[0:00] Educating, informing, serving. FACT TV, keeping government honest.
[0:06] You are watching a FACT TV presentation of the Town of Grafton Selectboard meeting.
[0:15] I'd like to call the meeting to order for Monday, September 23rd, 2026, at 6:00
[0:21] PM here at our town hall.
[0:26] In a motion to adopt the agenda and changes.
[0:31] Morgan, do you have something?
[0:33] I thought, are we having this? The proposed executive session is happening, or-
[0:37] If we could, that would be great.
[0:39] Oh, okay.
[0:41] Sorry, I just got off the phone with Steve and Brenda 20 minutes ago.
[0:46] So I have a little bit of an update that we can talk about in executive session.
[0:52] Okay. Is it the draft?
[0:56] Okay.
[1:00] Do I have to change proposal? Propose to just leave it?
[1:05] No.
[1:08] Just leave it then?
[1:08] Yes.
[1:09] Okay.
[1:11] I need to have a motion to adopt the agenda as
[1:16] written. All in favor?
[1:19] Mm-hmm.
[1:19] Of the motion.
[1:20] Second.
[1:22] All in favor of the agenda?
[1:27] Aye.
[1:27] Need a motion to approve minutes of our regular meeting, September 8th,
[1:34] 2026. Any corrections or additions to those minutes?
[1:46] You don't set a time with them?
[1:51] All in favor of approving the minutes for September 8th?
[1:57] Do we make motion?
[1:58] Yes, we do.
[1:59] Oh, I'll make motion.
[2:01] And I'll second that.
[2:04] Okay, we have a motion and a second.
[2:08] All in favor?
[2:09] Aye.
[2:11] Any opposed?
[2:14] We had a highway report, and I'm going to start with
[2:19] opening the paving bids for Middletown
[2:25] Road and Route 121 paving bids.
[2:32] Ready?
[2:34] Middletown Road.
[2:40] I sure know.
[2:47] This is under Basian Brother.
[2:55] What would you like from me to read here?
[2:58] Use the mic.
[2:58] What's the project title? Is that on Middletown Road or-
[3:02] Middletown Road Paving Project 2027 Bid.
[3:06] Great. And then there should be a grand total
[3:11] for the bid?
[3:12] Yes, it does.
[3:17] Sorry, this is my
[3:20] rookie report.
[3:22] Total, $48,224.
[3:29] Do that again. Sorry. 2,001.
[3:33] You might turn on the mic.
[3:35] Yeah, you got to use the mic.
[3:36] You got to use the mic.
[3:37] Oh, okay.
[3:41] The grand total for the gym, top coat, and mill is
[3:46] $48,224.
[3:49] No, the total bid. I'm sorry. $68,224.
[4:02] Hmm.
[4:07] We have one on Basian, so those are the-
[4:10] Separate project, though. Two different projects.
[4:13] So let's do all of the Middletown then.
[4:15] Yeah, that sounds good.
[4:16] Okay.
[4:31] This is from Pike Industries. Pike Industries.
[4:39] And the total bid is $43,513.80.
[4:46] Where is Pike Industries from? Are they a local?
[4:49] West Long Branch.
[4:50] Okay.
[4:53] Curious.
[5:13] Northeast Paving.
[5:21] The total is $52,148. And those are the three bids.
[5:28] Middletown Road.
[5:31] Can you go back to the one on the Pikes Industries?
[5:35] It's 43,513.80.
[5:39] Correct. Go ahead.
[5:41] That seems quite low from all these, the other two.
[5:44] I'm wondering if it's-
[5:45] 43,513?
[5:48] Yeah.
[5:50] That compares to
[5:51] $52,148,
[6:04] so it's not too far.
[6:08] And there-
[6:08] For Basian's it's 39.
[6:13] For the same stuff?
[6:15] 68,224.
[6:16] The reason probably is they're busy.
[6:22] I don't know this, but Basian called and wanted to know if we are awarding the bid
[6:28] separately on Middletown and 121, or we awarded it together.
[6:34] Because it doesn't say in the bid thing. So nobody else asked that question.
[6:40] So it might be
[6:42] low because they couldn't do the whole thing.
[6:46] But I don't know until I see the other bids.
[6:49] Okay. All right, we'll check the other ones then. Thank you.
[6:53] Should we go on to the other project?
[6:55] Yeah.
[6:58] This is Route 121 Paving 2027.
[7:20] This is Basian Brothers.
[7:30] And the total is $231,009.11.
[7:41] Here's... Hmm.
[8:09] And this is from Pike Industries.
[8:16] And it's
[8:16] $186,028.20.
[8:32] Hmm.
[8:34] Right.
[8:36] There's a-
[8:37] This is from Northeastern Paving.
[8:39] Mm-hmm.
[8:41] And they told you this.
[8:46] And the bid is for
[8:47] $165,379.20.
[8:53] Hmm.
[9:03] Where's Northeast from?
[9:05] Yeah, she was in somewhere.
[9:07] Northfield, Massachusetts.
[9:09] Northfield? Mm-hmm.
[9:15] Hmm.
[9:16] Hmm.
[9:19] Is that it?
[9:20] Yeah, that's it.
[9:23] Interesting.
[9:28] Hmm.
[9:40] So we can discuss some of these bids further before we commit to a bid
[9:46] at our next meeting, so everybody has a chance to look at the bids.
[9:54] And Travis, you can look at them also.
[9:58] Okay. Thank you, Peter.
[10:00] Welcome.
[10:01] Any comments? You have any comments, John, on the bids? Okay.
[10:10] Approve the Grant 2102 Grant Agreement, guardrails,
[10:16] repairs,
[10:18] stop line painting, and ledge removal.
[10:22] And if you had a chance to look at the grant, I think it was 38 pages.
[10:30] This would start end of September and go to...
[10:35] Is it two-year grants?
[10:37] It's manually twice a year.
[10:40] Yeah.
[10:41] So the project is to repair five guardrails, paint six
[10:48] stop lines, and ledge removal in one location.
[10:52] Where is that?
[10:55] The ledge removal?
[10:56] Yeah.
[10:56] Platnam Forest Road.
[10:57] Platnum Forest Road. That's for
[11:02] $48,000?
[11:04] $45,000.
[11:05] 45.
[11:05] And it is fully reimbursable, so there's no town out for this project.
[11:18] So typically I would just need authority to approve the grant agreement.
[11:25] Did anybody have a chance to read the grant and look it over?
[11:29] Anybody have any questions?
[11:34] Go ahead and motion to approve this grant,
[11:37] 2102 Grant Agreement.
[11:42] It's a two-year agreement. All in favor? We need a motion, sorry.
[11:47] Motion.
[11:48] Thank you, Barb.
[11:50] I'll second it.
[11:52] Okay, Mike. Time to ask the question. All in favor of approving the grant?
[12:00] I.
[12:01] Any opposed?
[12:05] So Travis, do you have the report for us today?
[12:10] Yeah. We've been studying 121
[12:15] this week. We'll get there Wednesday and Thursday, and Wednesday will be the last
[12:20] culvert replacement. We should be planning the fill and break for that.
[12:24] Then Thursday will just be some follow-up with grassy and some still lying.
[12:32] From there, we are headed to a culvert on 35 at the top of Chester Hill.
[12:38] To replace that with asphalt.
[12:42] And then we have some various others.
[12:45] There's two on State Road and another on Kidder Road.
[12:49] So we're trying to wrap up the dirt side of things before frost. Hopefully.
[13:00] And how about your equipment needs? I mean, you had some repairs on the mower.
[13:05] The grader-
[13:06] Yeah
[13:07] ... is going to go over. That was a sink and pit loss.
[13:11] The backhoe,
[13:13] knock on wood, if that stays together, it'll be all five of it.
[13:19] The tractor did have some dashboards fall last week.
[13:23] Mm-hmm.
[13:24] And I won't have answers until it back flows into the tractor.
[13:29] That's just what's going on.
[13:31] And that's all computer-based?
[13:35] Mm-hmm.
[13:35] Is he going to go to Salem, Mass?
[13:38] Salem, New York.
[13:39] Oh, New York.
[13:39] Yeah, it's not too bad, just phase ones.
[13:44] And
[13:46] there's no warranty on truck four left?
[13:49] There is warranty.
