Waterbury Municipal Meeting - August 4, 2026 - Selectboard

It is uh Tuesday, August 4th at 6:31. We're going to open the library select board meeting. Um first agenda item is review and approve the agenda. So to approve second >> public comment we have public >> yes oh sorry >> she moved Right. Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you, Cheryl. >> Evening. Valerie Rogers, South Main Street. Thank you. You're welcome. This comment is uh in regards to an agenda item from a couple weeks ago that I'm leaving. It has to do with the lease agreement for 1727. Wow. I think from my perspective sitting in the public back here that some of the important information about financial implications might have been a little bit overshadowed by the value of the tenant Makersphere uh a valued nonprofit in our community. I agree. I've taken their classes. I think the agenda item was really about signing renewing the lease and I think it got emotionally charged. So I just want to make a few comments about my perspective and how I how I feel about that. First of all, I love vapor sphere and [clears throat] I think that's where we went several weeks ago just having to reiterate that. Um, so I really want to say that I do believe the select board has a fidiciary responsibility to manage sound assets in the best interest of taxpayers and that does include a careful review of the financial terms from any lease. The value of a tenant should not replace the financial analysis of the lease terms and the public cost of maintaining property. there was a significant reduction of 20% of your monthly rent from the previous nonprofit to the current nonprofit. Uh h I mean from 2500 to 500. Um I think 2500 for a nonprofit some might consider that a little bit outrageous ambulance service but it was noted there was a financial presentation really that I think Sandy gave. She did some studying on release um and it did say that the current amount it simply didn't cover the expenses and that I would say it's a business loss that was made up by taxpayers. Second concern I would say is about the approval process. So, from what I understand that there was a lease presented to the select board in June of 2025 that was approved and it was presented to the public approved like I said um and then it went for signature and there were some edits that were not brought to the attention of the select board did not make a public meeting yet the document was signed. So those are two things I think might have been overshadowed in the discussion at that select board meeting where there was just some financial implications that I think we should have been discussing and the whole process of the lease signing. Um the third thing that I well actually I do want to say that um I want to thank Sandy for all of the financial work she did on it and I also want to thank Ian for supporting the pause on the signature release. So I really appreciate that. >> Oh Evan, I looked right at you and called you Ian. Sorry. Um um and the third thing I'm just going to bring up that I'm just kind of clueless about is that if you have a public building in library center and it can't support itself or sustain itself, I'm just throwing out why do we even have it? And I know that you can't answer that tonight and there's probably a very good reason why we own that building. But if we have a building that can't cover its own expenses at the taxpayers's expense, I'm just wondering what the public gains from that. And that's just rhetorical question. It's just something I'm curious about. Um, and because there will be a review, I do want to hope the review determines whether the current rent adequately covers the town's costs and if not results in revised lease amount that is fair to both the tenant and the taxpayers. And of course, the lease that approved in the meeting should be the secret. Um, so that's my first comment about that particular item. And I have one more quick one. I just was wondering if I could get an update. Um, in May there was a motion to hire an HR consultant to develop job descriptions for staff. And I know that it was a rather urgent um request because there's a union contract that requires you to have job descriptions by January 1st. And I know that I think it was Ann Lebec. She was somebody that it takes her six months to complete a project and she was going to start in July. And I'm wondering if we're on track with that for the July through December her six month work progress uh to get those job contracts uh job contracts descriptions. You can't give me an update. I'm wondering if I could get one point. it it's uh going to be handled by the new municipal manager so that she'll work with the new municipal manager and that way she will leave us in charge of it. >> Okay. I was just only brought it up because I knew she was on a sixmon project. >> Yeah. No, no, no. She was it was a six month lead time before she would start. So >> Okay. I thought when I was reviewing ortha that um >> she had to start July to get it done by December. So that's >> no she couldn't start until July and we didn't bring up I can't remember what video it was who brought up. >> Okay. >> We wanted to get in her queue. >> Okay. So we're in her queue. >> We're in her queue. Let's say it's going to be municipal. >> Thank you. Um next agenda item approval of the previous meeting minutes. Any questions? Um, I would like to I will approve the meeting minutes with one uh um it said Don recalled the 30-day public notice posted. What he recalled was it being advertised not posted. >> I'll second with the proposed amendment. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All right. Um, approve consent agenda items. Um, this is for the what did you call it? >> Uh, the well there's a um there was an event which is the day before. Uh, this is for the uh cider fest being held at event cider and I'll move to approve. I'll second. >> Any further discussion? >> Did it realize that the casings inside of an existing retail space needed for this? >> It's just a DLC requirement. >> Any further discussion in favor? >> I All right. Um, look at that. 6:40 discussion with town boards and committees and I think I saw our wonderful state representatives joining us tonight. Thank you very much for taking time to come in here. Thanks for the invitation. >> These have been just need a little background. These have been sort of 10 minute meet and greet is how I refer to it. um we have no formal structure. I would think the the select board frequently has questions for the committee or the board or whomever. Um but we also welcome questions from our attendees. So we'll let you kick it off. I'm curious to hear what we should be watching for and how you're doing. >> Well, thank you. Um, so I'm constantly saying for the record, um, at the table, um, so I'm Teresa Wood in case people don't know who I am. Um, I am one of two state reps for this Washington Chittton district and the towns of Balton, Wheels, Huntington, and Waterberry. I am chair of the House Human Services Committee and I s I sit on the joint fiscal committee, uh the healthcare oversight committee, um joint legislative management committee, uh and joint justice oversight committee. Um >> where do you sleep? Um yeah, [clears throat] so it's uh so I get I get um access and information across sort of a wide variety of things. Everything from the any actions that we might need to take during the summer. That's what joint fiscal committee uh does in terms of any budgetary items. And um you know I think you probably know that agency human services is the largest state agency um and is responsible for the you know the largest chunk of the the state government um as an educator and uh so that uh the lion share of that comes through my committee. Um we deal with everything from prenatal to death. my committee uh and those various departments and um the department for children and families which is the largest HS departments um and the issues of homelessness uh substance use um mental health challenges um the health department of disabilities aging and independent living um dealing with disability and older verier issues and uh things like uh nursing facilities, residential care, long-term care services, community based services um and a wide variety of community partners um everything from the designated agency. So in this neck of the woods that's Washington County mental health um in Shipman County that's the Howard Center. Uh but there's a on the right array of those all across the state. The um we also deal with community action agencies. So like Capstone in this area or CBO uh Chip Valley Office of Economic Opportunity in um the Chipm County area and um I have two school districts, two pretty high school districts. Um the Harvard School District and the Mansfield School District are in um my uh district. And so um Mansfield, Underdale, >> uh, Mount Mansfield, Underville, Jericho, Huntington, Bolton, >> Rich, Richmond. >> Um, so I have Bolton and Huntington. >> So that's why I am uh obviously [clears throat] interested and concerned about any issues affecting both of these school districts. And um actually both of the school districts have had quite a bit in common uh in terms of you know some of the um some of the impacts of the education reform that is still underway. You know the one thing I can say about that which you know I know taxpayers are interested in is that we haven't we don't have anywhere close to the final word on it. Um I can say that um you know it's a broken system that we have right now. It's a system where um people all over the state decide what's going to be spent and then they send the bill to Montillar and we have to figure out how to fund it. Um and that is bound to stop. Um and uh so I am in favor of the foundation formula that will be implemented within the next couple of years hopefully. Um and that that will essentially say to school districts, this is the money that you have to work with and um if you want to spend more than that, you would need to raise that in addition to um the local um and that would require votes of obviously the people in that school district. Um, Harwood is in a little bit of a unique position um when it comes to these um things called CISAs essentially trying to coordinate and share services uh like special education, helping manage schools, transportation, professional development, things like that. Um and then the required merger discussions u [clears throat] post forum back a little while ago. Um but you know we um we are kind of in the little bit in the middle of nowhere you know when it comes to um pairing up with other districts. It's uh it's going to be a little bit more geographically difficult. Um but we have we have required um required merger discussions um with the failure school district 32 and the I think is the other um so um kind of in a nutshell uh I you know there's a lot of activity um I think you know that uh in the state budget we bought down property taxes for the second year in a row to it begins extend. Um most people don't know that you know that December one letter that comes out and estimates what the property tax increase could be depending upon what um the school budgets are uh fully half of that estimated 12% was to pay for the the buy down that happened last year. So I I think that you know this is just kicking the can down the road. um not a big fan of using um one-time dollars to fund ongoing expenses. Um but the the donors, anyone signed the budget without it essentially. Um so um it it puts us in a um trying to continually catch up and uh it it means that we really do have to re in education spending. [clears throat] Uh and um our school district has been doing that. Um and there is this thing called the excess spending threshold and uh the budgets that are presented by the Harvard School District come up to but not over that excess spending threshold. And um the excess spending threshold uh is lowered for next year. that means that the uh it will kick in sooner. Um so >> can I part of this foundation formula? >> No, this is all prior to the foundation formula. This is honestly this is getting higher spending districts of which we are one. >> Okay. >> Um uh getting them prepared for a foundation formula that is going to be less than what they are currently spending. >> Thank you. And uh so it is not easy and I think it's why you know we've seen uh you know some interesting ideas put on the table by the facilities committee um in our school district and uh you know we are going to have to think creatively. We we are I think