We moved the town hall presentation update to after we hear we do the East Calistar or W and hear from the treasurer and the tax collector because that's not something Donna and John aren't coming they don't really need to come at a time so we don't the only people we're holding up is the people that are here all right Alfred you want me I can okay I had some stuff we were asked by FEMA and CVR PC to estimate the damage that we have from that weird storm a few weeks ago my house was out of power for like two days and we came off with a grand total of two hundred and thirty dollars what I know we didn't have more than that in trees that sounds like your house not that no not the two hundred and thirty dollars was at my house but the pain and suffering was at my house so that's been done Cliff and I met with Alfred on last week Monday right we talked about an iPad an iPhone and Toby weighed in on the iPad I know he's getting really computer geeky here was going to teach you how to use it Toby said I asked that question Toby said he's going to and the reason being and I forget Cliff you priced them they weren't outrageous but apparently according to what Toby said it's to be set up provided through RV tech right and they can provide some additional technical support as well right and the idea being that when Alfred's right out on the site he can take pictures he can update the inventory that we've had done it will come in handy when we're doing the municipal roads general permit stuff the stuff it's going to take effect in July right so we just wanted to let you guys know that that's Alfred is going to be the geek now we talked about you know we get a lot of questions about summer maintenance just like we did about the witch maintenance and I think that the Q&A that we did for the winter was well received so I'm looking to do something similar to that for the summer that we can have here at the office that Alfred can have to hand out when he's going around telling people you know I'm going to be doing this work you know on your road here's the handout that it's generic and it can be used instead of it having to be something that's specifically done each and every time it's generic enough that it can just be handed out what else do we talk about we're working on with Alfred on the job descriptions for the crew and we're going to base it not on like staff work road crew one row crew two we're going to base it on years of service like from the new hire to the first year what do you what does Alfred expect from that person within that year then maybe two to five years and then five to ten and if you hire somebody that really kind of falls into one two to five year ones then you have a reason to give them a higher incoming salary so we we talked about that we talked about mowing because we're not going to be mowing at the town hall because there's no reason to the Westin showed up here one morning to mow and Judy said oh wait a minute so I contacted the Westin said basically in the emails in the Google folder if anybody wants to see it thank you so Alfred was looking to buy up one more to do some mowing around the town garage so Alfred's going to delegate to one of the other road crew to what did you say would take maybe ten minutes to do around here is not much so one of the road crew for now we'll do the mowing here it's still cheaper yes and they're already covered by insurance so we don't have to worry about that piece of things did you your back from Tory no I didn't what else what else there's a local roads workshop at our very own town garage on June 7th which is a Thursday at 8 30 and it looks it looks really good I signed up for it I know the whole road crew is signed up for here's the information if anybody's interested and last but not least the chipper Alfred asked about the chipper and the way we worded the wine if you remember was we would not get the chipper if we didn't get the grant we didn't get the grant so I I guess I understand why a chipper would be helpful but the voters said so let's get Toby on that well and can we can we also use I use this as an opportunity to build the business case by which I mean go through the torture and I'm acknowledging that Alfred of renting and having to read whatever the issues with renting are actually experience them right document document so you can document you can tell the story from not a speculative perspective but from a okay we did it three times last year here's what happened I rented it you know in June and I had to wait two weeks because there was a line and then the day it was my turn and I had it for three days it rained every single day then I had to take it back that was number one you know so you've got your real life story to go along with your to build you know to tell the case the entire case at town meeting I think that that adds weight to your I understand it's undesirable but being able to to share the personal experience of undesirability is powerful yeah well we've got a project coming up grant aid project on shackle that is going to require taking some trees out and that would be the perfect opportunity to rent a machine right that have that experience because the grant will cover the rental we'll still have the proof they still have right the documentation right yeah no that's great yep and any other time and the other time this summer fall you know after these storms all these weird storms that we have and you've already had people calling the town garage saying can I have some chips because people saw it people think we have a chip room we don't because they want the chips well and some people have been very happy to hear we don't have a chip yes there are certain people but they don't know about the wind shears that we're buying well I think you can document that yeah I've got the one time the truck right now on that last snowstorm was heavy heavy wet snow and I have to buy windshield not for that that's part of what happened there was snow snow hanging down on the trees and the trees were like right over in the road and driving at the windshield yep so we don't have insurance that covers glass we've got a $500 deductible and windshields probably look at changing that and I got zero deductible on my cars it's not that much more yeah we can check into that well yeah I mean I think I don't know if there's a if there's a policy strictly for glass that might be something to get into mm-hmm but our policy is covers everything right so right most acts the accidents are you know a lot more money than that so let's make a note in that let's make a note in the minutes that we'll check with our insurance carrier about what are what we would have to do to change our policy to include windshields it's usually I know a conventional car you know homeowner home whatever passing your car insurance right and even on my truck they have you know collision they have liability and they have comprehensive comprehensive is you know tree falls on your car snow slides off your barn roof like it didn't crush my windshield and hood and and and depending on what policy you you subscribe to you can either you can get different levels of deductible and so it's it's a $20 more a year for me zero deductible in all my cars so that makes really good sense I'm wondering if that's available you know for commercial policy well I think that's the note we're going to make in the minutes is to check that out it's a good idea John can we hear it's been a whole year since we said we were going to know twice for invasives and we're getting close to that for two million right it's in the budget so that's going to start soon I would think well we didn't notify Doug growl right away of that because it wasn't really but I talked to Doug last summer about dinner twice and he didn't have a problem with that right well I just talked to him week ago and he's gonna he's gonna give me a contract okay and so I told him that we do want it twice a year I think he's gonna be able to pull it off but he's he's signed contract with other towns so it's going to be tight for him to be able to do it twice well I'm not saying that he can't right sound in the conversation sounding like it was going to be and murder him so what I'm saying is we need to confirm that soon I think it's already can yeah well you need to confirm it with him but I think it's confirmed on our part that we want it done twice a year and we budgeted for that but the timing matters right it doesn't matter right so twice twice a year you know middle of July and middle of August may not be worth it right it's really about lacking them early and I'm not the expert on that much maybe soon it's different every year this year seems to be like growing is late I mean we're already halfway through May and three people are just beginning to mow the lawn so all these things are late right that's true but but my point is only that we don't want we don't want I believe we don't want a mowing in August and one in October just so we can say we did twice now we have to confirm what the right timing is for the invasives and what we're talking about who knows what that time is I think you know we're meeting with Joanne next week from Joanne Garten this week that's right this week the 16th right I think we could ask her let's ask Joanne or Stephanie's committee yeah there's a bunch of different invasives that we're trying to right conquer so it's the timing could be different depending on which species it is well if we struggle I think it is a good topic for the conservation committee to say you know we understand that half a dozen times might be idea we don't have that no you have to so you tell us what yeah I can ask the we can ask Joanne we can ask the conservation commission to come up with the timing of this mowing and that and then we can tell Doug and see if he can fit it in and then going and then going forward we'll have a better idea about the timing it's probably going to vary by you know a couple of weeks here and there every year but you kind of get a better idea better handle on it I think it's really good we're doing that I'm just really glad we're doing that yeah yeah it's costing us some more money but I think it's worth it we're doing our part we are and that matters I mean you know the chipper