[0:12] Good morning, friends, family, and neighbors.

[0:15] Before we open the polls, I would like to invite you to join in the pledge of

[0:20] allegiance. And Bob Lichfield has agreed to lead us.

[0:30] Bob, good point.

[0:35] » To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

[0:41] stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

[0:47] for all. >> Thank you. The polls are now open. And

[0:53] be sure to give your first and last name to the pole workers so they can make

[0:58] sure that you're marked in correctly. Kim,

[1:12] » welcome everybody. Can you hear me? Okay.

[1:16] » No. >> Chris, could you help me move the mic?

[1:21] It David had said it should be over here so

[1:25] it can be >> Yeah.

[1:30] » Thank you.

[1:38] » this way. >> Yes. Is that better?

[1:42] » Is that good? >> Okay.

[1:46] Well, welcome everybody. I am Kim Freriedman. I live in South Newane and I

[1:51] have the honor of being New Fain's town moderator again.

[1:59] Thank you. Very kind. Um I first I'd like to recognize people who have lived

[2:06] in one of the three towns, South New Fain, Williamsville or New Fain and have

[2:11] not been to town meeting before. We'd like to welcome you.

[2:18] Welcome. Welcome. We're We're happy you're here.

[2:25] » Would you care to share your name and where you live or would you prefer not

[2:28] to be put on the spot?

[2:36] » Ron here

[2:40] from Seattle.

[2:44] » Did you say Ron Seagull? >> Ron Seager.

[2:46] » Seager. Great. Welcome. And um is there anyone here who is

[2:54] new to New Fain South New Fain or Williamsville? And

[3:01] I grew up here, but I was doing it for about 20 years. I'm Tessa Anderson. So,

[3:06] it's really good to be back.

[3:12] » Proud Leland and Gray graduate. Yes.

[3:17] I'd like to thank start off also by thanking the select board. It takes a

[3:21] lot of work to get to today between the budget, the town report, polling. So, uh

[3:28] if if the select board could first introduce themselves and then if you

[3:32] could join me in a round moment of recognition.

[3:39] Good morning. I'm Katie Johnson. My animal resto

[3:53] » Christopher Cleverly Williamsville.

[3:57] » And could the town clerk please introduce herself?

[4:01] » One of the town treasurer,

[4:05] » Melissa Brown.

[4:12] Um, even though Wi-Fi or cell service isn't very good in this neck of the

[4:17] woods, if you could please make sure that your phone is silenced, that would

[4:21] be great. Thank you. I know that there's a restroom right out

[4:27] these doors to the right before you leave the building. Um, where are the

[4:31] restrooms downstairs?

[4:36] » There only two back here. Okay, I know we'll make it work.

[4:42] Uh, the town report. >> Where are the extra?

[4:48] » Okay, there the town the town report and other information are available up

[4:55] front. Feel free at any time to come up and get one. It I do find it easier to

[5:00] follow town meeting if you do have a town report in your hand. So, if you

[5:04] don't have one, feel free to come up and get one.

[5:10] Um, my sister and I love my sister dearly. We agree on almost nothing

[5:14] politically. And we decided in 2017 that we were

[5:19] going to start what we call the practice of politics. Um, which is practicing

[5:26] listening to each other attentively, being curious, and being respectful. and

[5:32] we've had many wonderful conversations as a result of that. So I I'm mentioning

[5:37] that because I think of town meeting as the a practice of politics as well.

[5:44] I'd like to call your attention to a few Robert's rules of order that are on page

[5:51] four of your annual report. It's called town meeting guide sheet.

[5:57] And thank you to Wanetta for including this.

[6:00] I'm not going to go through every bullet, but I did want to call your

[6:05] attention to a few things. Um, and I'm not by by focusing on these,

[6:11] I'm not in inadvertently suggesting anything. It's just places where

[6:16] sometimes as a body we can stumble. If you want to end debate, it you must

[6:23] be you call the question and that requires a second and it's one of the

[6:29] few decisions that requires a 23 vote.

[6:35] You c we can members can only speak twice on any particular motion or

[6:41] amendment and you can only speak for a second time after everyone who wanted to

[6:47] say something has had a chance to speak first.

[6:52] Um I know it can feel um kind of contrived but um all questions

[6:59] and comments do need to be directed to the moderator. This is not my

[7:03] preference. This is Robert's rules of order and it's a way of maintaining

[7:08] order during the conversation during town in town meeting.

[7:13] Um motions need to be moved and seconded. So if you say I I move that

[7:20] someone needs someone else needs to second that and then I need to restate

[7:25] it prior to consideration and debate. Now, this is one place that can get very

[7:33] confusing in town meetings. So, I want to make it really as clear as I can.

[7:38] A motion can only be amended twice in at one time. There can only be

[7:45] two pending amendments. So for example, let's say one of you

[7:53] proposes um in that

[7:58] let's say the motion is to and this is an example I used at the select board

[8:02] meeting last night um make it impossible to have a horse in

[8:08] any of our three towns. a horse and then someone wants to amend that and add cats

[8:13] to it and then someone wants to amend that and add gerbles to it and then

[8:18] someone wants to add parakeetses to it. Well, we can go as far as cats and dogs,

[8:24] but we can't go to parakeetses. We have to vote on the main motion

[8:30] and dogs and cats before we can talk about parakeetses. So, if you're

[8:36] offering the third amendment on a motion, I just will ask in advance for

[8:40] your patience. I'll get back to you, but there has to be a vote on the amended

[8:45] motion first. Is that is is that as clear as mud? Did Did that help at all?

[8:53] Okay, I'll walk you through it when we get there, too.

[8:59] » If Winetta corrected me if we get there. She's an optimist. Um, if you want, if a

[9:08] voice vote seems inconclusive, anyone can call for what's called a

[9:14] division of the House, in which case people stand in order to be counted.

[9:23] It stand as a yes or stand as a no, an I or an A. If you if someone wants a paper

[9:29] ballot, there must be seven or more voters who request one. So, it can't

[9:35] just be one person saying, "I want a paper ballot."

[9:40] And if you have an objection about anything, that objection needs to be

[9:45] stated before discussion begins. So, you have to pop up right up from your chair.

[9:53] So, those are just some basic reminders and I know that we will all move through

[9:59] the meeting smoothly. That said, even though I am very

[10:04] familiar with Robert's rules of order through my work on this school board and

[10:09] helping other boards use not Robert's rules of order,

[10:15] I think you have all seen

[10:20] you've all seen the book. Um, even the most seasoned town moderators will tell

[10:25] you that there's always something that trips them up. So, if that's the case, I

[10:31] have my book. I have my notebook. There are many good parliamentarians in the

[10:35] room. I know. And we'll we'll take it one step at a time.

[10:42] Um, don't hesitate to ask questions if you are having trouble following. If

[10:48] it's a question about the content of the discussion, then you request a point of

[10:53] information. If you think that there's something I've

[10:57] done, if I've overlooked a Robert's rule of order, then you say point of order.

[11:03] So, point of information about content, point of order about rules.

[11:08] Um, I'm going, if we're still going at around noon, I'm going to propose at

[11:13] that time that we uh take a recess for for 15 minutes. And I wanted to let you

[11:19] know that Representative Long will be coming between 10 and 10:30. And at that

[11:23] time, I will also ask your permission to pause so that Emily has a Representative

[11:29] Long has a chance to talk with us. So

[11:34] we come as neighbors and friends and we will leave as such.

[12:06] If there are no objections, uh um Sheriff, would you like a chance to say

[12:11] a word knowing that you need to hit several towns?

[12:16] Would you like to use the mic? >> You use that one. Okay.

[12:21] » Not a moderator. I'm not a resident. Is it okay with the body for me to speak?

[12:26] » Thank you. The sheriff is asking if as a non-resident it is possible for him to

[12:31] speak. Um, and normally it would take a twothirds vote, but because he is

[12:36] sheriff, there's a tradition of allowing him to speak without a vote.

[12:44] » Well, thank you, madam moderator. Thank you, uh, town of Newane. Uh, if you

[12:47] don't know me, my name is Mark Anderson. I am your sheriff. Uh, and uh, well, I'm

[12:53] here to answer any questions you have. Any question? No. Um, so one of the

[12:56] things I've been working on, and I'm happy to answer your questions, but one

[12:59] of the things I'm working on, I've been working with the town of Newane on uh,

[13:02] is what's known as our regional policing project. This has been about four years

[13:06] worth of effort uh, to identify how do we provide better services for law

[13:10] enforcement resources to uh, rural towns in Windham County. We're not focusing on

[13:16] towns with police departments. Why? they have a police department and people

[13:20] without a police department understand the pain uh when you have issues um

[13:24] occur in your community. So that's what we've been working on. Newfane, the town

[13:28] of Newane, your select board has been a wonderful uh partner uh in the

[13:32] conversation to bring insight uh and and conversation uh and so we uh put forward

[13:37] a bill with Senator Harrison, Senator uh Senator Hashim uh which uh was

[13:42] introduced in the legislature this year. It's known as S255.

[13:46] What's that? S255 is a bill that says let's look at

[13:50] how governance and funding work so that we can stop duplicating uh governance,

[13:55] stop creating uh duplications of services and start providing solutions

[14:00] to gaps. So basically I'm trying to be more efficient with resources. We're

[14:04] trying to do more with less whatever. Um but that's what we've been

[14:10] working on. So, uh, just last week it passed out of the Senate, uh, with, uh,

[14:15] a pretty significant supermajority vote. We are headed over to the House, uh, I'm

[14:20] guessing in about 2 weeks where more work will begin. I've been working with

[14:23] the entire Windham County delegation on this effort. And our goal is let's do it

[14:28] without raising taxes. So, um, we're trying to be very mindful of the

[14:32] circumstances Vermonters are in. I am the government. I'm here to help. I'm

[14:35] sorry. Um, we do cost money. Uh but at the same time, we're trying to look at

[14:39] it in a way that says um that answers the the call for service uh that we hear

[14:44] all too often uh from people frustrated by the the issues and ills that come to

[14:48] your community. Uh but we're also trying to do it in a way that is supportive.

[14:53] When I talk to Vermoners, uh really I hear three primary things as problems.

[14:57] They want to feel safe in their homes or usually the Vermont way is they want to

[15:00] not have to lock their door at night. uh they want to have a house that they

[15:04] can afford and they want to have a job that pays them to afford the house and

[15:08] the things that they care about. Those are really the three themes I hear. So,

[15:11] I'm really trying to focus on how do we provide the services that we provide to

[15:15] your community uh and try to keep it in line with those those key points that I

[15:20] I keep hearing uh from the community. Um I also want to thank uh Katie uh who

[15:27] came to the state house uh with me probably about 3 weeks ago now. Um she

[15:32] uh presented testimony on behalf of the town of Newfane. Uh and she's also been

[15:37] a tremendous uh partner working through this entire project where we're trying

[15:40] to bring everyone else voices uh and the stakeholders together to really start

[15:44] threading the needle and how do I do what you want me to do uh and in a way

[15:48] that uh is affordable. Uh I am happy to answer questions. That was the project.

[15:54] Um but I'm sure there's more that you care about than just the project. Yes,

[15:58] sir. What is your policy with respect to

[16:01] cooperation with ICE? >> The question is, what is the policy of

[16:05] the sheriff's office with uh regards to our cooperation with ICE? So, my policy

[16:10] is the same as every other state agency, I'm sorry, agency in the state of

[16:14] Vermont that's a law enforcement agency. We all have at least the same minimum

[16:18] standard of a policy known as the fair and impartial policing policy. This is

[16:21] created by the criminal justice council, which is the credentiing body for law

[16:25] enforcement. That's the foundation. What's the answer to your question, sir?

[16:29] We don't work with ICE. Um, they provide civil immigration enforcement, which is

[16:33] primarily and only owned by the federal government. It's not to say uh that uh

[16:39] I'm not here to cast any espersions on what they do or don't do. I have some

[16:42] personal opinions. I personally believe that um the way that force is used by a

[16:46] law enforcement agency or the government is an incredibly important thing we need

[16:50] to consider. And I've seen some things done by the federal government that are

[16:53] problematic from a purely professional standpoint. We have standards. We have

[16:57] training, we have policies, we have uh professionalism. And so if I saw um

[17:02] another profession doing something wrong, I would call that out too if I

[17:04] saw it. I'm seeing things done by law enforcement officers that I think is

[17:08] wrong. That said, to your question, um we don't cooperate with ICE. Uh we ran

[17:14] queries over the years when we've been asked the question, the only thing I can

[17:17] find is the frozen molecule of water that we've responded to motor vehicle

[17:20] crashes, ice on the road. Um and that's that's what we get for responses. I also

[17:26] say, and some of this is sarcasm, but it's also a true statement. Uh I don't

[17:30] cooperate with the federal government often because they don't show up. When I

[17:34] call the ATF and say we've found a felon in possession of a firearm, they say

[17:37] just take it and we're not coming. That's the nature of rural Vermont. Like

[17:42] we do not get access to the federal resources often. Um but we are very

[17:46] attuned to things that are going on nationally. Um, I'm also, uh, we talk

[17:51] with a lot of different organizations, farmers, um, members of the public, uh,

[17:55] to say, "We're not going to be the black SUVs," which I say we have black SUVs.

[18:00] Um, we're not going to be the black SUVs that show up wearing masks and do all

[18:04] sorts of things. Like, we spend a lot of money on uniforms. I want my staff to be

[18:08] recognizable. There are reasons that they won't be recognizable, but that's

[18:12] usually for the things that we value. When we're transporting people with

[18:16] mental health illnesses and they are violent towards others, they're not

[18:19] committing crimes. I don't want to um I don't want to have an espersion that

[18:24] they've committed a crime where that's why they're with a law enforcement

[18:27] officer. But the law enforcement officer has training to help that person get to

[18:31] treatment and care that ambulances don't have because of the level of violence.

[18:36] So, we're using very rare circumstances, but reasons why we might not be in

[18:40] uniform or we might not be uh in a marked vehicle. When a prisoner uh or a

[18:45] person is uh going through the criminal justice system and they have a trial,

[18:49] you are not going to see my deputies in the courtroom. They're there, but the

[18:53] reason that you don't see them is because we want the person to have the

[18:56] the opportunity for innocence until proven guilty. We don't want the belief

[19:00] that deputies being present means that they've committed a crime or that they

[19:03] are guilty of the crime. they are there for different reasons which are public

[19:06] safety reasons. So there are oftent times and I'm happy to sit down with

[19:10] anyone and talk start talking through some of the nuance of these but there

[19:13] are reasons that we look through these things and we still want to be um an

[19:17] organization of the community that's supportive and has your trust and if

[19:21] we're losing your trust we need to talk. Um so I'm always happy to come speak

[19:25] with you or speak with any member of the town uh come to a meeting uh or host our

[19:30] own uh to have those conversations. We want your trust. Um, and if we lose

[19:33] that, that's on us. >> Yes, ma'am.

[19:39] » Could you speak to the driver's education program that the sheriff's

[19:44] office is working with in adult learning and our parents from how effective the

[19:53] » Sharon Anderson, could you repeat the question so everyone could hear it?

[19:56] » I'll be happy. And I'm sorry, madam moderator, and I know questions are

[19:58] supposed to go to you, so please forgive me. Um, the question was, uh, if I could

[20:03] speak to our driver's education program. Uh, and I'm going to paraphrase to a

[20:08] degree. Uh, the driver's education program my office runs, uh, in

[20:12] partnership with Karen Meyer. Um, and, uh, in this community. So, we have two

[20:18] programs. Uh, one is called the enhanced teen driver safety program. We

[20:22] introduced this probably about 10 years ago um give or take uh where we are

[20:28] trying to target teen drivers uh new drivers, people who have never operated

[20:34] the physical motor vehicle before or in very limited circumstances. We provide a

[20:40] law enforcement officer who has many years in traffic safety experience to

[20:44] work alongside the driver's education programs that are at say Leland and

[20:48] Gray, but we do it throughout the county. The purpose of this is to

[20:52] provide uh teen and new drivers with uh access to driver simulators. So, we put

[20:57] them behind the steering wheel and teach them the rules of the road without

[21:00] putting them behind 4,000 lbs of hardware that can hit something. Um what

[21:05] we saw in uh impact for that is a reduction in teen related crashes from

[21:10] Windham County uh consistently over the years. We've run the program. It's being

[21:14] lauded by the state highway safety office as one of the leading programs.

[21:17] I'd like to push statewide because it is impactful. We're taking drivers at

[21:21] instructors. We're combining them with uh traffic safety specialists who say

[21:26] there's better ways to do this. Um it also provides uh youth drivers with the

[21:31] opportunity to talk to a law enforcement officer that says, "Well, I heard or my

[21:35] friend got stopped for." And they can start having that non-confrontational

[21:38] conversation to actually learn what we're doing and why we're doing it. It

[21:42] wasn't that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day. It's that we're

[21:46] writing tickets for going 60 and a 30 in Newane Village. Sorry, slow down please.

[21:52] Um, so the second part of that program though is then what uh we took when the

[21:57] uh Afghany uh community started uh immigrating to Vermont and we said we

[22:02] have a group of people who are going to be coming to Vermont who have never

[22:06] driven on US highways and might have never driven in their life. So we said

[22:11] let's take the same program we're doing for the teens and work with that uh

[22:14] immigrant population. So we've uh partnered with the uh ECDC, that's the

[22:19] Ethiopian community development council. Thank you. I always

[22:24] call it ECDC. Um the US Department of I believe it was state or labor uh and

[22:30] some other organizations to start uh start pushing it forward. Vermont adult

[22:35] learning uh is a partner. We're trying to find people uh and this is not like

[22:39] an active ask. What we were trying to do, our focus was to find people who uh

[22:43] can speak to the education side. Uh find people who can speak uh in different

[22:48] languages. Uh and that's a specific skill set when we're talking about uh

[22:52] educating uh learners uh from different countries. It's not just do you speak

[22:56] the language, but also can you teach uh a person in that language. So, a variety

[23:01] of nuance skill sets, but again, we're focused on how do we teach people to

[23:05] pilot a 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 pound, uh, vehicle down the roads and not hit each

[23:11] other. Um, and that's what we're focusing on. So, uh, we don't have data

[23:15] specifically to support whether crashes have increased, decreased, done anything

[23:19] because there's no statistics that we track to consider an immigrant

[23:23] population. We don't know who the immigrant population is from driver

[23:26] data. um we don't want to record that information for reasons similar to your

[23:30] concern um or question related to ICE. I don't want the government to have a

[23:35] database of who is or isn't. It's not my responsibility to deal with immigration

[23:38] enforcement. So, we're not tracking the data. Um and if you ask me to, we're

[23:42] just not going to because there's no point. UM

[23:51] are there any other questions for Sheriff Anderson?

[23:57] Katie, sure. Would you take a moment and talk

[24:01] about your great lead remediation program that you have going on?

[24:05] » Uh the um Katie asked me to speak about our lead remediation program. The uh

[24:11] totally random story that the sheriff's office has this grant, but we applied

[24:15] for a grant uh from the US Housing and Urban Development. Um

[24:21] the the purpose of the grant is to enhance uh

[24:27] basically it's to make home safer. In other states, this would be run by a

[24:32] county department of health. It would be run by um a county code enforcement

[24:37] organization. Uh it could be run by uh towns, cities, or the state. But

[24:43] generally speaking, this grant is designed for counties. Why did I apply

[24:47] for it? Well, we don't really have county of government that applies for

[24:49] these types of things. And uh one of the things I said at the beginning, people

[24:54] want to be safe, but they also want to have a home. We need better housing in

[24:57] Vermont. We need access to housing that people can afford. And oftent times in

[25:00] Vermont, what we find is people uh have homes that were built before um really

[25:05] before the 1970s when lead paint was start or became illegal um for

[25:10] manufacturer. So what we find is a lot of houses that have lead uh in them.

[25:17] The most prone population uh to uh elevated blood levels is people under

[25:22] the age of six. Uh so we're talking about kids. I know what I was told.

[25:26] Don't eat the paint chips. And I'm sure many of you have heard that, too. It's

[25:29] actually ironic because it's not the paint chips getting eaten, but it's

[25:32] opening and closing windows and slamming doors that creates the most lead dust in

[25:37] homes. Now, I'm guessing most people here do

[25:40] have a home built before the 1970s. And if that's the case, there's a high

[25:44] likelihood you have lead in the home. if you're over the age of six, you have

[25:47] less of a um exposure to it. So, the grant we applied for was to get more

[25:52] contractors who can do the work to remediate it uh and get a list of people

[25:57] who have homes that would qualify uh to have work done. That's the first grant.

[26:02] The second grant uh which uh we'll likely be applying for next year

[26:06] provides money to do the work. And if it follows the same guidelines as it did

[26:11] this year, uh it would be a 10% match from the property owner uh for you to

[26:16] get things like windows and door casings with lead paint uh replaced. So you put

[26:21] down um $3,000 we come along with uh the rest of the 90% to basically pay for

[26:28] that work to be done. I see that as a win-win to this community. It is tax

[26:31] funds. It's raised by the federal government. So your um your nickel in

[26:35] that is probably well less than a nickel. Um uh literally. But the uh the

[26:41] main point of it is how do we get verters access? Historically the state

[26:44] of Vermont uh has not supported doing lead abatement in homes because it's too

[26:48] expensive. It's too expensive because the state of Vermont doesn't really have

[26:51] county government getting the federal funds that go to counties that pay for

[26:55] it. So we're a little creative. We're the first sheriff's office in the

[26:58] country to apply for this grant. It's a running Thank you.

[27:06] It is a running joke with the US um HUD department uh that the sheriff applied

[27:12] for the grant. And when people say, "Well, are we doing code enforcement?"

[27:16] No, I wouldn't even know what I'm I'm

[27:19] talking about. Like I am a law enforcement officer by trade. I know

[27:22] lead is bad. But we also know that elevated blood levels uh in uh youth uh

[27:28] result in higher school discipline data. Um so more suspensions or expulsions

[27:33] from schools nationwide. We also know that elevated blood levels uh in men

[27:37] will result in higher degrees of violent crime. So I can talk about public safety

[27:42] all day. I can talk about public health a little bit. Uh, but we're also

[27:45] partnering with our public health partners to say this is good for

[27:48] housing, which is good for public safety, which is good for our

[27:52] communities, and it's good for property owners. So, I see wins all the way

[27:55] around. Um, I'm happy to hear any losses and uh certainly consider ways that we

[28:00] can address that. I just haven't found one yet. Uh, and nobody's writing me

[28:04] nasty letters about why we should stop doing this. So, I'm going to keep doing

[28:07] it.

[28:10] » Thank you so much for coming by and answering our questions. Thank you for

[28:14] your time. I know there's more questions. If anybody wants to reach

[28:16] out, you can find me at the sheriff's office. Um I'm happy uh to talk to

[28:20] anybody about anything. I'm headed to the next town meeting. Um this is my

[28:24] fourth. Uh so uh I'm happy to come uh speak before a select board meeting as

[28:29] well. Um whatever works. But thank you for your time.

