--- title: "Stamford Select Board — June 6, 2024" date: 2024-06-06 session: regular speaker_labels: 1 cluster(s) named from the roll call and that meeting's chair in the minutes, 1 named from roster attendance, 11 of 13 clusters unnamed voice_ids: {"SPEAKER_00":17,"SPEAKER_01":58,"SPEAKER_04":3,"SPEAKER_05":5,"SPEAKER_07":18,"SPEAKER_08":4,"SPEAKER_10":6,"SPEAKER_11":13,"SPEAKER_13":8,"SPEAKER_14":20,"SPEAKER_15":2,"SPEAKER_16":1,"SPEAKER_17":7} duration_min: 134 audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaUlsOuJD0 audio_source: YouTube (@jgramlin78) minutes: https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%206-6-24.pdf minutes_pending: false present: [Nancy L. Bushika, Michael G. Denault, Kurt Gamari, Douglas Wright, John Dunn] absent: [] transcribed: 2026-10-12 (faster-whisper large-v3, CUDA; names corrected per data/name_fixes.json) diarization: pyannote/speaker-diarization-3.1 (automated; cluster labels may over-split a single voice; unattributed paragraphs have no reliable speaker) --- # Stamford Select Board — June 6, 2024 **Session:** Regular · **Duration:** 134 min · [Audio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaUlsOuJD0) · [Minutes](https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%206-6-24.pdf) **Present:** Nancy L. Bushika, Michael G. Denault, Kurt Gamari, Douglas Wright, John Dunn --- **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Let's please recall what happened 80 years ago today, that over 400,000 servicemen landed in Normandy. My father was on the second wave, and he saw Teddy Roosevelt with his cane walking up the beach in between all the fire and water. Okay, let's start the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. To the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Welcome to a meeting of the Stamford Select Board. If you have a matter to discuss that is not included on the agenda, you may do so by addressing the chairperson and stating your name and address. You will notice that all our meetings are recorded, and this is to aid with the summarization of the minutes. Visitors are welcome, and we allow five minutes of comments for visitors. Discussions will be held in a calm and civilized manner, in respect of others. Select Board members present are Nancy Bushika, Will there be any adding of items? I can't wait until next meeting, or removing from tonight's agenda. Laura, do you have anything to add? Aye. Will there be any adjustments to the agenda, such as changing the order of the items? And just to make you know, Jeb is recording the select video, recording the select board minutes. Meetings, okay. Hearing of visitors, Bill. **Speaker 1:** I'm coming as the town's CDB representative, DV5 group associate, and the discussion lately is how to allocate and what to do with the $7,500 in ARPA funds that we put aside. And gave to DV5 to help you take one of these and pass it along. **Speaker 2:** What we'd like to do is come up with a plan between DV5 and the select board as to how that money should be spent, how it should be asked for by the residents of town that might need help. This document that Bill just shared with you is DV5's suggestion. I asked you. Suggestion. For people to self-certify that they need the support. We're not in the business of getting into people's finances. I can't imagine you guys are either. All right. And this is a suggestion as to what DV5 would say. That people can self-certify that they need support in the installation of their fiber connection to their home. Typically, that's going to be an underground conduit or something like that that isn't there. Um. There are currently five, seven, seven now, people in town that are waiting on a conduit to be installed before they're. **Speaker 3:** Well, they're waiting on something. **Speaker 1:** And it might be from the air or conduit. **Speaker 4:** Most of the conduit. **Speaker 2:** So a suggestion, you know, this is going to be your choice as to how you want to divvy up that $7,500 over how many people it might need. Yeah. You know, the big advantage is, you know, people want your money pretty quickly. We were talking at the, at the DV5, or what meeting were we in last night? I don't know. Last night was the executive day. We were talking in one of the meetings about this. We had a meeting with, with the chair of DV5, or about this before this, the other day. And, you know, at $7,500, it could be 10 people at $750 to help support the installation. You know, or. It could be five people at $1,500, but, you know, that's, it doesn't go very far, but we left the stretch as far as we could. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Nancy, wasn't there a match? **Speaker 1:** Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, we put $7,500 in, and the state. **Speaker 1:** There was a match from the state to DV5. So. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh, so that, that other $700, $700. **Speaker 1:** Is unrestricted support to DV5. They're for everybody's use. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** How did we vote on this last, it wasn't this March, it was a year ago March, that we would use for what? How did we work that? Can you read that warrant article? **Speaker 2:** What we'd like to do is get it ahead in front of you, and ask the VLG to get that at the next meeting, that we can make a decision on how that happens. **Speaker 1:** To think about whether something like this is a way to approach what somebody needs. This is a way of outlining what they need, and how much it might cost, and it's their responsibility to get an estimate of how much it would cost. And there's also a form so that they can certify their need, and there's some guidelines as to that need. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Who decides on this? You. Oh, I don't like that. So. **Speaker 5:** I don't like that. **Speaker 2:** The question is, if we set up a policy as to how it's going to be done, then there's no, there's nothing involved in oh that's my neighbor that's my own right if it's a policy that we've got to say okay for 10 people that show up it's 750 but if they self-certify and they need it and all this type of stuff so what when is the money going to be available well the money is **Speaker 6:** available now yeah so what is the average cost is everybody have an idea what the cost is for the underground conduit that everybody we know the seven people are required every situation is **Speaker 2:** likely different depending on the conditions that they're digging in the ground you don't have like **Speaker 7:** an average per foot cost you don't know we haven't we can probably try and find out more of that from **Speaker 6:** some of our contractors because i don't know personal personally because i've got dd fiber and uh like the length from pole to the house it was like substantial it was like 400 feet and it's over 400 feet then then uh charging but it was that's like four poles and i don't foresee anybody needing 400 feet but the **Speaker 7:** underground conduit is another situation according to most of our pre-survey results because we had a **Speaker 2:** company do a pre-survey on all addresses and towns the undergrounds 95 percent of them are less than 200 feet but some of these people with a 200 foot underground might not need any assistance **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** well that's a pretty low number that they're talking on the back here of what they mean at least the self-certification for financial aid yeah our intention when we put the money aside was for people who were going to **Speaker 1:** really need assistance right now we have seven people that they've identified they've applied and said they're interested and they're not ready to get a connection was of all kinds of security and priority bob and i both had to take a 20-page program of reading how the rules are what information you can give out to people and send a certificate back to db fiber that we read it and will abide by us and they haven't released those seven people's names to us hopefully within the next week they will we'll go up and look at them they will send out they will connect through to the house of the era if that's okay **Speaker 8:** yeah that's the thing that's the homeowner i might not want it **Speaker 2:** uh so this is a suggestion for this is possibly uh we db fire can say well there is a program to the town you can get some assistance and there's a program to the town you can get some assistance **Speaker 4:** and you need to communicate with the town to do that. **Speaker 1:** If we decide that we wanna allow $500 as a maximum award, which means you can take up to the first 15 people that have need, and you can give them up to $500 toward the cost that they're going to have. These are things that we'd like you to think about for two weeks, and we'll come back and try to inform the policy for it. **Speaker 9:** What, do we need some kind of deadline to apply, basically? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No, money's fair. You're saying, once money's in, it's all out. **Speaker 2:** There won't be any other money added. That's what I'm trying to say. That's it, and the homeowner needs to pay for the job, and this is, D.D. Fiber will reimburse them that. **Speaker 1:** Homeowner needs to pay, the portion that is coming from the ARPA funds will be paid to the contractors direct by D.D. Fiber. So if they have a project that's within the amount that we're gonna grant them, they don't have to put up any money at all. If it's $1,000, and we're only gonna give them $500, they'll have to put up the first $500. That's a fair assessment, yeah. Beyond that, they want the money from this to be paid to the contractors directly, so there's no question. **Speaker 6:** Oh, yeah, absolutely. Of it being done. Sorry, I didn't remember that part. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we can think about this for two weeks. **Speaker 2:** Yes, we just want to take our five minutes and get you to think about it. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Lori, can you read that Warren article? And then we have an explanation. I don't know if it's in there, too, but that's in there. **Speaker 10:** Yeah, Warren article just says so the town of Sanford contributes $7,500 to D.D. Fiber. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay, and then we said something in the explanation. **Speaker 10:** But, which is probably in here. The board report? Yeah. And then we talked about it, the board meeting said if it's not all used, you'd want it just on that. Yeah. Oh, here. We ask voters to approve Warren article 12 for $7,500 to pay D.D. Fiber in support of its commitment to connect high-speed internet service to every house in town which has an electric grid connection. The funds will be used to assist those of limited means with a one-time connection cost. D.D. Fiber is receiving a grant that will match the town's donation. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So it just says limited needs, okay. **Speaker 1:** Just as a note, also, we said a one-time connection cost. We didn't limit it to conduit, even though that was our underlying thought. And if somebody has a $250,000, $50,000 cost to get it to the house and then needs another $125,000 for over 50-foot cabling inside the house, we could still apply for that, you know, that money to them within the $500,000 or $1,000, whatever limit we set. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Because it doesn't say. We didn't make it. No, we didn't. No. Just as limited means. **Speaker 6:** What if there's already a conduit there and there's a cable in place that they're using now, like, whatever, like, consolidated? Couldn't you just technically, like, tie it on to the other one and measure pulling out the other cable pull-up? **Speaker 1:** D.D. Fiber will not do that. **Speaker 6:** No. **Speaker 11:** You, if the homeowner wants to give up their... **Speaker 6:** So D.D. Fiber is saying that they want their own designated conduit, or... **Speaker 1:** No, they just want a conduit with a pull-pull. **Speaker 6:** But they won't pull someone else's wiring. **Speaker 12:** That's correct. **Speaker 1:** They won't touch anybody else's wiring. Got you. Or their contractor wants to pull out that old wire and put a pull cord in. It's perfectly acceptable. **Speaker 13:** Laura? I had that done. I had conduit in my house, and I had it streamed through my conduit to my house just in case for future use, and this is exactly what happened. D.D. Fiber came up. They did it. They snaked it through. I had nothing in there. Mine was vacant, but if they were stating if there was some other line, it can't be on electricity. So certain things, it can't be. It can't be in the same conduit with. And they can give you more guidance on that. Yeah. That was good thinking. Yeah. **Speaker 14:** Do you have another string in there for me? There's a little bit of water in there frozen, **Speaker 13:** but they got it out. Yeah. **Speaker 1:** But once we have those seven people's locations as the first people that we know, and it won't be limited to those seven people, we'll go out and look at their particular situation. Maybe they want conduit. Maybe they don't. Maybe they just needed more education. **Speaker 2:** No, I think we'll just let them know that there is funds available through the panel. That's what I'm trying to get ahead of it for you guys. So you can set up the policy as to how that will be paid off. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Thank you. One question. Do you know of any other towns that have a policy in place already? **Speaker 1:** Yes. Halifax, okay. Halifax has got a policy, and, you know, they have a policy, and, you know, they have a policy, and, you know, they are allocated, don't quote me, I think $40,000 from their ARPA funds, and they have a procedure, and we can get you a copy of their qualifying rate. Reedsboro, however much they allocate, it said we'll give $50 for the first month of connection fees to the first 150 or the first number of people that connect. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'd like to see some of the other towns' policies, because it's always, you know, it's good to see what they're doing. **Speaker 15:** There was a W-2 in the middle reference. **Speaker 2:** Yeah. Yeah, Halifax has got a lot of underground services. There's a large section of Halifax that's underground. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So if you can see their policies, if you could email them to me or have them email them to me, we can look at them just for ideas. Thank you. Okay, any other visitors here? **Speaker 16:** Yeah. I have just three things I'll try to get by. Okay. Yeah, sure. Dave, this is a question, actually two of them are for you. Would, are you getting split wood this year? Yep. Have you, has it gone out to bid, or? Nope, I ordered it. So you just, locally? Out of Cheshire. Okay, so nobody was able to bid on that? No. Okay, is that normal for? **Speaker 17:** We. **Speaker 16:** Because I mean, there's so many people. There's so many people here that do wood processing. We never came out before. Yeah, that's part of the problem. I mean, just like lawn mowing or anything. I never came out before. **Speaker 16:** But you took the time to bid every, I mean, it's variable. **Speaker 18:** And you're under a certain amount of it. It's under $2,000. I mean, if I bid on everything, that was a couple thousand bucks. So that means a whole ton of dollars. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Right, right, that's true. **Speaker 6:** I would just throw it out there. In town, I deliver wood for $250. So keep that in the back of your mind. Okay. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Split the stack. **Speaker 6:** Split and deliver. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I noticed that my pile next door is getting lower, so. **Speaker 18:** Yep, internally. I will say that the wood I'm getting is of extremely high quality. It's dry. It's about as dry as you're going to get. It's not green. And I can get it in the middle of the winter, and it's dry. So it's 300 bucks of wood. **Speaker 19:** Never came out before, Dennis. **Speaker 18:** It's why we're in this stale chat. We have to have some of the cordial. **Speaker 18:** I was going through Florida here, and I'm on the set, so. **Speaker 16:** I didn't realize you were coming to this part. Regarding the magnesium chloride, isn't that, like, really corrosive to vehicles? **Speaker 20:** Less than calcium chloride. **Speaker 16:** Right, but just to keep dust down, and it's a little harmful to the trees and plants. I'm just curious. **Speaker 18:** Just the magnesium. The stuff we do. The stuff we use is the, like, Caliber 2000 stuff. It's supposed to be more environmentally better than the alternative, basically. **Speaker 20:** Okay. **Speaker 16:** I mean, it's nice. Don't get me wrong. It's really nice driving without a big dust cloud behind you, but. **Speaker 18:** Well, it's for the stabilization of the road, so it keeps regrading down, so there's fewer grading. Really, I think it does less harm to your vehicle, because you're not beating it over the months. Right. And new stone. I mean, it's a new car, and you take your pick, you know? It's the lesser of two eagles, is all I can tell you. There's no perfect scenario, and for the most part, we put it down, you know, in a couple minutes, it's kind of absorbed into the ground, and you're not going to be able to see it. **Speaker 16:** Oh, I did. I was right behind you. That's what I thought. **Speaker 18:** Oh, my green truck. I'm like, oh my gosh. Because it's just dead. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Because it's just dead. **Speaker 18:** It's just with the pollen and yellow and yellow and... It's just kind of bad times. And knowing that, you know, it's not going to be good for you. That's what I thought. It's just going to be bad. You would probably want to leave your car home and spray it off. Oh, I did? Yeah. **Speaker 18:** So... Yeah. It's a necessary evil. We don't do a lot of it. We don't kind of spot grade. There's other places that have tractor trailers coming in and going in. We just spot, spot, and treat. If it's... I don't put it down if there's, you know, we get plenty of rain, I don't bother with it. The roads were packed in pretty good this year, and, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. And, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. And, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. We're trying to keep it in. And, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. And, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. And, you know, we're just trying to keep it in. And, you know, I wanted to get ahead of some of the washboards that were going off last week, and, you know, kind of hit some of the spots that were holding good. Hopefully, that will help. Plus, I had to do... We put gravels out on Meshur Hill, so I wanted to make sure I had some floor right under that. If somebody comes up and wants to talk to you or anything? Yeah. That's true. I don't know. I'll try to figure it out. I'll try to figure it out for you as well. So, let's see if we can get it done. And, you know, I can't do it? home again and hopefully they'll help plus i had to do we put grabbers on on the sure hill so i want to make sure i got some flora after that you know somebody comes up **Speaker 6:** did you just use water or no is that it was just a bad thing **Speaker 18:** the mag is actually from what i've read and you can read it up it's actually like not harmful for people really but yeah there's a corrosive element the stuff that we use and they have an additive to make it less corrosive even because that's the same stuff that's in there in the winter and then you try to combat it but that's why i don't use calcium because it's calcium **Speaker 16:** number three last one of course i have to bring up the female file guys we're coming up on the go i would like to have you guys seriously consider putting that into an ordinance rather than just a vote so that in the future this doesn't come up and we would have missed an opportunity with fema so that it is more fair to other applicants so that it is not subjective and i think that's an important thing for you to consider if you're going to move forward if you're serious about it or or if the next person that comes up you all can just vote to reverse that right right yeah i mean look what happened to me seven months go by and you all vote to reverse it so i think um in fairness to the entire town it needs to be more than this okay is the deadline the pushback august i'm not sure the deadline for this past one i think is still the same but **Speaker 9:** so i heard that there was other programs that we i think at one time investigated that were a 25 match for municipalities so i think i think the governor removed that now so i think they're also funded by the state which includes elevations you know floodplain mitigation things of that nature whatever it may consist of so there's no longer a match but in this **Speaker 21:** appellate and i think they pushed the deadline deadline it wasn't necessarily a match for the **Speaker 16:** municipalities it was for the homeowner the business owner was mostly the match for that **Speaker 22:** some of them were municipalities as well whatever whatever the one i read the match is gone **Speaker 9:** elevation was missed yes yes so those matches are gone well whatever we hope **Speaker 1:** i mean yeah yeah we hope we hope we hope **Speaker 1:** we hope we hope we hope we hope **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** we hope okay reading and approval of records and orders regular minutes of may 16th any discussion all in favor motion approved road conditions dave what do you have **Speaker 18:** we're working on roadside mulling yeah at this moment i would say that most of the cranes down there's a few more class four roads that need to be done so we've moved on to roadside mulling now we'll do that we'll probably do some ditching as well and regrade some spots that get rough and like i said earlier we were putting down some gravel some down on the shirt hill because it was getting back down to the stone that we put back in 09 so it's getting almost impossible to be able to grade it without having it just all rot we put down something on the klondike on the class four because we like to keep that loop you know that's a lot of the stones we're sticking up pretty high so **Speaker 23:** we need to cover them before something took a little pain i was up there uh last night and there **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** was uh two residents they wanted to thank you for the great job you did on the class three part of that combat especially the hill i guess you did it you waited and they came back and pushed the stones down and we did a great job and uh they just wanted to thank you for it really nice well we graded it **Speaker 18:** we had graded it and then i think i did it on a fry day or something and the weekend just ruined it i went for a ride that monday morning and went around and the road and the hill was already rough so i went back the next day it was raining yeah because there's an ideal situation where it really makes a big difference and then once it rolled into the rain when i chloride it we went chloride so it should be **Speaker 23:** holding you know it's holding nice now but you know what you do with class four from klondike **Speaker 24:** on that park yeah we got yeah okay so last year it was just too wet to even think about doing **Speaker 18:** anything out there so this year we have that we've had this dry spell so i took the opportunity to try to do something there and someone's asking who put that nice stone down there yeah good stuff that that's stuff that the power company had yeah the project that's where i thought it was happening come on yeah it came out i'd say for a while but we had to bring it back and stuff like that and we were happy about it we're happy about how it worked on it. no there's a lot of success out there so we have a lot of good stuff out there so we're happy about it. **Speaker 9:** I would say I appreciate your timing on the roadside mowing too, it helps keep the invasives down way better than the state schedules when they do it right at sea. **Speaker 18:** Timing on that is great. We tried to get out and mow the knot a week or so ago. You can really notice the difference too if you ride the state highway or the road when the parts and things come out. **Speaker 16:** Did you get a knot within our mill? No. **Speaker 18:** There isn't. Yeah, there is. **Speaker 16:** Nowhere else? Right before Jacob. **Speaker 18:** Oh, it was down on the right side. **Speaker 9:** Now we don't get a major problem. It's everywhere. Well, here's where the mountain house is. It's basically covered with almost every wet area, river bank and everything. **Speaker 16:** They do have pretty flowers on them. **Speaker 21:** You can make good wine out of them. **Speaker 9:** Yeah, so you've got to get people to either drink it or eat it. Dave. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, down the grading and filling some potholes. Down at the cemetery, the exit road, there's a few potholes and I don't know how often you grade or fill. **Speaker 18:** On the exit road, we don't maintain that. That's not a town road. Going up to Gruden's? **Speaker 25:** Going up to Gruden's it is, but not the other road. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, that's the exit road, isn't it? That's the entrance. No, it's the exit. No, they reversed it. Oh. The entrance is free. **Speaker 15:** Cool. **Speaker 26:** I always figured that. **Speaker 15:** Maybe you do that too. Into the outdoor. I do profile this. Yes. **Speaker 18:** No, those were fairly large when I went over there a couple weeks ago with a loader to try to get them to drain before I could get there. Okay. Because they were so large they were big water holes, basically. **Speaker 25:** Okay. **Speaker 18:** So you know and ... **Speaker 25:** We're getting to it. **Speaker 18:** Get to them. Okay. Yeah. Wagon's only one way to do things. Huh? Wagon's only one... Exactly. The doors be squeaky. Can I pull the cap there? Yeah. No. Okay. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Dave, were you able to perform any of the safety recommendations that the VLCT recommended at the garage? **Speaker 25:** Well, just do a little at a time. **Speaker 18:** I mean, we have done things over the years, but... **Speaker 19:** Well, since he came down. **Speaker 18:** There's no money to do anything that he recommended. But there are also recommendations. They're not, oh, somebody's going to die here. I can make a lot of recommendations. I can't get to all of them. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, no, don't. As long as you do one or two a while, show that we're trying to do them. **Speaker 18:** There is one particular one on the hit list, which is the eyewash problem. We're so busy. **Speaker 25:** The eyewash is straight in the middle. **Speaker 18:** We start getting a bunch of rainy days, and I'm struggling to find something to do. That's when I'll come back. But it's been good working with her. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And one more question. Summer work hours. Yeah. Because in the winter, I know you're on call 24-7. Correct. And in summer, you go in earlier and out earlier. Yes. **Speaker 19:** Do you work 6 to 2? **Speaker 18:** I usually work 5.30 to 2, and I work 6 to 2.30. Because a lot of times in the morning, I take the opportunity to go ride and look at places, so I'm not counting his time, too, just mine. So it gives me a half hour to check something out if I want to do that project or not for the day. **Speaker 1:** You're out early. **Speaker 18:** Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing is, I'm up. It's kind of hard to switch schedules. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Because you're waiting for snow in the summer. **Speaker 18:** Yeah. I'm up at 2.30 in the morning, so by 5.30, I'm already... I'm sure you're the type of guy that just completely shuts it right off, too, as soon as you get home, right? **Speaker 27:** Right. Yeah, right. **Speaker 18:** So that's the schedule, anyways. Okay. Some days, we... You know, sometimes jobs take longer. This isn't mill work where I can just shut the machine down. If I'm in the middle of something, I got to stay later. Right. You know, come Friday or some other day when I've got something to do, I might leave earlier. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But you're adjusting your hours. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else on roads before we move on to two things? Yes, Lori. **Speaker 10:** I have something on roads that I haven't had a chance to talk to Dave about yet. The Class 2 Highway Program. The highway program that we applied for, the grant. It looks like we're on the list for approval. **Speaker 18:** So that would be Easter Owls. Yeah. That'd be great. **Speaker 10:** That's the Easter Owls. **Speaker 28:** And what was... **Speaker 18:** Chim and Chit Seal. Chim and Chit Seal. Ooh. I don't know if the money would cover them. I guess we've got to wait and see what it is. Yeah. But I don't think it covered the full amount. But that's great if they're to give us... **Speaker 6:** I think we could put it for $200,000. **Speaker 10:** Yeah. I just have the email on it. Okay. **Speaker 29:** We'll put it... **Speaker 6:** Well, the guardrails **Speaker 30:** So, yeah. **Speaker 18:** I was actually going to mention that. It's supposed to be the week of the 16th. That's what the guy told me in June. That's what we're on with our schedule. So it'll get done? I'm open. The 16th you're open? Well, if I was doing it and I told you that's what was going to happen, it would happen. But it's scheduled for... **Speaker 30:** It's scheduled for it. **Speaker 6:** And we talked to FEMA yesterday, Lori. Yeah. On the phone about it. **Speaker 18:** So hopefully all that stuff is fine with what the rest do. And then, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's that's all I need to know. And the threeoned�� Frenchcha. Okay. Thank you for coming along. Thank you. **Speaker 10:** This is Lori on behalf of 출 correlation for counselor. ha recapturen 18 10 at amateur numbers is still on. And then over by the N выполnder 1, and I know you've been on the phone with them for hours and hours and hours and new forms and new this thing and that. Are we completing any of the roads or? Yeah, I worked with them today and I sent what I hope is the final information that he was looking for. He wanted documentation evidence to show, like for the past years that we regularly maintained the road. Did I go on the� What do you, what do you want me to send you? Yes, we maintain a road. **Speaker 9:** I guess our time sheets. **Speaker 10:** Time sheets. Money is down the road. **Speaker 18:** You know, the stuff that they want is really kind of silly. Very time consuming. Very time consuming. The worst part is they've already, they've already come down. The state's already come down. FEMA's already been here. They've already looked it all over. They've done all that and this is just going backwards now. There's no reason at all. Somebody just has a bunch of time. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, hang in there and keep submitting your time. **Speaker 10:** Yeah. Yeah, Dave and I put in a lot of work this week trying to find hours. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Anything else, Dave, before we move on later? Okay. So we have county road reclassification. We talked about this back in October 2020. This is three-tenths of a mile. We talked about declassifying from a class four road to a trail. And it's from the Pottle line back to Stamford. And it's about where the power lines are? Yeah, where the power lines are. Yeah. So we had a couple of questions. We signed a resolution for that. We signed a resolution that VASA has permission to use that .3 county road. And then we asked Lori in November to look into a VLCT clarification of who owns the town road when it becomes a trail. And she got a response from the Vermont AOT that even though National Forest owns on both sides of the trail, it's still a town trail road. It does not revert to National Forest. So that was in November of 2022. And by the time we wanted to start the process, we couldn't get up there because of snow. So that's one of the major delays. So are we still going to move forward with this? **Speaker 31:** Yeah, I got up there, no problem. Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** There's no reason not to do it, correct? Right. We can always go backwards if we wanted to. Right. Or highway through or something. I think it takes some liability off the town road. And it helps your club, simple as that. That's the whole reason we're talking about this. And so that trail can connect. You guys can move forward. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes. Well, doesn't it connect now? No. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Because... **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, because you want to go up the Trio 7 or something. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You know they have permission to ride on it. Trio 1. **Speaker 32:** Trio 1, yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Connector. **Speaker 13:** Yeah, just public use for the connector. Right. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. If VASA won't shut that down, they can't because it's not theirs. So even though it'll be a VASA connector, we can still drive through to Pondo. Still belongs to the town. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Correct. Yep. So if we want to start, if Lori can pull the steps that we have to do to start this reclassification. There's certain steps we have to follow, site inspection, meetings, notifications, all within a certain time scale. So we can schedule so many days. Do we need a motion at this point? **Speaker 9:** No. Mike made one back in November, October of 22 to begin the process of declassification. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah. Okay. He did. And I've been there. I don't need to go visit it again. I was there last night. No Jeep? Yeah, no Jeep. Good. Request. They only have a request. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Okay. Okay. So this year Cooling State has request to building and plow on Class 4 portion of county road. And this is the part that is not plowing winter. It's above or it's just below Jowitt. **Speaker 10:** A couple of lots. Right. And it's in between the Jowitt lot or on the South. So it's a good for Class 4 conditions. **Speaker 9:** Did he not go through the process a few years back? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That was Mr. Walters. And he had he signs a form every year and gives us insurance This is somebody that wants to buy it. We don't have this name. There's a camp there for sale **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, I don't know Java had permission at one time right so it's below down I'm saying that This is someone this is **Speaker 31:** A third one. This would be a third one. It's just a little job. It's not right **Speaker 33:** There's a kid for sale right now on the way **Speaker 9:** And this is just to make sure it gets bought every time or something **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Well, he wants to be able to do it which we that's and that's a easy one because we give permission for that You have to have your liability and you can what you can follow The building part. I don't see why I can't go back there. You don't restrict that **Speaker 34:** They'll see you in **Speaker 16:** the **Speaker 9:** Certainly concern me that it's before the other property that were followed past But if we how often can we keep professionally going down the line doing this, right? Do we keep going from it out and keep on and people all the way? The whole night the best for a road to where we just reached reclassify the road with class 3 row Yes, sir I'm going out one good They we kind of figure out how we'll get her way to get I mean that's the wrong conversation just about how the town must develop **Speaker 33:** Whether it doesn't doesn't want to develop that conversation along and it's not like there's small wax up there **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So it's not like this. I'm going to do your loss **Speaker 9:** I think I've been saying It's free. I mean, it's free to roam right now. There's there's no restrictions on building in the core zone maybe five acres there's no conditional use of it for it's free toola in the house right now there's no restrictions on building in the Portland 85 acres no conditional use on it right now there's no conditional usage anymore so it's a conversation that probably yes there's there's powerful yeah there's power up to the right up to the top all right just wait for it to go down yeah so it's yeah that's a huge conversation probably probably there you're going to line them up yeah that's all i was i was just i guess that was my concern are we just going to keep stacking bondings all the way up the road it would be smart if they got together and just didn't come out that's why i was a little confused because you know they're already following i think that's where jolly's doing it already **Speaker 24:** so they have to plow past where they're currently the other guy across the street yeah **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** but there is i mean we don't have to give permission it's already there right correct that's that's to walters but no i'm not saying if he has that all the criteria it's already there **Speaker 10:** yes so yes so there's the agreement that you would want to send him and accept him **Speaker 9:** signing yes i mean that that's going to become hugely desirable and for building he has to go through depth it's flat there's a large source yeah i mean nice people all the sewage and everything there's one thousand dollars to the other side a little bit i'm not saying i'm horror against that thought this is a huge conversation yeah anything else **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** under roads did you start a thing it feels like that you know well that's it that's the thing too with this how long does it take for this process to end so yeah so what is the process we're saying we're going to follow through the process so i already made the motion a year and a half ago **Speaker 10:** so the site was it's made is it right so we have to notify all the butters along the way and i don't know how many there might be we have to figure that out site inspection meeting which is a public you go and view it and then you can come back and decide what you want to **Speaker 9:** do trying to get to notify you have to notify the appalachian trail club or something like that yeah you say why don't they own the trail they own the uh mantra right away to the trail long trails that at that cuts right through through there yeah i don't think they went through that **Speaker 35:** property cuts right down the trail it cuts down this risky man so it's not because it **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** crops all the time yeah all county but before but before this piece we're talking about it's not **Speaker 35:** out there so it's not i'm assuming the others in the trail a lot of people all the way out there **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** well it's just before if you're coming from here it's just before that **Speaker 36:** don't say that it's not affected by it no and we're going past **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** the high tensions it's literally a quality in a different section of the road yeah when you get past attention it goes down and i i'm pretty sure the high tensions the power company **Speaker 18:** i think you should set a date so that when you get notified via butter that there's a cyclist that has something something yeah yeah doing this once **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** so you gotta think right so that's how long do we have where we have to put post it i'll have to pull **Speaker 10:** the rules and see i'm not sure off the top of my hand we don't do it enough the reason why i'm **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** saying that the sooner it's done the sooner they can get to nasa and tell them this has been done **Speaker 18:** it'll be winter too because we just we'll be in the same boat again if we don't you're right **Speaker 24:** enough not that i'm trying to be pushing but oh but the snow's gonna fly pretty soon we can get that does it have to be in order to it we can get this out of the way pretty quick right **Speaker 18:** right that's what i'm saying we gotta watch what the order i think it's a 30 day i think **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** follow the checklist yep get the good description of it how many point three is it exactly point three and **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** so i have another question though if we this is to reclassify it but does that have to happen for you guys isn't that already a connector **Speaker 13:** it's right now it is it's the language with um that connector that we need to solidify a connector 2301 down to your phone okay um right now i don't think we we have that in there to my knowledge you **Speaker 34:** what's that a connector i don't think we have that in there to my knowledge you what's that a connector **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** right not a public connector not a public connector we only did that i think **Speaker 32:** so how will this process help you do that that will solidify if you go down to the legal trail **Speaker 13:** it will help get um the connector travel 301 down the panel to keep everything up that way and um be able to help us maintain it and get grant money in the future **Speaker 15:** if we don't either whether it's a legal trailer or a class matter yeah you want to do it because you want to take the liability off yeah that's how that's you want to set the legal trail then there's no liability to the town for anything but if you're **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** working on it you need to notify dave and what's going on too because we have to notify the day **Speaker 34:** and this board whatever we do up there you guys have to see your backs of people looking at the **Speaker 37:** law what's that it's third day we're looking at the law to post it or today it says the select **Speaker 18:** board shall promptly appoint the time and date over examining the premises and hearing the **Speaker 37:** person's interest and give 30 days notice to the petitioners or first people so when they hit july **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** calculate it lori and tell us what day **Speaker 10:** before a winner do you want to do it like five o'clock before a select board meeting 5 30 or do you want to pick a different day like a monday and just do it so when i'm setting it **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** doesn't matter to me **Speaker 18:** okay roads the notice has to be certified now yeah that's right $2. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** $8? Oh, that may be. I'll try $9. $9? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm sure that the Stamford club will put a great donation into something. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay, moving on to **Speaker 31:** recycling. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Is that extortion? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I attended an alliance meeting last night on Zoom. The alliance budget has gone up 4.5%. It's up to $224,000 for the combined 13 towns. Lori just got a check back from the alliance for $1,900. It's a percentage is returned to each **Speaker 38:** town **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** from the household hazardous waste facility. Construction, that we got grants and it came in cheaper and grants and everything. So all the towns got refunded in percentage that whatever they put in. I think Stamford's only 2 or 3% that we put in towards the alliance. And the other thing is just a note that they thought was interesting. I did two of the eclipse glasses. One group, and I think it's in Bennington County, collected $115,000 for the eclipse glasses and whatever they do to them and they give them to astronomy groups. That's nice because they want to recycle. That was all on recycling. And the other comment I had was I haven't seen this myself but there's I know Buzz at recycling center wipes his dogs and he gives them to the police. But we have people that are letting their dogs loose to go greet Buzz and running around up there. So should we say Buzz keep the dogs in the truck **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** and don't let them run around **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** because **Speaker 10:** there was a comment. It's not really Buzz's fault though. **Speaker 39:** It's our people. It's our dog owners. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Letting the dogs, well yeah. So It's a small town so No, it is. I know. Let Buzz It's not a big deal. Like you said, if there's a complaint you're always going to get that one person to complain. Steve, you know you didn't do a big job on Rob. Too bad. I don't know if you saw the comment. But this is **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But then you've got people that are afraid of dogs **Speaker 31:** and we don't **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** let them on the school property. **Speaker 31:** Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Just a Well it was in our ordinance. **Speaker 36:** It was a leash law, right? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You should be following the There's a leash law and or your dog has to be in control. And they don't **Speaker 6:** I'm just scared of Buzz from doing that. I don't know if that's nice **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** that he does that. Well he could go walk to their truck and give it to them. **Speaker 6:** Yeah. Yes he does. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything else on recycling? Emergency management. Review and adopt local emergency management plan. Lori gave us the older one. She downloaded one sheet. I think you sent it to us or you just sent it to me? **Speaker 40:** No. **Speaker 6:** We mainly just updated it, right? **Speaker 41:** Yeah. **Speaker 2:** I made a few changes. I kind of updated my name for Bill's and a lot of places. I added the emergency operations coordinators. Sheila and Steve Johnson. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. **Speaker 2:** Stuart. I took some public information that was in there that I didn't feel needed to be in there for residents that might be needy at times. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But you have them that you can contact but it's just not a public part of the document. **Speaker 2:** Yeah. I added in the amount that could be spent. I believe my budget is up to $5,000. Just so that's one thing that the state can do. There was a big tax that, you know, who can spend the money and how much can they spend? And the way I worded it was the emergency management director or the site board chair or the town highway commissioner. Just the positions to spend up to $5,000. I think if we spend any money at all we agree on it before we spend any money. I don't kind of have a point on that. So that's about it. The whole back of the packet is all the same. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You had the public information warning local newspaper radio with WNAW. Is that still in effect? That's Mark Adams. It's still there. **Speaker 2:** But I think we're going to do better with the or some of the social media sites I try to monitor them. And, you know, respond to these other people **Speaker 5:** who are being hurt. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I know that under the primary local shelter we have Randy as the principal and do we keep him there until we really know **Speaker 42:** who the next principal is going to be? **Speaker 2:** Is that why you didn't respond **Speaker 5:** to my email? **Speaker 2:** Could be. **Speaker 42:** Send an email asking for a do-it. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** What do you think? **Speaker 1:** Leave it there because it's a documented thing that always comes up. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The purpose of this is we want to get this done so. Right. We haven't done it since 2017. **Speaker 1:** And if it's the principal's office's phone number it doesn't matter. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We can always call the minute there's a change **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** we can call it out there. The same with the WSSU the school district office Is Rich Christensen still in contact? Somehow he's still involved. He's still involved. I was wondering about that. **Speaker 10:** So I just have a question. If the emergency is road related and roads are washing out if they spend way more than $5,000 on the spot **Speaker 1:** There's exceptions to it, Laurie. Okay. When we brought it up before the select board and talked about hand authorization for up to $5,000 for anything he immediately needed in an absolute emergency there's no limit on what he spends or what Bob spends to protect life and property within reason. We'll deal with that later. You've got to come back and justify it. It's like all the rules are suspended about going into Brooks and the river to do what's necessary when you got to Irene and it was totally out the window. There's as much help as you could get in as many trucks and payloaders and graders and whatever else you could get to try and control it. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And the appendix A and D what are the appendix of **Speaker 2:** or is that mentioned? That's just that other sheet with the account right? Did it go with ours? I see it. **Speaker 2:** Here's the additional **Speaker 43:** form number list. Appendix B3 emergency numbers **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I didn't know if it went with our emergency management policy **Speaker 44:** or if it was part of the **Speaker 45:** I think doing all that **Speaker 43:** is going to be more than they really ask them for. That's what I think. Like you said you catch something **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Just on page 12 to the emergency phone numbers that must be an update it says updated May 1st, 2023 because we have new board members. Because they're updated now **Speaker 2:** right? I had Maureen **Speaker 5:** Yeah, it's updated **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Right. **Speaker 9:** Just a general thought it looks like we need a new road map this thing looks like it was **Speaker 43:** being drawn by Bennington Network Yeah. There you have it. And what's all the number systems what's the code for it **Speaker 43:** basically Road numbers 1, 2, 3, yeah Just a suggestion **Speaker 2:** We need to **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** make a motion tonight to sign this **Speaker 1:** I'll motion Second Second Laura do you have a clean copy? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Do you want a red one? No Thank you **Speaker 43:** It's 20 years old now **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I think it's even older So while we're waiting for this Bill, you mentioned this class for a slight board of date and we talked about it **Speaker 46:** getting it here **Speaker 1:** How's that going? Reach out to Dara Zink and I'm sure she will get it For the ICS? Yeah for the ICS Yeah There's **Speaker 3:** It's a question that they would like to **Speaker 2:** be unified class So we can get it done Get it done and get the fire chief at the same time and do all of that **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Thank you **Speaker 47:** Anything else on the emergency management? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Not at this time Moving on to turnover delinquent dog lists to the dog officer Laura gave us a copy **Speaker 10:** of the delinquent dog owners I guess 2 dogs were licensed tonight so you're down to 35 foot 2 tonight 35 is our average Honestly that's really good Same people Thank you very much **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Thank you **Speaker 9:** How much do you want to? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't know Same people from 2 years ago Let's do it again **Speaker 9:** So if you turn this on **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'll turn this over to Luke and he'll follow through with tickets and it goes to the court system Does he give them Yes he does give them so many days to pay the ticket **Speaker 39:** or just ticket **Speaker 10:** I think there was our new ordinance so you can send out a notice and find them That's right And then there's a step before the ticket **Speaker 43:** Yep She's not **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Deb has again requested a town email address for her as administrative officer Last time last 2 meetings ago or 2 weeks ago we voted no because of the expense so Deb has come back to ask again I think it was 2 weeks ago No It was 2 weeks ago **Speaker 16:** And again I don't care how you guys do it It's just my responsibility for total accountability and if you rely on just my email guess what I'm not turning over my email to the town of Stamford So normal I subscribe to a Gmail account because you end up with that same situation If it belongs to me it belongs to me If it belongs to the town then you keep it forever I don't care one way or another if you don't want my cell phone number or my personal email on a form that somebody else in 2 years may take over my job I want it to be consistent I don't understand the aversion to zoning administrator at Stamford whatever and I was confused that we thought it would open up a can of worms when it is the zoning administrator's responsibility to keep accurate records that are accessible to everybody and if it's my book and my email address it's not happening **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** How would somebody contact you if you don't have an email and you don't want your cell phone number **Speaker 16:** I don't mind my cell phone I don't want it on a public piece of paper They call in here Lori has permission to get my number You don't want it on a form So we can take it off the form and just keep it the way it is What was the cost **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** of the extra **Speaker 6:** Was there a cost I think the main concern was everybody wanting Right **Speaker 48:** That's what we came up with **Speaker 16:** But there is no responsibility of an individual planning commission member to keep records **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No but there is for Donoffster and Exactly But they don't have **Speaker 49:** Lister **Speaker 16:** I'm not a Lister No But when we were doing the hearings it said contact Lister and it gave your email address **Speaker 50:** Just a generic email **Speaker 16:** Correct **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we can take that phone number off the form and so then they'll call you talk to you you say yes, no do this, do that, do whatever and then you would on the form you would say approved or disapproved If you either one then they have the option of coming for the board because they have your notes or they have what you wrote down on the form so that should be that's the final decision or if it's approved and a neighbor disputes it they can come to the board but it's already written down on the form **Speaker 16:** Yeah and again I have no problem I have a lot of people that do contact me by email I keep the notes I don't delete them or anything but it's not accessible to all of you and I think Lori most of the time for critical things I keep you copied so Lori has copies **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't really like phone calls **Speaker 51:** I'd rather email **Speaker 16:** Well no **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If there is a phone call **Speaker 52:** get back to that sign situation **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Just like Nancy was just saying if someone calls you and says hey I need to get a permit and you say no you don't let's just say okay I talked to her she said no I don't that's all right **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** now we're back to exactly what we were saying No it's not because now our form says no permit needed **Speaker 16:** My answer to everybody that calls Get a form I had one hiccup it was um someone that owns A1 He called me and he said do I need a permit for reconstructing this and I said well no and I called him right back and I said look at that **Speaker 51:** was this a test **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** did you guys put me in It's hard because it's human nature to say don't bother me with that you don't need a form **Speaker 15:** one of the things I can ask you **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** that I wouldn't need a do I need a to put a garden fence up this high no do I need it **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** no do I need it for a house acrobat no get to the point where you're going to have a million forms that's why I like the emails because you can just go get the form you can sign the form I don't mind these emails the cost is the cost **Speaker 9:** I'm in a position where **Speaker 6:** I should probably have an email can we designate I know she's going to have an email can we designate just a single email so we don't have to continually **Speaker 16:** get a new email for every person I don't want my name **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** for A0 but you wouldn't want a single email for Dave and A0 or a dog catcher all one email we're talking about getting an email we really only have the head of the department that are employees so like you said board members are not employees they're appointed where she's an employee she's got but where like you've got a landlord member why would they need an email you know where Dave I know you don't want one but Dave it would be good for him to have one or whoever wants it I know you don't want one but I'm saying the next year we put a new guy in because you didn't want an email thank you I understand I do understand that's the way of the future people need to do that a lot of people communicate with emails I do think that it should be copied it should be cc'd there's nothing because she's acting as a town official if she says something on this email **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** well it's we've already been in that situation **Speaker 9:** it's more transparency it is if we have to investigate something **Speaker 21:** it's not public **Speaker 16:** if you read some of the administrators handbook everything has to be documented **Speaker 51:** everything **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm looking at the cost so if we if this was an onslaught of department heads would we have Luke David and that's it right who else would we have to worry about everyone else is a cemetery is elected **Speaker 36:** they can do their own thing **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** conservation **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** they're going through there's a board she has a rule that says everything must be in the right if you want to talk to the cemetery and say yeah you want to dig a hole next week I'm going to talk to the it's not a big deal I'm just saying I don't see the problem if there is a problem tell me convince me the other way I just don't see the problem with having an email I actually use my personal email it's awful what I do because I do have a town email if I say someone wants to take my email I'm in trouble there's just so much on there I have to go back and wipe everything out and change all my passwords and everything **Speaker 16:** so I don't have a problem again it's not just for me it's for the physician **Speaker 9:** oh yeah **Speaker 21:** I agree **Speaker 9:** make a motion then establish an email for the administrative officer **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** how are permits coming in is there a lot of buildings a lot of follow up follow through **Speaker 6:** anybody building without a form **Speaker 16:** I don't know of anybody please if you know of anybody **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** so that would always be the hardest part that's always going to be a hard thing if someone does that and you don't turn your neighbor in if I build something in the back of my house nobody is going to see it so you might go hunting back there and go oh jeez I wonder if we have a permit or you could say maybe you already have one you don't know unless you write down not everybody knows **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** see we didn't put we don't have a description for the AO either and say go around once a year and look and see **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** no there is no job description we should have one we talked about this many times we should get something but even at that you're going to drive around on a road you're not going to see I mean I know where there's camps in the woods that probably have people in this room don't know where they are and they're not on it **Speaker 9:** that's when you get into a situation where you need law enforcement more and more that would be crazy no I'm not going to do that but if somebody brings it to my attention **Speaker 16:** I'm going to go follow up but if I get to that person's house and it's a camp and it's all posted I'm not going to **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** or if the guy goes out the door and says get off my property **Speaker 16:** I did the census in 2010 and let me tell you **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I had a lot of people coming to get the blank oh yeah if I go up their house and you didn't know it was me well maybe if you did know hey I'd invite you up I don't have past I changed my life pretty much anything except bush but yeah I understand that **Speaker 16:** you don't like their social media accounts **Speaker 15:** no I don't know that I just took a turn okay that's it I'm alright and again I don't want to **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** that's fine I'll set it up and then revise the form and take the phone number off the form **Speaker 36:** I don't think that's the only way **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** that's all you need anyways **Speaker 53:** we'll have them set up **Speaker 10:** and you'll probably have to come in **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** an access it you can do everything on your phone although I never answered my phone I recommend that **Speaker 6:** 7 days later you get it forwarded to your email yeah So you don't have to keep logging in all the time. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Right, but it's all in the town. Okay, review and accept tax anticipation bid. **Speaker 10:** So, I have two bids for your consideration. Adams Community Bank offered a rate of 5.25. Berkshire Bank offered a rate of 4.60. We would borrow it here in June and pay it back in November when taxes are due. How much are you anticipating borrowing? $300,000. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** What happened to what we were talking about before, borrowing from ourselves? **Speaker 54:** How are we going to do that? **Speaker 10:** I think that we are going to do that. But the consolidation of all the accounts isn't happening by June 30th and I need to let you know that. I didn't have enough money to pay the school. **Speaker 9:** So, we have a year of the year line. **Speaker 10:** Right, like I couldn't pull it together in order to have enough money to pay the school. Because we did think about that. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So, order numbers again, 5 and 4.6. **Speaker 10:** 4.6 and 5.25. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'd almost say go with Berkshire. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, I've never dealt with Berkshire Bank. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You've always dealt with Berkshire? **Speaker 10:** We've actually gotten loans from each of them. Usually it's Berkshire Bank, but Adams has now created a municipal section. So, they're trying to call them and ask them if they'll go 4.6. **Speaker 50:** I was just going to ask if they can do that. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We have that here. We want to keep it. They've got to do that. It's not a $1 million statement. Everything's negotiable. Yeah. Build a wall. Yeah. **Speaker 16:** They'd be crazy about it. **Speaker 6:** Crazy hours. Yeah. They're not open on a Saturday. Who's that? Berkshire Bank. **Speaker 6:** Yeah. Bankers. Bankers hours. Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I will call them and see if they will accept it. **Speaker 6:** Can you authorize someone to sign the note so that the money can be funded since we're already in junior year? Make a motion that Nancy signs the note. Yeah. Who signed the note? Yeah. **Speaker 10:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. **Speaker 16:** All right. One more, one more. What is your name, which would you like to be? Is someone older than me. 300,000? Gee. That's a lot of skyweifings. All right. Thank you. The indoorตle makes contagion complete. Ten percent. Name so many names you've decided on. The Olympic flag day ceremony. **Speaker 43:** So, the Bennington Benevolent in Protected Order of Elks every year invites us to their **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** flag ceremony. When did the other designated audience come through the ceremony? **Speaker 10:** In June? June? June? June 13th? In June? June. June 10th. June 12th. flag day ceremony. It takes place in Bennington at the Elks Lodge on Washington Avenue. This year it is Sunday, June 9th. So anybody who would like to go, you can bring your family to the festivities. They'll have a guest speaker. They will also give the town a flag and you can receive the flag when you have them in the town. If anybody is interested in going, I would call them and let them know. If you are getting to tell Lori, let her know. Yeah, June 9th, so it's this weekend. **Speaker 54:** It's this Saturday. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Can't go? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No. Okay. Assignment of town's interest in lot 276 Elk & Wall. I believe last week we said, yes, we're going to assign our interest in that one. **Speaker 10:** That property. So yeah, this is lot 276 in Elk & Wall. The payment has been made to Kevin O'Toole. So you assign it from us to this person and then this person will just sit on the One Year Redemption. Which one is that? Charles. Charles. So I believe that town doesn't have any lots. All of the lots. So that's two tax sales. I think it's one and a half. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** From these two tax sales. Oh, from these two. Oh yeah, the old ones. **Speaker 6:** Any property that's gone up for sale has been smashed up. Quick. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yep. Old business. Last week the select board met with the school board and I think it was a very good meeting. We had a good discussion on ways we can try to reduce the taxes. Erica will look into the suggestions and get back to us. So it's a start. Seed saver letter. Any response from the seed savers? Lori sent them a nice letter asking what their intentions were with the buildings and the equipment down at the tennis court. No response. What's that thing? **Speaker 18:** There was a car down there this evening. **Speaker 16:** Where they work in here they don't know? **Speaker 18:** Oh she's in charge of seed savers now? **Speaker 25:** Last I heard, but I don't know. **Speaker 19:** Oh. **Speaker 25:** I can't say. **Speaker 6:** Someone's actually going to do something with it. Could you give them a date or a deadline? By this meeting? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Get back to us by this meeting. **Speaker 10:** Just please let us know. Right. I don't know if I can look at it. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If we don't see any movement down there, we should send another letter saying look at it. We haven't seen any movement. We have total. This thing can get back to us in a little bit. Deadline. We moved the stuff, whatever you want to call it. Because we're going to clean that mess up. **Speaker 47:** All that cement. Yeah. Clean it up. Do something with it. If we can move that building and use it for storage. Yeah. Use it for storage and ultimately landscape and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. And the lawn did. Yeah. Part of the bid package, bid specifications that we sent out, we asked to please do initial clean up of plow damage at the school, pick up and remove branches and vegetative debris prior to first mowing. That has not been done. Do you agree? Yeah. It's still out there. **Speaker 6:** Okay. The big one. I always question that. It's the insurance. Yeah. Yeah. **Speaker 40:** Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh yeah. **Speaker 31:** Have you reached out and asked for that? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yes. **Speaker 10:** I have an insurance certificate. We do. **Speaker 53:** Okay. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Okay. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So I should call them and say, are you going to clean up this stuff here in the schoolyard? The other question was, at one of the Selectman's meetings, I think we asked you, Dave, do you clean up the ditch along there? Or did you say you and Mike had to clean up the ditch? **Speaker 18:** We dug it out years ago when we first got the excavators in. I don't know. I believe these are picked up sticks. Right. No. You're right. But did you say you were going to clean it out again? **Speaker 19:** I guess I didn't text that. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I didn't have any plans on it. Okay. Is it all deleted? Is it something that we should have done? **Speaker 6:** Well, I think you should have cleaned that up, too. Well, there's a difference between digging that. Not digging. The side of that. Not digging. Is it all working? Right. It's picking up sticks. It's all branches and vegetative debris. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, is he supposed to trim along that thing? No. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No. No. No. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No. No. **Speaker 24:** No. **Speaker 18:** No. **Speaker 25:** No. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No. No. No. No. You're supposed to trim along that fence line, too. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If there's something across that fence line, you reach out to him and say, hey, look, are you going to do this or not? No. No. You breached a contract. If you'm not doing it, you breached a contract So go from there. It is what it is. He never came up. He might he's not even, the guy's singing his songs. The guy's doing his job. It closed up. Maybe his employees aren't doing their job. It's not something other guys are doing. **Speaker 31:** I will call him and mention that this hasn't been done is he planning to do it if he's not **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** then we'll figure out something else any of an old business or new business **Speaker 10:** I think I emailed you guys the response from VLCC if we wanted to consider going back to elected Lister positions the reappraisal was done the hard work is done now it's just a matter of the handful of permits that are done every year is it something we want to consider going back to doing this in-house the recommendation was if we wanted to go back to elected Listers to have a special meeting with a town vote saying yes we want to go back to elected Lister return to elected Listers and then have that had enough of time so that then people can fill out paperwork for the March election if you appoint people they're supposed to have all of the training and certifications if you elect them the state has classes for free and they can learn on the job so it's **Speaker 54:** something to think about so we haven't had anyone come forward in five years **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** at least when we went back when we went to appointment so I know it costs a little money for a special meeting but right now it's in our best interest to try to get someone to run I think it was a it was I think the state's wrong but the state's the state I don't understand why you can't give training to the same person if they're appointed and elected I think that's ridiculous that you can tell them I said that but it just doesn't make sense it's that number less that's the that's the deciding factor for me is you can't get anybody educated on it so people want to go to come do it they're not going to spend their money on what's your job pay we don't have a 16 dollars an hour and you want to go get all this education before they get hurt you know it's just I think we should do it I know it's going to cost a little money for **Speaker 10:** it but we got it and I think we should bring it back to where it was so the other thought was we had a contract for Nemrek but when grievances are over because Nemrek is the appraisal guy but he's also our assessor when grievances are over there is no contract so we reached out to him to ask about giving us a new contract and it's kind of what do they call it on the menu a la carte where you can pick what you want the more services we want them to do the more it will cost and the more that like the assessor clerk can do here in-house the less it will cost so you guys can pretty much pick and choose the duties you want to hire out **Speaker 9:** well we got the biggest audience we've probably ever had does anyone want to be a listener come on **Speaker 18:** I'm actually is there a license or certification hold that position for him for him it's just training I don't think there is any license for the listers right I'm just I'm just curious because that's a lot of money **Speaker 55:** what was his what was his bill last time what did we pay last year twenty six thousand **Speaker 35:** he had all this training I think it was twenty six thousand I'm not saying that a lister could have done what he did this time around but for all **Speaker 56:** we want to have him be a lister now for $100 an hour thirty five hour whatever if we paid $20 an hour those are savings **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** how many permits did you get in the first of the year? ten at most. if you're lucky right and we have a district advisor that have you seen her she's been down here in the year oh maybe not **Speaker 57:** I've learned her name in the past. **Speaker 58:** Thank you. She gets paid by the state, too, because she covers Stamford. I haven't seen her yet. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The one thing you said a while back, Sally, was if you get someone from a town, they understand the town more. They understand the houses and the people. They know where it is. These people are coming in here. They have no idea what they're doing. I think it will be beneficial for us. **Speaker 58:** I've always said that. I'm just trying to get people to do it. Well, that's the hard part. Anybody can do it, because it's not, you know, it's not standard. **Speaker 16:** I mean, this is all done in the hours of my staff and someone else. There are people that came forward and applied. It isn't my fault. I'm not saying, you're just saying nobody, it's difficult to get people to come forward. There is. It's not true. We have had people in the past that have come forward, and that's when you decided to go with. I think, never. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** They weren't, right. Because they wouldn't be, they wouldn't be listed. They didn't have the education. Right. So, in part, you had to hire a company with the education. So, if you're elected. Right. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So, I'm the one that pushed them to go the other way. **Speaker 17:** Then they will educate you. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right. I pushed it the other way. It wasn't elected. I thought it was better for us as a board. To be able to hire or fire someone. Because if you, if you're elected, you're elected for one year. When you come in, you don't do your job, you get paid, you don't know what you're doing, we can't fire you. Three years. But now, that we went that way, we can't get the education part of it. Okay. So, it's a hard move. How many hours of education? How much is the education? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** There's different levels. **Speaker 39:** There's different levels. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. **Speaker 52:** There's different levels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When we did that move, I didn't know that, I didn't know that part of it, that little piece that the state threw in on us, because it just doesn't make sense. But now I see that we're not, I mean, I don't even remember why we didn't, if we went, we didn't recognize that, because we were doing evaluations or, I think they said they couldn't, they wouldn't do just one and we're doing two. We didn't want to do one and we haven't done one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was something, it was stupid, it was another thing that didn't make sense. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And there isn't a whole lot of firms out there, I think that's what it was, it wasn't both or none or something like that. It was sent out 70 or how many, how many positions were there, three? Three. **Speaker 57:** Three. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Three. **Speaker 58:** And the hard, the hard line is that you can't get a lot of people to do it, because the hours just are not there. **Speaker 58:** Right. I mean, if you want me to get 10 hours a week. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Can you be a lister and nail it? Yeah. You can be a lister and nail it. Yeah. I don't think that's a conflict. I don't know. Right. So, what I'm saying is that she's already put the hours in as they had all and kind of married each other. **Speaker 58:** No, she could be, because this is how we did it before. Right. Because when Ron was on, Ron, Ann, and I. Right. See, every spring, we rode every time, every row. Right. See, they don't do that anymore. They only go by permits. If this person didn't permit, put a permit in and see who it is. Right. But we always went every row, because Ron was the AO. He got a hundred bucks every time. Every time. Every time he burnt something that was built. Right. Because you know it's new, you know it's old. Yep. And I mean, there's just so many advantages of having local. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Now, the assessor is you. **Speaker 58:** No, no. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Well, who's the assessor right now? John. But if he runs out, we don't have a position for that either? We could do that too. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We could have an assessor. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You'll take that, right? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We could have an assessor. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Which is okay. **Speaker 18:** That's how you're going to get some money. I hate to tell you. **Speaker 18:** I know. That's it. **Speaker 18:** And then you get some money. Well, see, that is the problem. **Speaker 58:** The problem is everybody's looking at the almighty dollar instead of the rate for the benefit of the town of Stearns. Yeah, exactly. We are a small town, as I just got through saying. You won't even get ten hours a week. Who are you going to get? You've got to get somebody that doesn't work, you know, that wants something to do for a few hours. Somebody that's... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** On the other hand, you've got five people right in front of you here getting $30 a meeting and we're already under minimum wage. **Speaker 9:** You don't do it for the schedule, the hours, you don't pay, you do it because you like numbers and it's a civic duty. That's exactly what I'm just saying. There are people that will get paid. That's why I'm still doing it. There are people that will get paid. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** For 30 years, exactly. **Speaker 58:** There are a few, but there will be some. Well, right away, how much am I going to get paid? Well, do you want somebody to work there? Or do you want somebody to work at the town? He's right there. **Speaker 59:** What do you mean, people want to get paid? **Speaker 9:** You're not going to get paid nothing. You want to be electric, come on down. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** One thing I can say is, you're right. Dave's right and you're right. You might have someone that goes, hey, I'm going to come down here for the good of the town, but you will have more if you did pay good. And you're right. Well, it starts to go... **Speaker 58:** Let me just tell you, as far as a reappraisal and what you paid per hour, did you get your money's worth and everything? There's your answer. Does more money pay? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No. It's not only doing that. Case closed. This is an opinion now. Not only do I... My opinion is we didn't get our money. Do you remember we hired someone before that we got rid of or they quit and we had to pay that person and it was all screwed up? Yeah. So, I agree with you. That's why I'm saying we should go back. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It all depends on how people look at it, as I just said. **Speaker 58:** Some want it for the money, some want it for the money. **Speaker 56:** I understand. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And hey, I like money. I'll take some money if you want me to do it, but I'm not going to do that. A lot of that doesn't speak where we're having a breakdown in community, too, right? So... If you want to do it for the money, you've got to do it for the money. Right. But then, but if we go to elected and we get no one and people go, geez, my taxes are going up, well, here's one of the reasons why your taxes are going up. Yeah. We had no head of debt at $20,000 because you're the one who wants to help out. I think it was $26,000. Then you can just say, hey, I don't know what to tell you. **Speaker 58:** I can't remember what it was. **Speaker 56:** I think it was $26,000. **Speaker 58:** So, that's the whole thing, isn't it? Yeah. Let's get rid of it. This job is so important to the town, as I say, and so important for our tax rate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tax rate and everything, and we can't get anybody to do it. They go on everything else, but the taxes are going up. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I will try. So, I'm going to make a motion that we go back to the elected, and if we need to have a special meeting, I would like to make a motion that we have a special meeting for that. Second. **Speaker 52:** So, the elected gets trained or the appointed gets trained? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The elected gets trained. The appointed don't. We're out of appointed now. And no one... The appointed will get trained. I mean, if it's just the state won't pay for it, right? Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. They won't. They have to do it themselves, right? **Speaker 13:** Well, how much was the training? **Speaker 10:** The state will pay. **Speaker 60:** The state offers the classes. **Speaker 10:** The state does offer the classes. How much are the classes? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Because they know. The state will offer for appointed? Yeah. Yeah. You just... Yeah. **Speaker 10:** Oh. No. **Speaker 10:** No. No. Elected. Elected. Like, Sally's appointed assessor clerk. Okay? She doesn't do these types of things. She just does the clerk stuff. But she could go to all the classes. And the state will pay for it. **Speaker 54:** So... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** But not with a lister. **Speaker 10:** But not with... They'll pay for listers. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If they're elected. But right now they're appointed and they won't pay for it. So you... I don't know what the price is. But it wouldn't... **Speaker 10:** You can't appoint an assessor to do it unless they already have the education. Right. **Speaker 16:** That's... **Speaker 10:** Yes. That's the bigger... You can't appoint them without... So you have to do the elected and then they get the education for free. Now you can transition and work on getting these people elected and, like, sign some form of a contract with Nemerick and keep him here and let the elected officials get... So now... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Now I want to know just the listers, not the assessors. Yeah. **Speaker 10:** Okay. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So the lister, if they're appointed... We can appoint them right now. The lister's appointed. The lister is appointed. They will... The state will not pay for their training. Is that correct? I think they have to have the training in order to be appointed. You're looking at it backwards. They have to have the training in order to be appointed. Okay. So we can't appoint you unless you have the training. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** There he is. But we can elect you without training. **Speaker 36:** Correct. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Gotcha. I stand by my motion. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we... No. Okay. We have... We're going to say we're going for elected listers. Now, no one ran, so we want to appoint Marta to be a lister. Why can't... It's an elected position, and we're... **Speaker 10:** You can appoint... Yes. Yes. **Speaker 61:** But so then I don't have the training yet, but then I would have to pay for the training. **Speaker 10:** But you're elected. But... So the state... It's an elected position. Oh. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's an elected position. So we can appoint for an open seat. It's a strict... Like we did with a select... We've done that with a select order. Gotcha. That's what it means. So on quits, we can appoint someone. Yep. For the next election. Only if they have the training. Until the next election. No. No. No. It's not an elected position. **Speaker 17:** Then you're... They become elected by... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No one. That's true. Right. Electable seat. So we definitely should go for the select... That's what we do. It's between a lister and an assembly member. **Speaker 58:** Yeah. Yeah. That's what we do. That's what we do. So we get a lister and an assessor. An assessor is hired, a lister is elected. Just the... Just the... The name... **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Just the name. But doesn't have the same... It's the lister. The assessor. So we get a lister, elected. They can become an assessor. They don't need to be. They're doing the same... After they get all the training. Who's that? The first commissioner is gonna... Who's that? Correct. That's right. What's up, sir? Yes. I will say the state of the... Right. The state of the... The state of the... Yeah. The state of the... Right. **Speaker 58:** Yeah. Right. Vermont is going to take out all over the next three to four years. **Speaker 62:** Oh, there's another D.R. thing. **Speaker 16:** There's the other thing. They're taking it out of municipal control. **Speaker 58:** Yeah, they're going to do all the great things and they're going to do everything. **Speaker 51:** You still want me to repeat my motion? Yes. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We didn't second it yet, did we? No, I don't care about the second. I can get my salary watchman to do it. We'll try. We went one way, it didn't work. Let's try something else. **Speaker 58:** It shouldn't be much because we've done a whole re-appraisal this year. The only thing you're going to have next year is the permits. How many do you get? Ten? At most? I mean, I don't know. I think maybe we might have a record of 12 or 14 permits in one year. But I think that would be... Yeah, that would probably be it. This is what your local list is. I can take you right around right now and show you a few places. Stuff's up, but nobody sees it. I'm not... I'm not... The building police? I'm nobody. I'm only the clerk. Remember that. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** What if you saw a murderer? **Speaker 58:** I don't want to be involved. You know what they say? **Speaker 63:** Excessive. See, that's what's wrong with this country. I thought it was if you see something, you say something, right? Well, we're all arranged. Nobody says anything. Yeah, you don't turn in your friends, right? What about the house? Where was that one house up there? It was over 93 miles an hour. It had trucks going back and forth, and nobody saw a thing. Nobody saw a thing. **Speaker 56:** That was before my time. **Speaker 58:** No, it was not. Yes, it was. It was weird, but a lot of fun, because it was over 93. 93? Do you know what day it is? Do you know what day it is? I'm talking about last year. **Speaker 58:** He had it in for $96,000, and after he did all his work, and nobody saw anything going on. I'm sure we didn't see the cement trucks coming up and saw nothing. **Speaker 58:** And he sold it within a month for almost $500,000. Nobody saw a thing. Well, at least he sold it. I paid my taxes. You know, we were this close to going to the executive. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We were down to new business. Like record time. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do we have any meetings coming up, Lori, that you know of? Is the school doing any special meetings? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So, what happened to my motion? Well, it's still there. She seconded it. Oh. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You still heard it. Well, no, Kurt told me it was. He did. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I didn't hear it. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? **Speaker 10:** Aye. So, we'll try to schedule a meeting when it works. We have voting on August, what is it, 13th? That would be a good time. **Speaker 16:** Monday, night before? **Speaker 50:** Yep. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes. **Speaker 31:** Do you have to put in your paperwork? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No, because we're not doing the election then, are we? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** This is just for the town to change over. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Just like an article. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That ends January. meantime we've got to hire somebody to be assessor list or something for 20-25 grade list as the election will be in March and April for next year so we'll **Speaker 58:** have to hire somebody for this year **Speaker 64:** Is it possible for us to get the knowledge of what **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** the training or be considered course name? So when we had that meeting someone could say well what would it take maybe they can start getting I know there might be someone that says I'll do it on my own and have it. that can use that for a campaign. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Isn't there a Lister site that people can go on **Speaker 31:** and use it as a stop or something? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm just saying that, you know, someone might say, hey, I'd like to do this right away. I've done all the training. **Speaker 52:** I've done three, four courses. So if you're stealing it, if someone wanted to be a Lister, they shouldn't run. They should just not run, and then you could appoint. That seat would remain empty so that they could then be appointed and get trained. Am I hearing that right? **Speaker 65:** Either way, they could go either way, yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If they ran on a pose anyway, either way. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I think if we get three to run, that would be a good thing. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Three? So I'm thinking, I'll take that right now. We will get three to run. Farewell. I might get a free one. Are you all stuck? **Speaker 43:** I'm just saying. **Speaker 18:** Dave, you ready? **Speaker 43:** Yes, everybody. Look at mine, that worked for free. **Speaker 9:** Yeah. It's not just a job, it's zero dollars a year. It's an adventure. So if you're gonna have someone do it now, **Speaker 52:** would the town be willing to pay for that course then? Well, first they have to have a meeting to have that. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No, if we appointed someone, they would have to have the training before we appoint them. So you can't wait. So would we be willing to pay for someone and then you don't come up for appointment? **Speaker 65:** No. **Speaker 52:** I don't know, I'm trying to understand it all. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So I think that- Yeah, no, I understand what you're saying. I'll explain it to you after the meeting. If you're right, the state's making it hard for you to say, yeah, I'll do it. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Because they wanna take over this. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. Because the town can't really pay for your education until you're appointed, because you might take it and then not, doesn't change your mind. It's like the consulate. Yeah, right. It's crazy. I'm trying to think of an incentive right now. So I was gonna write the governor over that other thing, so now I got two things I'm gonna write the governor over. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. See, the state already- The state already has set the school rate. So we're out of that. They tell you what the grand list and your homestead and all that for the school rate. Yes, we have to reappraise so many years because you're out of that certain percentage. If you're local, the state will set that. What else goes through the state? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And now they wanna force more upon you about everything. Yeah. Right, they want you to document everything, have policies on, office policies, everything else. It's getting overwhelming. Same thing what you thought about is, it's getting to the point where it's hard to go out on the road because you're in the office going, oh, how do I do this, how do I do this? It's, they just keep- **Speaker 58:** The state is going to take care of what they've done with the school, but for the supervisor, you know. It chips away at the small town feel. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yes, you're correct. Little by little. Yeah, I mean, you go- It's still rural when you live in Massachusetts. Go down to Massachusetts and try to put a business in. You can't even sneeze down there, it's awful. Yeah. Yeah. California is the worst, they have restrictions. You can't even have a truck that's older than, what, 2,000? Go ahead. **Speaker 13:** Laura? The Lister and the Assessor- The Lister and the Assessor- The Lister and the Assessor is online. It also provides a number of offers, tutorials, and some webinars or seminars on there. It's all on there. So there's, yeah, it's all on there. I mean, there's numbers to call. Yep. It gives you the job description, everything. Yep. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Product times, these are what you should be doing. Okay. Okay. Um, that's it with the whole business. I think we're on new. What else is new? **Speaker 66:** John, you wanted to bring something up. **Speaker 6:** I would like to ask or apply for a motion to apply for a permit for the town sign based on the current zoning bylaws. Apply for a permit and maybe get some numbers on what it would cost. Yeah. **Speaker 67:** Well, that's how I was going to write off the bat. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** One of the, I'm trying to think which committee it was. The zoning committee, one of the people on that said, no one ever tried to compromise on that sign and come up with different ideas. It was either this or nothing. And I would like to, and I'm not saying we have to, but if we brought the old sign back, I would like to, and I'm not saying we have to, but if we brought the old sign back, I would like to, and I'm not saying we have to, but if we brought the old sign back, it was approved, and I don't know if it would be or not, but I'd like to, before we spend money on a new sign, look at that sign and say, is it in good shape? Is it worth using that sign? Because I agree with you, and I thought it wasn't, and we didn't talk about that sign again. **Speaker 6:** Yeah, I don't really want to bring it up either, but I'm not, I don't want to incur any cost on the town. I more or less feel like the town needs a sign, a school needs a sign, and it should follow the bylaws. Right, I agree, and what we have out there now is a joke. The old sign was too big. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We now have two old signs, which old sign are we talking about? Well, why can't we ask the zoning commission for a grandfiler that was there before, why can't we just put it back? **Speaker 16:** Because you can't do that. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't know. **Speaker 16:** Our current zoning bylaws, because then... I don't know. . The old sign was too big. The old sign was too big and too close to the ground. **Speaker 21:** So we're talking about the original sign, **Speaker 68:** with the original sign hanging on it? **Speaker 63:** Yeah, got a question? But if we go back to what we've all discussed, was to have the planning commission talk about it, discuss it, to have an exemption for the town. Right. Isn't that something that if you guys do, just say, hey, if the planning commission do that, wouldn't that be the best next step, and then... But it's not in your bylaws. . Isn't that changing it? . **Speaker 6:** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . **Speaker 52:** . . . . **Speaker 52:** . **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** . **Speaker 9:** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** . . . . . . . **Speaker 16:** . . **Speaker 6:** . **Speaker 69:** . **Speaker 43:** . **Speaker 70:** That's what I'm saying. Think about it. Can we do that? **Speaker 6:** As long as it's facing the right way. **Speaker 17:** Okay. This was mentioned before. If you take Vermont off, it fits in the bylaws. **Speaker 9:** Which sign are we talking about? The old one. I don't think it's a good idea at all to go back to the original sign. Why? Because that's going to create a huge animosity in town. We're beating a dead horse. You have the purpose. It's not a good idea. You have the town. Because you're proving a point that half the people made in town that it's all a vendetta. It's all about personalities and we're now back to land. It's a terrible idea. It's too close to the road. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's a terrible idea. So we're on the sign. That could be it. The joint board could say they could give permission for that. They could do that. You have to amend the bylaws. No, you wouldn't have to amend the bylaws. There's only one violation, right? **Speaker 9:** The sign has multiple violations. They could give a variance for one violation. They could. I think they would have to do it. I think both. I don't know. **Speaker 10:** This is untrue. **Speaker 9:** Jeff has a question. There was only one violation. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I tell you, I don't want to be a smart ass, but if we put it on wheels, is it movable? And will it fit within the bylaws? I don't want to be a smart ass. I'm just saying that if it's Henry or John, 100% that this town needs a sign. I didn't want to talk about this anymore because it's been two years. It's just getting out of hand. I'm now pissed because we need a sign and that's all we got. You're right. You're not going to win and you're not going to win. We're going to put a new sign up and we're all going to agree on it. My point is my point would be what can we get away with with the bylaws? And if we can, I do remember them saying that if every other thing was in place we could have a variance and that's the only place you can put it. Or if we have to put it back farther and we can, we might not be able to do it because of the law, but that would be a reason why we can. But if we can do that, let's do it. If we can't do that, go into the bylaws and change your bylaws. Why is that law? I don't have it with me right now. But it is a mistake that municipalities are exempt. Just put that state law in our bylaws. What happened was our bylaws are too restrictive. We just need to open it up. I totally agree. I think the town should be exempt from things like that. If anyone says, well, we can't do it on our own yard but you do it with municipalities, you're right. We can. Just as simple as that. We can. Just like we can do things on a road but we can't do it. **Speaker 9:** I mean, we're elected to do certain things. **Speaker 68:** That's what we're doing. **Speaker 63:** I think if we're working on a third sign, I think we should go like Larchburg did with the electronic sign. Oh, I don't like that. You can say everything you want **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** and it only stays in this little pattern. Oh, no, I don't like that. I hate that sign. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The people have spoken, Jack. The youngest person in the room, Jack. **Speaker 9:** Sorry. No, but that's our opinion. I totally agree that the town needs a sign. Basically, to sum up what I'm saying is as far as we can get back to any sense of community in here, we're beyond both of those signs. It's over for one. We need to go on to a different sign. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That's it. So now my question would be, I don't know if you know this off the top of your head, how big can you have a sign? 12 square feet. We need a byline. **Speaker 9:** 2 by 6. **Speaker 16:** 2 by 6, 3 by 4. **Speaker 9:** Yeah. It's not much bigger than that picture. How many signs can you have? How many signs can you have? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Well, that's what I was going to say. **Speaker 16:** Well, that's what I was going to say. I can't believe it. **Speaker 52:** Do you like being in a room full of signs? Do you like being in a room full of signs? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We put B-E-R-O. We put B-E-R-O. I can't spell the whole thing. I can't spell the whole thing. I can't spell the whole thing. **Speaker 52:** We can. **Speaker 16:** 2 by 6. 2 by 6. And then you can have school, town office, library. And then you can have school, town office, library. We need that. You might have different posts for each one. But it can't be done. I don't know. **Speaker 49:** I'm happy to lie down now. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And I'm not asking you to get, like, for a permit or anything. You don't have to put this right. This is all recorded and everything. I'm saying, if we think outside the box, I'm saying, if we think outside the box, it is ridiculous that we don't have signs. Ridiculous. Right? We need to have a sign. Period. I mean, when you go by and they have a kindergarten to put out the signs, I just feel bad for, like, day 3 class **Speaker 6:** or graduating, and they wanted to go out there and have a nice picture with a sign. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** There's nothing for them. There's nothing for them. You can't go bring the sign down and put it up over the ground. **Speaker 56:** Can we get a big rock there **Speaker 58:** and then we just label it? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I was saying, we should have kept the old counter up when we got rid of it. Or an old grater. We could have put it on the other side of the grater. **Speaker 17:** Well, at least everybody needs to read it from both sides. I can't read that from north to north. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I agree with you. I think that the sign that was up that just was written down was incomplete. That was what I said a long time ago. It was incomplete. It needed to have more to it. **Speaker 6:** I don't know whether this would cry or not, but we have the size that's permitted for a sign, maybe the size of a picture. Why couldn't we have a post **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** with several different signs on it? **Speaker 71:** Each sign is legal. **Speaker 15:** If it's hanging from a tree, it's a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign. **Speaker 9:** It's a sign. It's a sign. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** A sign. Reiece it. It's not in hundred percent. **Speaker 9:** It's the sign **Speaker 33:** It has to be broken so you read both of them. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That other sign, you got it going on? **Speaker 9:** That sign is the type of sign that will look great like the town line or something. **Speaker 35:** Right, right. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I wouldn't have a problem putting that on the building. Right. That's what I just said. **Speaker 36:** But you can't, we can... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't know. **Speaker 16:** No, no. I don't think you can actually put a sign on the building because then it is a sign that you can take the letters off. Right. You can put the letters on it. Right, right. Do it tomorrow. **Speaker 16:** Put the letters on the building. Right. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So that the board behind it is a sign. **Speaker 51:** It's not a sign. **Speaker 16:** Right. Without a permit. Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So that makes sense. But I would like to have, I like the idea of having three signs or whatever we need here. Library, school, and... We ought to have signs. I would love to have that. All you have to do is get a piece of paper and draw it on there. Yeah. And put it on there to what you think the letters would be. Put it out there and go up the road and go and see if it looks all right. And say, yeah, it'll work. And if it works, then we can have a design assignment. I'll tell you one thing. I've never gone through this much hassle before to follow one rule. No. Usually I just break the rule and ask for forgiveness later. It's not a survey. Ask for designs. It's not... Is that why Lisa... What? The issue came up, though, that if it's too small, like what Doug... I appreciate what you're saying, **Speaker 52:** but if it's that size, nobody's going to be able to read Stamford or whatever it says, safety, driving, going 50... Oh, not 50 feet. Yeah, 50 feet. Yeah, 50 feet. Hey, you have it. I think we have to amend it for the municipality no matter what so we can make the sign big enough for safety reasons. **Speaker 9:** Isn't there some kind of... We have a whole new planning board, basically. Isn't there some kind of appeal that we can make to them? I don't know. **Speaker 9:** But like I said, add that exemption into the bylaws. I got to the point where I was... That's it. I was fed up with it. Really. **Speaker 9:** So I think we should make a motion this Sunday for the planning board and have them add some kind of exemption for columns on signage. **Speaker 10:** So that... **Speaker 9:** Columns, even churches, fire station, any public facility. **Speaker 72:** Can't you ask for an increase in size? **Speaker 17:** That's a lie. Everybody will say won't give... Yeah. Churches and people won't get their permits. **Speaker 10:** That's a lengthy process, so it might be a lot quicker to work on a new sign. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Because by the time we go to planning commission, they have their public meetings. **Speaker 31:** The one thing, though, **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** the one thing, Sheila, is what you just said, everybody won't get permits. We're not asking for everybody. We're asking for the municipalities. **Speaker 17:** But if you don't have to, they won't. **Speaker 73:** That's not true. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That's not true. Right now, there's a state law that says municipalities are exempt. If you go down to North Adams right now, the municipality of North Adams is exempt. That's Massachusetts. Right? **Speaker 17:** That's Massachusetts. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh, Bennington has the same thing. Or more municipalities. Bennington has the same thing. You have big monster signs at municipalities. Schools in the town hall and benefit are huge. Fire departments can't view it because they have... I guarantee, if we had a sign on our fire department, a big sign, not one person would complain about it. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Because it's municipalities that are exempt. Because it's municipalities that are exempt. Because it's municipalities and it is exempt. Our bylaws might not say it but the state law does. And you can make your bylaw any damn thing you want it to say and you can exempt yourself. It doesn't make... It's like fining ourselves. If the zoning board, if we didn't take that down, they're going to fine us. So we're going to pay them with our... Go ahead. The town money and then they're going to have their... The town money in their budget instead of our budget. So we're going to pay them with our... Go ahead. The town money and then they're going to have their... The town money in their budget. It doesn't make sense. None of this makes sense. Absolutely. **Speaker 2:** Scstring with all that. ch Greenville all that? Are you done? No. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's like being in the Twilight Zone. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm not done. **Speaker 58:** 3 times I've went Adding visits earlier A dime for signing No, I thought this was pretty cooked, So what are we going to do now? What's your hand up? **Speaker 56:** I did before. Laura's had her hand up for **Speaker 58:** .2 minutes. I know. I just said when you put the sign up we could have something that says town. I sit here. Numerous people come out here. They're walking around the building. They come here. They're walking forward. They have no idea where to go. That's all they're asking. We're in agreement right now. Can you just put a dance sign? I would love to. I would put one out there **Speaker 9:** right now. You can find me out there. Maybe we should form a sign committee. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh, don't get me. Remember that? No. Easy. Seriously, if we go, if we have to go to the planning board and ask for the bylaws, why can't we do local? **Speaker 56:** Why can't we do local? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We come up with a plan with a sign. We submit the sign. Like John said, we can submit three signs. Right? Three signs. We'll ask people for designs. We don't even have kids that design now. All we have to do is ask, can we have three signs? If they say yes, we can put three signs out there. What is our limitation for signs? Don't tell us. Can we have a variance before we go any further? Can we have a variance on the size for the reading for safety reasons? Like Lisa said. And if they say no, okay. That's fine. They say no. But at the exact same time, we petition the planning board for the bylaws. **Speaker 54:** It's the exact same. It's both. So you don't need to ask them what you can **Speaker 10:** and cannot do. You just read the bylaws and it's in there. It's either black and white, yes or no. Right. Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Could we just put the signs on the building, catalog, the school? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I saw that. We can, but that doesn't solve the big problem. No. That says that when you're saying, someone comes here, they go, oh, there's a town. Right? They don't walk out here. But that doesn't solve the problem that the guy that says, I'm going to get a fishing license, I just moved up here and he throws right by me. Right. **Speaker 74:** He goes, geez, I wonder where his town hall is. **Speaker 52:** I think I could figure out if there's a big sign that says Stamford. I think I could figure out if that's the town office. Well, it's not there anymore, though. I mean, Justin says Stamford. Oh, yeah, yeah. We have school and town offices where the town office goes. Yeah. A library sign. But I mean, I think it only takes a few minutes to drive through the whole town. **Speaker 9:** In 10 years, absolutely, everyone will be using Google Maps. No one will be able to look at a sign. **Speaker 52:** No, we need a sign. I just don't think it has to say. I like the best one. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't know what it is. I know. We can go buy the ice cream place. Write it on that. And sell ice cream at the same price. Well, what would you like? Hard ice cream? **Speaker 10:** It's gone. It's awesome. It's gone for teachers. **Speaker 6:** Well, I don't know. I feel like we need a sign. **Speaker 40:** No, don't feel bad if you brought it up. I agree with you 100%. Yeah, I mean, we just want to follow you. Even if I got to bring in a cardboard cutout of what a **Speaker 6:** 3x4 is and say this is what we're allowing. Yeah. **Speaker 75:** I mean, I guess the bottom line is **Speaker 9:** without some kind of an exemption, we can't have any sign worthwhile. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm going to tell you though, 3x4 is a lot bigger than that. A little bit. A little bit. **Speaker 9:** I'm just a little over 4 foot tall. Still, without some kind of exemption or waiver on the sign square footage, I don't think we're going to have any sign that represents the size of a sign that we need to be efficient. **Speaker 33:** No. Well, I think if we had **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** 3x4 three times, we might be able to do it. It might look a little ridiculous, but at least we'll get our information out there. Yeah, exactly. So it only has to be that far apart. **Speaker 15:** I don't know what you're saying. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. There are different signs on the main wall. **Speaker 33:** So we're going to... **Speaker 9:** All I'm saying is we're going to ruin the aesthetics of a sign to make it legal. It's art. **Speaker 68:** Well, I don't know if we would. **Speaker 63:** I think it might work over here. **Speaker 76:** Well, if people have that **Speaker 6:** in their back with their couches here, it would seem like a big portrait. And they have like three different, and they break it up. It might look good. Maybe you could put a triangle out there. Maybe you could mount them on some bed knobs. Put a coupe. I think you're just being sarcastic. Oh, Lori, Lori, Lori. I need more cowbells. Well, I agree. Hopefully. So what do you want to do? Go ahead, John. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** See what could be... You know what I said? The jungle vault is a three vault or something. **Speaker 52:** So what do you want? So you're going to send it to the planning commission? Because it's been kicked around, no offense, here for like years, I feel like. Yeah. Does it? Oh, yeah. Maybe just see what we can do with the planning commission. I think we can figure that one out, too. **Speaker 52:** I would ask them. **Speaker 65:** Somebody has... **Speaker 9:** Can we just... Ask them? I mean, if it's a state law, how can they say no? Right. Well, let's ask them. State law trumps a lot of our laws. State law trumps a lot of our laws. State law trumps a lot of our laws right now. State law trumps a lot of our laws right now. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right. If the bylaw conflicts with the state law, then it's no good. **Speaker 51:** The bylaw can be more stringent. **Speaker 16:** None anymore. None anymore. You can't do a lot of... You can't city and zoning. No, I thought it could be more stringent. Accessory dwelling units. All of that. The state... You can't change it. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Our bylaws don't mean anything. So if we brought that to their attention... Then you never know. Can we show them this? **Speaker 49:** I'll bring it there and show them. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If you could send them a document... **Speaker 13:** Huh? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** To just get that... Spar with my counterparts on that. Spar with my counterparts on that. Be fun. So what do we do with them? Hold them in court? I don't feel like that at all. **Speaker 13:** Yeah. **Speaker 77:** One day you've got to sell them the farm. **Speaker 13:** Request... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Is that on the clock? What the hell? **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Request the planning board to amend the bylaws? Request the planning board to amend the bylaws? Or look into that state law? **Speaker 33:** Look into that... **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Or look into that state law? Yeah, look into it. If it's possible or if not... Can we amend the bylaws to change that? If not, that's fine. I just want to know. I mean, it's a whole new board and it kind of smells like a power shift or something. I mean, it's a whole new board and it kind of smells like a power shift or something. So I guess... When is the next board meeting? **Speaker 10:** July 1st. **Speaker 65:** July 1st. **Speaker 10:** Somebody at the last meeting... Somebody at the first meeting... Somebody at the last meeting... **Speaker 52:** For the first Monday. I think I got an Eno. Okay. You did not write that. You did not write that. July 4th would be on. Were you guys not having a meeting on July 4th? Were you guys not having a meeting on July 4th? Because they're starting to get better. Yeah, so that won't be vacation. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I know. Bye. So, yeah, I mean, if I go, if you remind me, I'll go and I'll ask, what can we do? Go forward, can we amend that again? Here's a statement about, I don't have that now, I'll have to find it again. I have it now. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You got it? **Speaker 52:** It's on me that way. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right, right. Yeah, okay. Yeah, now, I tell them, just ask. It won't hurt to ask. They can say, no, we're not going to ask. **Speaker 6:** I like the carousel idea, northeast, southwest, that's cool. Okay, so I'd like to make a motion that John goes to the meeting. Oh, we've got to learn this better. **Speaker 6:** I'll go, I'll go with you. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We'll go with this popular, because the board might have. **Speaker 6:** I just want to put a sign out in front of the lawn and put a spark of people in town against each other, you know what I mean? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I just want permission from the board if we go and represent the board and not just, you know, citizens. Can I ask if we can do this? Yeah. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Is there a second? Second that. I'll second that. **Speaker 9:** Three strikes and you're out, so to speak. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All in favor? **Speaker 78:** Yeah, we've got to hit the nail on the head. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'm going to put my neck out there again, because I was done with it. You were done with it. Yeah, I know. Yep. All yes? All yes. All yes? Okay. Mike, you had something else. No. I can't remember where I am. Lori, were you going to say something about that veto? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh, you can talk. **Speaker 10:** 875. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I want to see it. **Speaker 10:** Oh, yeah. I emailed you guys about the state wanting to, a bill that is close to passing on ethics. I mean, we all support ethics. That's not the issue. But this bill, VLCT is recommending that everyone contact their governor and ask him to veto it, because it dumps all the responsibility on the towns for enforcement. Devoid of the grant to the county. And if you have done someone who came back saying, oh, we have it. **Speaker 9:** Any of the city's or county's court is not going to back you. **Speaker 10:** Right. We want to see an enforcement, developing policies, record people, documentation. Yeah. Documentation. Documentation. Why doesn't the state want that? Why doesn't the state want to take control of that? Yeah, right. Right. I mean, you have to have policies, you have to document every complaint, and how it's disposed of. Yes. You have to have training and. Do your job. People. to go to training every year on this stuff. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** What's gonna happen, it's gonna be like the volunteer fire department. You gotta, instead of taking 40 hours, now it's 60 hours. Instead of taking three quarters of the year, it's five quarters. And you get nobody to volunteer for. You say, this is too much for a volunteer position. It's the state pushing down our throats, and what'll happen is that no one will apply for a SWAT Corps or this or that, and the state will come in and say, no problem, we'll run it for you. More record keeping. **Speaker 54:** And then, so he's got five days to veto it, **Speaker 10:** or it becomes a law. So the push is to really get everybody to veto this. **Speaker 53:** What's the name of it again? **Speaker 10:** 875. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** 875. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It's in your email. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Email your governor. **Speaker 79:** Email the governor, call the governor. **Speaker 16:** Is there a form that you just signed, or do you have to send your own? **Speaker 10:** No, the VOCT wrote to the town clerk saying this is what the bill proposes. This is how it's going to affect municipalities, and we recommend you write to the governor and say, please veto it. It's too much for little towns. You have to have people set up to investigate every claim, to dispose of every claim. You have to have enforcement for every claim and penalties. We don't have the funds. We don't have the personnel. We don't have the ability as a little town. **Speaker 15:** No. **Speaker 80:** No more now. **Speaker 10:** So yeah, if anybody is interested, I can. **Speaker 53:** Is there a number as a citizen? **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It must be a governor. **Speaker 54:** Yeah. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You go on the governor. **Speaker 10:** Even if you don't get through, they keep track. I mean, I can forward the email and the governor contact information for anybody who'd like to write something. **Speaker 13:** Yeah. Might it be easier just to put that on your website so you don't have to email anybody? Well, put it in the minutes. **Speaker 10:** Right. It's only good for five days. I mean, I'd rather just email it to people who are going to respond. Yeah. I mean, it's already done. **Speaker 52:** When? Tomorrow. That's five days. **Speaker 10:** Five days from what? Two days ago? So you probably have three days. Right. Mm-hmm. So. **Speaker 6:** Business days? Weekends. Weekends. Weekends. I don't know. I don't know. It just says Friday, yesterday. **Speaker 10:** It will become a law if he doesn't meet you at the meeting. We'll get it done by tomorrow at the council. Yeah, it's not good. **Michael G. Denault (inferred):** He's almost got me out. Personal, first name basis now. **Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** OK. Any other new business? OK. I make a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters. Second. Come on, David.