[13:51] Okay.
[13:52] We are getting towards the end of it.
[13:55] Off of that, our HEG
[13:59] with warranty work, if they find rust in a component, they will not cover it under
[14:04] warranty. So with the times that, being almost five years old,
[14:10] a lot of it is out of pocket. I'm turning over the warranty at this point.
[14:14] Okay.
[14:15] But we need to look into that because those trucks are going to have rust within a
[14:20] year because they're in salt floor.
[14:23] Mm-hmm.
[14:23] And the only thing we pay $7,000 for extended warranty, and
[14:30] all it will cover is the engine and our transmission.
[14:34] But as far as anything else, it doesn't cover it because they find rust, and I
[14:38] don't know if you make another trip down to visit with whoever you did before, it
[14:43] would do any good or not. But I think that we should get more for our warranty.
[14:51] This is the truck that has the salt that's underneath?
[14:56] They all do.
[14:58] But I know the last one, it was due to rust and we did get covered.
[15:03] Yeah, it was our oldest truck-
[15:04] Right
[15:05] ... and I got a problem with that.
[15:12] Yeah, I can go down, but I just wondered if anything can be submitted to our
[15:17] insurance on any of those costs. Do you know that, Lauren?
[15:22] Are we just wearing gear?
[15:23] Unfortunately, the wear and tear-
[15:25] Mm-hmm
[15:26] ... significant is just a couple thousand at a time adds up the end of the year.
[15:32] Does it actually state to us as an exception of warranty with a lease or are they
[15:37] saying they're claiming them?
[15:39] That they're claiming it. I assume it's at the text discretion of work on the
[15:44] truck.
[15:45] Yeah.
[15:46] And with this becoming a larger issue than already being one this year,
[15:51] I've had a hard time connecting with Craig.
[15:55] I didn't know if maybe the board would be willing to either visit or send a letter
[16:00] to Craig and just go, "Hey, this truck is costing us a lot of money on some
[16:05] warranty."
[16:08] When's the middle point? We need more updates, more information.
[16:14] That's on the truck.
[16:15] That's on the truck.
[16:16] Okay.
[16:17] I guess, Morgan, draft a letter. Is that okay?
[16:21] I drafted a letter today, and I can share it.
[16:29] Because the cabin chassis doesn't even get in yet, so there's no body to pull out,
[16:34] standard. There's not even a cabin chassis at this point.
[16:42] It's not very long. Do you want me to read it out loud?
[16:45] Sure.
[16:47] So it's just addressed to Craig.
[16:48] Just use the mic. Yeah.
[16:52] Did you share yours?
[16:58] So this is a letter raising regarding our truck currently at your facility for
[17:02] repairs, which is truck number four, as well as the replacement
[17:08] truck account for over the past several weeks, Travis and I have tried on it and
[17:12] made multiple attempts to obtain information regarding the status of the repair and
[17:17] the anticipated delivery date of the replacement vehicle.
[17:21] In addition, one of your account administrators has also reached out seeking an
[17:25] update. Unfortunately, these inquiries have gone unanswered.
[17:29] The timing of these vehicles and the lack of communication has made it increasingly
[17:33] difficult to plan daily operations.
[17:36] We respectfully request a detailed update regarding, number one, the current status
[17:41] of the repair being performed on our truck.
[17:45] Number two, the basis for ATD's determination that the repair is not covered under
[17:50] warranty, including any supporting documentation or explanation.
[17:54] And number three, the expected delivery date of the replacement truck that the town
[17:58] has ordered. We ask that you provide a written response as soon as possible.
[18:03] If there are delays affecting either repair or replacement vehicle delivery, we
[18:07] would appreciate your explanation of the circumstances and an updated timeline.
[18:12] We value our relationship with ATD and hope to resolve these issues promptly.
[18:17] Thank you. I look forward to your response.
[18:24] Solid letter.
[18:26] Yeah, very good.
[18:27] I think it's great. Yeah.
[18:31] We're going to follow up with a call.
[18:33] Yeah.
[18:35] So-
[18:36] Will that be emailed?
[18:38] We can email it. We can also mail a hard copy.
[18:41] Yep.
[18:41] Yeah, do both.
[18:42] Do both, and then
[18:45] get on the horn, follow up with them quick.
[18:47] Yeah. If you could
[18:49] just email me his number and stuff.
[18:52] Sure.
[18:52] Information.
[18:53] Could I just have him-
[18:54] Yeah.
[18:56] And then we'll put something up in the morning.
[19:26] Anything else you want to add to the letter or
[19:31] concerns
[19:35] that I can convey?
[19:38] Okay.
[19:40] Thank you for doing the letter.
[19:42] No.
[19:46] Anything else, Travis, that you have while we're...
[19:50] I wanted to mention last week how much 1.1 petitions in the summer, but I agree
[19:57] with you last week.
[19:58] Thank you.
[19:59] Hmm.
[20:02] Well, committee reports. Anything from zoning?
[20:04] No, the clerk's good.
[20:05] Oh, sorry. All right, Kim.
[20:09] I think we're way behind here.
[20:11] Go ahead.
[20:15] Everybody got their quarterly reports.
[20:17] I really didn't hear from anyone, so I'm assuming everything's okay.
[20:21] It looks to be pretty much on track.
[20:25] I gave two different reports, one with percentages and one without.
[20:29] I feel the percentage one is very helpful because they're only a quarter of the
[20:32] way. They're obviously going to be 25% or under is great.
[20:37] If it's slightly over the 25%, it's fine.
[20:42] This is just the beginning of the year.
[20:44] Some of them you'll see might be 75% to 90%.
[20:47] That's because it might be one thing every year, so of course, it's going to hit
[20:51] its almost full value within the first quarter.
[20:56] But nothing really stood out to me,
[21:02] and I'm assuming nothing to any of you since I didn't hear anybody.
[21:08] I've not heard from Sullivan Powers yet.
[21:11] I'm still waiting for Jenna to get back to me on audit.
[21:15] Probably next Monday, I'll email her and see how she's coming along on it, seeing
[21:20] as how we're coming into our budget season.
[21:23] Maybe give us an idea of where we're standing with it.
[21:29] Next thing, the start of setting budget dates, getting
[21:35] together. Typically, I think we've done the highway as one meeting, and
[21:41] then we next meeting, we move into doing general, and then we do an
[21:47] overall,
[21:49] put the two together, I put the numbers together, and then we have that final
[21:52] meeting and doing the briefing if we need to be.
[21:56] We also invite rescue, the library, the fire department,
[22:01] probably during the select board meeting, so we can hear their pitch, and
[22:08] I can insert those numbers. So that can be at any time.
[22:13] Morgan and I did have a few dates. We were looking at possibly Tuesdays or
[22:18] Thursdays.
[22:21] Depends. I think we're thinking maybe anytime before or after.
[22:25] I think Leslie and Anna have a difficult time making it anytime during the day,
[22:29] unless you can.
[22:32] Mine really depends, but-
[22:35] Yeah, sometimes I have to. You give me a date and time.
[22:38] Yeah. Let me-
[22:40] I'm fine with before or whatever you guys decide.
[22:44] Morgan and I were looking at possible dates of October the 6th, a Tuesday,
[22:51] October the 8th, a Thursday,
[22:54] Tuesday the 13th, Thursday the 29th,
[22:58] Monday the 26th, because it's an odd one.
[23:02] We try not to make any Mondays since there are four of those.
[23:06] That went by fast. So Tuesday, October 6th.
[23:10] Could be one on the Thursday, October 8th.
[23:12] No.
[23:13] And then I lost you.
[23:14] The 13th.
[23:15] Okay.
[23:17] The 26th on Monday.
[23:19] Oh.
[23:19] Or the 29th on Thursday. It's whenever works for us.
[23:25] Do you have any input
[23:29] into-
[23:30] You're saying you're free at 4:00 PM?
[23:33] If we're... We kind of picked maybe if you guys can make 4:00.
[23:37] Maybe just one, yeah.
[23:38] And get her packed in, the rest can make 4:00, and-
[23:41] I can't do the 6th.
[23:42] Can't do the 8th?
[23:44] Every other day. The 8th and the 26th are the only dates that I know.
[23:47] Other than that, it's just-
[23:49] Does it work for Dave after the 8th?