[28:42] For those of you who are standing in the back, if that's your preference, that's

[28:46] fine. If you're looking for a seat, there are a few in the middle, a few up

[28:51] here, and a few over on this side. Because article one is decided by

[28:57] Australian ballot, we're going to start with article two.

[29:04] Shall the voters of the town of Newfane pay taxes for the ensuing year on a

[29:10] quarterly basis due on the 15th of August, October,

[29:16] January, and April. Late charge for interest being at the

[29:21] rate of 0.5% per month for the current fiscal year

[29:27] and 75% per month for each month thereafter until paid.

[29:34] What is your pleasure? Is there a second?

[29:42] Steve Lavine. Thank you for seconding. Um, is there

[29:47] any discussion on article two?

[29:52] » Steve was first. Steve

[30:00] » Oh,

[30:04] excuse me. I already have made a m an an oversight. Uh, Wanetta pointed out that

[30:10] the mo unless I missed it, the motion was not moved. The motion has to be

[30:17] moved to in order to have a second and discuss the article. So, let's back up.

[30:24] I'm going to re what? >> Approval.

[30:27] » Move approval. Okay. Um, meaning we can proceed. Okay. Thank you, Representative

[30:34] Merik. Um, is there discussion on article two?

[30:44] » Steve, >> could you just could you state your

[30:47] name, please?

[30:51] » Okay, thank you. So,

[30:55] » is there any discussion?

[31:00] Gloria, you're looking at the percentage and I

[31:05] understand that a few years ago we lowered it.

[31:09] » I'm sorry. Could I ask you to address the moderator?

[31:25] A few years ago, we we lowered this uh rate of the

[31:34] information being I mean the rate of late payments. And it just seems to me

[31:40] that what we're doing is

[31:45] allowing people who maybe have a lot of back taxes to have the town's people pay

[31:53] it because they're not paying a bank loan. There isn't any way that if you

[31:59] know, we've got some people who maybe have a $100,000

[32:03] that are overdue taxes and they pay 0.5% versus if they had to take a loan to pay

[32:09] that, they'd be paying much higher. So, I do have concern if we're making it too

[32:14] low. That's all.

[32:22] Any further discussion on article two?

[32:30] Okay. Hearing none, we'll move to vote on

[32:34] article two. Excuse me. Oh. Shall the voters

[32:40] of the town of Newane pay taxes for the ensuing year on a quarterly basis due on

[32:46] the 15th of August, October, January, and April. Late charge for interest

[32:52] being at the rate of 0.5% per month for the current fiscal year and 75% per

[32:59] month for each month thereafter until paid. A yes vote means that you approve

[33:06] this article. A nay vote means that you do not approve of this article and you

[33:11] are opposed to it. All in favor say I. I.

[33:16] » All those opposed say nay.

[33:21] The eyes have it. Article two is passed. Article three. Shall the voters of the

[33:28] town of New Fain authorize the select board to sell or otherwise convey

[33:34] property acquired through tax sale proceedings?

[33:39] What is your pleasure? Meaning who would like to move the motion? Uh

[33:44] » Carol Hustlebach. Thank you. And a second.

[33:49] Could you remind me of your name? >> Jodie French. Thank you, Jod. Is there

[33:54] any discussion?

[34:04] Okay.

[34:09] Oh, okay. Hearing none, then we'll move to a

[34:14] vote. Shall the of article three. Shall the voters of the town of New Fain

[34:19] authorize the select board to sell or otherwise convey property acquired

[34:24] through tax sale proceedings? All those in favor say I.

[34:29] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[34:33] » The eyes have it. Article three passes.

[34:40] Article four. Shall the voters of the town of Newfane authorize general fund

[34:45] expenditures for town and highway operating expenses of 1,913,78785

[34:58] of which 1,497570

[35:02] shall be raised by taxes and 363,215

[35:09] by non- tax revenues. Venus and 53,000 by general fund surplus. Is there a

[35:16] motion?

[35:20] » Thank you. >> Thank you, Tom. Is there a second?

[35:27] » Thank you, Margaret. Is there any discussion?

[35:37] » Yes. EMTT, could you state your name, please?

[35:42] » Um, I like

[35:48] um on page 17 at the bottom under

[35:57] it's difficult to hear you. Could you repeat your question using the mic?

[36:00] Thank you. And you can take it off the >> uh at the bottom of page 17 under public

[36:07] safety there's um a proposed roughly $36,000

[36:12] for mutual aid dues and I was curious about that.

[36:18] » Yeah, mutual aid dues go to the New York Fire Department and as for like all the

[36:22] radio we need

[36:35] The mutual aid dues go to Newbrook Fire Department and they're to help pay for

[36:39] all the services for their radios and dispatch. All the towns split it.

[36:49] » Are are there any other questions or comments? Any further discussion?

[36:55] EMTT. EMTT Madavi.

[36:58] » I'm not sure if this is under the same section. Um, on page

[37:04] uh 18. Oh, wait. Yeah, I think 18 um was curious about

[37:12] the $10,000 increase uh for law enforcement.

[37:26] Yeah, Chris, if you could

[37:36] » um great question. We have slowly been trying to increase the levels. Um

[37:41] currently our um policing budget is $25,000. That affords us about 7 and 1/2

[37:48] hours a week of policing um from the sheriff's department specifically. And

[37:54] the rest of the time all of our calls, any emergencies that you have are going

[38:00] through the state police. Uh the state police barracks is up um off of uh sort

[38:06] of in between it's in Rockingham. It's an hour from most of us. Um and

[38:12] that's problematic. That's part of what the sheriff was talking about with the

[38:15] regional policing idea. It's to make that more fluid so that we're not

[38:19] dependent completely on the um uh on the state police for all of our

[38:25] emergency calls um collectively going forward. Um and

[38:32] by increasing by the 10 for the $10,000 we will afford a little bit more hours

[38:38] per per week um of time that we have the sheriff in our immediate area um and

[38:45] reach closer to uh what we will probably wind up paying longterm for um uh more

[38:55] hours overall um that get us closer to uh 40 hours or reasonable

[39:02] hours. We are a long way from there right now. Um other town budgets are

[39:09] significantly higher. Um and so I'm we're slowly increasing that.

[39:26] I just made a note to have the select board have their own mic next year. Yes.

[39:32] Yes. Uh Tom, could you introduce yourself

[39:36] when you get to the mic? >> Tom Kunanan from South Newane. Um I just

[39:42] wanted to um ask a little bit of uh sort point of information about the health

[39:47] insurance um line item this year. I note that it came down relative to last year

[39:53] and last year relative to the year before was the largest single increase

[39:57] in the budget. Um can you uh tell us how that was achieved this year? The

[40:02] reduction was it a reduction in workforce or reduction in premiums? How

[40:06] did that work? >> Yes.

[40:13] Uh this is on page 17. >> So there's actually been a huge change

[40:18] in the health insurance. We had planned on for two guys coming in with a family

[40:22] plan not knowing what they were going to be hired and you know taking on for

[40:27] plans and they ended up one did not take health insurance. The other one took a

[40:30] single plan. One of the workers left who was on a family plan so that decreased

[40:35] that. There's another position that has no health insurance in it. So that

[40:39] decreased that family plan as well. Um and somebody else also changed to a

[40:44] single plan. So a lot of deductions going on for health insurance.

[41:02] » Hello Jake. >> Jake South Newane. I'm wondering uh the

[41:07] additional $10,000 for the sheriffs, is it possible instead

[41:13] of having them in our town a random three hours more a week? Um is it

[41:20] possible to stockpile those hours and instead of having to call the state

[41:25] police uh in the event of emergency, maybe we could call the sheriff instead

[41:31] when whenever it's an emergency. and

[41:37] » sort of >> just come up to

[41:40] » um the sheriff works through contracted hours. So it's we sign a a new contract

[41:46] each July or just ahead of July when our fiscal year starts. Um so we can't we

[41:52] can't really hold that number um yeartoear or stockpile money or have

[41:58] them on demand as it goes unfortunately. Um, but moving forward, maybe that will

[42:05] be an opportunity for us as the regional policing thing comes online. That's

[42:10] pretty exciting. I'm I'm really excited for us to have more um more continuity,

[42:18] which means like if they're in Putney or if they're in Jamaica,

[42:24] they will come if there's a call faster and sooner than the state police

[42:29] currently do for their average response time. Um, that's something that they

[42:35] currently can't do because they are held by contract in their specific towns and

[42:40] have to achieve those hours. I hope that's helpful.

[42:48] » Is there any? Yes, Jesse.

[42:57] » Hello, Jesse Anderson. New pain. Um, >> thank you.

[43:03] » Page 64, uh, excess expenditures over

[43:06] appropriations. It's almost $900,000. I assume that's some kind of oneoff

[43:12] accounting thing. It's all paid for by revenues. So, I guess curious, is that

[43:17] number going to go down this year? Uh, why is it even there?

[43:35] 64.

[43:39] » Oh, so some of that 888,000

[43:44] is um part of our budget stabilization reserves and

[43:50] uh some of that is from FEMA money that we received back. We should have most of

[43:54] the FEMA money except for the ad fees right now. So, this will probably end

[43:59] the surplus going forward in the big jumps that we've been getting.

[44:06] » Thank you. >> Is there any further discussion on

[44:09] article 4?

[44:14] » Hearing none, we'll move to vote on article 4. Shall

[44:20] the voters of the town of Newfane authorize general fund expenditures for

[44:24] town and highway operating expenses of 1,913785,000

[44:33] of which 1,497570,000

[44:38] shall be raised by taxes and $363,215

[44:44] would by non- taxes and 53,000 by general fund. surplus.

[44:51] All those in favor say I. >> I.

[44:54] » All those opposed say nay. The eyes have it. Article four passes.

[45:06] Article five. Shall the voters of the town of Newfane authorize capital fund

[45:10] expenditures of $497,000 of which $427,000

[45:18] shall be raised by taxes and 10,000 by non-ax revenues and 60,000 by general

[45:25] fund surplus. Is there someone who would like to move that article?

[45:34] » Thank you. And your name, please? and get that.

[45:39] » Okay. >> Thank you. Uh is there any discussion?

[45:44] » Second. Thank you. Second. >> Is there a second?

[45:49] » Uh I Chris Treebert. Thank you.

[45:54] It's a collaborative effort. Um is there any discussion?

[46:05] Okay. Hearing no discussion on article five, we will move to a vote. Shall the

[46:12] voters of the town of New Fain authorize capital fund expenditures of $497,000

[46:19] of which $427,000 will be raised by taxes and $10,000 by

[46:25] non-ax revenues and 60,000 by general fund surplus. All those in favor say I.

[46:33] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[46:37] The eyes have it. Article five passes. On to article six. Shall the voters of

[46:45] the town of Newfane authorize debt service fund expenditures

[46:50] of $61,144,000

[46:54] of which $43,044 shall be raised by taxes and $100 by

[47:01] non- tax revenues and $18,000 by debt service fund surplus.

[47:08] Is there uh someone who would like to move that motion?

[47:12] Carol Hustlebach. Thank you. Is there a second?

[47:17] » Gloria. Gloria Christelli. Thank you. Second. Is there any discussion of

[47:22] article six? Gloria.

[47:32] » It just seems odd to me that there's a one.

[47:34] » Can everyone hear Gloria? >> I don't. Is the mic Can you tap the mic

[47:38] and see if it's on? Yeah, it is on. >> But you have to project into it

[47:41] directly. >> Okay. Hey, can you hear me now? Yeah.

[47:46] » Usually the mics get me too loud. Um, I'm curious about a $100

[47:53] some in there. Can anybody explain why there's such a itsybitsy teeny weeny

[47:59] » service >> funding

[48:03] the$100

[48:07] non? >> Oh, it just got applied because it's a

[48:11] non- tax. It's interest. So just to take it off there

[48:16] just an accounting thing.

[48:22] Is there any further discussion on article six?

[48:27] Okay, we are ready to move to a vote. Shall

[48:32] the voters of the town of Newfane authorize debt service fund expenditures

[48:37] of 61,144,000

[48:41] of which $43,044

[48:44] shall be raised by taxes and $100 by non- tax revenues and $18,000 by debt

[48:52] service fund surplus. All those in favor say I.

[48:56] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[49:00] The eyes have it. Bless you. Article six passes.

[49:05] On to article seven. Shall the voters of the town of Newane raise by taxation the

[49:11] amount of 25,496

[49:16] » 25,467. Thank you. It's a good thing I don't

[49:20] have Melissa's job. of which 25,467 shall be raised by taxes for the annual

[49:28] excavator lease payment for FY2027.

[49:33] Would someone like to move the that motion?

[49:39] » I heard a voice up here. >> Okay. Could you state your name? I'm

[49:43] sorry I don't know your name. >> William Burner.

[49:46] » William Burner. And is there a second? Uh Tim Schaefer, thank you. Is there any

[49:54] discussion of article seven? >> Yes, Dan.

[50:01] » You have to really project if you're not going to use the mic.

[50:04] » I'm just wondering um I'm sure you wonder if you can share with us the

[50:10] rale. It seems like a lot of money for lease, but I'm assuming buying is really

[50:14] a lot of money. Could you just tell us about the difference between leasing and

[50:18] owning

[50:21] What was the question? >> Uh Dan asked about the difference. Uh it

[50:27] seems like a lot of money for a lease, but it's probably more expensive to buy

[50:31] one outright, but could you explain the difference?

[50:35] » Uh I'm not sure that I'm the person to answer.

[50:39] » Todd would be the better person for this. Chris Cleverly, just so you know.

[50:43] » Melissa has least to buy. Okay. So, this is the lease to buy and

[50:50] we have budgeted for we're we're we have planned for the purchase of the

[50:55] excavator in the next year or two is going to the next year will be finished

[51:00] for >> yeah like three or four more years.

[51:03] » Three or four more years. So, this is a lease to buy.

[51:12] » Is there any further discussion?

[51:21] In that case, we will move towards voting on article 7. Shall the voters of

[51:29] the town of New Fain raise by taxation the amount of $25,467

[51:36] of which 25467,000 shall be raised by taxes for the annual

[51:43] excavator lease payment for FY 2027. All those in favor say I.

[51:49] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[51:52] The eyes have it. Article 7 passes.

[51:59] Article 8. Shall the voters of the town of New Feain raise by taxation the

[52:04] amount of $6,700 for $6,750.

[52:11] Thank you, Annetta. She's That's why she's behind me. For the reappraisal

[52:15] reserve fund for FY2027. Is there anyone who would like to move

[52:20] that motion? Could you please state your name?

[52:27] Al Allison Seager

[52:32] » and is there a second? >> Second.

[52:35] » Margaret Winberger. Thank you. Is there discussion on article 8.

[52:48] Okay. Hearing none, we will move to a vote on article 8. Shall the voters of

[52:57] the town of New Fane raise by taxation the amount of $6,750

[53:03] for the reappraisal reserve fund for FY2027.

[53:09] All those in favor say I. >> I. I.

[53:12] » All those opposed say nay. The eyes have it. Article 8 passes.

[53:19] Representative Long has joined us. And if no one has any objections, I'd like

[53:25] to lay Article 9 on the table, which means put it aside. We'll pause. This is

[53:31] not a recess. And give Oh, yes. And Senator Hassan, thank you. Um

[53:39] and give uh our representative and senator a chance to speak. Are there any

[53:44] objections? Okay, thank you. Um, Emily, do you want

[53:50] to come forward first or you want to come together? Yeah, it's fine.

[53:57] » And if you could use a mic, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

[54:05] » Hi. Oh, look, we both have one. Um,

[54:10] is this on? Oh, it is on. Okay. Hi, everyone.

[54:14] Thank you for allowing us time to speak. Um I'll I'll just say first we um we

[54:22] work very closely together in the in the uh state house. So I'm glad that we both

[54:27] get to be up here in front of each other. Actually, we just ran into uh

[54:31] Senator Harrison who was up in Towns and getting ready to go in as we were

[54:35] leaving towns and so she wanted us to let you know she's still hoping to come

[54:39] here as well. She's going to try to hit new paint as well. So, but she was a

[54:43] little off our schedule. So, um I want to say two things that I set up in towns

[54:48] and just now first and then we can, you know, I'll let um Senator Hashim have

[54:54] the have the microphone for his speech. But, um I just wanted to say this has

[55:00] been a really tough winter. I just said this up in towns and I just wanted to

[55:04] say thank you to our road crew um in in our town and our towns all over Vermont.

[55:11] This is uh not just a they deserve that. It is not just a

[55:17] tough winter um both in weather and finances, but it's going to be a tough

[55:23] mud season, I think, too. It feels like it. So, um thank you to the road crews

[55:28] in all of our towns in Vermont. Um, I also just wanted to say, and I shared

[55:32] this up in Townsen as well, um, we we work really hard together up in Townsen,

[55:39] not just the Senate and the House, but amongst our parties up there. the

[55:45] divisions that we are feeling in our country all the time. Political

[55:49] divisions, you know, societal divisions, um, not saying they don't exist in

[55:55] Montpillar, of course they exist everywhere, but, um, that's not how we

[55:59] operate. And I just wanted to let all of you know that, uh, we work very closely

[56:04] together, regardless of party up there, putting Vermoners first. And um I can

[56:09] say that unequivocally about every member I serve with all 180 of us. Um

[56:15] and so I just wanted you all to know that um hard as hard as this time is, we

[56:21] still know where our what our job is and that is to serve all of you. So um I

[56:27] serve on the education committee as many of you know already. Um, and it has been

[56:34] probably the hardest I've spent number of years on the education committee on

[56:37] and off the education committee and uh I'd say this is probably the hardest one

[56:42] uh I've been through so far. We are nowhere near um a final decision I would

[56:49] say on what we're going to do with Act 73 uh which is um the bill that passed

[56:54] last year that I voted against. I know N will share that he also voted against

[56:59] it. Um but we uh the bill passed and we have to find a

[57:05] path forward. Um I remind my constituents all the time that as much

[57:11] as we want to support every single school in every single community around

[57:16] the state, we also have to make sure that Vermoners can afford to pay for

[57:21] their homes and their property taxes. So we've we're trying to find that balance.

[57:26] We're always trying to find that balance and it has been a really tough uh slog

[57:32] and I'll just say the our chair put um in the education committee in the house

[57:38] put a bill on the table for us to he called it a flawed bill for us to fix

[57:43] and make it better because he needed a starting point. And um we left to come

[57:49] home for town meeting break with the acknowledgement that there was probably

[57:53] a 1 10 vote on that meaning one person in favor and 10 against because there's

[58:00] 11 of us on committee because everyone has a different perspective about what

[58:04] we should do moving forward. So N will share with what's going on in the

[58:07] Senate. Um, but I I will say we're still committed to making sure that we are

[58:11] supporting our local schools, public education in the state of Vermont in

[58:16] whatever way we possibly can. Um, and at the same time make it as affordable as

[58:22] we can uh for our taxpayers in the state. So, a couple other things before

[58:27] I turn it over to ND. Um, healthc care. I I know when I hold my constituent

[58:32] hours in all three towns I represent, I represent towns in New Fain and

[58:36] Marorrow. Uh that's the number one honestly conversation happening and it

[58:41] is has us all really concerned. Healthcare does. Um but we're nibbling

[58:45] at the edges wherever we can hoping that the federal government will step up and

[58:50] do the work that they need to do to um make health care more accessible and

[58:57] more affordable. And um in the meantime, we're doing what we can here in Vermont

[59:01] to try to achieve those goals. Housing is still remaining at the top of our um

[59:08] our our conversations all the time. We're we've been we've invested millions

[59:12] and millions of dollars in housing. We're starting to see some of the um

[59:17] outcomes of the investments, but um this is not an easy time as you know and and

[59:23] housing costs also go up as we try to increase housing. So, um, and government

[59:29] accountability is also very important to us in the

[59:33] House, making sure that we're doing the job that we are elected to do and that

[59:37] the administration is, um, is implementing bills, uh, laws that we

[59:43] pass in the way that we intended. So, all right, I'll turn it over to you, N.

[59:48] » Great. Thank you. Uh, good morning, everybody. It's good to, uh, be here. My

[59:52] name is N Hashim. I'm one of the senators for Windham County. And you

[59:56] know, I I first just want to start by saying that over the past couple of

[59:59] days, it's felt a little strange trying to put together all my thoughts, all the

[1:00:05] facts that I wanted to present a town meeting because, you know, on on one

[1:00:09] hand, I'm looking at a screen, you know, looking up tax information and, you

[1:00:13] know, judiciary information and then on the other hand, I'm getting these, you

[1:00:16] know, just constant stream of notifications about uh different

[1:00:20] missiles and explosions happening in different parts of the world and so it's

[1:00:26] it feels strange is really the only word that I can think of at the moment uh to

[1:00:31] describe it but you know in situations like that I remind myself that there are

[1:00:37] some things in life that we have control over and then other things in life that

[1:00:40] we uh don't have control over and the things that we do have control over uh

[1:00:47] that's that's where our focus can be. It doesn't mean, you know, we're not paying

[1:00:52] attention to what's happening, but uh you know, in in order to overcome that

[1:00:57] that stress, I remind myself that there are things uh within my grasp that I'm

[1:01:02] able to do, and it's not just for people in leadership positions. It's, you know,

[1:01:06] just everybody. Um I think is it it it applies to everybody. And so, just

[1:01:13] wanted to share that real quick. But so in in terms of the things that I can do

[1:01:18] and that I have been doing uh this last legislative session uh so in in the

[1:01:23] Senate we serve on two committees. Uh in the afternoon I do serve on the

[1:01:26] education committee and in the morning I'm the chair of the ed of the judiciary

[1:01:29] committee and I'll I'll touch on education first. So, we're now in the

[1:01:35] second phase of Act 73, and we are at this moment in time where the

[1:01:40] legislature is expected to uh vote on a map uh specifically a map that will

[1:01:48] reduce the number of districts and reduce the number of supervisory unions.

[1:01:52] And this is in contrast to the the evidence and the data that we've gotten

[1:01:59] from the school redistricting task force which had non-legislators on it but uh

[1:02:05] people with you know a uh a strong background in education and education

[1:02:10] governance. And what they presented to us was that the the cost savings really

[1:02:16] aren't there when you start merging districts. And it's also disruptive to

[1:02:20] both uh to students, teachers and parents.

[1:02:26] And yet we are still uh moving forward on this path at the moment that appears

[1:02:33] that there will be mergers of districts. Now, I want to say that, you know, I I I

[1:02:40] have a lot of hesitation about that because I, you know, in everything that

[1:02:44] I do, I try to take this approach that whatever we're doing has to be data

[1:02:47] driven and evidence- driven. And so,

[1:02:53] uh, what I try to remind my colleagues of is that we also need to focus on the

[1:02:59] actual cost drivers of, uh, property taxes if that's what we're looking at.