but then there's this really matters to people that we're managing our invasives yeah it's a big deal these are huge deal so I just want to be clear that I understand so we have a contract with Doug Grout that's a verb okay so why are we so committed to Doug if he can't definitely meet our two two cuts per year I'm not saying you can't understand but we need him to commit and if he can't then we should see if there's someone else available yeah I know we've put it out to bit before and we've never gotten any other bits besides Doug that might be well if you do we have gotten other bits but they're they're way high because this is town he's right here right now it's cheaper for him just right I distract her to the site and I know when I talk to him he's very concerned about the invasives and very interested in it I mean I that's a good option if he can if he can only pull off one mowing then we'll search for somebody else to do the second mowing or vice versa yeah so I guess it would depend on his schedule and I'll talk with him I seen him at the store the other day he said hey do you want a contract I said yes we have one every year so I said we're doing two mows this year so then he was kind of saying seems surprised about that I'm not sure why he's surprised because we talked about it probably the same brain I have so I'll be meeting with him again and I'll confirm his ability to move right and we're meeting on we're meeting on you and Cliff and I are meeting on 21st so we can maybe get an update from you on that day and maybe and by then we'll admit with Joanne I can talk to the conservation commission who I don't know when their next meeting is but they could put it on there again so can we talk about the truck yes we would like to hear about the truck well I don't have a lot but I talked to him today and who is Billy Cleary the owner of J&B the news right he's he is working on Navistar to come up with an answer and what he told me today was just a rumor it was the service salesman was at his shop and told him that it was a rumor that Navistar was willing to pay 30% or a third of the cost of the repair to put one of the same motor since it's the only option we got and I think I asked us before but to be clear they have not improved the motor that we have you know sometimes there are defects and then they in installing new replaceable motors that those are improved and the defect has been you know I don't hear that they've done any engineering on that that would be important to know I mean if the motors it you know the defect has now been engineered out you might look the site but it's been cured I'm afraid of that motor to be honest yeah well me too but I was thinking you can put a motor in at discount and then sell the truck I don't want to hang on the truck either I'm trying to figure out it's hard to sell a truck that's just right but with that said we own the truck it's our truck we you know we bought a limit so to speak right so we own it we have to kind of what my thought is is that if Navistar pays a third J&B pays a third the town pays a third we all get out of it fairly easily I mean J&B might be willing to pay a third too right I'm not I didn't get vibes from him that he's got to do something I mean he sold us the truck so if he wants our business in the future I feel like he needs to do something for us right yeah so that's where that's kind of the angle I'm going here once I but nothing was finalized today it was just I called him up I think I may have caught a lost the bottom off guard and I said I need an answer promised me he would call me back at 2 o'clock my phone never ran so so to be clear so let's say that scenario happens say they say that that's in the offering they Navistar and J&B say yeah we're willing to go a third if you come up with your third what is your thinking we fix it and then trade it as a truck if we put a new motor in it we would let it run through its through its time here which is one I was like trading it right off while it's got a brand new motor so I get the highest dollar they'll say wow it's got a new motor that could put it on the lot well unless the new motor might get a better trade is what I'm saying unless the new motor is the same thing that well that's another reason why just trade it as soon as I put the motor in but we haven't but the problem that puts us in a spot financially with our budget because we're not we're not we haven't planned for a truck which is if we have no other choice then we're gonna have to go that avenue right but if they do fix the motor or if they put a brand new motor in it certainly it's gonna last for a year I mean we'd be awfully surprising if a brand motor didn't last a year well it lasted five years in fact the brand new motor will have a warranty it'll have it will have a three-year warranty oh okay I didn't know that's that was far if it's a factory brand new motor right because every truck you buy the most the manufacturer gives a three-year warranty so anything that happens to that motor within that three year period it will be covered okay Chris just just to be clear because I bought things that have had a warranty period say two years and like I bought a tool at the end of the details I bought a hook tool had a two-year warranty on it within a year year and a half the thing fell I called them they said no problem we'll send you a new one I gave them a mail them the other one back whether you care or whatever I said so now there's that new one have a two-year warranty they said no you get the remainder the six months so I'm just want to make sure they made us give us the remainder because they're donating well there is no remainder because there is no remainder so my my be if we run this and then we take a risk and now we wound up with a truck for the motor that word that's twice feel that that just right right yeah so so the other option is also that we have for us is a used motor so if we go with a used motor I'm gonna say let's off that truck as soon as we can now we've got a running truck that is going to be worth triple what we're being offered I got a quote from Charlie boys just down the blue for that truck that's got a bad motor in $8,500 $8,500 for the truck the way it is with all the plow stuff oh whoa that's it excuse me that was taking the plow stuff off and putting it on the body stick and the stuff with the body would come with it into the truck okay he gave me a new cabin chassis for him them taking the parts off of it yeah and then they would give us $8,500 for the blown motor and how much would our one-third share be of this motor we're talking about it be 10,000 because it's we're at 32 is the repair of a new motor it's a brand new motor now I'm going to explore more options yeah once I once I know what that Navistar is going to do right and if that's not satisfactory then I'm going to go look into what J&B can do with this for the second-hand motor yeah which then maybe they do the labor and we do the we do the we buy the part the motor and then we then we're into 12 or 15,000 right and then by the time all this happens it'll be almost time for snow again well depends on how we go I mean if they do replace the motor and it'll be faster than that they should be able to plop the motor on the air in a couple of weeks okay all right that's not that's not yeah I wish for your decision points in there still we have to get to you so okay are we ready to yeah I mean I know you're not but it's very it's very disappointing when he doesn't call me back right that's I was supposed to have this answer last Monday he priced me so right busy schedule what I've got going I didn't I didn't pastor so today was like a whole another week later I pastured him I remember you said that when Cliff and I were there that you were going to be talking to him that afternoon yeah and I did no I tried to call him and he was gone to lunch and you know left word he needs to call me today yeah so I'm staying on it I just yeah tomorrow have a lot more information good good yeah it's testing out you negotiation skills yeah nice and like but still get my point across then but you know I still want them to do yeah absolutely good yeah nice work thank you yeah good job but we do need a truck we need to move if right we're going to go with a new one we need to be making that decision right away because a new one is definitely going to take right fall to get it together because it's two months to order it in two months right and we didn't get voter approval so we'll have to think about how to do this right so anyways I was ready to do the ROW or do you have anything else okay East Calis Church I say Andy how are you beautiful day it's supposed to be nice I think there's a really so it's Thursday Friday Saturday this week yeah and I didn't talk to Alfred briefly about it and you suggested that they were going to have to probably close the road close all around the church so you close it off right in front of the backstreet and he calls it off where you come off in the 14th right and how many property how many people is that going to affect that won't be able to there's only the rose but they can go around they go by the store and on backstreet the road won't bother the road no okay they can still just keep the barricades away from there yeah they're fine the two people that might bother is they live in that apartment building so there's two Sarah which for those three days she could probably park on backstreet and this time of year it's not going to affect us right it's really just those two people and have you talked to those people say yeah right that's the other thing you just if they want to come right and you said they could use the town's barricades right yeah does the board have any other questions about this item okay so we have to fill out directions restrictions and conditions what highway number is that alphadena but it's Marshfield Road because we have to put that on this Marshfield Road project description you're gonna be stripping and painting right you got a lot of volunteers right yeah okay so painting and scraping the church and the restrictions and conditions are to block off block the entrance block off roadway walk off Marshfield Road from route 14 so kind of for your own protection then