[23:51] Yeah, I have school board meeting.
[23:53] Yeah.
[23:53] I have school board meeting.
[23:56] And the 13th.
[23:56] Okay, so the 8th is out of the question.
[23:58] 13th is planning commission, but-
[24:00] But it would be earlier
[24:01] ... I could do it at
[24:04] 5:00.
[24:06] On the 13th?
[24:07] Yeah. Is that what you said? For the planning commission, yeah.
[24:10] Can you do 4:00?
[24:13] Yeah, I can probably change the meeting or 4:00.
[24:20] Planning commission's what at 7:00?
[24:24] 7:00.
[24:24] 7:00, right?
[24:27] Little after 7:00.
[24:27] Do you guys do it more like 5:00? Would that help you?
[24:32] 5:00 would work for me.
[24:34] Around 5:00.
[24:35] Turn that on, Peter.
[24:36] Because you're running that again.
[24:38] Well, we're down to the 6th of October.
[24:42] Yep.
[24:42] The 13th of October.
[24:44] These are 4:00?
[24:46] No, we're looking at the 13th and possibly 5:00.
[24:49] Okay. But the other two first. Okay, got it.
[24:52] On the 26th is a Monday.
[24:55] That I can't do that.
[24:56] No, you can't do the 26th. Okay, so we'll cross that off.
[24:59] So now we're down to the 29th of October.
[25:03] So that would put our final one then
[25:07] into the 1st of November.
[25:11] Are we comfortable with that? Yeah.
[25:16] November is usually when I'm trying to get the town report together.
[25:19] Okay.
[25:21] The first week of November, I've got the general election-
[25:23] General election
[25:24] ... so I just assume skip the whole first week of November.
[25:27] Mm-hmm.
[25:30] I think November 10th
[25:33] is the following Tuesday.
[25:35] Okay.
[25:37] I don't know.
[25:37] So we can make that our third then.
[25:39] I might be here, but we'll have to...
[25:42] Otherwise, I'd say the first one's October 2nd.
[25:45] I think that we're good with the 13th and the 29th, I think we settled on or
[25:50] whatever.
[25:53] Okay.
[25:53] And then we can work around inviting the rest of the organizations.
[26:00] Hello?
[26:00] And we can add a date to have a select board meeting on the 19th, which is a
[26:05] regular select board meeting.
[26:08] Okay.
[26:09] What are we talking about, October?
[26:11] October at 5:00, and I can do the 29th at 4:00 or 5:00.
[26:15] Okay. So 4:00 on the 29th?
[26:17] That'll work for me.
[26:18] Okay. Is everybody okay with 4:00 the 29th?
[26:22] 5:00 on the 13th. Okay.
[26:25] So we can make
[26:30] Travis, which makes it be the 13th at-
[26:32] The other one.
[26:34] 4:00. We're at October 6th. Was that all right, October 6th?
[26:38] Works for me.
[26:39] Was that an okay date? That way we can do all three.
[26:42] Get it all within October.
[26:44] Yeah.
[26:45] Well, October 6th.
[26:46] That's what we're trying to do.
[26:48] Well, that works for you guys?
[26:51] Yeah. What's your second one?
[26:54] 4:00, October 6th.
[26:57] Works for me.
[26:58] Okay. Can you get the invites? So 4:00 on the 6th.
[27:02] Get them all in October.
[27:03] Yeah. Okay. So then we'll make Travis on the 6th, if you're okay with that.
[27:10] Mm-hmm.
[27:10] And the 13th will be the town in general at 5:00.
[27:16] Yeah.
[27:17] And then 4:00 on the 29th will be our final, hopefully
[27:23] somewhere into
[27:26] our other capital budget too.
[27:28] Mm-hmm.
[27:28] Yeah, for their public hearing. Yeah.
[27:32] Yeah. I'll make a note.
[27:35] I'll reach out.
[27:37] So what date would be the one for
[27:43] fire, rescue, and library?
[27:44] October 19th, which is a regular select board meeting.
[27:49] Oh,
[27:52] okay. Yeah, that would give them the warning on that-
[27:54] Yep
[27:54] ... so they're ready.
[27:55] Yep.
[27:57] Sorry, that's four o'clock still? On the 19th?
[28:01] No, that's a regular select board meeting. No, during the meeting.
[28:04] That's difficult.
[28:05] Right.
[28:11] Just from the register there, I'm probably going to have a BCA
[28:17] meeting.
[28:19] That's just-
[28:20] I'm looking at a BCA meeting, possibly October the 5th, and it'll be held just
[28:26] before the select board meeting, so it's all probably going to be another 15-minute
[28:30] meeting. Just designate time and place of village elections and ballot votes.
[28:34] Gotcha.
[28:35] He said the 5th. I think the 5th. That's what I'm going to try.
[28:38] Well, as long as Chris can make it on the 5th.
[28:42] We'll be up at 5:45 that morning.
[28:45] Yeah, I think it's going to be 5:45, which won't take us long.
[28:53] I will be sending out,
[28:57] probably beginning of next week, I'll send out a blank version again of the budget
[29:02] with little lines on the side.
[29:04] Mm-hmm.
[29:04] And everybody can put in what they propose, and we'll come to the round table and
[29:10] fill in the blanks with what our proposals are.
[29:13] Say that again, Kim. I'm sorry, it's not-
[29:15] I usually do a budget sheet just like this-
[29:17] Oh, budget sheet
[29:18] ... but I have blank lines on the side.
[29:20] Yep.
[29:20] And you guys put down your best estimate
[29:25] and reason
[29:27] why you're going up or down. That always helps us to...
[29:37] Okay.
[29:41] How much else? I'll be done. I've not heard.
[29:43] I know that the
[29:45] ballots for the general election, they pulled the names last week, and they
[29:50] anticipate by the 1st of October, everybody should be getting their general
[29:54] election ballots.
[29:57] I have a small supply of them in my office.
[30:00] I did ask if I could write up a nice little write-up about the importance of trying
[30:05] not to mail them, but actually hand deliver them to my office or put them in the
[30:10] drop box in the front door or bring them with you on election day.
[30:15] If you can't make it here on the other than normal hours for election.
[30:21] Just, it's important people try to remember to bring that ballot.
[30:25] Don't use it to start your fire and just figure you're going to get one.
[30:30] Yeah.
[30:30] There's more paperwork involved.
[30:32] You can get one, but you're going to have to fill out more paperwork to get another
[30:35] one.
[30:38] So she's going to try and do something in the bulletins for that.
[30:43] Thursday is the
[30:46] STR election ballots are here. Seven, what is it?
[30:51] The 9th to 7.
[30:54] Michelle and I will set up on Thursday morning.
[30:59] And remember, I know Peter cannot make it for counting on Thursday,
[31:06] and Wendy's not going to be able to. But it's a yes/no ballot.
[31:12] Should be relatively quick.
[31:15] I'm hoping to be out of here by 8:00, probably 4 to 7.
[31:22] You can trust. That's all I've got.
[31:30] Thank you.
[31:32] Thank you, Kim.
[31:35] Any questions for Kim?
[31:42] Committee reports? Cemetery, any updates?
[31:48] Well, I had mentioned a while ago
[31:54] that
[31:55] we were contacting the Vermont Gold Cemetery Association.
[32:01] And when I say we, I mentioned it to the select board, but my sister Cheryl drafted
[32:06] a letter because she's interested as part of GIA.
[32:10] And they responded back. They are able to have the next year,
[32:16] or next year,
[32:17] where they would do a day of volunteer work with them leading the effort.
[32:25] We were thinking Middle Town Cemetery
[32:28] would be probably a good candidate for
[32:33] stabilization stones.
[32:36] They can clean the foundations, or they'll do epoxy on
[32:41] headstones that need it. They do have a list of materials that they recommend
[32:48] for supporting that, including chip hat,
[32:54] wheelbarrows, shovels, five-bars.
[32:56] There's a list, and most of it is fairly reasonable. Straight almost.
[33:02] A chemical called DT, I believe, that is free for you some stones.
[33:08] So, I just want to make sure that
[33:12] the select board is aware and would be okay with approving this.
[33:17] And I can get all the information with the entire list, and it might be something
[33:22] that we include in our budget review.
