[0:00] [Music]
[0:07] Sure.
[0:09] Yes.
[0:11] Are we recorded? Yes.
[0:14] Andrew? Yeah.
[0:16] Okay. I'm with all the Middlebury Select
[0:18] Board Meeting of Tuesday, September 9th
[0:21] to order. First item of the agenda.
[0:25] Seconded.
[0:26] Seconded. Any changes to the agenda?
[0:30] Whereas gone all in favor of approving
[0:32] the agenda is drafted
[0:33] signify by saying aye.
[0:35] Aye.
[0:36] Thumbs up.
[0:38] Next item is approval
[0:39] of the consent agenda.
[0:41] I move.
[0:43] Seconded.
[0:43] Moved and seconded.
[0:45] Anything on the consent agenda anyone
[0:47] would like to call out
[0:49] or any changes to it?
[0:53] On the minutes of our last meeting,
[0:57] August 26th, first I want to compliment
[1:00] Beth Dow on writing the part, especially
[1:03] the challenging part of it.
[1:06] There are some corrections on pages 6, 7
[1:09] and 8 that I would like to...
[1:13] Is that a line number?
[1:15] Yeah. Just a sec.
[1:17] Anything?
[1:20] So line 292, where it says
[1:23] correction of earlier tax rate.
[1:27] I don't know. Maybe on page 6 on line
[1:29] 245, I didn't even note after that motion
[1:31] that this motion was
[1:32] later rescinded and corrected.
[1:34] But on 7, on line 292, item 7, correction
[1:40] of earlier tax rate.
[1:42] And approval of downtown tax
[1:44] rate was the other thing we did.
[1:47] So on line 303, I would add Dinington
[1:49] moved to approve a level downtown tax
[1:51] rate of 0.513 for FY26.
[1:56] Someone seconded it and passed.
[1:59] But that's the only
[2:00] correction I noted now.
[2:05] Otherwise I'm good.
[2:07] Yeah.
[2:09] Good catch.
[2:10] Anything else?
[2:14] Hearing nothing else.
[2:15] In favor of approving the consent agenda
[2:18] with the noted changes to the last Select
[2:24] Board Meeting minutes,
[2:25] signify by saying aye.
[2:27] Aye.
[2:29] Oh, I'm sorry, Brian.
[2:30] There's the check warrants.
[2:32] You know, the amount that's
[2:33] in our agenda notes is 846,000.
[2:38] Crystal sent us something here yesterday,
[2:40] which is actually 2.393 million because
[2:44] of some July and August re-army payments
[2:47] for a certain project next door.
[2:49] It says right now it says 2.395, 045.
[2:54] Okay. So that must have been updated.
[2:56] Which is corrected
[2:56] before the meeting here.
[2:58] All right. Thank you.
[2:59] Okay. Then we'll let the
[3:00] vote stand and we'll move on.
[3:02] Citizen comments.
[3:04] Anybody here for anything?
[3:05] It's a lot quieter than the last meeting.
[3:08] I thought that we had an active and
[3:10] engaged citizen, right?
[3:11] I thought we had a following.
[3:14] Do you want to do that?
[3:15] Careful what you wish for.
[3:19] Karen, we'll invite you
[3:21] up and we're excited each.
[3:23] You know, I don't think we ever in my 12
[3:26] years had the Southwerk business.
[3:33] Oh, good.
[3:34] Hi.
[3:35] Can't wait to be the first.
[3:38] So I'd like to start off because I know
[3:40] I've just got five or ten minutes by
[3:42] leaving it open for you all to ask
[3:45] questions that you might have first
[3:48] because I want to make sure I
[3:49] get plenty of time for that.
[3:50] Anybody with anything burning?
[3:55] We've got as much time as we want.
[3:57] I love questions. I'll take them.
[4:00] I think we don't know what
[4:03] to ask until we hear from you.
[4:04] Okay.
[4:05] I would just say that I've had occasion
[4:07] to go research some things that have come
[4:10] up with relocation of roads for the solar
[4:13] project and things like that.
[4:15] And I find that working in the town,
[4:17] going to the town clock, first off, as a
[4:19] customer to be very satisfying.
[4:25] And both Karen and
[4:28] Melissa are very helpful.
[4:30] We can't remember how to look up things.
[4:33] The only thing I would say, and this is
[4:36] not anything Karen's fault, but, you
[4:39] know, the tax maps that are in there are
[4:41] quarterly out of date 2019.
[4:43] And if you're trying to research and
[4:44] figure out what parcel goes with
[4:46] something and find a deed for it.
[4:50] And I know that's underway to get fixed,
[4:53] but it does relate to
[4:55] how people use the office.
[4:57] Is NEMRIC up to date?
[4:58] NEMRIC, they've found
[5:00] another ask bestow about this.
[5:03] No.
[5:03] They might have a little
[5:04] far field here in the air.
[5:06] Well, anyway, there is a movement of what
[5:09] they've hired another company
[5:10] to do this and they have it.
[5:12] So it's going to come, but it's my only
[5:16] comment that hinders them.
[5:18] It's not their fault.
[5:19] Yeah.
[5:19] The ones we have right now are 2019,
[5:22] which is as of the last
[5:23] last townwide assessment.
[5:25] Allison did mention, I think the last
[5:27] department head meeting that
[5:28] new tax maps are being ordered.
[5:30] I don't know when they will come in, but
[5:32] I think she did mention that if you do
[5:34] use the online maps,
[5:36] the information is more up to date
[5:37] because it's partially
[5:38] generated by the grand list.
[5:40] It's not going to give you that you
[5:41] don't, you're not
[5:42] looking at it like a tax map.
[5:44] So it's much more difficult to look at
[5:46] when you're researching there.
[5:47] The personal maps on our website and the
[5:48] assessors thing are over five years old.
[5:52] Oh, I mean, they have me on there and I
[5:55] only bought my house two years ago.
[5:57] So somebody is updating something.
[6:00] It may be haphazard.
[6:02] Yeah.
[6:02] I'm not hardy to how they use those.
[6:07] I think Allison could
[6:08] definitely speak more to it.
[6:10] Yeah, I do.
[6:10] I agree.
[6:11] It is.
[6:11] It's weird to have six year
[6:13] old tax maps in the office.
[6:15] And I hope we get something.
[6:16] Most of you up to date on
[6:16] the vehicle first over here.
[6:22] Any other questions?
[6:24] Have you had any feedback since you've
[6:29] been in there on the hours
[6:30] or any of that type of stuff?
[6:33] No, I think folks are generally pleased
[6:36] that we do not ever
[6:38] close for lunch hours.
[6:39] Melissa and I cover each other for those.
[6:42] And we try very hard to make operations
[6:45] happen so that we're never
[6:46] closed except for holidays
[6:49] when already the entire building is
[6:51] planning on being locked up or the Monday
[6:54] before a major election.
[6:55] When I say major election, that would be
[6:57] one that would require us
[6:58] to do it at the rec center,
[6:59] like a general election town
[7:00] meeting, that kind of thing.
[7:02] And that's because we need that day to go
[7:05] get that election ready.
[7:06] And like one day is
[7:07] really not enough, honestly.
[7:09] But we're there Saturday and Sunday, too.
[7:12] That's Tuesday's our election day.
[7:14] So Mondays we close.
[7:17] So we haven't had many
[7:18] complaints about that.
[7:18] And I think in most cases we're able to
[7:20] serve folks as we need to.
[7:23] We're open Monday through
[7:23] Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
[7:25] We get there at 7.30.
[7:27] And we're usually
[7:27] staying there until 5.30.
[7:29] And we're able to cash out and set up
[7:30] things for the day, the
[7:32] beginning of the day as well.
[7:33] The only time I think that we run into
[7:35] occasional complaints is on Fridays
[7:37] if folks decide to go to the last minute
[7:40] to get a marriage license.
[7:41] And in that case, there are several
[7:43] neighboring towns who are
[7:44] open fewer hours in the week
[7:45] but are open on Fridays.
[7:47] And we do give that information to the
[7:48] finance office so they can direct them
[7:50] over to the next closest town.
[7:53] Maybe that's the...
[7:55] I haven't heard a
[7:56] complaint in quite a while.
[7:59] But that was the Friday issue.
[8:03] And maybe having some information in an
[8:07] active office that's still
[8:08] open that can be discussed.
[8:11] It's surprising because I haven't had a
[8:12] complaint in several years.
[8:14] Well, good. I'm glad.
[8:16] But there was...
[8:17] When we first changed to the...
[8:20] It's an adjustment.
[8:21] It's an adjustment.
[8:22] And being closed on
[8:24] Fridays, they were more complex.
[8:26] I'd say our busiest time of
[8:28] the week is usually Monday.
[8:31] And it's just, you know, when folks think
[8:33] about, "Oh, I got to get to the Town
[8:35] Clerk's office to do this thing,"
[8:36] they think about it all
[8:37] weekend and then come in on Monday.
[8:40] Right away, "I got to get it done today,"
[8:42] can't happen Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
[8:44] Thursday, any other later on Monday.
[8:45] It's got to be right
[8:45] then as soon as I get up.
[8:47] So I think it would be really tough to
[8:48] choose to have a day off
[8:50] on Monday, exposed Friday.
[8:53] Being able to be there sort of on a range
[8:56] of hours that covers
[8:57] people's work schedules
[8:59] so they can get in if they're a nine to
[9:00] five, or beforehand, or they can come
[9:02] after school, that kind of thing,
[9:04] and have no breaks in the day.
[9:05] I think that consistency
[9:06] is good for the community.
[9:08] And I think the four-day, 10-hour, a day
[9:11] work week is good for Melissa and I.
[9:15] I think it works well and makes us feel,
[9:17] you know, not burnt out and ready to
[9:20] attack again on Monday
[9:21] morning, and it feels good.
[9:25] Do you get any feedback on the fee
[9:27] structures that we have?
[9:29] Anybody comment?
[9:29] Any that not
[9:30] necessarily only looking for bad?
[9:34] Does anybody say,
[9:34] "Wow, that's fairly cheap"?