[1:03:03] And one of those is health insurance and the cost of health care. Um and

[1:03:09] you know the while these are aspects that fall into other committees, it's

[1:03:13] still something that we have to keep at the top of our mind. Um while also

[1:03:17] keeping at the top of the priority uh the well-being and performance of

[1:03:22] students in our schools that you know when we're talking about education that

[1:03:26] should always be at the top of the list is how the students are doing.

[1:03:31] And so that's, you know, that's education in

[1:03:35] a nutshell. I don't want to take up too much time because we we could be here

[1:03:38] for a while if we want to really get into education. But I'll shift gears

[1:03:42] over to uh my work in Senate Judiciary. What I've been hearing extensively over

[1:03:49] the last year and a half or so is how is Vermont going to respond to the federal

[1:03:55] government? And at the beginning of our legislative

[1:04:00] session, we took up two bills that address primarily uh immigration related

[1:04:05] issues. Those are 208 and 209. Uh 208 is informally known as the masking bill and

[1:04:12] 209 is known as the sensitive places bill. Uh 208 in a nutshell uh prohibits

[1:04:18] law enforcement from operating anonymously and from wearing masks while

[1:04:22] interacting with the public. In order to make this constitutional, uh, it has to

[1:04:27] be non-discriminatory, meaning that it has to apply to, uh, it has to apply

[1:04:32] evenly and fairly to local law enforcement, state law enforcement, and

[1:04:37] federal agents as well. That is the pitfall that California

[1:04:43] found itself falling into, which is why uh, their law had problems. Uh

[1:04:48] fortunately for us, we were able to watch what happened there and uh avoid

[1:04:52] the same mistakes that they made. Uh 209 is uh is a sensitive places bill. This

[1:05:00] prohibits immigration detainment in certain uh in certain areas. It's a

[1:05:06] protection that we already have for courouses and we are expanding it to uh

[1:05:14] places of worship, hospitals, schools, polling places

[1:05:20] and and daycarees and social service facilities.

[1:05:24] Ironically, this these protections were in place

[1:05:32] in the prior federal administration. uh but at the beginning of the year these

[1:05:36] protections were removed and we are putting them back into place in state

[1:05:42] law. So

[1:05:50] those two bills are in the House Judiciary Committee right now. Um and

[1:05:54] the governor has signaled his support for both of them. Uh which I appreciate.

[1:05:59] Uh now the other the other side of Senate Judiciary is much less exciting

[1:06:04] but it is important. Uh there's a lot of technical work that we do that uh in my

[1:06:11] mind helps to keep our courouses, our judiciary functioning and you know also

[1:06:17] improving efficiency. But it's it's like taking a pickaxe to a mountain and

[1:06:21] trying to make little changes here and there that um address the day-to-day

[1:06:26] operations. uh you know how how plea agreements are made and you know

[1:06:30] clarifying language and it's these little changes that aren't ever going to

[1:06:34] grab headlines I I think but you know these are these are the little changes

[1:06:39] that that I that I suspect uh are generally

[1:06:45] supported by you know whether it's the plaintiff side or the defendant side or

[1:06:49] the judges there's generally consensus because these are changes that again are

[1:06:54] meant to make our courouses operate more efficiently

[1:06:57] and uh more fairly. So that's that's really the work that I've been focusing

[1:07:02] on the past couple of months. Um and and I will say that, you know, I'm going to

[1:07:08] leave behind a few uh little legislative updates. It has my contact information

[1:07:13] on there. Uh if you're looking for more details, please don't hesitate to reach

[1:07:16] out to me and I can get you those details whether it's uh in my committee

[1:07:21] work or if you're curious about other bills that might be floating around in

[1:07:26] other committees. So again, thank you all for having me and uh letting us take

[1:07:30] up a couple of minutes of your time here.

[1:07:40] I'll also just say I I do go to the Morefree Library and I'm going to be up

[1:07:44] in Townsen, too. Um, and I'm at the Morphe Library every month on the third

[1:07:49] Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 12:00. This month, I will be also up in

[1:07:54] Townsen from 9 to 10. And I'm and I'm also in Marorrow. All three places where

[1:08:00] I go, um the the folks who host me are always saying come to anybody is

[1:08:06] welcome. Come at any time. So if you can't make it to the new fane one, you

[1:08:10] can go to towns or marbra as well. So >> before I open it up for questions, I

[1:08:15] want to apologize Senator Hashim. I I addressed you incorrectly when you came

[1:08:19] in and I'm very sorry. >> No worries.

[1:08:22] » Um are there any questions? Yes, in back Vermont. Um, I don't know if you guys

[1:08:30] are the more famous for this or not, but like I'm wondering why the National

[1:08:34] Guard that's a national guard from Vermont went over to Iran and why and

[1:08:41] who's in charge of that and did all the states have to send their national guard

[1:08:46] or

[1:08:49] so it really so the National Guard can be federalized by the president and

[1:08:57] essentially taken under under their under the federal government's control.

[1:09:02] » That's that's the short answer to your question.

[1:09:06] » That that's true of National Guard is what we what we've understood that they

[1:09:10] are they can all be nationalized. That's part of what they agree to when they

[1:09:14] become a member of the National Guard, >> right? Did all the states or did just

[1:09:18] the blue states have to send? >> So I I said certainly don't question all

[1:09:24] the states. I I think you know different National Guard units have different

[1:09:28] assets like F-35s or search and rescue or you know whatever it may be and so

[1:09:33] » uh I obviously I don't know I'm speculating but I suspect the federal

[1:09:39] government looks at the different units and says okay we need F-35s federalize

[1:09:43] those we need you know whatever other logistical

[1:09:48] uh you know items that they need you know federalize those

[1:09:53] » why is it called the

[1:09:57] Great question. Don't know.

[1:10:01] » Uh EMTT

[1:10:05] Williamsville. Um I'm American second generation. My daughter at family there.

[1:10:12] Um so there's the bill age 355 which I realized but um if you can do or you're

[1:10:20] » okay great. So like you can do any advocacy or support that would mean a

[1:10:24] lot to me. Um and I think that there's an argument against it um as like this

[1:10:30] is not something under our jurisdiction but the amendment I think that there is

[1:10:34] some in the rules whatever law um but the 10th amendment that like

[1:10:42] it's when there's any lack of clarity so um and I think that this is a moment to

[1:10:47] like step up and you know we see the federal administration testing the

[1:10:52] boundaries of what they can do and I'd invite you guys to

[1:10:56] I I appreciate that. Thank you.

[1:11:01] I >> actually think we need to do that. So,

[1:11:03] thank you. >> Just just to confirm this.

[1:11:05] » Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> I was just going to mention that's the

[1:11:07] uh that's informally known as the uh Defend the Guard Act, right? That's I I

[1:11:12] did hear about that at the beginning. I believe it's in House Government

[1:11:15] Operations and Military Affairs. Um it is something that I've,

[1:11:19] » you know, I've expressed my support for. Uh, and also just have to point out it's

[1:11:24] it's not often I meet a fellow Iranian American. So it's

[1:11:30] » the gentleman behind bud and I'm sorry I don't know your name

[1:11:39] regarding law.

[1:11:45] It seems that we're living in a in a world where the federal government tries

[1:11:48] to overrule the states in a lot of ways and of course this supremacy clause of

[1:11:52] the constitution which allows for that. But what you think of a realistic

[1:11:56] chances for the u practical enforcement of a law which federal government may

[1:12:03] objective with regard for example to the mass or any other issue they might care

[1:12:08] to raise many many staticians. Is that a feudal disaster or is that

[1:12:14] going to have a real impact in the state of Vermont?

[1:12:18] » Great question. That's it's one that we spent a lot of time uh grappling with

[1:12:22] because I'm not inclined to work on legislation that is going to be moot or

[1:12:28] futile. Uh you know, we had some great constitutional scholars come in to

[1:12:32] testify. Um and as I mentioned, we also did what Cal we

[1:12:39] avoided doing what California did with their law. Uh the the quick summary is

[1:12:46] that we are able to pass such a law under the 10th amendment. Uh the

[1:12:51] supremacy clause has one component of it known as intergovernmental immunity. Uh

[1:12:57] and so we have to make sure that we're not discriminatory against the federal

[1:13:01] government. What California did was they passed a similar law, but they said

[1:13:05] California state police are exempt from this. They can they can wear masks. They

[1:13:09] can be anonymous. And the judge when issuing their preliminary injunction

[1:13:14] said essentially you can't do that. And so that's why

[1:13:21] um 208, the masking bill here in Vermont um applies to all law enforcement. It's

[1:13:26] and it incidentally burdens the federal government, which we can do. It's

[1:13:31] similar to how we can also impose an income tax on federal employees. We

[1:13:35] can't say if you're a federal employee, you have to pay a higher tax. Uh but if

[1:13:40] you're a federal employee, you got to pay a tax the same way any other

[1:13:44] employee would. Uh the there was one more point I wanted to make on that and

[1:13:50] it's escaping my mind at the moment, but I think I covered most of it. While he's

[1:13:54] thinking about that, I'll just follow up and say I I wanted to make sure everyone

[1:13:58] knew that it did pass out of the House. Both bills passed out of the House. They

[1:14:01] were in the Senate House um Judiciary Committee and we had as members of our

[1:14:08] body, we had thought we would be able to maybe get votes on it before town

[1:14:12] meeting in the House. We were unable to do that. I the House Judiciary Committee

[1:14:17] just needs to do their due diligence going through all the same work that the

[1:14:20] Senate committee judiciary committee did. Um but I I'm hearing nothing but

[1:14:25] general support in the house as well. So >> yes, there there was uh one more piece I

[1:14:30] just wanted to add um is that we we did have we do include exceptions to this uh

[1:14:37] to masking. So things that are entirely reasonable like scuba diving.

[1:14:42] Um I hope everybody can agree that if you're an officer scuba diving, you can

[1:14:46] wear a mask. That's all right. Um and yeah, extreme cold weather and um and

[1:14:54] undercover uh child sexual exploitation cases where

[1:14:59] the officers may be posing as a juvenile online or, you know, wearing a disguise

[1:15:05] to surveil somebody specifically for legitimate undercover um child sexual

[1:15:11] exploitation cases. And yeah, that that yeah, that was the last point that I

[1:15:15] wanted to provide for that. There were a couple of hands that shot

[1:15:19] up over here. Ken, Ken SD,

[1:15:25] we know in the state of the state address that Bill Scott basically

[1:15:29] threatened the legislature where they was a budget veto. Meanwhile, the um you

[1:15:35] know from your own account, House Education Committee, Senate, so

[1:15:40] internally within the Senate, internally within the House, and then once both the

[1:15:44] House and Senate figure it out, then they have to get together.

[1:15:48] It seems I guess the question is what is the bigger threat? the budget um

[1:15:55] basically um threat or you know um we don't go forward with act

[1:16:02] 73 this year. It just feels like you're being put on

[1:16:06] the spot by the governor and the governor seems to be like hey figure it

[1:16:10] out. >> I I think that's a really good

[1:16:13] assessment and thank you for the question. Um, it has been uh in

[1:16:17] incredibly frustrating for me. As you all know, I've spent I spent eight years

[1:16:21] in leadership. Um, but I'm no longer in leadership. So, I'm going to be a little

[1:16:26] more free to say how I feel about this, which I I say bring it on. You know, I

[1:16:30] mean, we are going to do due diligence on Act 73 one way or the other from my

[1:16:36] perspective. And I think our education committee in the House and I'm sure in

[1:16:41] the Senate are feeling the same way. Um I I think it was illconceived for the

[1:16:47] governor to threaten us at the very beginning um to to say that if we didn't

[1:16:52] do what he wanted which essentially just so everyone understands act 73 came out

[1:16:58] of a bill um H454 which really was written by the governor

[1:17:03] and the administration. Um now we rewrote it of course but it was pres it

[1:17:09] was proposed by the administration. So, um, that being said, there are many

[1:17:15] things that we're trying to address and we use that vehicle to address them.

[1:17:20] But, um, tying this to the budget is very frustrating for me. And I don't

[1:17:26] think that we I I hear no one in the house who's saying, "Oh, well, we

[1:17:31] shouldn't do this because the governor's going to veto the budget." If he vetos

[1:17:34] the budget, it's on him, not on us. And we're working really hard, just so you

[1:17:38] all know, on the budget. it's in um appropriations and we're doing

[1:17:43] everything we can. We have very little extra money this year. Uh you know, in

[1:17:49] years past we've had many millions of dollars of revenue that we have enjoyed

[1:17:55] um over the years. This year I heard anecdotally we have about $3 million for

[1:18:01] discretionary spending and and for after the you know basics are accommodated. So

[1:18:08] we're in a really tough time right now. So, I know you want

[1:18:10] » I'll just add a little bit there. Um, I'm very well summarized. I'll just say,

[1:18:14] you know, every year, uh, we get threatened by the governor with

[1:18:19] something. And so, it we're a little desensitized to it because it just kind

[1:18:22] of feels like a toxic relationship now at this point. Um, you know that one one

[1:18:27] of my big concerns is, you know, we've been through this before with Act 46 and

[1:18:32] forced consolidation and that was supposed to save money and now we're

[1:18:37] here a number of years later talking about force consolidation saying it's

[1:18:41] going to save money and the data in both instances has shown

[1:18:47] it won't save money and it's going to be disruptive. And so again, my concern is

[1:18:52] that if we move forward in this capacity of forced mergers, five years down the

[1:18:58] road, we're once again going to be in another place where we're saying, "Well,

[1:19:02] I guess we got to merge more schools or more districts now." And that that is a

[1:19:08] uh a feedback loop that I would like to avoid.

[1:19:12] » Annie Annie Landberger, Williamsville. Um,

[1:19:16] thank you guys for all your hard work on this and given the lack of revenue from

[1:19:20] our Canadian friends coming in to spend your money here, etc., God knows you've

[1:19:25] got the work cut out for you. As a retired educator, I wonder to what

[1:19:30] degree you've been able to address not the symptom, but the cause. I know a lot

[1:19:37] of young people would love to live in Vermont, but it's unaffordable.

[1:19:42] if more and we also know that the birth rates are dropping because why bring a

[1:19:46] baby into this world? But anyway, to what degree can you interface with, you

[1:19:52] know, economic development and and um and housing etc to start to really look

[1:19:59] at the cause rather than mandating the symptom.

[1:20:03] Yeah, we uh we do interface often um and it's

[1:20:10] and and it's funny because well it's not funny but it's you know we we often have

[1:20:15] these conversations where we start you know peeling back all the layers of the

[1:20:18] onion and then we get to the fact that hey it's housing or hey it's health

[1:20:21] insurance or health the cost of healthare and you know we're having

[1:20:25] those conversations in the education committee and chairs and committees get

[1:20:30] un understandably uh possessive of their jurisdiction because it wouldn't make

[1:20:35] sense for the education committee to start passing out uh healthc care

[1:20:40] reform. Uh and so it's something that we're often discussing and once we start

[1:20:46] veering too much into the other topic then we have to come back and focus

[1:20:51] again on education policy or you know whether it's you know school policies or

[1:20:55] governance policy. Uh but it's yeah it's it's 100% you maybe not 100% but it's a

[1:21:03] hefty percent uh of us needing more housing affordable housing and just

[1:21:09] needing more people in Vermont. Um and you know we we have made significant

[1:21:14] investments both in child care but also in housing um over the last few years

[1:21:18] and the challenge though is that those investments will take time to see uh the

[1:21:24] return on investment but you know we we have invested quite a lot in early child

[1:21:29] care and um and housing as well. >> Yeah. And I would add on to agree with

[1:21:33] everything Nad just shared, but I would also add on that um as we're you know

[1:21:39] the the the thing that people keep saying to me about about Act 73 is why

[1:21:44] are why is public education and our schools being punished for the

[1:21:49] challenges or being forced to deal with the challenges that are so much more

[1:21:52] broad. So your point is so well taken. Healthc care is such a huge part of the

[1:21:58] costs of education. There's no doubt about it. It's also huge part of the

[1:22:02] cost of our lives right now and so access to it is really critical. Um but

[1:22:07] there are you know the child care piece is huge. Um but we do have to make

[1:22:13] Vermont more affordable. We it is very concerning to us to see the the lack of

[1:22:19] students. I I'll just give you the example of Marorrow who is dealing with

[1:22:23] today a vote whether they're going to close their school or not. And I have

[1:22:27] been to one meeting after another in Marbor and watched the pain that they

[1:22:31] are going through. And I really mean that. It's it's on everybody's face.

[1:22:35] It's in their lives. They don't want they're very isolated community. They

[1:22:39] don't have a school next door to them. And so, but but the reason where they're

[1:22:44] going through this, Act 73 has an impact, sure, but it isn't the real

[1:22:49] driver. It's that they have almost no children coming into their lower grades.

[1:22:54] they cannot any longer educationally maintain a program in their schools.

[1:23:00] That is really concerning. Now, of course, Marorrow College closed a few

[1:23:03] years ago and that made a difference. But but I will say act there are paths

[1:23:09] through Act 73 that I can see that I'm trying to get move forward that don't

[1:23:15] necessarily involve immediate redistricting of any form. We can do a

[1:23:20] package. The House passed the bill last year with an extra year of

[1:23:25] implementation on it. When it went through the Senate and then the um the

[1:23:31] committee of conference, it was reduced by a year. I think we need that extra

[1:23:35] year. First of all, I felt it when we were in the House. I voted against it

[1:23:38] and still felt we needed that extra year. So, I'm looking for the extra

[1:23:41] year. But there are also tax poly policy packages that we can um approve right

[1:23:48] now before act 73 is fully implemented. And I'm pushing for this to happen. And

[1:23:54] one of them I I leave it to the ways and means committee and we have a very

[1:23:57] strong chair from Bradro on the ways and means committee. So I I have confidence

[1:24:01] in their ability to do the work. But one of the pieces is the way we're we're

[1:24:06] proposing in act 73 to separate the nonresidential into different

[1:24:11] categories. And one of one of the one of the categories is um right now we have

[1:24:16] non-residential which includes our businesses which we need to give a

[1:24:20] stabilized tax rate for. Our small businesses especially in the state need

[1:24:24] a stabilized tax rate. They get that right now in our current formula. But

[1:24:28] second homeowners are also part of non-residential. If we separate them, we

[1:24:33] can actually tax second homeowners a little higher than we do with the

[1:24:37] stabilized business tax rate. Yeah. So, we're trying we're going to move that

[1:24:42] forward. I'm determined we can do that this year, even if we don't fully

[1:24:46] implement Act 73. So, that is just one example of a bunch of other things that

[1:24:50] I'd like to see us do to move us forward with Act 73 without the disruption that

[1:24:56] our schools are really going through right now that N talked about. So, thank

[1:25:00] you. Um, there's quite a bit of interest.

[1:25:03] More questions. How are you both doing on time? It's almost 10:30.

[1:25:08] » I I do have to get to I do have to get to Dover for 11, so maybe uh 5 to 10

[1:25:15] more minutes. >> Okay.

[1:25:16] » You good? >> Yep. Um,

[1:25:18] » I'll also leave my contact information if folks want to follow up with me.

[1:25:21] » Great. Thanks. >> I was available.

[1:25:23] » Um, I'm sorry. I don't know your name. Behind Tony Powelling Purple Scarf, you

[1:25:27] were next. and Dr. Bane I echo Amy's gratitude for

[1:25:33] the work that you do and I'll be super brief. I just want to put on the radar

[1:25:37] of you folks AI data privacy and the construction of data centers that is one

[1:25:46] of the things that keeps me up at among all the other things today.

[1:25:52] » Thank you. You're right. I I will just briefly mention my uh

[1:25:57] colleague and close friend Senator White um is working on legislation

[1:26:01] specifically for uh data centers and AI in Vermont. Uh the current state of that

[1:26:07] bill, I'm not sure off the top of my head, but it is being looked at.

[1:26:11] » Yeah, the energy they take is phenomenal and it's not, you know, we absolutely

[1:26:16] have to be on top of this. So, we agree. Bob, I see your hand, but Katie had a

[1:26:21] Yes, Katie had a question before you. >> I have a quick question. Um,

[1:26:28] » they have a mic. >> So, I'm just going to project really

[1:26:31] loud. Can everyone hear me? >> Great.

[1:26:34] » Um, we hear everyone talking about

[1:26:38] healthcare costs increasing and that being like a

[1:26:42] driving force of why education is so high. Is there a tangible percent

[1:26:48] increase or number attached to that um that you could share with us?

[1:26:54] » Uh the health insurance increase the so historically it's gone up by

[1:27:01] » double digits. um the the changes that we made last year regarding um regarding

[1:27:08] prescription pricing and also uh what the Green Mountain Care Board did with

[1:27:13] uh UVM that was charging 400% higher than what they should have been

[1:27:18] charging. >> 55.

[1:27:19] » Yeah. Yes, that one. Um that brought 88 million uh back back into the fold. and

[1:27:27] and so uh Blue Cross Blue Shield their rate increase I believe was 2% uh

[1:27:33] because of some of those changes. It's still an increase. Um and you know Blue

[1:27:39] Cross Blue Shield is still in a uh a tenuous position but you know the 2% is

[1:27:48] better than the the 20% or so that they got uh last year. That's but but that

[1:27:55] that still gets you we still have an issue generally speaking that health

[1:28:01] insurance shouldn't be run by for-profit industries. Um

[1:28:08] » and

[1:28:11] I think it was seven specifically >> I think it was 7% this year. Am I right?

[1:28:15] I think it was 7%. It's been in double digits every year

[1:28:19] but I think it was seven this year. um which is still high, right?

[1:28:24] » Yes. >> But maybe not even as high as what some

[1:28:27] of you are experiencing um in on the um Health Connect, Vermont Health Connect.

[1:28:33] » I see some more hands up. I suggest that we say thank you and goodbye to Senator

[1:28:39] Hashim so you don't have a stressful drive.

[1:28:42] » Thank you.

[1:28:50] Thank you everybody. I uh I'm sorry I have to jet a few minutes early. I will

[1:28:54] leave a bunch of these updates over there on that table if that's okay. And

[1:28:58] my email address is on there and act. Okay, I'll leave them up here. Uh so if

[1:29:03] you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Those updates

[1:29:07] again are right here. Uh so again, thank you all for having me and uh enjoy the

[1:29:11] rest of your town meeting.

[1:29:31] I know there were some other folks who had questions. uh because Emily does

[1:29:36] have time every so often where folks can meet with her at the library or you can

[1:29:42] reach out to her and because it's 10:30 and because snow is coming at some point

[1:29:49] um I am going to make an executive decision that we move back to the warned

[1:29:55] articles.

[1:29:58] » Thank you.

