we're also looking at your time and not bringing everything and sometimes government gets a bad rap for how long it takes us to do things and we're going to do them anyway because we don't have a choice so why go through all the approvals you hired your administrator you hired your finance department to do smart things in your name and sometimes we just have to move faster and this allows us to do that but still brings a lot of the controls back to you because although this will sound bad on camera $40,000 doesn't bind what it used to we spent a lot more than that in salt we spent a lot more than that on our properties in any given project we spent a lot more than in roads and bridges and railings and other things so these things will constantly come back to you but it's the smaller things that we tend to want to move faster on okay it will be really nice to have the village in the town doing the same things with the same rules and our auditors may like it auditors may like it as well they're here this week right next week so we're not approving this we're just commenting on it tonight and approving it on Thursday night any other questions so with the definitions of the purchases one of the things I didn't see in here outside of under major purchases if there are not suitable contractors and I just want to make sure I'm explicit with this is I don't see our approval in here so is this saying we've set the budget but the budget has been approved by voters and staff are going to go and buy stuff and whatever you feel is needed to buy you're going to buy and we're not going to have the gym presentation because that's the way I'm reading that there's sealed the bits and you're still going to onboard them but is that in here for the major purchases only which is the only thing that you really approve now I mean I can't buy that because you want to change this capital budget right I mean so but I see under major purchases value over 40,000 all major purchases that require a sealed bit process and a sway or being waived by the trustees and the manager assuring that the completion is not restricted so when it comes down to actually approving the purchases to happen I guess can you show me where that is in here I'm looking because if I missed it in the sealed bid section or what not it's entirely possible the purchase is under 40,000 if it's under 40,000 no but it's over 40,000 yes it has to be awarded by the trustee to select board I'm just trying to find where it's so maybe then for the 11th for the meeting after the 11th let us know where that is that'd be appreciated and assuming it's budgeted if it's not budgeted it does have to come to you just a clarification just for my personal stance if we've budgeted for it in the budget I don't feel the need to tell you to go to widget A or widget B I just want to make sure it's in here as to which widget A which widget B is it necessary for us to come in on and then hang on Dan with the major purchase is a 40,000 the village's current policy for capital expenses are anything $10,000 or that's the capital threshold so would that policy then be amended to align with 40,000 because I know from the capital program review committee when we once had to approve or discuss a certain which we shouldn't be involved in so the capital policy is $10,000 yes that's another issue this doesn't change that that's a different policy which we may want to change it but right now it's a so those are still separate from this the I'm not quickly getting to it the pre-qualified bidder portion one of the things I couldn't recall maybe you can tell me which page this is on so I'm not getting to the table of contents quickly enough is that for when was the pre-qualification would apply to for major projects like $250,000 projects we use them like an impressive character and there are projects that you want pre-qualification of the contractors to know that they are in fact capable of doing the work I'll give you for instance the Crescent Connectors a $7 million project you are not going to let a company that does parking lots payment if that's all they do they're not qualified to do state work they have to pre-qualify that they have a state ability to do work federal ability if they're using federal funds and therefore they're not able to bid and if they are the low because then if they were the little bit you can't accept them anyway and then you have to go through this whole process of not accepting a low bidder for our own there are points and times where having a helps with competition small organizations trying to increase their capacity and whatnot that it can be beneficial to go outside of the typical two or three so I guess it's more of a personal philosophical piece around pre-qualified vendors and I believe there's some there's some rules around when we would do it there are not I was looking at the old policy it did say for projects over 250,000 and maybe we should add that would you like to add that sure pre-qualified projects over 250,000 I believe I saw that in the old one I didn't put it in no I was just raising it to purchases of over 40,000 that would be go back to the board and just trying to think back over time we've been on the board how often that it's I really can't think can you think of any and just so I don't know I mean most of it is always in the capital right the capital or the capital plan so it's already budgeting but this is for just a unique person I don't know I'm not saying I have to control the purse strings all the time but it's just I kind of like to I mean it's already a thousand yeah it's a lot of money I have I don't know it is so it may be that that isn't in there it could be it isn't because in the town they don't do that so it could be I just left it out they don't do what they don't do the awarding of the bids I don't know I don't know so the select board doesn't award they don't award bids I never knew that I don't want to give up that I wouldn't I let's hmm I feel strongly about that I really worry about that yeah I mean it's not it's not a matter of I think it's a matter of public trust saying we put you in those seats to sort of watch over the flow of money and yet you so you should not be sort of surrendering that to you know to staff it's not it's not that we don't trust everybody I think it's just I think it's one of our core responsibilities just to stay oversight because I mean not to say they're going to do wrong but it just gives a preponderance or an air of you know you've got this you want this oversight you want to know not that I don't trust Dennis or Jim or whoever but I just like to have that and I also think it ensures we know what's going on yeah I didn't rather have that than after the fact as we've seen with other things that have gone on since we've run board you understand I do I just I could have sworn I had it in here but I don't remember talking to Dennis about that so we'll make sure that it's in there and that's for 40 grand 40 grand or over and usually the fact is that good for you guys if that's the case as long as that's in here 40 grand is that okay okay I think one of the other things that might help is for us to stay at the legislative and not get into the logistical problem solving yes no but I've heard it argue a long time ago I don't know but that elected boards make policy and spending decisions