[0:00] Nope. >> Is anybody watching online?

[0:04] » Good evening. This is the meeting of the hand townhouse committee meeting and we

[0:10] think tonight

[0:14] 6:05 p.m. They stand for the

[0:21] » flag of one nation

[0:28] of liberties and justice. >> Anyone else recording the meeting other

[0:32] than ourselves

[0:37] people? Okay. What was recording? Please don't

[0:44] res have any motions to get started with

[0:49] that. I won't even get them started. No, >> I I have a couple things I'd say. I was

[0:54] looking up. Okay, first of let's do this. First of all, the the RFI has gone

[1:00] out the request for post town website. The Times is going to

[1:06] do an article on it next week. Um the >> So it will come out next week.

[1:13] » Yeah. Come out next week. >> Next Thursday.

[1:16] » So that's still

[1:20] » Are you going to post anything else? >> I tried and it just sat there so I

[1:26] deleted it. I'm gonna redo it. Maybe I'll redo it tonight or tomorrow

[1:31] evening. So I think it gets the most visibility.

[1:35] in the evening. >> So the deadline for that is uh September

[1:40] 21st >> that it's got to be back be back. It is

[1:43] a the date for site visit if anyone's interested is 16

[1:52] meaning if somebody were interested in they raise it up take a look.

[1:58] » So so where does it where does it go to? I know it's on the town website, but

[2:02] where does he actually mail that to? There's a big uh government site, right?

[2:07] » It goes to that goes to that >> and that's where these people would be

[2:10] looking >> so com they call it comb by looking.

[2:15] » All right. >> And that's out there now.

[2:18] » It's out there now. >> Good. Okay. Uh

[2:22] » nothing so far. >> I know. I know.

[2:29] » Just wondering It'll be a long time >> meeting warrant articles.

[2:37] I'm wondering if town g I gave the select we reserve they reserve the spots

[2:44] meeting warrants we can revise them or add to them

[2:51] now and second October.

[2:57] Is this a good jumping off point for having a second public forum? You mean

[3:03] before the town meeting? >> Yeah.

[3:06] » I don't know. >> I

[3:08] » I don't know if we even >> I don't know.

[3:10] » I think we need to make clear to this town is

[3:15] that building is really, you know, if they're thinking about if they're

[3:20] thinking about saving that building, they better think really hard because

[3:23] that building's in really bad shape. Well, what if um if I were to post

[3:29] something on Facebook like in the next day or two? What if we kind of gauge

[3:36] feedback or interaction on that to see like what we're getting for responses

[3:41] from the people article?

[3:44] » No, the I was going to post the RFI. Yeah.

[3:46] » Just to make it available. Then I can do like a followup

[3:50] » with the Warren article. >> Yeah, sure. And just to like kind of

[3:54] gauge feedback to see like if people are all up in arms or people are not

[3:58] responding or not paying attention or you can kind of maybe

[4:04] » you don't want people voting with their heart thinking, "Oh, we're going to save

[4:06] this building and then we save it and all of a sudden they're like, "Oh my

[4:11] god." >> Didn't you say last time that as these

[4:14] are written if if this one comes up first?

[4:17] » Right. the first one comes up first and that passes

[4:21] » then the second two are dead. Correct. >> So I think I think people that need to

[4:25] be very clear. >> Well I feel like I really to be honest

[4:28] with you feel like and I talked I said this last time. I think we should

[4:31] combine one or two and then we only have >> two.

[4:34] » We only have two and here here's what I wrote. Just listen what I'm saying.