[1:30:02] We are we left off on article nine. Excuse me, Emily. I did not properly

[1:30:10] thank you for coming and for your time and for

[1:30:15] your work at this state house. So, thank you.

[1:30:26] Article nine. Shall the voters of the town of Newane approve the transfer of

[1:30:32] general fund surplus in the amount of $350,000

[1:30:37] to the capital reserve fund? Is there someone who would like to move

[1:30:42] that motion?

[1:30:46] » Uh, I saw Doris's hand first. Doris Nectal. Is there a second?

[1:30:54] » Tom Bedell. Thank you. Is there any discussion on article 9?

[1:30:59] Annie Ann,

[1:31:03] um I'm sorry I didn't catch >> Could you please use the mic? Thank you.

[1:31:11] I'm sorry I didn't catch us when we were talking about article 5, but I just

[1:31:15] wanted to know under capital expenses what on page 23 the sidewalk uh

[1:31:23] crosswalk installation expense of $40,000 is for

[1:31:27] » any unless that's germanine to the cap to the transfer of funds to the capital

[1:31:33] reserve fund. That would not be a relevant question

[1:31:36] » even though it's capital expenses. No, >> it can be gerine. Okay. The it can't

[1:31:41] Melissa says it can be Germaine. >> Okay. I just wanted an answer. Just a

[1:31:45] quickie. >> So, a lot of times um when the grants

[1:31:51] come in, we have to pay the whole entire grant upfront and then reimbursement

[1:31:56] could come in anywhere from a few months to two years later. And that's also what

[1:32:00] creates a lot of these surplus. So, a lot of times I kind of call this like

[1:32:04] the roll in money. We move it over into the capital, save up for the sidewalk

[1:32:08] grant, and this year we have a engineering company for around 150,000

[1:32:14] that's going to be put towards this money. But also, they are buying a

[1:32:18] grater, which I think that's coming in next year.

[1:32:22] » Yeah, the grater is coming in in fiscal year 2627. So, this will also help to

[1:32:27] purchase that. >> So, sidewalks where? That's all I want

[1:32:30] to know. >> Newane Village.

[1:32:32] » I see. there was a grant that they received for

[1:32:37] the new fame village. >> I know that sometimes the town moderator

[1:32:42] can seem rigid that there part of the town moderator's job is to make sure

[1:32:48] that we all adhere to Robert's rules of order in order to proceed in a fair and

[1:32:53] orderly way. So Annie, so even a quick question if it's not

[1:32:59] germaine is not permissible. So, I just wanted to explain that. Um, any other

[1:33:05] further discussion on article 9?

[1:33:12] Okay, we're ready to move to a vote. Shall the voters of the town of New Fain

[1:33:17] approve the transfer of general fund surplus in the amount of $350,000

[1:33:24] to the capital reserve fund? All those in favor say I.

[1:33:28] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[1:33:32] The eyes have it. Article 9 passes. Now we move on to articles 10 through

[1:33:40] 39. Uh I part of my role as a town moderator is to avail you of as many

[1:33:49] Robert's rules of order tools as possible. There is something and I'm not

[1:33:55] I'm not putting in a plug for this. I'm just letting you know um that there is a

[1:34:00] tool called a consent agenda where someone can move to bundle

[1:34:06] uh articles and that is there's no debate and there

[1:34:11] that goes right to a vote. So I'm just saying if there's anyone who feels like

[1:34:16] there are articles 10 to 39 that would be conducive to a consent consent agenda

[1:34:23] that is a tool you have at your disposal.

[1:34:27] Article 10. Yes.

[1:34:31] » I move that articles 10 through39 be considered as a consent agenda and move

[1:34:36] forward as

[1:34:40] » so could you state your name again please?

[1:34:44] And I heard Tom's Belle's name for a second. And um as I said, there's no

[1:34:50] debate. Right to a vote. So everyone who is in favor of voting on articles 10

[1:34:57] through 39 all together. Um

[1:35:03] please say I. >> I.

[1:35:06] » All those opposed say nay. >> Nay.

[1:35:11] » The Yeah. the the eyes have it. Um so articles 10 through 39 are approved or

[1:35:20] passed

[1:35:24] be considered as a single slate. >> I'm sorry that the dollar I'm sorry

[1:35:30] you're correct.

[1:35:39] So now I would move that the town appropriate the sum of $42,435

[1:35:47] as itemized in articles 10 through39 as a special appropriation.

[1:35:52] » Thank you. >> Uh I heard a voice. Can you remind me of

[1:35:56] your name? >> Seconded that motion. No.

[1:36:02] Um

[1:36:09] » uh all those in favor please say I

[1:36:15] » was that >> open for discussion. I knew that I was

[1:36:20] missing something. Thank you. Um, is there any discussion on articles 10

[1:36:26] through39 which total a special appropriations of

[1:36:31] 42,435

[1:36:34] and because it's consent agenda you're able to discuss any of the articles

[1:36:40] 10 through 39. We're not going to go we don't have to go one by one. So I saw a

[1:36:46] hand up in front. >> That was my question. Okay. I think each

[1:36:48] one can be discussed if necessary. >> If necessary. Yes.

[1:36:53] » So, does anyone have any comments or questions about any of the articles 10

[1:37:00] through 39? >> Yes. Could you please state your name

[1:37:03] and come up to the mic? Thank you.

[1:37:16] My name is Joyce Singroce. I'm with New Fain Vermont. And I have a question on

[1:37:23] article 24. What a restorative community practice of

[1:37:29] Vermont. Is that part of a nonprofit organization?

[1:37:34] It is. >> Okay.

[1:37:37] » Is that that's your question? >> Yeah. And I was just wondering what is

[1:37:40] actually the res restorative community practice of Vermont.

[1:37:46] » If there is no objection, I would turn to Dan Dewalt to expl answer that

[1:37:51] question. >> Okay, Dan.

[1:37:56] » I can. >> Yes, you can. Thank you.

[1:38:03] » Restorative Community Practice. >> Please state your name. Oh, I'm Dan

[1:38:06] Dewalt of South New Fame. I'm on the board of Restorative Community Practices

[1:38:10] of Vermont. Do I can I address the audience?

[1:38:13] » Address. >> You're supposed to address the

[1:38:16] » So, the Restorative Community Practice of Vermont does conflict resolution

[1:38:20] services for anyone and we provide these services for free. So for instance uh at

[1:38:28] Leland and Gray we've worked extensively with different classes with um

[1:38:33] discipline issues and teaching issues and conflict resolution.

[1:38:39] We do um training for people to learn how to do this work and to learn how to

[1:38:46] um facilitate restorative circles. And restorative practice uh is is basically

[1:38:55] uh similar to what you and your sister were you referenced at the beginning of

[1:38:59] the of the meeting, which is learning how to really listen to what people are

[1:39:05] saying, be curious about why they're saying it. And for people to be able to

[1:39:10] um understand themselves and to be given a space where they can really explore

[1:39:15] themselves so they understand why they are feeling the way they are and then we

[1:39:20] facilitate conversations so they people can come to strategies that fix that

[1:39:26] conflict resolution. So we've worked um with the Bradber school, we've worked

[1:39:30] with Leland and Gray, we work with anyone who calls and asks us. We have um

[1:39:36] a a session training session which actually starts the next week on

[1:39:40] Thursday nights. So we've been doing this uh around the county and the fact

[1:39:47] that our lessons are on Zoom um else bigger than that but we offer this money

[1:39:53] I mean this service for free and the money that you folks um have given us

[1:39:59] has gone to pay for we have a contract worker who does basically like

[1:40:04] administrative assistance work but all of the teachers all the board members

[1:40:08] all the officers of the organization all are volunteers And no money goes to any

[1:40:13] of them.

[1:40:17] » Ken,

[1:40:25] uh, Ken SD Newfane. So, I'd like to, uh, thank the, uh, select board for, uh,

[1:40:32] your careful, considered deliberation around these articles.

[1:40:39] And um I see that this money of 42,000. I don't have the report in front of me,

[1:40:44] but around 42,000 is absolutely an investment in our future, our common

[1:40:51] good, our well-being, and as a percentage of the overall budget, it's

[1:40:57] somewhere around 2.5%. So, um I think we're being uh pennywise

[1:41:03] and we're being poundwise. And uh I do thank the select board for

[1:41:08] all the work that you did because you have to look at those reports. You have

[1:41:12] people coming into the meetings. So you've carefully considered this and we

[1:41:16] do thank you. >> Thank you. K.

[1:41:25] » Yes, Tessa.

[1:41:34] Hello moderator. Hi everyone. Thank you all. Um, so my name is Tessa Anderson

[1:41:39] and I just wanted to mention that I wanted to I wanted to thank everyone for

[1:41:43] their continued support of both the Newbrook U parent teacher organization

[1:41:47] which does some really fantastic work um around school like enrichment for the

[1:41:51] kids at Newbrook and um you know we we've built like new playground

[1:41:56] equipment and just just really helping them have a good experience at school.

[1:41:59] And I'm also the program coordinator for West River Valley Thrives. Um, and I

[1:42:03] wanted to tell you in case you don't know about that organization, it's

[1:42:06] really fantastic. And we are um, we are a coalition that focuses on just helping

[1:42:11] the community be healthy and supporting wellness in the community with a special

[1:42:16] focus on um, teen drug and alcohol use prevention. So, if you'd like to know

[1:42:21] more about Thrives, we are having a dinner this Thursday at Vmsa at 5:30.

[1:42:26] So, if you want to come and get some lasagna, it's free and you can learn

[1:42:29] more about us and come talk to me after if you have any questions. Thank you.

[1:42:32] Thank you so much everyone. >> Where is it?

[1:42:34] » Vermont um EMS Academy. It's right next to the tavern like or the the new the

[1:42:39] inn that's being renovated on Route 30. Excuse me. Yeah.

[1:42:44] » Yeah. Thank you,

[1:42:51] » Katie. Uh for anybody who is new to New Feain

[1:42:56] um um in your town report, we have a a special appropriation section starting

[1:43:04] on page 104. It's different every year, but every single one of the

[1:43:08] appropriations is listed there with their intention, with their um overall

[1:43:15] expenditures each year. how many new fain residents are um uh helped by those

[1:43:22] programs um and um and a brief overview of all of

[1:43:28] the things that they do and those are available. We ask that every single one

[1:43:32] of them does that and provide them to you so you have some of that background

[1:43:36] information going forward.

[1:43:41] » Yes. Could you please come to the mic? Thank

[1:43:45] you. and state your name.

[1:43:52] » Hi, I'm Beckley Goddet from New Fain and I just want to take an opportunity to

[1:43:57] introduce myself. I'm the librarian at the Morphrey Library and I want to thank

[1:44:02] everybody, all the voters here. Thank you.

[1:44:10] Um I want to thank you all for considerate considering um a

[1:44:14] contribution to the more free library and also make a pitch that we have more

[1:44:19] than books. We have meeting space to offer anybody who has a meeting that

[1:44:24] they want to um um offer the public. So um come on down visit us. Thank you.

[1:44:36] Is there any further discussion on the motion on the floor

[1:44:45] regarding the support appropriating funds for any of the organizations

[1:44:50] listed in articles 10 through 39?

[1:44:57] Okay. Hearing none, I'll repeat the motion and I have uh checked with

[1:45:03] Melissa and Wanetta about the wording. This is what you're going to be voting

[1:45:08] on. Shall the voters of the town of Newane

[1:45:13] appropriate a total of $42,000? $42,435,000.

[1:45:22] What?

[1:45:25] » Oh, I'm sorry. Boy, I'm not doing well with numbers today. $42,435,000.

[1:45:43] » Oh my gosh. Either I need coffee or a new

[1:45:47] prescription, which I'm waiting for for Let me try one

[1:45:53] more time. Shall voters of the town of Newfane make a total appropriation of

[1:45:58] $42,435.

[1:46:06] » For the organizations referenced in articles 10 through39.

[1:46:11] All those in favor say I.

[1:46:15] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[1:46:19] The motion passes. The eyes have it. The motion passes.

[1:46:26] Okay,

[1:46:29] that's like town meeting on speed dial. Okay, so now

[1:46:35] we that is the end of the appropriations section of the warning

[1:46:42] and we move to article 40.

[1:46:49] » Oh yes, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um Katie pointed out that

[1:46:55] Senator Harrison has joined us and if there are no objections, I'd like to lay

[1:47:01] Article 40 on the table, put it aside so that Senator Harrison can address us.

[1:47:09] Okay, hearing no objections.

[1:47:16] If you could come to the front, that would be great.

[1:47:29] Great. Thank you. >> This is a very supportive crowd. So,

[1:47:34] thank you. I I appreciate you allowing me to um speak to you. So, I'm going to

[1:47:41] keep it brief. I am h happy to answer any questions that that you'd like. Um,

[1:47:46] so you probably know senators serve on two committees in the legislature. I am

[1:47:51] chair of institutions committee and I serve on the transportation committee.

[1:47:57] And in the transportation committee, we're focusing a lot on towns um because

[1:48:02] we realize that towns have um a a difficult time um uh being able to pay

[1:48:09] for roads. Um we found that the pay the state aid is only 6% of of what towns

[1:48:18] average um uh uh maintaining the roads and that's with um uh paved roads and

[1:48:26] not paved roads. And we have a lot of not paved roads uh unpaved roads, gravel

[1:48:30] roads in uh in our area. Um which is generally a good thing. Um but uh it's

[1:48:36] it's they're expensive too. Um, so I just want you to know and for folks to

[1:48:42] be alert that we're working on a um local option tax that the the town would

[1:48:50] need to implement that would be for roads and it would be a a local option

[1:48:56] sales tax. So that's coming up. I want to let you know about existing local

[1:49:01] option taxes because internet sales are now included in those in those um taxes.

[1:49:09] So, if you're interested in that, um you no longer need to do a charter change.

[1:49:14] You can just do that as uh as a town meeting. Um,

[1:49:19] I also want to let you know that I saw some interest in the county and regional

[1:49:24] governance committee um work and I and I serve on that committee. And what that

[1:49:30] committee is looking at is making um local government as in county government

[1:49:37] um more efficient and effective. Um, my goal in being on that committee is not

[1:49:45] to put a barrier between the state and the local communities. I think that's

[1:49:51] really special in Vermont, how how accessible the the state is to the to

[1:49:55] the towns. And I I'm going to make sure that that we don't um hinder that. But

[1:50:01] we have a lot of agencies and um entities that are actually doing state

[1:50:07] work but not as state employees. The state contracts for a lot of things. Um

[1:50:14] and I think that though I and others think that those entities could be

[1:50:19] better served or or more effective if they work together. Um they all have uh

[1:50:26] folks who are doing personnel and they have financial people and we could we

[1:50:31] could um uh um have some efficiencies there and more importantly they would um

[1:50:37] interact with each other like for example um the transit agencies and the

[1:50:42] um uh mental health agencies and hospitals um we've been having joint

[1:50:48] meetings of committees this year which I think is really helpful because the

[1:50:53] committees are by um uh uh area like like transportation for example and

[1:51:00] transportation impacts health care. And so we've had meetings with the

[1:51:05] transportation committee and the health healthcare committee talking together

[1:51:10] about how we get people to their appointments because there's a big

[1:51:14] issue. And that sounds might sound like an easy thing to do, but it's not an

[1:51:19] easy thing to do. But we're getting somewhere because we're we're having

[1:51:23] these committees overlap which which I think is really good. And um so that's

[1:51:28] that one. And I want just a detail thing that I don't think is getting around

[1:51:33] enough is that in the home act a couple of years ago, we um put in a provision

[1:51:41] that's called duplexes by right. So, what that means is that if you have a

[1:51:47] single family home or if your if your lot is zoned single family, you can by

[1:51:54] state law have a duplex on that on that property. And what the state the reason

[1:52:00] the state did this was um obviously we need more housing and that's that's a

[1:52:05] good way to get more housing with minimal environmental impacts. Um, but

[1:52:09] it's also a way for Vermonters to have another um source of income um or a a a

[1:52:16] place where where you can have older um family members or younger family members

[1:52:20] who want a separate space. So, I just want to make sure everybody knows about

[1:52:24] that because it's it's it's important. Um so and congratulations on your uh the

[1:52:31] um you're making progress on the um uh sidewalk and crosswalk um o over at on

[1:52:41] Route 30. So if anything goes south on that, please let me know because we're

[1:52:46] having some >> Okay, thanks. Um just uh we're having

[1:52:51] issues. the transportation budget is 33 million in deficit, which means that

[1:52:56] we're losing a hundred million of matching funds, um, federal funds. So,

[1:53:02] some projects are being cut and they're being cut without a lot of, um, uh,

[1:53:08] public knowledge. So, that's that's a problem.

[1:53:13] Okay. Is it I'm happy to take questions if anyone wants.

[1:53:17] » Okay, great. Are there questions for Senator Harrison? Yes, Breeze.

[1:53:22] » Breeze or not? Uh, Wingsville, I'm wondering if uh the state continues

[1:53:28] to put an overall treatment of roads in Wville.

[1:53:36] You know, done for a lot of work. We actually had a

[1:53:40] some funding last year. Thank you board uh to install a one speed bump, which

[1:53:47] probably not going to be all that effective. The money came out last May.

[1:53:50] It still hasn't been installed. But uh it's always on my mind and I should see

[1:53:56] where

[1:54:01] the question is that being at

[1:54:07] » uh no actually it's high on our radar. um the transportation committee that we

[1:54:12] have five members and we all um when when we started this year we talked

[1:54:16] about our priorities and every single one of us said stay safety so safety is

[1:54:21] critical and we're having more accidents and especially pedestrian issues so

[1:54:26] certainly um no it's high on the list and we're looking at um cameras uh

[1:54:33] there's privacy concerns which I work on that in my other committee um but there

[1:54:38] are ways ways to um enforce speed limits uh uh that way um remotely basically. So

[1:54:48] so we are we are looking at that. >> Annie,

[1:54:53] so just a quick question. How can we keep tabs on your work? Is there a place

[1:54:59] online where we can see what the results of your work are?

[1:55:03] » Sure. Uh, and when you say yeah, the the Senate or me in particular, um, I've

[1:55:09] I've provided a um handout so that you can see what I'm what I'm working on.

[1:55:14] Um, in the >> Oh, you can you can watch every day if

[1:55:20] you want. Um, we're on camera every day, which is challenging um in both of our

[1:55:26] committees. Um, so so that's that's a way to watch. Um you can see what uh

[1:55:33] bills we um uh endorsed or um supported or uh so like for example I I I did a

[1:55:41] bill to um keep corporate money out of elections. Um there were two of us on

[1:55:46] that bill and um it it could actually happen. It's it's a state. It would just

[1:55:52] be Vermont state corporations, but corporations are created by the state

[1:55:58] and the state uh decides what corporations can do. And so we are

[1:56:03] planning on we're the the bill proposes to take off of that list support for um

[1:56:10] uh political um services, which would be amazing if we can do that. Yeah. Yeah.

[1:56:16] No, I'm psyched about that one. Stevie, did you want to say something?

[1:56:23] » Yeah. assignment. What do you think the prospects are for

[1:56:28] uh limiting through state legislation the unison presence of AI

[1:56:36] in the apparent opposition of the the opposition will probably federal

[1:56:39] government but I sense that there are other people in the audience here who

[1:56:45] are concerned about what it might mean in Vermont and I just wonder how much

[1:56:50] power you feel the state has to put sort of brakes on

[1:56:56] Thank you. It's a great question. It's a a huge topic and um my committee uh took

[1:57:03] over jurisdiction of it generally because we didn't have a specific place

[1:57:08] for that in the Senate. Um it's a AI is challenging because they're they're

[1:57:16] trying to do a federal preeemption where they say that the states don't have

[1:57:19] authority. So if they say the states don't have authority, that's obviously a

[1:57:23] challenge. we could still pass a law um and and see where it goes. Um we did

[1:57:30] pass a law last year uh kids code which um I'm pretty proud of.

[1:57:36] It it uh requires that internet companies can't do allow things that are

[1:57:45] currently happening uh to hurt our children. um hurting them physically and

[1:57:50] mentally um not just uh you know taking off of up their time um that they cannot

[1:57:55] do that. It goes into effect next January. We gave it some time to to um

[1:58:02] uh so that folks who thought that there might be issues could identify those

[1:58:06] issues for businesses. There aren't going to be um issues for businesses

[1:58:10] because these are big companies. These are um um the like like examples of the

[1:58:16] harm are Snapchat for example. Um they allow

[1:58:22] older men who are pedophiles to connect with young girls. Um uh their preferred

[1:58:28] age rate is uh age range is uh middle school kids. Um Instagram uh it's it's

[1:58:36] horrible, but um children are actually killing themselves. I'm sorry to to tell

[1:58:40] you that, but it's true and we don't hear about it enough. Um, but that's

[1:58:45] happening and the internet companies know it's happening. They're finally

[1:58:49] getting sued for it. Our bill is something that will help um folks get

[1:58:53] sued for it and um have a liability and so then stop it presumably. Um it's I I

[1:59:01] don't want to say more just cuz it's really sad. Um but uh but they know what

[1:59:06] they're doing and this bill will stop them from doing that.

[1:59:13] » Yeah.

[1:59:17] » Yes. Could you I just a housekeeping thing. What I don't know all of you

[1:59:22] unfortunately and for the purposes of town meeting minutes everybody's name

[1:59:27] needs to be in the minutes. So, if you could all say your name loudly enough

[1:59:32] and slowly enough so both Wetta and I can hear, that would be great.

[1:59:36] » Sure. >> Hi, I had a question. My name's Ramsey.

[1:59:39] I'm voter of the new thing and I was just curious as we speak of some of

[1:59:43] these larger issues affecting the world or the country. I think there's some

[1:59:47] people in this room that would just rather talk about strictly local issues,

[1:59:52] only roads. I'm wondering if you'd be willing to speak a little bit about the

[1:59:56] connection between the local, the national, the global, just kind of

[2:00:00] generally speaking if that's okay. Like why are things happening across the

[2:00:04] world important here in data science?

[2:00:10] I think some people have connections and it might be nice.