[33:25] And also, Kim, I know there is a separate fund, but part of
[33:30] that may be reasonably used. But we can talk about that and come up with an
[33:36] estimate for what the materials would be.
[33:39] Again, it's a volunteer organization, so for materials and know the cost.
[33:44] They do ask that the town try to have at least 15 volunteers show up, which I think
[33:50] if we publish correctly, that should be doable.
[33:54] And then we'll lock down the dates as we get closer to the top.
[34:01] Any questions?
[34:04] When did you think the date, like the month? What month?
[34:09] If you didn't mind saying month, or I'm going to write back to them
[34:14] if I got kind of general consensus tonight, because the last time it was written
[34:19] permission from the designee of the board.
[34:22] So I want to make sure everyone was on board.
[34:24] So I'll say that the support is in principle on board, and
[34:30] ask you to isolate the dates
[34:34] for us, and then I'll share that with Chris.
[34:38] That's it.
[34:40] I would think it would probably be
[34:43] summertime or-
[34:44] Oh, I see
[34:44] ... spring, because if you're using materials-
[34:47] Yeah
[34:48] ... it can't be cold.
[34:49] Yeah, but even in the summer, they're very sensitive to the rain.
[34:54] So I'm just not sure which date we would have no rain.
[34:57] And the other thing I do is probably just train people on how to do it, which I
[35:01] think is useful for online maintenance-
[35:05] Mm-hmm
[35:05] ...
[35:07] and the assumption of how to do it correctly.
[35:09] Right.
[35:13] Sounds great to me.
[35:14] Great. I'll write up something asking for options on dates, and then I'll share
[35:20] that with you, and then I'll share this
[35:24] letter.
[35:28] I'll share this letter and list that they provided so that you all have it, and can
[35:34] have that as well.
[35:37] He doesn't like it.
[35:39] He doesn't like being right in front of the speaker.
[35:42] Mm-hmm.
[35:43] So it's not you, it's the speaker.
[35:45] I'm sure he'll be missing.
[35:49] Yeah, vote on the topsoil?
[35:51] Yeah. So at the last meeting, the board wanted to get a quote for the topsoil at
[35:56] the Middle Town Cemetery, and Russell did provide that.
[36:01] So it came in at $1,000
[36:05] for six yards of bank run gravel and five yards of screened topsoil.
[36:13] That was the donation amount, right?
[36:15] It was the donation amount. So what I did is I pretty much just asked him, "What
[36:20] can we get for the $1,000 donation?"
[36:23] Yep.
[36:24] And so he came up with the amount
[36:27] for what he feels we could get for the $1,000.
[36:31] Right.
[36:33] Did he have a feel for how far that would go, Lynn?
[36:36] He said he talked with you, John, too, and it's not going to go
[36:42] too far, but it's going to do a tier, he thinks.
[36:45] Sure.
[36:46] He's not going to put any type of seeding on it because the rest of the cemetery he
[36:51] said is pretty much all moss.
[36:53] Sure.
[36:53] So it'd be nice to
[36:56] have it blend with the moss, because otherwise if you put seed on it, he's going to
[36:59] have a patch of high grass growing and it's just not going to
[37:04] blend. But there are quite a few that are sunken in that he thinks he could run to
[37:10] a little bit more of a level. And right now, I'm just trying to manage mowing it.
[37:15] The mower hits down so hard that it just grinds off the blades because you're going
[37:20] in and not...
[37:23] And I do have a thing that I'd like to send to Barbara Streeter, but I also want to
[37:28] give an explanation as to what the funds are going to be used for.
[37:35] It is designated the Middletown Cemetery,
[37:39] leveling some of the ground. So, yeah.
[37:42] Then we'd have an idea of how much money we need.
[37:47] Yeah. We'll see how far that goes, and then in the future, it'll give us a better
[37:51] idea.
[37:54] And also the Trustee of Public Funds can probably help out with-- I don't think
[37:58] it's going to be very expensive for, like you said, a lot of the supplies you need
[38:01] for the volunteers next summer.
[38:03] Oh, and actually the GI may fund some of that as well.
[38:08] Okay.
[38:08] So we can figure out where that levels up.
[38:10] Okay. And when you get that idea from the organization, we'll pull
[38:16] together with the Trustee of Public Funds, we'll have a meeting and
[38:21] see what we can do, too.
[38:23] Right.
[38:23] We can fund the funds.
[38:24] Sounds good.
[38:27] I wonder if something like five times that amount
[38:32] would have a much more serious impact and how that might be judged, so that
[38:38] this is the first installment of a $5,000 endeavor
[38:46] on our farm. If 1,000 bucks is going to do something like six loads, how
[38:52] much of an impact would that-
[38:55] Sure
[38:55] ... have on the cemetery? Right. I think that's what we're saying is if we do the
[38:59] 1,000 and then say, "Okay, it did
[39:03] a quarter."
[39:04] Yeah.
[39:04] Then we'd know. So we don't know, there's no way to predict that.
[39:08] This is what I think if I started with what the six loads doesn't-
[39:12] Yeah
[39:12] ... work in there. I think so.
[39:18] So we just need to be okay whether or not Russell can move forward and do this
[39:22] before the winter time.
[39:25] Yeah.
[39:26] Okay.
[39:27] Have a motion or any discussion before we can make a motion to accept-
[39:35] Sure
[39:35] ... the recommendations here.
[39:39] I'll make a motion that we have Russell Record move forward with the topsoil for
[39:44] $1,000 and the amounts that are stated. I can't remember the exact amount.
[39:51] Second.
[39:53] Okay. Any other discussion?
[39:56] All in favor?
[39:57] Aye.
[39:58] Aye.
[39:59] Any opposed? Okay.
[40:03] One other item on cemetery, very briefly.
[40:05] Yeah.
[40:06] This has to do with the parcel on Chester Road that was
[40:12] looked at by the forester
[40:16] several weeks ago, and I thought that he had said that he expected to have some
[40:22] kind of reportable information, whether it's written or just show up and have
[40:28] a verbal conversation with the select board sometime this month, which is almost
[40:33] over. I asked him
[40:37] this past week
[40:39] when he thought that might actually occur, and he said, basically,
[40:44] things have gotten very busy. It probably isn't going to be until into the winter.
[40:51] But that should be okay because you're not going to do anything
[40:55] in the meantime. And by the way, I'm retiring next
[41:01] spring.
[41:02] Oh, okay.
[41:04] Joke.
[41:06] Yes, that report. But he has the two sites, the site and
[41:12] the one near the town garage-
[41:14] Mm-hmm
[41:16] ... are both in play.
[41:20] He did send something to us.
[41:24] I think you got it too, Morgan, from the forester recently.
[41:28] I saw something that was sent.
[41:34] It was a kind of a brief outline of where they walked and what he
[41:39] saw.
[41:40] That might have been-
[41:41] Potential-- Oh, okay.
[41:43] Yeah, I got this from Ian. That's why it was brief and not that interesting.
[41:49] Beautiful. But-
[41:51] Raptor parks.
[41:52] Maybe I thought it was from-- Oh, sorry.
[41:58] I have a question or two on the cemetery as well.
[42:00] Has there been any more talk about any increase in the fee for the cemetery lots or
[42:05] not when going through?
[42:08] We haven't actually followed up on that. We've kind of done some research on it.
[42:13] Okay.
[42:14] Yeah. And now we need to, I think, actually put on paper as a recommendation.
[42:19] Have there been any inquiries? Has anybody-
[42:23] For purchasing?
[42:24] Yeah.
[42:24] I've had several people, yes. Recently, yeah.
[42:27] Okay. So there's activity.
[42:29] Yeah. I had two or three inquiries.
[42:34] They're not finalized yet.
[42:36] Sure.
[42:37] But I'm just kind of curious. I know we've talked about it for a little while.
[42:43] Do we fall right in the middle, or are we on the low end?
[42:46] It's hard to get lower than 150 bucks. We're way on the low end.
[42:51] Well, that's an increase. We used to be 75.
[42:53] Yeah.
[42:56] Like I said, my experience has been that the elasticity of demand for plots
[43:03] doesn't indicate that there's going to be a ceiling that people won't want to go
[43:07] beyond.
[43:08] Okay.
[43:08] In other words, if you raise them suddenly to $800, multiplied by four or five of
[43:14] what they are today, that's probably not going to have any effect, is my guess.
