[0:09] Let it be warned, the legal voters of

[0:11] the town of Jamaica in the county of

[0:13] Windham in the state of Vermont are

[0:15] hereby notified and warned to meet at

[0:16] 10:00 a.m. at the town hall in said town

[0:19] of Jamaica on the first Tuesday of

[0:21] March, March 3rd, 2026 to transact the

[0:24] following business and act upon the

[0:27] following articles. Before we get

[0:29] started, we have Laura Sabilar, our

[0:31] state rep here. So, she's going to talk

[0:32] a little bit about and update us on on

[0:34] the executive. Laura,

[0:39] » good morning everyone.

[0:41] It's great to see you all. I love town

[0:44] meeting. Um, even when we don't agree,

[0:47] it's great to have us all gathered

[0:48] together practicing democracy and

[0:51] governing our communities and state. I

[0:54] have this morning a resolution that I'd

[0:57] like to read.

[1:01] Uh, House Concurrent Resolution honoring

[1:04] the decades of extraordinary civic

[1:07] participation and leadership of Lexa and

[1:10] Steve in the town of Jamaica.

[1:21] Whereas the breadth of Lexa Clark's

[1:24] public service is diverse, but it has

[1:27] strongly focused on the provision of

[1:29] emergency services as she initially

[1:32] enrolled in EMT courses during the

[1:34] 1970s, was instrumental in organizing

[1:37] the Jamaica Rescue Squad, and still

[1:40] dutifully responds to every rescue call.

[1:44] And whereas from 1979 to 1980, she

[1:48] closely monitored Jamaica's finances as

[1:51] the town's auditor and bookkeeper. And

[1:54] whereas for a dozen years, Lexa Clark

[1:57] served on the Jamaica Select Board 2006

[2:00] to 2018 and admirably met the unique

[2:04] challenge of chairing the panel when

[2:07] tropical storm Irene devastated the town

[2:10] to an unprecedented extent. and recently

[2:14] she has assumed a governance role at the

[2:16] Jamaica Memorial Library. And whereas

[2:20] Steve Clark's roles at the Jamaica

[2:22] Village Cemetery began as a youth and

[2:25] have included serving as both secretary

[2:28] and treasurer. And whereas among his

[2:31] municipal panel memberships were the

[2:34] village school board from 1982 to 1985

[2:37] and the planning commission from 1979 to

[2:40] 1988.

[2:42] And whereas for over half a century,

[2:45] Steve Clark was associated with the

[2:47] town's fire and rescue services,

[2:50] including as treasurer and auditor, and

[2:53] was proud of his designation as an

[2:55] honorary member of the fire department.

[2:58] And whereas for 52 years, Steve Clark

[3:02] served as Jamaica's trustee of public

[3:05] funds, for three decades as the town's

[3:08] grand juror, and since 2005 as the

[3:11] Jamaica Historical Foundation President,

[3:14] and professionally for nearly a quarter

[3:17] century, Steve Clark was a Vermont

[3:19] National Bank Vice President. And

[3:23] whereas Alexa and Steve Clark exemplify

[3:26] outstanding municipal citizenship.

[3:30] Now therefore, be it resolved by the

[3:32] Senate and House of Representatives that

[3:35] the General Assembly honors the decades

[3:38] of extraordinary civic participation and

[3:41] leadership of Lexa and Steve Clark in

[3:43] the town of Jamaica. And be it further

[3:46] resolved that the STE Secretary of State

[3:48] be directed to send a copy of this

[3:50] resolution to Lexa and Steve Clark.

[4:17] Steve, would you come up? Would you come

[4:19] up, please?

[4:34] » Thank you so much.

[4:42] I think we have another.

[4:56] » Good morning everyone. My name is Chuck

[4:58] Bosworth. Uh I own Forin Street Care

[5:00] here in town and I'm a captain on the

[5:02] fire department. I'm here to read a

[5:04] speech on our uh fire chief's uh behalf,

[5:08] Mr. Scott Gordon. Um so I'll get into

[5:11] that.

