---
title: "Stamford Select Board — April 2, 2026"
date: 2026-04-02
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, 6 of 8 clusters unnamed
voice_ids: {"SPEAKER_03":1,"SPEAKER_04":6,"SPEAKER_05":16,"SPEAKER_06":7,"SPEAKER_07":4,"SPEAKER_08":5,"SPEAKER_09":3,"SPEAKER_11":2}
duration_min: 81
audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14nlby00wE-g1b2Vj5SephhyjXnhdJ07o/view?usp=sharing
audio_source: town drive
minutes: https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%204-2-26.pdf
minutes_pending: false
present: [Nancy L. Bushika, Michael G. Denault, Kurt Gamari, John Dunn, Jedidiah Gramlin]
absent: []
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 — April 2, 2026

**Session:** Regular · **Duration:** 81 min · [Audio](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14nlby00wE-g1b2Vj5SephhyjXnhdJ07o/view?usp=sharing) · [Minutes](https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%204-2-26.pdf)

**Present:** Nancy L. Bushika, Michael G. Denault, Kurt Gamari, John Dunn, Jedidiah Gramlin

---
**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Let's call the meeting to order.

**Speaker 1:** I'm going to pound it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay, we're going to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.

This is a signifying the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Offering committee will stand for the select board. If you have a matter to discuss that is not included in the agenda, you may just go by addressing the chairperson and stating your name and address. You'll notice that all armed meetings are recorded and this is to aid in the summarization of the minutes.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** 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 with respect to all others. Select board members present are...

**Speaker 2:** Michael G. Denault.

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

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

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Will there be any adding of items or removing items from tonight's agenda? I have additional access weight permits that have come in. Okay. Will there be any adjustments to the agenda such as changing the order of items? And Jed is recording tonight's meeting for his YouTube video. All right. Hearing of visitors. Sir, are you...

**Speaker 1:** Yeah. My name is Charlie Jewett. I live in Pownall. I'm a conservative Republican and I want to run for state assembly because our district is pretty conservative and we have a pretty liberal... I'm a fiscal conservative, I'm a social conservative, rapidly pro-second amendment. I own the Bennington Armory gun shop in Bennington.

**Speaker 3:** You look familiar.

**Speaker 1:** Yeah, you look familiar too.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** What are you running for, right?

**Speaker 1:** State assembly.

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

**Speaker 1:** And I need signatures. I could get some tonight.

**Speaker 4:** Would you want to do a selectors meeting here or?

Man, you're not even making weight.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Appreciate that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, it's just a meeting. You know, it's five minutes. Just to get on the agenda. Yeah, absolutely. On the ballot. So...

**Speaker 1:** Well, it's district one. So the town of Bennington is a separate district.

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

**Speaker 5:** But we are in district one.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I want to get the mix up like a couple of years ago.

**Speaker 1:** Yeah, that was a big issue.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Where's the line go?

**Speaker 6:** On this side of the road or that side of the road?

**Speaker 1:** That could have changed the election, I think.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Very close.

**Speaker 1:** Yeah, 20 votes.

I sign everybody's who goes on the ballot

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** because anybody wants to throw their hat in this rat race, go ahead.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah, I'm going to give you 20 years to have people willing to serve.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, yeah. Hey, Bill. Did you see Adams, the paper about Adams Fire Department while we're signing this? No. So they have a, Massachusetts has a mandatory retirement age, 65. Oh. They're going to lose five firemen this year.

Imagine that.

**Speaker 8:** And they're active. We could not sustain losing five of our 16 active firemen. Yeah, like that. I mean, we've got like 22 people on the list and that includes me and you know, I really-

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, you're not going to- Yeah, you're not going to- Yeah, you're not going to- Yeah, you're not going to- Yeah. You know, and the thing is, you can't just say, say you lost five and you say, okay, I got five kids coming up the ladder, I'm going to- You've got to train them. Yep. Nowadays, it takes almost a year to get them.

You've got a year, year and a half. Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do you have anything else or we can go out with our meeting and- Please go on with your meeting. We'll watch for you. August. I appreciate that. Okay. Reading and approval of records and orders of March 19th.

**Speaker 1:** Motion to approve. Second.

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

**Speaker 9:** Aye.

**Speaker 1:** Aye.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay, highway-

**Speaker 1:** Okay, highway-

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Highway update?

**Speaker 10:** So it's getting to that time of year so I think there's no, just when they can fit us in so it usually takes about a day. We've been getting the equipment, summer equipment, the grader and ready to go. We had an oil leak on the excavator. I wanted to take care of it, so that's pretty well fired at this point. I'm waiting for parts. I've also been working on an alternative product. It's a project for the East Road color structures grant we have with A&R and AOT.

**Speaker 11:** Does it look like it's, they're going to accept an alternative design?

**Speaker 10:** So the A&R gave me four different that meets the criteria of the state and then once we pick one, I've got to come up with a price so I've got a hold of some contractors because it's a pretty big job. And get some estimates on it and then ask AOT. Okay. Okay. Okay. And then ask the AOT if it would still qualify for our grant, keep them happy.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And on our street sweepers, I know they're going to do Brookside Drive this year. Are they going to sweep that first or do you have them sweep it after?

**Speaker 10:** Yeah, no, it'll get swept when they come around the regular sweeping and then more than likely again when they chip seal it and then have them chip seal it. So, it probably will get swept three times this year. Thank you so much.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All right. Well, good luck. How many signatures do you need?

**Speaker 1:** I'm going to need, I think, 100.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, that's not bad.

**Speaker 1:** And that includes Pommel, too.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, yeah.

**Speaker 1:** I'll get there.

Good luck.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Go to recycling up here on Sandy.

Oh, really? Recycling Center is open.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Sandy, soon it'll be open Wednesday and Sandy.

I'm off on Wednesday.

**Speaker 1:** Does that sound good?

**Speaker 9:** All right.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Thank you. Sorry, Dave. Alternative plans, oil leak.

**Speaker 10:** Maintenance. That's just what it really is. We're out filling Pommel.

**Speaker 11:** In preparation for blacktopping, what does the town have to do to, like, the dirt section of Jefferson Road and the shore?