[4:39] This would be the all-encompassing one. to see if the town will vote to

[4:43] authorize select for to evaluate and pursue options for the future of the old

[4:48] town hall, including but not limited to seeking qualified buyers and appreciate

[4:54] potential sale, obtaining ownership and exploring public private partnerships,

[4:59] lease or lease back arrangements, or any other economic development

[5:03] opportunities. and to authorize the select board to appoint an economic

[5:07] development committee to assist in evaluating these options and making

[5:10] recommendations to so all that did was said [clears throat]

[5:17] but isn't that where we are now? Well, if you're

[5:20] » we are but but we but it's this one the first one says see if the town vote to

[5:25] to seek buyers to enter into negotiations. How you're saying you told

[5:29] me that if this first one passes the second two are moved, right? So then

[5:33] there's no economic there's no economic development committee. There's no uh

[5:39] looking to explore other options for that building. It's just to go out and

[5:42] try and sell. That's what we're doing right now. We're trying to sell it.

[5:46] » You could you could separate this one the second one out and say have the

[5:52] selected point A >> ready

[5:55] » economic >> development comma.

[6:01] » That's right. >> Right. Right.

[6:03] » Well, I'd like to see that come out of this meeting.

[6:05] » Okay. >> So, you can make another warn article.

[6:07] So, I'm saying you could warn article be to see if the town was to sell the bill

[6:12] and there'll be discussion about and they'll talk about why do how much money

[6:17] are we going to get for it? Well, we had a guy look at it. He said you're going

[6:19] to get a buck for it. You know, maybe someone will buy it, but it's gonna

[6:23] that'll mean they can do whatever they want with it. They can tear it down or

[6:27] we could maybe put some caveats on there, right? Whatever. So if they let's

[6:31] say they vote no, right? They vote no. So you go to the next one

[6:36] to see if the town will vote to retain ownership of the building and property

[6:41] at 625 Main Street formally known as the Hen Town House authorized select board

[6:46] to explore opportunities for the town to enter a public private partnership. skip

[6:51] the economic development and create a separate war article to create an

[6:55] economic development committee to study what we can do all the mainstreaming.

[7:04] So, so if they so if they said yes on that it wouldn't knock out the economic

[7:09] development. I understand. >> But if when this is being read,

[7:15] is the whole thing being read through so that all the options are read aloud

[7:22] » and then people go in >> the one now. But before it's going to be

[7:28] in the book, >> but unless people read beforehand, then

[7:32] they're not going to know. Are they going to be told like if you vote on

[7:35] this? >> Yeah.

[7:36] » The following are dead. >> There's this like Rick would say there's

[7:39] three more.

[7:43] » If you vote for If you vote yes on the first one, the other two are there will

[7:48] be no action. >> If you vote no on this first one, it

[7:52] will go to the second. >> Does it have to be read like that? You

[7:55] can't read all three. >> Pretty cut and dry.

[7:59] » But they wouldn't know. I wouldn't know what the they would

[8:02] » they'll be all confused. >> So I didn't see I didn't see. So you're

[8:07] really asking >> that's a multiple choice question and

[8:09] then you're being like here's a yes or no before you know what B and C are.

[8:13] » I know. >> Well, I think the logic the logic is

[8:16] that if you if you uh >> Yeah, but if you did the multiple choice

[8:20] question, right, then what would you do? You would have to say

[8:24] » you vote you vote for one of the three. Every

[8:26] » vote, right? And then >> I don't think I don't think

[8:33] » well >> you'd have to have a real voting thing

[8:35] to do that. >> Trying to do here is the last one is is

[8:40] where is where the people would vote to say I want to keep it and I want to

[8:44] restore it and I'm willing to spend the money. That's the last one. But if you

[8:48] combine the first two, all you're doing when I the way I combined this here is

[8:52] saying that the sale part of it is part of that warrant. You're not You don't

[8:57] have to split it in half. Can I read it again?

[9:00] » Well, here's what I'm here, Tad. What I'm thinking on that is you got a lot in

[9:04] that one Warren article. It's it's it's it's cumbersome because you got the

[9:09] economic development council of the second half.

[9:12] » Okay, that could come out, I guess, because So, like like Don said, I almost

[9:16] said, >> yeah, it's kind of worded different. So,

[9:17] like Don said, you take the economic development out of that out of this

[9:21] warrant and and that would be the fourth the fourth thing that comes on and and

[9:27] then that way that's going to get voted on. Yes or no? There's no there's no

[9:31] messing around with whatever. >> Would that be tied into our articles or

[9:34] would that be separate? >> Separate.