are actually policy decisions to a certain extent so we want to retain that authority I'm thinking of like the $1,000 calendar add on to our website I think we spend nearly 45 minutes talking about that I think that those are the kinds of things that we can make sure the staff this is a bigger jump right penny enter up to you know thousands of dollars so that's a stretch I agree with you Andrew and I think that you can it would be well within your rights to ask for any type of report whether it's monthly or quarterly of any expenses over 40,000 and occur when we get the report every meeting we get the right to register okay I will move us along to review and discuss draft record policy and this is the same deal we're just looking at it right now and voting on it is that right Sarah? why don't you take it away so this one does not have a table of contents come on so this is a this is our record retention policy and it has an attachment to it which is the finance department record retention plan just to start this record retention policy was lifted straight from the Vermont state archives and records administration their model policy and then a few things were changed to make it applicable to us one thing that you'll note it's not currently applicable to the police department because they have their own regulations and then there was one reference in the policy that we couldn't access because it was like an internal document for the SOTA so with a very few changes the policy statement the policy document which is just two pages was lifted from them the meat of this is really attachment which so far we have the finance department's record retention plan listed and we have informed all the other department heads that we are going to be asking of them over the next year or so to come up with their own to be added to this as attachments what this is is this is any time that we have a specific record type that we wish to hold longer than the SAR says so if it's not on here so the record retention plan says that we are going to follow the the SAR recommendations unless we want to hold them longer in which case we've noted how long we want to hold them the town previously did not have a record retention policy the village did have one this will supersede the one that the village had and put into existence one in the town much of what we took in the finance department's record retention plan is from the village record retention policy it really covered the vast majority of what we do in finance I think we rarely made the retentions much shorter we may have moved a couple from seven years to five years but we as a finance department the five of us spend a lot of time on this and we feel very comfortable with what we've come up with and I would be happy to answer any questions just what is the amount of time would you refer to the average amount of time do you have a ballpark anywhere from zero years until the state of Vermont no longer exists so if we could average though I think five to ten years to serve in the average realm or audit plus five so it all hinges on the successful completion of it so for example right now so the very first one would be accounts payable invoices and what Vasara says is until the audit is complete plus zero years which makes me real nervous it's not nearly enough time but so right now our last complete audit is for FY17 we're about to start our FY18 audit next week so we have FY17 invoices we have 16 15, 14, 13 and 12 plus all the FY18 invoices plus the current year FY19 so at any given time we have about six or seven years or the invoices on hand so that's how you read the audit plus five or audit plus three and then there are only two things that we have listed as permanent which is until the state of Vermont no longer exists and those are our audit reports which are very precious to us because we love them it's yeah I said our payroll registers and actually earlier this week Vasara came out with a new address which is a general records schedule for payroll management records and that all meshes very nicely with what we have here which is great to see because in the process he hates to change something and as you can understand with the records laws that's the way they are if you have that record and it doesn't matter if that record is stuffed in a barn in a basement if you have it you have to produce it but if you have a records retention policy and you've disposed of it you don't have the record and you are required to keep it so it is better to have a policy and follow it than no policy and have a warehouse full of records so just like a quick question on this from a previous work experience is this also tied to emails pertaining to these topics or is this not including that these are just the specific records some of the GRS's that Vasara has put out the general record schedules talked about communications and different types of communication including the manual and letters and at the select board we were talking Andy wanted to know what he could keep and what he couldn't keep what does a select board member themselves have to keep versus the record keepers of the main record so the board probably working with the manager will come up with their own record retention schedule which will be attached to this policy I would think that since we are all using municipal email that all of our communications belong to the village or the town and therefore it's not technically in our possession if you are using our server yes if you use your cell phone your text and other things are not on our server so therefore you may have to keep them or have a record until such time as the says you can get rid of them one of the things that we say if you send us an email and we receive it it's on our server you're good we don't recommend you text business so the reason why I was asking is just similar because of that some of the things that we were doing involved many of us using our cell phones and whatnot and there was a free information request that involved somebody's personal cell phone and the policy was a little vague around that so is there one in the works or sounds like there might be one in the works for an electronic record retention policy at our future meeting for us I wouldn't say we were planning on doing it at any time like immediately but we do have it on our radar schedule but as soon as we start doing some of this and we get a little more comfortable because again like I said your pockets for the board it's electronic we have it most every communication email between staff to you you to staff is kept on our email server that's fine it's what happens outside of our preview that we have to talk about and talk with our attorneys as to how they see it one of Andy's comments was so this is my work phone and so if someone asked for a record I'll give this I have a problem giving this to you because it's my works phone and that could cause some issues and so we would have to figure out how long we need it for depending on the carrier what you're using you can access that information online through a server you might not necessarily have to surrender the device and since we didn't have Rob Paluba our I.D. director there I didn't want to comment on what he's capable of doing okay let me let's bring this back over so are we good Sarah we're good anything else with