uh the superintendent if you were here would agree uh that we are kind of done nibbling around the edges to get what we can get. uh and sort of some significant overhaul is going to be needed. What that looks like, you know, the community has to weigh in. Um but uh so that's going to pinch that's going to pinch at um at the Harwood level. Uh and uh so to maintain just to maintain current services uh they won't be able to maintain they were going to have to I think the superintendent said is around $650,000 they will uh in order to stay under the excess spending threshold and the reason it's important to stay under is that you get double taxed if you go over the excess spending threshold and that's not something that we [clears throat] fund for local taxpayers. Um, so I noticed a couple of things. Um, I just wanted to say a shout out. Uh, the opioid settlement funds. I noticed that that's I', you know, I filled out the survey and stuff and, um, I just want to say thank you. That's again one thing that comes through my committee and, uh, not the municipal funds, but the state level funds. And in in the opioid settlement agreement, um funds went directly to communities and what y'all are doing and what um you know the ambulance and first responders are doing um is right in line with what people were expecting to come out of this. I can tell you some other towns having to backtrack because they just thought it was like money being given to them just for, you know. >> Well, we have to give a shout out to Sandy because she's been leading the charge on the research and working with losses. So, >> yeah. Um, >> so thank you for doing that. Um, I appreciate the fact that we're we are utilizing those funds in the way that they were intended. Um, and that is, you know, to address emergency services and substance use. uh in our community. So, um so thank you for that. Um and then um I saw that you had uh a agenda item around the treasurer appointment versus election. Um, and uh, you're probably familiar by now that we did, we know we passed a law a few years back because of the Coventry situation. Um, and because there was no way to remove a town treasurer because they're elected. Um, so we implemented a procedure where the voters can decide um, to um, authorize the um, governing board, which the select board to appoint, but it's a voter decision. >> Absolutely. And it's going it's really just an introduction item to >> Yeah. >> But thank you for that. >> Yeah. Um you know it came about because of you know malfeasants by a a treasurer and there was no way to remove that person from office which was >> interesting. >> Yeah. You know >> um so >> all right >> does have any questions? >> I have a quick question. Gary Dylan came and and spoke the other day about um he was upset about the fact that the fire department was given >> the fire warden thing. Yeah. Um I've talked with Gary about the I mean we've exchanged emails about it and uh he did not realize that the firefighters association that >> was in favor of the >> bill. Um, so the Huntington fire chief wasn't too happy about it either. Um, they had quite a lot of testimony about it and the association was in favor of it. Um, so >> communications everybody talked to everybody except for the fire chiefs. >> Well, the association of it. >> Yeah. Well, right. And there were a number I I guess there were uh it's not my committee but I understand that there were fire chiefs who testified and then the association the association has a responsibility to communicate with members and it sounds like they didn't do a bangup job of doing that. Yeah. Well, yeah. >> Any other questions? Roger. >> Uh Teresa. Um my understanding is that back in 2008, Governor Douglas took the school construction out of the capital budget and uh it's never been uh reinstituted and since then there's not been any appreciable uh school construction and I'm just wondering if there's any hope of that going back or is new school construction going to be on the backs of the rules. >> Um so the answer is yes. Uh and in fact we have reestablished it already. It's not funded but it's reestablished. >> Um and uh it is high on the priority list uh by the education finance reform. Um you can expect some sort of cost sharing if there you know there was never 100%. um you know in this school district when I was chair of the school board we got 50% um state aid because we merged two school districts so and at that time it was 30% u was the norm we got 30% state aid uh if you were doing a construction project that was necessary because we merged two school districts and we were able to get 50% um and we were actually one of the last school districts um uh to get that full funding And it even at that point in time, it took us um three or four years to realize the full amount of the commitment that the state had um for the renovations at Brookside and the construction of Cross Brook um because they didn't have sufficient appropriation to just pay it all out once. So we had to we had to uh borrow for a period of time uh in order to make those meetings. >> We will share those along. Are there any comments from the community? >> All right. Thank you very much for coming in. >> And I I'm happy to come back at any point in time. Um and good job. >> Yeah. Uh and feel free to um you know email me with questions that come up um in terms of municipal stuff. uh I try to flag those and now that we have a town clerk and an incoming town manager, those are the people I usually send that information to. Um so, um thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Thanks so much for doing this work. >> Thank you for your wa and committee. You have a committee for sure tonight's here. Yeah. Great. All right. Well, hello. We are here from the Waterberry [clears throat] Study Committee, affectionately called WTMC. Um, >> I did a U summary. >> Oh, thank you. of our agendas to date. Um, and Cheryl, I just emailed this to you. Sorry. Didn't do anything until about an hour ago. Um, because I figured you'd want to know what we've been doing. >> Um, and so far, so we've started meeting in January and our meetings up to now have really been information gathering. And I would like to thank my fellow committee members for each volunteering for our meetings. They present on a different topic and get guest speakers. Um so the first two meetings part um Tuesday meetings that was sort of a a foundation for us and talking about quantity and quality of participation in town meetings. Um, and sometimes they long have to choose to do that, but sometimes we don't do vertical finding and holidays. That's all standard if they do that. Um, then in our April meeting, we heard from Dubberry what they are doing. They have a um anformational meeting followed by an Australian ballot their budget. Um, then we met with Cambridge. They haven't made any changes that I recall, but they had a really good summary of all the research they had done. So that was helpful. Along hear from them, we heard from folks in Battleboro. They for 65 years had a representative town meeting until last year. They voted it down and now they are they have actually their their town voters passed two um articles that ref um then we heard from the Vermont Secretary of State about the Vermont Secretary of State Civic Society index from Michael Moser who runs all the surveys at UVM and we're do a survey in the next couple months. So that was helpful to know what this the state has been doing and also what he can offer to us be helpful edit unless we want to pay him. [laughter] Um we last month we heard um presentations and research that C race had pulled together on special articles. I think she came to your meeting heard from her already a little bit. [clears throat] Um, and we've heard from folks in Morristown, they have a civic engagement committee. So [clears throat] they didn't change anything in their town meeting, but they have been doing a lot to try to uh encourage people to participate in the catalog and they have >> anyway they're like yeah >> big talk debates and um they have lots of ideas >> and uh most recently we heard different ideas about improving the town. >> Yes. We found out that in 200 four seven >> four Waterberry won an award for the quality of its town. >> That was a highlight. >> I'm black. It's all true. >> Get out of the archives. >> Throw it away. >> It's a cleanser cleaner. Um and then we also went through a whole bunch of ideas that Lynch Schel and the board of civil authority have gathered. Um just ways to improve town meeting day from you know child care to cookies to getting youth involved. >> Yeah. >> Youth youth. >> Yeah. And let's see this month we're going to hear about various options for moving the date or time of town meeting. And we're also going to hear >> might not be exactly what we're going to hear about. I wrote down accessibility. I think it was actually um focused on audio visual. Sorry, I was working too quickly. >> And that is um that's also important accessibility. Maybe we'll talk about that. We are ADA accessible. Um >> we're going to talk about audio visual then. So we have four well five more meetings left. are um we're working on a draft report and we are aiming to have the draft report done September 23rd and then sometime in the fall do a survey um and then finish by maybe November or December. One of the things that I wanted to point out to the select board is that our next meeting with you is not till November 17th. I would suggest a meeting in late September or early October for you to look at our draft report. So if you have any comments on it, we can actually read those comments. >> You're a mind readader. I was going to say you're going to what's the you're who does the draft report go to before the survey? Is a draft report circulated to the community and then you survey the community? >> So we haven't decided that yet, but that was kind of one of our ideas. we had a draft of course then we could use that to like get people inform people and get people's comments and um might love it or hate it but they could give us some feedback and then we do that in our final report. So our mandate is that we give you preliminary recommendations um by September 2026. So we will probably that's why our deadline is September 23rd that we'll have that done. will give it to you. And our our final recommendations are due to January 8th, 2027. Um, and I think you have you have meetings on October 6 and October 20th. So, I suggest you pull us in one of those >> in October. I thought you said September. >> No, we would want to meet with you in October because our report will be our draft be done September 27th. >> Okay. Okay. Gotcha. And then we would meet with you, get your feedback, we would get public feedback, and then we would have a final report by the end of the year. >> Um, yeah. Question to the board. Do you have a flavor of wanting to meet with a draft report in hand prior to a survey, in the middle of a survey, after a survey? was really thought on a surve. >> Yeah, try to base it on a survey because >> yeah, we've had some different ideas. >> Okay. >> What are we gonna ask? >> I don't know. >> We found out from our presentation that that's a really good question. >> How involved do we want them to be in what we're doing? >> Right. How well do you want our feedback before the surf we look at the report and >> I think it'll be maybe all happening at the same time >> the survey I had originally proposed it's more of a foundational thing earlier on to get like demographics about who >> uh it sort of evolved since then we pushed back towards the fall we haven't really finalized anything about what's going to be on this Well, we're gonna I don't have a flavor at the moment. I mean, we are going to have a better connections me better connections program will be on the agenda but in the 1 of October, but other than that and then we're going to I'm sure be in the midst of um starting to talk about budgets. So, we're going to Roger. >> Yeah, I think uh October 6 would work. the first one >> if we can stick the time. Um I think mostly be interested in what do you what do you think you'll be proposing? >> Yeah. >> How drastic a change are you envisioning? I'll give us our sense of >> Yeah. Um Evan and I went to um a joint held BLCT and Central Vermont regional planning commission select board get together recently and asked about um different things and one of the items was that Jericho has an interesting town meeting process that was one time you might want to add to your list. >> Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we