[9:37] » Would it come before this or after? >> It probably have to come.

[9:41] » Okay. I think you make it very simple with that uh Warren article that the

[9:47] select board assembled an economic development council. That's it. Don't

[9:53] identify where it's going to be. You know,

[9:56] » broad enough that we can we can you know >> well there but and I'm I'm only playing

[10:00] devil's advocate, but so you say will the town be willing to vote to

[10:05] establish an economic council? So I'm going to Okay. Wait, what? Who's who's

[10:11] on the council and what exactly is it are you going to do?

[10:15] » Well, then you have >> then then you have then you have a lot

[10:17] of questions come. I think you >> I think since we don't have anything in

[10:21] town, I think we should include all like you you want to include all the

[10:25] businesses that already exist so they can balance off of what the potential

[10:30] businesses are. You don't want to exclude them.

[10:34] » No, no. I That's right. I'm not saying you'd have to put anybody, but I'm

[10:37] saying that if you make that All I'm saying is if you make that article just

[10:42] a line that says have the the board appoint an economic counselor.

[10:48] That That's a pretty broad swipe. Yeah. And I think I get it. But but I think

[10:53] people will ask questions. Who >> what are they going to do? Yeah. You

[10:56] know, is there is >> I would handle that. I would I'd be

[10:59] willing I would be willing to to answer that.

[11:02] » Yes. But I think that's a good conversation starter about and getting

[11:06] getting interest raised. And if you leave it very broad,

[11:10] » yeah, you leave it I think it should be very broad.

[11:14] » An economic development council. >> Here's maybe another idea. I'm again I'm

[11:19] just winging this out there. You could stand up before that happens and you

[11:24] could say, "We've spent eight months looking into what we could do at the

[11:29] town hall and we just voted on one one option and we've we've got a lot of

[11:36] things floating around and we that we would like to start an economic council

[11:42] to kind of look into not only the town hall and options there but in that area

[11:47] as well." >> Yeah. and and then then you just then

[11:50] you just leave it at that. So, we have a we have a warn article that we've placed

[11:53] out there to start that economic counseling and and then then at least

[11:57] there's some context and explanation for what you're trying to do. Does that make

[12:03] any sense? >> Yeah, I think it should be broad.

[12:06] » It has to be broad and your and your speech has to be very narrow and focused

[12:10] and no flying cars. >> No

[12:12] » flying cars. No delay. >> No, you got to talk theoretical. It's

[12:16] theoretical. That's what this committee is. I think we got to settle on these

[12:21] things and then move on. >> I have a question. Um, as far as that

[12:27] committee, a lot of business owners don't live in

[12:31] town. So, are they available to participate?

[12:36] » You mean the economic council? >> Yeah. So, say like the owner of like the

[12:40] village Mark doesn't live in town, but they are interested.

[12:43] » That's a good question. But like so something like this you have to be a

[12:46] resident.

[12:50] » So is there any >> I think well if you like you have to be

[12:53] a resident or a business owner or >> well the vote you do yeah

[12:58] » but you know what I'm saying. >> Yeah I I see exactly what you're saying

[13:01] business >> but I would think the structure of that

[13:03] is yet to be laid out but you could you could have you know you could invite

[13:07] people to come in and >> that are current business owners. Well,

[13:10] I went to see the I went to see the treasurer uh Dick Patello and I I know

[13:15] and I asked him about uh about having the town account, this new woman

[13:23] who was there who I spoke to as well about being on this economic development

[13:27] council. >> We got a new one.

[13:29] » He said, >> but did she leave the one that we had?

[13:32] » She's leaving this week >> or did she already leave?

[13:38] » Sure. account.

[13:42] » Okay. >> She left

[13:44] the end of September. >> Okay. Well, yeah. So, so what did they

[13:48] say? >> He said she could be on it, but she

[13:51] can't vote. >> She's not a res

[13:54] » because she's not a resident. So, the same with the same true with the

[13:57] businesses. If they're on a town committee, which is open meeting, they

[14:01] can't vote. They can participate. >> I disagree with that. I would take it.