any questions comments for Sarah everyone good thank you and so we'll get back to this Thursday night and we are on to yet another set of regulations and policies amendment to the personnel regulations Evan I'm sorry what's this amendment to the personnel regulations assistant to the manager you want to add that to the job structure right as you have in your we reorganized with Patty's retirement and we realized this position was not in the list of positions so we are asking to add it into the list she has started about a week and a half ago and doing a lovely job Tammy digital and so the other thing I think we did is we left the current position and they're just engaged one day we want to use it but we're not currently using it so that's the request okay and I note that she's exempt from joining the Village Association that is correct she does work on or will work on confidential information including some HR work any questions about this and for those who haven't met Tammy please stop in the office say hello and Patty's last day is coming up I believe it's the 14th and so please stop next week I thought it was the 19th 19th 19th is her last day so please stop and say hello and goodbye as well Tammy moved from Maine to be here and she just found a living quarters in Charlotte yeah, Charlotte and yeah rented and her daughter went into high school today was her first day of high school here yeah but she doesn't need a civil experience George you know so she came to us for a civil experience which was great okay so do I I will make a motion that the trustees adopt the proposed revisions of the Board of Estates Junction personnel guidelines second any further discussion all in favor I am opposed done and we are now on to FY20 budget goals I guess this is me but Lauren I'm gonna maybe ask you I mean in terms of budget goals what Lauren and Evan and Sarah what sort of things are you looking for in terms of overall guidance I mean I think that traditionally what we've said is we want level service we're not interested in dramatically cutting back services I think but I'll sort of throw it open to the trustees what does everyone else have thoughts about this it's certainly not my decision to make are Lauren and Sarah talking well I think that maybe let's I'll just throw the floor open and whoever feels go ahead so I'd like to hear a forecaster some kind of guidance so we're trying to align things that's our big word say it didn't help us many times every day and so Dennis and I got together about the highway budget and I think we covered this at one of the giant meetings one of the things that came out of that and one of the things that Evan has been pushing for is to have a building superintendent with buildings departments in both the village and the town that that person takes care of so we have developed our budget with taking actually the Lincoln Hall budget and expanded it to include all the buildings in the village so taking things out of the library and the fire department and they'll all be in there and of course it'll need to be staffed so that'll be part of the budget we are taking the workers comp in the liability insurances out of the departmental budgets and putting them into a finance budget all except for highway because the town picks up all the highway bills we don't want to remove anything from it that's normally been in there so that's another thing that you're going to see a finance department but it didn't happen before we are from a staff perspective oh I might call out Katie okay we're talking about alignment and the cost of alignment we are talking about building and property maintenance the building position that we're looking at has not been determined whether it would be full or part time but we really need to start watching our buildings we spend the village and town spends tens of thousands of dollars and it's disjointed and not really being watched as well as we'd like it to be and we ask people actually the people who make some of the most money in our organization to do things like property maintenance and they're not very good they're good people but they're not necessarily as good and the other day the roof guy was here and we had two village employees making decent amount of money standing there going in need they didn't know why they were there but they had to let them up okay hearing what Lauren said it sounds like some job shifting maybe creating new positions is this going to be a wash in the sense that the cost to the municipality both communities whatever is going to be transferred it's just taking money and this moving over here we're not increasing it sounds like we're increasing government and government expenses bringing in new positions it sounds like we're going to need more revenue and so that creates two taxes going up maybe a little more than what what we've tried to really George said is flat rate and we're at cost of living basically so that's flat rate but could extend up higher in this particular case we're not set on full or part time I'm willing to try it part time because then there's no benefits and we could try to make it as close to a wash as we can if it starts going to full time it will it will butt up against the other priority or other priorities which is trying to add police officers I think you all at town meeting and village annual meeting heard people in our own police department will say they're running call to call to call and we want them to do more getting out of the vehicles spending more time with the citizens seeing the businesses etc those are the types of activities so those are so from a stamp perspective we want to align it's a little better we want to address our properties so that we're more accountable to the money that we're spending and to the buildings that we own and so that we don't go bump the 50,000 hour air conditioner unit which should have had a maintenance inspection didn't and now it doesn't work we want to make sure somebody is watching those things who has the ability to know that it needs to be done and then the police etc and then the other thing is there are alignment costs you guys met a while back in this budget you have the fire department trying to align their pay scales that was budgeted for a half a year in next year's budget is the other half of that cost and so we're going to have to try to smooth that in with everything else and if the property maintenance thing doesn't went out because the fire got this and the seniors got a little this then it is what it is but those are the some of the decisions and we wanted to hear some of the things that are on your mind so that as we go into the budget we either put a placeholder in it or start figuring out how much that may be right just to go back to the property maintenance thing I'm a little I'm just a little confused about how it works in terms of flexibility a plumbing leak at the fire department or in this building well ok we shut the water off and we wait for the property maintenance person to come and fix the problem a plumbing leak at the library shuts the library down they can't wait you know what I'm saying by saying we got the utility that that does that serves the village and the town equitably and it's a first come first serve thing I'm concerned about flexibility some property maintenance needs are more immediate than others maybe