[9:38] I mean, they love that our notary
[9:39] services are free, and folks
[9:40] are often surprised by that.
[9:42] They have to be free because we're town
[9:44] clerks and we're bonded by the town,
[9:48] and the town clerk's association or the
[9:52] town pays for our
[9:53] trainings or for our licensing.
[9:56] So it's not something
[9:56] that we're doing privately.
[9:58] We do only...
[9:59] That's one area where we sometimes do get
[10:01] complaints is that we don't
[10:03] notarize all types of documents.
[10:06] We don't notarize wills, towers of
[10:08] attorney, child custody documents,
[10:11] or anything that asks us to attest that
[10:14] the signer is of sound body and mind.
[10:16] And the reason we don't do that is
[10:17] because we've been advised by the VLCT
[10:20] not to notarize those types of documents
[10:23] that town clerks have been called into
[10:25] court and called into question over
[10:27] notarizing documents of that
[10:28] sort of a sensitive nature,
[10:30] even though all we are notarizing, but
[10:32] the person in front of us is
[10:34] the person who's signing that.
[10:37] Can we absolutely validate that the
[10:39] person doesn't have a fake ID?
[10:41] Absolutely not.
[10:42] It's so easy to make a
[10:43] fake license these days.
[10:45] So anything like that that we feel could
[10:49] bring us into court
[10:50] one day, it's unlikely,
[10:51] but does the town want to
[10:53] have that kind of liability?
[10:54] Probably not either.
[10:55] We don't notarize
[10:56] those types of documents.
[10:58] Then that predated my tenure here, except
[11:00] for the power of attorney.
[11:01] We did a training on notary at last
[11:04] year's Vermont Municipal Clerk and
[11:07] Treasures Association meeting,
[11:09] and the VLCT attorney said that's one of
[11:11] the documents you don't
[11:12] want to be notarizing.
[11:15] How busy is the notary
[11:16] service for your country?
[11:19] It's very busy.
[11:21] And one of the reasons is
[11:22] the library is not right here.
[11:24] They also did notary services.
[11:27] But it also is that so many places aren't
[11:30] doing notary services or
[11:31] limiting their notary services
[11:33] for the same reasons I
[11:34] just talked about right now.
[11:36] The banks will only do it for their
[11:38] members, except for
[11:40] Vermont Federal Credit Union.
[11:41] They charge, I think
[11:42] it's $5 per page for that.
[11:44] That's sort of the only place we can send
[11:46] somebody without sending
[11:47] them to a lawyer's office,
[11:48] where they're often going to pay a little
[11:51] more than what folks
[11:52] expect from the bank.
[11:54] So yeah.
[11:56] That's fascinating, because I always
[11:57] thought the notary just attested to the
[11:59] identity of the signer.
[12:01] That's what I remember.
[12:02] It's your free act indeed.
[12:03] Is it your free act indeed?
[12:04] Yeah. And they say yes or no.
[12:06] Right, but that's what they say, right?
[12:08] We don't ask that.
[12:09] No?
[12:10] No.
[12:10] We don't legally have to ask that
[12:12] anymore, and we don't ask it anymore.
[12:14] Yeah, it's been a long time since I've
[12:15] had so many notaries.
[12:16] Yeah, it's fascinating.
[12:17] It's not up to us to determine whether or
[12:20] not it is their free act indeed.
[12:22] I mean, anybody could decide to say that
[12:24] or be coerced to say that.
[12:26] Right.
[12:27] Yeah.
[12:28] The ID matches.
[12:29] Right.
[12:30] It smells good.
[12:31] We have occasionally refused a situation
[12:33] where it felt clear to us that the person
[12:38] who was being asked to sign
[12:39] was accompanied by someone who it seemed
[12:41] was coercing that
[12:42] person to do the signing,
[12:44] and that they didn't
[12:44] understand what they were doing there.
[12:46] I think that's only
[12:47] happened twice that I've seen.
[12:49] And there's been no argument about it
[12:51] when that's happened.
[12:52] We've just said here's some other places
[12:53] you can go to get that interest.
[12:55] Interesting.
[12:56] First indication was
[12:57] the knife in the back?
[12:58] It might have been it.
[13:00] I think it was, yeah, well, I shouldn't
[13:03] get into the details of it.
[13:04] No, not really.
[13:06] But yeah, it didn't feel right to either
[13:08] of us, and usually we'll check against
[13:09] each other if there's
[13:10] anything that's in doubt.
[13:12] Okay.
[13:13] Fantastic.
[13:15] Some things we're working on right now
[13:17] that you all will all be intimately
[13:19] familiar with our voter checklist audit.
[13:22] So, you know, we went through the
[13:23] biennial checklist in the way that is
[13:26] normally done in odd years with the
[13:28] Secretary of State's office
[13:30] and you all, as part of the Board of
[13:32] Civil Authority, have to participate in that.
[13:35] This second audit that we were asked to
[13:39] do, I believe, is based on the fact that
[13:41] they just started a new
[13:43] software for our voter checklist.
[13:46] And I think they're trying to see if that
[13:48] voter checklist is working properly.
[13:51] And as far as I can tell, it is.
[13:54] We have a Board of Civil Authority of 23
[13:58] people right now, which is difficult
[14:01] because that means I have to get at least
[14:03] a quarter of a million people.
[14:04] I'm not in compliance with a
lot of these things.
[14:04] I'm not in compliance with a lot of these
things. I don't have the time to
[14:04] participate in all these things.
[14:05] So if I don't get 12 folks besides
[14:07] myself, I'm not in compliance.
[14:09] Really, you want to have more than that
[14:11] as a guarantee, because when you do
[14:12] things, somebody
[14:13] might not show up, right?
[14:15] Somebody might not be able to show up.
[14:17] So with the participation we had from you
[14:20] all and from other members of the Board
[14:23] of Civil Authority in the end,
[14:32] we got 16 folks to
[14:33] participate and myself.
[14:35] And each of those folks into the 16
[14:37] provided 16 people that they had audited.
[14:40] I haven't even checked to see if there's
[14:42] any overlap in the matter.
[14:45] It's a random pick, so it
[14:46] counts as the same kind of audit.
[14:49] And I did 583 of the folks who are on
[14:51] Addison 5 to crosscheck.
[14:53] So when we put all those together, we
[14:55] were doing about 11 or 12
[14:57] percent of our voter population.
[15:00] I only found one error.
[15:01] As far as I could see,
[15:02] nobody else found any.
[15:04] And so I reconciled that with the
[15:06] Secretary of State's office.
[15:08] I can't guarantee that there's anyone
[15:10] that isn't assigned to the right street
[15:14] and the right district.
[15:17] However, I feel like I feel pretty
[15:19] confident with those kind of results that
[15:21] it's got to be pretty
[15:22] few and far between.
[15:23] And if they were, it's something that
[15:25] would be reconciled at the time of an election.
[15:27] If they chose to vote in an election that
[15:30] has a district line involved in the folks
[15:33] that are being voted for, in that case,
[15:35] it would be caught very easily.
[15:37] When they go to vote, we can't pull them
[15:39] into that election for Addison 5 because,
[15:41] hey, that street's
[15:42] supposed to be in Addison 1.
[15:43] We know that when we go to turn in the
[15:44] ballot that it will reconcile.
[15:47] Anyway, thank you all for
[15:49] participating in that process.
[15:51] And it made me think a little bit about
[15:52] the Board of Civil
[15:54] Authority and what that means.
[15:55] And I realize we have a
[15:56] new select board member.
[15:58] And these are things I don't
[15:59] think about very much either.
[16:01] And I thought I'd go back and try to sort
[16:02] of look at what the definition of the
[16:04] Board of Civil Authority is.
[16:05] And what are the
[16:06] things that we need to do?
[16:08] I immediately Googled it when I said yes.
[16:11] But I did some Googling tests too.
[16:14] I was like, don't you
[16:15] really have to do these things?
[16:16] The fact is, when it comes down to it,
[16:19] the Board of Civil Authority has two
[16:21] primary roles to oversee elections.
[16:24] This is part of that.
[16:25] And to decide tax assessment appeals.
[16:29] So it isn't, when we're doing things like
[16:32] that, I think a lot of you will ask,
[16:34] well, why are we doing this?
[16:35] What does this mean to me?
[16:36] Why do I have to participate in this?
[16:38] And that's including JP's and other folks
[16:40] that are involved in this process.
[16:42] But it's not that we're just asking
[16:46] because I want to distribute the work.
[16:49] Honestly, it would be much easier for me
[16:50] to just go do this and to try to
[16:52] coordinate 23 people to do it.
[16:54] But I have to.
[16:56] I mean, that is absolutely required that
[16:58] that participation happens
[16:59] to go through this process.
[17:01] And it is reiterated to me by the
[17:02] Secretary of State's
[17:03] office over and over again.
[17:05] When I turn in that report of everything
[17:06] that we did, I will have to attach each
[17:09] of your emails with your names on it
[17:11] that show the names that you found and
[17:13] what your results are.
[17:14] I have to have proof that that happened
[17:16] and it wasn't just me going in and
[17:17] saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, checklist,
[17:18] checklist looks good.
[17:20] So I do appreciate that help.
[17:22] And it's the law, I wouldn't be asking.
[17:26] And that bit about the helping to oversee
[17:28] elections is, you know, when I'm going to
[17:31] ask in a few months for
[17:32] help with the town meeting,
[17:34] it isn't because I don't want to just
[17:37] rely on whatever volunteers know the best
[17:40] and have done this for the longest.
[17:41] We're all supposed to be there together.
[17:43] You know, I don't go around and count BCA
[17:45] participation in
[17:46] elections or anything like that.
[17:48] There's no report cards anywhere, but I
[17:50] theoretically am
[17:51] supposed to have you all there.
[17:53] So it is.
[17:55] Yeah, it's just it can be fun.
[17:57] And there's free food.
[17:58] Just saying that if anybody hasn't
[18:00] participated before, it is actually kind
[18:02] of a good time at elections.
[18:03] I think now it's something to consider.
[18:06] It is. I like doing them.
