---
title: "Stamford Select Board — December 18, 2025"
date: 2025-12-18
session: regular
speaker_labels: 1 cluster(s) named from the roll call and that meeting's chair in the minutes, 0 named from roster attendance, 8 of 9 clusters unnamed
voice_ids: {"SPEAKER_00":1,"SPEAKER_01":10,"SPEAKER_02":7,"SPEAKER_03":2,"SPEAKER_04":6,"SPEAKER_05":9,"SPEAKER_06":5,"SPEAKER_07":94,"SPEAKER_08":4}
duration_min: 59
audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18WtvBW42h2lLB6RaDymYTLjPO5HamNcX/view?usp=sharing
audio_source: town drive
minutes: https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%2012-18-25.pdf
minutes_pending: false
present: [Nancy L. Bushika, Douglas Wright, Kurt Gamari, John Dunn]
absent: [Michael G. Denault]
transcribed: 2026-09-04 (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 — December 18, 2025

**Session:** Regular · **Duration:** 59 min · [Audio](https://drive.google.com/file/d/18WtvBW42h2lLB6RaDymYTLjPO5HamNcX/view?usp=sharing) · [Minutes](https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%2012-18-25.pdf)

**Present:** Nancy L. Bushika, Douglas Wright, Kurt Gamari, John Dunn
**Absent:** Michael G. Denault

---
**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Welcome to a meeting of the Stamford Select Board. If you have a matter to discuss that is not on the agenda, you may do so by calling the chairperson and stating your name and address. You notice that all our meetings are recorded, and this is to aid the summarization of the minutes. Visitors are welcome, and we allow five minutes of comments per visitor and 15 minutes per topic. Discussions will be held in a calm and civilized manner and respectful of others. Select Board members present are Nancy Bushika.

**Speaker 1:** Douglas Wright.

**Speaker 2:** John Dunn. Kurt Gamari.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Will there be any adding of items or removing items from tonight's agenda?

No.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Will there be any adjustments to the agenda, such as changing the order of items?

**Speaker 3:** Oh, only if you wanted to add that executive session, or if you just want to wing it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I think we're okay. Okay. Yeah, I think we're okay. All right. Hearing of visitors. Okay. Dave, update. Did Mike get it all welded yesterday? Yeah. No. And we'd like to start budget sessions in January. So you were going to look into pavings and new truck and...

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, figures for the paving.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Guys are working out okay then, and you're switching them around or whatever you have to do to them?

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, we've kind of got rooms.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Now, you've got the wood stove hooked up?

**Speaker 4:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** How about the furnace?

**Speaker 4:** The oil gas furnace is working on a temporary basis. Okay. Until they get the new one in. Okay. I'm not sure about the new site about that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Mm-hmm. If you stay next to it, if you go... Right.

**Speaker 5:** It blows more heat than the other one.

**Speaker 4:** Does it?

**Speaker 6:** Oh, good.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Good. It does. It works pretty good.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Anything else on highway, or...?

**Speaker 4:** No, I don't really have much. We've just been dealing with the repairs and being out loud.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Any other questions? No.

**Speaker 4:** We're supposed to have 60-mile-an-hour at least tonight, so...

**Speaker 7:** Mm-hmm.

**Speaker 8:** That could be the nearest day.

**Speaker 7:** And the hatches. And then... And then it would snow tomorrow. Yeah. Well, it's a lot of rain.

**Speaker 4:** Okay. But at least it was warm. It warmed up today, so hopefully it won't ice up too bad when the rain hits. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's the gravel. Yeah, the road's going to be...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything...

**Speaker 6:** ...for February.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything on recycling?

**Speaker 4:** Um, they still haven't been bringing the right dumpster.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Why did they always bring the wrong one?

**Speaker 6:** I don't know.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I mean...

**Speaker 4:** The school contacted me, the cook there, and they hadn't been picking up the compost,

but they had... They did.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay.

**Speaker 4:** They picked that up.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do they know it's on the route or something?

**Speaker 4:** I think what happens is they go through help quite often, so when there's new people, they must not understand they've got to come down. Mm-hmm. They do the one thing...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, is it a different truck that picks up the compost?

**Speaker 4:** They have different trucks than what... That old truck they used to pick up doesn't come now. There's two...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Was... Oh, I just saw a little Pacella go by today. Is that the little white...

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. Okay. They picked up at the school, yeah. Oh, the guy that you talked to. Okay, good.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay.

**Speaker 2:** Any... How are we looking salt and sand-wise, seeing as we're like a month ahead of snow than we're used to in the last few years?

**Speaker 4:** Well, we're way over on our sand budget for 2025. Last...

We have plenty of material, but budget-wise, we're way over because at the end of last winter, I would say February-ish, March, we had that salt shortage.

**Speaker 4:** So, I had to start buying... I had to start mixing it heavier with sand, and then you end up retreating more, so it's kind of a... You know, sand's not cheap anymore, so... And then, not only that, we were low on our stockpile from the year before, and then once everybody's buying sand because they can't get salt, you're competing, so you just want to truck in as much as you can so you have that. So, we definitely stockpiled a little bit extra, too.

**Speaker 2:** Okay, good. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So, it's working okay with... Whitney's pretty good on it?

**Speaker 4:** His price hasn't changed, so it's not really anything to do with that other than just us needing to repair it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, yeah. Sand, we're way over. A little bit. Yep. Salt, we're a little bit over.

**Speaker 4:** That's why I say it's a lot cheaper to treat with salt than with sand. I know it sounds crazy, but... How do you budget?

**Speaker 2:** You can't really throw it on dirt roads, though. The mud's everywhere.

Right. World's on the other side. Yeah. I read it. They mined it out of the... It's okay. It's okay. It's also an environmental hazard. Yeah. People don't realize it. Yeah, no. It's running out. We're staying short of it. I mean, it depends on...

**Speaker 4:** Last winter was really busy, and that's why there was a salt shortage, so we were out of anything more than probably normal.

Mm-hmm.

**Speaker 4:** It seemed like we had snow almost every single day last winter, even a little, a little small accumulation.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's right. You were saying that you'd have to have one big snowstorm and get it over with for a while. So, we're all... We're all set, then, with sand and salt.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, we have material. Mm-hmm. Just to be spending money.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Anything else on highway recycling? John or Kirk? Discussion. Tree lighting ceremony. I think we covered that last time. I think that got...