**Speaker 10:** I'll be talking more with the paving company where some of the ditches are at. I mean, for the most part, they're, you know, the reason, but if there's something, I feel. The grading's a big thing. You know, I guess historically, it's usually the second week in April. It'll, uh...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Better or... Yeah, probably the third man this year and...

**Speaker 10:** I'll kind of get... I'd be able to paint the plows or, you know... Straighten up the garage. James was out washing the trucks the other day, you know, which, you know, may have a pen. Things like that that tend to get pushed aside, you know, I felt like I could take on this oil leak. You know, ditching, certainly running two trucks instead of one, it'll be a little bit faster.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** How did we survive this last rainstorm? It looked like Clarksburg. Had a lot of runoff from the roads. A lot of stones in the roads.

**Speaker 10:** Less roads, pretty much, yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, how about, uh...

**Speaker 10:** I mean, everything seems okay. I mean, they're obviously not graded yet, so you're going to have, you know, little trails down the road and whatnot.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You can notice it more on your road, Jim.

**Speaker 12:** He's made my ditches, like, four feet deep, so everything just kind of goes down the side. Stay X on it. Stay X on it.

Yeah, obviously. I think our road, we maintain our road, you know, so... Yeah. For the most part. I think they... What are you trying to say, Clarksburg? Not taking any shots. Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You know, that's something that, you know, just an extra thing. You know, we talk and talk and talk about Klondike Road. Someday we really need to talk about it, because Clarksburg's West Road is getting to the point where it's just a matter of time that it's going to be gone. I mean, you look at it. You've been up there. You look at it, and it's just scary. I hate to say it, but there's going to be a time where we're going to... We're going to really have to...

**Speaker 13:** It's flat-out dangerous, and you've got to try and take a fire truck up there.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we're taking our comm trucks up there, and you're right. It's a rough road, and it's...

**Speaker 13:** It's steep.

**Speaker 8:** It's real steep. Yeah. It's hard to keep control. Yeah. Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I mean, it's something to think about.

**Speaker 10:** The service from Casala is... They are. They're expensive. Unfortunately, the price is...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Can they come into Vermont and haul it out, Vermont? Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything about that?

**Speaker 10:** They haul it in to Casala's facility, so Casala knows the price. That's part of it. They can't control what they're charged. Yeah. You know, and then they know what their cost is to haul it, so Casala's a huge, huge business.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. You know, they're... I just... I used them down the shop, and I called them. They went off, and I said, I'm going to start looking for someone else. They said, well, wait a minute. They were all saying... And they came back with a lower price than my share. Yeah. So we'll give you a...

**Speaker 14:** I guess you just got to complain.

**Speaker 10:** The haul fee itself was quite a... Yeah. Quite a...

**Speaker 2:** Do you think at some point, why is it for the town? I know it's another expense, but maybe it's something the town should look at, and getting a truck to do that ourselves?

**Speaker 10:** I mean, I mentioned that, I think, in the fall. I'm a painter, so... But the other two we own, we can have whatever we want hauled. I know that we would end up saving money.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Where would they have to haul it to? Just Bennington?

Yeah.

**Speaker 10:** Just goes to Bennington. I mean, owned by Casala. Yeah. So you're going to pay there. So there are some, I want to say... Right.

**Speaker 15:** Yeah.

**Speaker 10:** I'm guessing a few...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything else? No. I can't.

**Speaker 10:** But it's about once a month for the four yard. I'd say it's five, six times a year for the dump truck.

**Speaker 2:** Could you utilize the older one ton, and instead of doing a monthly, do a weekly trip to Bennington?

**Speaker 10:** It's not big enough of a truck.

**Speaker 2:** No, I'm saying just back the truck over, throw the stuff in the dump truck, and then on Monday, take a ride to Bennington. Instead of the monthly pickup, you'd be doing it a weekly drive, and it'd be a nice thing.

**Speaker 10:** I haven't really thought about that. It's the best day to do something. I guess, like Wednesdays were open, so realistically, you need to do it, because you can't... A lot of trash. Couldn't say, because I didn't know... They had those. Hauling bits, it's getting that time of year.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Do we want to put it out to bid? Do we have... Did we get any bidders last year?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Is that how it costs us that much? Is that enough? I mean... The numbers are so fair, I guess. I wasn't going to say low, but fair. You know, I know that some people might look at it as, well, you're better because of the conflict of interest, but on the other hand is, John does a good job, reasonable, and he's a Stamford resident for the rest of the board.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, I'd like to look at the bid again, because along the fence line over there, from there down to the black fence, there's a lot of brush that's down. And stuff that's growing into the fence, if that could be cleaned up, and I'm not even sure about that fence line over there, I haven't looked at that one, but could we put that into the bid also? Clean up, and whoever gets this...

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The more you put in, the more it costs.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, I know. The more it costs. Unless, Dave, unless you guys want to come down one day, three of you one day, clean it all up. That's another thought, too.

**Speaker 10:** It is what it is. I'm not against it, but...

**Speaker 16:** It makes sense when you do the roadside mowing to come down and to hit it real quick, you

**Speaker 2:** know? We have done that.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Go right along the fence line with...

**Speaker 10:** We have done that. Because there's like... What's it a one day thing, or...

**Speaker 17:** Yeah, that just works into it.

**Speaker 18:** Do you know where, like, the fence line is?

**Speaker 2:** Well, we did a little walk last year during the summertime, they had somebody go in there, it was a tree company, and they cleaned for the wires, right? And they went through, they were, like, on the other side of the fence, like, five, ten feet, they went back and really whacked. They got... They hired them all. Where was that done? Along that whole side of the fence line over there.

**Speaker 8:** When they had the cable, they were replacing...

**Speaker 19:** Yeah. Are you talking about just a spring cleanup, or are you talking about mowing, weed whacking all summer and keeping it clean?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, a spring cleanup. When they're... Because they're going to have to start now bringing the sod back, where you plow the stuff up, out on the lawn.