[2:00:18] » No, no, no, no. You're right. I I was going to go on a democracy rant because

[2:00:23] uh just the we we're some of us are giving up on democracy at the federal

[2:00:28] level which is horrendous and democracy like this is amazing. I I mean you are

[2:00:36] here to to decide how your daily life is is going to be. And um this doesn't

[2:00:43] exist in in places outside of New England. Um you probably know that. I

[2:00:46] hope you know that it's very special. Each town is completely different and

[2:00:51] you're different each meeting too. Each year you're different. So, so that's

[2:00:56] that's it's so precious to have uh a functional democracy. Um I I live in

[2:01:03] Bradboroough. Um we have a a ballot um today to to get rid of town meeting and

[2:01:10] that's going to be really sad for me if if and a lot of others if if that

[2:01:14] happens because we don't you don't get it back you know once because this takes

[2:01:18] work right I mean sometimes you're here all day sometimes two days um but it's

[2:01:23] worth it so so democracy is worth it um thank you

[2:01:33] At a state level, we're pretty good at at democracy. We're we're um I mean, we

[2:01:38] could it could be better. Uh but we are there in person you talking to each

[2:01:42] other. Um we had there's a lot of lobbyists. Um like with the data stuff,

[2:01:47] the lobbyists are all around. Uh they won't talk to us in committee. I was

[2:01:52] talking about how we're on camera in committee all day. Um the lobbyist there

[2:01:56] was the goo Google Google guy was uh there last year and he would talk to me

[2:02:02] in the hall but he wouldn't talk to me in committee. So that's what you see. I

[2:02:08] mean and the corporations they're really used to getting their way but if we

[2:02:11] stand up for them to them um they don't get their way. I mean, we have the

[2:02:15] power. Um, we have the power now. Um, and we in theory have the power on a on

[2:02:20] a federal level, but we're not we haven't used our power. And that's my

[2:02:24] opinion. You know, for years we've, you know, some people just don't vote

[2:02:29] intentionally. Um, but but we got to get it back. I I hope people wake up. Um, it

[2:02:36] this if this doesn't wake people up, I don't know what will. Um, it's it's it's

[2:02:41] scary. Um, I don't know if that's you want.

[2:02:46] » Okay. >> Um, the person in the back, you're back

[2:02:48] lit, so I'm sorry I can't wreck see your face.

[2:02:51] » Hi, my name is Steve Anderson. I just wanted to coattail on that. I look

[2:02:55] around this room and there aren't very many young people here and they're

[2:03:00] inheriting all of these issues. So, I just wanted to speak to encourage people

[2:03:07] to encourage the young people to get involved in it because democracy only

[2:03:13] works if you show up. >> I I agree with you and just an I talked

[2:03:20] to somebody just what 20 minutes ago in um towns and and they were happy to see

[2:03:26] young people because there were more young people at that meeting than there

[2:03:29] had been in the past. But I agree

[2:03:37] on his subject moving to Saturday where people don't

[2:03:42] have to work. I stayed out of it for years until I was retired. This is my

[2:03:47] third one. Uh but I business in the world. I

[2:03:53] couldn't make it. I couldn't pull away my customers and

[2:03:57] the money. >> Right.

[2:04:00] So there's always the option of getting a petition signed and submitting it and

[2:04:07] so that that if that's an issue you you would like the town to debate it could

[2:04:11] be in next year's warning for town meeting.

[2:04:18] » Yeah. And just other things I mean, can I follow up on that? Just Yes, please.

[2:04:23] So, some things that towns do, they hold it on Saturdays. You can have child

[2:04:29] care. Broader did that. We've had child care. Um, and it's important to to make

[2:04:35] sure that people can physically get there. So, um, uh, transportation is is

[2:04:41] important, too. Obviously, an accessible building, which you all already have to

[2:04:44] do, but there are a lot of things you can do.

[2:04:47] » Bill

[2:04:52] with any questions about FEMA. We got turned down two months ago

[2:04:59] got hit last summer.

[2:05:03] » Okay, I'll speak up about FEMA turning us down two months ago for our disaster

[2:05:10] issues was pretty much all came from last year.

[2:05:14] life event seems to be a bad day and uh we got turned down that little town of

[2:05:19] S. I don't even think they got 500 people. So they got nuked and no federal

[2:05:26] money. So just transportation

[2:05:32] shift some funds. I mean, got to fix the roads, but we don't have the federal

[2:05:37] money coming >> and they have a million dollars,

[2:05:41] » right? And hopefully that's not going to be a standard uh response from FEMA.

[2:05:46] That was hopefully a one-off, but we can't you can't count on that. Um the

[2:05:50] legislature put aside $50 million for um uh problems from the federal government.

[2:05:57] So, they may be looking at uh I'm not in that area, but but they they may be

[2:06:02] looking at using some of that funding for that. Um, and there's there is

[2:06:07] transportation funding that we could be using, but we're not. There's something

[2:06:11] called transportation um uh investment bonds, and we just paid them all off.

[2:06:17] And um I'm advocating for looking at that again because um we uh we have

[2:06:26] there's there's things that are happening now that need um work and if

[2:06:30] we don't uh fix the roads now it's just going to get worse and more expensive.

[2:06:37] So in the long run >> professional bonds would they be

[2:06:40] municipal bonds to be >> those would be state bonds. statements.

[2:06:45] » Yeah, because the state has a fair amount of bonding capacity and we have

[2:06:48] more bonding capacity than we're using because so many of the projects that we

[2:06:53] have funded are uh delayed um mostly because of COVID and uh BGS has been

[2:07:00] just really busy.

[2:07:04] » Yes, Tom. >> Tom,

[2:07:07] » and I know it seems like you're people are projecting, but it is hard to hear.

[2:07:11] So I would ask you to either really project or use the mic.

[2:07:16] » New subject I wanted to ask about the governor's return to work order um for

[2:07:22] state employees. Um that is uh this order is effective effectively making it

[2:07:28] impossible for people from southern Vermont to apply for state jobs. Um it's

[2:07:34] an affordability of cost of living issue um for people who live here and are

[2:07:39] already employees of the state having to go back and forth um uh a minimum of two

[2:07:46] or three times a week 2 hours each way. It essentially is is closing out uh

[2:07:52] employment opportunities in this in this town uh at the state level. And I wonder

[2:07:57] if you have any thoughts on working on that. Um, it's not in any of my

[2:08:02] committees and I don't even think that there's a bill. I my recollection is

[2:08:07] that there was a a determination that that is under the governor's authority

[2:08:11] and the legislature doesn't have a a a place in that. Um, one area that might

[2:08:17] come in my committee is that there was uh there's concerns about the

[2:08:26] areas that they leased, the office spaces that they leased, and that that

[2:08:30] could come in my committee. So, I'm alert to that.

[2:08:34] I don't I don't think that would solve the problem, but um it would be more of

[2:08:38] a a financial issue when it came to my committee. As a followup, could I ask um

[2:08:45] can um uh can the legislature get involved in um the

[2:08:52] determine the uh rule that says employees have all

[2:09:01] » I don't know that answer generally the the the governor is like the mayor or

[2:09:08] the the governor is basically the boss, right? he that that position is in

[2:09:14] charge of the operations and the legislature is in charge of making or

[2:09:19] changing laws. So we have very different roles. So I I don't know but I can find

[2:09:25] out

[2:09:29] » any additional questions for Senator Harrison.

[2:09:35] » Okay. Well, thank you for your time, your service, and

[2:09:40] thank you.

[2:09:48] » Before we get back to the warned articles, um people standing, I know

[2:09:54] there are folks who don't like to sit in front. Um if maybe someone here could

[2:10:00] bring those three chairs um over to the side without blocking an egress out of

[2:10:06] the building. We have to be careful with terms of fire that um and then for folks

[2:10:12] who are standing in the back there. Yes, thank you Joyce. There are a couple

[2:10:15] seats right here. There's a seat on the second row.

[2:10:27] You can handle it, Tom. Um, I'd also like to recognize Austin

[2:10:34] Rice, who is in charge of all the the audio

[2:10:39] for today. Austin, thank you very much for being here and the video AV. Yeah,

[2:10:45] thank you so much. And is a a local resident. Um, and we also wanted the

[2:10:51] select board and I and the town clerk and treasurer wanted to take this

[2:10:56] opportunity to make sure everybody knows when the school budget vote is. And

[2:11:03] that's going to be on Katie. You want to >> Sure. Um, just to reiterate the messages

[2:11:09] of democracy, process, and civic duty. Um, the school budget vote is separate

[2:11:14] from our town budget and it will be on Wednesday, April 8th at Newbrook Fire

[2:11:20] Department at the for the poll from 9 to 7:00 p.m. Um, absentee ballots will be

[2:11:26] possible, but the ballots are not yet available. Um,

[2:11:31] and I would encourage all of you to please go and vote. I'm already

[2:11:34] preaching to the choir because you're here. However, last year we had an

[2:11:39] abysmal uh an abysmal turnout. Um only 50 residents voted

[2:11:46] and only 250 for the entire school district voted. So please, please,

[2:11:51] please show up every time you're asked to vote. Thanks.

[2:12:00] » Okay. Yes. Could you please state your name?

[2:12:05] » I'm just curious when those val will be available. I'm not sure yet. I haven't

[2:12:10] heard from the district. >> Um I'll put it on front porch form as

[2:12:18] soon as they're available. >> I'll put it on front porch forum as soon

[2:12:22] as >> so when the absentee ballots physically

[2:12:27] get to the town clerk's office when I will post that on front porch forum.

[2:12:35] Okay, back to warned articles.

[2:12:40] Article 40 is where we left off. Shall the voters of the town of Newane exempt

[2:12:47] from taxation all real property of the Newbrook

[2:12:52] Volunteer Fire Association station number one

[2:12:56] building and land more or less 1.6 6 acres for a period of

[2:13:02] five years pursuant to 32 Vermont state statute uh 3840.

[2:13:12] Is there anyone who would like to move that?

[2:13:19] » Thank you, Neil. A second. >> Oh, Tony Ping.

[2:13:25] » Is there discussion of article 40?

[2:13:31] Yes.

[2:13:37] And I know you already introduced yourself, but you need to do it again.

[2:13:40] » Ron Steer from New Fame. And I just wanted to ask approximately what is the

[2:13:45] value of that land and how does that compare to the total grand list?

[2:13:52] » Doris,

[2:13:55] » we have a property value question. Do you could you

[2:14:00] Gotcha. >> I'm sorry, but you could ask any of the

[2:14:03] listeners um on a regular day.

[2:14:10] » Doris, we can't hear you. >> Doris said every five years the there's

[2:14:15] reappraisal and that's currently happening. So, the value will change

[2:14:18] some years.

[2:14:28] Okay. So, um, exemptions are good for five years and this is the fifth year,

[2:14:32] so it's coming back up again.

[2:14:37] » Any further discussion on article 40?

[2:14:42] » Okay. Hearing none. Shall the vote article 40. Shall the

[2:14:47] voters of the town of Newfane exempt from taxation all real property of the

[2:14:53] Newbrook Volunteer Fire Association station number one building and land

[2:14:59] more or less 1.6 acres for a pursu period of 5 years pursuant of 32 Vermont

[2:15:06] state statute 3840. All those in favor say I.

[2:15:11] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[2:15:15] The eyes have it. The motion passes. Article 40 is approved.

[2:15:22] Article 41. Shall the voters of the town of Newane exempt from taxation all real

[2:15:29] property of the Newbrook Volunteer Fire Association's number two building in

[2:15:35] land approximately a quarter of an acre for five period of five years pursuant

[2:15:40] to 32 Vermont State Statute 38.40. Is there would someone like to move that

[2:15:46] Neil Pelu? Thank you. And a second. Tessa Anderson. What

[2:15:53] um is there any discussion of article 41?

[2:16:01] Okay. Hearing. Yes. >> I have a question.

[2:16:05] » Yes. Gloria. >> Gloria. Gloria Christelli.

[2:16:11] » Gloria Christelli. Is this the Williamsville?

[2:16:14] » Yes. >> Okay.

[2:16:20] » I love that everybody's curious and wants to know what they're voting on.

[2:16:24] That's a good That's a good thing. Um, any other discussion regarding article

[2:16:28] 41? >> Yes. Breeze.

[2:16:33] » Breeze. Bernard. Yeah. I'm curious. C, >> could you stay your name into the mic?

[2:16:37] » Breeze. Breeze. Verdant. Yes. I'm curious why we're doing this. But why is

[2:16:41] a fire department's land taxable anyway? Seems like you're taxing one part of the

[2:16:46] town and paying it to the other part. It doesn't make any sense to me. Can

[2:16:50] somebody explain it, please? >> Are you able to explain it?

[2:16:59] » And sorry to waste more time on it.

[2:17:04] » I I missed the middle part of your question. So I

[2:17:06] » I'm just saying why is this happening? Why? It's a fire department. It's it's

[2:17:09] it's the town's fire department. Why why is there an issue of taxation to them?

[2:17:14] » So, is is a fire department person here to

[2:17:19] speak?

[2:17:22] » Right. >> Would would you come to the mic and say

[2:17:26] that? I think people know that, but maybe some don't.

[2:17:29] » Bob Lichfield from Newane. The the town does not own either building. We pay for

[2:17:34] it. We raise all the money. >> Speak right into the mic. Sorry, Bob.

[2:17:36] » And the town has nothing to do with it. So we just want to be able to get it the

[2:17:42] taxes taken away to help save cost. >> Newber fire department and the

[2:17:48] Wayneville station. >> To paraphrase,

[2:17:50] Newbrook Fire Department is not a municipal function. It is a private

[2:17:54] organization and so they're built. We do not we the town of Newane do not own the

[2:17:59] land. >> It's owned by the members.

[2:18:04] » Excuse me one second. Ken had it. Ken

[2:18:12] Uh Ken SD Newfane. Um I'm certainly in support of this um these articles. Uh

[2:18:18] just curious um uh has New Fain been taxing uh these properties prior or is

[2:18:25] this a renewal that's always been in place?

[2:18:34] » Yes. Uh first Yes. Just a second, please. Um

[2:18:38] this is a the select number of the select board members said that this is a

[2:18:42] renewal of something that's been in existence

[2:18:46] and yes would you like to address this >> if things start getting

[2:18:51] » Hi Erica Walsh from Newfane >> we can't hear you

[2:18:53] » Eric Walsh from Newfane is that >> yes thank you I happened to be at the

[2:18:58] Bennington town meeting last night and um this was a similar thing came up with

[2:19:02] nonprofits being um this being the five-year renewal for them being exempt

[2:19:07] from town taxes, their property. Um, and the question was asked to the Bennington

[2:19:11] Select Board and the answer was that previous to this year, nonprofits have

[2:19:17] been granted exemptions from their real property from the state. And starting

[2:19:23] this year, the 26 27 tax year, um, it's down to the towns now to do that. And

[2:19:29] so, um, I think it was on a five-year schedule with the state granting the

[2:19:33] exemptions and now it's down to each town and whatever year the exemption ran

[2:19:38] out on, it's now up to the town voters in each town to decide on that. So, I

[2:19:43] would suspect that next year there will also be, you know, whatever other

[2:19:48] nonprofits own um real estate in the town of Newfane, they'll be up for

[2:19:52] renewal in that 5-year period. That's reporting from Bennington. Would anyone

[2:19:56] on the select board like to speak to that point?

[2:19:59] » You want me to read the >> Yes. Yes. Chris.

[2:20:03] » Hello. So, this is the actual statute. When a society or body of persons

[2:20:10] associated for a char charitable purpose in whole or in part including fraternal

[2:20:16] organizations, volunteer fire and ambulance, ambulance or rescue

[2:20:21] companies, owns real estate used exclusively for the purpose of such

[2:20:26] society, body or organizations. Such real estate may be exempt from

[2:20:32] taxation either in whole or in part for a period not exceeding 10 years if the

[2:20:39] town so votes. Upon the expiration of the exemption, the town may vote

[2:20:44] additional periods of exemption not exceeding 5 years each.

[2:20:50] That's what 32 VSA subsection 3840 actually says.

[2:20:58] Thank you. >> And thank you Chris and that is why this

[2:21:01] has come up and you were asked to vote on article 40 and then is the same idea.

[2:21:09] Article 41 is also extending this period of exemption which is allowed under

[2:21:15] state statute. Is there further discussion of article

[2:21:21] 41?

[2:21:25] Okay. Yes, Jesse. >> Anderson,

[2:21:29] » could you please use the mic? Thank you. >> We're getting a wireless

[2:21:34] » Yeah, next year. >> Yes, there'll be a wireless mic next

[2:21:37] year. >> Yeah, I'm I'm the treasurer of the

[2:21:39] Williamsville Cemetery Association and I'm just wondering if we're going to get

[2:21:42] a tax bill. >> No.

[2:21:50] » All right. Are there any other uh any other

[2:21:55] discussion of article 40? Jesse, were you looking for an answer or was that a

[2:21:59] tongue and cheek?

[2:22:08] » Okay, I'm going to take that as no further discussion. Article 41. Shall

[2:22:13] the voters of the town of Newfane exempt from taxation all real property of the

[2:22:20] New Brook Volunteer Fire Association number two building and land

[2:22:25] approximately 20 quarter of an acre for a period of 5 years pursuant of 32

[2:22:32] Vermont state statute 3840. All those in favor say I.

[2:22:38] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[2:22:42] » The eyes have it. The motion passes.

[2:22:47] Okay. On to article 42. >> Shall the voters of the town of New Fain

[2:22:53] approve relocating future town meetings to the Newbrook Fire Department andor

[2:22:59] Newbrook Elementary School. Is there someone who would like to move that

[2:23:03] motion? >> Yes. prior motion. I arrive somewhat

[2:23:09] because >> Dick, could I could you please use the

[2:23:13] mic? >> Thank you.

[2:23:17] » And while you probably don't need an introduction or to introduce yourself if

[2:23:20] you could for the record, that would be great.

[2:23:22] » Thank you. >> And feel free to take the mic off the

[2:23:25] stand. >> Yeah, easier. I'm Dick Merrick from New

[2:23:28] Fain. Um, I thought I knew what this article meant when I first read it and I

[2:23:34] thought it was an issue that's come up before and will probably keep coming up

[2:23:38] periodically every seven or eight or nine years. But I realized that I really

[2:23:44] don't understand it. And Emily being here will appreciate the fact that

[2:23:50] incoming legislators are told a couple of things that they ought to bear in

[2:23:54] mind. One is words have their ordinary and plain meaning and should be used

[2:23:59] that way and understood that way. And secondly, don't ever ever ever

[2:24:06] use and or because the effect of andor, although it

[2:24:11] seems it seems like a nice little phrase, it negates everything you're

[2:24:17] trying to say. The example they gave us when I started was I'm going to have a

[2:24:25] hot dog andor a Coke for lunch. What does that mean? It means three

[2:24:32] entirely different and self-contradictory things. I'm going to

[2:24:37] have a hot dog. I might have a hot dog and coke. Or I'm just going to have a

[2:24:42] Coke. And when we're drafting proposals, either legislative or articles, it is

[2:24:50] really important to keep the discussion understandable and focused, that we ask

[2:24:54] one question. This is a little like the hot dog and the coke. It asks three

[2:25:00] questions. Will we have

[2:25:05] future town meetings at the Newbrook Fire Department

[2:25:10] and or Newbrook Elementary School? That is consistent with three different

[2:25:16] meetings. We're going to have them at Newark Fire Department. We're going to

[2:25:19] have them at the Newick Elementary School or we're going to have it at both

[2:25:23] of them. I can't understand it, and I don't think we can vote on it. I think

[2:25:28] it is remediable. I could probably do what I think the intent is in about a

[2:25:33] sentence, but that sentence isn't here in the article that we're being asked to

[2:25:38] vote on. So, I think it makes sense and I understand through the grapevine that

[2:25:44] there are other things that are going to come up yet at this meeting. I think it

[2:25:48] would make sense to allow the people proposing this to bring it back before a

[2:25:54] future town meeting in a form that is clear and understandable because

[2:25:58] » So Dick, what is the motion that you would like?

[2:26:00] » So my motion my motion um is that we postpone considering this article

[2:26:05] indefinitely which will afford the drafters time to bring it back in a

[2:26:10] clear clean form telling us what they want to do and how it's going to be

[2:26:14] done. Thank you. So there's a excuse me there's a motion on the floor to

[2:26:19] postpone indefinitely article 42. That requires a second. Is there a second?

[2:26:25] Annie Landenburgger. Um it this can be debated.

[2:26:30] The motion to postpone indefinitely. There can be no amendments to the motion

[2:26:36] to postpone indefinitely and it will require a majority vote. So the question

[2:26:42] that you is up for discussion is

[2:26:48] um shall article 42 be postponed indefinitely? Dick, did I say that

[2:26:55] correctly? >> Okay. Shall motion article 42 be

[2:27:01] postponed indefinitely? And it's been seconded and now it can be discussed. Is

[2:27:06] there anyone who would like to speak to this Dick's motion?

[2:27:12] » Did you catch that?

[2:27:19] » Okay, then hearing none, we can move to a vote.

[2:27:23] » I have a question. >> Yes, Tom.

[2:27:25] » Where did the motion come from in the first place? From the board or

[2:27:30] » No, from from >> Oh, the article.

[2:27:38] It was

[2:27:45] it was presented to the select board as an idea because of the aging community

[2:27:50] that we have the the traffic issues that have been mentioned in Williamsville and

[2:27:56] the parking off street. So the the article was written to either take it to

[2:28:05] Newbrook Fire Department or to allow us to switch

[2:28:11] between Newbrook Fire Department and the school which also has off-road parking.

[2:28:21] » Uh yes, Henri Vermont. Um I think that his article is

[2:28:28] what we should be talking about because if we're going to talk about if we're

[2:28:32] going to vote on >> we are we are no we are talking about

[2:28:36] » just address was like pushing what that was about.

[2:28:40] » Yes I it's it's an excellent point of order you are correct and I was going to

[2:28:44] clarify that the discussion now is about the motion to postpone indefinitely i.e.

[2:28:51] not vote on this article at all. Um, that's what we're discussing, not the

[2:28:56] merits of the or the downsides of the original article. Did that clear it up

[2:29:02] for you? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. So, is there anyone who would Yes, Margaret.

[2:29:13] Margaret Wimberger from South New Fain. How is that?

[2:29:16] » Good. Um, I think that we should not postpone

[2:29:22] um the uh voting on the amendment because I think it's clear what the

[2:29:27] intent is and we can amend the wording. Can we do that instead?

[2:29:34] » Yeah. Yes. There there could be a a vote to post on the motion to postpone

[2:29:40] indefinitely. That is that does not pass. then we go back to article 42 as

[2:29:47] it's written and someone could offer an amendment on article 42. That's another

[2:29:53] way to handle it. >> Okay.

[2:29:57] » Is there any other discussion about the motion on the floor to postpone

[2:30:01] indefinitely, meaning not talk about article 42 today? Any further

[2:30:06] discussion?

[2:30:09] Okay. So,

[2:30:14] Shall the voters of the town of Newane postpone indefinitely

[2:30:21] discussion of article 42? Dick, does that capture your intent? Okay.

[2:30:28] » Was that

[2:30:35] » postponing the vote? Right. You said discussion.

[2:30:41] » Okay. The the decision that you're Yeah. Dick.

[2:30:44] » The motion uh says we will not consider article.

[2:30:51] » Yes. Not considering is the different way of saying postpone indefinitely.