[43:19] Okay.
[43:20] But that's untested.
[43:23] And I've got to go back and look, but it was like Burlington would be around
[43:29] 900, $1,000 in other towns, smaller towns that are like 4 to 500,
[43:36] or in-town residents. Some of them anyone else would be a premium.
[43:42] Some of them have very complex fee structures based on what
[43:48] you're doing it with, what is on there,
[43:51] so it can get complicated. Burrillville's postcremation, I think how many-
[43:57] Yeah. It's one set that you buy it for 150, and you can put three remains
[44:03] in one-
[44:04] Right.
[44:04] Yeah, so that's even cheaper.
[44:10] So I think we definitely think it should be increased, and then the funds go to
[44:15] maintaining the cemetery.
[44:18] So maybe, Peter, I can before the next meeting, try to get something on paper.
[44:24] Okay.
[44:26] Maybe check with area towns.
[44:28] We did some of that, yeah.
[44:31] I think Weston is
[44:34] 3 or 350 for one plot. You can put two in, like a cremation and a
[44:39] body or something.
[44:40] That seems to be the-- I think 400 was kind of median for smaller towns
[44:46] as I recall. Yeah.
[44:51] Okay.
[44:54] Well, thank you both.
[44:56] Anything on parks, any updates?
[44:59] I don't have anything.
[45:02] Highway committee meeting went through. Personnel, I don't have anything.
[45:07] Waiting on
[45:10] the auditors.
[45:11] Mm-hmm.
[45:13] And select updates, we're all set. Nothing there.
[45:18] Outstanding capital project document reminder.
[45:25] Morgan, when I was with John,
[45:31] had several projects
[45:34] that we put together,
[45:36] and
[45:38] let me kind of review where we're at.
[45:40] So we can go through each one or-
[45:44] How do you want to start that, Morgan?
[45:47] I distributed this to this whiteboard over a year ago, and that was a list of 13
[45:53] items that we should be discussing to see how we were going to finance it.
[45:59] So this date today,
[46:03] there's not a lot been done.
[46:07] And
[46:09] some of them, if we have a major storm or rain, it's going to take out roads,
[46:15] whatever.
[46:17] Money should be somehow come up with to take care of it.
[46:24] The other ones are kind of small. After the bids of the paving,
[46:30] it looks to me like we might be able to pay more than what the bid's
[46:36] at, because I think it got close to $500,000.
[46:41] So it's all broken out, additional paving,
[46:47] so we could pick up some of that. But the other items, we'd have to do something on
[46:52] and not leave it.
[46:55] Well, certainly some of them are in process.
[46:59] Well, the fire escape-
[47:01] The fire escape is a process
[47:02] ... all that stuff. The state forest are several .
[47:06] And we've had lots of dialogue on the Fisher Hill overtimes.
[47:11] They are big money items-
[47:13] Yeah
[47:13] ... but the smaller ones in there, like a street light.
[47:16] Mm-hmm.
[47:18] 13s. Yeah, but-
[47:20] The fire pond dredging. Yep. Fire pond dredging.
[47:23] Yeah.
[47:24] We talked about that.
[47:25] Hopefully budget searching.
[47:27] Yeah, that...
[47:29] And chair.
[47:31] Suzanne?
[47:34] I did not see a copy of a list of projects for the materials.
[47:39] Could I please have copies of it with this maybe for the 22nd?
[47:53] That's the update. Is that the update or original?
[47:57] That's the update.
[47:58] The original?
[47:58] That's the update.
[47:59] The update's in red, right?
[48:00] That's my copy. So it's right in front of all the updates.
[48:03] Yes.
[48:03] In red.
[48:05] It's in red.
[48:06] What is it not?
[48:18] Well, this is a great document for budget time.
[48:21] Well, I know it's nice to level fund, but if you level funding every year, you
[48:25] don't get two ways in projects, and
[48:29] we going to decide which ones do we want to start with.
[48:32] Even if you just move one,
[48:34] $40,000, it's a help.
[48:39] But I know we've talked about this in the capital budget, and a lot of these items,
[48:44] not all of them, but
[48:47] how do you go about, because I'm not on the capital budget committee.
[48:52] Is it the committee?
[48:54] The committee should recommend to the majority that we want to do something.
[49:00] Yeah.
[49:00] Yeah.
[49:02] Does the whole capital budget have one of those
[49:05] schedules? Does the whole capital budget have a schedule like this?
[49:10] I think so. I'm not sure.
[49:13] I don't know.
[49:13] Yeah. We created it last year around this time.
[49:16] I think they do, but they don't have the updated one.
[49:18] Yeah.
[49:19] Right.
[49:19] So I can say like that.
[49:21] Yeah.
[49:22] Hmm.
[49:26] Hmm. So it's not that we haven't done anything.
[49:31] We have been doing stuff, but not-
[49:33] There's a
[49:43] but it's not so much for engineering.
[49:45] Mm-hmm.
[49:47] Right?
[49:49] Mm-hmm.
[49:50] If you have a storm, you're going to lose some roads.
[49:54] Hopefully people have sat in, but they
[49:56] don't...
[50:27] That's going to help free up some funds from the general,
[50:34] and that's a $55,000 payment that we make every year, and then the
[50:40] interest...
[50:47] Oof.
[50:54] That's the update. This is it.
[50:57] It's an independent. It's an update.
[51:02] There's a lot of work on this, so I'd find from Massachusetts, it'll be a help of
[51:08] other people who could do.
[51:10] Yeah.
[51:12] Some ideas.
[51:15] Well, I know Harry has done a lot of work when they do the highway equipment,
[51:22] for the town and for the fire truck.
[51:26] Has it scheduled
[51:29] down the road four to five years?
[51:33] So something like that, we could plug this into.
[51:37] Well, what happens to capital budget is, we save a level of fund that every year at
[51:43] 200,000, and we don't put any extra in.
[51:45] And sometimes you're going to have to do it. The price of everything goes up.
[51:50] You just can't keep it at that price.
[51:53] Mm-hmm.
[51:53] Mm-hmm.
[52:02] Dual custody. I don't know you call it a fire chief.
[52:08] Okay.
[52:10] Hmm?
[52:14] Oh, yes, Suzanne, thank you.
[52:16] This is just an excellent report.
[52:20] I have two questions. First of all,
[52:23] to what extent is the planning commission aware of this report?
[52:27] It seems like some of these projects could be incorporated in the town plan.
[52:33] Hmm.
[52:34] It'd be okay to share with them?
[52:37] Yeah. We can share. I don't think we've looked at it specifically.
[52:42] Okay. I wanted to go chapter by chapter.
[52:44] Mm-hmm.
[52:44] Some of these would apply. And also, I have a specific question about the
[52:50] culverts on Fisher Hill Road. I remember vaguely she had
[52:56] me say that they have to replace some culverts.
[52:59] Who?
[53:00] Me.
[53:00] Samantha. Okay.
[53:04] The smaller culvert-
[53:05] Smaller culverts
[53:07] ... put in the underground, like if they destroy a set of culverts, they replace
[53:12] that, but they're not going to replace those big ones.
[53:16] Only other thing, once they go up and onto the capital areas.
[53:20] Okay. They don't want to do that. Okay. Got it.
[53:23] So it's how it is.
[53:25] Okay. I'm just reaching with him.
[53:28] Yeah, and unfortunately, the culverts that have to be replaced-
[53:33] I know
[53:33] ... they, every year, they go up and up and up.
[53:37] And the state standards
[53:42] go up and up, so it increases costs.
[53:46] Thank you.
[53:51] All right. Let's not put this on the back burner.
[53:53] Let's be vigilant of it,
[53:55] and hopefully we can move
[54:01] ahead and
[54:03] make some progress with it.
[54:05] Any other comments from the board?
[54:12] And if there's any more updates, Morgan, you put them in. Yes.
[54:21] Town hall, each field, and fire escape staircase update.
[54:27] I don't have any update. Do you? Well, you had asked me to get price, like
[54:33] a ballpark number for if we were to replace the H field.
[54:37] And I called a couple of local contractors.
[54:41] They said it's hard to give an idea without a design done. Mm-hmm.
[54:45] But they said we could be looking at anywhere between 20 and $60,000, and
[54:52] the price is going to vary a lot based on the designs.