[18:09] And the other part, I think tax
[18:10] assessment appeals, I've only
[18:12] participated in one of those.
[18:13] So I really appreciate anybody's help
[18:15] with those, especially somebody who's had
[18:17] experience with them.
[18:19] The other board that you all are part of
[18:20] is the board of abatement.
[18:22] We've got several of
[18:22] those coming up in October.
[18:24] And thank you to everybody who's agreed
[18:25] to help out with those.
[18:26] And I have never done one before.
[18:28] So I not only are you all legally
[18:31] supposed to be there, but I really need
[18:34] you there because I
[18:35] don't have any experience.
[18:37] And I can read all the training bits
[18:38] about this that are out there, but not
[18:41] having an idea of what we've done in the
[18:43] past and how we've done it.
[18:45] I'll be relating. I'll be
[18:46] meeting all the institution.
[18:48] So I appreciate that.
[18:49] And I know it's what's the next task.
[18:52] I think I didn't bring my calendar with
[18:55] you, but I'll be sending out a reminder
[18:56] with all the information from the
[18:59] appellant's soon at six p.m.
[19:02] Six p.m. Yeah.
[19:06] So some things that we're working on
[19:08] right now, besides that voter checklist
[19:10] next week, Monday and Tuesday, the town
[19:13] office will be closed for the annual
[19:15] Vermont Municipal Clerk and Treasures
[19:17] Association training.
[19:19] It's all day training starts Sunday night
[19:21] and goes through Tuesday.
[19:23] Melissa and I both go.
[19:26] You know, there's all kinds of things we
[19:27] get trained on, everything from dealing
[19:29] with burial transit permits to how to
[19:31] take better minutes, one
[19:32] that I need really badly.
[19:35] It's a great training.
[19:36] It's also a networking opportunity.
[19:38] You know, there's lots of representation
[19:39] from all over Vermont, mainly clerks,
[19:42] also treasurers, sometimes listers.
[19:45] Other folks participate depending on what
[19:46] the types of training are.
[19:48] There are sometimes there's tax appeal
[19:50] training and things like that.
[19:53] So we're looking forward to that.
[19:54] And there's no way for us to do it
[19:55] without closing the office.
[19:56] So after I said, we're
[19:57] consistently open all the time.
[19:58] I lie there is that one time.
[20:00] And it happens once a
[20:01] year and we did close.
[20:02] This is a VLC.
[20:03] It is not VLC.
[20:04] No, it's an association.
[20:06] The Vermont Municipal Clerk
[20:07] and Treasures Association.
[20:08] And that is all that they do is stuff for
[20:10] clerks and treasures.
[20:14] And then as sort of a long range plan
[20:16] upon the urging of Emily, we are working
[20:21] on a long term project to get our 2,214
[20:26] maps scanned onto a digital system and
[20:32] attached to our real estate
[20:36] land record research system.
[20:38] Wow.
[20:39] We are not doing that work ourselves.
[20:41] Yeah.
[20:42] We have, I don't know if you all know how
[20:44] money works in the town clerk's office,
[20:46] but we have our own reserve fund.
[20:50] Every time somebody records something
[20:51] with us, $11 of that
[20:54] reporting, it's $15 per page.
[20:56] $11 of that goes to town clerk fees,
[20:59] which are used for regular operational
[21:00] expenses and in the hopes that we'll like
[21:02] with all of our other fees will help to
[21:04] offset taxpayer dollars.
[21:07] The other $4 has to be retained in a
[21:10] technology and restoration fund.
[21:12] And this is the case for all term town
[21:13] clerks throughout Vermont.
[21:15] And so that's been retained for a really
[21:17] long time with very little spending so
[21:18] much that we have $200,000 in it.
[21:20] Oh, voila.
[21:22] Don't get too excited.
[21:23] It can only be used for really specific
[21:25] things in town clerk houses.
[21:27] Like if we had to replace the vault, you
[21:30] have to retain that reserve because
[21:31] sometimes big
[21:32] expenditures come down the line.
[21:34] Would it be used to help resolve your
[21:35] storage problem and the humidity problem
[21:38] downstairs and the records?
[21:40] Possibly.
[21:40] Yeah.
[21:41] We're going to, we're going to wait.
[21:43] We got the, I think we got
[21:44] the humidity problem fixed.
[21:45] Levi went down and rigged up the
[21:47] dehumidifier in a way so
[21:48] that it constantly drains.
[21:50] Yeah.
[21:51] So I think that's going to help us a lot.
[21:54] So we're going to use that to
[21:56] spend money with COT systems.
[21:59] It's $25,000 to have all
[22:01] of those records scanned in.
[22:03] And then the scanning is the easy part.
[22:05] The hard part is attaching them to all of
[22:08] the land records that would involve the
[22:11] maps that are in the system.
[22:12] There's a lot of maps and
[22:13] they go back to the 1700s.
[22:15] So is there a state recommendation for
[22:18] land record digital management?
[22:23] I think, you know, there's a number of
[22:24] folks they would recommend.
[22:26] Are you talking about
[22:27] for, for the platform,
[22:28] for the software platform?
[22:29] Remember the, I think the most, the most
[22:32] commonly used one for land
[22:33] records is COTS that we use.
[22:35] And right now we've just signed a length
[22:38] a few months ago, a five
[22:39] year contract with COTS.
[22:41] So I really want it to
[22:42] fit in with what we've got.
[22:43] Yeah, let's do that.
[22:44] For sure.
[22:45] Now I don't know how fast they're going
[22:46] to be able to do the project.
[22:47] If it starts to hold too close into next
[22:50] year, which is an even year,
[22:51] which means an election year,
[22:52] then we'll probably delay it until after
[22:54] the general election.
[22:55] Cause we don't have to deal with that at
[22:56] the same time, you know, you disruptive.
[22:58] Really?
[22:58] You have to read the deeds to see where a
[23:00] deed references a slide number.
[23:02] It means involvement
[23:04] reading all the deeds.
[23:06] It won't be as hard as that.
[23:08] We have a map index right now and they'll
[23:10] take our Excel spreadsheet of map index
[23:12] information and help to log it that way.
[23:14] So right now when you read a deed, you're
[23:16] not usually seeing a
[23:17] slide number, you know, it'll,
[23:18] it'll say it's referenced
[23:19] as map number, whatever.
[23:21] And then you usually have to
[23:23] rely on, unless you're you,
[23:24] you'd have to rely on one of us to go
[23:26] find you what that map is.
[23:28] And it's going to be right now.
[23:30] But, um, so that's a big project and kind
[23:33] of down the road a little bit.
[23:34] Yeah.
[23:35] So you mentioned that like an even year
[23:36] means that there's
[23:37] less time for projects.
[23:39] Right.
[23:39] So how I get that elections are time
[23:43] consuming, but that still surprises me
[23:46] that having a primary in the summer,
[23:49] general election in the fall is a major
[23:52] driver of your time for you.
[23:54] Yeah.
[23:54] And a town meeting and every year.
[23:56] Yeah.
[23:57] And sometimes a couple of unexpected.
[23:59] No, some of the public's up here.
[24:01] Community issue.
[24:02] I don't know.
[24:02] It is.
[24:03] I cannot express you.
[24:04] I think I was trying to tell Brian
[24:06] earlier, yeah, how different it is in a
[24:10] non-election compared
[24:11] to an election year.
[24:11] Now, having been through
[24:12] that, it is night and day.
[24:15] It, you know, suddenly we need 24 people
[24:17] to do the day's work and we only needed
[24:20] two of us or one and a half inch of us.
[24:22] It's a really slow day just to get by.
[24:25] It's yeah, it's night and day and the
[24:26] process starts three to
[24:28] four months beforehand.
[24:30] I mean, it starts with because Vermont
[24:32] does such open absentee balloting and
[24:34] it's available so early.
[24:36] You know, even before there's absentee
[24:37] balloting, there's
[24:38] the creating the ballot.
[24:40] There's folks getting petitions, folks
[24:42] asking for petitions, caucusing.
[24:44] All these things are happening months and
[24:45] months and months in advance.
[24:47] And there's new training on how the
[24:48] elections have to be
[24:49] performed every year.
[24:51] Every year, there's software updates.
[24:53] Every year, there's changes in procedure.
[24:55] And right now, it's a little up in the
[24:57] air how our elections
[24:58] are going to be run.
[25:00] But on the standpoint, we're upholding
[25:02] steady and we are expected as a state to
[25:05] continue to maintain our practices as is
[25:08] our sovereign right at this point.
[25:11] But who knows?
[25:13] Anything's possible.
[25:14] Anything's possible.
[25:16] But yeah, it makes a huge difference.
[25:19] It's unbelievable how much.
[25:21] And I think what I was saying to Ryan
[25:22] earlier is sometimes I have to do a
[25:23] little marketing in the odd years just to
[25:27] kind of want to be as useful as possible.
[25:29] And I like to be very busy.
[25:30] I know Melissa feels that way too.
[25:33] And so this year for a little while, we
[25:35] decided to market Green
[25:36] Mountain passes outside.
[25:37] I don't know if you can start sandwich
[25:39] for there, but that's work.
[25:40] We've kind of kept track of how many
[25:42] folks we got in asking about those since
[25:44] the beginning of the season and since
[25:46] Memorial Day weekend.
[25:47] Now we've gotten just
[25:48] over 300 people inquiring.
[25:51] That doesn't mean we've sold that many.
[25:52] We've sold probably 200.
[25:54] I should have run the numbers for it.
[25:55] But you get folks from neighboring towns
[25:57] inquiring and we can't issue them, but
[25:59] their town clerks can.
[26:00] We spread the word for
[26:02] Green Mountain Pass this year.
[26:04] We did a little promotion for dog
[26:05] licenses in the spring.
[26:06] That was fun.
[26:07] And I think we're going to
[26:10] do next Monday, I think is.
[26:13] I don't know where to rent.
[26:15] What is it?
[26:18] It's a registered dog date.
[26:22] I didn't tell on it.
[26:25] Is it?
[26:25] No, that's what that means.
[26:27] No, she's allowed to do.
[26:30] I won't.