**Speaker 20:** So you did that?

**Speaker 2:** Yeah, I did the front lawn. I don't know if that's on day... I know. ...and then Dave... He probably doesn't have time for it. It could be a bit of a chore to call them trees all the time.

**Speaker 21:** ...replacing the sod and... I know.

**Speaker 18:** ...you guys are growing through. Yeah. It's not, I mean, it's not hard, but it's a pain in the butt. I know. It just looks... It's hard off the top of my head. I think it was, like, 500 or, I think that was $500 to do all the cleanup last year.

**Speaker 19:** That was the ditch.

**Speaker 2:** Yep. And then... Yep. Well, if we're going to send it out to bed, I don't really want you to discuss price. Don't say, no, don't say no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not fair to you. You know? Because then people will say, oh, he's, John's going up $50.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm going up $45. You know?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. But, personally, if we're just going to do the same as what we did last year...

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. ...and John's going to go up, you know, what percentage, I wouldn't really... The ditch here, that... This time of year, especially, if I'm not out there, say, Grady's growing when I should be... Yeah. ...I'm not going to be out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 10:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 10:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

**Speaker 18:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Yeah. What was in here last year was remove debris from ditch along fence on northern line of property. We didn't say anything about cleaning between the ditch and the fence or cleaning the fence out over there. I just thought it would look neater, but we don't want it neat. And there's other spots around the school that need cleaning too.

**Speaker 2:** I don't understand that ditch anyways. I don't know if there's a pipe or a culvert. I don't know where it comes out of.

**Speaker 22:** There used to be a culvert on the other side of that.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I talked to the state guy down there and he said they're supposed to be cleaning these out and they're in the same boat. And then every other ditch that they had, they took the culverts out. There used to be a drain at the bottom on the other side. So those are all supposed to be maintained. These ditches, that one right by where the state guy lives, Russ, is all backed up.

**Speaker 23:** It needs to be cleaned up.

**Speaker 18:** I mean I got a culvert in there. It drains from the old general store across. It goes into the ditch into a manhole on the house across the street. And it comes out in the culvert in my yard. But the culvert is the only one.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Do I need to get a permit to clean this out?

**Speaker 2:** Luckily there's not like a lot of water.

It just goes right to the parking lot. Where is the culvert? On that side of the road? There used to be. I don't know. It just got taken away.

**Speaker 18:** That's what happens. There was one there when I was a kid.

**Speaker 24:** It's still there?

**Speaker 10:** Yeah. Some are gone, some are there. The state will only go that 25 feet from the center out. They're not going to come down through all the way to the river. I mean they realistically should. I mean they should maintain their drainage but they put it on the property on there. But then you have to follow their rules.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right. Just like when they went in the river up there by Lincoln Road. They have no problem jumping in there.

**Speaker 23:** I mean there's only what, eight inch culverts running over that, underneath that road.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So what do we want to do with the lawn bid? Do we want to clean the fence on both sides of the property, leave that out, let Dave do it, put it in the bid?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** If we want to send it out to bid. You could do it both ways. Yeah, I would separate it. I would say what we had for a bid last year and then separate this extra work and see what that comes. And then if that extra work costs $10,000 we'll have Dave do it.

Yeah. Okay.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we'll move debris from ditch along fence on the northern and southern line of property fence on both sides. And it's just to the black fence, not on the schoolyard. Put two sections. Now do we want to revamp this or just give it to John and save our time and mailing? You made a bid already.

**Speaker 25:** I'll give it to John.

**Speaker 2:** Give us a number back. I'll give you numbers but I don't know what the rules are legal wise if you're supposed to. Obtain some bids or whatever. We don't have to.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We don't have to do bids. No. You don't have to do bids, right Dave? No.

**Speaker 26:** Under a certain amount?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** The numbers are too high.

**Speaker 26:** It's already, it already happens in a number.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I'm looking at $200 to about that to mow that lawn out there. I know for a fact that my pro-law's got a piece of land more than that. It's less than an acre. Raise your price.

I'm just saying. I'm just trying to.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Don't listen to this guy.

**Speaker 4:** I'm just trying to.

**Speaker 2:** His numbers are fair. Get the town a service. At a reasonable cost. Right. I'm trying to keep the overhead low.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And that's what I mean. This is where you go back Kurt saying. Got a guy that lives in the town, cares about the town. Yep. So that's your motion?

All right.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** What is the motion?

I have two, two separate descriptions in here in the lawn mowing bid. And. Give it to.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we'll see how bad the. Give it to John. You think about it though. You know everything has to get done. Put things off. Talk to you about this in.

**Speaker 27:** Nancy and I just interject something.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You know. You know. You know. You know. You know. You know.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** You know. You know.

**Speaker 28:** You know. You know. I could just briefly. If you're not going to request bids. You might want to phrase it as requesting a quote. A quote rather than. Quiting putting out for bid if you're not going to put it out. Right.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Just a quote, let's see where we're at.

Yes request a quote.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes. And everything else will be the same. I'll have Lori get that for you and email it to you John. Sure. Okay, anything else under discussion?

**Speaker 26:** Correspondence.

Sign uniform.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It says, municipal excess weight Aah-kay. We're up trucking and it looks like you've got a couple more.

**Speaker 19:** della Mallana. Consolidated communication, camp precast, and a new one, QXO8, from Indiana.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Maybe we're doing better now than we...

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I got a question for you, back to quick on the roads. You stopped the logging trucks from going off and down. Do you have a sign at the moment? If someone wanted to get a delivered log truck up there, you know, just delivered wood, can they do it or do they have to wait?

**Speaker 10:** Right now?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. They can't do it. The roads. They want to get them.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The log trucks go up today.

**Speaker 29:** Yeah, three of them.

**Speaker 10:** You were calling today? They called me today.

Right.

**Speaker 10:** No, they're...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Excess weight permit. One-one numbers displayed. So, hand them out to you guys, yeah. But do you want me to put names next to them and you guys, if they're your friends or your relatives, want to say, hey, get that up before we send you a letter or how do you want to do this?

**Speaker 2:** Okay, 620 residents in town, oblivious to what goes on here in this road.

How do we, how do we, how do we outreach to the people that...