[14:05] » Okay. I'm not saying [clears throat] it's

[14:07] » because because the

[14:12] the economic econ any of those things economic development council or even

[14:17] this thing here right we can vote this is our recommendation

[14:23] » right >> but that's got to go select one of the

[14:25] town meeting who has the final vote to do it

[14:28] » you know so you know you so it's not what the hell we have outside

[14:32] consultants come in >> yep

[14:34] » for the fire station and everything else.

[14:38] » We don't want to get too deep into the weeds on the economic council structure

[14:41] of China. >> No, we that's what we're going to do.

[14:44] » And so we'll make up a warrant article that just is one line item, one one

[14:50] sentence. >> See, the reality of it is if you say

[14:53] then that first one that we want to sell it, right? And then someone comes and

[14:58] say, "Geez, I'll buy it, but I want to be as part of the deal. I want the town

[15:04] to be a part of the partnership. >> Okay?

[15:07] » You know what I mean? I the reality that's the reality of of of a uh of it.

[15:16] Someone might buy it or someone might want to partner with the town.

[15:22] That's what it comes down to. >> So, you're saying you want to add the

[15:25] cell his first thing.

[15:29] » What's the last one? You're saying the last one is to see if the town will vote

[15:32] to retain ownership of the building, formerly known as the Tandle Town Hall,

[15:36] and further develop the property for historic, culture, educational, civic

[15:40] purposes. That's basically that we we keep it and we spend money.

[15:44] » It would be private money partnership.

[15:49] » I think you go through all of them just the way I I'm not convinced you you put

[15:53] the two together, Ted. You know, I'm thinking

[15:56] » I'm fine with that. I just um >> do we have time to wait until a next

[16:00] meeting with like the broader >> or do we need I'm going to say again, do

[16:05] we even need to have these people vote on this? We've got the RFI out there

[16:09] now. >> We we're looking for somebody to buy

[16:12] this place. Why are we voting to see if somebody wants us the town wants us to

[16:16] do that because we can't do anything with the building.

[16:21] » Exactly. So if we find somebody, >> it's still got to be voted on. Joe said,

[16:26] "Yeah, I want to buy this." >> Got to be voted on

[16:28] » and uh I'm going to give you a million dollars for it. Right. It has to go to

[16:33] the >> vote go the vote will go through through

[16:36] it to go to the town. This just says this see if they would authorize

[16:41] buyers enter the negotiations to the town.

[16:46] So my point is if we're out there looking for a buyer right now, we're not

[16:49] looking for buyer. >> We're looking for information. But so

[16:53] like we're starting to dig around in the bushes for a while. And so if we

[16:58] » we've already got that going. I I guess again I'm I'm wondering why are we going

[17:02] to have people vote on this thing before we really

[17:04] » we don't have all the roots because because I think we need a more

[17:09] definitive direction. >> Yeah.

[17:11] » If they say sell it, >> we vote to sell it. Then we can forget

[17:15] about >> everything else.

[17:18] » Anything else? >> Yeah. Well, then but then we'd have our

[17:20] third our our fourth warrant says, you know, start the economic council, which

[17:25] would then >> But I mean, if you get an overwhelming

[17:27] lean either way from the voters, it kind of will dictate the future, I

[17:33] think, of what we're doing. >> Exactly.

[17:35] With that being said,

[17:39] » if so, say this goes through and then like a someone comes out with a

[17:44] proposal, does it have to wait to until the springtime meeting or can there be a

[17:49] special meeting? >> Special time special. Yeah.

[17:51] » So, we can hold a special town meeting any time.

[17:54] » So, if a buyer were to come out for this, say in like December, we can hold

[17:58] a meeting to figure out what to do. That way, they're not tied,

[18:01] » right? Yes. So, so >> it's possible that people will vote yes

[18:04] on the first one and yes on the second one. They don't get to vote on those.