[26:31] But theoretically in Vermont, most town
[26:34] clerks can ask for a dog
[26:35] to be humanely disposed of.
[26:41] They're not registered.
[26:42] Yeah.
[26:43] Yeah.
[26:43] I'm just putting that out there.
[26:45] Don't look at me.
[26:46] I'm not doing it.
[26:47] It's fine.
[26:48] For the summer.
[26:50] I can't believe that's
[26:51] still on the books, but it is.
[26:53] Yeah, that's amazing.
[26:54] Like a three strikes your act
[26:55] or like it is my discretion.
[26:58] I can just come over and
[26:59] say, Hey, not registered.
[27:01] Sorry.
[27:02] You know, it's horrible.
[27:05] I don't have a dog.
[27:08] I can say right here, I will never do it.
[27:11] You'll have to, someone will have to
[27:12] remove me from office.
[27:13] If you can ask me to do that.
[27:15] That's the law.
[27:18] And we are planning on doing a voter
[27:21] registration drive later this fall.
[27:24] Unfortunately next week, I think it's
[27:26] Monday or Tuesday is
[27:27] national voter registration day.
[27:30] And we're going to be at that conference.
[27:31] So I'm hoping to do probably something
[27:34] collaborative with Renee library.
[27:36] They had done one last year.
[27:37] I think we'd like to be
[27:38] able to do it all together.
[27:39] And even if we can get our computers out
[27:41] there and do it live with the system, if
[27:43] our internet doesn't fail us,
[27:45] we'd like to do it that way.
[27:47] Do you work at the schools
[27:49] to identify 18 year olds?
[27:51] Butting voters.
[27:53] The schools actually do
[27:54] their own membership drives.
[27:55] Yeah.
[27:56] They're really good at that.
[27:57] And we get a whole flood of them in
[27:58] general election years that involve
[28:01] presidential elections.
[28:03] In fact, right now we have.
[28:06] We have 65 voters who have not taken
[28:10] their oath, which means that they were
[28:12] registered before they were 18.
[28:15] Yeah.
[28:15] Folks that are.
[28:17] Folks can register if they're going to be
[28:18] 18 by the next general election.
[28:21] And we have five that are actually under
[28:23] 18 years, which is pretty good because
[28:24] that means they just got registered and
[28:26] there's no real
[28:27] nothing to vote in right now.
[28:29] So it's nice to know
[28:30] that they're interested.
[28:31] Another way that that happens is it comes
[28:32] automatically through the Vermont Motor
[28:34] Voter Law when they go to the DMV, unless
[28:37] they check off that they
[28:38] don't want to be voters.
[28:40] Then we get that information as well.
[28:42] Do they have to come in and do an oath?
[28:43] Yes, they will have to do an oath.
[28:45] And that happens when they vote.
[28:47] Yeah.
[28:48] So, you know, they they'll end up, you
[28:50] know, they're not
[28:51] going to vote for a while.
[28:52] But the first time they vote, they have
[28:53] the opportunity to do that.
[28:54] And they can do that online if they want
[28:56] to do it that way or they
[28:57] can do it right in front of us.
[28:58] They can come to the town
[28:59] office or on Election Day.
[29:01] I think about before
[29:03] we did it through DMV.
[29:05] And now with the DMV, I was thinking,
[29:08] well, geez, everybody's
[29:09] going to get it right at 18.
[29:10] But a lot of kids don't
[29:11] get their license ready.
[29:12] Yeah.
[29:14] Can they vote in local
[29:17] elections before they?
[29:18] Not in Middlebury. No.
[29:20] I think there are some towns. Is it
[29:21] Burlington or Winooski that allows minors
[29:24] to vote in some local elections?
[29:25] I can't recall.
[29:26] There are a couple of
[29:27] towns, but not in Middlebury.
[29:29] They have to actually be 18.
[29:30] They have to be 18.
[29:32] Don't they own non-residents too?
[29:34] Not in Middlebury. Yes.
[29:35] Sometimes.
[29:36] In some towns.
[29:37] I think that might have been in Winooski.
[29:40] That would not require a charter change
[29:41] and our committee is not taking that up.
[29:43] And don't quote me on
[29:45] the Burlington or Winooski.
[29:46] I think I remember that, but I'm maybe
[29:48] thinking of the non-resident thing.
[29:52] But I know that's come up before.
[29:53] And I think in other states, certainly
[29:55] they do allow minors to
[29:57] vote in some elections.
[30:04] Questions?
[30:06] Anything else?
[30:07] I've been talking for 20 minutes.
[30:09] I think probably I'm not
[30:10] going to torture you anymore.
[30:12] Oh, this is a great idea.
[30:13] It's awesome.
[30:14] It's so good.
[30:15] Thank you.
[30:16] You said you had some
[30:17] numbers on voters and turnout.
[30:22] Tell us your numbers.
[30:25] What I have here is just what we have in
[30:27] the voter registration system now.
[30:29] It's not voter turnout or anything.
[30:31] Right now we have just
[30:32] about 6,000 registered voters.
[30:34] Of those, 5,100 something are
[30:37] verified, 745 are challenged.
[30:39] It's very similar numbers to what we had
[30:41] when we did the initial audit.
[30:44] And we have 16 of them whose driver's
[30:46] license or personal
[30:47] ID is not yet verified.
[30:49] That's usually happening when somebody
[30:51] has done an online membership.
[30:54] I'm sorry, an online membership.
[30:56] I'm getting a little kill.
[30:58] I'll be there.
[30:58] Somebody has done an online voter
[31:00] registration and they
[31:02] upload their form of ID.
[31:03] And then it still has to go through the
[31:05] DMV or the Social Security
[31:07] Administration to be verified.
[31:08] So they'll pop up there.
[31:10] But if they come in to vote and they're
[31:12] not yet verified, then we're there asking
[31:15] to see their identification.
[31:16] And so when somebody has a voter
[31:18] checklist in front of them, if you've
[31:19] ever worked at the elections before, it's
[31:21] a checklist that has a whole people's
[31:23] names and a whole lot of columns.
[31:25] And some may say C for challenge, which
[31:28] means they need to come to us and see.
[31:30] So why are you still legal to vote?
[31:32] Are you who you are?
[31:33] And do you have any proof
[31:34] that you live where you do?
[31:35] And that's usually not a question at all.
[31:37] It's just that they something was wrong
[31:39] with their address or they didn't respond
[31:40] or had moved for a little while.
[31:42] Or it will say, oh, it means they need an
[31:44] oath so they can come over to us and do
[31:45] their oath really quickly.
[31:47] Or it will say something like their
[31:48] Social Security number is not verified.
[31:51] And so we need to do something that says
[31:53] that they are who they are.
[31:54] It doesn't have to be
[31:55] the Social Security number.
[31:56] They just have to show
[31:57] us that they're them.
[32:00] I think you're asking where the DMV seem
[32:02] to talk to each other on tickets.
[32:04] Do they talk to each other?
[32:06] Let's say I move to
[32:08] Massachusetts and get a mass license.
[32:12] Does it then feed back through to you or
[32:15] pull us off from the voter roll?
[32:17] I think so.
[32:18] We regularly it's
[32:19] certainly through our voter system.
[32:22] If somebody registers.
[32:23] So I don't know if we're involving the
[32:24] DMV specifically, but different states,
[32:28] we all have different voter systems.
[32:30] And that might sound like a bad idea
[32:32] because they don't all
[32:33] work exactly the same way.
[32:34] But it's actually a very good idea.
[32:35] If you think about the potential for a
[32:38] voter system being packed, you really
[32:39] want that division between the states.
[32:42] So if somebody goes and registers in
[32:44] Massachusetts, Massachusetts lets us know
[32:48] that that person is registered in
[32:51] Massachusetts and we then
[32:52] take them off the voter rolls.
[32:54] So there is a two way conversation.
[32:55] There is a two way conversation.
[32:57] It's faster between
[32:58] some states than others.
[33:00] Could somebody move along and really
[33:02] rapidly go to New Jersey and vote and
[33:04] Massachusetts and vote and Vermont and
[33:06] vote like a bunch of
[33:07] different places at once?
[33:08] You could try.
[33:09] You've also got to have the right ID for
[33:11] all of those states.
[33:12] You got to be on their voter checklist.
[33:13] Like it's pretty hard to
[33:14] coordinate it, but it's possible.
[33:16] You create a felony
[33:17] for a couple of votes.
[33:18] There's that.
[33:19] Yes.
[33:19] I mean, it's quite a risk and it's you
[33:21] could get away with probably get away
[33:23] with it in two states, I bet.
[33:25] Yeah.
[33:26] So you can't register without registering
[33:27] as a new voter in two places that don't
[33:29] require that you have really tough forms
[33:32] of ID as a new voter.
[33:33] It'll be it'll be
[33:34] hard to load up the bus.
[33:36] Cheers.
[33:38] That's interesting.
[33:39] OK, thanks.
[33:41] Thank you.
[33:42] Thank you.
[33:43] Thanks so much.
[33:44] Thank you for all your help with
[33:45] everything and for making it
[33:47] through that horrific audit.
[33:49] That's fine.
[33:51] Right.
[33:51] That's kind of what you know.
[33:53] That's.
[33:54] Thanks for the.
[33:55] Sure.
[33:58] I really only complain about
[33:59] the mapping four or five times.
[34:02] Yeah.
[34:03] So I am here.
[34:05] The town purchased 83 court street, as
[34:08] you all know, with the flood
[34:12] resistant communities fund.
[34:14] And so it's a fully funded project.
[34:16] The next step is to
[34:17] demolish and stabilize the site.
[34:20] It has to be left as green space in
[34:23] perpetuity from here out.
[34:26] And so I put out an RFQ for
[34:28] demolition and stabilization.
[34:30] We received four bids, three of them
[34:34] relatively close together.
[34:37] I know we've worked
[34:38] with the second low bid.
[34:40] Roger Parker.
[34:41] They've done other
[34:42] demolitions for the town.
[34:45] And then summit
[34:46] contracting was the low bid.
[34:49] I've never worked with them.