you're scraping the pink you know if that paint's got to lay I don't think so because it was painted back in so it's not the 70s no no unless there was old paint from before from right but it's been painted just gotta be careful because you could you're not having kids scraping with Jolene tarps down yeah okay so block off Marshfield Road from route 14 for May tell me the dates against Andy and you can use the the town what are they called their parents I would assume it would only be closed yeah so from 8 to 4 yeah I wouldn't put it my exact time because some evening you get really nice weather and we might see you later you might want to stay later during daylight hours there you go good SA for SA for thank you Judy during hours anything else anything else all right so we need a motion to wait so you're which which road do you close up I'll make sure I'm clear on the scene be Marshall where will you leave route 14 yeah so that's both streets be the one going to the right of the church and left of the church and that's still all called Marshall do we have the word reason I asked I know headphone you still we said remember we tried the one way everything should like for my trucks I got to go this she goes backstreet she's gone back so she'll go backstreet okay now not saying that there wouldn't be a tongue right or another truck that matter but if you see some if you see somebody you'll let them rip oh yeah okay yeah for the safety of the people that are working in just because people come around there they're not seeing somebody's painting you know when you're painting you're concentrating on the paint you're laying not the cars around you and right whatever I'm just going to put on here verification will be moved if residents need access do we need to put a notice on front porch for him I think we should you're going to put something on from porch for him yeah just FYI paintings going on this weekend yeah and please note that you know the right we make the church pay a fee no now we did all right so there are motion to approve this ROW as we've discussed and noted so their second okay any further discussion all those in favor we say aye aye any opposed hearing none today is the and the property owner is the Woodbury United Church okay I'm gonna send this around for signature and alpha needs to sign it and then do you have to record it Judy you have to record this permit it needs to be filed in a certain way I'm not sure it goes so we can scan it and right email it to Sandra is that okay you have a way to print it off if you need to okay we'll have fun we'll need that handy those days we're working down there we need that permit down there we'll we'll get you a copy we'll scan it and send it to you before the 17th right yeah okay I think that's it right okay moving right along ten minutes of eight good we move the town hall renovation Toby's not here so let's move on to our treasurer join us madam treasurer madam delinquent tax collector hello thanks for coming thanks for having me thank you Zanny this is the profit and loss through the orders that you will sign today and they are going to pass them around you know here are the orders for signing which I'll be spinning around I like a budget you are with regard to general government the budget percentage of buzz the percentage of budget used is in line with the percentage used at the same time last year so you appear the we're doing in a good direction we're doing something right you're yeah of course you're consistent your budget looks on target your income looks a little low at this point in time there's a grant that you budgeted for the Hayden Road bridge grant so those monies are not in yet and that is the I would say the largest shortfall that income projections we'll see how do we find out if that money is going to come in do you know I don't know do you know because we'd like it be good to have that money right before the end of the fiscal year it would be has does anybody know if that grant was process applied for was that a better that was a class 2 that's usually something Toby submits so that appears to be the largest shortfall in income and we still have six weeks to go so I think we're okay to wait on that so that that's the fall 32 for is what we're anticipating right nothing actually jumps out at me in the general general government side of things highlights so I don't really have anything to point out to you at this point in time that should be of any concern one thing you should know or be aware of is we still owe $90,000 for the balance of school taxes due to you 32 and what I was elementary school what does that do that will be do you'll sign off on that at your next order so that is by far and away your next your your largest bill that is going to come up and that pretty much bounces against your real estate tax line up at the top so from a highway standpoint again the highway budget this year is fairly is fairly well lined up with the budget at the same time last year where it's 79% of the budget this year 77% of the budget we were at 77% of the budget last year at this point in time just a quick note to the board no money was budgeted or appropriated for your highway reserve fund for a fiscal year 18 or fiscal year 19 the highway reserve fund correct your highway equipment reserve fund appropriations and the amount of $25,000 were authorized in each fiscal year beginning FY 14 thrown including FY 17 so it's just it's just something to notice that wasn't done this year you but I thought we did it so that it was we didn't have to do it as an article every time well what you did do in in third in fiscal year 13 that you create let me get that right at town meeting in 2013 and you created your reserve fund and at town meeting 2015 you provided that the fund any highway fund balance would automatically be applied to the highway equipment reserve fund until and when the town votes otherwise up to that point in time you had been doing it on a year by year basis right and now we know from Melanie what that amount is for this FY 17 right right and we'll get to that and while it is typically an an arithmetic calculation budget minus expenses the bookkeeping system that we use does not really allow for that so and our accountants were solicited to figure that piece out for FY 17 is using because we're using quick books and they use never what quick but yes because quick books does not carry forward your your balances in the same way that numeric does so the reconciliation that she made or that she figured today was twelve thousand five hundred eighty dollars would go from the was what remained what is in your highway fund budget for FY 17 right and that's different than what both Toby and Donna come up with yes but this is why we asked Melanie and Father Gil to come in and and figure this out and then hopefully going forward when we're using Nemerick will it will be established it it will all balance out at the end right we won't have to go through what just had to go through so it I think it's important to notice that with highway fund balances at as low as that that you might want to consider in years to come to either put an article back on appropriate to the highway reserve fund or simply tucking it in the budget as you did with your town hall town office reserve fund that is right in your budget the other comment that Melanie from public though the galley made was it would probably be prudent to do away with the automatic transfer of the highway of the highway fund balance to your highway equipment reserve the reason but she didn't give a reason as an accountant she didn't prefer that technique but as your treasure what happens with that is that money becomes restricted only only for the purchase of highway equipment whereas if the money float over into a highway reserve you could use it for any purpose including equipment as long as it was for a highway purpose so it would change it from highway reserve equipment fund to just highway reserve fund you could just you would you could just yes you wouldn't even need to say that because any you wouldn't need to have an article that says that with specificity because any highway funds are only to be used for highway so if we have a fund balance a surplus you might call it that would be segregated it would still stay in our checking account but it would be for the use of highway so if they went over budget one year you would have that money to reach to right and it doesn't then necessarily impact your general government which would have to make up the difference and tighten our own belts mid-year we had a bad year yeah we've done that before so it's just it was kind of a loud absence for me when I took a look at this budget that there there were no funds appropriated or budgeted for that purpose it is done in other towns and it might be something that you want to consider other than doing it by virtue of an article which leaves you no control over that money I was surprised that was the intent that was our idea that article it was came off the floor there was a lot of debate but I do think the idea of not calling it just equipment makes sense because then if we go over if we have a bad year and we have to buy more it gives you more flexibility I think and then you have control over exactly what you are investing in your highway reserve fund and that can help you better plan for it's my opinion that that could help you better plan for your budgeting purposes in terms of getting loans and figuring out how you're gonna pay so that was what those are my comments on the budget we're on this we're on usually where is the line item for the highway equipment reserve fund that you would find on a balance sheet and currently it's around 21 thousand dollars that's in there and then we'll add this to that journal entry that and so let's remember next cycle when we're doing them the budgets in the town report all that to you might want to consider that and if you do if you budgeted for your highway equipment fund it right right into the budget a line item yeah you might you probably would want to consider getting rid of that other article and just letting that money be highway money by that time you'll be in Nimrick and that reserve will be well delineated we will not need an accountant