**Speaker 3:** I think it went well.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah.

**Speaker 3:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I think we put it on last minute. Probably the computer left it on.

**Speaker 3:** So, it fell over.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's what I'm... Tree lighting ceremony. Tree lighting ceremony. We thank Cindy, Organize, and all that. Okay. That computer sometimes does stuff like that. Plan future budget meetings. Seemed to work well last year that we had budget meetings every Thursday in January. The off Thursdays, not our regular meeting, they seemed to work well. So, if we could just plan every Thursday in January and do them.

**Speaker 7:** What time?

**Speaker 3:** You're going to need to sign the warrant by January 29th. What's that by January 29th? There's one, two, three, four. Well, I guess you don't have the first one. Yeah, you'll have four. If you do every Thursday, you'll have four budget meetings. But by the fourth, you're going to want to sign.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The fourth is the 29th?

**Speaker 3:** Yeah.

**Speaker 9:** So, that doesn't leave you...

**Speaker 3:** I've asked all the other people to get their budgets in to me by January 16th. Yep. So, I have time to pull it together. Yep.

And the 26th for town reports still? Yeah. Okay. The next two Thursdays are our holidays.

**Speaker 7:** Fine.

Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** What's that? The next two Thursdays are our holidays, so...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah?

**Speaker 3:** Uh, yeah. So, you won't have your regular first Thursday meeting because it'll be the first.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Right. Right. And what's the second holiday?

**Speaker 7:** Christmas next week.

**Speaker 10:** Oh, yeah, yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's this month.

**Speaker 10:** Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** Right. They're into next month. I know. I'm just trying to figure out how we get all the meetings in that we're going to need.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, we'll do the best we can. And if we have to do a couple that week, just to get them in.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't remember how many we...

**Speaker 7:** I know we did it every Thursday, but I don't remember how many we had or whatever. I feel like we started it near the end of December. Yeah. A little earlier this time. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 3:** So, are we going to do on off weeks and no meeting at 6 o'clock? 6 o'clock?

**Speaker 11:** No, 6 o'clock.

**Speaker 7:** What about meeting weeks? 6 o'clock. Did we have a session before our regular meetings, is what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't remember if we did. I don't know. I don't know.

**Speaker 3:** I don't know.

**Speaker 12:** I don't know.

**Speaker 7:** I don't know.

**Speaker 10:** I don't remember if we did.

**Speaker 7:** I think you did light meetings and then just started budget work session.

**Speaker 3:** That's just a budget.

**Speaker 12:** Whatever we couldn't finish.

**Speaker 13:** 9 o'clock.

**Speaker 10:** Whatever you think.

**Speaker 7:** So, our first meeting in January is when?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I didn't bring one. 1-8. January 1-8. Ooh. That's going to be a lot of Thursdays. It does. I know. And then 15-22 and then you've got to sign it.

**Speaker 14:** Yeah. On the 29th. Real meeting.

**Speaker 3:** Three, four meetings, I guess. Well, maybe that four-week meeting. Yeah. I don't remember. I don't remember.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't remember.

**Speaker 7:** I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't remember. So, maybe that first week in January, what if I scheduled one like a Wednesday or Tuesday or see how it works? That's fine. I'll get in touch with you guys for a budget work session.

**Speaker 7:** I'll be gone on the, we're leaving on the 17th, so the following Thursday after that I won't be here. Okay.

**Speaker 10:** On January.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's gone. 22nd. 22nd. Okay. All right.

**Speaker 3:** So, Nancy. I'm just going to try it and then if we start getting behind, you can pick on Monday. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, Monday or Wednesday on the last two weeks? No, no.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'd like to do something first. Early on. Early, yeah. Okay. Schedule early meeting. Early in January. Sound okay? Yeah. I don't know, a date, time? Okay. That's what I'm thinking.

**Speaker 3:** A day meeting, probably, then you wouldn't have to come out.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But then, we've got workers. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are best for me if it's a day time. Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday morning setting? Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** The only thing too, I'm going to have to see what my. Yeah. Schedule is going to be like. Yeah. Don't worry about it.

**Speaker 15:** Okay. All right. All right. All right. Yeah. Okay.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'll do it again. Okay. We'll. We'll. I'll see what works. All right. Final. Female final paperwork from July 23 flooding event. So, I received an email, and they recognize our reimbursement request we sent in for $4,817. And printed it.

**Speaker 3:** Nancy signed it. We've submitted it. So, hopefully, that will close the door. This is from Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. Seriously. This is from the July 23 flooding. It's just the last payment with the government shutdown, and all that, it was delayed for several months, and now, they're finally getting back to it. Okay. That would be good.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Hopefully, we'll get it before the end of the month?

**Speaker 16:** I'm hoping to get it in this year.

**Speaker 14:** I don't know.

**Speaker 3:** That would be nice.

**Speaker 9:** If they put it direct deposit.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** that would be nice. That would be nice. If they mail it, well. They said all of this, 10-14 days, but. Yeah. Calendar days. Work days.

**Speaker 17:** Got to do��록 42 years, and then 날 ti motiva, and let's see, I have the money

**Speaker 3:** at the end of the month. Work days, it's gonna be tight.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay.

**Speaker 7:** Plus or minus 10 for the mail.

**Speaker 13:** Yeah. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Correspondence?

**Speaker 3:** I don't have anything.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All right. Old business, 911 numbering. Nothing happened on that?

**Speaker 7:** I have no uptake.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do you want me to contact Bob Briggs and say, where's this standing? Or do we just let it go? And if people don't have 911 numbers?

**Speaker 7:** I mean, it's never, I've always been on the side of that, but I don't, I mean, I know it puts a burden on first responders. So it's a hard question, but people don't want to put the number up. I mean, what are you gonna do?

**Speaker 15:** It is tough though. You're looking for it. I mean, Yes, it is.

**Speaker 14:** In the middle of the night.

**Speaker 15:** Yeah. I acknowledge that. It's a small thing. You would think people would want to do it.

**Speaker 2:** Is there a way we could, I know I'm sure the fire department has enough to do as it is, but is there a way we could put the signage up and implement a fee through the town and process and get the money for paying the sign?