[34:51] I think they're out of Windenville.
[34:54] And so I didn't know how the select board
[34:59] wanted to direct it.
[35:01] You know, you often prefer going with a
[35:04] low bid or going with a local vendor if
[35:08] there's not a big cost difference.
[35:10] So I didn't know what sort of
[35:12] recommendation you wanted.
[35:16] It sounds like you feel more comfortable
[35:18] with the person you
[35:19] have worked with before.
[35:21] I think because we've worked with them
[35:24] before, I'm more comfortable, but I've
[35:25] never worked with someone.
[35:27] Is this the type of project where there's
[35:31] a lot of risk involved
[35:32] with going with someone new?
[35:34] No, our DPW team desperately wants to do
[35:38] this job because you demolish a building.
[35:41] It's like every kid's.
[35:45] And they it has gotten we did testing on
[35:47] it prior to the bid.
[35:50] And so there's no asbestos or lead or any
[35:52] of the complications that sometimes make
[35:54] it a little more complex.
[35:55] But this one is really a simple one.
[35:59] Super fun.
[36:00] Why does property flood? Is it covered in
[36:01] the root seven too small?
[36:04] Yes. Yes. OK, we're going to get fixed.
[36:06] It's also because we got a thousand year
[36:08] storm. But there's that.
[36:11] Is the curb cut going to be removed as
[36:14] part of the I didn't see that.
[36:16] And then the curb cut is not removed.
[36:18] That's a good point, Fred.
[36:19] I hadn't thought about that.
[36:21] No, it's not removed. I know when Dan was
[36:23] here, he elevated the sidewalk through
[36:26] this section to try to help.
[36:28] This property is flooded a few times to
[36:30] try to help mitigate the
[36:32] flow coming off of Court Street.
[36:35] And so I don't know that that was the
[36:38] flow that impacted it, but we can
[36:39] definitely look at that.
[36:41] Are they going to fix the culvert when
[36:42] they do the transits or intersection?
[36:44] Yeah, that's the huge part of the
[36:46] project. They're
[36:46] putting in two new culverts.
[36:49] And will it be some kind of regrading or
[36:50] planting plan for this?
[36:53] It just go it matches existing grade.
[36:57] No trees or any. We can
[36:58] plant trees later separately.
[37:01] Yep. Not as part of this.
[37:03] No class. No what?
[37:07] The tree jokes. So I see
[37:11] that some it actually came.
[37:13] I do just because so some it's a federal
[37:16] and state contractor.
[37:18] We do a lot of work. We do about 10 to 15
[37:21] percent of the
[37:22] municipality work every year.
[37:26] The end of the year like this has to be a
[37:27] lot of demos. Springtime demos are also
[37:29] popular, but they're
[37:30] scheduled on editing.
[37:32] You know, twenty seven
[37:34] hundred miles a year.
[37:35] Our mowing vision does. So we're
[37:36] certainly a new company.
[37:39] The references provided
[37:40] our federal state be trans.
[37:43] We're on our IDIQ for everything from the
[37:45] day to mowing everything else.
[37:47] We're certainly federally bonded and
[37:51] taking a building down especially.
[37:52] I own the summit group in general.
[37:56] Being it's a new town
[37:57] we haven't worked with.
[37:59] Generally I'll show up to a meeting.
[38:00] Sometimes people have questions.
[38:02] Some of those names
[38:03] that people leave our city.
[38:06] I know some of them over here. I know
[38:07] some of them over here. We
[38:08] cover all of New England.
[38:10] So one summit's not the
[38:11] same as the other summit.
[38:14] The summit's a moment of
[38:15] highway in New England.
[38:17] It's us. It's taking
[38:18] down a building. It's us.
[38:19] It's not a dam or
[38:20] army corps of engineers.
[38:22] It's us.
[38:25] I personally go up to the buildings. We
[38:27] don't take on
[38:27] anywhere that I don't touch.
[38:29] And so I've seen it. It's not a great
[38:33] job. It's nothing that's a problem.
[38:35] I'm not a collaborate person. But again
[38:36] being a new town, some
[38:37] people have questions.
[38:39] They're more comfortable going to the
[38:40] contractor they've had before.
[38:41] We know the guy. It's funny.
[38:44] So I usually would come
[38:46] to something like this.
[38:47] And start and anytime we
[38:49] do work for a new town,
[38:51] we tend to get put on that box where they
[38:53] see someone's name kind of come across.
[38:55] They say, "Oh, it's easier. I don't think
[38:56] we know what kind of
[38:57] work we're going to get."
[39:00] That's the picture of how it's...
[39:02] It's like, "I'm not a
[39:03] television director."
[39:06] We're not a TV director. We're not a television director.
[39:07] And so I'm just going to go back.
[39:08] But, yeah. So let's take on the building.
[39:11] I was in the building.
[39:14] There's one point of concern, which is
[39:16] something that the environmental entity.
[39:18] Obviously you've got two
[39:18] chimneys that go up past the lines.
[39:21] You can't just knock the building.
[39:23] I've got to drop the
[39:23] chimneys inside first.
[39:26] I'm under a promise over a deliverer.
[39:28] If we were awarded the bid,
[39:31] you could get done this fall.
[39:34] we've done here, we've done in the next
[39:35] few weeks any help is
[39:36] we probably come out
[39:38] out of Jamaica, we're out in the down of
[39:40] Jamaica and we're probably
[39:41] chucking an eye from there.
[39:42] We tell you it's going to be two weeks to
[39:44] do it, really it's my
[39:45] days. One day we know
[39:47] we'd be out on site one day starting,
[39:49] we'd be out of there by Friday. No,
[39:51] something goes wrong
[39:52] of course it takes a little longer but it
[39:54] won't take us very long to take that fill
[39:56] in, if I can see it.
[39:57] We've got a live gas line on there, see
[40:00] that's been locked out,
[40:01] so we'll be calling the gas
[40:02] company and of course they exceed
[40:03] beforehand to make sure the
[40:06] live gas line is really the
[40:07] old problem. Questions on the RFP if you
[40:11] want to work with us? There's a few
[40:12] questions that I have.
[40:14] The Vulcan Foundation is mostly natural,
[40:17] what's trucking more road and truck out
[40:20] that road back and forth?
[40:22] No, it was just written that you have to
[40:24] remove it to a foot below grade. Okay,
[40:26] and it did say something about the
[40:27] road knocking the holes under, which is
[40:30] funny with me anyway, we'd take out the
[40:34] non-natural material
[40:35] concrete or whatnot, then we can fold the
[40:38] road and fill it from there. It would be
[40:40] a rather natural process but
[40:42] we're pretty easy going on the call every
[40:43] once in a while. We're
[40:44] real talk to you, real talk.
[40:46] Paul and Robin asked for real stuff. Are
[40:49] you Kyle? Come on, what's
[40:51] up? Are you Kyle? I am Kyle, so
[40:52] I can explain the evil name, but the old
[40:54] one calls me Kyle, not even my parents
[40:56] before I ever got involved with Kyle.
[40:58] What's it make like? It's an Irish name
[41:01] that just gets kind of translated.
[41:03] Really, you're Irish.
[41:06] Sorry. We have to be done, so we have
[41:12] only, someone only works, in truth we say
[41:16] we only work on November 1,
[41:18] but in truth we worked at December 1, but
[41:20] that's because we have an
[41:21] overlap by our generals.
[41:22] And then I go back to Ireland, they'll
[41:24] ask me to go November, then I don't come
[41:27] back until the earliest April,
[41:29] but this year it was May 8th and I was
[41:31] quite happy for that. But I usually put
[41:34] the ground money right after it.
[41:35] So if I got in here on May 8th, I'll be
[41:37] 9th, I would, honestly, I
[41:39] would just go like this.
[41:42] Cool.
[41:43] I don't know if that answers anything, if
[41:44] anybody has any questions
[41:45] about how we go about it,
[41:47] or if you're comfortable with this or
[41:49] not, if you want to see anything.
[41:51] I have a question for Emily about one of
[41:54] them looks more itemized the way they
[41:57] have the Parker ones.
[42:00] I may apologize, I don't hear it very
[42:01] well, my ears are shocked.
[42:03] I couldn't tell what
[42:04] you were talking about.
[42:05] Oh, that's funny.
[42:07] What was your question?
[42:09] No, I'm asking you.
[42:11] So all of the bids were required to be
[42:14] submitted on the revised bid sheet.
[42:17] Oh, I got it.
[42:17] And they did all do that.
[42:19] I didn't go that far.
[42:20] You found it?
[42:21] Yeah.
[42:23] Thank you.
[42:28] Emily, what's your recommendation?
[42:31] I'm waiting for your recommendation.
[42:34] I mean, it's obviously...
[42:38] No, Ben.
[42:40] Sure.
[42:42] Or, yeah.
[42:43] No, go.
[42:45] You make a motion?
[42:49] Flash, fewer, and some
[42:51] are contracting, right?
[42:55] I move the celebrity approved the
[42:57] contract with some of the contracting for
[42:59] the price of $42,000
[43:01] and $50 to demolish the structure and
[43:09] supervise the site at 83 course rate.
[43:12] Second.
[43:13] Seconded.
[43:14] Questions or comments on the motion?
[43:17] Can we get a heads up so we can go watch?
[43:20] Can we watch any of this?
[43:21] Absolutely not.
[43:22] Definitely not.
[43:23] Wow, we're going to tend the
[43:24] sites and investigate things.
[43:26] Wow.
[43:27] We're pretty easy going.
[43:28] Because our schedule gets so tight this
[43:31] time of year, and
[43:32] really, when I mean tight,
[43:34] if I'm off by a day, I
[43:36] start to hyperventilate.
[43:37] So, yesterday I was in
[43:39] Bangor, Harpswell, Boston.
[43:41] The day before that, I
[43:42] covered the rest of it.
[43:43] So, and now when I leave here today, I'll
[43:45] be back in Westford to sleep in one of
[43:47] our side care events,
[43:48] and then I'll be back out in
[43:49] the Lewiston main tomorrow.
[43:50] So, our schedule is fairly tight.