to figure it out for us if the system itself is set up to do those checks and balances yeah and then you have that money as well to use as you mean so that's the budget report thank you you're welcome are there any other questions just this is a minor thing but just odd I thought there's a very less page the appropriation budget amount $500 for the diversion three what is it diversion for a Washington diversion program and we only appropriated six what did they did it not to be budget-ordinary quest it or do we still have them 60% yeah so I am going to guess that they requested that's that's my sorry I apologize we'll just let that go for the moment my guess is that happened at town meeting 2017 I'm going to guess that an appropriation was requested and it was adjusted downward is that going to happen there was a year where there was a bump of diversion activity in Calis and they requested more and then it went back down because your policy is here your right yeah so that that's going to work painting the church can't do that anymore what if I answer if there was an explanation I'm sorry I was probably looking at something else but do we have any sense of where the big what you know how we got so far off the you mean between what Donna and Toby came up with yeah I can't answer that that is outside of my valley wick she your accountant went through your balance sheet your profit and loss pulled out the numbers that were appropriate and did I have arithmetic it's just I think some of it had to do with the overage in the cost of the town garage that was that was like double what was appropriate what was originally appropriated and then there was that would have affected an earlier estimate right there was there was a bill paid and then there was some equipment on the new truck was paid in full or it should have been part of the loan that was that took some of it yeah and then it says north careless wall yeah that went over right but we got extra money from from them right from the state for that yeah so I you know I mean I just curious yeah this some this information frankly changed me almost at the 11th hour right yeah nobody sent out the email it right today yeah and it was a little late and honestly I think she worked on it quite a bit today it was a forensic approach and I had virtually nothing to add to it right now that's what we wanted her to do to get down to the nitty gritty and figure this out because we had numbers bouncing back and forth so now we know the number and here we are awesome so on that basis I am going to assume the select board it I'm not going to assume anything I am going to ask the select board will they endorse the number that Melanie has put forward and if so then we will go forward and close FY 17 and then begin the process to close FY 18 and convert to and convert to numeric as best we can and on with understanding ultimately all these numbers that pop into numeric will all ultimately I believe be adjusted once the audit of these final numbers is but we'll need to close out FY 18 but we have to we first close out FY 17 and then we can proceed to 18 so if this number not even to the end of 18 no I can offer I can offer no opinion on this number or offer any reason why you should or shouldn't accept it other than this is your accountant and this is the person who has been working your books for several years now yeah and I know we've always trusted you know for potential trust in what Melanie said and we always have I think they do a good job they haven't let us astray yet I see no reason not to accept her final numbers does anybody else do you want to make a motion to do that so it's in the minutes so move 12,580 dollars all those in favor please say hi thank you Sandra there's that popcorn again this is my kid who's probably saying can't you please buy me ginger ale on the way home she was how sick today I apologize oh no it's all fine I understand what I'm passing out now is a list by parcel number only the outstanding delinquent taxes so we're so we're shifting to our delinquent taxes oh I think so okay I think I think I have to keep up I am I should wear different shoes for this part that's why I'm just you know I came in and reviewed them on Sunday and I had a couple of questions because a couple of them were cemetery invoices which are being billed and paid out through the cemetery Commission's funds just saying that because I questioned it and saying she always does yeah they have their own budget so this spreadsheet at the at the very bottom in the last shaded box in the middle of the spreadsheet is the total amount of outstanding taxes due the spreadsheet is broken up into three categories amounts over 2,000 amounts under 2,000 and amounts under 1,000 so I want to just talk about the amounts between 1,000 and 2,000 you should note that all of them but one are on an agreement or actually it's to have of them have agreements all of them are making payments most of them are making fairly consistent payments I don't have a recommendation for any action on these four taxpayers at the moment except to keep a track that you know continuing to encourage them to pay your the prior practice was to send quarterly bills I am now sending monthly bills I think it's easier for people to remember bills if they see a bill every month whether they pay them is irrelevant but it keeps that in front of their it keeps it on the radar it keeps it on the radar thanks with regard to the bills under $1,000 you will see that there are a couple of one center five centers and so forth if allowable and I believe it is I would recommend that we simply abate those amounts under $1 it's a forty nine cents stamp if I elect not to send a bill they're not going to pay it I have no other means to bill it but to do that that would be appropriate it would seem we've done that before the policy we wanted to do something and I think the statute says that there's no place in the statute that allows for that but other towns do at East Montpelier I think abates I mean they don't even go through the whole baitment process their policy includes like anything under a dollar you just write it off yeah memory allows has that option it does and it's not in whatever dollar you want and it's not an abatement it's just a process such as what we did earlier today it is simply an accounting process called abating the the abating the goal is or no no because no it will be something you know at 15 year old finds extremely important so it's it's really just taking the taking the hit and in this case it is a seven cent hit and I think that doesn't make sense it doesn't and we won't collect it if we don't go for it and you actually these there are two one centers are the tax sale people it's just miserable to think they're gonna come into the office and pay one cent we did have money worth your time so it really isn't and honestly I did have a taxpayer come in a bill escaped me and it went out for two cents and it was a bill to an elderly person I did not intend for that to go out because this meeting was coming up and the daughter came in and paid the two cents I felt so small but our policy and put in a paragraph and I was gonna look on each month here's website today and I got we can do that so we can just update our policy I mean you could even do it up to five dollars you know because it just by the time you take your time it's like a $10 well if you send a bill every month yeah it's roughly five dollars that you have spent on collecting five dollars five dollars a month well if you send a fifty cent bill at this 49 cents for a stamp plus paper and ink and you're gonna have five dollars a month to send the bill right it's 50 cents a month to send a bill and if you've sent it's five dollars a year a year so if you're sending six dollars if it's costing you five dollars a year to collect and rears for one year of five dollars your base you're not right you're not gaining right we just don't want everybody in town to send their tax bill in five dollars less that's right so we can always revisit all right so keep that in mind I know there's always something if if allowable and I and if you don't mind I would call Jim Barlow if allowable I think for these small amounts I would like to send them a letter to say any future tax payments in particular I'm thinking about payments on 2018 would first be applied to these are rears and then the balance to 2018 but I am not sure that that is statutorily okie-dokie so I don't get a read on that these small amounts you talking about the under $1,000 okay not the one dollar right because they're just coming in and drips and draps right they're gonna and it's drips and draps because they paid most all of it what what my thrust is in seeing whether or not we can do that statutorily and there may be an absence of a prohibition so we could do it if we want is that we are going to apply for a significant loan and presumably we're gonna do that after we're audited and we get a good audit I hope and I'd like to see us have as few back taxes as possible at that time and that audit won't be complete or probably won't be complete until the middle of our tax cycle so I think it would be who the town to show 17 and 16 are really as small as we can possibly get them and and and to have agreements or or plans in place as to what we are doing for the amounts that are not paid so that brings us up to the parcels that owe in excess of $2,000 I you will know that all but one have have no agreement at all the one that does have an agreement is making diligent payments so I don't have an issue with that particular parcel wait a minute so I'm on the ones that are over 2,000 mm-hmm it says payment no on all of them correct and agreement no agreement now that so no agreement except for one okay wait how do we know okay the one is this 901 901 27 and that one that parcel has an agreement attached to it and payments are being made fairly diligent like fairly diligently in accordance with that agreement I would suggest no action on that but for the rest there are no agreements and other than bank payments or payments back in 2016 there are no payments on the part of the parcel owner and so I have to say I understand people have bad times but I think a firm I would ask the board to