did that sort of when we heard from Cambridge. So, this page is sort of a template that um still needs to be edited, but I'm going to start with you anyway. We went through this at our last meeting. This will be the centerpiece of our report. There will be an introduction and so on and then you'll meet this in the middle and then there will be an explanation of this. But this is basically what we've been looking at. So, Australian ballot for town, representative time meeting, which is what Brad has, a two-part meeting, which is what Jericho has. What Jericho does is actually not authorized by statute. So, they sort of do it um that they have a binding floor meeting and this the select board has just agreed to make that binding. They don't change it before it goes to Australian ballot. That's not really a statute, but you know, they do it anyway. They also made that promise in what next year kind of went back on that. >> They broke their pinky promise. >> They even a promise that was hard to make. But anyway, but you know, we at least have some information about that. So, we can report on that. So, there's that two-part meeting. There's the two-part meeting that Dubberry does, which is anformational meeting followed by Australian ballot. And then there's the two-part meeting that we do, which is theformational meeting followed by a floor meeting. And I would say and these are all structural options and also we put in there time day of time meeting between structural and nonstructural just a general I think I'm speaking for the committee consensus that we had is that if you want to make a structural change that wouldn't be for 2027 you should spend at least another year studying it and doing 2028 what we also heard from Cambridge I think it was Fletcher that they kind of sunk up and voted to change everything and the voters were living And so it's really you it's really worth the time to talk to voters, really think it out, want to make a big change. So >> is it your decision or are you going to pass it to the voters? >> Yeah. >> And then guys on the town meeting agenda changes right then. >> No, we can do it in the extra. Um so nonstructural options are things that could be made more quickly changing the community quickly. So like improve the town report. Um Valerie had a bunch of recommendations that >> new town man um technology and audio we're going to talk about >> later this month. special articles or a bunch of, you know, proposals within that that um that Grace came up with a town meeting guide um that I just kind of threw these in final list like how facilitators standing committee >> and then for each of the options that we ourselves as a committee will vote on and give you our vote. Then we'll also have a little report that just the template that used to kind of summarize what uh the proposal is and then there will be pros that goes along with this but PowerPoint will just yeah there seem to be towns that have their own little subdivisions of people who care who just make publications and do this for the to guides and how to do things. Mortown, I think, has like three different groups that all run in parallel with great ideas and create pamphlets and books. Oh, >> did you get that impression? >> Yeah, they simplify things, you know. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Sometimes even definitions like what's a capital budget. >> No, absolutely. Good. >> Great idea. >> Yeah. Having a glossery. >> Yeah. >> A glossery report. >> Yeah. So, >> yeah. So some things are low hanging fruit which can be done right away and some things are more difficult. >> Yeah. But there are also big structural changes that we haven't talked about like stuff that's in like we never circle back around like that with more consideration other things like that just even come up for us >> or we will be >> we will be taking the straw poll at our August meeting of how people feel about each of these changes um in terms of like whether the committee members like against or neutral or recommend favor and told maybe they can change their straw fold. That's why you take straw folds. It's straw. But idea is like the consensus like everybody hates something or something. >> Actually, I think we're pretty diverse group. >> I mean, I think everyone came in with their own opinions and hopefully they were able to just listen to other people and perhaps change their lives. That's what I'm hoping for. a lot of different ideas but feels like they're not really working against each other. I feel like I've heard a lot of different things that we could do a little bit >> um just around the GDA accessibility. I just wanted to mention um I think it would be great if you could touch base with Sarah Lunderville at Vermont Center for Independent Living. um because it's more than just about whether we have an interpreter or whether there's a ramp into the building or you know audiovisisual aids. Um >> so I I think that it would be really helpful. She's kind of on a campaign to make town meeting more accessible to all voters. Um, so she's got a bunch of information >> center question. Um, the original mandate was for this committee to run through town meeting 2027. Uh, and at one of the previous meetings I heard a suggestion that we might need an additional year. Is that something that you're envisioning now or >> address that in the report? >> I think if the select board was to recommend a structural change to town, then you would probably want to extend the committee. >> But that's what we have to talk about in October. >> Based upon what we give you, right? >> Yeah. And it might be right. You'll I think in October will be more of a conversation. and we can tell you how you voted. I'll do some information talk about that and then we'll be able to change our votes before our final [laughter] >> our final report and I think you have to take you know I'm hoping we have the final report done by December and then you as a select can take that decide you know do you want to give us a mandate if you want to make some of those changes or uh one of the things that like we are not the decision makers for many of these things so you know other people hold responsib possibilities of the select board or the or the town clerk or board of civil authorities. So there's a lot of different people who can do different parts of uh >> anyone else. Thank you very much. We have you on the agenda for October. Thank you. October 6. All right. Um the next agenda item is the select board's recognition of staff anniversaries and notable staff achievements. We did post um a list of all of the employees service years of service and then uh new new employees this last year. I want to personally thank everyone for their service. Um, I also want to ask about that Jones >> and I must understand she's probably done, but we should be recognizing her for all that she has done in the last particularly the last six months. >> Yeah, Beth um is working through her vacation and such. She hasn't worked this week, right? But she worked one day last week and maybe two days the week before. So, um, she has offered her services to assist Wes, Wes and Mariah if needed. Um, you know, Wes is handling everything himself this week cuz Mariah's off. But yes, we internally are planning a little something for Beth, but it would be nice some recognition from the the board. How the board chooses to do that, that's up to you. Um, yeah. And then Sandy, I think you have comments coming. >> Yeah, I just wanted to I mean on the bottom of this this um this on there and I just feel like that needs to be removed because I don't want this to look like we have to do this why we're doing it. I really would like this because I think it's very important for us to do this regardless of whether or not it was one of them. >> Anything you had other Did you have other comments? >> Did you have other you wanted to? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yes. I wanted to also thank the the retired um people that stepped up and helped out when we needed you. And it it means a lot that you know we had I don't think we could have gotten through what we did without having these people help us out. And I think that that was also very much appreciated. Lena and Bill really helped us a lot and we I think we all appreciate that. We're not letting them go yet. >> Yes. And for the record, Wes is not a union employee and Carolyn is not, but they are new employees and I thought it would be nice to to onboard them. You >> you've seen you will have seen them at meetings and we'll see them in the future. >> Um, >> all right. And I will just point out that Carl James, Highway 1 to 5 years of service. Carl now has his CDL permit. So that's an achievement for him that he is working towards a full CDL license commercial. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. You have to come up here. Is the list going to be on the website? >> It is. >> It's posted with the packet of information. >> Okay. >> Well, on the month of the meeting, it's posted with the agenda. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Um Woody had a welldeserved vacation this last couple of weeks, so I didn't push you or any agenda items. I don't know if there's uh anything you want to >> um No, we can touch base on for 10 minutes or whatever. We've got eight minutes. So, um we'll start with Woody Avenue Housing Project. There was a kickoff meeting for that. Um with the folks from Wayman, Lanere, Whitenberg, uh BHB, ADAPA, DEW, the representative RW. Um so that project has kicked off and we we're not we haven't progressed anywhere but we've kicked off. Um they will be getting some of the background information looking at the environmental work, some of the borings that have been done. Um some of the background data on the site. Um and then there will be some public engagement as to what would the public like there. Um, you know, they'll be reaching out to Neil and Cheryl as to what zoning will allow there. Um, is does the board or the does the community have, you know, an appetite for high density lot units or what would the community like? So, um, >> will they post a schedule that kind of activity >> before? Yes, before their their first public engagement meeting that they would like to >> do a little background first. Like I said, see what's allowed before they Yeah. >> So, um, yes, we met on site today up there. Obviously, none of them had been to the site. Um, and then we came down and met in this build in this room here and finish up our meeting, but it looks like a good crew. Um, they're a little concerned schedulewise as to how they'll meet the meet the requirements, but um, they've got a lot of people work. So >> yeah, >> it's exciting I think to see what they got there. >> Yeah. >> Any update on the armory replacing the armory build storage building? >> That's all part of their we discussed that today as to what we'd need for square footage, where it could go, if it could go, do they think that's proper use? All all things they were going to get right. >> Y >> Yeah. Um, also, uh, a while back I submitted Don's or the board's request for the speed limit change on Route 100. Um, Ian from the state uh has instruct told me he would get back to me. First step would be some sort of study up there, speed study, probably traffic counts, etc. Um and then it goes to some sort of recommendation to the traffic safety committee which only meets sometimes twice a year. >> Yeah. Um but that process has started. He was hoping to get the study in this fall so that they'd have the data to our study. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So >> that's great. And it would include a lot of crash data which there has been numerous ones since yesterday just in the last couple couple uh some extending a little further but um >> but that's in >> it shows it's a busy road has its issues too. >> Yeah. So so that has started. Um FEMA buyou buyouts are progressing. We've got now two that are almost officially done over on Union Street 36 and 40. Um, applications are pending still from others, um, including 33 and 35 North Main, 38 Union, and a couple on Route 2 as well. Um, those are all kind of moving at whatever pace Vimma says they will move at. So, um, that's happening. Um, yeah, we're due to meet on Randall Meadow shortly, uh, to discuss the proposals there. Well, um, >> yeah, that's what I think I can that's what's going on. >> All right. >> Well, uh, Stanley Wson, >> Stanley Watson, I talked to D. Um, you know, all they said was progressing. Yeah. So, and D was involved in the Woody Avenue as well. Some of the same players in one of all these All right, nice. Um, we'll move on to the select word matters. Uh, discover lotteryies Vermont downtown vibrancy grant application as the station letter. >> Hi Martha, >> I'm up on your screen. >> How are you? [laughter] >> I [clears throat] snuck in. Oh, excuse me. Hold on, Lindsay. Go ahead. >> I just need to state that I'm going to recuse myself from a discussion or anything on this topic conflict of interest. >> All right. Thank you. You're on. >> Great. Thank you. Um, thank you so much for having me. I am here representing discover waterberry formally uh revitalizing waterberry and I'm here to request written support from select board members on a letter of attestation from the Vermont downtown program for a downtown vibrancy fund grant of $25,000. The letter of attestation requires signatures of at least three select board members to receive this $25,000 from the Vermont Downtown Vibrancy Fund. Um the uh attestation indicates that the town supports DW in receiving these funds and applying for this grant um from the vibrancy fund and that the select board will continue to provide municipal support for the work that we do um which of course requires uh a couple years of forethought including a new three-year strategic plan that we came up with um this past year. This is an annual grant that Discover Waterberry has been receiving for the last four years. Um funds have gone towards many different types of projects. We're required to uh to have projects in many different um aspects of town, not just one. So that it really is fulfilling a lot of different needs around town. Um, some of these include as far as beautifification efforts, things like the holiday garlands, the um seasonal hanging baskets that we have around town, the roundabout garden, and the decor that we do in the um in the winter times and other beautifification efforts. We have an adopted garden program that we uh have been kicking off the last couple years. Uh the grant also supports our promotional efforts and um economic vitality efforts. Last year, we created a 72-hour itinerary for locals and visitors to enjoy different experiences around town. Um, and then we worked directly with the uh Vermont Department of Tourism and we led the charge on getting all 25 designated downtowns in Vermont, getting their 72hour itineraries together in one place on the VDTM site. Um, this year we are reviving the Waterberry Area Development Committee, which has been a long-standing committee that kind of fell to the wayside a little bit. They do work directly with the town economic development coordinator Gretchen Schisell who we hired this spring and um that has had tremendous uh uh impact in the past but also a huge surge of people coming back to that committee and we're really excited to see um all of that uh getting up and running again. Um so just I want to be very clear that this uh it's not our formal financial ask. We do have an annual financial ask which we will be returning in October um for that formal ask for municipal support. This letter of attestation is our formal ask just for your signatures to secure the additional $25,000 of funding from the state downtown vibrancy fund program um which is uh not in replacement of municipal support. And so that's why I'm here today and happy to answer questions or talk further. Like I said, this is our fourth year, I believe, of receiving these funds. Um, and I know that uh Martha has seen uh in the past what we have done with some of those funds, but happy to answer other questions as well. >> Had a question. Is there a match involved with this? >> A match? >> Uh, no. It's it's not a match program. It's um it's a it's a program from the it's it's the Vermont downtown program is a state coordinating program for a national effort um of a program called the Main Street America program. Um they the Vermont downtown program is where the vibrancy fund comes from. And if we are compliant, our our well compliant is not even quite the right word. They um it's a guide to measure local downtown programs to really being bring vibrancy but back into uh these towns that maybe are off the highway that don't get as much traffic as they used to. Maybe they were granite towns, river towns like ours. Um, and it's because of the uh, what am I trying to because of our um, working with this this program, we are eligible for this $25,000 because of the work that we're doing. So, we every year there's different things we have to do. last year was the 72-hour itinerary and really working towards um making our towns, you know, attracting hyper local tourism as well as as kind of outofstate tourism. It's not just that. Uh like I said, we're doing the Waterberry Area Development Committee this year. Um which is really more about local economic development. Um [clears throat] but no, it is not a matching program. It's just asking that if we receive this $25,000 from the Vermont Vibr, we would not lose $25,000 in municipal funding from the town is really what what they're asking for. Um they want it to go towards actual vibrancy and not towards um administrative costs or other such such things. Deon, anybody else? Anything from the public? I take a motion. >> I will move to approve the downtown vibrant application at theestation letter. Second, >> any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you, Lindsay. >> Thank you so much, Martha. And thank you all for your time. >> Y to pass around. >> Perfect. Um, next agenda item is the National Opioid Settlement Fund, new public access emergency rescue stations. Going to turn this over to Sandy. You want to find that one? Uh, I think I see that too. So there exactly um so I don't know how many people are aware of the fact that we were the library was um designated by from selling that we're required to present um a use of funds for only opioid issues as far as um preventing them or um you know anything to do with opioid settlement. And Zach worked on um something that could be universal for the community um that would also fall under the guidelines required by the opioid settlement fund. Um that was to create um uh emergency access rescue stations which have AED and also different um supplies in them um around that we can put around the community. and I put out a survey to find out what people suggested to have um for locations. We are working on at least doing four at this point. Um and this is what the results were. I look we received 48 submissions which doesn't seem like a lot but with four different uh locations each we came out with a pretty good result. Um the top four it's actually five because D row and Anderson Field were tied 16. The largest um one was Rusty Parker for the train station area. Uh Hope David Field Sacramento and then the downtown Stow Street area. So those and then there are some other suggestions that people have. Um and then I asked what people felt was the most crucial consideration by selecting these and the biggest one was proximity the current community gathering spot um with other suggestions to pretty even on that one. Um, we also asked the community had CPR or AED or not, can you train before we had actually a very large people large amount of people say yes, which was good. Um, and some, you know, some that were certified, but I'm no longer. The next one was, which area of the community do you reside in? We had um 49% were Waterbury Center, 43% were Waterberry and then we had some hotline locations and somebody that didn't understand. So, we had a lot of really positive uh comments because I asked for comments and suggestions and people had a lot of really good suggestions and a lot of there was a lot of people really thought that this was a good idea and um I I'm hoping that we can take the suggestion that people gave and come to a final resolution of where we would like these located and with Zach's um get this rolling so we can get out some find some electricians that can help us and decide where we want to have these and and uh get this started because I'm sure it's not going to be an easy process. Um so at this point I I guess I'm asking if we as a board feel like we can come up with some areas that would be the best for these four stations. Um, I think Zach had a question because he was, you know, as far as year round making sure that things are accessible year round. Um, and I don't know if you have any other comments or suggestions that you want. >> I think Woody had a good one with respect to flooding >> that over Anderson, >> right? Clark. >> Yeah. I just wondered would that grow if it could be brought up closer to the municipal building. I know we have one in here, but it's not accessible 24 hours. And where if we had one higher towards the building, so it was up high enough, that could be a possibility. That's what I was thinking about as far as back road. I mean, it would be relatively easy for somebody to go to it if they needed it. And it's pretty well lit in front of the building. So that's >> remind me. Do these need power? as well. >> Um, they just need power and then the device that encapsulates it will keep it regulated. As far as >> I I think um, you know, as far as the four locations, the community was really helpful. I I don't see any problem with any of the options um, like top five wise. I do I mean I have personally been to a cardiac arrest at the tennis courts so I I sort of lean that direction. Um but obviously we'll do whatever you guys want. >> Well and isn't there like future opportunities here as well? So if we address the top four then in for future years when more fun comes in we can add to that. >> Yeah. Well, we left it kind of open as far as the funding because we didn't commit 100% of it. We were basically we committed to this initial program was was just what we have basically in the bank and we've got a few more payments I think but um so that's all we've really committed to at this point. So there will be a little bit more there will be more money. So, in the future we might be able to add, you know, there's depending on what people think and hopefully we never have to use them. But >> Evan, >> uh, is there already an AED unit at the pool building or the wreck building down at Anderson Field? >> Yeah. I mean, the trouble with a lot of the AEDs in town is that they're locked up when when business is closed. So, um, the the pool has an AED that is available for throughout. So, we kind of want to move them towards areas that aren't already covered. >> Yeah. I the way I would look at it is where are there AEDs that are accessible 247? >> Yeah. >> Uh because the the window of opportunity for the pool being opened when somebody is having an event is actually pretty limited. Their hours are not that extensive. So, you know, like having one available on that in that site somewhere >> all year round would probably be helpful. >> Yeah. I was also thinking that you have to either put it inside the pool fence or outside. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean the lifeguards like the the lifeguards are going to use their own equipment while they're open anyway because that's what they're trained on and I you know shouldn't be using the full off hours. That doesn't mean they [laughter] u but you know everywhere else on the property would easily be able to get to you know there I'm imagining there's a telephone pole in the center between the pools and the tennis courts. I feel like that would be a great spot right in front. >> Very visible. Yeah. Good. >> Roger. >> Uh, how big a radius could Little service >> couple hundred yards or? >> Yeah, it really depends. Um, it it's going to be available to the 911 centers. So theoretically, if there was some I mean, we're right down the road, so most times it's not going to it's not going to make too much of a difference, but in the event that um you know, the caller is looking for an AED and the dispatcher types it into their computer and they see one >> and somebody could easily run to one. I mean, it depends depends on the circumstances, but typically I think most people are looking at these as for an address. So like at the um you know at the pool or the courts or whatever then that whole premise would be covered. I don't think somebody would be expected to run from here to that location and come back again by then the ambulance is here anyway. It's mostly you know you you're doing a recreational activity or you're congregating as a as a group at a concert or something and you see it there you know the resources there something happens you quickly jump and grab it. >> That's right. I would think that both fire stations would be natural spots for them as they emergency services providers. The one in the center could also serve as the hope danger field one. I mean it just in my mind if I'm thinking I need some sort of emergency service and see a fire station. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I mean that that's a great option. Well, and the Main Street Fire Station is very close to the corner of Main Street in South Street. >> Yeah, >> much pleasure. I guess we should decide on locations if we want to move forward with those or >> Roger. Uh, I like the top three and I would add uh Anderson Park except u suggestion that we uh the main street one the downtown one be at the main street fire station. >> So are we are you also saying hope Davey is the waterberry center fire station? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Hope Dave that's right in front of >> right there building. >> Yeah you are. Big blue building. It's it backs right up to the skate park right up to the basketball court. >> I mean it's a 28 sign. So Right. Right. But it's pretty simple. So >> how is signage for it? I mean to actually what what he just said made me think if I'm out on the disc golf course, >> how would I know? Is there like a flag or a something high or a light or plenty of >> Well, the signage is whatever you guys want it to be. I mean, we can install additional signage from separate from the box. The box is illuminated, so it has it has lighting inside of it. It's pretty clearly marked on the outside that it's a it's an AED. And I think that there's going to be some community education involved with all this, you know, telling people where all these sites are. And then you can go a step further. There are u communities that I have seen that have roadside signage that says there's an AED located at this property. So that's I mean those those are >> can they pop up on a phone if someone is looking at a map GPS could they be little because >> Yeah, these will all be um these will all be in the the Vermont registry. So, they will populate on a map that has all of the community uh a in the state. I'm not familiar with if they'll show up on like a Google map. Uh I I don't I haven't seen that before, but >> yeah. Okay. Did you have a question? Okay. Any other comments from the public? >> I just want to make sure everybody covered. All right. Uh, is there a motion out here? >> Roger. >> Uh, I'll move to locate the AET stations Rustin Park or Park Park, uh, the Hope Davy Park or the Main Street Fire Station, uh, the Main Street Fire Station, and Park. >> Is there a second? >> Second. [clears throat] >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> Thank you very much. >> And thank you Sandy for pulling that all together. >> All right. Um the next item is justices of the peace on the November general election ballot and mailing. I think this is less our town. Hello. his son was >> all right. Yes. >> So, first of all, have an election a week from today. That's the primary election. Not like this doesn't approve that, but everyone should come to Brookside Primary School 7 a.m. 7 p.m. primary vote >> or drop off your ballots before >> that's the next. So, for the primary, you have to request an absentee ballot. Uh, and I will hit you on I can mail this. I can still mail it to you. I'm questionable whether that'll get to you in time. So I recommend people just come in and request it. You can take it from the office and vote in the office if you can't get there on the 11th. Uh for the general election, the state sends ballots to all registered voters by statutes. If we want to have justice of peace, if we want to have public questions or justice of abuse on the ballot, it has to be covered from the court. It's just a simple yes. We want to mail to everyone. So, uh, historically, that's what the library has done. And the state takes care of the ballot. It'll be on front and back. I don't have to mail anything out myself or have two separate ballots go out. Um, that's basically all there is to it. >> So, the the question here is um for the select to approve placing the town justice of the peace on the ballot on the back of the on the back of the ballot. >> I need a vote from the Senate board, >> right, >> to do that >> and mailing that ballot to all registered voters. >> That's right. >> Any discussion, questions? A motion? Roger. >> I move to put the justice of the peace on the November general election ballot. >> I will second that. >> Does that meet your all your requirements? Any further discussion? What's the alternative? Uh, a separate ballot for the justice of the peace. Uh, if that ballot were to be mailed out, it would have to be voted by to all registered voters. It would have to be voted on by just like any [clears throat] anytime any Australian ballot that goes up to all members all voters has to be approved by >> the real point here is those justice of peace will be on the back side and that's the request really >> cost and bunch of money there >> right >> yeah okay uh we had a motion and a second Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Thank you for this. >> The appointment of town health officer Woody. I hope you're going to help me with this. >> Yeah. I had spoken to Marie Kingsbury who is our animal control officer. Granted, I was in Arizona speaking to her and it was 108 degrees. So I think she said >> what are you listening for? >> She did she was not hesitant. She would like to meet with Bill or the person who last held the office just to Bill is as Bill will tell you it's a lot of dog bite stuff now which kind of falls right into the animal control aspect of her her job. Um but she was amenable to being appointed um as health officer for the town. So >> can I get a motion? I guess you want to be contingent upon meeting or is it >> Bill probably will correct me. It has to be an appointment from the state of Vermont. Correct. >> Right. So has to make a motion toward that to the state. >> Okay. I just want to make sure she's gonna accept it. [clears throat] So, we're nominating. The motion is to nominate her for the health uh office or position. >> Yes. >> Well, her nom her name and nomination of the state. >> All right. Is there a motion there? >> I'll move to nominate Marie King as town health officer. >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say. >> Thank you. I just had a quick question. Would this person's responsibility now include the prior discussion around um those AEDs and uh Narcan being placed? Will they have responsibility for that as well? >> No. >> No. Marie does have a background in emergency services just as an aside. Yeah. >> Okay. I just want to make sure if that was then she would know about that. that um the library ambulance will be responsible for maintaining those units and restocking. Wait, should we keep talking about two different things? >> Well, that's what that's what Amy >> That's what Amy brought up. >> Okay. All right. Uh I think we can move on. Are we okay? All right. The next agenda item is >> what? vote. I think >> I thought we voted. >> Amy, Amy interrupted with the discussion because that was her. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All right, moving on. The next agenda item is town clerk treasurer transition process from elected to appointed. And I'm going turn this over to Evan who requested this. Sure. Uh so this was an idea that had come up a few months ago in the process of appointing a town clerk. Uh that there hadn't been a whole lot of applicants for this and we would sort of like to uh encourage more applicants in the future. Um there's not a great way of explaining it, but uh state statute allows for as Theresa mentioned earlier, it allows for select towns to vote to allow their select courts to appoint a town group rather than electing it directly. And I felt time that that could offer some advantages and I feel like it still feel that way and wanted to see what the board's sense of that was. [clears throat] >> So this is for town clerk and for treasurer that is entertaining an idea of transitioning from appointed to appointed >> one or the other. >> Okay. And at currently, thank goodness for Bill who is an inter Bill Shuffl who is the interimm treasur to my understanding Woody, we've not received any applications to fill the treasure position. >> We do not treasure. >> What did I say? Treasure. >> You said >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Sorry. Thank you for the correction. Okay. Thank you sir. >> Right. >> I know. [laughter] >> No, we have not received any applicants for that to my knowledge to be sure. >> Um, currently >> when it was when it was open. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> What's the board's pleasure? I think one uh pro of this uh changing this is that it opens up library is growing and we have a lot more there's a lot more going on than there used to be and I realize having someone local um is definitely the best way to go because of the knowledge of the area. Um, but this also I mean I could live in Ducksburg and have grown up here my entire life, but I'm not eligible. You know, it's it opens it up to people that are not necessarily living in water maybe because they can't afford to. But >> well, that's sort of part two, I guess, is right [clears throat] opening it up to non-residents, >> right? Um but uh so I just feel like this opens up the candidate list um and maybe makes it some people don't want to go around and get the signatures and all that but also it opens it up to get very qualified people potentially people that were town clerks in another town. Um I don't know if this is the right way to go. I do know that it might have helped with our process, you know, in the first place. I I just I think it's something that we should consider looking into and finding out what we need to do. Um there are towns recently that have made this change. I think it's one of the things that maybe towns are going away from the town clerk treasurer being uh residents and elected last year. Level voters approved changing the town clerk and the town treasurer to appointed position in March of 23. Chester and Stockbridge also did this process. And there's a lot to it. Um, but I feel like if we one of the things that we have to do is have a very large public meeting about this. It's not something that we would just change overnight. Um, we'd have a large public meeting. We'd have discussions with the public what their thoughts are. There's a lot of pros and cons on both. Um but in the final the final say on this would be having a town meeting article on both of these options if we decide to go with both both the treasurer and the counselor changing to appointed. Um and it would be on the articles for the town meeting. It would be that would be how it would be decided. So you would, let's see, this is August. You would have a public meeting this fall sometime. So you would warn the public meeting >> and then you would have it on if town meeting day or November. >> It has to be on town meeting day of appointments. >> Okay, that's right. And I I feel like that would give people an opportunity, you know, it doesn't I mean, we can still put the article on there if we want, but I feel like getting the public >> is definitely the way to go on something. What's the sense of doing it if we get public input that they think we're crazy? >> I mean, they might anyways. >> No, if they say 80% don't want it, >> right? I mean maybe everyone comes to the meeting and says or you know writes in or whatever and says I don't >> is it this is a dumb idea and I don't want to do it. >> Is it an Australian ballot vote or is it a Florida vote? >> So that's sort of the next thing. Uh it is by default a Florida uh I personally feel very strongly that sort of structural changes like this to government should be by Australian ballot. Uh if we wanted to vote on it by Australian ballot, we would have to hold a special meeting to vote on how to vote on it. >> A special Say that again. Special change. >> Yeah, you can you can change a specific question to Australian ballot, but it requires a special meeting of the town, right? >> Not of the select board in order to do that. Oh, I was just wondering does this discussion fit within the realm of the town meeting committee? Uh, >> it does not. That's not something else there. >> Yeah. I'd like to see it proposed as both and then as separate positions. >> Say that again. >> I'd like to see should it be appointed or voted on as a combined position