[43:52] We will give you a very clear heads up on
[43:55] what we tend to land and...
[43:57] Here.
[43:59] School traffic.
[44:00] School traffic, yeah.
[44:01] Okay, the school traffic hours, Court
[44:04] Street is bad enough backed up,
[44:05] and you're going to want to avoid
[44:08] complications of that for
[44:10] what part of this involves.
[44:11] Are you loading into dumpsters?
[44:13] We're probably going to load into one of
[44:15] our cans, our trailers, for two reasons.
[44:19] Now, originally we planned on dumpsters
[44:21] and having a plant tractor come in,
[44:23] but anyone in the localist area is not
[44:25] going to be able to provide
[44:26] them fast enough for us to
[44:28] kind of make this happen correctly.
[44:30] So, most likely we'll bring
[44:32] the 34 foot trailer of ours.
[44:34] We'll place it on the drive itself.
[44:36] It serves two purposes.
[44:37] If there's anything that goes wrong,
[44:38] there is a house within 12 feet, you
[44:41] know, on the property
[44:42] line there.
[44:42] So, it's better to hit our trailer than
[44:44] it is to hit anybody else's property.
[44:46] The other side has the
[44:47] ravine and the trees.
[44:48] Again, you know, we plan for the worst,
[44:51] we're going to open the best.
[44:52] So, that would just be
[44:53] a contingency of that.
[44:54] Generally, what we would do is we would
[44:56] fence off the front of the property
[44:58] with a simple fence.
[45:00] It wouldn't matter if they put an
[45:01] electrified, you know, fence up there.
[45:04] They're still going to go around and
[45:05] people like to look.
[45:06] So, we find the bigger the
[45:07] fence, the worse it gets.
[45:09] Sometimes we'll double lean it.
[45:10] And then we'll take on the ancillary
[45:12] structures, the back
[45:13] one, we'll go inside.
[45:14] We'll probably be in
[45:15] there for a day and a half.
[45:16] We'll remove some glass,
[45:17] we'll knock the shimmies.
[45:19] Anything that could pose a problem, we'll
[45:22] take that front porch
[45:22] off, the back porch,
[45:24] stuff like that.
[45:25] And then when it comes to knocking it,
[45:27] folding it in, it won't take very long.
[45:30] But we will warn you and tell you exactly
[45:31] where to go because it is
[45:32] fun for people, for sure.
[45:34] We'll knock it into the
[45:35] foundation after doing that.
[45:38] Put it into the cans,
[45:40] get them out of there.
[45:41] Hopefully, that's just one day.
[45:43] The next day, we'll pull
[45:44] out the rubble, separate that.
[45:47] That'd be another day.
[45:48] And then we will fill the
[45:49] hydrocyne on the last day.
[45:51] Do you remember that it's an
[45:54] October 20th completion date?
[45:57] I do not.
[45:58] Okay.
[45:59] All right.
[46:02] After they're done, the ground is
[46:05] topsoiled or something.
[46:08] They do it or?
[46:10] Yeah.
[46:12] Being as late in the year, we're going to
[46:15] hydroseed it unless you
[46:15] want something different.
[46:17] We just typically hydroseed people.
[46:19] People like the green look.
[46:21] But this late in the year, they say your
[46:23] hydroseed right up to October 15th.
[46:25] Whether it takes or not, you'll take in
[46:26] the spring, it probably won't take now.
[46:28] It's just been too dry.
[46:29] It's in Witteri on that trip.
[46:30] Yeah, really.
[46:31] No, that's normally what I would expect
[46:33] is we would cut a big 50% of Witteri
[46:35] just so you see green
[46:37] because people like that.
[46:41] Again, you can only do
[46:42] so much bad weather now.
[46:43] I mean, lots of guys have
[46:44] their grasses or burnt right now.
[46:46] So we've been a bit of a drought so.
[46:49] Any other questions?
[46:54] Hearing none, all in favor of the motion,
[46:56] signified by saying aye.
[46:58] Aye.
[46:58] Aye.
[47:00] So, let me oppose.
[47:03] Okay.
[47:04] So, thanks for coming.
[47:05] We appreciate you, Tane.
[47:06] Yeah.
[47:06] Go online.
[47:07] I'm going to leave so I can help.
[47:08] Make sense.
[47:09] Yeah, very good.
[47:10] We'll actually probably be in touch.
[47:13] Somebody from the office will be in touch
[47:14] to make contact with
[47:14] you to give you a timeline
[47:15] and make sure it doesn't
[47:16] conflict with anything you need.
[47:17] And then we'll send out
[47:18] the safe and the gas company.
[47:20] Okay, thanks.
[47:21] Very good.
[47:21] Thank you all.
[47:22] Thank you, Sean.
[47:24] Thank you.
[47:24] Okay, Doug.
[47:25] David.
[47:26] I'm not here to ask for money.
[47:29] That's the way.
[47:29] That's the way.
[47:30] That's the way.
[47:30] What are we?
[47:32] So, how about I give like a one-minute
[47:34] spiel and anything you want to jump in?
[47:36] Sure.
[47:37] So, this is just a presentation.
[47:39] It's not voting on anything tonight.
[47:40] This is an idea that we've had some
[47:42] discussions on with staff internally,
[47:44] especially public works and police.
[47:46] Jason wanted to be here and you can see
[47:48] his comments in the packet,
[47:48] but he's at a conference tonight.
[47:50] So, the gist of this is we have a winter
[47:53] parking ban that's similar
[47:54] to most towns in Vermont.
[47:55] The idea is it snows in the winter, so on
[47:58] the off-campus chance it does snow.
[48:00] We just ban everybody from parking
[48:01] overnight on the town streets,
[48:03] so the roads are
[48:03] clear, so our guys can plow.
[48:07] Practical reality is that it doesn't most
[48:10] of that time, that's a false alarm.
[48:12] And in some cases, our police
[48:14] department, like other towns,
[48:16] the law is what it is, so they are
[48:18] enforcing even when it's 50
[48:20] degrees and no snow is falling.
[48:22] We had a conversation with Virgens last
[48:26] year after they got rid of this ban.
[48:29] We talked to their police chief.
[48:31] Basically, everybody's
[48:31] counterpart in Virgens.
[48:34] They switched to essentially when there's
[48:37] a forecast of snow,
[48:39] they send out an alert.
[48:40] They do it within the day before, and
[48:43] then you have to get off the streets.
[48:45] And we'll ticket you and tow you if
[48:46] you're there when we need to plow,
[48:48] but those other nights,
[48:49] you can park your car there.
[48:52] And they found that between their text
[48:54] messaging service, which we already have,
[48:57] and other proactive initial outreach,
[48:59] they were able to actually see a decrease
[49:01] in the number of enforcement actions.
[49:04] So, it's still common across the state to
[49:06] have as a default, just get off the
[49:08] streets at all times.
[49:10] But I think that has a lot to do with
[49:11] just limited communications and capacity,
[49:13] and that's also the tradition.
[49:15] So, what we're proposing is essentially
[49:17] we'll shift to something that
[49:19] would be a lot more logical.
[49:21] When we have a forecast for snow, public
[49:24] works will make a decision.
[49:25] They'll notify police, and
[49:27] they'll go do what they do now.
[49:29] It's just those other nights, we won't be
[49:31] enforcing it if there's no snow coming.
[49:35] That is the short of it.
[49:38] And we wanted to share the idea, get your
[49:41] feedback, and get your initial reaction.
[49:44] This would require an
[49:45] ordinance change, just so you know.
[49:46] And the reason we're bringing it up now
[49:47] is because if you are in favor of it,
[49:49] and we do make the change, we'd like to
[49:51] do some initial outreach.
[49:54] We're primarily talking about downtown
[49:55] here, because
[49:56] everywhere else in the town,
[49:57] for the most part, people have driveways,
[49:59] so this is a bit academic.
[50:00] We're talking about the
[50:01] people who don't have driveways,
[50:03] who right now need to go to one of a few
[50:05] handful of places to improve their car
[50:07] in the winter every night.
[50:08] They don't have off-street parking.
[50:10] So, if you do end up supporting this,
[50:12] we're going to be
[50:12] reaching out to property owners
[50:13] to help reach out to their tenants,
[50:16] essentially, to get them
[50:18] signed up for our text messaging
[50:20] service.
[50:20] It's actually another way to encourage
[50:22] more people to sign up,
[50:23] because this information is something
[50:24] they will want to know when it's snowing.
[50:27] So, assuming that the
[50:28] board supports it, the process.
[50:32] So, right now, the
[50:34] process is pretty easy.
[50:35] And tell me to jump in.
[50:37] But right now, the process would be
[50:38] similar to the chance
[50:39] that they kind of have a time
[50:41] the day before.
[50:43] For the ordinance change.
[50:44] Oh, I heard it.
[50:46] To make this.
[50:47] So, we would have to
[50:49] amend the parking ordinance.
[50:51] So, we'd have a two-step process.
[50:52] We'd bring it back to you.
[50:54] You'd have a vote.
[50:55] We'd then have a set
[50:57] number of days per the charter.
[51:00] We'd have another select board meeting
[51:01] with a public hearing and a vote.
[51:03] It would go into effect.
[51:04] I think it's 40 days.
[51:05] 40 days.
[51:06] Something we want to
[51:07] shorten in the church.
[51:09] But practically speaking, we can,
[51:11] presuming there's no
[51:12] great outcry after the second
[51:13] meeting, we could start the public
[51:15] outreach before that,
[51:17] because we want to try to get the
[51:18] word out before it's snowing in late.
[51:20] Yeah, that's why I was
[51:22] asking about the process.
[51:23] So, if we want to do this,
[51:24] we really need to get going.
[51:26] Yeah.
[51:27] Right.
[51:28] So, we did, Jason and I both read the
[51:30] same article a year ago in
[51:32] the paper about Virgin's.
[51:34] And we thought, well, let's give them a
[51:35] year and either it's
[51:36] going to work great or it's
[51:36] going to blow up on their face, but we'll
[51:38] talk to them and see how it goes.