**Speaker 14:** You can already charge them a fee for not having it. Once Bob identifies it.

**Speaker 2:** Yeah. Yeah, so it's like pay a fee or. You can contact Bob and see if he's progressing on it. I'm just trying to like get it all buttoned up and be like this. Then you get everything called onto people's property. Donation to the fire department or something.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't want you on my property. I don't want you to nail that sign to the town.

**Speaker 2:** Why'd you use that post? Yeah, yeah, no. It should be right away. It should go in the town right away.

**Speaker 15:** Wait, isn't there a state law that says they've got to have it? Is there some way we can invoke that? I think we have.

**Speaker 14:** We have.

**Speaker 18:** It's in our statute.

**Speaker 19:** It's in our ticket fee.

**Speaker 14:** All you can do is give them the rest of their dollars.

**Speaker 19:** It isn't expensive, but it is in our statute.

**Speaker 15:** I mentioned it just because like, you know, well, I don't want that on my property. Well, it's against the law if you don't put it

**Speaker 20:** on the property.

**Speaker 7:** I mean, we could fine them. Yeah. And stuff like that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Send them the tickets or send them a letter. We need to identify the ones. That's what we're asking them.

**Speaker 2:** Yeah. That's another thing, though. Somebody's taking their time and going around, driving around town and checking these signs.

**Speaker 1:** It's just a burden on them.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Ones that don't. And I think Bob and his committee were going to do that.

**Speaker 7:** Did your state make any progress on it?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Identify the ones that don't have.

**Speaker 7:** I haven't lost any sleep over it. Numbers.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, just the firemen that are back and forth in the ambulance.

**Speaker 21:** Yeah. Oh.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We'll give it to Dave.

**Speaker 22:** Yeah, give it to Dave.

**Speaker 2:** To do what?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Check the 911 numbers.

**Speaker 2:** Yeah. Yeah. Just run over to mailboxes that don't have them. Yeah. There you go.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** With the pop charts. Town sign update. They put the post in and it's.

**Speaker 21:** So I had a conversation with them today, finally.

**Speaker 23:** I think there were six phone calls and messages left.

**Speaker 24:** Oh, no.

**Speaker 23:** And so today, I. We drove by and his vehicle was there. So I called him immediately because I was getting ready to call him and he didn't answer. And so he answered and said that he all but promised before Christmas.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We paid him everything though, right? Oh, no. No.

We paid him half.

**Speaker 23:** Half. Okay. But there's a contract that he's supposed to have this job done. I think it was.

**Speaker 21:** I know. Yeah. I know. I just reminded him. Yeah. Yeah. He's a nice guy. Who was it again?

**Speaker 23:** A nice guy. I mean, it's just. It's just a lot of the progressing is only when you make a phone call, only when you. Yeah. You've got to push and then they'll come off and do one aspect of it. Right.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Right.

**Speaker 23:** One little.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Cement job and then he did the post. Just dug the holes. Yeah.

**Speaker 21:** You know. Did they put the sign on the belly?

**Speaker 25:** Yeah.

**Speaker 10:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, that's been up for months. You didn't notice it curtain then?

**Speaker 7:** No. But it's pretty quick is what I'm saying.

**Speaker 13:** Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** That's like going pretty quick.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's all. Did it? You guys were quick on it.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah. That one was pretty easy, quick. Okay. Just got some staging and did it that way. Well, as long as you're on it and thank you. Yeah. I've been doing my weeklies.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Any other old business? I have an old business here.

**Speaker 23:** Bill, how did you make out at fire department with your wife? I was just a little bit busy. I was busy. I was busy.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. I was busy. Are you the fire department with the warrant article? Are the firemen going to do a petition for Vermont rural fire protection? You were going to bring it up at their meeting. A warrant article? I was about to say he just went and left over. Bill, that's why I have all these papers here.

**Speaker 21:** I honestly don't remember it.

**Speaker 14:** Okay. We could not put them on the warrant article, because they changed the amount of the appropriate

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** — Oh, they're the ones who asked for more of it. Oh, they're the ones who asked for more of it.

**Speaker 14:** Yeah. I don't know.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay. Yeah.

**Speaker 14:** That's okay.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** more money right and if the fire department get a petition and then it could go on to a warrant article you need how many signatures 40 38 38 signatures just word it like two years ago but put $200 and I'm sure you've got at least 10 signatures here to just to get it on the petition just sit

**Speaker 16:** petition go up I can get another 10 for the number of firemen to show up yeah

**Speaker 14:** they don't want to be meeting yeah that's a I think we could find okay so

**Speaker 16:** we need to word some kind of two years two years ago or three years ago right

**Speaker 9:** in your town report you've got a form for a petition that needs how it's drawn

**Speaker 26:** up or yeah rule fire protection appropriation

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** okay

**Speaker 16:** Vermont Association you know I listen to you just talk about it but it just

**Speaker 14:** didn't ring a lot in my head that I needed to take me back to the fire

**Speaker 26:** yeah I think you said you were going to right maybe I'm putting words in your

**Speaker 14:** head you might have suggested it nice up took my head with it just ratty

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** may bring it up at the next fire department

**Speaker 3:** I can't see yes or no question the fire goes yep maybe they want $200? They want $250.

**Speaker 14:** Oh gracious.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** $200. The amount has increased to $200. We can put any amount in you want.

I'm sorry. $200. Okay, thank you.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It has to be back here January 15th. I'll do that. Okay yeah there might be blank petitions or there's they're somewhere.

**Speaker 14:** Mickey, what about, shall the town...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Not what about. Shall the town stand appropriate.

**Speaker 26:** Uh-huh.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yep.

**Speaker 16:** Old-fashioned.

**Speaker 14:** Hmm? Old-fashioned way. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Um, okay. New business.

**Speaker 23:** Bill.

**Speaker 21:** Grant for planning. Grant commissioned.

**Speaker 27:** Yeah, because I think I remember saying to Lisa,

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** make sure you budget this in your, for 2026. Give it to Lori so we can enter it in our budget.

**Speaker 21:** That's your signature, huh?

**Speaker 28:** Planning commission grant approved.

**Speaker 21:** I know there's a planning meeting thing. Um, yeah, I did do one. There's one this Monday? No. I just wanted to tell us because we got it. Yeah, I did get that.