[18:08] That's right. If they vote yes on the first one, then the other two are

[18:10] » all done. But here's the thing. Second. >> No, that's what we were that's what

[18:13] we're asking at the beginning. >> Yeah. You vote number one. That's it.

[18:16] » You vote. >> Yeah. That's you're not going to have

[18:19] the other votes, >> right?

[18:20] » Nope. Because it's already been But so the second one is but the second one is

[18:24] really all about the economic development committee. So that one

[18:27] almost is dead. this economic development, but it's going to go down

[18:30] here as a separate item, right? So, this second warrant is is really kind of

[18:37] » So, the second one is to see if the town will vote to retain ownership, keep it,

[18:42] retain ownership of the building and property and you know, blah blah and

[18:48] enter into, you know, explore opportunities or public partnership. So,

[18:53] they want to sell it, it's done. If they say no, we want we want to retain the

[19:00] ownership. See if you can't find Joe's, you know, big sale to invest in the

[19:07] building.

[19:10] You know, >> I I'm going to say again, I I feel like

[19:14] we've I think those two should just be combined together.

[19:17] » One, you talk about one and two, right? Combining them. Well,

[19:20] » how about >> I'm almost almost agreeing with them.

[19:24] If we could add part of that into the first one, like we'd have two options in

[19:27] one. >> Then you're not then you're not kicking

[19:29] ourselves out, >> right?

[19:31] » That's right. >> We'd have two options in one.

[19:33] » Well, that's right. That's what I mean. Selling it and looking into lease backs

[19:37] and other plans is all one big thing. So if you said you you're the first one,

[19:43] you know, you're going to authorize sweatboard by enter into negotiations

[19:48] and explore opportunities for the town to

[19:53] enter into public private partnerships, lease or lease back. It's that last

[19:57] sentence goes to take out then you got to take out retainership.

[20:03] » Right. But but if we could combine those two

[20:07] and keep the third one, >> I see what you're saying.

[20:10] » That's an A+. We >> need to re rearrange these.

[20:13] » Well, you Okay. So, the second one is to retain ownership,

[20:18] but you take out this the economic council part. Right.

[20:21] » Right. >> Yeah.

[20:22] » So, you'd say to see if the town both to retain ownership of the building known

[20:27] as the town hall and you're going to take this out of economic development

[20:32] » right here. Yeah. And then you're going to say notice the

[20:36] townhouse >> development committee subs.

[20:41] » It is I get it. So the so the town so the town can explore opportunities

[20:48] » to enter into public private partnerships lease or lease back

[20:52] something to that effect. But the but this economic development

[20:55] » get rid of that part. And then down here, it's just wherever that falls into

[20:59] the the book is to see if the to see if the town will vote and have the select

[21:04] board authorize >> the development

[21:08] » economic development committee. That's it.

[21:10] » Council I don't like >> council committee. Council

[21:17] a little better council. >> Yeah, council. You know

[21:21] corporation >> you get jackets

[21:25] economic development commission. >> What is a better term? Economic

[21:29] development council or economic development commission. What has more

[21:34] gravitas? >> I would stick with the council. I would

[21:37] go commission. That's >> like council. Commission maybe sounds

[21:41] but commission sounds kind of more um >> committed. Committed kind of like

[21:49] like >> more permanent.

[21:51] » Yeah, it's like >> well the Warren Commission wasn't very

[21:53] permanent. It's just together for a certain time. I like either one council

[21:59] because I'm thinking about the jackets now. What are the jackets going to look

[22:02] like? The words are so big.

[22:09] » You're lucky we get we get t-shirts. >> We'll get t-shirts of anything.

[22:16] But I think that's a good idea trying to combine those two

[22:19] » in smaller towns and cities and councils >> then leave the third one in there.

[22:23] » This is because they're representing

[22:27] » no one's going to go for that. >> Larger cities commission system may be

[22:30] more offended. >> Where I used to say I

[22:40] think the town will go for I think the town.