[5:14] As Chief of Jamaica Volunteer Fire and

[5:16] Rescue, I would like to take a moment to

[5:18] rest recognize Steven Lexa Clark for

[5:20] their lifetime of service to this

[5:22] community. Their dedication to serving

[5:24] the residents of Jamaica and surrounding

[5:26] towns as well has been unmatched in my

[5:28] opinion. When my family and I moved back

[5:31] to Jamaica 7 years ago, I was asked if I

[5:33] would like to join the department. Lexa

[5:35] Clark was one of the first members I

[5:37] met. She welcomed me right away. Steve

[5:39] and Lexa became fast friends of my

[5:41] family and have become surrogate

[5:43] grandparents to our daughters. They're

[5:45] like family to us. It didn't take long

[5:48] to realize that almost all of the

[5:50] Jamaica community is like family to

[5:52] Steve and Alexa. There has not been an

[5:53] emergency call I've been on where Alexa

[5:55] didn't know the patient or their family.

[5:58] I have seen the look of relief and

[5:59] comfort on patients faces when they see

[6:01] Lexa walking in with a lime jacket and

[6:04] orange medical bag. They know it's not

[6:06] just a stranger, it's a friend.

[6:10] Steve Clark served for many years on the

[6:11] department and though I haven't had the

[6:12] pleasure to serve alongside him, having

[6:15] heard some of the tales of those times,

[6:16] I wish I had. The stories of building a

[6:18] skating pond for the kids in the winter,

[6:20] patrolling the streets at Halloween to

[6:22] make sure everyone was safe, and of

[6:23] course, tales of fire and rescue at a

[6:25] time when the department was a small

[6:27] percentage of the size of his family.

[6:30] Steve achieve and wit brightens every

[6:31] room I've ever been in with him, and I'm

[6:33] proud to call him my friend. Lexa Clark

[6:36] was instrumental in forming the Jamaica

[6:38] Rescue Squad and has been his backbone

[6:40] since it was formed. She continues to

[6:43] serve as rescue captain and most likely

[6:46] goes to more calls than the rescue

[6:47] department. She is our longest serving

[6:50] member and has cared for our department

[6:51] like no one has before. On behalf of my

[6:54] family, Jamaica Volunteer Fire and

[6:56] Rescue and the entire Jamaica community,

[6:58] I would like to thank Steve and Lester

[7:00] Clark for their lifetime of service to

[7:01] their community for being outstanding

[7:03] neighbors and cherished friends from the

[7:05] bottom of our hearts. Scott

[7:25] Go ahead. Laura's going to speak have

[7:26] some other things to talk about.

[7:28] >> Okay. And so, uh, I'm happy I'll I'll

[7:31] give you a few brief updates about what

[7:33] I've been up to and then answer

[7:35] questions, um, to the extent that you

[7:37] would like to hear them. I need to try

[7:40] and leave by 10:30 to meet with Strat

[7:42] next. Uh, so

[7:45] briefly, I have provided an update,

[7:48] printed update. It's over um with the

[7:50] town clerk, and I do have a weekly

[7:54] update that goes out. you can sign up on

[7:57] my website. Uh so,

[8:02] thank you all for electing me. I'm now

[8:05] in my sixth term in the legislature. Uh

[8:10] this is my second term representing

[8:12] Jamaica.

[8:14] uh serve on the environment and digital

[8:17] infrastructure committee in the house

[8:20] and I also am a co-chair of the rural

[8:23] caucus and also of the Vermont National

[8:27] Guard and Veterans Affairs Caucus.

[8:31] This year uh the big issue for me has

[8:35] been around Act 250 reform. In 2022, the

[8:41] legislature passed act 181, which is a

[8:44] major reform of act 250. It calls for

[8:49] uh act 250 to be applicable based on

[8:53] where you are as opposed to what your

[8:55] project is, which is a big change. So

[8:58] there is mapping happening throughout

[9:00] the state and rule making happening by

[9:04] the land use review board, that's the

[9:06] natural resources board.