**Speaker 22:** Do you know how much we got?

**Speaker 21:** Do you know how much? Uh, whatever the... I don't know.

**Speaker 29:** Well, basically...

**Speaker 30:** 30,000, no.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah.

**Speaker 2:** It's not like 29. Yeah, it's just shy of 30. It's like 28 change. 26,000 or something like that. That's the full amount, whatever it is.

**Speaker 4:** And that's to redo the town plan?

**Speaker 2:** The whole thing?

**Speaker 31:** Completely, yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay, yeah. Well, it involves like business. It sounds like a whole lot of money. It involves like having one-on-one with students.

**Speaker 10:** Depends on how many years they stretch out.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, I don't know. Yeah.

**Speaker 2:** She broke it down into different things. Oh, that was just part of it. Oh, yeah. It's all this, it's all this stuff. All the things that they, they go through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 32:** Yeah.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah. And then they go through, through, when they're doing it, the new program. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah like it's grant, yeah, grant request $25,200, town matches $28,800.

**Speaker 2:** Pretty good use of that money the FEMA's gon' give you. $2,800. Put that at quick use.

**Speaker 33:** $6,000 to $28,000 or something like that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. So, did they send it to me?

**Speaker 34:** They, they, I thought they did.

**Speaker 23:** Cause I just want, I thought I saw something. At the last meeting, there was an email that went out, um, and then they, they sent. Did they send it to you? They sent it. and then they were going to forward it to you.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Kurt, can you send it to Lori? Because she'll print it out, sign it, or keep copies of it anyway.

**Speaker 23:** You've got to, if there's an old portion, you guys have to match it.

Yeah. You've got to accept it, because you've got to take the,

**Speaker 23:** I thought everything would be here so that you could do it, and then I would look for it.

**Speaker 14:** You can still have a moment to accept and print it. That's a fancy sort of role.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah, but I don't know.

**Speaker 35:** When it shows up.

**Speaker 21:** I mean, I could try to call her.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do you know when the deadline is to sign this?

**Speaker 21:** I don't. I don't. That's probably coming up.

**Speaker 3:** I got an email saying that the grant was awarded, but I haven't seen anything new.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah, that's the email I got, I think, that said it was awarded. Right. And then there was, I don't know. You're going to have to sign paperwork at some point.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, maybe they haven't sent it yet, then, if they just said it's awarded. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 21:** OK. I'll text her later. I was supposed to see her tomorrow, too, so.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** OK.

**Speaker 1:** Any other new business?

**Speaker 2:** I just had a question. Maybe I'm missing something, but I noticed the lights for the radar, or whatever those school signs are, they're not on during the day, during the school hours. I don't know if there's more to it, or.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The speed sign that says.

**Speaker 1:** Yeah, you know, it says, like, 30 miles an hour.

**Speaker 2:** I noticed it's not on during school hours.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You'll have to talk to the school, because they regulate that. They set the time. There's some box there that Debbie used to go in and set the sign, Debbie, and whoever else the principal was at the time.

**Speaker 4:** I think that's been off since Rich hasn't been in the daylight state and all that.

**Speaker 2:** I just assumed it was an automatic, like, came on at a certain time or off at a certain time. It's supposed to.

**Speaker 23:** I think it comes on early in the morning until all of the schools. Yeah.

**Speaker 24:** In the afternoon.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I think it's the on-term school hours, right? Like, 8 o'clock.

**Speaker 2:** No, it's just a few hours morning after.

**Speaker 32:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, even in the morning, I drop my daughter off. I'm like, yeah, they're not on.

**Speaker 30:** They're not on.

**Speaker 2:** But it's, um, it's, uh, does come on and off automatically, but it's got to be set. There's something in that box that's got to be set. You know, we've had enough power interruptions that it might have lost its setting. Yeah. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 14:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Not пока. Sounds good.

**Speaker 30:** Okay.

**Speaker 2:** I wanted to ask you, do you want to check with the principal next time you drop your daughter off? I'll send an email and ask her. Oh, yeah, okay. Um. Yep. Well, if they're in charge would kind of, like, would refrain me from asking my next question, but, like, everybody is concerned with speeding in town. So, I was kind of hoping, maybe, we could adjust the times the lights are flashing, maybe would slow them down.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't, I don't know if it was a thought, but. I don't know. Because it is a school sign.

**Speaker 7:** Just on the timer for the family, like, for for you? Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 23:** So the state law says that it has to, they have to be implemented during school hours, and I don't, I always, the question I always had was why are they off during the day but school's still in session?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

**Speaker 23:** So I believe state law says that those safety lights on the highways in front, and that's the other way too, if somebody was saying about crosswalk.

**Speaker 15:** Is that why there's, no, this is, you don't know, they don't know, or after every time.

**Speaker 7:** You had the whole speeding sign thing last year, they lost by like one vote.

**Speaker 2:** Yeah, they don't want to, the people in town don't want to pay for any of them, the bus, or what they're paying.

**Speaker 23:** Speed signs are, they're useless. They're good for about a week, two weeks, and go away.

**Speaker 36:** I was just trying to put to use the ones that we already had.

**Speaker 37:** I don't think the speeders are local people, though. I think they're effective for people that are coming through town on the one or two bus.

**Speaker 15:** There's a lot of different things, I didn't look into what I was going on one time, but I know that there's a lot of people that are coming through town on the one or two bus. I know they had, a couple years ago, a talk up at Bennington, I think, Regional Planning Commission, and they were discussing, Bennington, different steps that could be taken, other than law enforcement, to, you know, things like driving around, sidewalk, different things. Sidewalks are a big one. A lot of them probably would be too expensive, but it might be worth looking into. I know, I've seen some of these signs where you're going down, and all of a sudden a blue light comes on. That makes you sit up, take notice. Sure. So there are probably some things, I think a lot of them would be too expensive, but it might be worth looking into.

**Speaker 23:** The crosswalk signs, I think you can get the state, I think you mandate the state to put crosswalk signs out there. Yeah, the flashing, the flashing crosswalk signs.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything would be a help. Do they just work if someone pushes the button, or do they flash all the time?

**Speaker 23:** You could get, like the school has, the sign, so that they can adjust. Oh. You could do the same thing with signs. That would be good.