think about it a little bit differently you have a plumbing issue that's going on at the Brunel library their first call is to the maintenance person they call the plumber they meet the plumber there yes it's got to happen in an emergency that's where you're going in maintenance it's like ok we have a generator here at this building someone needs to make sure that there's a contract and to run that emergency generator they call it exercising it it got done under load when it was supposed to be done and there was a report someone has to do that do you want the manager to do that or someone who actually knows what they're looking at when they say they're coming here to do it those are the types of things that we we don't do very we try but we don't do them very well because we don't understand them as well as we understand how to do a budget one thing that would be interesting when we get to an actual budget and we're presented with some numbers that I would be curious to see is the difference between having either a part-time staff or a full-time staff as well as if that were going to contract it out to one of the numerous property management companies that exist whose livelihood depend on being able to tell you that energy thing you just said that I can't remember isn't working right and wasn't serviced on time or yeah the plumber needs to be there let me call one of the 15 I know and have great experiences with and get them over there as soon as possible that's a good suggestion one of the other things is we talked a little bit with the school district they have a million square feet under the roof they have some experience with building maintenance so it's also another it's one of those things but we need that activity we just don't know how the final form may take in this go round and it may not meet the priorities list can I ask another question it occurred to me this morning I went by Mable Street Park and I saw village dump trucks in the parking lot and then I said oh that's right so of course if they need maintenance it would be the village there as I always used to see S6 Junction School District and CCSU whatever and then it done to me what has been the impact on the work schedule and resources of public works that we have taken on this not trivial additional public works responsibility has it had an impact and do we do we need to budget more for that or how is that working out we don't really think about that yeah you know I don't know the answer but I can tell you that maybe the possibility of why you saw the trucks this weekend they had touch a truck oh I know whatever the reason was they have their maintenance staff as well and we do coordinate with them on larger projects I would have to ask Brad so they have their maintenance staff and at least one other yeah and then they've always coordinated even when they were under okay sorry I completely understand yeah it's just what comes into Brad's mind or someone else if it's something larger then they coordinate right but it's a good question I think overall in terms of budget I'm always concerned about trying to squeeze every dollar we can into capital projects to try to get as much as we can and that's why I'm reluctant as Dan is looking to see anything that that drives up the budget and other aspects because that is such a high priority for us and I think it is in my understanding it is one of the differences between the town and the village we have such a need as far as that goes so that I would only be sensitive to that along those lines do you want to make a transition to the capital budget I think we've got a few more questions here just a couple so some of the budget considerations that I have are actually generated from the senior center conversation I would like us to see how we can you know I'd like to hear from Dennis and Robin Dennis and Rick about the projects under consideration in the senior center and how we can work them in not saying all of them but let's have a little bit more predictability on that so we can answer questions and I'm assuming that the village snowplow budget is not going to change as a result of the bussing situation because we don't have buses so we're good we're not experiencing any significant increases not in the village although there is one there's one item it's all cost did go up this year significantly and the other thing I want to give you all a heads up is channel 17 is going to be coming by in the near future to give you the annual update just like Charlie did but she's going to be asking to double the town the village's contribution which is currently 6000 and the reason for that is that Comcast has this year alone because of people cutting the cord not subscribing to Comcast the budget has gone down $50,000 just this year on top of that there has been a change in accounting practices that Comcast and other carriers like Burlington telecom have to change their accounting practices in regards to bundled services so the dollar amount that they take the percentage of user fees out of to give channel 17 their budget has gone down that was a one time head but the reduction in users is a serious concern and channel 17 is addressing that with fundraising initiatives that we'll hear about in the near future but she will be asking for that and my recommendation to her and to the board as chair of that board is that instead of coming every couple years and doubling we're going to try to do like a 3% increase over time because it's ridiculous to keep coming back and asking for a significant jump more but that will be asked of both the village and the town that's all I have the only addition I have is to be back Bonnie Lane in the senior center and make sure that we continue this conversation and have more of a board policy conversation on what we do want to invest in the senior center it seems like it's that one last entity within our village that we haven't really invested in as you know we have libraries and we have EJRP and so I just would like us to I think there will be an ask for some money there at the end of our conversation from me at least so I just want to put that out there I mean you said your piece I said my piece a little bit but I mean I have already seen about the senior center I agree we need to address it the parking issue I hear it and I hear Evan and it's catch is catch can and until we put in meters until we do anything in this village we're not going to get people moving their vehicles any time quick out of our spaces and then as far as senior center goes I agree with the whole thing of like the ADA compliant doors and such really we've got to get to that stuff I think we've got to look also at I know Luann brought up that it's comfortable, it's nice it's homey there but if it continues to grow they're probably going to grow beyond and that's growing pains they're talking about parking so we got to look at the next step because we're really at the cost with the maximum capacity for the where they are at the site now what happens to Lincoln Hall and who knows you know the alignments and consolidations and such right that's what I like to bring up too okay Lorna sir did you get what you wanted from us or do you want is that good enough for now okay and the schedule we had to be down for budget day on the week of December 17 should we schedule that be good I would