[9:09] This is historic work and the rural

[9:13] caucus has led an effort which has a lot

[9:17] of agreement uh to delay that work to

[9:21] make sure that Vermonters can keep a

[9:24] pace with the changes can participate in

[9:27] the rule making and can understand the

[9:30] impacts potentially to their land before

[9:34] this goes in place. uh we have agreement

[9:36] and support from the Vermont legal

[9:38] cities and towns, the Vermont Chamber,

[9:41] the regional planning commissions and

[9:43] others. That work is happening right now

[9:46] in the Senate. Uh that has been really a

[9:50] big issue for me this year. Uh in

[9:52] addition, I have our committee has

[9:56] focused on notice when copper landlines

[10:01] are changed for fiber.

[10:04] This is uh happening throughout our

[10:08] state and there's a difference between

[10:11] copper and fiber in terms of your

[10:14] ability to call for help if the power is

[10:17] out. And so that's a pretty serious um

[10:20] issue that we want to stay on top of. Uh

[10:23] Consolidated has been switching and

[10:26] retiring their copper. In order to do

[10:29] that, they need the federal government's

[10:31] permission. And uh when they go to get

[10:34] the federal government's permission,

[10:36] there are very few people that are

[10:38] noticed. The governor is noticed, the

[10:42] public utility commission is noticed,

[10:44] and the secretary of defense is noticed.

[10:48] Uh customers get a small marketing piece

[10:52] in their bills. And so we have found

[10:54] that people's understanding of what's

[10:56] happening has not matched um has not

[11:00] matched the timeline. So our committee

[11:02] has worked on increasing uh notice uh

[11:06] both to the 911 board to the department

[11:08] of public service and really providing

[11:10] more information to customers about your

[11:13] rights um and consumer protection law in

[11:16] the state of Vermont.

[11:18] Uh in addition, I think this is a town

[11:20] that uh that has the local option tax on

[11:23] something. Is that true?

[11:24] >> We do. We have a sales tax.

[11:25] >> Yes.

[11:26] >> So, uh the local option tax, many of you

[11:30] will know uh that is Hey, I love looking

[11:33] around and see if people really know.

[11:35] >> Oh, there's Kate. Um so, local option

[11:38] tax. uh before uh

[11:42] it was 70% the town was able to retain

[11:45] and 30% the state would use for payment

[11:49] move taxes. That's payments to towns

[11:51] that host state buildings. More and more

[11:55] towns have been raising local option tax

[11:59] electing to do that. uh although it is

[12:01] still a minority of Vermont towns and

[12:06] as they have been doing that a surplus

[12:08] has been gathering. I think I talked

[12:10] with you all maybe about this last year

[12:12] at town meeting. Uh surpluses are not

[12:15] good things to gather in state

[12:16] government. People are always looking

[12:18] for money. So last year the governor

[12:21] proposed using some of that surplus for

[12:24] flood recovery. uh and the in response

[12:29] uh there was a change. Towns now able to

[12:32] keep 75% 25% to uh the state. However,

[12:38] more towns have elected to tax

[12:40] themselves with the local option tax.

[12:42] And so that surplus is growing and once

[12:44] again this year there is uh reaching in

[12:48] and saying oh let's take $8 million of

[12:51] that out for the statewide reappraisal.

[12:53] So this is a problem for me. You all had

[12:56] to discuss amongst yourselves whether or

[12:58] not you wanted to raise that tax here in

[13:00] your town. You understood the parameters

[13:03] by which you were doing that. And so I'm

[13:06] hoping that this year we're actually

[13:07] going to talk about and change the law

[13:11] uh about what those dollars can be used

[13:13] for. I don't think it's appropriate for

[13:16] you to vote for it to be used for one

[13:17] thing and then the state would decide

[13:19] they'll be using it for something else.

[13:21] Um in addition uh in terms of energy,

[13:24] there's a lot to be said about energy.

[13:25] I'll tell you one thing that I'm working

[13:27] on which are uh which is the sighting of

[13:32] data centers. I don't know if folks have

[13:34] heard about data centers. Um it there is

[13:37] it's a huge huge thing that is happening

[13:40] in the country. Um some states saw this

[13:43] as a boom uh property tax revenue etc.