consider allowing me to send a firm letter that simply says that we've noticed your outstanding delinquency the policy the town is to have this paid by June 30th payments not made by June 30th payments of full not made by June 30th may was may result in a tax sale of that parcel please call the office to make arrangements or to let us know what I mean that's what we have done in the past we've sent for a letter I don't know yes I imagine you did yeah but you know the history about as to why we don't have agreement sonny's is it that people won't sign the agreement it's I thought they are produced and sent and they returned okay so that is why yeah and that's a problem well then firm letters sound good to me yeah now these aren't ready for tax sale yet you'll send this firm letter if they don't respond the next step is a tax sale of the process I would come back to the select board and since the policy is payment in full by June 30th which is the end of our fiscal year right if there is no response or if I think the response is fully inadequate if somebody calls and says I can only pay $25 a month and oh by the way I can't pay next year's taxes either I think the board should consider how they want to handle that and it may be that we're gonna let that go or it may be that you don't feel that is just and to everyone else but if they don't make a payment arrangement that's sensible because they might need to or if they don't pay in full I think you need to send them for a tax sale and again I think that if we are in a position to show that we have a plan to collect our delinquent taxes it gives us a stronger position in terms of reaching out for a loan right now read can we remember in the conversation last was it last fall when we had some or a couple parcels that we did go to the tax sale on right and our our you know kind of general concern as a board that making sure that we had provided ample opportunity that adequate notice and adequate notice so this seems to me the right time in addition to what you're already doing Sandra to just do a front porch forum notice you know it's there's no names attached but we could put in you know between FY 16 and 17 taxes there's X amount not paid you all who you are but you're getting letters in your mail but in case you're not opening them here we are a front porch forum saying please open and please be in touch with the town office to make an agreement I'm just thinking I mean I felt this way in the fall too that if people are really struggling or whatever then they're probably not even opening those they know what it is they just don't look at it they don't look at it but so you know just putting something in front porch forum is another way of putting it right now yeah just a generic notice that you know but yeah I mean people know who they are they know they know they get it in the mail and they probably but certain that some of these people might be out of state well they certainly some of them are and and they may not read from the right but if that if that I will you would still send a letter I'm assuming right but if that makes the board feel more comfortable because tax sales are very uncomfortable and we these are our neighbors and our people basically if it makes you feel more comfortable let's do it it doesn't hurt doesn't hurt yeah I mean I got a show I have the policy open and you know you might grab a few lines out of their failure to pay the property taxes shifts the burden of one property owners debt onto the property owners right and that's not acceptable you know you might be able to pull right we work out of there you know yeah well I don't know when you'll have time to draft it up but we could look at it quickly on maybe Wednesday oh sure I will I won't do my best to have for us I mean you know Cliff and I can just look it over before you post it and you wanted to contact Jim about the ones that are under a thousand dollars we can actually say that I would I don't know opinion on that VLCT is in the process of reworking their delinquent tax payers handbook and it's not out yet the one that I have is really old and I would not want to rely on it at particularly so yeah I'm gonna contact Jim then just see see me on the absolutely on the email so he knows that because he knows that people are supposed to go through the board so thanks for yeah yeah right and I like that we're talking about it now instead of when you're ready to get a hammer yes and that well I would I would prefer not to operate like that but thank you that this is a good process for you because this is a comfortable process for me so yeah we're good yeah thank you nice job all right thank you thank you very much thank you everybody good night Alfred let's do the town hall update and I ask Katie to put that in there which I gotta say having Katie available to put things in the folders and it's working out fine right great yeah and she can post things on the website so it's all good we've got huge taken apart so here's this is what we've been meeting every Wednesday I think yeah but that's kind of weird things if you're interested we can just you know post these notes in the agenda folder and you can see what's going on it's all very clear and it keeps everybody up-to-date anybody that wants to know what's going on we're just doing the town hall update these are the meeting notes from the last meeting and Donna types them up every after every meeting so there's a lot you know there's a lot going on there is a change since this was published if we put the electric stove and dumpster we're gonna have to pay to dump it so it appears to be functional it appears to have housed some rodents over the winter at some point yes just turn on it but it looks like it hasn't been used that much so we're probably going to go ahead and put it on the front porch forum where is the electric stove everybody wants it and is going to put in some elbow grease they're welcome to use much spent some time cleaning cleaning it spraying it moving it out of the kitchen area so we got it out got into the sunshine which will take care so as long as it doesn't rain and then it runs the right and also cliff did some research on the player piano and it's kind of it was interesting brand is it Branson no it's pretty I mean it was interesting the research that he did on it Denise you said you reviewed the orders and you yes you address issues yes everything's good so our manufacturer is Wilbur which is the division of the piece panel company it was the entry-level model for that company and this our particular panel based on this serial number was probably made in 1920 sound board is intact bellows are shot needs some some TLC and if you put all that into it at most to be worth about $1,500 do you guys have a piano guy no we're not going to fix it up we're going to auction it as it is and then somebody can get it fixed I know what they cost to fix that was a lot more than it's if you do you sell it to huge work effort to build it the little seals the leather seals in the bellows yeah it's not for the light of heart there they're not you know they're not as valuable as one would think they sound cool what are valuable are the reels and then there are a handful of them that are considered valuable just because the ornate and some of the other reels no I've got a whole well the way they've gone through that building if there were any wheels kicker they would have found them yeah yeah it's funny because they did find an old was that brochure in the in an old Bible a brochure and they took apart some of the pews there's this handout from what was it from yeah we're gonna you know we're gonna keep stuff like that so they've been dismantled or some of them so I spoke with Ernie Parrish I think he wanted to talk to somebody he was planning to talk something about the pews and make sure they don't think that there's thought given to oh yeah there's been a huge amount of thought okay he's pews they're pretty unique he's been involved he's been involved in working okay yeah yeah I want to make sure that right and I think he wants two of the pews okay okay and I was a part of the discussion but maybe it's discussed but it seems to me there they might be a church out there that originally had box pews and people chuck them now they might want to restore the church so it's original you know whatever the interior and box those are old peg box pews in those are actually good night thank you I don't know if there's any one out there that we put a notice out there if there's someone looking that's restoring a church and looking for box pews I don't know how we put I mean I think it's it's been on the first form you know and I mean David knows about him because he's involved I think people are really for person benches the Parsons vences are the big deal yeah yeah well you have number three says Jim Clark should be Jim Clark but anyways this is a de-conference like the long but independent right and we're not getting rid of those no yeah anyways I just wanted to kind of give you an idea this is what we do every Wednesday morning about an hour an hour and a half under the blue barn players the second bullet point about when we keep some right yeah we're not keeping holes in the floors that people can trip and break their ankle or something why do they want them they wanted it so they could have the play like it's supposed to be like this pirate thing and they thought maybe the monsters they could do something with the holes in the floor the monsters coming out of the holes but we said no we just you know if somebody's in there fixing the holes just fix all the holes right so that's so anyways I just wanted to keep you a price those are big holes you know we're talking fairly and it used to they had the holes so that the heat could rise up right from the lowest register like register through touch the upstairs which made sense because the heat source was the wood stove downstairs and the heat needed to get upstairs the holes in the floor made perfect sense talk about all the old farmhouses yeah although the Yankee ingenuity no but these are holes with no register all the rest is probably gone no just to allow crazy to rise and they had a board they would put back over it over the hole in the summer when they