**Speaker 8:** It's been a long time, John, but several years back we went through and called these people twice. We had a form letter we put together and differentiated between there was no number or half of your number has fallen off or your number is back 20, you know, 100 feet from the road so it's got to be put out by the driveway. Right. And we got minimal... Yeah. ...response to it. So... We've done better this past three months or so... Could we... With requests... ...ask Paul Dupuis to post on an all-formed...

**Speaker 2:** Sure. ...Hanks on at Billmont... Mm-hmm. ...and maybe Fort Warren people, like if it's... Letters are coming. Well, I don't know if it's worth us wasting the postage on a letter, but isn't there a fine that's involved? There isn't a lot, but there is.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** But there is. It's not even worth the paperwork and... What do we...

Is that the ticket one? So it's like a $15 donation to the fire department, right?

**Speaker 2:** And you get a sign.

And they just put it up? You don't have to go through the fire department, but it's... $16, the fire department will do one.

**Speaker 2:** Yes. You can do your own as long as you meet the letter size and reflective background. But is there any way...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It's terrible. ...double-debt, you're giving a donation to the fire department.

**Speaker 2:** It's terrible. It's terrible.

**Speaker 7:** It's terrible.

**Speaker 8:** It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible.

**Speaker 2:** It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. Is there any way we could just do the sign? Have the fire department do it and then implement it into say their taxes to get the money back?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, we tried it with something else or...

**Speaker 8:** One point you talked about doing 6x6 posts, engraving them, going out and planting them at the end of the driveway and say, did we charge somebody or we informally did it for every house.

**Speaker 30:** There's some residences in towns that they're mailed to...

**Speaker 2:** No, you have to do the paperwork. ...you have to do the paperwork. mailbox isn't even at the at their house right so like the bottom of county or mill right there's

**Speaker 31:** like a stretch of mailboxes so it's no it says either on your house visible or at the front of

**Speaker 8:** your driveway you have a little bit of difficulty of putting it at the end of the driveway so that it doesn't get hit by a snowplow but it's kind of clear and there are some people that you know yeah you try to sell the idea whether it's you or some relative come a fire in the middle names

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** with these 86 83 I'll put names with them email to you guys see if there's anybody on there that

**Speaker 25:** you want to tell yourself send me mine I already know is it worth knocking on the door and saying

**Speaker 2:** here we're here on behalf of the fire department slash 9-1-1 whatever and you're not capable to do it ourselves and all we asked for is a $20 donation for the fire department and you'd have like a volunteer me must be they

missed you Dave Brown a six pack of beer and some 9-1-1s on Friday night I think you could put it on a t-post and drive it very quickly if you decide where it's going

**Speaker 30:** because the next thing is the dog list that's another issue we can't get on the

**Speaker 20:** register of dogs and here we are trying to get them to put signs up well that's all we can do is say put the sign up I like how Bill said because the fire department can't find you the ambulance can't find you and there you go until they find you in the spring don't kill us for not coming but we can't find you

**Speaker 2:** well that's the thing we've had

**Speaker 8:** it's years since I've been out driving on a call but I have it happen when we have had people come back in the last year or so drive right past the house it was a burn inside the house it was nothing obvious on the outside nobody bothered to come out and try to wave us down

**Speaker 2:** I deal with it with delivering the fire department I can't where is this place you know and you can't go by the GPS because it takes me to the wrong house go on the snowmobile trail or something it's just hard to do it okay where are you going where are you going where are you going the fire department can't help you

**Speaker 8:** Now it's difficult if people don't want to cooperate.

**Speaker 12:** You're basically black and you can't see it. Well I know I'm not, I don't have a sign and I keep forgetting about it.

No, I think it really falls on them. Just like you said, if you don't care, do diligence to say come on guys.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And then if there is a problem, you know, we've done our best. We can't feel bad. I mean this has been on the agenda for a lot of meetings or something. He's got the list for us so now we'll follow through.

**Speaker 2:** I have the sign, it's under the front seat of my truck. It's been sitting here since I got it. Yeah, I got that.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You can't move the house and it's blowing all the wood off. I tore the mailbox down. That's where I was going to put it. I've got to do both.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'll do names. Send them to you and we'll discuss it next meeting on what we're going to do.

**Speaker 18:** Get them all up and then the state will change all the numbers. Better not.

**Speaker 2:** Maybe Lori can pull up the phone. Yes.

**Speaker 19:** I was going to say, you guys have money in your budget. If you dwindle it down with the people you know, it won't be that hard.

**Speaker 32:** Post something.

**Speaker 2:** Let's give it a little time.

Get the names. Have Paul put something on, Stamford informed. Is there a bulletin board at the dump where you can hang stuff or no?

**Speaker 2:** Yeah.

**Speaker 8:** We made up signs for houses. You know, the fire department makes 50 cents on the $16. If you made up all 80 signs and you went out with T-posts and put them there, it will

**Speaker 33:** make them back a bit better.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah, I know. It'll make unhappy people. It'll make unhappy people. Then mine fell down the next day and I, how come they didn't come and put mine? I mean, I've always been, you know, like I said before, I feel bad for the first responders that have to go to those things, but if they don't have to sign, they don't have to sign. Well, I think they have to sign.

**Speaker 18:** They have to sign. They have to sign. They have to sign. They have to sign. They have to sign. They have to sign. They have to sign.

**Speaker 23:** They have to sign.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** They have to sign. And then, you know, I think we gotta avoid, you know, this whole way of life... Well, we could... It's to the point where...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We could put the write-up recycling center without the names, and people could look at...

**Speaker 34:** Well, they won't know that they need four-inch letters...

**Speaker 12:** Maybe you can have a little pocket...

**Speaker 35:** You just say...

**Speaker 2:** You can pick if you want it to go horizontally or vertically, one-sided or two-sided, right? Yeah, like I said, how many people don't... We've got some made-up display sizes. This is even going on, and we've talked about it half a dozen times.