[13:47] They are enormous consumers of

[13:51] electricity and water. They make a lot

[13:54] of noise. They are not they don't bring

[13:56] a lot of jobs. Um they do pay property

[13:59] tax. They also may invest significantly

[14:03] in public infrastructure so they don't

[14:05] use it. We don't think that it's really

[14:07] that likely that we will see a data

[14:10] center in Vermont, but if we did or even

[14:13] in New England, it could be very

[14:14] impactful to our electric rates. And so

[14:17] our committee is working on if a data

[14:19] center were to come to Vermont, how

[14:21] would we want that to locate people and

[14:23] to make sure that we understand if we

[14:26] have uh environmental laws and water

[14:28] laws and energy laws in place that would

[14:32] um protect others. Finally, I would say

[14:36] um in terms of uh the education reform

[14:39] debate, and I know Jamaica continues to

[14:42] have heartache around education. Um

[14:45] these are difficult discussions in the

[14:49] legislature as well. Uh it is always

[14:53] that way and uh it is always where can

[14:56] we get enough votes to move forward. Um

[15:00] it is that divisive in the legislature.

[15:03] In the house you need 76 people to agree

[15:06] which is very hard on education. In the

[15:09] senate you need 16 to agree also very

[15:12] hard. And then the governor needs to

[15:14] agree. This year, the governor has said

[15:17] that he will not sign a budget or

[15:20] education law if we do not continue to

[15:24] proceed with education reform in act 73.

[15:27] I believe the language that he used

[15:29] provides flexibility for what that might

[15:32] be. Uh but that is still unfolding.

[15:35] Right now there are two maps um which

[15:41] one should think about as governance

[15:42] maps. These are consolidation of boards

[15:46] that are being contemplated.

[15:49] Uh and

[15:51] a lot to say about that. Um also really

[15:55] nothing to say about it at the same

[15:56] time. It is a very unclear. Uh so I will

[16:00] leave it at that. Um happy to take

[16:03] questions. I also will say I have

[16:05] decided that I would like to run again

[16:08] to represent you. I have petitions

[16:10] circulating here. Um I hope to be able

[16:13] to grab them and take them to Stratton.

[16:15] So, if you would send them towards the

[16:16] back if you have them. And Mr. I'll take

[16:20] questions as long as you

[16:21] >> question.

[16:24] DB Fiber.

[16:25] >> Yes.

[16:26] >> Do you know what the status is of their

[16:28] um progress towards other towns like

[16:32] >> So,

[16:33] >> I don't want to Is there anybody from DB

[16:35] Fiber here?

[16:37] >> Yeah. Okay.

[16:38] >> And our our representative on the JPC is

[16:40] not here. Yeah,

[16:41] >> he actually Well, because you know we're now looking for an affiliate to be

[16:45] affiliated status.

[16:46] >> I don't know.

[16:47] >> Because we can't. In other words, we

[16:48] can't we're not part of the cut anymore.

[16:50] Not part

[16:50] >> Oh,

[16:51] >> yeah. But we will be represented by an

[16:53] affiliated town.

[16:54] >> Okay.

[16:56] I did not know that.

[16:58] >> Yeah. Just Yeah.

[17:00] >> Last few weeks. Yeah.

[17:05] » Um is there anybody on JP? you know, I

[17:08] unfortunately I'm not I'm not um I'm a

[17:11] recipient of the information instead of

[17:13] a participant, not a member of the JPC.

[17:16] Um essentially um you know, consolidated

[17:20] was awarded um the um the RFP for uh the

[17:26] area that includes Jamaica.

[17:28] >> Uh DV Fiber did not. However, and and of

[17:32] course our concern is that that means

[17:34] the last mile, which is the folks that

[17:36] are the most rural and the farthest from

[17:39] uh an urb, you know, a more densely

[17:41] populated area, will not be served

[17:44] adequately served by broadband, which is

[17:46] one of the reasons why our communication

[17:48] unions district was really working very

[17:51] closely with DV Fiber. So DV Fiber is

[17:54] not gone. It's just unfortunately was

[17:56] not awarded Jamaica.