appreciate it let's go do it oh but we have to we can schedule that first okay okay so let me go down here what day let's start with day out there December 19 December 19 it's a Wednesday Wednesday that's a Wednesday that's fine I mean 19 is usually that for Wednesday is usually if we have a regional planning you can go look at the calendar and see what you know planning commission just okay December 19 right now is the the day do you want to look at December 20 December 6 that's alright can we also just say right now we're canceling our meeting on December 25 yes and I won't be here that would be a crime what well we should well for that we should put that on the agenda for the next meeting to cancel the 25th that takes an actual should take a motion for action so we'll put that on the next agenda okay good unless it wasn't scheduled to begin with it is on your schedule no no no on your management report you've got it it says cancel oh look at that so with the budget if I can from the capital meeting we had last week one of the things you probably see in the nose as we talked about the capital funding that was pretty much the extent of our conversation one of the things I want to make sure is understood as well is there were some words that were used around potential future funding sources those were intentionally discussed to be future long-range future not this upcoming year so I can't recall it up in my head I want to say local option tax one of the things that was put in there impact fees those are not things from a capital committee standpoint we were looking to get the information on and have set for this upcoming budget year but potentially for a future and what was also discussed is for that to really also be like a plan B barring future conversations about the town village consolidation efforts so I just want to make sure you heard that from me thank you and then the other thing related to that Lauren did her great spreadsheet work and brought us the capital reserve plan as it stays now where every year we're increasing the contribution to the capital budget by seven and a half percent doing that puts us into a hole come FYE 2014 or 2024 where we would have $304,000 in plans deficit in the capital budget which that's generally not a good thing right so what was said to us is I think Evan in his wisdom said to Lauren what would happen if that was higher so these other pages that you have are the exact same thing with the exception of the increase changing so you notice in the very not worth this capital general fund capital reserve plan a little text below this is 7.5 percent increase the second page is 10 percent increase per year the page is 15.5 percent increase per year and the last one is 15 percent increase per year I'm not following what you're increasing I think I am but let me make the transfer from the general fund I got it we took it at 7.5 percent 10 percent 12.5 percent and 15 to see what it would do in the out years and what's getting not funded in the general fund in your wisdom this is just to increase that the grand list is going to go up and take care of it it's just not going to happen by magic I didn't understand some very hard choices are going to have to be like what you said George one of the differences in your opinion of the town and the villages we fund a fair amount into the capital and so if you look into the very bottom of the spreadsheets whatever page you're on you see ending fund balance you follow that all the way over at least on the first page where it says FY 2024 you have in the parenthesis where things start to go negative I just wondered why you didn't have a negative there and just print these that's just the way that the the way that goes away is if we were to start this upcoming fiscal year that we're talking about planning for and were to be a 12.5 percent increase that at least temporarily goes away for FY 2024 rears its ugly head again in FY 2026 if you want to avoid that one well then you've got to go to 15 percent starting this upcoming year and when we're talking about 15 percent more can you remind me that's $12 per average household yeah it was 12 I think 7.5 was $6 I think so it goes up the increase would go up to $12 over what is being paid up to 15 percent every year so we're not talking $100 per household we're talking 12 speaking of this Andrew looking down the road the bond that we voted in when's that going to expire was it paid off it was 20 years but it still had like 10 or 15 years so it's now we do have the naples street bond that's going to be paid out based on the next month yeah so I assume that's incorporated nope well this gets you into the question of what's cheaper taking out a bond or raising taxes and so the intention of this you're paying on a bond and then it's sorry so the intention of this is to say that one of the things that we're doing in the capital committee was looking at this and we've run up against the time clock of information supposed to come to the trustees beforehand and one of our major pieces of conversation is should we bond versus should we there just be that increase in taxes one of the things that was discussed in the meeting is if we were to bond for anything and then fast forward should our two communities further consolidate and things happen that original bond and the money paid will stays back with the community who issued that bond so if we wanted to hold off on any kind of bonding at least in a temporary capacity to let those conversations happen personally I think that would be advisable and if we were to just if we were to increase taxes to help prevent any kind of future deficit funding to at least pay for the things that are currently planned for let alone anything else new that comes up that needs to happen that's been the problem in the past too so what the ask will be basically isn't the capital committee is seven and a half percent increase this year isn't going to be enough and it should be I am not sincerely not trying to throw a controversial wrench into this but I have to say it since we're in the spirit of consolidation, consolidating public works as we know significant tax revenue leaves the village and goes into the town general fund and then transferred into the town capital fund if those if those dollars weren't going to the town if they were staying in the village have you looked at how much because that's a conversation we might reasonably have with the select board at this stage of the game has anyone looked at that do you have a sense of that? That's actually part of the information I'm gathering for the governance committee if I have a photographic memory I'd be in here but it's not I do have it in a general sense, does it address the problem because I'm going to guess that it does Does it address the problem? I'm sorry I mean obviously there's money there's 42% of the capital tax is paid by the village 42% of the capital tax in of the town is paid by village people that's what the grand list breakout is and that's 500 some thousand 517 so you're talking quarter of a million dollars okay for the village or the total tax no for the village the village piece of the town which includes global foundries which you know it's not all residential I mean it's not I'm not trying to make a statement at all I'm just saying in the spirit of alignment and consolidation