**Speaker 18:** We've got more exposure than we ever have.

**Speaker 36:** Can you put it on the front door?

**Speaker 37:** Do people visit your site? Can you tell?

**Speaker 18:** Yeah. You'd be surprised at some of the numbers.

**Speaker 12:** I've seen well over 100. I had one that was just under 1,000. But on a normal day, it's probably about 50 to 60. Really?

**Speaker 38:** Way more than the three that are here.

**Speaker 8:** Can we put it on the signboard outside? Do you have your house number yet?

**Speaker 4:** No, we don't use that sign. We don't use that. We don't use the signboard. On the phone box out there?

**Speaker 8:** On the phone company box. No, we just don't use it.

**Speaker 20:** Could we all?

Because if we put that up and not...

**Speaker 2:** I thought you were going to bring us...

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** No, no, I'm not saying that word, so...

**Speaker 2:** Do you know those little temporary fold-out signs that the school uses? Stop saying signs. Could we implement one of them for a day or two and put it right out there next to the town sign?

Let's see the town sign. Got your 911 sign yet? Are you sure you're...

**Speaker 18:** C-warrior, town office. Woodville down to 74. Okay. 62. You want to vote at town meeting? Bring a picture of your number. Thank you. We'll never give it to zero.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay. Moving on. New business or any other old business?

**Speaker 18:** Immoral business. Immoral business. Yeah, I talked to Rodney Holland. I guess he's the head of the maintenance for the school. Yep. Nothing new to report really. He said he pressure tested the well. There is no report because he did it by himself. He thinks it's run off from the school roof. In the parking lot. And he suggested something new. Okay. You're right. Well.

**Speaker 10:** Something is... I think it's run off from the... Absolutely not. It's dry. I mean, the roof has been the same as it's been for a long time. Right. We've had before this one and the mud would dry up. So... Yeah. You know, especially when it was that cold and windy. It would dry up. Not only dry up, it frees over. Yeah. This year, it's never... I don't know. 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. I don't know.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't know.

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

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't know. It's just... I don't know. I don't know.

**Speaker 39:** I don't know.

**Speaker 10:** I don't know. The water seems to find it's own way. And you have a leak here. Yeah. I mentioned the leak in the office. And we looked... So, I had shot a laser to see about putting in, you know, like in the ground because it's really not feasible. I mean, you have to run. You have to dig a ditch all the way down. Right through the Blacktop. To the river. And, you know, we'd be digging up the... When you get in the ground, we're not going to put it deep enough for it not to freeze. All the way down to the Brook, you're going to leak. Only the River. Yeah. you know out of the parking lot with pipe and then you got to have an open ditch which the kids are probably you know there'll be some issue with that so you really need to run the pipe all the way down there and then you're probably going to get sediment and so then you're gonna be here with a bag truck or somebody in the fire department trying to flush it out you know it's just you think you're fixing a problem and you're creating two more so walk around the problem. I don't know what to say. It's kind of we can't find what the source is then i don't know.

**Speaker 14:** It fixes something by changing parts. Diagnosis works.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So what do we want to do? We want to have it come down.

**Speaker 18:** Yeah.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Me and what are you going to do with it?

**Speaker 18:** He said he'd be more happy to come down and take a look around with us. He's going to point out options or whatever.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I mean he's going to have to do it before it gets dark so. Great. If he wants to come before we come down. meeting Thursday night at 530. Let us know, we can meet with him and then come in.

**Speaker 10:** It seems to me like we've got here, but you know we hire somebody to maintain the school, and every time we hire them, they say what they're going to do or not going to do. The snow removal stuff. And nobody thinks it's a big deal, but I'm the one down here at, you know, five in the morning shoveling now. Wait, also, we've got the principal and janitor, who's ahead, that does the job that we need them to do.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, they hired a cleaning company, so that cleaning company, I don't imagine...

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's going to be doing snow.

**Speaker 19:** It's going to be on a temporary basis, and then this summer when they have time, they're going to bid it out. Okay, do you... They have someone in mind already.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** As a janitor or a cleaning company?

**Speaker 19:** Or a custodian, or... A custodian from Reedsboro is now going to be out of the job. Oh. They have to do a whole process.

**Speaker 10:** If the select board could put in their two cents in this, and... I mean, you've got to... You've got to be down here at five in the morning shoveling your snow on all these walks. And that's part of that job. It's always been part of that job. If you can't do it, you can't do the job. It's like, I'll just say, well, you know what? I don't want to plow snow with.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, these are the things that I want to do on the highway. Right.

**Speaker 25:** Here's my list.

**Speaker 2:** Also, you said that the school has a budget for that. Yeah. For snow removal.

**Speaker 15:** Yeah, they had a separate line on them for snow removal.

**Speaker 10:** Yeah. They just hire themselves. But they've, since Rich, they've just left. Because they can't get anybody. Probably because they're not paying enough.

**Speaker 14:** Well, I wasn't going to bring the school board to the school.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We've got to start. It used to be we would lease that much out. You have the budget. If you can't do that, there's three bodies now. Okay? Three bodies. There's tension now.

**Speaker 8:** While we're talking about tension, can I ask what happened with the library? I was out of town Tuesday and Thursday. There have been emails back and forth.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Tuesday they were, Tuesday the library was open to the public. Yeah.

**Speaker 26:** Was it today?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Today. Danielle went there at noon time and it said, there was a sign on the door, do not disturb. She took a picture of it. And I don't know what happened.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So, we said no. They said no. They said, I don't care. Yeah.

**Speaker 25:** They did what they wanted.

**Speaker 2:** In time. We got it. We got it. It's a town and a school. They're going to have to figure it out part ways.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Well, because the state, the school had, and this is not the school board at all. This is the state and the supervisory union. The union has the state behind them per law. They have the state behind them. And that's what's going to hurt us because you can push, push, push, and then they have the law. Yeah. And if we end up, now I hate to say this. Yeah. But if we end up going to a court system, they have the money. It's our money, but they have it. Yeah. And they're going to beat you. And it's sad. You know, I hate to say that right now because I don't, who owns this and who owns that? It's all about who has control. That's where we're at. I don't know. Well, it was probably, it was 19, 19 and 20.