[2:30:56] Postpone indefinitely is Robert's rules of order language, but it's Yeah. But

[2:31:00] not voting on it today. So the the the motion on the table that you're going to

[2:31:06] be voting on is whether to postpone indefinitely, i.e. not vote on article

[2:31:14] 42 today. Is everyone clear on what you're

[2:31:19] voting on? >> Okay, it's fine to say no if you're if

[2:31:22] you're confused. Robert's rules of order is confusing. Okay. So, all those in

[2:31:28] favor of postponing indefinitely, meaning not discussing article 42 today,

[2:31:35] please say I. >> I.

[2:31:37] » All the all those opposed to postponing indefinitely or not discussing article

[2:31:44] 42, please say nay. >> Nay.

[2:31:48] » Division. >> Okay. A division of the house has been

[2:31:52] called. that requires us to vote again and everyone who is in first if you're a

[2:32:00] yay you will stand and you the people who are standing will be counted by

[2:32:06] Gloria and Carol and then they will sit and the folks who are opposed the naysay

[2:32:12] will stand up and they will be counted and then we'll have a more accurate

[2:32:16] count is everyone clear on the process okay so

[2:32:22] all Those in favor of postponing indefinitely article 42,

[2:32:29] meaning not discussing it today, not voting on it today, please stand up.

[2:32:47] » Let's get through this one first.

[2:32:54] Please stay standing until the vote is concluded.

[2:33:06] » So

[2:33:14] 29.

[2:33:17] » Okay. 29 and 11 Wetta.

[2:33:24] » Yeah. >> So 40 people stood up in support of

[2:33:30] postponing indefinitely a vote on article 42.

[2:33:35] Now all those opposed to postponing indefinitely or putting off today a vote

[2:33:42] on article 42, please stand. Madam

[2:33:49] I'm just trying to help. >> You want my help?

[2:33:54] » And please stay standing until the vote is concluded.

[2:34:18] Did you kill?

[2:34:28] » It's a tie.

[2:34:32] » It It's a tie. And the the the moderator has the ability to break the tie.

[2:34:40] Vermont League of Counties, Cities, and Towns strongly discourages moderators

[2:34:46] from voting. >> Yes,

[2:34:49] » I had stepped out and so my vote was not counted during the stand portion.

[2:34:54] » Okay. >> So, I have voted in the eyes category

[2:34:59] and I voted no.

[2:35:05] » Le were you in the voting booth and therefore not counted?

[2:35:10] Lynn, it's a serious question. Were you in the voting booth and therefore not

[2:35:15] counted? >> Yes.

[2:35:16] » Okay. So, now we're at 4141.

[2:35:29] Could you speak up? >> Well, if it's possible, I would change

[2:35:32] my vote from a to

[2:35:40] cancel it. >> My vote.

[2:35:44] » I believe I believe offer is unnecessary because I believe

[2:35:50] as a proponent of the motion very tit >> is what

[2:35:57] » I still can't hear you. Is it >> failure?

[2:36:00] » A tie is considered a failure. >> The motion fails. It does not pass on a

[2:36:05] tie. >> Okay.

[2:36:07] » I I am defeated.

[2:36:13] » Yes. So therefore, because a tie is a failure to approve,

[2:36:21] you will be able now to discuss and vote on article 42. Everyone following?

[2:36:30] » Okay, good job. Okay. So, >> yes.

[2:36:39] » If the first motion fails, I'm sorry. >> Yes.

[2:36:45] » If the motion fails, are you someone not allowed to make a motion now on the

[2:36:51] original article?

[2:36:55] Not >> not now, but you're in about a minute

[2:36:58] and a half there will be an opportunity to offer an amendment to the article 42

[2:37:04] as written. Does that answer your question? Okay. So,

[2:37:10] article 42, shall the voters of the town of Newane approve relocating future town

[2:37:17] meetings to the Newbrook Fire Department andor the Newbrook Elementary School?

[2:37:23] Would someone be move that motion?

[2:37:28] » Okay, thank you. And is there a second? >> Steve Lavine, did you get Ramsey?

[2:37:35] » Ramsey. >> Yeah.

[2:37:40] » Is there discussion? >> Yes, Katie.

[2:37:46] So, I I think this is a wonderful idea and um I just want to throw out a little

[2:37:52] bit of caution that the town of Newane doesn't own either building and we need

[2:37:59] to get permission to see if this is even possible for us to do in the first

[2:38:04] place. So, I'm just going to throw that out as a cautionary. Let's pump the

[2:38:08] brakes a little. >> Steve,

[2:38:12] » could you please use them? I'm sorry. Could you please use the mic? Maybe

[2:38:16] someone could bring it to that row.

[2:38:29] » So So yes, the the the two locations under

[2:38:35] discussion are the Newbrook Fire Department and this Newbrook School.

[2:38:40] There was not a question about ownership of the Graange, although it's good to

[2:38:45] know. >> Bruce,

[2:38:48] » Bruce, Roso, Williamsville, which I understand is part of the thing.

[2:38:54] » Bruce, please speak up or use the mic. >> Yes, I'll speak up. I

[2:38:58] » And I'm sorry, but you need to address the moderator.

[2:39:01] » I propose an amendment to the motion. >> Yep.

[2:39:04] » To say remove an from the article. I just need four.

[2:39:12] » Does that satisfy the clarity? There's one approach.

[2:39:19] » Who? I heard a second back there. Who was that?

[2:39:24] » I'm sorry. >> Both Letta and I are having trouble

[2:39:28] catching your name. >> CB Hall.

[2:39:31] » CB Hall. Thank you. >> C. C is in Charles. B is in boy.

[2:39:37] » Gotcha. Okay, great. CB Hall. Um, so there's a second. And so now what we're

[2:39:44] discussing is shall the voters of the town of Newane

[2:39:50] approve relocating future town meetings to the Newbrook Fire Department or the

[2:39:56] Newbrook Elementary School. >> Going to order.

[2:40:00] » Yes. >> We're discussing whether the should be

[2:40:03] amended to say that. Correct. >> Yes.

[2:40:10] We're not at the underlying question. >> What's that?

[2:40:13] » We're not at the underlying question. We're actually voting on

[2:40:19] » Oh, okay. Good. Thank you. That's a good point. Um

[2:40:26] um is there discussion on the amendment?

[2:40:31] » Annie Annie Lander W. Um, I really wish we'd

[2:40:37] had Katie's point when we were doing the first vote because the reality is the

[2:40:43] just having the or leaves and great ambiguity. Who makes the decision about

[2:40:48] where are the meetings going to be? When and how. The other issue is there's so

[2:40:54] much to talk about town meeting. We don't have young people here because we

[2:40:58] don't have child care because of people are working. I would like to see a

[2:41:03] bigger discussion of town meeting, not just microscoping in it on this here.

[2:41:09] » I think that that needs not to be done in five minutes. So, okay.

[2:41:16] » Any other discussion? Yes, Bob. >> Bobfield.

[2:41:22] Just got to keep in mind the town does own but it doesn't own. You got to get

[2:41:27] permission from the right.

[2:41:31] Yes, Lynn. >> I don't

[2:41:33] » Could you please stand up? State your name.

[2:41:35] » Williamsville, three boys. Um, I don't think this makes it any clearer. Does

[2:41:42] that mean we're voting to have it at one place or the other or alternately at the

[2:41:48] other? >> I I don't think that at all.

[2:41:56] » Yes, Tom. Tom. I also think it doesn't clarify whether

[2:42:01] we can no longer have it at Union Hall and William.

[2:42:04] » Right.

[2:42:10] » Any further discussion?

[2:42:15] Annie, did you want to say something? Well, I guess to appoint an ad hoc

[2:42:19] committee to look at the town hall, the meeting in general and recommend

[2:42:25] something that will be more inclusive for everybody, elders, young people,

[2:42:30] etc. That's what I wish you could come out of it. I have no idea what Roberts

[2:42:34] would say about that.

[2:42:38] Roberts would say >> that we vote on the amendment on the

[2:42:44] right now and if you don't like the way it's worded, you you say nay and then

[2:42:51] offer a different amendment to article 42.

[2:43:01] » No, because it's been amended. So, we can't we can't vote on it as it is

[2:43:06] currently stated. We're vote we have to vote on the the amend the proposed

[2:43:10] amendment. >> Yes,

[2:43:13] » Jody French New. I would ask if my friend Mr. Roso would accept a an

[2:43:19] amendment that article 42 be amended to shall the voters of the town of New Fay

[2:43:26] approve an ad hoc committee to consider whether future town meetings could be

[2:43:32] relocated to the Newber Fire Department or the Newbrook Elementary School.

[2:43:40] » So before I ask for a second um that you are you

[2:43:45] » Exactly. I'm asking whether Mr. Roso would accept my amendment to his

[2:43:51] amendment which would change the amendment.

[2:43:53] » Yes. A friendly amendment and that is permissible

[2:43:57] » if he and the person second.

[2:44:06] I am actually against this

[2:44:12] vote on it. Clarify the language and all we're talking about is remove the word

[2:44:17] and so that we can as a community decide whether we think it's a good idea

[2:44:24] to study it. What Andrew said, I mean I don't I want to keep it the way it's

[2:44:30] been for years. I want to go back to these buildings.

[2:44:34] » So breakfast Maybe we can vote on the amendment because I think it's a

[2:44:39] reasonable thing to ask and I think the issue of parking is really important and

[2:44:43] it's a bigger issue. >> Okay. So,

[2:44:45] » I am going to say no. I want to keep the amendment as I proposed it and the vote

[2:44:51] right now is are you in favor of removing an

[2:44:56] from the amendment >> from the article?

[2:44:59] » Yeah. Yes. In the back. >> I move the question.

[2:45:02] » Okay. Could you please state your name? Lance Ling South New

[2:45:06] » Okay, there is no discussion when someone has called the question. That is

[2:45:10] a way in Robert's rules of order of ending the debate. Um,

[2:45:17] and we move right to we move right to a vote correct

[2:45:21] » of the approval of the amendment. >> Right. Right. Yep. Okay. And so now

[2:45:29] you're we'll be voting on the amendment and the amendment reads yes.

[2:45:40] » Um

[2:45:45] hold on one second please.

[2:45:57] Yeah. >> Closing the discussion which is

[2:46:00] effectively calling the question is not open for discussion.

[2:46:08] » Yeah. Is that that's that's what that's where I was headed.

[2:46:11] » What's that? >> You were jumping straight to a vote on

[2:46:14] the amendment, but the vote needs to be on whether to close debate to close

[2:46:19] discussion. >> Correct. That's where I was headed.

[2:46:21] Okay. >> Yeah.

[2:46:23] » It wasn't how you worded it. >> Okay. Thank you for your

[2:46:30] » which I take to heart. Okay. Yeah. Was there another parliamentarian in the

[2:46:35] room who would like to offer No, I'm being serious. Okay. We have so calling

[2:46:43] the question is in is a way of ending discussion. As I said that calling the

[2:46:50] question the fact it's been called must be seconded

[2:46:56] and I didn't Okay, Tom Tomell um it cannot be amended and it requires

[2:47:03] a 23 vote of the body. So all those in favor

[2:47:13] what someone said uh

[2:47:20] Okay. All those in favor of ending discussion of the amendment

[2:47:26] to take and

[2:47:32] out of the original article, please say I.

[2:47:36] » I. >> All those opposed to ending discussion

[2:47:41] of that amended article, please say nay. Okay. So, we are ending discussion

[2:47:50] on the amendment and the amendment states

[2:47:57] the the amended article which is what states shall the voters of the town of

[2:48:02] Newane approve relocating future town meetings

[2:48:08] to the Newbrook Fire Department or Newbrook Elementary School. That's

[2:48:13] everyone clear that's what you're voting on. Okay. All those in what

[2:48:18] » so point of clarification we are voting on whether the language is amended to

[2:48:25] read that >> correct

[2:48:27] » question itself just whether to accept that amendment.

[2:48:29] » Correct. Yep. >> Just wanted to make sure.

[2:48:31] » Yeah. It's good. Clarity is so important. We want to know what we're

[2:48:35] voting on. Okay. All those in favor please say I.

[2:48:41] » I. All those opposed, please say nay. >> Okay. The eyes have it. So, article 42

[2:48:50] now reads, "Shall the voters of the town of New Fain approve relocating future

[2:48:57] town meetings to the Newbrook Fire Department or Newbrook Elementary

[2:49:02] School? Is is there any dis uh is there any discussion of the amended

[2:49:10] article Pete

[2:49:16] Pain? I hope you can all hear me still.

[2:49:22] I would move to amend by removing the slash as well.

[2:49:38] So you all can can appeal this decision, but I am going to make a decision that

[2:49:45] the amended article implies removal of the slash.

[2:49:54] My father was a grammar teach an English teacher. Yes, Annie.

[2:50:00] Yes, we're now discussing the proposed amendment, the proposed article which

[2:50:05] has been amended. >> Okay. Annie Lannenburgger, I don't know

[2:50:09] if I can, this is not my Bailey Wick. I don't know if I can make an amendment to

[2:50:13] really move for an ad hoc committee, but I would urge all of us to really think

[2:50:18] about the bigger issue here. It's not just about place. It's not just about

[2:50:24] time. It's about time and place and how we get more people here. And to me,

[2:50:29] that's not going to be solved today. Therefore, I hope that we can vote this

[2:50:34] down and then move to create a a study committee on this. Uh

[2:50:42] Patty

[2:50:49] » Patricia Johnson new fain I propose that we there needs to be a survey taken. We

[2:50:56] don't know by making the decision here the people that aren't here are not

[2:51:01] having the voice. They're the people that we want to be here. So, we need to

[2:51:05] have some sort of survey to see if by changing the location or the day or the

[2:51:12] time or the parking would make any difference to whether people are here or

[2:51:16] not. >> Pete

[2:51:20] Dick,

[2:51:24] » please speak as loudly as you can. >> Well, I think Annie's suggestion

[2:51:29] makes a great deal of sense. Um you know there are views both side both ways on

[2:51:33] where town meeting should be held. We face this about every eight or nine

[2:51:38] years. It comes up over and over. Uh I think it makes a great deal of sense to

[2:51:45] have a thoughtful considered discussion which was sort of the point I was trying

[2:51:50] to get at the beginning with my motion but I couldn't understand what this

[2:51:54] amend what the original article did. Um, so in that spirit, I would move that we

[2:52:03] amend the pending article by debating it in its entirety and substituting

[2:52:12] that the voters of the county group uh determine that a special ad hoc

[2:52:20] committee shall be formed for the purpose of considering the time,

[2:52:26] location, and any other aspects of town meeting that that committee report back

[2:52:34] to the next town meeting. Um, I didn't say parathetically motion, but

[2:52:41] parathetically that it proceedings to be open to everybody in the community. So

[2:52:46] everybody's input uh and that that committee be appointed

[2:52:51] by the select board with five members representing if possible both

[2:52:58] perspectives.

[2:53:02] » Uh Dick, would you accept a friendly uh rewarding of that motion?

[2:53:12] » Okay. I'm going to just put it out there and you as the person bringing this up

[2:53:16] can decide.

[2:53:22] » You clarify. >> We we can't discuss it until the motion

[2:53:26] has been uh finalized. >> Okay.

[2:53:31] » Yeah. So I I know you have something to say, but we can't move to discussion

[2:53:35] until it is the motion is clear and seconded.

[2:53:40] So Dick, a a p possible slightly shorter version

[2:53:46] of that.

[2:53:50] » No, I didn't. um could be the voters of the town of New Fain direct the select

[2:53:58] board to create an ad hoc committee to consider

[2:54:06] options for town meeting and bring a proposal back to town meeting in 2027.

[2:54:14] » Well, Dick has to agree to it.

[2:54:19] Did it capture what you were trying to say?

[2:54:22] » Okay.

[2:54:38] Yes.

[2:54:42] » I'm sorry. We're not allowed to what?

[2:54:48] » Um, no. That I that's I'm very clear on that. Um, from the information I've

[2:54:53] gotten from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, town meeting is the

[2:54:57] legislative body for New Fain. The select board is the executive body for

[2:55:03] New Fain. So, new fame voters do have the right to direct the select board to

[2:55:09] take action on something. >> We work for you.

[2:55:13] » What? >> I I didn't catch that. Dan, you had your

[2:55:18] hand up. >> Okay. So, Pete, this is Is this are

[2:55:26] Pete? We're moving to discussion. >> Yes, we do. So, Annie Annie, you

[2:55:32] seconded it, right? Yeah, I just want to be sure that public input is in there

[2:55:38] that somehow it be something done with public input. It's not just a

[2:55:45] voice. >> Okay, let me let me try let me try.

[2:55:52] Yeah.

[2:55:59] » Okay. >> Okay. So, I'm going to restate the

[2:56:02] motion so everybody's clear on what we're about to discuss.

[2:56:07] Shall the voters of the town of Newane

[2:56:13] direct Am I going too fast? >> No. Direct the select board

[2:56:21] to create an ad hoc committee

[2:56:29] to seek public input

[2:56:37] regarding

[2:56:40] could we say all aspects of town meeting

[2:56:47] » expanding the participation.

[2:56:51] » Okay. Well, did Dick is the person who made the motion and we're we're um and I

[2:56:57] have to uh regarding regarding the location. We did

[2:57:04] say the location of town meeting because that's what the article is about, but

[2:57:08] the select board has the authority to expand that.

[2:57:13] Okay. Location and time.

[2:57:19] » Location and all other aspects of how we cover everything

[2:57:25] all aspects to encourage greater participation.

[2:57:33] » Okay, everybody. Thank you for being patient.

[2:57:36] You're doing great. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you. Um,

[2:57:51] okay. This is um this is a little backwards, but we could

[2:57:58] get really mired in Robert's rules of order. Is there any objection to my

[2:58:03] restating Dick's motion with a slight change of

[2:58:07] wording? Okay. Thank you. Shall the voters of the

[2:58:12] town of Newane direct the select board to create an ad hoc committee

[2:58:19] to seek public input regarding the location, time, and day of the week

[2:58:26] with the goal of maximizing participation

[2:58:34] » in town meeting. Okay. Pete, is your qu question relevant to the wording of the

[2:58:39] motion? >> What?

[2:58:43] Pete, is your you had your hand up. Is Is what you are going to say related to

[2:58:49] this wording of the motion?

[2:58:55] » You take a very approach of everything here. It is the responsibility of the

[2:59:01] board to set up town. Let's leave it at that. They can set up

[2:59:07] a committee if they wish. They can do it themselves.

[2:59:15] I say hands over. Let the board go. >> Okay. So,

[2:59:24] I'm not going to call you out of order because you were our Tom moderator and

[2:59:28] did such an amazing job for so long and you're an elder in the community.

[2:59:36] I am going to count that as a discussion point even though we hadn't quite gotten

[2:59:41] there, but I think everyone registered your point. So the motion that had that

[2:59:47] we're about to discuss is currently worded as the such. Shall the voters of

[2:59:54] the town of Newfane direct the select board to create an ad hoc committee to

[3:00:01] seek public input regarding the location, time, and day of the week of

[3:00:08] town meeting with the goal of maximizing

[3:00:12] participation in town meeting. >> Yes,

[3:00:15] » we have not voted to change the wording of that motion to that. So first

[3:00:27] » yes, >> I would like to as the proposition

[3:00:31] motion modify the motion to

[3:00:36] » Okay.

[3:00:40] » Okay. So Dick as the person who originated the motion has approved the

[3:00:45] language that I just read. So, we should actually have another

[3:00:52] second. Is there a second for the new language? Ken Ken Estus.

[3:00:58] » Okay. Now, um Pete made the first comment about the current motion. Is

[3:01:04] there other discussion about the current motion on the table? The one that I just

[3:01:09] read? >> Yes, Carol.

[3:01:12] » Are we discussing the motion to change the wording and then we're going to

[3:01:17] discuss motion. No. >> No. Because because the originator of

[3:01:21] the motion accepted the change in wording.

[3:01:26] » Yes.

[3:01:37] Is that the motion and then we can vote on the new motion?

[3:01:45] » Do you I I think the effect of where we are at the moment at least in my life is

[3:01:51] my motion is that we strike the entirety of the uh current article and substitute

[3:01:59] working. That is the motion. Once we vote on

[3:02:04] that, then there will be discussion on whether or not the article as so

[3:02:10] amendment should pass or not. That's my understanding as well.

[3:02:27] Yeah, but this just to clarify this is not an amendment. the the the dis the

[3:02:33] discussion to to postpone indefinitely was shot down. And so then there was a

[3:02:40] discussion and then Dick offered a change in the wording of the current

[3:02:45] article which is what I just read to well to strike the current wording and

[3:02:51] replace it with directing the select board to create a committee.

[3:02:58] » Yes, CB. Okay. And this sounds like what

[3:03:03] legislation does sometimes called strike ball where you take the number of the

[3:03:09] articles but the cont probably on this but that's legitimate

[3:03:16] legislative rules should be legitimate for town the same.

[3:03:21] It seems to me it is legitimate because it's germanine the original subject of

[3:03:26] the article. So that while it is a limiting go in there, it is still an

[3:03:32] amendment that can be voted on. >> Emily, would you like to weigh in?

[3:03:38] » We in the legislature we use license knows better than anybody's

[3:03:43] manual, not Robert.

[3:03:51] » I believe we're getting bogged down and Mr. Merrick may correct me if I'm wrong,

[3:03:55] but I believe This is a motion to amend replacing the language in its entirety.

[3:04:01] And what's before us now is whether we as the voters accept his amended replace

[3:04:08] question. And if that passes, then we discuss the question.

[3:04:14] » Correct. >> That yes, thank you. You stated that

[3:04:18] Jesse, does this have to do with procedure?

[3:04:21] » Okay.

[3:04:28] Okay. Je Jesse Jesse moved the motion as the

[3:04:36] the motion the article has been restated and I agree with CB because it is

[3:04:42] germanine. we are able to amend it and we could you there's a world in which we

[3:04:49] could get very mired down in amend voting on amendments and then going back

[3:04:55] are there any objections to moving the discussion forward of the motion that

[3:05:01] strikes the current wording of article 42 and that and directs the select board

[3:05:07] to create an ad hoc committee. Is there any objection to that being that what

[3:05:11] we're about to discuss?

[3:05:15] » Yes, we we have to discuss it first. Yeah. Okay.

[3:05:19] » Point of order. It's the question has been called. So,

[3:05:24] we need to vote. >> I did not hear anyone call the question.

[3:05:27] The question

[3:05:30] would shut off the whether we accept Mr. Merrick's amendment to

[3:05:37] » Yes. I simply didn't hear Jesse. I didn't hear you call the question. So,

[3:05:41] I'm sorry. I didn't mean to overlook it. >> Go ahead.

[3:05:46] » Okay. So, Jesse Anderson is calling the question. It does require a second.

[3:05:54] » I saw Carol Ross's hand up first. When there is no debate when the

[3:06:00] question is called and a twothirds majority of the House is required.