[54:55] That's still in the ballpark, so I think that's still somewhat helpful, for sure.
[55:01] When we go through permitting with the engineer- Mm-hmm ...
[55:05] they'll also be able to give us a better update when the time comes.
[55:13] Another example of follow-up projects.
[55:15] There you go.
[55:16] Yeah.
[55:17] Another page.
[55:19] Question I have on that, in the meantime, why can't the tank just keep getting
[55:24] pumped while we're looking at it?
[55:26] It's not that it's-
[55:27] It's not different
[55:28] I understand, but there's not a lot of use that goes-
[55:31] Right
[55:32] ... right here out into the leach field.
[55:35] You could pump it. It'd be like essentially a holding tank versus-
[55:38] That's right
[55:39] ... an active field. So yeah.
[55:42] That would sort of help buy you time.
[55:44] Yeah. And I've had personal experience on that where the leach field never failed,
[55:48] not like this apparently, but it was imperfectly operating.
[55:53] And so once a year,
[55:57] in other words, for a house that had things like dishwasher, washing machine,
[56:02] probably like three, four months a year we definitely had that value sometime.
[56:07] Although you'd have to do budget and
[56:11] significantly fail.
[56:12] It's 10,000 gallon?
[56:15] Okay.
[56:17] 500.
[56:20] I think the clarification is it's, I had not heard the language
[56:25] significantly failing before. I had heard the language more
[56:32] the way Peter just described his experience sort of imperfectly operating.
[56:37] While I don't, I mean, we're not seeing
[56:41] overflow, there's no odor. There are things like that.
[56:45] Am I-
[56:46] There's some leeway. Your timeline is solely-
[56:50] We do understand that, but I do not want-
[56:53] Your strategy. I would go three, four.
[56:55] This is what's actually-
[56:57] Okay
[56:57] ... in each.
[56:58] Okay.
[56:59] Three, four. You can go away from that budget.
[57:03] Not that long.
[57:04] Right. I didn't want anyone to get the impression that we have a failed leach field
[57:09] out here. That would be a bad thing. I think we need to be continually be clear.
[57:15] I connected to that. What is the risk to the groundwater while the
[57:21] leach field is in this situation?
[57:24] Where are the closest wells?
[57:27] If it
[57:29] fails and backs up at this point, it's going to surface in the building, not
[57:34] outside.
[57:37] That's pretty
[57:44] soon.
[57:45] There you go.
[57:47] I think we did have our water tested.
[57:50] Oh, yes, we did. Everything's fine.
[57:52] Where are the wells, really? Just out of curiosity.
[57:55] You got a map I know.
[57:56] There's a map in the office downstairs.
[57:58] I know the Alexander's is-
[58:00] Yeah. Right next to their bulkhead, but in, like right on the other cellar
[58:05] And then I don't know where the well is for the Wilson building.
[58:10] It's on a map we could look at. Thank you. I'm glad everyone's looking into this.
[58:16] Yeah. No, this is active pursuit.
[58:20] Thank you for getting those numbers.
[58:21] Yeah.
[58:22] I think the numbers are somewhat helpful and certainly will be helpful for budget
[58:26] meetings. I think we
[58:28] had been talking, generally talking, it would...
[58:33] I mean, if we could do it next year, make it through next year, we could probably
[58:39] benefit from getting estimates on more frequent pumping if it, I don't know
[58:45] exactly when the last pump was, and
[58:48] well, I mean, you say do it once a year. Or is it once every six months?
[58:53] We'd rather err on the side of caution.
[58:56] You think-
[58:57] There's such few users in this building
[59:01] ... I think it was last year, maybe year before.
[59:05] It wasn't that long ago we were pumping.
[59:07] Okay.
[59:07] It got a while without-
[59:10] Okay
[59:10] ... well, off the schedule.
[59:12] I see.
[59:12] I think it's employing that right now.
[59:16] 350 a pop.
[59:17] It's-
[59:17] To get you through a long-
[59:19] I know
[59:20] ... one year.
[59:21] It last done in 2023.
[59:26] Well, I think we should do that.
[59:30] Technically it's due according to our new ordinance anyways.
[59:35] Yeah, I was going to say, that's-
[59:39] We can probably go ahead then.
[59:40] Always pre-orders over.
[59:41] Get it pumped. We need a motion for that? To have it pumped this year?
[59:47] I think the motion's old now.
[59:50] I'd like to make a motion that with all due haste we get the septic tank
[59:56] pumped in light of our concerns and in light of the fact that it's due.
[1:00:02] I second it.
[1:00:06] All those in favor of that motion?
[1:00:08] Aye.
[1:00:09] Any opposed?
[1:00:12] Okay.
[1:00:14] Okay.
[1:00:15] Other business? Any other business?
[1:00:20] Public comment?
[1:00:24] Okay.
[1:00:26] Looks like-
[1:00:29] I'm going to ask a question of you, so you go right ahead.
[1:00:32] Oh, okay.
[1:00:34] Sure. Hi, everyone. I wanted to touch on three things tonight.
[1:00:39] The first of which is a week ago we had 20 youth graduates from UVM's Historical
[1:00:44] Press program, who to the function together a year ago.
[1:00:48] They come down and they look at crafting, they learn about some historic press
[1:00:51] things. They also learn a lot about small towns in Vermont.
[1:00:54] What I wanted to mention was a particular thanking to Morgan McKim for talking with
[1:00:58] the group. They went to Burke Meeting House, then they came here, Eagle Brook, the
[1:01:03] old fire station. They got them some lunch, and then, the Turner Interpret Center,
[1:01:08] then the Burrillville Camp. But they really enjoyed being here.
[1:01:11] Thank you both very much for taking time out of your table to talk to them.
[1:01:14] Of course.
[1:01:14] Just by way, very quick way of background, we've done this for two years now, and
[1:01:19] because it happens a lot of times, the students are brand new.
[1:01:22] They've been students for two and a half weeks.
[1:01:25] Almost none of them are from Vermont. They really know absolutely nothing.
[1:01:28] They're beginning, they think, the career of historic press, they've just learned
[1:01:32] it, you know, and they know nothing about Vermont, or about small towns, Vermont
[1:01:36] certainly not their home. So to bring them here, it's fun to do, but it's also
[1:01:41] really eye-opening, and it kind of puts Grafton, Vermont before a group of people
[1:01:46] who might not otherwise even know it was here, much less all the wonderful history
[1:01:49] that it has. And, given that we were just talking about septic and municipal and
[1:01:53] things, part of that day is focused on water and septic.
[1:01:57] Mm-hmm.
[1:01:58] And all the challenges that we have in this town, which I know are replicated in
[1:02:01] other towns, too.
[1:02:03] So again, thank you both for doing that.
[1:02:05] Yeah.
[1:02:06] The second thing is Act 250, which I believe the town was notified on.
[1:02:10] So here again, this is another statement of gratitude. Thank you. I was grateful.
[1:02:14] Thank you so much for supporting our application for that.
[1:02:17] The Women Foundation did get its permit.
[1:02:20] It took 14 months and a lot of money to make that happen, and it's
[1:02:26] been a journey that has not always been enjoyable.
[1:02:30] But I appreciate the support of the town in lettering our application and in
[1:02:35] speaking. Cathy, thank you for speaking at the hearing, and in favor of this as
[1:02:38] well. I believe you have a copy of the actual permit.
[1:02:43] I've got it in the computer.
[1:02:44] It goes on and on in great detail. There are 27 points.
[1:02:47] Yeah.
[1:02:48] There are just a couple I thought might be worth surfacing here today.
[1:02:51] Mm-hmm.
[1:02:52] We asked the Act 250 Commission to approve up to 24 events a year, and to do
[1:02:58] that with categories rather than individual named events.
[1:03:02] We gave examples of some events, like a brunch, for example.
[1:03:05] But the request was, could you approve by category?
[1:03:08] Their advice to us was, "Group the categories by size." Which we did.
[1:03:14] And so they've approved four small, 18 medium, and two large events in any given
[1:03:20] year. And of course, we'll be in contact with the town community about any of those
[1:03:26] things as they come along. There's a couple of boundaries on that.