Right. Yeah. And that agenda, and again, this is an opinion, that agenda is that they want control over the law.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. They want control over the law.

**Speaker 7:** Yeah.

**Speaker 8:** It's a planned agenda. They don't control the money.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Correct. It's a planned agenda. If it has to wait until next March.

**Speaker 7:** Yep.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That's our ace in the hole, I guess. Yeah. That may have to be it. I mean, it's a planned agenda and the first shot was fired. Sure was. But it means we kind of have to demand their budget early enough to be able to look at it for a week or two before town meeting and to really go over it. I mean, I finally got to the point where I said, you know what?

**Speaker 8:** We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. I mean, I finally got an answer from a library money that's scheduled for 27 and they put a big put a bring that suddenly is. Yeah. It's not the librarian expense into the. Salary then. Shouldn't be.

**Speaker 33:** It makes sense to a town office slash library or.

**Speaker 8:** You know, I didn't spend mention of a federal budget.

**Speaker 33:** We're going to do this.

**Speaker 40:** We're going to do this.

**Speaker 2:** We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** We're going to do this. We're going to do this. Oh, we're going to do this. We are. Got the We're going to do does. Well, we put in something like $30,000, $35,000, and they put in $12,000.

**Speaker 2:** Yes.

**Speaker 8:** And in fact, they budget $11,000 for the last three years, and they've only spent $2,500. So that $2,500 went for the salary of somebody. I asked Julie, and she says for the past year they have had somebody, you know, work in the library one day a week, so they've actually spent the money.

**Speaker 38:** But it doesn't look like it.

**Speaker 12:** Just because I'm new at this and everything, but it seems like Blue Wolf Lash, going back and forth on, is it a school situation or is it a town thing? So do we have to actually sit down and say this is what it is?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I can verify 100% the property that we're sitting on is owned by the town people. And I can verify that. We went through it back in 2000, whenever it was.

**Speaker 41:** The attorney.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yep, so we can prove that. The problem is, there's a state law, and I can't quote that number. That state law does state during school hours, the control of the operations of the property, school, and it says school, is under jurisdiction of the educational department. Now when they call it the school, it's under jurisdiction of the school. So it's under jurisdiction of the school. Is this the school? It's attached to the building. Is this the school?

Because they're saying that the library, which is a separate entity,

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** different than the slot board or the town office and the school. It's a separate entity. They have their own budget. But they're saying that's part of the school and we're in charge of it. Well, if you're in charge of it, then pay the librarian. We went over to space. Yeah, it was three kids.

**Speaker 26:** And they had... Well, they didn't say three.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We said probably not more than six. We don't know how many.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** But I do. They have 81 hours that they can test per week. And they chose to pick those hours that the library happens to be open. And every educator that was here in the room said it's very unlikely that they would test in the afternoon. Because kids don't score well in the afternoon. So something's up. It's a test.

**Speaker 18:** This has got nothing to do with the test for the kids or the library.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** This goes back to more things, too. The library had problems back in, I think it was December. The superintendent, not the school board. We've got to remember, the superintendent's making these calls, not the school board. The school board should be. They're our representatives. If they're the ones that should be making these calls, they're not. They weren't even involved in the emails back and forth. And we weren't involved in the emails until the library decided to bring us in. But they had problems. One day they just said, we're changing the locks. They said, well, for the door to go into the school so we can use the bathroom. Because this place is closed on a Saturday. Changing the locks. Well, can we have a lock? No. Or a key. No. They didn't trust it, and they finally got a key. But they also threatened, and I don't care if they hear me. They threatened again, saying, if that door is left unlocked, just one time we're taking the key away. Like our librarians, our little kids. Well, how do you know it was left open by them? Since you have a key, too. If the school has a key, and our librarian has a key, who left the door unlocked? I'm not sure. I've never been over it. Believe it or not. Because I don't know how to read. Is that the only emergency exit? You know what I mean? It's the second exit door to go in. It's the second door. Yeah. So it's a violation of the law. That was a regular class. So you have to be able to get out. That's a straight lock. You can't get out. It's locked.

**Speaker 8:** That's wrong. That's wrong. And sometime we wanted to try, and there was a proposal to put a second door at the far corner. Yeah. And it faded somewhere.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** When there's maintenance to be done in the library, the library ends. The library trustees, they pay for it out of their budget. The school doesn't. You can't have that both ways here. So your question is, who owns it? We do. The town of Stamford owns it. Not the flight board. The town of Stamford. Okay? The residents. The taxpayers. This guy, and I don't care. I mean, I'm going to say it right in public. This guy comes down, and he's pushing them around, and he does have the law. I get it. The law says it, but we have to say it. We don't have to be bullies and say, well, we're going to push back. Well, why can't you just say, hey, is it okay? You know, you knew you were going to test months ago. Why didn't you say, hey, is there a way we can do it? You know, you knew you were going to test months ago. Why didn't you say, hey, is there a way we can do it? Why didn't you say, hey, is there a way we can do it? Why didn't you say, hey, is there a way we can do it? So we can advertise to the people that the library will be open during a different time. Instead, he does it. Shut it down. He didn't ask. We paid. Our budget. We paid for that. So, ready? Right. So, okay. I'll pass it on to everybody. With that being said. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

**Speaker 42:** Okay.

**Speaker 12:** Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

**Speaker 42:** Okay.

**Speaker 12:** Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Okay.

**Speaker 12:** Okay.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. said from the road to the river and from that not just the building it's the property that's what they said I disagree but be interesting to bring to

**Speaker 8:** town meeting or to do research before time to see if we can find what part of the building belongs to the school whether we can extend the library

**Speaker 40:** building that they get for the school yeah you remember that they're turning

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** disagree with our here's the thing if you go down in the land in the very recent history the principal has taken a classroom made her office not this privilege so they've taken that the multi-purpose that's what it says on our deed it's a multi-purpose room it's locked down you have to ask for permission to use it years that our sweat or has to have permission we are in order to use that every Thursday night we have permission we have to ask them at the beginning of the year they're taking little in the name of safety that's what they always say it's in the name of safety which you all know I feel like something I truly believe we should read away to say we have to have a meeting where you know when you go to the school meetings now I don't know if everybody's been here a while but the head the chairman of the school board doesn't run it anymore. You know, it's like Nancy, having the state come down, the representative runs our meetings instead of Nancy now.