[3:06:06] So, all those in favor of ending discussion of the rewarded article 42,

[3:06:16] please say I. I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[3:06:22] The eyes have it. So, the article. So, now we vote on the article. Wait,

[3:06:32] order. Now we vote on whether to accept Mr.

[3:06:35] amendment and then if that passes we would vote on you.

[3:06:42] We still we still have to vote to accept the

[3:06:55] Excuse me. It's a little hard to hear when there's

[3:06:58] » I think before we move on the

[3:07:04] » No, we can't because the question was just called

[3:07:08] » the question was called discussion has ended on the revised language of article

[3:07:15] 42.

[3:07:25] point. >> Yes, that's where I'm

[3:07:27] » where we are at at the moment is needing to vote to accept or reject Mr.

[3:07:34] Merrick's >> Yes.

[3:07:36] » And then we can discuss yes I I I don't always have a chance to

[3:07:43] say what's next before someone pops up. So um but we we are on the same page.

[3:07:51] Okay. Article amended article 42

[3:07:58] reads that the

[3:08:03] article 42. >> What's what's that?

[3:08:07] » Article 42 be amended as follows.

[3:08:13] » Okay.

[3:08:17] » Yes. It's essentially doing the same thing,

[3:08:20] but you're right about the process.

[3:08:27] » Shall the voter

[3:08:31] the will the a but the amendment Dick replaced all of article 42?

[3:08:43] So the question is shall we see what follows

[3:08:49] and vote on that

[3:08:53] discussion the article should pass that

[3:08:58] » but there's a you there's a motion on the table

[3:09:03] » shall we change the the article 42 to read

[3:09:09] as follows what he said. We never voted on

[3:09:14] I know please be patient. Um

[3:09:27] » yes, thank you Tom. You're absolutely correct.

[3:09:36] Just a point of information, but we've never done this

[3:09:42] completely erasing article by amendment.

[3:09:48] » So, I think that's where we're getting ourselves.

[3:09:53] » Yes, it's not out. She's not out of order because it's a point of order. And

[3:09:59] I agree that this is uh new territory for many.

[3:10:04] Um, so the the amendment that you all are about to vote on

[3:10:13] is shall the voters of New Fain.

[3:10:22] » No.

[3:10:34] Oh, just to point out, I'm not confused. As Tom said, I am taking time to make

[3:10:39] sure that the amendment is worded correctly. So, if you can just all take

[3:10:45] a deep breath. Let me work it out with Winetta. I'll be

[3:10:50] right back.

[3:11:20] Okay, now we have we when Wetta and I have wording that we

[3:11:26] are comfortable with. Thank you for your patience.

[3:11:32] » Shall the voters of New Fain, you all amend article 42 to read as follows?

[3:11:42] Shall the voters of the town of Newane direct the select board to create an ad

[3:11:49] hoc committee to seek public input regarding the location, time, and day of

[3:11:56] the week of town meeting with the goal of maximizing public participation.

[3:12:03] » Excuse me. >> We previously ended it with 10 or half

[3:12:08] meeting.

[3:12:12] previous mentioned it twice. >> Okay. I like

[3:12:19] » Okay. Um I'm going to um make use my authority to put in town meeting twice.

[3:12:27] It doesn't change the intent of the of the amendment. It does add further

[3:12:33] clarification. Clarity is so important as I keep saying. So, I'm going to read

[3:12:39] it again. Shall the voters of Newfane

[3:12:44] amend article 42 to read as follows. Shall the voters of the town of Newfane

[3:12:53] direct the select board to create an ad hoc committee to seek public input

[3:12:59] regarding the location, day, time, day, and day of the week of town meeting with

[3:13:05] the goal of maximizing public participation in town meeting. Everyone

[3:13:10] clear now? >> Okay,

[3:13:14] great. Great. Thank you for hanging in there.

[3:13:19] Okay. All those in favor of that amended that what I just read,

[3:13:28] please say I. >> I.

[3:13:31] » All those opposed say nay. >> The eyes have it

[3:13:38] and the amended article 42 as stated passes.

[3:13:56] accepted the language and now we vote on whether that language passes.

[3:14:06] » Excuse Excuse me, Dick. the article.

[3:14:10] » Yeah, >> that was a substantial.

[3:14:17] » Excuse me. I can't hear Dick if other people are talking.

[3:14:20] » Michelle, the article has passed. >> Okay.

[3:14:26] Okay. Thank you. Very helpful.

[3:14:32] » You can keep going.

[3:14:36] Okay. Now that we you all have approved the amendment to the article, now you're

[3:14:44] going to vote on the actual article as as you all agreed to amend it. Okay.

[3:14:53] Fortunately, I see a lot of nodding heads. Jesse,

[3:14:59] » yes, please.

[3:15:06] Uh yeah, me again. As a former select, >> Could you please state your name?

[3:15:12] » Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you.

[3:15:13] » As a former select board member, I know how hard it is.

[3:15:16] » Your name, please. >> What?

[3:15:18] » Your name, please? >> Jesse Anderson,

[3:15:21] uh Williamsville. I know how hard it is to form committees.

[3:15:26] And as a former committee member, >> I don't know how I would approach trying

[3:15:31] to make a decision for the whole town.

[3:15:51] information.

[3:16:00] All right.

[3:16:21] Yep. >> Um, we all agree that everyone's blood

[3:16:24] sugar levels are dropping, but we I would very much like to res come bring

[3:16:30] to conclusion article 42. Annie, is this a point of order?

[3:16:35] » No. Are we discussing this article? We haven't introduced it.

[3:16:40] I mean, Jesse just made a comment, so I thought we were discussing.

[3:16:43] » No, the people jumped ahead a little bit. I I need to read now the article as

[3:16:50] stated

[3:16:55] and then we need a second and then we can discuss it. Okay.

[3:17:00] » Okay. Shall the voters of the town of Newfane direct the select board to

[3:17:07] create an ad hoc committee to seek public input regarding the location,

[3:17:14] time, and day of the week of town meeting with the goal of maximizing

[3:17:20] public participation in town meeting. Is there a second?

[3:17:26] » So moved. Right. Tom moved

[3:17:30] » the motion. >> Right. That's who who moved the motion?

[3:17:36] » Tom Tom Bedell moved it and a second >> Kenis. Okay. So now you can discuss

[3:17:44] again um the the motion that's on the table. Annie

[3:17:50] Annie Landberger Williamsville to Jesse's point with public input. uh

[3:17:57] requires that public input be sought be it through survey or through any other

[3:18:03] vehicle. So, I was worried about that. But that's okay.

[3:18:08] » Yes.

[3:18:12] » And I caught your last name last time. I did not get your first name.

[3:18:19] » Susan all new fame village. I have a question about what happens. We've

[3:18:23] amended the language to direct for an ad hoc committee. Correct.

[3:18:29] If that does not pass, then what happens? like nothing happens in terms

[3:18:34] of moving the meeting or it just gets somebody has to bring it

[3:18:39] back up next year if they want it back on the back on the

[3:18:43] » right >> because the original language was

[3:18:45] completely strict. >> So if I just want to clarify if we don't

[3:18:50] pass this >> Yes.

[3:18:51] » then it's up to someone to petition to put it back on the

[3:18:56] » correct. Got it. >> Correct. Yes. Did everyone hear Susan's

[3:18:59] question in point? >> Point of information.

[3:19:02] » Yes. >> Isn't it also possible that if the

[3:19:05] motion doesn't pass, the select board could take it up on their own and decide

[3:19:11] to handle it uh with forming a committee.

[3:19:14] » Yes, that is possible. I was responding to Susan's question about what the

[3:19:19] legislative body what you all are able to do today, but that is correct.

[3:19:26] Is there further disc? Excuse me. >> Okay. Who is that?

[3:19:37] » Is there a second? >> Calling the question. The question's

[3:19:42] been called. And I'm sorry, I don't know your name.

[3:19:44] » Lori. >> I still can't hear you.

[3:19:47] » Lorie Margan.

[3:19:59] This goes right to a vote. Needs a twothirds vote. All those in favor of

[3:20:05] end calling the question meaning ending discussion of the current article 42

[3:20:13] please say I. >> I.

[3:20:16] » All those opposed please say nay. The eyes have it. Discussion has ended

[3:20:23] and now we vote on the actual motion or the art the revised article.

[3:20:36] » Okay. You are about to vote on the following.

[3:20:42] Shall the shall the voters of New Fain direct the

[3:20:48] select board to create an ad hoc committee to seek public input regarding

[3:20:54] the location, time, and day of the week of town meeting with the goal of

[3:20:59] maximizing participation in town meeting.

[3:21:04] If you think that's a good idea, you're going to say I.

[3:21:10] All those in favor, please say I.

[3:21:14] » I. >> I.

[3:21:15] » All those opposed, please say nay. >> Nay.

[3:21:19] » Okay, the eyes have it. That passes the

[3:21:26] » select board.

[3:21:31] Okay. Um, this is a perfect point for a break. Um, this is not a recess. This is

[3:21:40] a recess. Excuse me. Um, let's take 10 minutes.

[3:21:48] So, please be back by if you're going to take a walk or something by 12:25

[3:21:55] at 12:35 and we will pick up at article 43.

[3:22:00] » Well, hello again. >> Would you like me to walk around?

[3:22:04] » Um, thank you. Ken just offered to do that. Thank you.

[3:22:09] » Nice to see familiar faces again. >> Thank you so much.

[3:22:12] » Okay,

[3:22:16] we are now on article 43 to transact any other business that may

[3:22:23] legally come before the town. Is there anyone who would like Oh, and I want to

[3:22:28] clarify that anything that falls under act for uh article 43 any any

[3:22:36] theoretically one the the body doesn't vote but if we do vote the votes are

[3:22:42] nonbinding because it was they were not warned. So,

[3:22:47] I just want to make sure everybody's really clear on that and I'm not trying

[3:22:50] to shut down discussion, just want the the the rules of the game to be clear to

[3:22:56] everybody. So, um, yes, EMTT, did you want to bring something forward?

[3:23:04] And if someone has something to bring forward, if you could state it in the

[3:23:08] form of a motion, that would be very helpful.

[3:23:14] » Okay. Um, yes. So, I um my name's EMTT Madavi Williamsville. Um, and for

[3:23:23] clarity, >> you can take it out and hold it.

[3:23:25] » Okay. I think I maybe need both hands just for this. Okay.

[3:23:28] » Um, I am on the board of Rural Vermont, um, which is a farming advocacy

[3:23:35] nonprofit in Vermont. Um, and yes, so I would like to propose a non-binding

[3:23:40] resolution, which I have a bunch of copies of if anybody would like. Um,

[3:23:46] last year in May 2025, uh, the Vermont Supreme Court overruled,

[3:23:52] um, a municipal zoning exemption for farming

[3:23:56] in Vermont, which means the responsibility for zoning of farms went

[3:24:01] from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to towns. So, local planning

[3:24:07] commissions, select boards. So this means like disputes over land and all

[3:24:13] that kind of stuff is now the responsibility of these small towns.

[3:24:16] That also means for smallcale farmers. >> So according to Robin's rules of order,

[3:24:21] you need to make the motion and then as the person and it needs to be seconded

[3:24:25] and then as the person making the motion or offering the the resolution, then you

[3:24:30] have a chance to speak. I I >> you as the person offering it has the

[3:24:35] first chance to speak. >> Okay. So, I'll read the proposed.

[3:24:40] » Sure. Is it the whole piece of paper? >> No, I'm skipping the front page. And

[3:24:44] this is much faster. It'll >> Okay. It's going to be a lot for people

[3:24:48] to take in. Does everyone have copies? >> I can. I have 15 copies to pass out.

[3:24:55] » It's It's the two pages. >> Oh, yes.

[3:25:01] » Click copy when you're finished. >> Yeah.

[3:25:04] » Thanks. Actually, >> I can I can give you a copy and just

[3:25:06] read off my phone. >> Yeah, thank you.

[3:25:12] » Oh, it's two pages. >> Um, it's just on the back of the first

[3:25:16] page. >> Starting at the copy, too. It's hard to

[3:25:20] do just visual

[3:25:24] » to Kim, please.

[3:25:32] » Yeah. Okay, thank you. Um, whereas the 2025

[3:25:38] Supreme Court ruling re 8 Taff Street DRB and NOV appeals 2025 VT27

[3:25:47] provides municipalities new and broad zoning authority over farming,

[3:25:51] overturning decades of legal precedent and legislative intent, and creating

[3:25:54] uncertainty for farmers and new regulatory burdens for towns.

[3:25:59] Municipal officials are often not equipped with agricultural expertise to

[3:26:03] assess livestock density, nutrient management, or land sustainability,

[3:26:07] creating unnecessary administrative strain and legal risk. Three, without

[3:26:12] legislative clarification, Vermont risks a patchwork of local rules governing

[3:26:16] where and how food can be grown, what livestock may be raised, and whether

[3:26:20] small producers can sell their products. Four, small-cale farms and homesteaders,

[3:26:25] especially those under 4 acres or earning modest income, may be

[3:26:29] particularly vulnerable to inconsistent local regulation. Five, larger farms

[3:26:34] operating across multiple municipalities may also be particularly affected

[3:26:38] because they operate in a number of different zoning jurisdictions. Six,

[3:26:42] zoning administrators, development review boards, and select boards could

[3:26:45] face increased regulatory burdens such as neighbor disputes, appeals, and

[3:26:50] enforcement costs. Seven, agricultural oversight belongs with the Vermont

[3:26:54] Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, where technical expertise and

[3:26:59] statewide consistency already exists. Eight, restoring the municipal exemption

[3:27:05] and codifying a strong right to grow food, including livestock and the right

[3:27:10] to sell, protects farmers, relieves towns of unintended regulatory burdens

[3:27:15] and fairness across Vermont. Therefore, be it resolved that the town

[3:27:19] of Newfane petitions the legislature of the state of Vermont to restore the

[3:27:24] municipal zoning exemptions for farming and ensure statewide consistency in the

[3:27:28] regulation of farming and agriculture under the authority and expertise of the

[3:27:32] Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets.

[3:27:36] Codify a right to grow food that explicitly includes livestock. Protect

[3:27:41] the right of Vermonters to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell food they have

[3:27:45] produced. relieve municipalities of unintended regulatory burdens resulting

[3:27:50] from judicial interpretation. Thank you.

[3:28:03] » Yeah. So given that we are in a nonbinding

[3:28:08] portion of the meeting and this is a resolution um

[3:28:18] That's very very long to be a resolution.

[3:28:22] Um could the wherees be considered background information and then the

[3:28:28] resolution starts with their uh be it resolved?

[3:28:33] » Okay. So EMTT

[3:28:40] moves that

[3:28:45] It be resolved that the town of New Fain petitions the legislature of the state

[3:28:51] of Vermont to number one restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming

[3:28:58] and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation of farming and agriculture

[3:29:03] under the authority and expertise of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and

[3:29:08] Markets. Second, cottify a right to grow food,

[3:29:14] a right to grow food that explicitly includes livestock. Protect the right of

[3:29:19] verters to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell food they have produced, and

[3:29:25] relieve municipalities of unintended regulatory burdens resulting from

[3:29:31] judicial interpretation. Is there a second to that resolution?

[3:29:37] Did you get that?

[3:29:43] » Is there any discussion of the resolution?

[3:29:54] » Question. >> Sorry, one second. EMTT, actually. Do

[3:29:57] you have Did you get to say everything you wanted to say about it?

[3:30:03] » Okay. Yes, Ramsay. and Ken is gonna assist with the mic.

[3:30:09] » Thank you. Yeah. Hi. So, my question is just uh with these this is a non-binding

[3:30:14] resolution, right? Is there any followth through like what happens next in that

[3:30:20] process were we to say pass it as a town vote for it?

[3:30:26] » EMTT, could you speak to that?

[3:30:31] » So, once the resolution gets passed then then what is essentially Ramsey your

[3:30:35] question. Yeah. >> Um the the news that Newf Fain has uh

[3:30:41] passed this non-binding resolution would be um shared with the Vermont State

[3:30:46] Legislature um which can be handled not by the town. I can I can convey that

[3:30:52] information happily. >> Yes, Chris. My question is,

[3:31:00] does the select board need to participate in this non-binding

[3:31:05] resolution by drafting a letter to the legislature

[3:31:11] to say that we have we as the town of New Fain have approved this?

[3:31:20] EMTT, was that your intention?

[3:31:28] Uh I don't think so. No, I think the fact that we if we if we pass it, we

[3:31:36] have conveyed that message and that new information will be shared without the

[3:31:41] town needing to no burden on you guys. The goal is to lift lift the burden of

[3:31:46] like additional zoning responsibilities on the town. This is something that

[3:31:50] people with expertise and like we shouldn't be asking every single town in

[3:31:54] Vermont to become experts on farming and the impacts of farming and the impacts

[3:32:00] on the environment and all of that. >> I believe Chris was asking if this is

[3:32:05] passed does the town of New Fain imply that the select board then has to

[3:32:12] petition the legislature. Is that is that

[3:32:15] » that was my that was my question. I just wanted to know where with this passing

[3:32:20] and I support it 100%. So everyone's clear about this.

[3:32:26] Where what is the expectation of the town, the executive branch, the the

[3:32:34] administrators, the managers of the town. Is there an expectation for follow

[3:32:40] through to say, "Hey, or is this something that you're going to take upon

[3:32:44] yourself and tell the Vermont digger that this

[3:32:49] happened? We have it on public record that it has it will pass or won't pass

[3:32:54] or whatever. But will you put an article in the comments or what will the

[3:33:00] dissemination of the approval or disapproval of this where does the

[3:33:05] dissemination the responsibility for that or the overall idea of what you're

[3:33:10] looking for which is to tell the legislature

[3:33:13] hands off

[3:33:17] I that's where I wanted the clarification is it going to are you

[3:33:21] going to take care of this or is this going to let do you want us

[3:33:25] or do you want select board members or to petition the select board or does the

[3:33:30] town need to do something?

[3:33:34] » Um do do you want to go?

[3:33:37] » I think I can answer >> rural rural Vermont can handle the

[3:33:41] dissemination of information. >> Right. So part of that is just by us

[3:33:47] doing it. It has to be written down. It has to be sent to the state ledge so

[3:33:51] they are automatically informed >> and then further step work can be done

[3:33:57] from your end. Correct. >> Okay.

[3:33:59] » Thank you >> Erica.

[3:34:04] » Thank you Erica Welch new fain. Um the whole point of something being

[3:34:08] nonbinding means you don't have to do anything with it as a body. So, uh, a

[3:34:14] non-binding resolution, which is everything that wasn't on the warning as

[3:34:18] an article is non-binding. So, um, the the body of voters may approve it. You

[3:34:26] don't have to do anything as a select board. You would decide amongst

[3:34:29] yourselves whether you know you want to act on something that the voters

[3:34:33] approved of. And, you know, if the voters approve of it, you may write that

[3:34:37] letter. Sorry, you may write that letter, but you don't have to because

[3:34:41] it's non-binding. If it's binding, you have to do it. And

[3:34:44] » yeah, so Eric is just reminding us that because we're in the non-binding part of

[3:34:49] the meeting, um the the this body cannot direct the select board to do anything

[3:34:55] as you could earlier. Henriette, I see your hand. Um the Erica, the the issue

[3:35:00] really was more what was meant by clear. It was clarification around what was

[3:35:05] meant by the town of New Fain. That's what I believe the the question of

[3:35:09] clarification was around. Um, Henriette

[3:35:14] I'm just wonder

[3:35:18] however I'm wondering why did the Vermont Supreme Really?

[3:35:21] » Yes. >> Why did the Oh, boy. Um, why did the

[3:35:26] Supreme Court and of the state of Vermont knock it down after so many

[3:35:30] years of it being the law? like what was their argument on the other side of

[3:35:35] this?

[3:35:40] » EMTT, would you like to respond? >> Um, I can try. Uh, I I I lack the full

[3:35:46] context in all honesty. Um, I believe there have been municipalities

[3:35:52] that take issue with, you know, the proximity of farms to um, population

[3:35:58] centers. um be it like smells or uh a chicken on the loose. Um, so there and

[3:36:08] you know if this is happening in a town like Barry or Woodstock, not to name

[3:36:13] names, but like um you know a place that has like more money that might want to

[3:36:21] like benefit off of like the agricultural image of Vermont while not

[3:36:26] dealing with the problems that come along with that or the challenges or

[3:36:28] complexities. Um, yeah.

[3:36:40] Is there any further discussion of this resolution?

[3:36:48] Uh for symbolic purposes. Um I will reread the resolution and then

[3:36:55] there will be a vote. Be it resolved that the town of Newfane

[3:37:02] petitions the legislature of the state of Vermont to restore the municipal

[3:37:08] zoning exemption for farming and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation

[3:37:14] of farming and agriculture under the authority and expertise of the Vermont

[3:37:19] Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. Number one. Number two, cottify a right

[3:37:25] to grow food that explicitly includes livestock.

[3:37:30] Protect the right of verters to grow, raise, produce, donate, and sell food

[3:37:36] they have produced. And lastly, relieve municipalities of unintended regulatory

[3:37:42] burdens resulting from judicial interpretation.

[3:37:46] All those in favor of that resolution say I.

[3:37:50] » I. All those opposed say nay. The resolution

[3:37:57] passes on a symbolic vote.

[3:38:05] » Is there any other business that Yes. Dan,

[3:38:17] » I would like town meeting to consider the following resolution.

[3:38:21] It's just one sentence. The people of Newfane condemn the terror and killing

[3:38:26] being perpetuated by ICE operatives and call on the US Congress to defund and

[3:38:31] dismantle the agency as it now exists. Yeah, Dan, could you please speak a

[3:38:36] little slower >> and a little louder?

[3:38:41] » The people of Newane condemn the terror and killing being perpetuated by ICE

[3:38:48] operatives and call on the US Congress to defund and dismantle the agency as it

[3:38:54] now exists.

[3:38:59] » And so you're offering that as a resolution,

[3:39:02] » a resolution Yes. Is there a second to that

[3:39:06] resolution? And could you >> Walter

[3:39:09] » Walter French, >> is there any discussion of the

[3:39:15] resolution?

[3:39:28] Does anyone would anyone like Dan to read it again? Did you Did everyone

[3:39:32] catch it? Okay.

[3:39:39] So, I don't see any hands up. Um, so we will then move toward to a again a

[3:39:48] non-binding vote. All those in favor of the resolution say I.

[3:39:53] » Excuse me. >> Could you read it once more, please?

[3:39:56] » Could you could I >> could you read it once more, please?

[3:39:59] » Yes. Good point. Thank you, CB. And Dan, I don't have I'm sorry. I thought I

[3:40:04] brought a copy, but I don't have one. I I technically need to read it.

[3:40:08] » Okay. Thank you, CB.

[3:40:14] » What?