[1:03:31] No events on Sundays, unless the VSO, which is already permitted, happens to land
[1:03:36] July 3 on Sunday, in which case that's fine.
[1:03:40] Anytime there's an event though that has any kind of sound amplification of any
[1:03:44] kind-
[1:03:44] Mm-hmm
[1:03:45] ... we need to have an employee of ours on site, and recording sound, and they want
[1:03:50] reports on that for two years.
[1:03:54] So we'll be doing that. Any event that has amplification.
[1:03:58] There's no amplification on-
[1:03:59] Not necessarily.
[1:04:01] For anything that's done at nighttime, other than the PSO, which is already
[1:04:06] permitted, they want us to monitor noise levels and report on those as well, and
[1:04:11] they have specific ways they want us to report.
[1:04:14] I'm not an audio engineer, but I'm learning slowly how complex some of that is.
[1:04:20] And then anything that we might do at night, they want us to provide at least a
[1:04:24] one-month notice, any neighbors can request that with us.
[1:04:27] There's more in there, there's some listings, statements about weapons, recurring
[1:04:31] zones, and all of that, and respecting all that, which of course, we do.
[1:04:36] And again, the permit, of course, is closely down with the park, and we have to
[1:04:41] credit that with something up here or anywhere else in the city.
[1:04:44] We'll make sure to get there with us. But it was a long road to get that done.
[1:04:48] We're really optimistic, and we're going to try some new events there that the
[1:04:52] community will enjoy, and we're looking forward to doing that in the coming year.
[1:04:57] Dan, could you illustrate for us a little bit about the definition of small,
[1:05:01] medium, and large?
[1:05:02] Yeah. They have a basic numerical headcount.
[1:05:05] So a small event is anything that's up to 50 people,
[1:05:09] and medium is up to 250, and large is 650.
[1:05:14] How does that compare to some things that have been going on for the past month in
[1:05:19] terms of point activity?
[1:05:21] There was a cross-country race on Saturday that came together on very, very, very
[1:05:25] short notice. Some of you may know about this.
[1:05:27] Bill Saltin, high school,
[1:05:30] called our facilities folks on Wednesday and said, "We have a problem.
[1:05:34] Can you help us out?" They were planning to host a cross-country meet on Saturday,
[1:05:38] but there was a rabid coyote sighted on the property, and so they couldn't do the
[1:05:42] event. And they asked on very little notice, "Can we do it there?" And so
[1:05:48] Russ, obviously, pulled out the permit and ran down that, and they assured us note
[1:05:53] that they did not have any device on it and all that, and we marked off the records
[1:05:57] and all that to guide the park and did all of those things.
[1:06:00] And that was,
[1:06:02] I just got the notice just a moment. I'm sorry to interrupt.
[1:06:04] It qualifies as medium. It was more than 50, but less than 250. Yeah.
[1:06:09] Is there any process by which you would notify the town when things are planned
[1:06:15] and underway?
[1:06:17] Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Can you clarify?
[1:06:20] If you say notify the town, do you mean literally the select board, or do you mean
[1:06:25] notify the community, not hold the town at large?
[1:06:28] I think others should maybe pitch in on that issue,
[1:06:32] certainly for our purpose on board here.
[1:06:39] Yeah, especially if we get phone calls.
[1:06:42] Okay.
[1:06:43] The complaints, and we don't know if an event is happening.
[1:06:46] I don't think that would be a problem.
[1:06:47] I mean, when you have a wedding out there, we don't get notified.
[1:06:51] That's the difference. Or do we?
[1:06:53] These events are that the permit is for above and beyond, so it's regular normal
[1:06:57] use.
[1:06:57] Oh, okay.
[1:06:58] So.
[1:07:00] Go ahead.
[1:07:02] Kim gets notified by liquor licensing.
[1:07:04] Yes, because they usually hold outside catering.
[1:07:07] Right.
[1:07:07] I usually okay those and by notification on a regular basis for those who are with
[1:07:12] you.
[1:07:15] Yeah. So the third thing, of course, is the Grafton Inn,
[1:07:21] and I sent the letter to the select board last week and also to a half a dozen
[1:07:26] organizations in town saying what. You all got the similar letter.
[1:07:29] Letting you know what you know, which is we learned earlier this month, right
[1:07:33] around Labor Day, that Angela Thompsock, who's going to leave the Grafton Inn, is
[1:07:38] taking a new opportunity at Farnum Estate over in West Dover.
[1:07:42] And she lets know that her intended departure date is actually this Monday, which
[1:07:46] is Friday. There's a little celebration for her. I was there for a thing over here.
[1:07:51] And her husband, Kirk, who's also been with me for many, many years will be with us
[1:07:55] through the end of November, and then he, too, will be moving on.
[1:08:01] This was news that was a surprise to all of us, and it's been a lot to digest.
[1:08:06] I've spent most of my time in the last two to three weeks,
[1:08:11] I think, on exactly this, on how we do a few different things.
[1:08:14] How we say goodbye to someone, eventually two someones, but really put
[1:08:20] their mark on the Grafton Inn in very profound ways.
[1:08:24] Angela has been a model of really outstanding leadership, a person who has
[1:08:30] very, very strong skills when it comes to operations and financial management, as
[1:08:35] well as remarkable vision for things that haven't happened yet but could happen.
[1:08:39] And the Tufts Farm transformation from years ago, as I mentioned that in my letter,
[1:08:43] is a very good example of that, but there are many, many other examples of the
[1:08:48] brave chiefs brought. Kirk, his official title is bar and beverage manager.
[1:08:53] He does do that job. He does a lot more than that.
[1:08:56] He's also a very talented carpenter and has done quite a bit of work.
[1:09:00] He built the wine dark some years ago and many other projects, so we're going to
[1:09:03] miss them terribly. So that does bring us to what comes next.
[1:09:09] Since I feel my tendency to say, "Well, it's my first reaction, so we should go
[1:09:14] ahead with what we said."
[1:09:17] And we did have a lot of lead time to adjust to that change, so about
[1:09:23] three weeks. It's gone by very quickly.
[1:09:26] So I worked with input from Angela to put together an interim plan to take us
[1:09:31] through the full day of season, which is the busiest time at the inn.
[1:09:36] There are four of us who are taking on expanded duties. I'm one of those people.
[1:09:41] I'll be working directly with the sales and events team, which I'll go over some of
[1:09:44] these.
[1:09:47] I'll be working directly with the maintenance team, which is something that Angela
[1:09:50] had done. She had her second half, so not just as general manager, but associate
[1:09:54] director of foundation, and most of that work was maintenance team.
[1:09:57] I'll take that on in a variety of tasks for me.
[1:10:02] Bill Kunert, who you may or may not know, if you know Bill, Bill is our part-time
[1:10:06] director of finance. Bill is going to take on expanded duties around the world of
[1:10:11] cash and finance that Angela had personal managed for many, many years, and he'll
[1:10:14] be working on all of those many pieces.
[1:10:17] And then inside the inn, I've asked Kirk, who again, we have until November, to
[1:10:23] take on some expanded duties and pull together the different departments that form
[1:10:27] up everything related to food and beverage and dining and kitchen and all of that,
[1:10:32] and Kirk's agreed to do that. Similarly, Shawn Goldsmith has agreed to do
[1:10:36] essentially the same thing on the logic side of the house.
[1:10:39] So everything that relates to housekeeping, the front desk, and guest services, and
[1:10:43] all that, he's taking on some expanded duties there.
[1:10:47] So that's intended to sort of help us get through the busiest time of the year.
[1:10:52] I'll be here in town more than I normally am. My normal schedule is on site.
[1:10:57] It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
[1:10:59] I'll be here four days, sometimes more, depending on what's going on.
[1:11:03] As we get through the next couple of months, I'll be present more and trying to
[1:11:07] help provide some supports to the inn and the maintenance teams and other things as
[1:11:11] well. Unfortunately, we realized that it's a tough moment to
[1:11:17] throw a gala, which we really had wanted to do to celebrate turning 25 years again.
[1:11:22] And we've been working on that for quite some time.
[1:11:25] But given all of the change and all of the things that we're doing right now, we
[1:11:28] just decided we needed to postpone that.
[1:11:30] So we're pushing that off into next year, but then future date.
[1:11:33] So everything I've described to you in the last two minutes is how we plan to get
[1:11:38] through the next couple of months.