**Speaker 2:** I always thought there was a sensor on the sidewalk when they started walking. In Williamstown, there's a sensor. To flick on, yeah.

**Speaker 29:** In the college.

**Speaker 21:** Yeah, it's a, I mean, it just depends how many thousand whistles. There's a magic eye on the light itself that moves that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So somebody's got to be there ready to cross then, before it comes on.

**Speaker 7:** What if you're going by that eye at like 90? Does it pick you up? You're not going to get it then. What are you getting?

**Speaker 14:** There's a stop speed sign with the spike strip that spits out.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah, that's what I said. Just put nail strips on. It's going to be hard to stop speeding in town, no matter what you do. It's an inherent thing that's been going on forever. You should have seen it in the 70s, man. It was rubber strips from built blocks past the school. So they've had to slow down, in a sense.

**Speaker 38:** You got to keep in mind, also, school zones are extremely enforced.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah. So, but outside of, outside of school zones and stuff like that. I mean, if you're sitting doing speed drafts and radar and stuff like that. It was like, I think it was like 10 miles over is what we were always.

**Speaker 38:** Anything over 10 miles would go out of there.

**Speaker 7:** Our cheapest way is to probably buy an old cruiser and just park it on the side of the road and move it around randomly. That's been done. That's been done. Have volunteers sit in there with a blow dryer.

**Speaker 31:** Point the blow dryer out the window.

**Speaker 2:** Just put a dummy in there. Well, the state trooper's been, he's hidden. He's hidden. He'll come down and sit. And he won't see him. And then he'll sit again.

**Speaker 36:** I think he leaves his set here a couple hours early and comes down here and sits.

**Speaker 23:** Yeah.

**Speaker 2:** Well, one lives like right up in Woodford. So I don't know if it's him coming down.

**Speaker 37:** We can talk to the sheriff again.

**Speaker 7:** But unless he's going to really, you know, spice it up. We don't need patrols on Wednesday morning. We need Friday, Saturday night, Sunday night, Thursday night at the least. And it's just going to, it was 75,000 a few years ago. So we'll probably be looking at 100,000.

**Speaker 15:** No, the train is just so expensive.

**Speaker 2:** And I want to say they have a buddy system now, too. So you've got to pay for two guys instead of one guy.

**Speaker 7:** I mean, we're strictly after speeding here. He's not going to really catch anything else.

**Speaker 15:** I might still have that paperwork at home. I'll bring that in so we can look at it, follow up on it, what they found up in bed. Like I said, a lot of that had to do with changing roads and this and that. But there might be a few things we could do.

**Speaker 7:** Like pedestrian strips, you know, sidewalks, things of that nature.

**Speaker 15:** A lot of it would be practical, but you could get a couple things. Anything would help.

**Speaker 23:** Nancy, the only other thing that I wanted to mention. I think I called you and talked to you about the playground. So I don't know if Lori called you and talked to you about that. But I just wanted to let the board know that it was brought to my attention. Well, I kind of overheard a conversation and then I said, in court. But they had received, the school, Julie Swanson, the principal, had received an inspection notification from the state for the playground down here. Not enough mulch? Everything failed. Pretty much everything. And it was pretty serious. So I had called Lori and I said, you know, I first blew it off because, look, schools, right? Schools issue? No. So this is basically, keep in mind that our kids come here at night. We all bring our kids occasionally out here at night. So it's just as much the town's issue and then the problem in the past. Who owns the building? And we all know where that went. And so I just wanted the board to understand the fact that there is an inspection out there. And it's a bad inspection. I have a copy of the house. I should have brought it.

**Speaker 32:** I think we all got an email to this.

**Speaker 37:** Is this inspection induced by the state or the principal?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, it was done by VLCT. So it's our insurance company. Or their insurance company.

**Speaker 30:** So they're recommending that all the swings get replaced.

**Speaker 2:** I don't know. And there's portions of certain swing sets that are either too high or they have gaps in them where kids can dig in. Right. It's stuck.

**Speaker 23:** The terminology they used to determine the whole thing is basically saying that it goes through one through five severity. Between one being the absolute worst and four being minimal. What's the penalty?

**Speaker 7:** Is it attached to the funding? I know in housing any inspections have to be attached.

**Speaker 23:** I don't know anything of that. I just wanted you guys to be aware of what this is out there. I called Jonathan Cooper. Seems like the school was. Because I just felt like, you know.

**Speaker 7:** Maybe they can. To me it seems like more pressure from the state because if they can find a lot of faults in schools, then there's an excuse to close the schools.

**Speaker 38:** So this was done by.

**Speaker 23:** Leverage, leverage. The state school education requires this every year. And it's done by the carrier or whatever.

**Speaker 14:** The potential of this is just like if your insurance company, when you take out a new policy, comes and tells you that your hand railing is loose. If they give you a defect and you ignore it, and then something happens because of whatever that defect is, they absolve themselves. They won't pay for it.

**Speaker 23:** And that's the reason why I'm bringing it to our attention because this inspection was dated 24. So it's already a year old. So our children have been out here playing on all this equipment and everything even after that inspection. Crystal, she had no idea. Until that day, she had it in her hand. She says, I just found out about this. This is the first inspection of its kind. I don't ever recall. Not only do it every single year. I told Jonathan Cooper, our representative, to see if there was funding available to do anything.

**Speaker 7:** So from the year 23 to 24, the equipment just totally crept out?

**Speaker 23:** It's funny because Jonathan Cooper has a copy of the inspection and said that it passed the year before. So that's not right. I'm just saying.

**Speaker 7:** That can't possibly be right. So that should fall back on the state who inspected it in 23. But what he just said. I've done these inspections for years for housing. Usually they're directly attached to any kind of funding that you would receive. That's usually the weight that it bears. I just wanted you guys to be aware. It just seems like an additional move or something like that to some extent. Why is it so urgent? I don't know. It hasn't been done. The LCP does this in the garage. They have recommendations.

That's what they did. Yes. And we're not doing what they do. We make an effort to.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The accountants are fortunate. Exactly.

I got a sense of mine.

**Speaker 2:** Exactly. But what I'm saying is this is over a year old and there's been no. Are they? Do you know what they're working on? It was in the 24th. I did. I was like, why isn't it a year old?