[22:42] » So we're going to work those come back. We got to have a We need a second public

[22:47] forum. >> I I don't That's the question. Do you

[22:48] want a second? >> No, I don't.

[22:50] » I would vote no on that. I mean, what are we asking? What do we say? We trying

[22:54] to educate them. >> I think the only thing we'll be doing is

[22:57] is educating educating them on what what they want out of it. I think we get more

[23:02] feedback on social media than at the forum and there's more interaction and

[23:06] more conversation and people have time to like think about it and

[23:12] get back and view other people's comments.

[23:14] » So you're thinking when we do the RFI do the RFI and where you put it

[23:20] » in the open forum and the community forum and

[23:27] maybe there's like older ham one. I don't know if that will cross anything.

[23:32] Um, >> and then

[23:34] » and then when we get our warrant articles solidified,

[23:38] » I would probably post them all at once and then maybe we can break it down and

[23:43] post like option one and like more detail about

[23:48] that, option two, more detail about that. Like do them separately just to

[23:52] give information to people. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[23:57] And and obviously would you put let's say you're going to

[24:01] do let's say the third one says a good example to see if the town to retain

[24:06] ownership then underneath that you would say

[24:12] resident need to know that retaining ownership is going to cost

[24:16] » tax implications taxations >> or whatever however that comes out right

[24:22] » so that they know when they vote for that that there's there's there's

[24:25] dollars attached because I'd rather have educated I think it's our responsibility

[24:29] too to have educated voters coming here to make a decision

[24:32] » like I think that's what we're doing >> yeah I agree what you're saying um did

[24:38] we did we yank the tear it down off the off the

[24:43] » Yes we did I mean I know we did >> somebody's gonna say why don't we just

[24:48] tear it down >> well you're always going to have those

[24:50] people >> see there wasn't much interest in that

[24:53] option >> no

[24:54] » no >> very little interest in that option.

[24:56] » Okay. >> Well, and you know what? In the end, if

[25:00] all five years of all fail in the end, if all this goes goes down the tubes in

[25:07] a year, I'm fine. Chris, that's a long time, but whatever the end of that

[25:12] commission would be, okay, we tried, we didn't make it, and now we've got that

[25:16] building, and I think we need >> by that means fail the other stuff in

[25:21] front. >> I don't think that's what that thinks. I

[25:25] think that help people. >> So, we're not going to do the public

[25:28] forum. So, the other one was continuing discussion on future future use options.

[25:33] Do you want to do that tonight? Do you want to discuss that some of those?

[25:37] » I think that should be for your economic counsel too.

[25:41] » I don't know why we talk about that. I think I'll be honest with you and I was

[25:44] going to bring this up. I think we should I think this committee's

[25:49] business should be ended. It's the night at the end of the town hall meeting. I

[25:54] agree with you 100%. >> I think we should we should leave we

[25:58] should be done with that and it moves into the economic council. Not I'm not

[26:02] saying we're all on that. I'm just saying we're done and the economic

[26:06] council has moved forward >> and we really I think we've done

[26:10] » like I [clears throat] say I think we're getting that wits end already.

[26:13] » In fact once we get those figured out we're cruising into the town meeting and

[26:18] » see what happens. >> And kind of being done you think?

[26:22] » Yeah. Yep. >> Okay. Are you with me?

[26:24] » Yeah, I'm I'm >> That's four votes. So, we'll get one

[26:26] more. So, we I'm not saying we have to put tonight saying I think that's where

[26:30] we're headed. >> Don't you agree?

[26:33] » Yes. Okay. >> 100%.

[26:37] » I don't know. >> We make a motion. I'll make a motion to

[26:39] adjurnn. >> I'll second it.

[26:42] » There we go. All >> in favor? I

[26:44] » I >> Oh, that was quick.

[26:46] » No, I think I think what we got right now is right where we should be.

[26:50] » Yeah, >> I'm with you. Thank you. had early.

Old Town House Committee (August 26, 2026)

Agenda

Transcript