[1:11:40] At the same time that we're doing that, we need to search for a new general manager
[1:11:45] of the Grafton Inn, and that person will have very big shoes to fill.
[1:11:50] As Angela's done such a wonderful job.
[1:11:52] So working with the board to put together a search that will, in
[1:11:58] the end, bring us a new general manager.
[1:12:00] I've had many conversations with the managers at the inn now.
[1:12:04] They know everything that you're getting today, they know all of this.
[1:12:08] I've encouraged all of them to express an interest in that role.
[1:12:11] If they want to express an interest in that role, we would love to consider them.
[1:12:15] We'll also consider some candidates as well.
[1:12:19] So we have busy time ahead of us in the next couple of months, and with the
[1:12:24] exception, again, being postponed, everything that was already scheduled is on.
[1:12:29] All of the weddings, dinners, dining for the public, house guests, all of that.
[1:12:35] Next week, we will welcome our first bus load. It is a bus load.
[1:12:39] We call them road scholars. They're folks who go around from time to time to town,
[1:12:44] traveling and visiting and learning about the places they go.
[1:12:47] So we'll send that first 86 buses of the week, and we have that for five weeks in a
[1:12:51] row. We have weddings scheduled for all of one weekend in October.
[1:12:57] The board will be here at the end of October for a meeting.
[1:13:01] Olivia just booked the Vermont House and Conservation Board for an overnight
[1:13:05] retreat also at the end of October.
[1:13:07] So all of those things continue, and- I'm really blessed to have
[1:13:13] a really talented group of people working over there that's going to help us get
[1:13:17] through a challenging time. So you mentioned you had a question, and others might
[1:13:21] as well, and we're happy to try to answer them.
[1:13:24] I yield to the board first.
[1:13:28] Well,
[1:13:29] I just wanted to comment.
[1:13:33] So you have your hands full right now.
[1:13:35] I do.
[1:13:37] And I wish you well.
[1:13:40] I know there
[1:13:43] was a couple meetings I hadn't attended that you've had for the community.
[1:13:47] Yeah.
[1:13:48] One of which you discussed the five-year plan.
[1:13:51] Can you go into any detail about that?
[1:13:53] Yeah.
[1:13:54] And we don't have any information on it.
[1:13:55] No, that's fine. Yeah, I think you're referring to the strategic plan-
[1:13:58] Right
[1:13:59] ... we completed in February and shared in May, in order to suddenly give you
[1:14:03] actually two board apologies. Looking for that, I'll send you a copy of it.
[1:14:06] But I can provide a description briefly.
[1:14:08] Yeah.
[1:14:09] One for Madam Chair, if I may.
[1:14:14] And
[1:14:15] I really want to respectfully say what I'm about to say.
[1:14:21] In the minutes last time, the board discussed the possibility of inviting
[1:14:26] Dan to a select board meeting, and also it was mentioned that he might be
[1:14:32] invited to a planning commission meeting.
[1:14:36] And if that had been the case, his presence would've been warned, and then members
[1:14:41] of the public who are interested in hearing about these activities with Dan, and
[1:14:47] specifically the five-year strategy, which is pointed out in the minutes,
[1:14:51] this would have been discussed in a public
[1:14:57] warned meeting. This is all extremely valuable and interesting
[1:15:03] information. But because it's being made in the public comment section, it's not
[1:15:09] part of a warned agenda. And I think before we go into the deeply, the topic of the
[1:15:14] five-year strategy, it would be really helpful to say we're going
[1:15:20] to conduct this session publicly.
[1:15:27] For what it's worth, I'm willing to conduct
[1:15:31] any meeting-
[1:15:31] Yeah
[1:15:32] ... we did originally
[1:15:34] book. Maybe we're not even going to schedule the meeting.
[1:15:37] Right.
[1:15:37] I'm happy to do that.
[1:15:39] And if you don't wish to get into it now, that's fine.
[1:15:42] But let me just say it is actually a three-year plan, not a five-year.
[1:15:45] Oh.
[1:15:45] We can start that.
[1:15:46] Okay.
[1:15:47] But whatever your preference is, I'm happy to do it.
[1:15:52] I'll speak to that. I was one that did speak up and said it would be great to have
[1:15:57] Dan come to a meeting. I did not mean it as a
[1:16:03] just welcoming people to a meeting. Happy to see them here.
[1:16:07] Your point is taken. If this should be an agenda item, I would certainly think
[1:16:13] that's fine.
[1:16:16] I don't think there was any
[1:16:18] intention behind our-
[1:16:20] Right
[1:16:20] ... welcome last week. And we're glad to see you.
[1:16:26] So maybe-
[1:16:28] In a formal written item
[1:16:29] ... we'll put it in an agenda item next week. That would be fine too.
[1:16:35] Maybe that's the best move.
[1:16:37] Whatever you'd like.
[1:16:38] Yeah.
[1:16:38] Yeah.
[1:16:39] Again, I did speak up, and my intention was-
[1:16:42] And I did send you an email
[1:16:43] ... simply to be cordial.
[1:16:45] When it was mentioned at our last meeting, sent a personal email to you that
[1:16:52] it's in our best interest that our communication is open and transparent.
[1:16:58] I have no disagreement with that.
[1:17:00] Yeah. But I just wanted to make sure you know where we were coming from.
[1:17:04] Sure.
[1:17:05] Personally, where I was coming from.
[1:17:08] Okay.
[1:17:08] But we can put it on the agenda for next time, Morgan.
[1:17:11] Yeah.
[1:17:12] And if you're available to come in for a meeting, then great.
[1:17:15] Okay. Great.
[1:17:16] And let's plan it all.
[1:17:17] Great.
[1:17:18] And a little bit on that score, it would be useful probably for us to actually see
[1:17:24] the documents.
[1:17:25] Yes. Next time, let me bring something that's more up.
[1:17:28] You had asked me about a few months ago, and we didn't have any graphic design, it
[1:17:33] was just PowerPoint. And I still got it, so I'll give you the PowerPoint version,
[1:17:37] but I wanted to give you a nice polished one for you to have.
[1:17:40] So I'll give you what we have.
[1:17:44] Thank you. Happy to.
[1:17:45] Yeah. Any other public comment?
[1:17:50] So our next, let's see, informational hearing,
[1:17:56] meeting is Tuesday, September 22nd,
[1:18:00] 6:00 PM at the Grafton Elementary School, and that's a hearing to,
[1:18:07] on the STR that the vote would be the next two days on the 24th.
[1:18:15] Any questions on that?
[1:18:19] And our next regular meeting is Monday, October 5th, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
[1:18:26] And I need a motion to go into executive session
[1:18:32] 1BSA
[1:18:34] 31314 to discuss stormwater drain
[1:18:40] matters.
[1:18:43] So moved.
[1:18:44] Sure.
[1:18:45] All in favor of that?
[1:18:47] Aye.
[1:18:47] Second.
[1:18:49] So we will move to adjourn to executive session.
[1:18:56] And then a motion
[1:18:59] after the executive session?
[1:19:02] The action item?
[1:19:03] Yes.
[1:19:05] Is to,
[1:19:07] Morgan, to reconvene my thing, I think?
[1:19:11] Yeah.
[1:19:11] Yeah, the motion.
[1:19:12] Oh, making a motion that we continue dialogue with the attorney regarding
[1:19:18] the stormwater drain,
[1:19:22] and we'll respond and
[1:19:26] to fine-tune the draft, et cetera.
[1:19:31] Mm-hmm.
[1:19:33] Okay.
[1:19:33] Do I have a second?
[1:19:34] Second.
[1:19:36] Okay. All in favor of that motion?
[1:19:39] Aye.
[1:19:39] Sure.
[1:19:40] Any opposed? Okay.
[1:19:43] Now we need a motion to adjourn.
[1:19:46] Motion moved.
[1:19:48] Second.
[1:19:49] All in favor?
[1:19:50] Yeah.
[1:19:50] Aye.
[1:19:51] Aye.
[1:19:51] Second.
[1:19:53] Thanks, everyone.
[1:19:53] Thank you for watching this Fact TV presentation.
[1:19:56] If you would like a digital or DVD copy of the meeting, please contact us by phone
[1:20:01] or email. Our phone number is 802-463-1613,
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