**Speaker 23:** Do you know that the school board is working on that? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

**Speaker 2:** I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I don't know. I don't know.

**Speaker 3:** Do they, are they working on this at all to. I. Do they pull up with the wood chips? Remember one year it was a pile of wood chips. Yeah. Yeah, we had to do.

**Speaker 32:** That was in there.

**Speaker 23:** Are the recommendations or laws?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Recommend. I think they're recommendations. I think that's what it's.

**Speaker 24:** Well, it gives you.

**Speaker 23:** It gives you the. There's photographs involved. Of the, of the false? It was a similar report to what this church was like. When we did the report on the church. It's probably a health.

**Speaker 2:** It's a mandatory more likely health and safety inspection by the state.

**Speaker 7:** Well, I'm wondering. The state says it's not going to make it. I'm talking about the state. the report on the church it's probably a health it's a mandatory more likely health and safety inspection by the state that they're coming in to evaluate the school for various reasons um usually like i said i don't know if this is a part would be attached to funding or not

**Speaker 23:** but it's the it's the department of education requires that the insurance carrier requires this inspection annually right yes just like what you just said a little while ago just different cya and the insurance company is going to say hey we have this inspection done a year ago and you ain't done nothing right and so you've got a dead body on your hands out there that's yours not ours

**Speaker 38:** so like i don't understand how it felt so bad for my someone insurance trust or multi-line

**Speaker 7:** that's the language that was so so the school needs to forward to the town what all this

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** well we've got it didn't laurie laurie sent it to all of us the inspection report but when did i get this it doesn't the school have to fix it i mean it is our pocketbook at the end whether school fixes it or we fix it but isn't the school

**Speaker 26:** what kind of things did they claim there was a jack in the slide like somebody could catch

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** their finger in the slide at the top or catch their sounds like a little hot shot

**Speaker 7:** to have such deficiencies in one year's time how does the report go from gleaning good to terrible so they had someone that didn't know what they were doing in 23 or they hired someone brand new in 24 that's trying to be promoted there's changes there's changes in

**Speaker 24:** the laws as time progresses the s folks are no longer closed they're not they're not closed

**Speaker 23:** enough they have to be like carabines now um there's a whole bunch of changes the trees that's overhanging certain areas uh slides got gaps in it to where they're you know hood strings could get caught

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** used to try to swing to hit the trees

**Speaker 7:** yeah and the the base there's like a four and a half inch base so the maintenance man should be taking in my opinion the maintenance man for the school should be taking care of all the playground equipment he should be looking at it annually if there's going to be these inspections someone in the internally should be trained to know what they're looking for if there's something every year

**Speaker 23:** so currently it's easy for you to sit here and say this one there there's like three different organizations involved in this right you've got the town with us so who's responsible for us right because we this is our property this is our building so it's the town ultimately in charge of the schools utilizing it yeah and they have state contracts or state state laws that they have to have that governs it right so we went through all this crap

**Speaker 7:** for years so you know what ultimately ends up happening in small towns like this you have no playground right you close down the playground well then you're going to have to remove all

**Speaker 23:** the equipment because now the insurance company knows it's still cheaper than having a failed

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** inspection up here well i think first thing is go to the school board kurt you're the liaison if you can i'm not the liaison anymore oh i thought you were nothing

**Speaker 3:** Jim, have you gone to a school board meeting and talked to a school board, and what did they say?

**Speaker 23:** They wouldn't let me talk.

**Speaker 4:** What? The last time we paid somebody to do, like, overseeing maintenance of these buildings through the supervisory.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah, that should be part of the maintenance of the building. It's the playground for the school.

**Speaker 39:** I understand there's somebody that oversees all that stuff.

**Speaker 4:** Yes. Because the last time the Chips were here.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That's right. He did it.

**Speaker 4:** He's the one that did it. So I'm just curious if we're already paying somebody to kind of oversee this, all right?

**Speaker 7:** So if somebody's dropping the ball at more than one spot.

**Speaker 23:** Usually the parent program over there does a lot of the work, volunteer work, right? So I'll go over there and talk to Julie about this whole thing anyway, and I'll see where that all lies.

**Speaker 7:** I mean, some of it can be quick fixes with a wrench and a hammer and a bunch of mulch. Yeah. Guaranteed. But ultimately it's the family.

**Speaker 2:** It's the family. It's a good thing you didn't go down and take pictures of the time score. Right, but we do have some in school. Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** I mean, how would you find that? I bet you the supervisor's in a lot of buildings. Oh, yeah, they do. It's the buildings. They have a building that's all out of covers and truck hazards and whatever.

**Speaker 40:** But there's no funding for stuff like that.

**Speaker 23:** That's why I called John who said there was money available. The grant just ended, but we might be able to get, he's going to try to sneak it in. So I don't know where that crosses. That's when.

**Speaker 21:** He hasn't called you?

**Speaker 7:** So I'll say this once again out loud because I'm sick of saying it, but the school lies within the Village Center District. There's grant money available for the school. I'm not going to look into it, so someone that's involved with the school should look into that. Same with the firehouse. The firehouse that I believe is also in the Village Center District. Need a new roof, need new infrastructure for the firehouse? There's grants available. I've said this a hundred times. No one's utilizing this grant program. It's the whole reason we have the Village Center District.

**Speaker 14:** Well, find out because we're looking.

**Speaker 7:** Sure.

**Speaker 41:** We're going to talk about spending $35,000.

**Speaker 7:** I'm 90% positive the school, the firehouse falls within. $35,000.

**Speaker 23:** So just for your information because they're going to have to, in order to find any of these, the stuff that he's talking about, it's like you've got to do your own, do the own homework. So whoever you've got going over there doing grants and stuff like that, just tell them to call Jonathan Cooper, our state representative. Who is also our representative for BCRC here. Yeah. Or exactly what this is for, for grants and all of this stuff for the town.

**Speaker 7:** Bennington County Regional Planning Commission can give you a good lead on it too because they have all the paperwork. We filed it with them. The whole Village Center District. That's where he works, Jonathan Cooper. Yeah, he did work there for a long time. There's money out there. There's grants out there. I'm not a grant writer. Nor do I really want to.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So Jim, see how you do with the school PTG. But I think, like Dave said, that's right, there is a maintenance fellow for the whole district. And there's got to be a maintenance budget for the whole district too. If it's not just Stamford School.