or town clerk stand. So the town could be voted on but the treasur for the appointment. >> Well, it would have to be it has to be two separate articles. >> Yeah. >> So it you can't combine it as a one position. It's there's whole there's two different >> So they're automatically two. >> Yeah. Two different statutes in the law. >> Okay. >> Just a point of order. Uh where are we to do this? about would we also concurrently have to have an election for those offices? >> Yes. >> Which would be just a little confusing. >> Yes. >> Well, it wouldn't Right. So, and there are threeear positions, >> right? >> Right. So, the election So, town meeting day would will be will be an election for town clerk and for treasur. >> Okay. And also then um this discussion about having a vote on >> people are going to be running for this office that they're trying to eliminate. >> Well, no no >> or not eliminate be appointed or elected but then in three years it would states >> is that I think it's 45 days >> 45 days after the vote >> takes. Yeah, but you would have just elected the town clerk for three-year term, right? Well, and it's also possible that you would then appoint that person. >> I mean, right. So, to take away the three >> Exactly. And that also eliminates the three-year terms. It's goes >> uh it changes the way it's basically it's not a hired position. >> There's another and I can't think of it. But >> well, one of the things it sounds like should happen is one I I'm kind of looking at either of you because you've done the most research so far is to have >> VLC have a good solid conversation with VLCT. >> Yeah. >> And have either them attend a meeting or you be comfortable enough to carry the ball forward or something. I think in this case I was going to contact him but I'm like there's no sense if we're not going. >> No no no this Evan wanted to that's what the purpose is wanted to see if there's any >> Mr. Chev would like to speak. >> So just a question to you. So what you're saying is if this is proof if one or both of these offices approved to be an appointed position that 45 days after the vote the board to appoint someone even if there's a sitting floor. >> Yeah. If the elected clerk's term would be over once the appointment has been made. I believe is how the statute. So the elected clerk's position >> over five days. >> This is what I found. It says >> let me let me sorry I'll finish. >> Yeah. So to your I I [clears throat] wasn't aware of that, but just make sure that whatever election is being held when Karen was last elected, was it for a one-year term? >> What was the three? >> Okay. So a couple of years ago, she was >> elected as a one-year term. I think at that same meeting we moved it to a three-year term. So if if Trump has one or two years left on it then the person the office that is going to be elected next year will be to serve out the remainder of the term. So it won't necessarily be unless Karen's term was next. >> Yeah. Right. Yep. Then it would then it would be for a three-year term. >> That's my understand. >> Well, that's part of the guidance from the ICT. That's my understanding as well. I would have to check, >> right? I'm just saying you three years. >> No, no, no. Well, it's on parents. Yeah. It's what's left on her, >> but I wasn't aware. I think you should get guidance from legal >> the VC >> and if we need further review but thank >> what's the Lord's pleasure >> oh say your name >> yes I know I think I pronounce this board enough to know Mike Bterbury center I'm [clears throat] very concerned about this issue. One, I think we've been lucky that we've had good file clerks slash treasures, but I think there's a lot of vulnerability. You see in the news all around the state embezzlements and uh issues with town officials uh responding with uh public funds and and that that really concerns me. Uh I don't want to see where elections to some of these people can become a popularity contest versus some of outstanding, you know, criteria and background in in financial in regulatory issues. I think it's something to really consider that we do might want to consider an appointment process versus an election process because again I don't want either a county clerk or a town treasurer just because they get their friends to go and it's a nice paying [clears throat] job. You know, I don't think that's what we want. and and we've been lucky I think so far you know we have had that but who knows what's going to happen in the future. >> So that's my kind of take on it. I think the appointment process does have a lot of merit because you could vet out just like we've just looked at a new town manager. We want to look you those two positions are very important positions in the town and I think uh we need to look at the qualifications of people because town government is becoming more cumbersome, more complex and we need to really think about those things. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Question question for BLC. Is that person going to become a union person or is that >> is that >> okay? Uh so perhaps the step forward is uh I'm not going to phrase this the right way the first time but but a a study committee [laughter and clears throat] uh study committee to uh frame out so that you can post the schedule so we can have a discussion um of what the steps are, what the requirements are, what the process might look like, what the timeline might look like addressing Bill's concern or question or identification of, you know, with Wes, what's Wes's term? Um, what is the town clerk term? What is the treasurer term? We're talking about, you know, Roger brought up what would it look like at town meeting, Dave, if there's voting for those positions, but yet we're also voting for appoint, you know, how we educate the community. Uh, is that something the two of you could take on? >> Yeah, >> I think so. >> I would be honest. >> Is that reasonable to the board? I mean, I I need to hear from the rest of the board here. >> Yeah, appreciate more research. >> Sandy, did you want to say something? Yeah, I actually would really like to talk to the people at MLOW to find out what their whole process was, too. >> Great idea. >> So, you know, they went through this recently, so yeah, it would be good to find out. Um, so as a next step, what uh what kind of time frame are would you like? >> Uh, I was picturing the fall special meeting around mid to late October, which would mean it would have to be warned in early September. So there would be two regular meetings of this board before the attack needed to happen. put um why uh >> so are you suggesting that we want a special town meeting in the fall to change voting to Australian ballot that >> on this specific question? Yes. public meeting or not? >> Well, it's a special town. Only the town can do that. >> Right. >> And you're sure that they can do it for only one? >> Yeah. >> For one issue and then >> Yeah. >> Go back. >> I have seen that happen before. >> How about we do this? How about is two is would you guys be able to come back in two weeks? Yeah. >> To answer these kinds of questions and uh be able to make a presentation of what the process would look like when you know propose a sequence of meetings that would be related to it is two weeks too much too fast. >> Try it. I mean we can always bring people more. We'll give it another >> already. So we're not anything here, Bill. We're going to let these two run with this and is that okay with Roger and do we need I don't think we need a vote here. Just you know we're going to move this to a next meeting. We'll have continue the discussion of the process that would be entertained if this were to move forward if this process were to move forward. Okay. as an agenda. I recommend that it says process about this issue, not people showing up to say I don't like this or not. That's going to come later. You know what I mean? It's really >> Yep. It's not It's just whether this is going to even be undertaped. >> Got it. >> Well, that's good. >> Okay. We're not going to just It's too early. [laughter] >> All right. Thank you for the conversation. Um, better connections August 18th public hearing. Um, Don, I'm gonna turn to you. >> Yeah, we talked a little, you know, at the last meeting about having a public hearing. Give everybody opportunity. Might I think the best thing may be have an hour before our regular meeting. I think we talked about earlier about 5:30 to 6:30. Um, I would throw it out to the board to have two to three minute max so people could say thank you for the time or whatever with the focus being on what do you want to see stay changed with the design that's there not this is a waste of money you know why does the state do all this kind of stuff >> I have people that say I love it stick with it so >> well but our our decision help me if I'm >> is if the the public hearing is to address the trying not future Sure. Now they're going to come back in October with the summary of their whole program and talk about that, but that's October. >> But my understanding is >> this is for just the triangle. >> We have we as a select board have to decide stays >> right in September. >> Right. So it would be >> I think it's a great idea. >> Yeah. To make that decision, we should hear about >> Yep. I agree. >> And I would recommend three in person and then three on Zoom, you know, so you're not going back and forth all the time. kind of go back to three and you know just keep it that way if the numbers >> but how do we choose who >> what's that >> how do we choose who who the three are >> you know might just be people up [clears throat] >> at random but I I don't think it should be 10 15 people here and then zoom way you know whatever the >> So you're saying three people here in person three people on Zoom two three minutes one time get through everyone but But an hour >> at the max. Yeah. >> Right. >> Okay. Only two or three minutes. We don't mean an hour, do we? >> I don't know. >> Talking about more than three people here and three people. >> Well, I mean, >> well, there's there's really only three or four things that are debatable up there. I mean, >> I'm not saying we don't want to hear from 200 people, but >> a hundred of them are going to repeat the same thing already said. Um, >> yeah, maybe make it 30 minutes, right? >> Yeah. I mean, >> yeah, >> that's fine. I mean, I have no idea. >> What if we do a straw ple? [clears throat] >> I wonder if you could do a straw pole if uh like what he says, uh the issues are, are we going to keep the stop signs? Uh are we going to keep uh the cones and ballards? Uh, and oh, they've already done a survey and I'm sure Better Connections Group is going to come back with what the survey is. >> They're planning on last. >> I mean, they've gotten all that feedback that way. I think people want to comment >> to the, you know, why they think it's a good idea to have this or why that should be taken away. You know, there's concerns about the >> one line of the center line being over too far. You know, they're not concerned. I'm just saying that, you know, after we get these issues sort of clarified, sometimes it helps to get a sense of what the general sense of the group is. Is like how many people would like to see us keep the stop sign, how among the people ask for a raise of hands, right? >> You're talking about the group there shows up. Okay. Okay. >> Oh, and not have them have testimony. I mean, >> no, you get you take testimony. It's just just suggesting that part of you know it isn't just based on the last person delivering in a passion plea for police safe stop sign it's based on you know what's the general sense of the community that the statement time show up >> yeah I don't >> do that's the end of trying to >> so how much time are we going hour seems reasonable That's >> we'll just have to wait around until 6:30 to start to start. >> Oh, sure. >> That's the And it's going to have to be on Zoom. So, we're going to have to It's hard to tell how many people. >> Let's try 30 minutes and we'll go for it. If it's a lot, we'll just go to the straw poll. We can only get so many in at the end. We don't have time. We don't have to compromise and make it 45. >> [clears throat] >> I got nowhere else to >> I got to be >> All right, we're gonna start at 5:45. We'll warn it for 5:45. Uh, two to three minutes. I do think um in the morning we it would be helpful maybe Woody if you could u maybe uh four bullets of the items to stay or not stay five bullets. Okay. So we can know keep the conversation on what these are the items we're talking about >> to inform the board onision. >> Sure. >> Right. Okay. Um, any other questions or comments? All right. So, a motion to set a public hearing for August 18th at 5:45 for the Better Connections Demonstration Project. Who's making sure [laughter] it's getting good at this? Cheryl, >> was that fair? I'll second it. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All right. Mr. Chuck, Treasurer. You're on. Look at that. We got you. All right. Um, so I send out some information that other employees all had a chance to look at. >> Nope. >> Friday. [laughter] >> Okay. >> I'm gonna let you guys lead it. >> Oh, it's not. So, I'll take unfortunately it's not always possible. I had a family obligation and that's the way it is. So, >> yep. Where should I look? You sent it on Friday or you sent it today. Yesterday >> um what I sent out yesterday was just some narrative about where this started. Um so you want to talk first about the tax stabilization from um >> in about in 1997. You cleared out the room. >> Sorry. >> I think I cleared out too. >> Anyway, um >> sorry. >> I think this is important for the board. uh you are the fiduciary parties responsible for all of the accounts finances and assets and these are significant. Uh we have five funds that have investments in them. Uh four of them are um investments that are at Emma Jones and the other library fund. their investments are with Oregon State. I It's been that way for years and years and years. Um the tax stabilization fund was created in uh the mid 1990s, 1996, 1997 when Crossber School was built. And long story short, um we asked Ducks to uh pay by into the equity that that what was elementary at the time. Uh the bond that was issued to build the new school and renovate um that Brook which became that Brook was being paid by the new school district but the town of Broadway had paid to build the island school. So, we came up with $644,000 and that's been invested and uh in what I sent out yesterday uh since 1997, $879,000 has been transferred out of that fund into the general fund. um it's about $31,400 a year on average when you divide it by the 12 28 years even though there were 10 years but no place for it happen in the early years um if if there was a downturn in the stock market the 644 couldn't take money out unless it was higher than that and you know the first couple of years maybe there was modest growth and then if there was a 15% decline in the market, it'd be too difficult to take money out without pumping into that floor, if you will. So, 10 times uh we haven't transferred money out. In 19 in 2019, the voters changed what was a very complicated formula um that was used to determine how much could be taken out and we simply voted in 2019 to allow the select board to take out up to 5% of the agreement. So fun and that was in consultation with uh the CPA the auditors at Sol Powers. They said look the fund is nearing a million dollars and if you take 5% out even if the stock market goes down a little bit it's it's not going to kill that. So, six take about $50,000 out per year out of it. And um you can see on what I said yesterday at the end of 2015 there was a billion $35,000 in fund right now at the end of June there was a million62,000. So it's appreciating almost $30,000 60 and we are spending $,000 of uh this year put it in the general plan. Um >> why does that help? >> Use the equity. >> Okay. >> Um and we do it at the end of the year now because generally we don't have cash flow issues. don't need the $50,000 in the >> in the checking account and the longer you leave it in there, >> the more it can appreciate. So, usually in December, um I just worked with the people at Jones and we balanced this portfolio. There's a bar chart got one with email yesterday and you can see now that it's about um 51% fixed income and 49% equities. That's about a 5050 split of the investments. the fund uh if you look back on that first page on the balance sheet, you know, is is only about $400,000 at Edward Jones. The other $600,000 is either in cash or it's in loans to ourselves. Um, so when you look at the whole portfolio, it's only about 20% in equities, [clears throat] but it's it's much more safely balanced than it had been for the last year or so. Um, I won't I'm not going to go through them. I sent you uh back um when I was coming in to do the budget report back several weeks ago. Uh I did send you where the whole uh was polio at Edward Jones and uh I'm not going to go through and tell you every single mutual fund that we know but we have more bonds and CDs and fixed income. Um, any questions on the track stabilization fund? Okay. Um, the next thing that I sent out yesterday was CC. >> Sorry. Um, but I think this question I'm looking at the uh Edward Jones sheets that you sent last night. Um, they're all set up to reinvest the dividends or earnings. >> Okay. And so they there's uh might I might be on the wrong I don't know which fund this is. Um I just saw one that has all these American um mutual funds like Hawaii or so or Franklin funds. Um just a curiosity question is does the town pay a commission fee every time these change? Why are there so many? >> Well, it's it's to diversify your portfolio. Some of them are buying funds, some of them >> like growth funds, some of them are. >> So, no, we don't pay a we don't pay a commission when we make >> changes >> and >> and um Edward Jones looks at these portfolios. before that we have it at Jones. They look at them uh as a whole. So we have over a million dollars in American funds across all of our all of these four clubs and because of that we get very very low rates for fees. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> All these. >> Thank you. So, the fees are built in to the um you know, there's there's there's not a you'll never see on a statement that there's a fee, you know, there's nothing $3,000 fee. If you buy an individual stock, uh there would be um a commission more than likely, but we do have an investment portfolio that uh prohibits the ownership or the purchase of individual stocks. can own equities and mutual funds but not so we can't just go out and buy Coca-Cola. >> We can buy a mutual fund that has Coca-Cola in it. Um but the the transaction costs not very low. Um, in 2017, I sent a memo to the boards which I included in what I mailed out yesterday. Um, talking about the CC Fisher Fund with the veterans monument fund. The CC Fisher fund started off as a fund of the villages fire department and it's it was their own money on the established fund. CC Fisher was a fire chief of the village back century I think. Um and they named the fund after him. And uh in 2009 when Firefight has turned over $6,400 in cash. Um and by 2017 it had grown to 10,38. Oh, and by by the end of that year, by 2017, it had grown to almost $20,000. The CC Fisher fund now has over $56,000 in it. And it's it's money that the firefighters uh they don't use it a lot. the cloud. We including to invest it as town funds uh in order to get the benefits that we have from uh the lower fees from having a significant portion of money investor. Um but they typically have used this for education or equipment that they have felt is significant. uh a significant need, but something that the town budget wouldn't ordinarily um wouldn't ordinarily support. So, they sent somebody to fire school one time with this and spent $750. I don't know. I think 2013 might be the last time that they spent any money on it. I didn't look back at that. That's what I reported in 2017. Who has control over those funds? >> What do you mean? >> Children. >> Uh, is it up to the fire department to decide how to if they were to those funds? That's the agreement that the select board made with 2009 that if they wanted to spend that money they would come talk to the manager manager would talk to the treasurer usually they do a report to the select one and we go ahead and do it. Um the money is our money now because it's been invested EIN it's it's our money. Uh but I think if the select board decided to use it without discussing it with the firefighters, >> right? Um moving on to the veterans monument park. Again, this was money that was turned over to the town by the um veterans of foreign wars. Um, in 2009, uh, the DFW chapter that was here in Water, uh, gave up their charter and, uh, I guess it's probably the statute of limitations that's gone by. Um the I think the uh the VFW charter or the agreement they have with the National Association was that if you fold up all your assets go to the national. So before they gave up their charter, they gave up their money to the town and said, "Look, we would like to turn this over to the town." I turned over $49,000 in 2009 to the town and asked that that money be used to uh care for, maintain, improve and if necessary buy additional veterans monuments. So the monuments that are at Rusty Parker Park to the veterans of >> those wars parade World War II Vietnam the Civil War monument that's in front of school. >> Oh yeah >> with the pedestal stand. Um, this money is intended to um to be able to maintain those monuments. Um, [clears throat] I talked to the cemetery commissioners years ago and said, "Look, you folks deal with monuments all the time. We're not going to just dump this into the cemetery fund, but with the cemetery commissioners help us with making decisions about what needs to be done." So, you know, we talked to the cemetery commissioners another years ago and we cleaned those monetary park. The fund is done >> very well. I mean, >> that's something that's labeled cemetery. >> No, Veterans Memorial. >> Let's see here. >> Oh, it's not in this recent. >> It's in the other reserve funds document. others. >> The one that says dear selection right here >> says select board from manager April 2nd 2017 is the memo. >> Yeah, that's just >> April 2nd and then there's a two-page letter and then there's one that says at CC Fisher and then there's one that says Waterberry Cemetery. Well, you're looking for one for that one. I said there was another email. >> The first email I sent Mark I had on board. So, I sent the We can look through there. Anyway, $49,000 in 2009. It's worth $177,000. Um there's a lot of creative shift that has to be done to spend that money and um but could they purchase another monument? >> If they if there was a need to sure they could >> well the sanitary committee information came and said they have concerns about their funding. >> Yeah. Well, I really haven't got there yet. There's another memo for the cemetery fun. Um, >> oh, >> I'll leave it to the cemetery commission. There's some discussion going on cemetery commission. We are talking with people at the American region also used to be members. Some of them used to be members of react. Uh there's some talks about some other um long that may come to fruition maybe the cemetery neighbor perhaps but I went down you know they got to work that out the cemetery club um again was turned over to the town like they used to do cemetery associations in the waterway. And everybody who bought a a plot in the in the water center cemetery for example on you know the street cemetery [clears throat] >> they bought a lot they also paid perpetual care money to an association the association used to maintain those state law the town uh was kind of the back stop land was needed, which isn't going to happen for a long time. The town could buy the land. Um, if there were some issues with um there used to be a fountain in the Hope Cemetery stolen one day and I think police chief um they stole it from the car, never get it back. But anyway, um the um cemetery associations that used to hold the cemeteries and do relatively minor maintenance in the cemeteries on fencing and stuff like that. um those associations uh like so many other volunteer organizations start winning membership and there's frankly more members of the library center and the core cemetery association that are in the cemeteries now changing so the center cemetery came to us in 2014 and said, "Look, the association said, we're going to give up. We we don't have a membership to maintain these cemeteries anymore. You're going to have to do it." And fortunately for the town, they said, "We'll turn over our $100,000 that we have for you." And then uh a couple years later, the Hope Cemetery Association, [clears throat] they turned over their um if you want to the town. So in this 2017 memo and then motions that commissioners made, they basically identified I think $425,000 as the as the base level that was the money that was turned over to the pay. They don't