**Speaker 43:** That's BS.

**Speaker 12:** So the technical, in a circle, they technically then would control this too as well? As legal in our town clerk office.

**Speaker 23:** So, according to another person who was here

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** from Reesboro, the school, wasn't it the library had to lease to the school, or from the school. So the library leases the property from the school. That might be where we're headed now. They're gonna say, well, you wanna keep your offices here. This is what it costs. You know, your taxpayers pay everything anyways, but this is what it costs. And then once you do that, now you are bound by their rules. So you're gonna have to do this, this, you're only gonna be able to open so many times. Are you gonna be able to have a hunter come in with a deer, chuck a deer in,

and have his gun in his truck?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I've been seeing that for many years.

**Speaker 8:** Where does this go? A dead deer in a vacuum truck? Oh my God. Just a quick aside. Joan called me because if nobody else gets weather notices, the alert weather notices, they've just posted from seven o'clock tonight to seven a.m. tomorrow morning for freezing rain. For Stamford.

**Speaker 2:** Put a face value on the town's...

Trash removal?

**Speaker 2:** For what it's valued at, have the school buy out and then relocate, find somewhere else to go.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You know, one of the things that Stamford's always priding themselves on, all small towns do, is come move to our town because we have a great school.

Can anybody honestly say that it's equal

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** to when Kurt went to school? Is this school equal to that?

**Speaker 23:** No.

**Speaker 18:** No, you had teachers that were dedicated for a long time. You had a principal that was dedicated for a long time.

They were homegrown. Not to put these people down, but this town's mission statement has changed.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's different. We hear, oh, we'd rather have trophy homes in this town. People that come where they don't have children. Which sounds good on paper with taxes, but who runs your town? Who joins the volunteer fire department or runs your town government?

**Speaker 18:** Well, how are we gonna figure out what the tax base is? Right, if there's no school, hypothetically. Right. And the whole dynamic of your town changes. You no longer have middle, you know. Yeah, you don't know what the future holds

for a school. Middle-aged people with young kids, no.

**Speaker 18:** Right, cool. It has to be something completely different. So then where do you get your tax revenue from?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right, and remember, if you have a child, school or no school, the town's responsible to educate them.

**Speaker 18:** Sure, yeah, and I mean, high school is our killer. But, you know. Those are the questions, because if you're not a small town with a rural school, then you're something completely different.

**Speaker 8:** It'll be interesting to see what Reedsboro's budget turns out to be by the end of this year and what they're proposing next year.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So I'm sure we're gonna get some more tips through it. They can, because it's, like I just said, what's the cost to send our kids to the high school? And now you gotta do that with Gramercy.

**Speaker 7:** It depends on what the superintendent says

**Speaker 8:** as a tuition rate in Stamford that they charge. And then there's Reedsboro, correct?

**Speaker 44:** That's great. I'm actually on work right now, I'm working on the town plan survey. And a lot of those questions are kinda coming up in here, but maybe we wanna be more concrete when we ask town people and get a survey into this. Because it does ask general questions about consolidating schools and

**Speaker 45:** whatnot, but maybe- That's the one that you're gonna send out?

**Speaker 44:** We're doing the town plan when we first do a survey. Okay. I'm wondering if we want to put some questions in about the building.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I hate to say this, and I don't like spending wasteful money, but this could cost money to get us nowhere. Right. You know, and I hate to say it, I hate to put it all out there, but it is what it is. And the people that watch this video are going to go, well, how is this happening? Well, it is. And just like you said, we should be bringing it to town meeting. We should be bringing it up now, get it out, because if we do, like John said, if we do have to purchase a piece of property, let's get it out now before we're forced to purchase

**Speaker 18:** a piece of property. It just makes more sense. It's kind of pathetic that we don't own these properties in town.

**Speaker 21:** Well, we own this, but…

**Speaker 2:** Own this, yeah. Not during school operating hours. It's penultimate. And that's what I…

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I look at this piece of property as one beautiful piece of property, okay? Yeah. And I don't… I think that the feel that we have back there is unutilized. I mean, the kids still go out there and use it like they used to. There's no Stamford sports teams anymore. None of that happens, you know? So, you know, when I was a kid, we came up here and played football out there. We had a team, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, I remember this stuff.

We played basketball here and there. It was a basketball team. And I know it's different, but I don't really want to let this property go… Right. To a… To a… To a… To a… To a… To a… To a… To a…

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** To a… To a… To a… To a… To a… To a… To a supervisor union that could close your school tomorrow and they own your property now. Right. You know? It's one of the things I fought for before talking about Clarkson.

**Speaker 26:** If you looked at it, we would have had to join the Northern Berkshire School District.

**Speaker 2:** Well, be careful.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** See, that's what…

**Speaker 2:** That's what happened to where… Because… They don't own it. The school doesn't own it. So… So… You mentioned… them leasing us the property for use of the off to school to

**Speaker 25:** Well, I'd love to. I'd love to. I'd like to say that we're in charge and then you're going to find just what it is

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** you lease to them. Right. I would love to look at something like that. I don't know if we can but I'd like to say okay.

Is that way you would maintain your controlling interest in the building? And have hours and everything. We're going to lease your, your multi-purpose room will be leased for you to use it during school hours.

**Speaker 2:** Even if it was selling for five dollars. Oh, well, it's still then it puts you in.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** The superintendent did say in one of his letters we should have a memorandum of understanding between the library and the town.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** What do you think that's going to say? Everything he wants it to say.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Well, I'm hoping it's a back and forth negotiation there. So, we start somewhere.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So, this guy, this man, we just told him on a very, this is a very simple experiment. We said no, we're not going to close the library and he did anyways. See that negotiation? That was a failure of negotiation.