**Speaker 4:** Right. It seems like they could at least put together an estimate of what the costs are. We should have got a report too, I think. I mean, hey, if the school has these, the PTG assistants should be on here. And you should have come down and discussed this.

**Speaker 23:** I think the problem right now is there's too much separation between the towns and the schools right now. The supervisory board is basically, you know, they're like, they sit up in the White House. And we're just this little peons down here.

**Speaker 42:** We don't even, we don't know who's who.

**Speaker 7:** I mean, they're going to change the structure of a lot of towns within the state of Vermont. That's just going to be a fact. Because they're going to consolidate a lot of schools. And the whole reason that middle class people move to rural towns in Vermont is centered around schools. So if these small towns no longer have schools, there's a whole different dynamic for the state. Vermont just became the number one state to move into, according to Travel and Leisure. Number one. Yeah. I'm sorry, two. According to Travel and Leisure, Vermont is the number one state where people are moving to right now in the country. I believe so. So a lot of people are coming. So we've got to figure out what's this town going to be. Is it going to be a middle class town that has a rural school? Or is it going to be a second home village, you know, for a lot of people with money? It's turning into a second home village. That's what it's going to be. It's going to have to be that. A lot of people want to retire here because of the, the French house just got purchased

**Speaker 37:** for like $305,000.

**Speaker 2:** And that needed like a whole ton. Peter's? Peter French? Peter French.

**Speaker 23:** At first, you're going to see a dramatic, I mean, when the school closes or whatever,

**Speaker 2:** you'll see a dramatic drop in population at first. There's a total of those 200 people around. Yeah. So in what? Let's say, you know, in the middle class town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah. Yeah. So that's going to be about $60,000 over asking price. So then the whole thing's going to have to be structured through the planning, through the town plan, of a second home community. Yeah. Right? And that's where the tax base is going to have to be. You were just saying $60,000 over asking price. So when that happens, every year, the state, the Lister Association comes down and talks to our assessor and say, why did that sell up here? You've got it assessed here.

**Speaker 10:** Oh, so that affects your COD.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah.

**Speaker 13:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it takes, you're money, your CLA. Yeah. And your tax rate over there.

**Speaker 2:** It's because people that live in the City... Well that shouldn't be... That should not be the issue, though.

**Speaker 23:** Mm-hmm . An assessed value wouldn't be an assessed value. It's appraisal of the property... Mm-hmm . Right? Yep. Just because it's sold for 300,000, or a million dollars... Yeah. ...it may only be worth $400,000. Yep. That's going be more accountant...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But they don't look at, they don't look at that.

**Speaker 7:** ...no. That's going to be more common than not. I've heard stories right in North Adams where people are asking how much you want for The House.

**Speaker 13:** I don't know how Massachusetts faces their tax, but that's one thing that Vermont looks at.

**Speaker 7:** You drive up the back roads up through Shelburne Falls now, and there's nothing but million dollar houses. Pay that kind of money and not live there all weekend. That's it. They're there on the weekend and they leave. That's what this town's going to have to be.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, can we move on then? Jim, let us know on that playground equipment, what's going on.

**Speaker 2:** That kind of stirred up something for me, the playground. Alright, so the playground is delinquent in maintenance. Where do we stand on the rest of the building? I'm sure that's behind that maintenance.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** They did talk one time about painting, but I don't know where that went.

**Speaker 23:** I mean, if they did such a thorough construction... Again, they have a buildings department where there is a director of building and maintenance. Where?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Here or up there.

**Speaker 23:** Supervisors, okay. So it's important that we know this because are we tenants here? No, seriously. I mean, you've been through this year after year. I've sat here year after year in all them meetings of who's who and what's what and the lawyers and everything else. What was the decision? It belongs to the inhabitants of the town.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And as soon as the school is here... The school is here. The school has control over it.

**Speaker 7:** Over the building. Right. As long as they're here?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, they have control over it. This part, I don't know.

**Speaker 10:** I mean, if they were to vacate, it's not like they're going to take the building.

**Speaker 7:** Well, then they could use it for whatever.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It still would be ours, not the school's.

**Speaker 14:** The town recreation center.

**Speaker 7:** Well, no, they could literally take this part of the building, too. We need a big town garage. It's a building, it's a safety, public safety and all that stuff. This garage is going to be downstream someday. Hopefully it's not the next storm.

**Speaker 38:** You have people coming in off the site that unlocks the building, coming into the foyer right here.

**Speaker 23:** Yep. Yep. And everybody knows what's going on in there.

**Speaker 2:** Well, there was talks about putting concrete pillars to keep cars from crashing into the building at one meeting.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yep. I don't know where that went. Because we walked around, remember, with that?

**Speaker 15:** That might be something the state put out. The state police were told to go out and do it. That might be just something on there. Do you have any boulders?

**Speaker 3:** Yeah, exactly.

**Speaker 43:** I must have a few in my yard.

**Speaker 23:** There's a new schoolhouse recommendation. And it's state by state, but it's federally kind of like, I forgot what the Department of Education came up with,

**Speaker 34:** because of all these school bombings and shootings and everything else.

**Speaker 21:** So.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Um. John, somebody mentioned the tennis court. Do you think you guys can work on it this year and clean it up down there? I'll do my best. It looks terrible.

**Speaker 4:** And what exactly are we doing with it?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Get rid of the boxes.

**Speaker 4:** Get rid of everything down there? The fence, everything?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** If you can use the fence, I'd say take the fence, use it.

**Speaker 4:** There's nothing down there we can use. But what about the building?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The building seems okay now, but I don't know what it would be used for.

**Speaker 2:** The thing is, I don't want to have to remove the building and clean up underneath the tennis court, you know?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The blacktop is very uneven.

**Speaker 4:** I thought about just putting, you know, topstool down and seating it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah.

**Speaker 4:** Is it just, is it blacktop?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes. And it's all buckled and very uneven. The boxes are rotten.

**Speaker 4:** This summer would have been, I mean, what we had. When it's dry like that, I can get more done. Yeah. We need it to be dry to be hauling.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Can you figure next summer when school goes out?