that might be a third option for us to have a discussion with them about I disagree because you're just shifting the problem from one budget to another and then you're going to give the town a huge hit in tax increase because there's going to be that much less money going into the town capital fund it doesn't seem like a logical meeting point yeah right exactly we're looking at taking out a three and a half million dollar bond because we didn't have we hit the wall that's in this thing here where we were looking at going into a hole and in the same year we took out the bond we're looking at transferring you know several hundred thousand dollars into the town and I'm just saying there might be some now that we've got public works town engineer working with village engineer there might be some other way of approaching this I agree to to the concept of what you're saying I would rather take the long view and discuss that possibility as a way going forward not just to deal with this year's capital budget I also think that one of the things that was mentioned is through the continued consolidation efforts and the ability to utilize town expertise like town engineering staff for instance as a method for helping to reduce these costs it can be one way to try to have chip away at that ultimately that alone still isn't going to solve the issue it's again there's a whole bunch of stuff that needs to happen as our infrastructure is old and just needs to be redone and somebody's got to pay for it right okay I don't have any answer so yeah we don't have one so is the capital committee going to recommend an increase or the capital committee the capital committee will be recommending an increase we didn't get far we didn't get along far enough to say exactly what percent and or if it would only be the increase in percent or some other method thereof we would be planning to talk about that again in our upcoming meeting in December in November but for today's purposes yes we would want it to be increased above seven half percent and they did if you don't mind they did mention we did talk about bonding and their preference was not to bond at this time again if the village bonds and you do merge that money that you bond is yours and your residents they approved it unless the other larger entity also accepts that debt which is not likely to happen because the money that was borrowed was used only in specific areas that don't benefit the entire entity of the only half of the percent that's right that's why they said I get it but I understand we dealt with that and how much money if the three and a half million dollar bond the average household what's the cost per year over 20 years if we're not talking like a huge this isn't like I don't see that as a deal breaker in terms of consolidation one way or the other if we said let's take out a bond I don't think that well okay but the cost the extra twenty dollars or thirty five dollars is going to stay with the village it just further complicates and further delays the benefit that we're trying to achieve which is tax equity so if we sign up for another twenty year bond and we just extended the length of time that village residents are going to continue to pay more it's for stuff that they wanted and it's for stuff that's limited to our boundaries but I wouldn't want to go back to it but tax equity you're talking eight hundred nine hundred dollars per household per year versus twenty five thirty dollars per household per year I'm just saying it's not a big it's not a it's a double digit not a triple digit or quadruple digit figure that's all I don't see it as a big well that we have to I mean it's more concerning just taking out a bond it's just in and of itself regardless of what we do I think it's just more of a perception that if the village is hoping to ease its tax burden and consolidate with the town that we go out and take out another multi-million dollar bond that sends an unusual message that maybe voters won't appreciate that's all I'm trying to say well if they don't, if they like keeping their cars aligned they might want to say understand if something has to get done and the wheels of government turn much slower than car tires can I ask a different question about this budget Andrew so are these like, is this the hit of the top priorities, these 18 projects that are on here now, is this like the top things that have to get done they are thank you I'm the bull is in front of me because I thought the binder was like this thick and there was a ton of projects in it we went through an intentional process where with Rick Hamlin, Rick Jones Evan, Lauren other other staff, Jim some of those projects were weeded out some of those projects were talked about where they shouldn't even be in the book to begin with putting the the sewer line further down Old Colchester Road does not need to happen and does not need to begin the budget for an example so some of those were taken out and then they've also been completed they're also taken out now so it is there so if you look at the schedule on the side on the left side there are numbers from the book or letters those represent the letters in the book and then if you look under rank that's the ranks that the cap of committee gave those projects and then the next one is so the higher the number, the higher the priority that's right and what is on here right now is South Siobhanich which is being delayed because they're trying to find grant funding LaMoyle Water, Ircoi and Rosewood Lane are all the projects that are scheduled to go forward in the foreseeable future okay if you have any other questions about the spectrum and when it goes into the annual report it won't have all of this information we have this in the annual report goes up to FYE 2024 right? it's five years, supposed to be five years so that was also part of the impetus by making sure that that's a planned deficit actually we show them to the boat yeah we're just planning to not pay the bill yep they should say you guys are doing five year budget cycles I'm so proud of you impressive exactly that's actually mostly doable yep right it is it is until a waterline breaks that we didn't expect a million dollars to fix yep so hopefully we're fixing it before that happens yep okay and as we did mention in this we use the town talent for the Main Street Bridge Aaron Martin the town engineer basically ran that project where normally the village would have hired an engineer to do that and bid it out and oversee the project and we did that under the auspices of the alignment now is that hundreds of thousands of dollars nope but it is money that didn't get spent that we would have contracted to do and we are looking for opportunities to do that will it change those numbers from negative to positive? no but it will cut the number down and save and so those are the things the town has agreed that they would do as projects permit and we just have to keep working at some ways of doing this we wouldn't have been upset if they paid for the whole thing no I would have said that's okay I appreciate this is really good you know if we could see it's probably too complicated but it would be interesting to see what if we just did cost of living like a 3% 3.5% tax increase overall where we might might be some suggestions to squeeze some extra dollars in order to meet the 10% or 