[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[1:32] later rescinded and corrected.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.

[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.

[47:30] 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]

[1:06:36] [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]

Middlebury Selectboard 09/09/2025

Transcript