weren't needing what protected against people fall were they like it they were under the fuse oh the person sitting behind that particular you flip open the floorboard oh yeah I just no great to eating rocks and bringing it with you yeah yeah yeah right right wrap it in blanket yeah so anyways I just thought you might find it interesting once in a while to see what's going on and we've I mean it's been really interesting to learn some of the history you've got most of the ceiling and the downstairs has been removed now yep and one of the discoveries is that they're what about there before looks like it never had plaster and laugh on it it was actually open being the ceiling and it was stained so now they're looking at possibilities can we bring some of that back and incorporated into the design so that's so that so in our meeting space we'll have some charming character maybe we're hoping the problem is is to provide insulation for the upstairs we need a layer of insulation right because in the wintertime we're not going to use the upstairs as much you know we can use it plug in January February December between the beams halfway down because it's eight inch beams we're thinking that's what we did four inches of insulation still exposed yeah we have exposed beams and lots of insulation are they all in your beams oh yeah nice yeah Roger made all beams and didn't the same thing in our kitchen the problem with living in Kyle's my house is 1840 but it's not all hand here the frame is but the Joyce aren't because there was a sawmill or two around here and you could get the vertical saw yeah which are not pretty at all because they you know they didn't care what you know some of this why some of this why here yeah it's an added cost so if you own the mill or worked at the mill or you had a little bit extra money but our houses I don't know so anyways that I just wanted to kind of give you an update you need to mention the stats of our people in the building um yeah the RFP I think we told you was going out for what RFP to raise number four lifting the building the building and we see yeah so that he's gone out the bids are supposed to be back by the 22nd the building committee or representatives of the committee will open the bids and the select order review the bids and make a decision on the 28th the art clerk of the works along with Ernie and John Scott's gonna review him as well and give their recommendations for what they think and there's only two or three or four house lifters in the in the area so it's pretty limited it's a pretty specialized job you know so we're just moving right along we're going to be working on this donor database so yeah I mean there's it's just it's constant it's huge so anyways that's what we're doing Donna and John are going to be gone May 24th or June 10th so some of the you signed our leaflets you signed our leaves no I could refuse to sign them Denise will research serving alcohol on town property so I gotta remember to do that yeah the idea would be that for what they have shows maybe corners could offer to cater as well as survive all they could be willing to invest in the permit if the assumption that they could do this at several events yeah great right they don't want they don't want to invest your mission thing right yeah when you they would sell some snacks and some beer and wine basically what it was but first we have to see if it's even possible to do it right always looking for options to get drugs John camera here then bring your own bottle all right are we ready to move on questions about the town hall thank you for doing yeah sounds great yeah so it's really interesting all right sons of Vermont ISP we appointed David Healy he was out of the country missed the first meeting we can appoint an alternate I was gonna ask about this so Scott Bassage asked if he could be the alternate is everybody good with that I said I would put it on the agenda to point an alternate it was brought to my attention that we were a wall at the very first meeting right right he was in Greece or something so nobody knew is he generally back is he going to be able to do it I know he expressed interest yeah I'll be in touch with David to let him know that Scott's the alternate so if he's not going to attend and Scott could attend all the meetings he just gonna be able to vote as the elegant yeah so which I'll be a big deal well we can talk about because that it's gonna be hard to catch up it's not like it's not going to go to all the meetings and you can have an opinion right right I'm not really happy that David didn't show up I gotta say you volunteer for something you gotta do it the opening meeting yeah okay so you know I mean that we need a motion to appoint Scott Bassage as the alternate to the summit on ISP second right although some favor I okay and I'll let David know and Jeremy know and Scott know okay good all right leop here we go yeah local emergency operations and Toby and Nick worked on this and it's all updated there really wasn't much to update it really doesn't change Nick is emlin he we pointed him last meeting as the assistant to Toby the Toby's the emergency management coordinator I guess I'm the director and we appointed Nick as the alter as the assistant good to have that right and I'm planning to meet with Nick to see if there's I mean I looked at Eastmont Pillars leop on their website and they have a lot more meat to it one being that they have an animal resource during emergency plan and I'd like to look into that at some point to see you know do we have a place that would take animals I'm thinking lucky dog farm I want to talk to Merrick Kennedy she has the boarding cattle there you know and then how many big farms we don't have the farms I don't think that Eastmont player has but we do have like you have cattle Doug Willie Lois Franks you know they should be listed somewhere in our plan is needing assistance possibly if there's a huge flood or no power for however many days for milking you know they should there should be something some kind of a plan yep so I want to I mean right now we just need to approve what we have but I'd like to continue working on maybe it up some and coming up with this animal piece of it that we don't have now so I would need a motion to approve the updated version of the operations plan 2018 and authorize it you want to amend that to allow me to sign it yeah and authorize Denise to sign it and second yeah all those and just know that she's got it under control make it up as you go and just note that there's a quorum of the board that has attended the training so we're good there I might be a good one to this is that animal issue seems like online that maybe dad would be interested in thinking about well it'd be a good way for me to interact with him so you guys all did the online training no we went to the training in your sense yeah so you might just want to check with CVRPC did you get a certificate but just to make sure that that you're on to make sure you're on file having done it no seriously to make sure your files have work and check there's a way to check yeah disaster double check all right so my daily life hasn't done that training at this point okay I did it because my state job how often is it done it might be able to do it online yeah do they have an online okay regional planning Commission okay and emergency management for coordinate coordinated so you might look on both websites and see if there's an online one right okay we should go planning Commission and the state emergency management division Emily Harris is it like hours and hours a couple of hours yeah okay so we have that yeah it's I wrote an emergency for a health center oh yeah so yeah all right so I just want to add on the fact really for what you mean but I was taught those names out of there was an individual carpenter who fell off a ladder really high ladder and cows recently on Apple Hill few months ago in the winter oh no and was seriously injured broken pelvis and legs and all sorts of stuff oh the report I got about our ambulance service that wonderful care they got and how great a job Toby Talbot did I will say he's care his hand he's wonderful at this amazing and that's been my experience with him right but you know gushing praise so yeah what you guys all know it's our money spent on the ambulance as well spent yeah issues like that right it's like and that's a value yeah yep no really noted very nice let's put that no that's really nice no they do they do an excellent job when they come to your house because it's always you know you're kind of nerfed up and they're very calm and yeah they're not they're very very good I'm very serious fall that sounds really scary with this really yeah wow oh my all right so just thought I'd give you some updates from what I've been doing and that kind of thing I don't think there's anything else on the regular agenda so let's see all right so we've I've been looking at as I said the use my career emergency plan and the animal thing I'm gonna talk to Merrick Kennedy because she has the kennel about a you know would she be available if people had to leave and needed to put their pets somewhere and nice thing is they live up a little high or Alaska we did the town update town hall update and we'll try to remember to put the notes from the town hall meetings in the upcoming agenda folder leaves it'll be like two because we meet every week yeah we changed the office phone system just a little bit the way it was set up before if phone rang there was no voice mail so you just got a busy signal so it made sense and Judy and Sandra asked us about it I said yeah just put it sure you call town office and nobody answers because they're on the other line makes sense to have voice mail so that's done RB was contacted to do a little bit of what they could to upgrade the speed of the internet but today the speed was horrible so RB is checking into it again to see what's going on yeah and you had problems all the time right oh no it was just a couple three days we've had excellent service until three days ago well and something happened here today where the speed was just like it couldn't even type a sentence on the computer it would just like so anyways RB tech is working to see what it is they thought it