12.5% so one thing to keep in mind is that construction costs on average are between 3% to 5% every year so that 7.5% gives us a little bit of a cushion to be doing more than what we are doing today but not a lot these projects are escalated at 5% a year on top of what they are estimated for this year this might be upsetting an apple car to something but one thing I want to know is so we have been receiving a pilot from the CBE every year $15,000 that goes towards the capital fund in the same vein as the channel 17 contribution being flat for X number of years suddenly needs a massive increase I wonder if we should be talking to CBE about doing an annual increase on that you know like a 3% a year it would be a nice idea it would be a nice idea we are actually talking to them about their contribution for police services for it is not kept up with our costs so they are being separately between these coverage outside of the pilot yes and it has gone up substantially because of workers problems sure I would argue though that while I understand police presence but I do think as a static number we would have to look at that sure every little bit of it I think we should explore it because I don't want to have to suddenly in a couple years ago we really need a bigger bump from them and then stop them with a 50% increase you don't want to do that but I don't think it should be flat that's a very good idea so I know we are getting late for our usual meetings but just a it's okay to talk about stuff one of the things you mentioned at the beginning Lauren moving workers comp out of the individual departments and putting them all under the finance department I'm curious as to why because that's the way the town does it it's not giving us it's not really going to work to separate it out really I don't even know how accurate it is once I get it separated out but we do our best didn't we just a couple years ago do the opposite split it out worked comp has always been sweat out and so has liability what we did what we used to do for a little while a couple years the health care cost which was really good and then we went back the other way I remember that because the library budget went up really high that year Pat liked it that way but anyway the new guys got his other idea and then the new guys got some new ideas he kind of likes the averaging but he's got some even better ideas so so everything is it's interesting but as we move further and further into alignment and further and further into cost sharing it gets extremely complicated in lines right and then you start doing percentages and you got formulas and spreadsheets it's hard to explain versus just sort of just hard and fast rules and where they go and so if you take all of this and then times it by a percentage you get an answer versus having to have a binder as to how you did it or why you did it and the memory of why you did it the assistant to position that you guys just put in your stuff that went from a 100% village funded position salary and benefits to I believe 65, 35 some close to that one so the town is now picking up 35% of that position of the salary not the benefit but so we're finding ways to do this and pecking away at it as we find ways to work together for what we need but as you start doing the budget if you keep doing that in individual lines it has the opportunity to just be a mishmash and nobody will understand it it allows you to see if one should allow you to then see if one department is having more more claims than another so they're costing us more utilities we're actually able to see that in a different way so if you're able to see it in a different way it seems like that makes no point so now I have to take this huge spreadsheet and allocate it out in order to get those numbers and it's you're making the best guess essentially at a whole number and they do it like an office workers workers comp is low and the police officers is high but we average them no we don't no not in the village but as accurate as we can make but so so I just want to have two questions in this mishmash and this book and this alignment and all these numbers we are confident that the village money is village money and the town money is town money so I guess you would all learn I'm just concerned that an answer to a financial question or a policy change might be because it's the way the town does it I would much I know I shouldn't say that it is the way the town does it and it is much simpler and we're not really using that information okay and that's great and I trust you but I want to make sure for your sake and we are trying to do it the best way yes and there are things that we do that are village and we use them better I got it your presentation you brought it up earlier about when you were writing the policy you put a lot of stuff out of the village and incorporate it in the town so I don't look at it I hear what Lori is saying too when you just say it is that's how the town did it if you add it because it's more efficient than the way we do it that would be good good should we move on this is what happens when it gets to be 9 o'clock I appreciate the detail we just get way more creative than I think should we yeah let me say thank you very much Lori did the work you gave her the base it's a good thing sure you can do it let's why don't we move on to the manager's report manager report it's 9 o'clock I think we've set the trustee meeting schedule and everything already and we probably aren't going to meet on Christmas I guess so we can move on from there I'm sorry I'm sorry to go back we were supposed to set budget goals did our board set budget goals well that's what I'm saying I don't think we were you looking for specific goals because sometimes we said we want you to level fund we want you to be 10% we want this and that constraints or suggestions that we want to offer or we all satisfied that we did that when you said it was going to be cost of living this is the target when we say goals, goals is not a set this is what we'd like to obtain if we can't, that's the goal and if you can't accomplish it that's fine, I just want to make sure that was clear I let up by saying normally we routinely do level service and try to keep increases to cost of living and that's a general guideline for this point I don't know much but then I also said but I don't want to speak for everybody and then I opened up that's fine, I just want to make sure that they knew what we were talking about because they kind of felt like we were all over the place for a while then well we wanted to share what we were thinking too that was much needed okay so we don't do the we've done with the manager report I don't think we need to and we are, I remind everybody that we are going to be meeting on Thursday at least with the joint meeting with the select board is that here? is it here? it's here to be a little crowded but it'll be here it's okay, the more the merrier so we're on to the reading trustee comments any additional comments? one comment was brought to my attention by some of my neighbors and I brought this subject up multiple times the signals at Park Street and South Street in the timing of that and a couple of people have come to me and said that it's ridiculously long when there's no traffic at all on Park Street and you're sitting on South Street for