[17:57] >> Okay. So that I understood. Okay. Okay.

[17:59] When I heard you say you were

[18:00] unaffiliated, did you guys leave the

[18:01] CUD?

[18:02] >> Well, so be so because of that, right,

[18:05] our role in the CUD is is minimized and

[18:09] our representative

[18:11] >> is is he's retiring. He's retire, you

[18:13] know, he's welld deserved retirement

[18:15] from those roles.

[18:17] >> Um, but Jamaica does have an option to

[18:20] be represented. So we don't actually

[18:22] have a formal vote on the CUD, but we

[18:25] would have a another town would serve as

[18:27] our kind of representative. We'd have an

[18:29] indirect vote and of course we can

[18:31] always attend,

[18:32] >> but that's kind of that's our legal

[18:34] status right now.

[18:35] >> Yes. Okay, great. So there were bead is

[18:40] the money u broadband equity. Oh, I'm

[18:43] going to forget it. Um but it was

[18:44] hundreds of millions of dollars that

[18:47] were awarded to states and billions

[18:49] actually to states and uh this is uh

[18:55] areas had to bid on or companies had to

[18:58] bid on different areas and I understand

[19:02] um this this area uh consolidated

[19:06] provided the lowest bid for getting to

[19:10] um your addresses and so that was that

[19:14] had to be taken into account by the

[19:18] community broadband report. So,

[19:22] um I would just encourage you all though

[19:24] if you have challenges, please continue

[19:27] to reach out to me, reach out to the

[19:29] Department of Public Service. Um I'm I'm

[19:32] worried um about consolidating.

[19:37] Laura,

[19:38] >> could you say anything about the Vermont

[19:40] National Guard deployment to Saudi

[19:43] Arabia or Iran?

[19:47] >> Uh,

[19:51] what my opinion of it?

[19:53] >> Well,

[19:57] you know what's going on? I think

[19:59] there's also fighter jets from

[20:01] Burlington involved.

[20:03] >> Yeah. I just wondered if you could

[20:05] explain what's going on.

[20:06] >> So, I believe that the F-35s, I believe

[20:10] others have independently confirmed

[20:12] their the uh Air Wing, which has F-35s,

[20:15] the Vermont Air Guard, has been deployed

[20:19] um they were deployed to the Caribbean

[20:22] um and then were deployed to the Middle

[20:24] East. So, um, those of you who receive

[20:27] emails from me, there is a pretty

[20:29] active, uh, effort for defend this

[20:33] legislation called Defend the Guard. Um,

[20:36] and, uh, there I've had a tremendous

[20:39] amount of outreach about that. Um, it

[20:43] would require the governor to assess

[20:47] whether or not uh the orders that are

[20:51] coming to the National Guard, the

[20:52] federal orders that are coming to the

[20:54] National Guard are legal. And if they

[20:58] are not, it would require the governor

[21:00] to prevent the guard from being

[21:03] deployed. So, I've just sent something

[21:05] out with my assessment about kind of the

[21:07] legal the technicality of that and

[21:10] whether or not I think it's legal.

[21:12] um or doable or effective. Um I I do

[21:17] think that Congress should be doing a

[21:21] much better job in terms of deal in in

[21:25] this and uh this is this administration

[21:28] is not the first time the last time that

[21:30] Congress declared war was in World War

[21:31] II. So um this is a problem where we are

[21:36] getting disconnected from the people in

[21:38] terms of deployments. So I understand

[21:41] the angst around this. Um I don't think

[21:45] that there is enough support to see

[21:47] defend the guard pass in Vermont.

[21:50] There may be enough to see it get it

[21:52] done get a hearing. So

[21:57] » is there any uh push for any sort of

[22:00] housing in the rural areas because I

[22:03] know a lot of younger people that still

[22:05] like to live in the rural areas but

[22:07] there is no everything's about the big

[22:10] cities. housing coming there blah blah. Is there any push to have some

[22:14] sort of affordable housing in in the

[22:18] rural parts of this area?