was Judy's monitor which I don't see how a monitor could really affect it but anyways and the other fix was going to be something like a twenty to forty thousand dollar fix which would be to contact Comcast and have what are they called Comcast Xfinity service so that would be available here in the office I was going to be twenty to forty thousand that money and do you pay the money I'll do anything oh yeah I know forty thousand dollars on cable well and the issue they were to as I brought up is that basically you're paying for them to extend their infrastructure so they can then charge other people because that's right right right you tell extending a totally line you don't get necessarily reimbursed right yeah yeah so anyways well we got the whole ISP we got the whole ISP thing going on so hopefully eventually that will take care of the problem popular cemetery I got an email from the cemetery which one is public I'm not sure where it is but it's on the border of East Montpelier and callous so it's must be said on group 14 next to Nancy Pulsar's house don't know right after you know where Todd Croto lives yes yeah so it's just before that it's right yeah just north it's right it's I don't know north or south no I think south south of time you go past if you're heading toward my play you go past no we're heading to callous we always think head to call us right after the north right after the north of your pond okay the next house oh there's a little yellow one but yes big one with a barn that's Nancy Pulsar she used to be the cook in the kitchen in the school and then there's a bang yeah okay so not thank you but I think that they were saying Denise yeah I don't know that it matters but anyways the popular cemetery is currently owned privately but the association is going to fold and they don't have enough money and when a cemetery is owned privately and it goes under the town gets to take it we have to we have to I'm in a double check but so do we get any of the money they have any account yes but it's not enough to even take care of and if there was any liability I'm not saying this is true but if somebody absconded with funds or anything we don't have to there's no liability accruing to us we're not responsible for money well this is what we need to check out all this stuff right so I've got Jim's name next to checking that out because we don't want to get as you say we don't want to get stung yeah I don't want to accept liability right um checking with the issue that came up with the cemetery workers claiming unemployment and us having to pay out unemployment which we never knew before a blue cross blue shield domestic partner I finally made some a little bit of headway today I got right to me I finally got myself taken up the ladder to a supervisor who has I think a chance to talk to Sandra and I didn't get a chance to call this person back yet because I was doing all this other stuff today for the town so I'm working on an answer about this domestic partner issue that one of the road crew asked us about yep so stay tuned on that I've contacted school board to see about doing a joint meeting to follow up on part of our discussion about the trash depot so stay tuned that hopefully they can come to one of our meetings okay here's one I need some help on there's a few early early purish used to be what Andy Felice now does I'll submit some standing I'm interrupting but I'm looking at the RV tech invoice 50 gigs of cloud storage quantity force that tells me it's 200 gigs and it's $100 is that $100 a month probably yeah and that is way out of line what they try I have one terabyte for 999 I don't understand maybe it's a year does it say for quantity it's I don't know what this we can ask Sandra it'd be nice to know what we're getting yeah I don't remember seeing those invoices before no I don't either so I'm thinking it might be annual but let's make a note that's still that's still crazy we can make a note in the minutes to ask Sandra about get a terabyte for that price yeah but it might be a year I'm saying you should get a terabyte for that price per year because I pay 999 per month and it's a terabyte up to a 10 times what that is five times what this is okay and so this is a hundred dollars a year it's about you know what 750 or 850 a month I'm paying the dollar 50 more and I get more five times the amount so I don't know maybe maybe maybe it's part of the laborers included or something we'll make a note to check into it we can ask Sandra and Judy for more information okay so as I was saying Ernie Parrish used to be gospel gospel Lord and now Andy Felice is doing that and I found a list and I didn't I don't think I brought it with me I should have I found a list of duties that includes like turning the water off in the winter turning the water on emptying the toilets you know things like that it's 50 bucks a month he did come over here and put the screens on the windows fixed some leaky valve over in the town hall and did other stuff and that's what you're going to get for 50 bucks a month there's a few additional things that needs to be done that I don't think fall within the 50 bucks but I think it's something that we could ask him to do and see how much he would charge us one being to the ladies want to remove some of the countertop to have more space to set up office space like the listers that kind of stuff and to put it build a cover over the generator so when the snow falls off the roof in the summertime doesn't smash the generator right so things like that and if you remember John and Rosa remember we had the issue with the roof that in the back here that was put on upside down our operations manager was going to take care of this and make sure it got fixed and got done I'd like to see if we can get Andy to help come up with a plan to fix that we might want to you know we might want to get some estimates on that Tom Frost was involved you know it may need a roofer to fix this but I understand Andy and something like that but Ernie's on his own but Ernie has all the standing scene so I guess I got all the tools I guess what I'm looking for our purchasing policy says something about $5,000 and that's what we're using when we're talking about town hall stuff but he may not have the time well that's just it so I'd like to get somebody going on some of these things sooner rather than later and if there are a few hundred or a thousand bucks is it okay to tell them to go ahead and move the counters and build the cover over the generator and if it seems like it's something to really bigger deal I'll bring it back to the board for approval yeah that makes sense so what do they want they want to remove these some of it not all of it but we will find out on Wednesday because this just barely came up but when we meet with the office staff on Wednesday find out what it is they really want to do here's the email from the screen yes right around the office main rooms I guess it's this yeah yeah we have owners all of it where the cabinet is that over there yeah that's in the corner the cabinet glass cabinet used to be in that corner okay yeah it's really really I gotta say it's really noisy in here when like for instance we're having the town hall meetings and you know there's five or six of us those guys are in there working the phones ringing there's people coming in and out to go under the ball to look at records the list there might be a couple of listeners might show up to do work it is really really noisy that's why we need space over there right so anyways that's just something to we can check into we can talk further with Sandra and Judy on Wednesday to figure out that what exactly they're talking about and maybe getting a knee in to come in and do an estimate of what it would cost the and hopefully Alfred won't watch the video but we're all set to do Alfred celebration on Thursday the 17th at noon Moe's backyard barbecue is coming to right to do the lunch we ordered a clock which we have yet to figure out if and when it's ready who's going to pick it up in training that we're all showing up for or is that no you mentioned a training earlier oh no no that's different that's actually for real that's for real okay yeah so what is Alfred thinks I the only road crew member that has email is Jake the young guy so he does he told Bruce and Bruce and Paul about it and told them to keep it quiet I called Ed and Dana who are both company got the select board Katie if she wants to come we have Sandra Judy Donna because she's worked with all for a long time who else don't know I didn't include John singleton and stuff I thought it should just be more so Ed and Dana and the road crew that's there us all the staff Toby so that'll be like at noon so I'm leaving it up to the road crew to figure out how to make sure off it's there and hopefully we don't have like some weird freak storm well they're all right so that's even if people show up with food he won't you have no idea what's going right it's a nice party lady here again every day is a reason for a party yeah you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find somebody to do the food though I'm gonna be easy why because it's out here it's out here the stores don't really do much stuff Leslie would have done it but she was out of town and I needed to get somebody's lined up you know he's Calistar they would have done something more than just sandwiches I thought it should be something a little nicer than just a pizza in a box thank you you know yeah and also Katie's been doing a fabulous job I send her stuff she posts it in the folders she posts stuff on the website for me the agendas and whatever else I need she's gonna do the spreadsheet yeah we had she's taken over that well clips but a big help though I'm gonna say he's been a big help surrounded by hard-working woman right keep up with it and that's it I was in the bathroom at the beginning of the meeting when maybe you said additions to the minutes or whatever and I just had two quick things no I mean to the agenda changes to the agenda I think I might have mentioned this to you I've noticed that Steve Sparrow on Lightning Ridge has just like put some dirt almost like making curb cuts just above Mike Garen's house there's two there and then there's already a third one