minutes on end watching nothing go by and it turns only for maybe 30 seconds and then you've got to get out there quick because if somebody does pull up on coming from I.D. they stop the turn and then you miss the light so you sit another two minutes so that's an issue I think needs to be and they come out of that at a globe so fast it's really dangerous so if you're going to turn left and head north on Park Street you could sit several cycles so that's an issue neighbors is involved his job involves signals and such and he says it's broader than just that one I told him to go to our manager and I don't know maybe Evan has had a discussion we looked into this several times well I just that issue I know at the five corners sections the west extension intersection I brought this up with Rick Hamlin they have the bike sensor for bicyclists so it can turn when the bicyclists there they don't have that I believe at the intersection over here on South and Park and that I think is something we really could use Is that a smart light or a dumb timer light? I think it's a dumb timer light over here and I think he basically alters whatever they want and I think it's probably the state is the state doing it? we've looked into Dennis has looked into this we can't put a smart light in there I don't know that particular part but 2A gets the priority but I will get back with Dennis on this because the last time I talked to him I was spinning after he talked to me I understand the the priority when there is traffic here but when there is priority and there is nothing there that's where you need a smart light that senses that he says wait we're going to shut down for that and clear it so I just that's the only one coming I have one thing I attended a meeting last week again I was going to send you something which I did not but I will there was a meeting from I don't know if you remember it was through the town budget but we were given a presentation on it as well where the six communities in Chittenden County and the state came together to fund for community outreach workers through Howard center and that all happened in I think late spring so I attended a meeting where we met the Howard center workers police officer and I forget her name Ashley she was fabulous anyway I walked away feeling like our money is being very well used by these community outreach people and the police seemed extremely excited to have them with them they talked about some of the calls they've been able to de-escalate they talked about examples where where they were called to a situation that could have easily been handled incorrectly in the police service as well where the person may have lost their home from that situation and yet when the community outreach worker came in they were able to de-escalate the person still in their home so they were it was really a fantastic presentation and I do have some statistics specific to ASIC so I will send that to you I appreciate that just two things I last night attended a meeting at the invitation to the Essex Rescue they invited all of the elected officials of the communities they served to come get an annual update and it was terrific and we have an amazing Essex Rescue so that was terrific and they pointed out one important thing that the more senior housing we build the more ambulance runs will be and the higher their cost will be which it's not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing it's just a thing and it's another consideration when we're looking at adding new buildings to the downtown and the other thing I wanted to tell you about the police is last meeting the select board approved some funding that was being used from the basically the drug money the town police department gets a portion of it and they're going to use those funds to have a canine officer and a canine the dog this dog will be capable of sniffing for missing people for drugs but not marijuana and explosives right? not explosives so one of our newest officers came to us from the sheriff he was the canine officer and he had a canine but when he came to us the dog didn't come to us because the dog the dog is the property of the sheriff the sheriff came to us and said we have this dog T1 and we're like we don't know if we want to start a whole program ourselves but the chief and I talked about maybe a pilot we used the dog about we've used the dog about 25 times over the last in fact one of them we used the dog recently when he wasn't ours we were looking for someone who had fled from us the officer came got out of his car the dog did a little bit of business on the side got ready for work and walked about 100 feet into some bushes and said there's your guy awesome and the officer sheriff ellie who's now with us goes well that was the fastest recovery in our history good job back in the car apprehended he was about 100 some odd feet away in some bushes right with black creativity in the criminal department and so we use them etc we do the program as you probably would understand once we do get them we would get on a call list so if somebody wanted to use our dog we do have mutual aid etc etc those types of things but he came with the officer and so we get a bunch of stuff from the sheriff we get stuff that makes the car a whole bunch of things and we will try it out as a pilot the dog probably has three to four years of service life left not his total life but a service life they tend to go about seven years five to seven years and the dog is three but they are trained with the officer once they are trained they will not train this dog with anybody else so it's a benefit to the community we're trying something so that's a good pickup and then I was also at SX Rescue and they'll be an ask from them too and they're coming here because they're a call volume okay good news sorry anything else trustees okay anything in the reading file catch anyone's we appreciate all the letters and thanks from the steam press folks and so anything else so we are on to the consent agenda actually before we do that there was I did get a message asking if we could make two changes to the to the minutes on page two starting off with four D okay one of the interviews for the Brown L board on the so under D where it starts off with the person's name and it says as a village resident since 2006 and she and her husband have elementary middle school each children the request was to go to if that sentence could be the person's name introduce yourself as a village resident since 2006 when her two children were in elementary and middle school and then that would just replace those first two sentences and then the other one it's part of sorry I can't find this now so person's name explained that she started the area's train up if that could be changed to that she was part of a handful of concerned neighbors that started the area's train up so someone emailed you comments to fix the minutes yep I took a look back on the on the video and it makes sense I will move that we amend the minutes as suggested by second any further discussion all in favor I pose anything else with the reading time anything sorry sorry I'll move the consent to that as amended all right any further discussion all in favor do I hear a motion to adjourn any further discussion all in favor we are adjourned thank you well actually sorry for being whispered in what