**Speaker 44:** Remind me.

**Speaker 2:** Order a dumpster from Atkins or whatever.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, we need to have dumpsters there.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I suppose maybe we could offer the building if anybody wants the building. It's not my decision. The Seed Savers built it with volunteers. I don't know who provided the lumber. I think Potvin.

**Speaker 14:** Larry Potvin provided the lumber. Lumber. And Helen's husband. Built some.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Pretty much supervised, if not actually.

**Speaker 14:** Yes, he supervised the building. There's one picnic table that's not bad. It's collapsing back there. It's right up, those are like two feet from the start.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I know. Okay. We have four of good soil and compost to fill those boxes.

**Speaker 7:** It's full of weeds now. It's awful. I suppose if anybody wants them. If anybody wants compost or dirt. Go down and take it.

There's blueberry bushes.

**Speaker 7:** There's blueberry bushes. There's some. There's some. There's some.

There's some.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** There's some. There's some. There's some. There's some. There's some. There's some.

**Speaker 3:** There's some. There's some.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** There's some.

**Speaker 7:** There's some.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** There's some. There's some.

**Speaker 10:** Some.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** groups. There's some, where this is long, that's versus blueberry bushes. Right. Blueberry bushes. I'll leave on there. Yeah. Okay.

Anything else?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I blame these long meetings I mic, I guess I can't. Nothing else. I'll give you an each appointment on them. I will. There's a doubinus? Yeah, he's not here. Yeah. Laurie is starting to close out the end of the year and she pays these, we used to call them, $10 people. they get $10 a year now they're up to $25 a year they get paid for serving on the various committees like conservation tree warden Bennington County Regional Commission some people opt to get paid and others say no I don't want to get paid but that's up to them Lori has to have the money there in the budget or we have to say yes and there's two positions that we've never designated any money for DV fiber representatives are two of them and there's the ethic liaison whoever fills that position that we don't pay so are we going to appropriate money for these three positions and if the people want to take the $25 a year they can or if not Lori has a paper that they can sign the

**Speaker 15:** ethical liaison is kind of a just hanging out there isn't it because we don't have the board up there right now

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** that's true that's true so how do we feel about having Lori pay these people

**Speaker 7:** that are in the position sure 25 bucks mm-hmm what is it the record five

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** representatives and one ethic liaison when we had ethics policy we had to have a liaison between the town and the state

**Speaker 15:** then the state all of a sudden said we don't have the money or anything to we don't have this money or anything to do it so basically it's a dead issue so we

**Speaker 45:** got no liaison well there's still someone appointed to other whether he he

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** didn't can't do his job though sorry dog

**Speaker 23:** the state just cooled down that aspect of it you are the ultimate ethics

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Commission period right here but not only five bucks but not with the state 50 55. You're going to break us. 60. Yours. So how do you feel? Do you want to do a motion for it?

**Speaker 7:** Motion to pay those three positions.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Any seconds?

**Speaker 16:** Second.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All in favor? Aye. John?

**Speaker 26:** 50 bucks.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes.

**Speaker 2:** Get one big prime bread

and get one rib. Yeah, that's right.

**Speaker 7:** Oh, it's 25 bucks a pound, right? So you get a slag. Hopefully that 75 bucks doesn't hold too long.

Prime rib? Yeah. Okay. Any other business here?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No. Make a motion to adjourn. Second.

**Speaker 3:** I just wondered if there was any consideration for the town report

**Speaker 9:** dedicating the town report. I got it right here and I

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** got to look at it. Gene brought this up the other day about dedicating the town report this year to Betty Badness and

**Speaker 10:** Dottie Howe. I think that's a great idea.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Do you want to take it on? Yeah. Write it up. Give the pictures to Laurie.

**Speaker 7:** I'm taking it on. Write it up and give the pictures. I've got to write a dedication.

**Speaker 13:** Sure. I'll help you with it.

**Speaker 7:** Okay. Sure.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Get the pictures to Laurie. You want them scanned in to you to save you from running down there because you do everything on a computer now, right?

**Speaker 17:** You give me a picture

**Speaker 3:** or a scan of a picture, email me a picture,

**Speaker 7:** whatever. Is there anything we usually include in this? What's that? Someone might have to work on the pictures for me. Someone get the pictures? Or just snap a picture of Dottie on the side of the room.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You probably just have to call the family and you probably just have to call the family

**Speaker 10:** and they get one. Is there anything

**Speaker 3:** we usually include? What's that? CJ would have his mom, I'm sure, and Jim Howe

**Speaker 12:** would have his mom. Yeah. I'll get a hold of them.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah. Is there anything that we normally include in the dedications? Anything you want.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Short, sweet. You can look back at the old ones. We haven't done a dedication in years. In a long time. Do we have anybody else? We try not to forget anybody.

**Speaker 17:** Well, that's the problem with doing it.

**Speaker 3:** You don't want to leave someone out. I know.

**Speaker 21:** Somebody recently passed. Betty Padman.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Long time member of Historical Society. Loved the town. Matriarchs of the town.

**Speaker 7:** That's a good idea. That's all.

**Speaker 3:** I mentioned that song this week. Did she? Yeah. She's 90, I think. That's what brought it to mind. Correct.

**Speaker 7:** I just feel like I see her walking

**Speaker 3:** every day. I know. I saw Jim and I said, Jim, I haven't seen your mom in a couple days. He said, I brought her up to the beds home today.

**Speaker 9:** The other

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** thing is for town report, the select board has to write a report every year. Any thoughts, what you want to include in the select board report? Just give me sentences and I'll try to flesh it out a little bit, what you want to say in the town report, what we did or didn't do. Dave, you always have some ideas that what roads and what we're thinking of doing. Because it's coming fast.

**Speaker 3:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** A couple weeks. Any other new business? We good? Motion. Who wants to do a motion? Mike's not here. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Okay. I'm glad you showed some respect for the elderly. Yeah, I'm going to try. I stopped at Crosswalk. I stopped at Crosswalk and I'm getting to Crosswalk. I feel like I drive to Canada back. I thought you were doing alright back there. My mother, a while back, she wasn't going to send her

**Speaker 14:** a Christmas card.

Chairman John got together and helped her put this card together. That's terrible. Yeah. No, change it

**Speaker 7:** along the way.

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**Speaker 14:** .

**Speaker 3:** . .

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