[22:20] >> So the question is is there any push to

[22:23] have um rural to have affordable housing

[22:26] in the rural parts of the state? There

[22:27] are young people that would like to be

[22:29] here that are having a hard time finding

[22:31] homes. So there are two things that I

[22:33] would note. Uh, one is the CHIP program

[22:36] that passed last year, which is for uh,

[22:41] it's a community program which would

[22:43] allow a developer to work with a

[22:45] community on financing the

[22:48] infrastructure that's necessary to build

[22:52] um, housing developments. So that could

[22:54] be sidewalks,

[22:56] water,

[22:58] connections to wastewater, um, electric

[23:01] infrastructure, parking lots, etc. Uh,

[23:05] so that passed last year. I feel hopeful

[23:08] about that as a tool for housing

[23:10] developers. in terms of rural housing.

[23:15] So I want to be very very clear about

[23:17] the language that is used in the

[23:20] legislature regularly.

[23:23] I hear in the legislature this phrase,

[23:27] we have decided that we want housing in

[23:32] downtowns and villages.

[23:35] Okay, Vermont. And so that is I I often

[23:40] question who is we um but that is uh how

[23:44] our land use policy is designed. So

[23:48] remember I started with act 181.

[23:51] looks to remove regulation act 250

[23:56] regulation from development in downtowns

[24:01] and villages that have infrastructure

[24:04] like water and wastewater. So to try and

[24:07] make it easier to build in those places.

[24:11] And the flip side is

[24:15] outside of that we have right now a road

[24:19] rule that is about to come into effect

[24:22] uh which will be applicable throughout

[24:24] the entire state and tier three which

[24:28] are sensitive natural areas those places

[24:32] will automatically

[24:33] be required to go through act 250. So

[24:36] there are small places where there's

[24:40] public infrastructure in downtowns and

[24:42] villages where we are removing

[24:45] regulation.

[24:46] Outside of that we are increasing

[24:49] regulation. So you'll have to decide if

[24:52] you think that's helpful or not.

[24:59] Um, I'm curious what you think of uh the

[25:02] tax reform bill that is being I'm not

[25:05] sure if it's been introduced or will be

[25:07] introduced into the House and Senate.

[25:12] >> It's only right here. Okay.

[25:14] >> Um, it is a wealth kind of a wealth.

[25:17] >> So, and the reason it's only right here

[25:20] is I don't think the governor would ever

[25:23] sign such a thing. I don't think the

[25:25] votes are there to override the

[25:27] governor. And so I have to think about

[25:30] do I want to spend time on a statement?

[25:33] Sometimes I say yes I do.

[25:36] Um or do I want to try and make sure

[25:39] other things are happening? So it's not

[25:41] it hasn't really reached here. Happy to

[25:44] follow back up and again you know maybe

[25:47] provide some information.

[25:50] >> Any other questions? Oh

[25:52] >> just back to the act 250. I just want to

[25:55] make sure you understand the

[25:57] implications for Jamaica. We do not have

[26:00] that municipal infrastructure. Correct.

[26:03] >> That's right. We do not.

[26:04] >> So, we're outside of that. We're in the

[26:06] like more regulation, not less. So, this

[26:09] really affects us.

[26:10] >> That's right.

[26:10] >> In a very specific way. Okay. Thanks for

[26:12] the question.

[26:13] >> That's right. And I think folks would

[26:14] say Jamaica is a town that floods a lot.

[26:18] that is that the town is very

[26:19] environmentally sensitive and we want to

[26:22] make sure that anything that's built

[26:24] there is built to last and that you have

[26:27] water and waste water. That would be the

[26:29] defense of that. But yes, I think you're

[26:32] absolutely correct.

[26:33] >> Thank you.