**Speaker 12:** But do, in his emails he'd say invite me down. I'll have more than I would love to come talk to you guys. Okay. So, but the statement of that is if you came down and we talked, we're still going to end up in the same place.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** How can we change it? Unless we have, unless we have concrete things that say we can do this. These rules can't apply. You read that law, I can't remember. It's very, to me it's a vague law because it talks about, you know, in session, in session versus an after school program. You know, we used to have basketball games. Parents walked in, uncles walked in, you know. You never knew it was there. I mean, does the school have session if they go skiing until 7 o'clock at night on the trip? Yeah, and then you come back here with the bus, yeah.

I don't know.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That's what I'm saying. It's a very vague thing. And yes, in the name of safety, they use the kids as pawns and it's all about money. Yeah. That's all it is. They use the kids as pawns.

**Speaker 2:** School dance on a Friday night.

**Speaker 21:** Yeah.

**Speaker 2:** Down the clock.

**Speaker 18:** No, no, no, sorry.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** But with the school board? I think we should ask them right away. Let's have a joint meeting with the school board to discuss this. The school board, not the supervisor in the union. We want to talk to the school board. I think as soon as you're . . .

**Speaker 26:** And library trustees together?

**Speaker 27:** Sure.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Let's just write that down.

**Speaker 42:** I was going to say, just be a trustee . . .

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** That would be great, yeah, because as a matter of fact, the more people there, the less he's going to want.

**Speaker 18:** We're going to set that up.

**Speaker 46:** Let's do it. Don't go in and have a date with school and just let those in charge of the library.

**Speaker 18:** Can't we just send an email?

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

**Speaker 18:** Linda. Yeah, I'm going to send an email through our email. Yeah. Who should I send it to?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Linda Rodovick and Cindy Lamar.

**Speaker 18:** If we're done with that. Yeah. We were talking about taxation. Yeah. And ways to make money in town. This has also been a hot topic lately. So, the state changed the law on the charter. You no longer have to rewrite your charter to do a 1% sales tax. You just have to have a town vote. Really? Yes. What's the new law? What's the new option tax? Yeah, it's the new 1% option tax. So, they changed it. I don't know when. It must have been fairly recently. So . . .

**Speaker 47:** So, what's the 1% of what?

**Speaker 18:** 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? 1% of what? Yeah. So, 1% of what? 1% of what? So, of the sales tax. Okay. Whatever the business might sell, the tax goes to the person buying it, the consumer. Yeah. The merchant would pay all that to the state. What if it's a . . . With the regular sales tax, they pay it to the state, and then you get 1% comes back to the town. But only three quarters of that comes back to like liquid cash. Like you could spend that on whatever you need. Yeah. So, now . . . Yeah. Yeah. whatever you need and the other quarter goes into a pilot fund which i'm not exactly sure how that works but if we had state properties here it relieves the burden on that state property um i'm if it would work for green mountain national forest that would be great i don't

**Speaker 47:** think it does because they're not because they have we all we have is the two buildings up there

**Speaker 18:** with right so any state property that doesn't pay tat like property tax you don't get some kind of

**Speaker 23:** percentage what about like a manufacturer though then how would you get taxed off of that

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** uh i'm not sure you got these sales tax it's like you know so road tax sales like my company my machine shop if i moved it up to my property over there i'm i don't have a sales tax so i'm not i'm not sure that because you're not selling to the public i don't sell to the final i'm not the final guy right sell to a company that uses the parents there would be places that you know so

**Speaker 47:** i don't know if you can tax something like that there's not a lot of can you find the statute and

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** send it to us well i'm just saying like if you look at anything they got a ton of manufacturers up there they must pay something isn't it yeah tax though yeah like a business tax the state decided

to do this because they they realized that thompson needed sure well i wouldn't have no

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** problem i'd pay a ton of taxes if i moved up here i have no problem there's not many

**Speaker 18:** department of taxes

**Speaker 46:** not many towns that are chartered chartered well you just have to rewrite your charter so

**Speaker 18:** we don't even have one we don't have a charter no we've got the did you just rewrite it but we don't have to do that no more you just have to have a tumble yeah it doesn't matter if you're

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** chartered right good so can you find that statute that'd be good to have yeah i found it on the

**Speaker 18:** departments of taxes website i was looking at something fighting on that card though what's that i thought they were still fighting show the whole list of towns that we're doing it so i think it's

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** only probably the only charter like bennington has in burlington the big towns yeah because uh

**Speaker 18:** yes you can buy boards and pay their sales taxes we have no idea how many airbnbs in town so that's

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** the other thing your representative was here he said if you have a home business you can make up to 30 000. what was he was he saying he could make it up make up to 30 000 without paying taxes or make up i think so no income tax nothing without getting

**Speaker 8:** certain licenses

**Speaker 48:** oh okay does he still come here now that he's been power song electricity people they should

**Speaker 10:** be paying us a tax they're using our right-of-ways to recharge right why aren't they paying the town

**Speaker 18:** sure yeah this is together think outside the box not to the town utility yeah utilities they pay

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** green mount power national grid and uh

**Speaker 12:** because i know that yeah it's white again

um our tax bills they need whitingham back in the day when they had a gold town because they paid

**Speaker 12:** which they only taxed them on that there's one right up in the box there now they set their own

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** value they set their own value but they pay i don't even remember the tax bill but if you could

**Speaker 17:** tag some one percent on every dollar yeah that's a lot of money i mean we'd have to encourage more

**Speaker 18:** businesses somehow electricity yeah that's what we're thinking too

**Speaker 10:** to do that well i mean yeah but you're going to charge down the bill months you're you're so then

**Speaker 15:** you're going to pay more for your gas they already charge more than everyone else in town or in the

**Speaker 10:** area but the philosophy is you're living past the cost i don't know what you're doing but what's the

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** difference yeah by how many out of staters how many out of staters go to billmont's all right right sure so they're they come up they throw their money in billmont's takes it and they now those out of staters can pay that extra dollar i mean most of it if most of the sales tax i wouldn't assume would go to the town right yeah

**Speaker 46:** people that was changed because there's so many percent that's pushed we're not unique i mean

**Speaker 18:** there's small towns like this all over vermont they're going to struggle with and all that going