[3:40:18] The resolution reads as such. The people of Newane condemn the terror and murder.

[3:40:28] Okay, I'm I'm reading what's here.

[3:40:33] The killing and murder being perpet.

[3:40:40] » It's a work in progress. >> The terror and killing being perpetuated

[3:40:46] by ICE operatives and call on the US Congress to defund and dismantle the

[3:40:53] agency as it now exists.

[3:40:58] All those in favor of the resolution say I.

[3:41:03] » I. >> All those opposed say nay.

[3:41:09] » Division of the house has been called. So all the I'm going to rere. Dan, could

[3:41:15] you have a copy of it? >> Can we have your book again?

[3:41:27] Yeah.

[3:41:32] » Yeah.

[3:41:35] » Okay. I'm going to reread reread the resolution and then I will call on those

[3:41:40] who support and oppose it and you will stand up and you will be counted.

[3:41:46] » Yeah.

[3:41:50] The people of Newfane condemn the terror and killing being perpetuated by ICE

[3:41:56] operatives and call on the US Congress to defund and dismantle the agency as it

[3:42:02] now exists. All those in favor of that resolution, please stand and remain

[3:42:08] standing.

[3:42:40] Are you all

[3:42:44] together?

[3:43:00] Did you have to remind me about

[3:43:34] 30 people support the resolution. Thank you for standing for so long.

[3:43:40] And those of you who are opposed to the resolution, please stand.

[3:43:55] You're not.

[3:44:07] » The resolution passes. 30. Yay. 11 nay. The yays have it.

[3:44:16] Is there any other business that anyone would like to bring before the town

[3:44:22] before and before we adjourn? Are there any announcements? Bill?

[3:44:28] » Yes, I have. >> Okay, Bill. And then Ken,

[3:44:32] » not an announcement, but business. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Then then Bill, I didn't

[3:44:36] realize Ken had business before the town. So, we I'll come back to

[3:44:39] announcements. Thank you. >> Yes, Ken.

[3:44:44] » Okay.

[3:44:47] Uh, can SD Newfane um,

[3:44:51] and I'd like to bring this before the town. Uh, the voters of Newfane

[3:44:57] condemn the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war

[3:45:04] against Iran. We call on Congress to invoke the War

[3:45:09] Powers Act and call on the president to bring our troops home. Now,

[3:45:20] » um it's very helpful if I as the moderator and the town clerk have a

[3:45:25] copy. So, if you could write it out. Is there

[3:45:30] a second to that resolution? >> And who was that? Austin,

[3:45:36] » could you put your hand up? I don't see you.

[3:45:38] » Oh, Austin. Austin Rice. Yeah. Okay. >> Let us just catch up.

[3:45:46] » Yep. Ken, may I keep this?

[3:45:51] » May I keep this? Okay. Um Austin Rice seconded the resolution.

[3:45:56] » Is there any discussion of the resolution?

[3:46:03] Yes. Could you please use the mic and identify yourself? Thank you, Ken.

[3:46:11] » Okay. Joyce Singi Newane. >> I just have a question.

[3:46:16] » Could you say repeat your last name again?

[3:46:19] » Singi. >> Yeah. Winner knows. Um, I just had a

[3:46:24] question. being new to the town, not new in the town. I've been here 10 years,

[3:46:31] but to the whole process. So, at this point forward, is it not town business?

[3:46:37] Is it just whatever you want for international

[3:46:41] business or I I don't quite understand. Maybe you can clarify that for me.

[3:46:46] » I can. And this is a question that has come up at many town meetings. Um there

[3:46:52] are differing views on what is considered town business. There are

[3:46:57] folks who feel that what is happening elsewhere in the world uh in the state

[3:47:02] in the country in the nation is relevant to town business is in fact town

[3:47:07] business because eventually it trickles down. And then there are other folks who

[3:47:12] define what falls under um other business more narrowly. Some towns have

[3:47:19] resolved that by having a warning on an article at town meeting that specifies

[3:47:25] what is permissible and what is not to bring up under other business. But this

[3:47:31] body does not have any such um guidance in that respect. So um there is a a wide

[3:47:40] range of cons resolutions that are often brought

[3:47:44] up at this time. So, can a motion be made at any time to

[3:47:51] hold that at another time in another place?

[3:47:58] » And not at town meetings. Did I >> There would have to be correct. Select

[3:48:03] board. Would you like to address that question?

[3:48:06] I believe because this has been this is article 43

[3:48:11] that to transact any other business that may legally come before the town. This

[3:48:18] has been warned. So we are able to discuss these items here. However,

[3:48:25] they're not binding in the town is required to take action

[3:48:32] » individually >> by being individually warned. So this is

[3:48:36] a package deal. So like with articles 1 through 42, they were individually

[3:48:43] warned. Everyone had a chance to read through those. These are things that

[3:48:48] nobody has had a chance to read through. So they're non-binding. So no one has a

[3:48:53] a real chance to digest the any of these resolutions that are coming. Is this an

[3:49:00] accurate description? >> That is correct. And just to clarify,

[3:49:03] given the population of our town, one does have to get 15 signatures on a

[3:49:09] petition and get that petition in by the town clerk's deadline in order for

[3:49:14] something to be an actual article. That's

[3:49:25] voters

[3:49:29] to hear

[3:49:34] it's in the upper 80s or lower 90s somewhere in there.

[3:49:37] » Okay, I was corrected the the number of petition signatures a candidate needs.

[3:49:43] For example, when I have to run for town moderator moderator every year, that's

[3:49:48] 15. But there's a higher percentage of voters signatures that are needed for a

[3:49:54] petition to get something warned at town meeting. It's up closer to 80 80 or 90.

[3:50:01] » Yeah. >> Marian Dowling on the select board. Um,

[3:50:06] this has been an issue that's been discussed for a few years already.

[3:50:13] And um Melissa Brown, the treasurer, contacted VLCT, the Vermont League of

[3:50:24] Cities and Towns to get clarification about

[3:50:30] discussing having discussions about things that have nothing to do

[3:50:36] specifically with new fame. And that league who consists of attorneys and uh

[3:50:45] legality in Vermont said that it is legal to have conversations and

[3:50:53] discussions and what we're doing now about things that are not related to

[3:51:00] just the town of new fame. And I think you I had given you a copy of that or

[3:51:08] did you have that the other night when you came over?

[3:51:12] » BLTC. >> Yeah, it was a letter from BLCT.

[3:51:16] So, um >> I'd love to I'd love to have a copy.

[3:51:22] » Please continue. >> Okay. So basically

[3:51:25] um these conversations that uh are coming up now which have nothing to do

[3:51:32] with the town of New Fain are legal and that's the bottom line basically

[3:51:41] Chris

[3:51:52] White new thing. I just want to make sure that I understand

[3:51:57] a non if any of the articles or the other business is approved. It does not

[3:52:05] require anybody the select board or anybody else to do anything. Is that

[3:52:10] correct? >> That is correct.

[3:52:13] » Thank you. >> Yep.

[3:52:15] » To do any >> Dan. Anything. Period.

[3:52:19] I would just like to say, >> could you please use the mic and state

[3:52:22] your name? >> Dan DeWalt, South New Fain. Um, I would

[3:52:27] just like to say that uh we are in an extraordinary time. We we have never

[3:52:34] experienced a lawless federal government to the

[3:52:37] extent that we have now. And we have a government which has declared war on its

[3:52:43] own people. We have a a a blockade against Cuba, which is an act of war uh

[3:52:49] unauthorized by Congress. We have the commencement of full combat operations,

[3:52:55] quote from the president, in Iran, which has not done anything to us and poses no

[3:53:01] threat to us. We are living in in an extreme

[3:53:06] time of illegality and terrible actions. And as a political body, even though

[3:53:13] we're small and insignificant in the big picture, I think that it's really

[3:53:19] incumbent upon us to act as a political body and let our voice be heard that we

[3:53:26] adhere to the constitution that we condemn a federal government which has

[3:53:31] abandoned the constitution, which has abandoned the rule of law and which is

[3:53:35] defying the courts and are and it Sounds hyperbolic, but nothing less than this

[3:53:43] future of a republic is at stake and we're facing really dire times. And I

[3:53:48] think that as much as it's uncomfortable to discuss issues that are controversial

[3:53:54] in town meeting, I think if we were not to do that, we would be sherking our

[3:53:58] duties as citizens and as Americans to uh fulfill our part of of the social

[3:54:05] contract, which is we are not we don't take an oath to defend the Constitution,

[3:54:11] but that's essentially what our job is as citizens. And I think that's what

[3:54:14] we're doing when we bring up resolutions like this. And I would urge us to vote

[3:54:17] in favor of this one as well. >> Yes, Bruce.

[3:54:29] » Yeah, Bruce Roso, Williamsville, Newfane. Um,

[3:54:35] there is a long tradition in our town meetings going back because I remember

[3:54:39] Jesse, we had this conversation about >> Could you hold the mic closer

[3:54:43] » about Vermont Yankee? Um and uh my point here is about the importance

[3:54:49] of town meeting. The importance of town meeting enduring and the way in which we

[3:54:56] can discuss very difficult things civily and have disagreements and know that

[3:55:03] these are non-binding discussions and we are choosing to stay here to have these

[3:55:09] discussions with people that may disagree with us. In the case of Jesse,

[3:55:15] it was an issue about should we have Vermont Yankee and Jesse made a

[3:55:19] passionate uh argument about the importance of safety and how everybody

[3:55:23] worked there was so dedicated to it and it moved me. Um, so that idea that we

[3:55:29] can speak to each other in a democracy face to face in the town of Newfane and

[3:55:36] walk out of here as neighbors, walk out of here as people that care about each

[3:55:41] other and that we have enough integrity and honesty and concern to disagree and

[3:55:49] still stay a community. That is really important to me. Thank you.

[3:55:57] Um the the gent Yes. Could you come to the mic and state your name, please?

[3:56:04] » Yeah. I'm Vince Shark from New Fay. >> Bring it right up to your mouth, please.

[3:56:08] » Put it right up to my mouth. I have >> Could you please restate your name with

[3:56:12] a mic close to your mouth? >> I have five family members.

[3:56:18] » Sorry to interrupt you. Could you please state your name and then speak?

[3:56:21] » Okay. >> Yeah.

[3:56:22] » Vince Chuck Newane. >> Yep. I have five family members who are

[3:56:27] in federal law enforcement and I am so tired of you guys exaggerating what the

[3:56:33] hell is going on. These guys have to go to work in the morning, come home, go 50

[3:56:39] miles out of the way to get home so so money doesn't follow them or chase their

[3:56:44] kids down the street. If you want to have a discussions, I'm all for

[3:56:48] discussion, but don't exaggerate this crap. these people are working hard and

[3:56:54] I take it personally insulting that my kids I know how hard they work and and

[3:56:59] they have to deal with have a discussion fine sit down have a meeting have a

[3:57:05] board discussion but this coming out and throwing it crap out that these are

[3:57:11] killers and these are bad people is outrageous and that's all I have to say.

[3:57:17] » Thank you. I I I know this is a heated topic. I encourage all of us to speak as

[3:57:24] respectfully as possible. Um

[3:57:30] » uh Tony and then Katie >> Tony Ping Newfane and I want to say I

[3:57:39] have um I have grandchildren. I have son-in-laws in the service and they are

[3:57:47] protecting us all. They are all here and some people are not speaking on my

[3:57:53] behalf. I feel our federal government is doing a wonderful job. They're trying to

[3:57:58] get things done that need to be done and that is my opinion and there's other

[3:58:03] people in this room that feel the same way. So there's some people in here that

[3:58:07] are not talking for all of us. Katie,

[3:58:15] I um just want to encourage everyone to

[3:58:20] frame their words as delicately as possible because we are talking about

[3:58:27] actual people who are involved in these circumstances. Um

[3:58:32] both on the receiving end of what's happening and the people who are

[3:58:35] serving. Um I I

[3:58:42] uh very personally feel that 23 years ago I was in the Persian Gulf as we

[3:58:47] began bombing Iraq and it's a very different feeling. My feelings are right

[3:58:52] with the service members who are suddenly in a situation that they

[3:58:57] don't have any say over but they are in it and vice versa. So just

[3:59:02] be delicate in in all of your words. Um, we all have strong opinions. Thank you.

[3:59:10] » Also, just uh so Sam and then Susan and CB and Walter. Um, I also just want to

[3:59:18] remind everybody that this is a call on Congress

[3:59:23] on Congress to invoke the War Powers Act. That's the the focus of this

[3:59:27] resolution. So, um, Sam

[3:59:37] Uh Sam Dutton, Williamsville. Um just a bit of background and a

[3:59:42] disclaimer before I say anything. Um I'm a Marine Corps veteran and I'm a current

[3:59:48] serving member of the National Guard. Nothing I say reflects the official

[3:59:53] position of either of those institutions. First, I just want to

[3:59:57] remind everybody that the military and law enforcement organizations are

[4:00:03] non-political institutions. So, the discussion of what to do about

[4:00:07] ICE or what to do about Iran, in no way is whoever is bringing up those

[4:00:15] resolutions, in no way are they attacking current military or law

[4:00:20] enforcement members. They're attacking the political use of those institutions.

[4:00:34] As for my personal opinion on the war in Iran,

[4:00:40] I'd like to lend an additional perspective to the the absolute

[4:00:46] immorality of it. I also think it's dangerous for our national security. We

[4:00:51] got sucked into the Middle East for the last 30 years and wasted however many

[4:00:56] resources there and we're in danger of doing the same thing again. I think it's

[4:01:01] time for us to focus on different parts of the world strengthening national

[4:01:07] security when it comes in respect to Russia and China

[4:01:12] and leave the Middle East be in my personal opinion.

[4:01:21] Susan

[4:01:30] Susan all new fain um I just wanted to call out to name that it's possible to

[4:01:38] hold multiple truths so for me I can hold that disagreement with the way that

[4:01:46] we were brought into this conflict in Iran with the way that the current

[4:01:50] administration is behaving in a number of ways. And I can also hold the truth

[4:01:55] that I value members serving in our military. I have a nephew

[4:02:01] who is permanently disabled now from his service in Kbble

[4:02:08] and I have a husband who is a veteran. And so I think it's really important for

[4:02:13] us to name that, right? that it does not have to mean that I am not in support of

[4:02:19] my neighbors who are serving if I am also not in support of what politicians

[4:02:26] and policy makers are doing in my name.

[4:02:33] CB Thank you, Ken. This is very helpful.

[4:02:38] » Yeah. Hi. Um I'm kind of two minds about this. The

[4:02:44] the war is three days old. >> Right up.

[4:02:47] » And um >> CP, could you please bring the mic to

[4:02:49] your mouth? >> The war is three days old and it's hard

[4:02:54] for me to understand the whole political context of it. I it occurs to me that

[4:02:59] that the nation has at times made huge sacrifices in defense of liberty

[4:03:07] and that we could mention I mean the opposites to

[4:03:13] Nazism in Germany or the current war in Ukraine in which I very much support the

[4:03:19] Ukrainians. How much blood and treasure are we

[4:03:23] willing to pour into it? There's a limit, but there's also a recognition by

[4:03:27] the people who make the decisions and by the people who serve in the military

[4:03:31] that sometimes that sacrifice is called upon. I would love to see that Iranian

[4:03:36] regime wiped off the map. Do I want to see the United States get

[4:03:42] involved in a seemingly endless, multiaceted,

[4:03:46] incomprehensible war throughout the Middle East? No. But those two issues

[4:03:51] are very much in conflict with me. I think I'll probably have stain on the

[4:03:55] vote. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. But I also want to recognize

[4:04:00] that ultimately it requires sacrifices

[4:04:06] of lives and of money and you know you name it in order to prevail against

[4:04:12] tyranny. That's all.

[4:04:19] » Walter

[4:04:25] Hi, Walter Hagedorn representing the uh lower Rock River District in Newane.

[4:04:31] Um

[4:04:34] I just want to say, you know, I just want to try to define I think a little

[4:04:39] bit what I think a town meeting is. Um I feel like town meeting should be uh

[4:04:45] about the governance of the town. I don't think we gathered here to talk

[4:04:49] about potholes in Pakistan or schools in Siberia or taxes in Taiwan. Um

[4:04:56] so you know in my searching about the definition of a town meeting I looked it

[4:05:00] up in Wikipedia. It says town meeting is known as an open town meeting. It is a

[4:05:05] form of local government in which eligible town residents can directly

[4:05:08] participate uh in an assembly which determines the

[4:05:12] governance of their town. So, uh, you know, and then I said, I

[4:05:18] kind of went down a rabbit hole. What are the purposes of a town meeting? At a

[4:05:21] town meeting, attendees determine the ordinances or rules of the town, its

[4:05:25] boards and commissions, elected appointment, appointed positions,

[4:05:30] capital investments, expenditures, budgets, and local taxation, as well as

[4:05:35] the manner and frequency of future town meetings. So, I feel like that's why we

[4:05:40] are here. uh because we're doing town business. We're towns people. The select

[4:05:45] board is here serving the town. Uh and I really just want to try to rein it in

[4:05:50] and um and not allow or or just, you know, remind people that this isn't an,

[4:05:57] you know, a a soap box for you to stand upon with your geopolitical

[4:06:03] u views. Um I think we're here for the specific purpose of town business. Um,

[4:06:09] I'm going to just finish this with one more definition that I looked up. It's

[4:06:13] the uh, this is from Oxford uh, dictionary and it's a definition of

[4:06:18] virtue signaling. Is the public expression of opinions or sentiments

[4:06:22] intended to demonstrate one's good character or social conscious or the

[4:06:26] moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue. Thank you.

[4:06:31] » Okay. So thank you for um so I I want to remind

[4:06:38] everybody that the discussion is about the resolution

[4:06:42] and discussing what is proper or appropriate to bring up in town meeting

[4:06:48] is not gerine to the resolution. So I Walter I don't mean to slap your hands.

[4:06:53] Um it's just that there is uh Robert's rules of order is really clear on that.

[4:06:58] So, if you could please keep your comments

[4:07:02] um related to the resolution, that would be great. And as I said earlier in the

[4:07:07] day, if anyone feels strongly enough about this, you could get petition

[4:07:11] signatures and get this on as an article on the warning for next year. Yes.

[4:07:20] Hi, Dina Marger uh Newfane and I wanted to say I appreciate everyone for showing

[4:07:25] up and participating in their local democracy and I'm wondering if this is

[4:07:30] one of those moments where it is possible as a point of procedure to call

[4:07:35] for a vote. >> Um if you wanted to, you could call the

[4:07:42] question. >> I don't think we're allowed to

[4:07:45] » for resolutions. >> No, sorry. I'm answering her.

[4:07:50] » Okay. Um, so the question has been called which means discussion. There

[4:07:56] needs a second. Yep. I the woman >> Allison what?

[4:08:02] » Allison Seager.

[4:08:07] » Um, for the purposes of the minutes, could the person who offered who called

[4:08:12] the question please restate your name? >> Dina Marger. M A R G E R.

[4:08:19] Thank you. >> So there is no discussion about this.

[4:08:25] » Um and they can Yes, there is discussion. It can be it cannot be

[4:08:31] amended and will require a twothirds vote when we get there. So is there any

[4:08:38] discussion on calling the question?

[4:08:45] I'm sorry. I stand corrected. It is not open for discussion.

[4:08:49] Um, so we move to a vote.

[4:08:58] » I'm calling the question. Yes, that's that's where I'm going. You guys are an

[4:09:02] eager bunch. Um, so if you are in favor of ending discussion on the resolution

[4:09:10] having to do with on this resolution, the voters of New Fain condemn the

[4:09:16] unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war against Iran. We

[4:09:22] call on Congress to invoke the War Powers Act and call on the president to

[4:09:27] bring our troops home. Now, if you would like to end discussion of that

[4:09:32] resolution, then you would say yay. If you would like to continue to discuss

[4:09:38] it, you would say nay. All those in favor of ending discussion, please say

[4:09:42] yay. >> Nay.

[4:09:46] » All those in favor say nay.

[4:09:50] » The eyes have it. Discussion is closed. And now we move to

[4:09:57] a non-binding vote on the resolution which I'll read again. The voters of New

[4:10:04] Fain condemn the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war

[4:10:09] against Iran. We call on Congress to invoke the Wall War Powers Act and call

[4:10:16] on the president to bring our troops home. Now all those in favor say I.

[4:10:21] » I. All those opposed say nay. The eyes have it. The resolution is

[4:10:30] passed. Are there is there any other business

[4:10:35] bill? I know you had an announcement. Is there any other business that would fall

[4:10:39] under Oh, sorry, Marian. >> No.

[4:10:43] » Can you hear your mic, please? >> Yes.

[4:10:48] I would just like to um say some of the words about this meeting that has been

[4:10:54] held today and I'm very very impressed by how

[4:10:59] everybody has been working together in listening to each other in caring for

[4:11:06] what people have said with no animosity um in this room and the select board

[4:11:15] today does not have any authorization. We're not in charge of um this meeting.

[4:11:22] It's Kim who is the town moderator. But I I do want to say that um for the last

[4:11:30] few years, people have talked a lot about why town meeting some people want

[4:11:37] to make sure that town meeting is only about town issues. While there are other

[4:11:44] people who would want to include conversations about other things not

[4:11:52] having to do with new fame and just sitting here today and listening to how

[4:11:59] this um meeting has been dealt with, I'm very impressed. I really I just think

[4:12:07] that we all have been great. We've all been good listeners. We're not arguing

[4:12:13] and it's something that we could talk about at another time in terms of

[4:12:19] perhaps town meeting as it goes forward should only be about town discussions

[4:12:26] and that there are 364 other days in the year that we could talk about other

[4:12:32] issues that are not prevalent to us. But I just want to say that for my own

[4:12:38] opinion, this has been a great meeting and I thank Kim so much. She's an

[4:12:43] amazing moderator.

[4:12:52] » Thank you for your kind words, Marian. Bill, you had an you've been very

[4:12:56] patient. You had an announcement you wanted to make about an hour ago.

[4:13:00] » Oh, actually, just a comment. Uh, Bill got their new fame. Uh, I want to give a

[4:13:04] big shout out to the road curve. Um, we're finally getting winner like we

[4:13:08] used to get. Uh, everybody thinks it's a terrible one. This is what used to

[4:13:13] happen 25, 30 years ago. uh but they kept the road open and I've been able to

[4:13:18] get out every day and I don't live in these places to get out. So, thanks to

[4:13:23] J.

[4:13:29] » Is there any other business that anyone would like to bring before the town?

[4:13:34] » Thank you very much.

[4:13:38] » Um I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So move.

[4:13:44] » That was a CV and a second. >> Thank you.

[4:13:49] » All those in favor say I. >> I.

[4:13:52] » All those opposed and want to stay for another day say no.

[4:13:57] Thank you everybody.

2026 Newfane Town Meeting 3/3/26

Transcript