[26:34] >> Other questions for Laura

[26:38] >> have a question. I live directly on two

[26:40] rivers and I was just curious whether

[26:43] anybody is gonna keep dredging that uh

[26:47] ball mountain brook past a bridge on

[26:49] Depot Street because it directly affects

[26:51] all the people that live below it. So,

[26:53] it's been dipped into beautifully by

[26:55] Hunter right up to that bridge and then

[26:57] after that it's it's just a flat full of

[27:01] rubble thing that's going to just flood

[27:04] as soon as that rush of water comes

[27:06] down. There's no place except for on

[27:07] everybody's land for it to do.

[27:10] >> Have you seen any judging here?

[27:11] >> Yeah, we did. That's more of a question

[27:13] for the select board though because

[27:14] they're the ones who would handle that.

[27:15] >> That's not a state thing. That's that's

[27:17] a that's a local thing that we work with

[27:18] we've worked with FEMA on.

[27:20] >> Okay. Sorry.

[27:21] >> So,

[27:22] >> okay.

[27:23] >> Yeah. Good question though.

[27:25] >> Thank you everybody. Thank you for the

[27:26] time.

[27:36] All right.

[27:37] >> Oh, and just really quickly, there's

[27:38] still some seats in the front.

[27:40] >> Yeah, guys, you want to move up? There's

[27:41] some seats up here. Particularly

[27:42] >> comfy cushion seats in front.

[27:44] >> Want to hide in the back? That's fine,

[27:45] too.

[27:46] >> Seats up there.

[27:49] >> Yes, there's like

[27:52] Erica Bowman's going to our Larrett of

[27:54] Jamaica is going to be reading a poem,

[27:56] Knitting in the Round.

[28:00] Hello.

[28:01] >> Thank you.

[28:03] >> Hi everybody.

[28:06] I started as I do every so often

[28:10] knitting again.

[28:12] And um it's like I can't believe I

[28:15] didn't bring it with me, but I I would

[28:16] have loved to have shown you that the

[28:18] current thing I'm knitting is a a hat

[28:20] which is on a circular needle which

[28:22] inspired the thinking about knitting and

[28:26] all of the many ways that

[28:29] um you can look at it in any way. It

[28:31] inspired this poem. It's called Knitting

[28:34] in the Round.

[28:37] I was delighted to see my friend in his

[28:40] handk knit sweater vest with the

[28:43] slightly crooked neck at candidates

[28:46] night. It had an intricate design and

[28:49] vaguely puffy sleeves which made him

[28:51] look gallant like a prince or a knight

[28:54] from another time. And he wore it with

[28:57] an easy assurance without contention or

[29:00] self-consciousness.

[29:02] After all, it was made by his daughter,

[29:05] which was all the more sweet. It takes

[29:08] an awfully long time to knit a sweater

[29:10] vest.

[29:12] Earlier at the stitching ditch at River

[29:16] and Ry,

[29:17] I met a new friend who gave us pointers

[29:20] while we cast on the wool for our new

[29:22] red hats. She told us that it was men

[29:26] who had originally invented knitting

[29:28] back in Egypt or maybe Mesopotamia.

[29:32] Admittedly, I thought to myself, well,

[29:34] they got the credit at least.

[29:38] But sure enough, beside me, there was a

[29:40] tall, handsome man knitting still, as if

[29:44] the ark of the centuries had had no

[29:46] impact. or perhaps that we had already

[29:50] come full orbit once again where men

[29:52] could be men just sitting and knitting

[29:54] in circles of friends. Either way, he

[29:57] would soon be dawning a new sweater vest

[29:59] himself, or so I hoped.

[30:03] Over at the spinnery in Putney, where I

[30:05] had procured the red yarn, the air is

[30:08] perpetually thick and stinky of lenoline

[30:10] and pasture. Spinners work in small

[30:13] batches with wool acquired from local

[30:16] farmers on large spiky formidable

[30:20] machines. And despite the finished skes

[30:23] arranged by color and gauge and the

[30:26] sweaters that demonstrate the patterns

[30:28] they've made, this place feels more

[30:31] factory than a showroom. a modern-day

[30:33] wool and mill, a vestage of the once

[30:36] booming textile industry that

[30:39] encompassed this state and even our own

[30:41] little town.