[51:40] And we had a great chat
[51:41] with them in the late spring.
[51:44] And they initially actually had thought
[51:45] about putting up those blue lights that
[51:47] Burlington and Manuski have.
[51:48] Actually.
[51:48] Realized they didn't really need that.
[51:51] They felt like they had reached the
[51:53] population they needed
[51:53] with the initial outreach and
[51:56] the text messages.
[51:57] So, this proposal would rely heavily on
[52:00] the software we're already having.
[52:01] I think that for us,
[52:03] just eyes wide open, right?
[52:04] Like, you know, there's going to be
[52:04] wonderful things which
[52:06] people won't take it in toad on
[52:07] days and we don't need to.
[52:08] I think Virgin's and Middlebury are
[52:11] different in the ways of
[52:12] who's coming into town.
[52:13] We talked about that a
[52:14] little bit with them.
[52:15] We have visitors.
[52:16] We have college folks that maybe are not
[52:18] here all the time that are our customers.
[52:20] So, I think just eyes wide
[52:21] open that we pay attention to.
[52:23] And if we're all of a sudden towing
[52:24] people that are not
[52:25] transient, but more transient
[52:27] to our area that we may need to look at
[52:29] further systems to ensure
[52:30] that we're being fair and
[52:32] equitable to the groups that are, we want
[52:33] people to come and
[52:34] travel in the middle of
[52:35] the day.
[52:35] We don't want to scare
[52:36] them away in those instances.
[52:37] So, I think outreach for us is huge.
[52:40] I think when we talked to PDE, it was,
[52:42] you know, our guys are
[52:43] always worried about towing
[52:44] because it's always an issue.
[52:46] Every snowstorm is an issue.
[52:47] And the ones that are for us that are
[52:49] really an issue are the,
[52:51] not the 12 inches or 18
[52:52] inches.
[52:53] Everybody knows that's coming.
[52:54] It's when we get an inch and a half at
[52:56] two o'clock in the
[52:56] morning and it wasn't really
[52:58] forecasting.
[52:59] And then we have to come in and there's
[53:01] cars and actually
[53:02] downtown's maybe not so bad because
[53:04] PDE does a heck of a job down here
[53:05] because they know that's going on.
[53:07] It's the, to David, the opposite of that
[53:09] is those side streets.
[53:10] When people don't know the snow is
[53:11] coming, they do kind of,
[53:12] you know, peter out into
[53:14] the side streets a little bit and that
[53:15] makes it hard for the plow.
[53:16] So, Matt Cram is in favor.
[53:18] He reviewed this with us.
[53:19] I think we are open and
[53:20] we think it'll be great.
[53:21] I think outreach will be huge.
[53:22] And listening to Karen and the drives
[53:24] that they do, I think us
[53:25] driving home and trying
[53:27] to figure out how we outreach to the text
[53:29] message services, twofold, right?
[53:31] We have the same thing and we get yelled
[53:33] at every time we have a
[53:34] water break or a water
[53:35] shutdown.
[53:36] Well, are you signed
[53:36] up for text messages?
[53:37] No.
[53:38] Okay.
[53:38] Well, you need to get signed up so you
[53:39] understand when these
[53:40] things are happening to you.
[53:41] So I think the first year probably a
[53:43] little rockier with
[53:44] anything, but I think it's the
[53:46] right way to go.
[53:47] And as long as our counterparts at PDE
[53:49] are really enforcing,
[53:51] when we say we're going to
[53:52] be out, we need to get those cars off the
[53:54] street or else we're
[53:56] going to be back here
[53:57] and you guys are like, what the heck?
[53:58] This place is a mess every time it snows.
[53:59] We're going to go, yeah, there's cars all
[54:00] over the place and we can't get there.
[54:02] So pretty confident we'll be able to get
[54:03] there with the
[54:04] Middlebury PD folks and they've
[54:06] been a hell of an ally.
[54:07] And we've got good partnerships to reach
[54:09] some of our transient population.
[54:13] If we talk through Amy, as a former
[54:15] Middlebury college
[54:16] parent, I know there's a lot of
[54:19] information coming to you and they can
[54:22] come and tell you about
[54:23] changes to staying in town.
[54:25] I think MPD will tell us that many times
[54:28] they're seeing the college folks,
[54:29] those are the ones that
[54:30] we're towing more for.
[54:31] Sure.
[54:32] Yeah, right.
[54:32] I think trying to really focus our
[54:34] efforts of the word and
[54:35] here's what's changing,
[54:36] here's how you get signed up.
[54:38] Absolutely.
[54:38] Always, even if you're
[54:39] not a resident, sign up.
[54:40] We don't send that many alerts out.
[54:43] So I think that outreach should be the
[54:44] biggest part of success here for us.
[54:45] It also would be a little more, you start
[54:48] to build in some more common sense.
[54:50] If you see it snowing that day, get off
[54:53] the street that night.
[54:54] Should be instinctive, except our policy
[54:56] has always been get off
[54:57] the street every night.
[54:59] We may not enforce that.
[55:01] It's a little bit too late.
[55:02] People get used to it.
[55:03] We don't do it for 23 days, but on the
[55:05] 24th day, we get two
[55:07] inches at two in the morning.
[55:08] And all of a sudden we're towing the car.
[55:10] They're like, "I've been
[55:10] parked here for months.
[55:11] Nobody's ever given me health enough."
[55:12] And I understand why PD has done that
[55:15] because why would you?
[55:16] We're not here to make money off this.
[55:17] We just need to be able
[55:18] to take care of business.
[55:20] I think besides the text, we could get
[55:23] something in the Adi Indi.
[55:25] Yeah.
[55:26] Or we could get
[55:26] something on the local radio.
[55:28] And we might even
[55:29] consider a couple signs.
[55:32] Yeah.
[55:32] I mean, Drew thinks he might have some
[55:34] ability to publicize as well.
[55:37] Yeah.
[55:38] And I mean, to that point of
[55:39] this year, we need some more.
[55:41] We can look in.
[55:43] Also, he said it.
[55:46] Yeah.
[55:48] Television also has an emergency alert
[55:50] system that plays on the TV.
[55:52] The alerts that Crystal sends out through
[55:54] the Towne's text message system
[55:55] are also displayed on MCTV, both 1071 and
[56:00] 1091, as an emergency ticker at the
[56:02] bottom of the screen.
[56:03] So if the public works makes the
[56:05] determination that they do
[56:07] want to have the parking ban,
[56:08] that would go through the Towne's alert
[56:10] system, which would also be
[56:11] displayed on all of both our
[56:13] channels and our information bulletin
[56:15] boards that lives at the library and
[56:16] those kinds of things as
[56:17] well.
[56:18] Awesome.
[56:18] Sorry.
[56:18] Thanks, Drew.
[56:19] I love it.
[56:20] And I think facing right after we see
[56:21] there's still issues, we've
[56:22] talked about small message
[56:23] boards coming into town for
[56:24] a variety of issues, right?
[56:25] Parking, we're snow
[56:26] clearing, we're painting lines.
[56:28] Things are different from downtown.
[56:29] But that, I think we start here.
[56:31] Virginia was a great case study of they
[56:33] didn't spend all the
[56:34] money, they were going to spend
[56:35] it and they didn't have it.
[56:36] So they said, let's try it and it's
[56:37] ordeal pretty well for them.
[56:39] This makes a lot of sense.
[56:41] And I really, this is one for discussion
[56:43] only, but I don't see why we...
[56:45] Well, we're going to take a straw poll to
[56:47] bring an ordinance to us.
[56:48] That's me.
[56:49] Yeah, I don't have the
[56:50] ordinance drafted from you right now.
[56:53] Yes, please.
[56:53] I think it's that.
[56:54] So straw poll.
[56:55] Yes.
[56:56] Yes, yes, yes.
[56:58] Yes.
[56:58] Yeah.
[56:59] Yes.
[57:00] Please.
[57:01] Let's do it.
[57:02] Let's move forward.
[57:03] All right.
[57:04] David, did I bring this to you like two
[57:05] and a half years ago?
[57:06] Yeah, I think it's time had to come.
[57:08] Okay.
[57:09] You're just still ahead of your time.
[57:11] The rest of us had to catch up.
[57:12] Emily, can I ask you one question?
[57:16] There is on the access road to the cell
[57:21] tower, a tree that fell over maybe
[57:24] in the huge windstorm a year and some ago
[57:28] and is leaning and compromising
[57:32] a huge mature tree
[57:33] that's next to the road.
[57:36] Are you familiar with this?
[57:37] I am not.
[57:39] A widow baker.
[57:40] A widow baker, says Dan.
[57:41] He's on the spring side.
[57:42] So at the top of spring
[57:43] side, if you go up towards...
[57:45] Do you go straight or if
[57:46] you go right at the top?
[57:47] Straight to the cell tower.
[57:48] So Battelle Land Trust is supposed to...
[57:51] Yeah, the cell trust is in charge of the
[57:53] Caring custody of trees beyond the gate.
[57:55] Beyond the gate, including
[57:56] not tam trees on that road.
[57:59] Correct.
[57:59] Very good.
[58:00] Okay.
[58:00] It is...
[58:02] I have a picture where you can see.
[58:06] Yeah, it's just...
[58:07] It's had this tree leaning on it forever
[58:08] and it's like maybe a 10
[58:10] plus percent off straight now.
[58:13] I didn't email Tony about it.
[58:15] He usually just
[58:15] circles back to Chrisy Oley.
[58:18] Okay.
[58:18] Very good.
[58:19] Thanks.
[58:19] Yep.
[58:21] Okay.
[58:23] Okay.
[58:23] Board member concerns.
[58:24] Fred.
[58:29] There's been a couple of pieces of
[58:30] correspondence that have been emailed to
[58:32] Select Board members
[58:33] only and not to the manager.
[58:35] One in August 28th, a letter from Paul
[58:39] Dragon hoping Select Board
[58:41] members would come to the
[58:43] September 18th to see the OEO open house
[58:45] and ask them when I'm going to speak.
[58:48] Another one this
[58:48] afternoon at 4.30, 4 p.m.