want to spend it if it goes below that. But we've invested that money and now it's worth about $494,000. I mean, you talk to the cemetery tomorrow. Um, I talked to Mark about this a little bit couple weeks ago and I'm going to talk to the library as well. Um, I think it would be best if we go back to having separated individual funds for the robbery fund. We haven't even talked about that yet. The library uh endowment is worth at the end of June almost $924,000. It's grown quite a bit in the last several years. Um, and at some point when it gets time for budget times, I'd like to talk about this with both the commissioner library and select board. Um, but uh, for reasons that made sense moved the library fund, the cemetery fund into the general fund. They're general fun activities and and they can be accounted for that way. But in the library, we have elected commissioners that run the sanctuary, elected commissioners that run the library, and we're lucky enough to have money that are restricted to only those uses. So accounting for those uh operations in their own size >> just those two >> um >> cemetery >> library >> library we used to do the highway that way um the highway doesn't have any endowment because it does get state money that comes uh we can talk about whether the the highway fun would be better to to do the other way or But certainly for the cemetery commission and the library commission operating those as their own funds uh which were easily identify how much tax dollars it takes to run those operations uh and how much of their their might be would be I think and that's not going to happen until 2027 at the close. >> The budget was put together in 2026 with all this in the general fund. We're operating that way this year. We're going to run this budget this way. uh as was talked about several meetings ago, we can get the old chart of accounts from the memory and if we decide to move in that direction, it can it's a discussion that the doors will happen. It's not going to be made by me or the manager alone. It needs to be something. >> No, but I just want to make sure we're all clear as we go into budget. >> I I just keep thinking about the budget future this fall. Um, what you're recommending is that the li at at a minimum, let's just say it that way, at a minimum, the library fund and the cemetery fund and their investment accounts. There would be separate chart of accounts, if you will. In my simple, >> they're already in the chart of accounts. Fund 16, fund 16 is the library endowment. It's already in our chart of accounts. We used to have fun. >> So what are we going to change? What are we going to change? >> We're gonna what I would propose to change is if and we don't have a budget report in front of us, but if we did, right now the library is listed in the general fund under fund 11, right? >> So it's 11713. It used to be in fun. >> What are you proposing? Just tell us what you're proposing because so we can plan for the future. I just I think I mistold >> I didn't understand it. I guess I should >> the library fund and the cemetery fund should be their own funnels for operating those >> That's what I wanted to hear about >> operating those functions. >> Right. Thank you. >> And it will be much more transparent I think to the boards and the taxpayers as to how the tax money is being used. >> Everybody get that Kevin? I see you cringing. >> I think so. >> Well, that's why I mean the word fund is what tripped me up previously because I think of investment fund. When I hear the word fund, I think of it as an investment fund. What what is being it's all terminology and that's why I'm trying to be careful about what what we're saying here and making sure everybody there there and there, right? I mean, >> same word. >> No. [laughter] Not to me tripping me up a bit is that it's always sort of been presented like in the town of courts as its own separate fund and I didn't realize that they had been merged. It was not presented as the separate fund. It's >> not last year. It was all in the same >> mostly beginning in 24 everything was okay. >> It's not that cost >> John. >> So I think the difference is those two funds have commissioners. The general fund is up to the select board right at least. I mean that's the that's why we don't have any >> right >> say out there >> right and and there could be some argument as to who has absolute control over the cemetery fund whether it's the cemetery commissioners I think a lawyer would probably tell you it's more the select board that makes those decisions but I think deferring that to the cemetery commissioners is a good idea it's been done that way the library fund is clearly the library commissioners are the trustees of the library fund and that's state that's how you want to play it >> okay thank you >> I just want to make sure we're all on the same page >> okay >> and this will become more easily understood as we get into the budget >> the budget process for the board is is going to be the same the manager the department heads are going to put together their expenditures. This is how we're going to this is what we propose to spend and then for library and cemetery we'll just move them out of the general fund back into the old funds and then we'll have their dedicated governments with them. >> Perfect. And then you can have discussions with the other commissioners about okay do we have fun for taxes or we have the ability to use some of these other resources. Yeah, I'm gonna I was just wondering spend a lot of time with this. Just wondering if the uh performance of the funds under Edward Jones versus Morgan Stanley uh have made a appreciable difference and you have any recommendation on changing the investments. I I I don't um I think the performance um both of the money managers if you will has been quite good uh you know if you look at the like the veterans volume from 49,000 to 77,000 uh is pretty good. We haven't taken much money out of that fund there unlike the tax stabilization fund which has a um you know we want to be we want to earn money on it but we also want to be >> liquid >> safe with it and be able to get money if we need it. Yeah. >> Uh the Veterans Monument Fund and the CC Fisher Climate, they're much more skewed towards we don't necessarily need income from those funds, so they're skewed toward growth. So, they're going to grow faster. >> Um how we move the money in and out of those funds is something that I think we can do a better job of. Um, for instance, when when we move the $50,000 at the end of the year out of the tax stabilization fund into the general fund, um, in the past couple of years, actually, withdrawals from Edward Jones have been made selling securities and moving that money into the checking account and then putting it in the general pocket. You can move the money on paper. You can just say we're going to move it from fund 48 to fund 11 and it moves on paper but you don't take it in to do it >> and by doing that you leave money there. >> So anyway those are those are kind of minute details that I'll take care of but um anyway I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. And if you have questions whether it's now or you know you can't say anything but she's email answer all. >> Yeah. Thank you for being so quick. [clears throat] >> I appreciate it. >> So like the normal operating expenses for the cemetery, the Dais Mall and what have you, are they paid out of the cemetery fund or are they paid out of what the town contributes to the cemetery? So if you look I don't have a budget in front of me but if you look at the budget I think 11753 is the code for cemetery right now it's in the general fund. So if they pay a contractor to um you know fix a line, it comes out of that expense code line. >> Right now there's $30,000 budgeted come out of this investment portfolio and go into the general fund to cover some of those costs. It used to be all those expenses would be the inhapsing the fund where the revenues were and it was you know a lot of the mowing is done by people who work for the rec department of the highway department and you know I don't know what Todd did but I used to make the department send me a thing and say how many hours did you work in the cemetery and >> well that's what I thought you were getting the highway charge the cemeter >> I think we're all on the same page. I just think it makes we need to make sure the cemetery is paying their fair share >> their fair share. >> Yeah. >> As as well as the library >> new town manager is going to get >> going right into it. >> And I I think that the cemetery did pay its fair share before. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. >> And uh it and I think even under the current budget it is. It's just >> how >> what resources are being used there? Could they be could they be could we be a little bit better stewards with that money? And if you don't have to take money out of an investment portfolio, >> this may be I don't know if I'm out of line here or not. If this is a decision how this should play because I don't know, but Bill and I did talk about the I call it the chart of accounts, the fund, general fund. I should use the right words. Um, and the idea of going when when uh Gracie gets here, she's going to have to dive right into the budget. And um I think Bill is more comfortable with his, if you will, his chart of accounts and going back to being able to show the revenues and the expenses for each department and present the chart of accounts in that way. I guess the bottom line I'm saying is he and I talked about and if the board is okay I am in support of going back to using uh bills chart of accounts if you will for 2027 this has got nothing to do with right now we're you know we're in the budget we're spending it we're operating in it but as u moving forward for 2027 [laughter] recommending using um what Bill's comfortable with And it's not every department. >> No, I understand that. >> So, you know, the fire department and the recreation department and the town clerk's office, the general government, that's there'll be revenue. That's all general government stuff. What we might show by department, you definitely do it for cemeteries. different libraries. We may or may not do it for high >> and and I would I want to add he's already talked to Solomon Powers to get their feedback too. So I can I I commend thank you for the research that he's done in terms of setting this up for 2027. I just kind of want to set the table if you will the the bookkeeper former bookkeeper who's still helping us. J's been working with NRI to make sure that we can do this. And in fact, I talked to the NBC England and said we need to talk to them. I think what I'd like them to do is to try to put the 2022 chart of accounts back up so we can get to it. Um it won't it won't be active right now but it will be in the structure that we want it and then we can start as you know there's some things that we're going to start putting together line items for the 27 budget can go in you know I can look at [clears throat] our our you know see how much how many loans we have outstanding at what interest rates the interest are going to be next year. So, I can put debt service in the budget. I can >> um probably midfall by the end of October, we'll have information from the LCP about all of our property cases. So, so if we have that structure all ready to go, I think so. >> Well, that's why I just want everybody to be aware of that. So, if you're okay, Eric, >> thank you, Bill. >> Okay. Well said. >> Thanks. Let's wrap this lady up. Um, all right. Next meeting. Uh, public hearing 5:45. Sandy, I don't have to work with you. You're into the word hat, right? Um, planning commission and development review board. planning commission is going to want to come and talk about uh the town plan and they're going to want to talk about their schedule for public hearings. I've asked them to start sharing a document with us so we can I need >> it is posted. >> Awesome. I haven't I got a job. I can't do this. I'm a volunteer. I just surren. >> All right. Um, and I I mean I really honestly once Friday comes, I don't look at this stuff until tonight at 5:00. So, if you guys want me to do something between now, the end of the posting of the agenda to let me meet, you got to ring my bell because I'm not looking. And thank you, Don, for coming. I appreciate it. And I hope you have a wonderful wedding. >> Yeah, >> I think it'll be beautiful. Motion to adjourn. Anything else? >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> Thank you. [music]