with a couple piles of material that hasn't been smooth so that would be like I don't know if he's just gonna make all of his land absolutely level with Lightning Ridge but there's two actually accesses that they're using that I haven't seen any curb cut permits and so anyway so I might not be good you might just be like you say trying to level well no but they're using it you know to get equipment in there yeah and so and then the other one was near your house Jim Hogue put fences right up to the gravel fence posts and some they're in the towns right agricultural fence well it is but and it's for an act and it's for an agricultural purpose to actually I know I know a little bit about that was it for cows horses no chicken yeah keeping the chickens out of the roads they don't get smushed yes and keeping things out of the chicken right like the fox that shows up at everybody's house when they have chickens farm they do this every spring well I just thought in his case where the road is particularly narrow I mean literally there's the post and there's like that much grass between the post and the and the gravel and it's narrow right in front of his house and so if it wasn't quite so narrow I wouldn't be so concerned but I wonder if I'll bring it up but if it's agricultural but but you know we can have a conversation and just full disclosure I do the same thing right you know it's temporary to do up for a week whatever but I don't know when I drive by your house it doesn't seem like they seem like it's set way back yeah and then in between a permanent in the road I put a like basically create a lane at the cows go through there but yours is this sounds like it's different so it's just really narrow really narrow I haven't talked to him about I haven't talked to him about it but I know that that's I know that that's the reason for it well it's true you have chickens and just the other day one of our chickens got snatched again by Fox while Roger was taking day one yeah right you know what my fool is right right there by the fool of stupid foxes down there kill a chicken but you gotta leave your dog outside no because it'll take my dog it's not gonna be pretty somebody gets one of my dogs gone right now I'm not letting anybody kill this box because it's getting the chickens or whatever I won't go there that's our fault well the so Roger he's got the fence put back up only to bigger now of course with the chickens so they're safe again I don't think I don't think there's an intent that they would be so what I when I think about the right way I particularly think about snowplow and I don't think that that's at all an issue because in the winter they're in the greenhouse he takes a fence down it's temporary it's just jealous yes temporary temporary yeah yeah yeah no because yeah in the winter the chickens have a different home yeah okay and it's not on the road so but it's in the town's right of way it's agricultural use but it's temporary but we could ask Alfred to check into Steve yeah and it's in a narrow section of right yeah right but it's not narrow right but it's not in the road and so you know no it's three inches from the no no move it back a little bit it's where about mirrors yeah I mean I you know I just think it's really narrow right there it's right across from the first thing to do is to ask Alfred to go and look at the stuff yeah that's the first step yeah so we can do that and then get some more information all right so now we need minutes and they're in the distance of as a broader pause as one of my opinion statement and I do have a bias I did same thing but I would have the pin this opinion anyway I think you know farmers historically have set up their fan electric fences every spring I know David Morse he's very he and Stan they they always everything was by by the calendar by the clock and David put up this fence electric fence posts every spring on the Martin farm and then every fall you just lay them down pop them up and lay them down the snowplow and every spring they went up those are all in the right-of-way and so if there's an issue with setback for cars and we can have that conversation with them but as a general rule I don't think we should be regulating with farmers or attempting to interfere right away I think I remember right away is public prop or private property and as long as we're not interfering with the road in it right I thought we had yeah we were doing doesn't our no I know what I just want to be I just want to make what you're saying is looking to that we want to err on the side of supporting the farmers right that our presumption you know absent a compelling reason right right well and right I mean we don't need they don't need to get an approved no I mean we've gone through this okay yeah I just want to make sure at least I just want to clarify again we have new members yeah to newer new I don't know any more guys yeah sorry okay minutes we had the special meeting and the regular minutes for the 23rd of April I didn't have any changes but yeah so can we get a motion to approve both minutes yes second okay all those in favor please say aye aye and are you abstaining I'm thinking and we don't think we have any personnel stuff to talk about this time doing we are 908 wow are you guys impressed or what 908 this is great last time it was around nine o'clock and we started late because of this there you go all right good thank you okay second all those in favor


I'm Marissa Kruthop-Bredinbaugh and I did a SAIR research project on growing sweet corn. I studied sustainable agriculture as a bachelor's degree at the University of Kentucky and my professors did a lot of research during their time there and then they always encouraged us to do other things outside of our education in the classroom. And my mom sent me a link to a SAIR grant and she said, I think you should do it and your professor can help you write it because she's written lots of grants. And so I said, okay, so I went and talked to my professor and I was like, but I don't even know what my project would be. And she said, well, you do have a vegetable CSA. What is a problem that you have noticed on your farm? So then I said, well, our silver queen corn always gets smut, the fungus that grows on the corn. And I said, it's a real problem because people like white corn and that's the most popular variety, but it gets a pretty high rate of fungus on it. And so she said, well, test that. And so then I was always interested in heirloom. So then I decided to test heirloom and she helped me draw up like a cross table, cross examination table to test like the two different variables, the hybrid heirloom and the conventional organic. And then I wrote it and submitted it. I was comparing two different variables. I compared heirloom versus hybrid and I also compared organic versus conventional. So I had three types of corn that were hybrids that were traditionally grown.  And then I had three hybrid varieties, a white, a yellow and a colored variety. I used a blue corn, blue jade was the variety. And then I grew all six of those varieties conventionally. And then I grew all six of those varieties organically. The organic plot was not certified organic because the land was not three years organic, which is at the time the regulations for being organic in Ohio. But all the practices that we implemented on that plot that year were organic. Then I compared to field notes and compared for growing practicality and how I was satisfied with the results of the corn and how they turned out. And then I gave consumers from my CSA blind surveys and they told me how they liked type A corn versus type E corn. And then I knew which type was organic or conventional hybrid or heirloom. And obviously some people knew the blue jade was the heirloom corn versus the hybrid. But all the other varieties were pretty unidentifiable. All of the CSA members have always been really interested in what we do here. Each spring we host an open house for people who have always been members and they can just come and check out what we're doing this year if anything different or for people who are new and have just signed up and want to see where their food is being grown. And so that year on the open house tours, I told them about the sweet corn project that I was doing in the research grant that I was awarded from SARE and a lot of them were really interested in it. And so at first I didn't know where I was going to get my customer test base from. And so then I realized as they were so interested in it that they would be my test base. And so I picked people who I knew appreciated corn, but also people who were new and who had never experienced the difference between heirloom or hybrid varieties. That way we got a good representation of the types of customers who were surveying the corn. The heirloom yellow corn, golden bantam, people didn't care for. I also personally didn't care for the taste of it. The texture was a little tough and it was a little mealy. I think it would have been really good for ground cornmeal. The blue jade people liked the novelty of it, but the ears only got to be about four to five inches long. And so people had to eat a lot of it to feel satisfied. So that wasn't really a viable choice for us to grow. The souls evergreen, the last heirloom variety, people really liked and we were satisfied with and did better under fungal situations than the silver queen, which is its hybrid partner. And then in terms of taste, people never could pinpoint the difference between organic and conventional corn, not to say that doesn't discount the good things or the pros of organic, but in terms of consumer taste tests, they couldn't tell the difference between the two. When we grow white corn now, we do not grow silver queen or silver king anymore. We grow stoles evergreen, which is an heirloom white corn, and it grows really tall, like it's a really tall plant. And at first I thought it wasn't going to be all that productive because typically if plants are overly large, then they don't have as quite as good as production. They put all their energy into growing the plant instead of the fruit. But they produced a nice equal amount of fruit corn ears compared to the silver queen and it didn't get a single instance of smut.