[58:51] Andrew Fersch requesting that one or all
[58:54] of us appear at a
[58:55] children's TV show in Rochester.
[58:58] Madre Valley TV for five minutes.
[59:01] Anyway, I just...
[59:03] Things that come to all the board members
[59:04] but don't go to the manager.
[59:06] One of us ought to
[59:07] forward it and say FYI.
[59:10] But I'm not inclined to
[59:14] go to either of these.
[59:14] Even better, we could create a Select
[59:18] Board at
[59:19] townofmiddlebury.org mailing list,
[59:22] which would not only be a discoverable
[59:25] record but also go to
[59:26] everyone at their personal address.
[59:28] And this is something which Drew could
[59:30] set up in three minutes.
[59:32] Done.
[59:33] Okay.
[59:34] Next.
[59:36] Next.
[59:37] Sit down.
[59:40] Yeah.
[59:40] Very...
[59:40] Well, that's it.
[59:42] Sir, somebody came today to me to
[59:46] complain about a trailer
[59:48] that's abandoned by her house
[59:50] and I wondered who was it
[59:51] sent to to talk about that.
[59:53] It's like this, the people who own the
[59:56] trailer and who own the
[59:57] property don't live there.
[59:59] They've moved away, but the trailer is
[1:00:00] just there falling apart
[1:00:01] and she doesn't know who to
[1:00:03] reach out to.
[1:00:04] So I don't even...
[1:00:05] Always sent her to the town manager.
[1:00:07] I did say I was gonna...
[1:00:08] I said the town manager, but I didn't
[1:00:11] know if there was a specific
[1:00:14] ordinance.
[1:00:15] I don't know if it was a drummer or...
[1:00:16] Yeah, Mark said, "Yeah,
[1:00:17] Mark's the way you are."
[1:00:18] Is this a Home for Trailer or...
[1:00:22] No type trailer.
[1:00:24] Yeah.
[1:00:25] So...
[1:00:26] And that's the right
[1:00:28] answer, I guess, Dan.
[1:00:29] Based on Mark's nodding.
[1:00:31] What?
[1:00:32] Is he on the head?
[1:00:36] Dan, well, you've got your speaker open.
[1:00:39] Got anything?
[1:00:42] Yeah, I would just say this to say
[1:00:44] something sitting here
[1:00:45] and watching this tonight.
[1:00:47] We went through an unusual event, even
[1:00:50] though some was a little bitter.
[1:00:52] That's the first time I've ever seen
[1:00:53] Emily come in and let up
[1:00:56] the side of which contract we want.
[1:00:59] And I thought the conversation was
[1:01:00] somewhat uncomfortable,
[1:01:02] because if you're gonna do that, we
[1:01:03] didn't give fair shape
[1:01:05] to the other contractors
[1:01:06] who were there.
[1:01:07] A little silly was a
[1:01:08] really interesting guy.
[1:01:10] It was just a little uncomfortable, but I
[1:01:13] was glad he was a little bitter because
[1:01:16] that's the one way to go.
[1:01:18] But it was just different.
[1:01:20] I've never seen that
[1:01:21] before, and it was uncomfortable.
[1:01:23] I think, Emily, you
[1:01:25] asked us to decide, right?
[1:01:27] Between the two.
[1:01:29] I wanted to go with the more local vendor
[1:01:33] who has historically done work,
[1:01:35] but the local vendor was not sitting in
[1:01:37] the room supporting his vote.
[1:01:39] That's his last.
[1:01:40] So I think either way,
[1:01:41] it's a fully funded project,
[1:01:43] so it wouldn't have been
[1:01:44] changed to the town either way.
[1:01:47] But I think he
[1:01:48] clearly supported his case.
[1:01:51] I do agree that the other party didn't
[1:01:54] get to support his case,
[1:01:55] but he did.
[1:01:56] He did.
[1:01:57] He did get to.
[1:01:57] Well, I have a chance to test him out.
[1:01:59] But we don't do a competitive process by
[1:02:01] having one person show up.
[1:02:04] Brandon, he's a smart guy.
[1:02:06] He doesn't.
[1:02:06] He's a smart guy.
[1:02:08] So I'm still uncomfortable with one.
[1:02:12] There should also be a reason we're not
[1:02:13] looking at a little bit, right?
[1:02:14] There's gonna be a compelling reason
[1:02:15] outside of not
[1:02:16] comfortable with affiliates, right?
[1:02:19] Well, I think typically if you have a
[1:02:22] historical background,
[1:02:23] then it's a little
[1:02:24] better than we do sometimes.
[1:02:26] Well, he was pretty
[1:02:28] persuasive, I thought.
[1:02:32] And we'll get--
[1:02:32] He made a little nervous that he might
[1:02:34] not know the contract.
[1:02:38] But we'll get through it.
[1:02:40] Ashley knows the contract.
[1:02:43] It's funny that he said,
[1:02:44] "I'm not a good speaker."
[1:02:45] And then he went and showed all of them.
[1:02:47] No.
[1:02:48] No one appreciates my average accent.
[1:02:55] You just say low bet,
[1:02:56] low bet, what do you say?
[1:02:57] Set the boundary low and then--
[1:02:59] Exceed expectations.
[1:03:00] Yeah.
[1:03:00] I'm a very good public speaker.
[1:03:01] Here we go.
[1:03:04] I got nothing.
[1:03:08] You wanted to watch the
[1:03:09] demo of the house or something?
[1:03:11] Did you see the stewards?
[1:03:13] The geppers?
[1:03:14] I did see.
[1:03:15] Yeah.
[1:03:15] But those awesome things
[1:03:17] that I've seen in three days,
[1:03:18] they flattened that whole structure down.
[1:03:21] Amazing, amazing work.
[1:03:22] Were you just out there
[1:03:23] watching the whole film?
[1:03:25] Every few minutes, I'll go outside.
[1:03:27] But every few minutes,
[1:03:28] my whole building shakes.
[1:03:30] We're trying to get to the morning.
[1:03:32] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[1:03:32] That's why we're out there.
[1:03:33] The concrete pavement,
[1:03:33] when you're breaking.
[1:03:36] I thought, I wish my
[1:03:37] building collapsed or something
[1:03:38] so I can get a new one out.
[1:03:40] That was a good experience.
[1:03:45] That's funny.
[1:03:46] Yeah.
[1:03:46] It's like, Andy?
[1:03:48] Yeah, I think I'm good.
[1:03:49] What an easy jovial select
[1:03:53] board meeting this has been.
[1:03:56] Can they change sense?
[1:04:02] On your comments, Dan, I do
[1:04:05] feel like we kind of owed it
[1:04:07] to the low bid without a compelling
[1:04:09] reason of differentiation,
[1:04:13] especially because
[1:04:14] we'd want to keep people
[1:04:16] into the money in Vermont.
[1:04:17] We've never really said in
[1:04:19] New Haven versus Linenville,
[1:04:22] it's not Middlebury.
[1:04:23] So if it was a Middlebury vendor,
[1:04:24] it might be a little bit different.
[1:04:26] But I think the fact that he was here
[1:04:28] because he was unknown
[1:04:30] was advantageous because
[1:04:32] that was the only reason why
[1:04:34] we were considering somebody different.
[1:04:36] I don't feel like our directivation
[1:04:39] necessarily was slighted
[1:04:41] because they were not the low bidder.
[1:04:43] The fact that we were considering them
[1:04:44] was because nobody had heard of some.
[1:04:47] He kind of showed to us
[1:04:49] that they are operating
[1:04:52] throughout the state.
[1:04:53] I think him showing up made
[1:04:55] it a little bit uncomfortable.
[1:04:56] I've also only one of them showing up.
[1:05:00] Yeah.
[1:05:01] But I mean, it's a good tactic.
[1:05:04] It's an open meeting.
[1:05:05] On a big bid, you ought
[1:05:06] to go to the decision.
[1:05:09] Yeah.
[1:05:11] Yeah, no, he really drives
[1:05:12] these things all the time.
[1:05:14] Yeah.
[1:05:14] That's pretty expensive to
[1:05:17] use for what we thought of me
[1:05:19] as an offer.
[1:05:21] And they never--
[1:05:23] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:05:25] And Republic had come to multiple visits.
[1:05:28] So it's just interesting
[1:05:29] to have different bids.
[1:05:31] Yeah.
[1:05:32] It is a fairly small demolition, though.
[1:05:35] So I mean, to spend a lot of
[1:05:36] time going and doing the site
[1:05:38] visit, you could just
[1:05:39] drive by and look at it
[1:05:40] and kind of walk through.
[1:05:42] The only way that kind
[1:05:43] of worked, we think--
[1:05:44] Yeah.
[1:05:45] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:05:45] One other thing that I had
[1:05:53] to do was I sent some pictures
[1:05:56] from Steve Du Bois to
[1:05:58] somebody from the last in the spring.
[1:06:03] And he had commented to me that nobody
[1:06:07] circled back with him.
[1:06:09] I don't remember who I
[1:06:10] guess Steve Du Bois from County
[1:06:12] Tower.
[1:06:13] [INTERPOSING VOICES] Yeah.
[1:06:13] This is about the rain
[1:06:14] that's flooding on the street.
[1:06:15] Yeah.
[1:06:16] So whoever was supposed to get those,
[1:06:18] I'll have to see if I still have them.
[1:06:21] I think I have them.
[1:06:22] And then there's--
[1:06:23] Did I give them to you?
[1:06:24] History there that we
[1:06:25] were working through.
[1:06:26] Yeah.
[1:06:27] OK.
[1:06:28] I just wanted to make sure
[1:06:29] whether I was dreaming it
[1:06:31] or if I was getting something.
[1:06:33] OK.
[1:06:34] All right.
[1:06:35] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:35] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:35] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:36] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:38] Got it.
[1:06:40] All right.
[1:06:41] And so I have--
[1:06:44] Move to adjourn.
[1:06:46] Second.
[1:06:47] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:47] All in favor?
[1:06:48] Aye.
[1:06:49] [INAUDIBLE]
[1:06:49] [MUSIC PLAYING]