[30:43] And it seems amazing that it wasn't even

[30:45] that long ago that these treefilled

[30:48] hills were cleared for pasture to feed

[30:51] the marino sheep.

[30:53] My neighbor, 100 years old and

[30:56] possessing a longer range view than

[30:58] most, once showed me a photograph of my

[31:00] own wooded cops, that of course had once

[31:03] been his.

[31:05] From the old stage coach in to my house

[31:07] on the hill was near a tree. They say

[31:11] that in the 1830s there were more sheep

[31:13] than people, and the hills were clipped

[31:15] as close as scalps. But the stone walls

[31:19] that stitch across the landscape became

[31:21] boundaries and monuments of great

[31:23] importance, regarded by haywards and

[31:26] fence viewers and surveyors.

[31:29] And the forests we now praise as ancient

[31:33] are actually adolescent

[31:35] fortuitous regrowth. A quiet apology to

[31:38] the woodlands of Yore. I think about

[31:41] this while I count my stitches, circling

[31:44] around and around and around.

[31:48] Is this cycle like a cyclone? I wonder.

[31:51] Or is it a patient curvaceious

[31:54] architecture built from a single stitch?

[31:57] Loop pulled through loop pulled through

[32:00] loop.

[32:02] I guess it depends on your perspective,

[32:04] on your own position in the fabric of

[32:06] time.

[32:08] Soon enough, I look up from my knitting

[32:12] and gaze around this very room and

[32:15] think, "Here we are again."

[32:18] I lament at the passing of yet another

[32:20] year,

[32:22] but then I pick up my yarn and continue

[32:24] my round.

[32:37] Thank you, Erica. Uh, we're going to go

[32:39] on to article one to elect a moderator

[32:42] for a term of one year. Do I hear any

[32:44] nominations?

[32:45] >> I nominate Tom Tolbert.

[32:47] >> Tom Tolbert has been nominated for

[32:49] moderator. Do I hear any other

[32:51] nominations?

[32:54] » Other nominations? Hearing none, I'm

[32:57] closing nominations. Uh, can I have the

[32:59] clerk give one vote? I can't do that.

[33:01] Sarah, would you would someone give one

[33:03] vote for the for the for the POS for Tom

[33:04] Tolbert? Sarah Whiswall gave one vote

[33:06] for Tom Tolbert and Tom Tolbert's

[33:09] elected moderator. Thank you folks for

[33:10] having your trust in me for another

[33:12] year.

[33:13] >> Who was the second?

[33:15] >> Um Patrick

[33:15] >> Patrick was second. Yes. Sorry.

[33:18] Uh moving on then to art. Oh, first

[33:20] thing I want couple of thanks for all

[33:22] coming on on this cold morning. Um

[33:24] again, my role here is to facilitate the

[33:27] will of the body, the voters of Jamaica.

[33:30] Um,

[33:31] this is your meeting and I'm here to

[33:34] facilitate your wants and needs. Um,

[33:37] once an article has been moved and

[33:39] seconded, we can then have a discussion

[33:40] about it. I'm asking that please keep

[33:42] those discussions to the article at

[33:44] hand. We we'll have time to talk about

[33:46] other things at the end of the meeting

[33:47] for open uh just for other things. Um,

[33:50] when speaking before speaking, stand up

[33:52] and please state your name very clearly

[33:54] so we know who's speaking. Um each

[33:57] person in the room per article will get

[33:59] one chance to speak and then every once

[34:02] everyone else has had their opportunity,

[34:04] you can have a second chance to speak.

[34:06] Um please

[34:09] try to be civil to each other. We're all

[34:11] neighbors here. We want to make sure we

[34:12] want to be kind to each other. When

[34:14] speaking, you're addressing me. You're

[34:16] addressing the moderator. Uh there are

[34:17] not to be any side conversations and

[34:19] members of the body are not to directly

[34:21] respond to each other. Um,

[34:24] we're only allowed to vote on articles.

[34:26] You're I'm sorry. You're only allowed to

[34:28] vote on articles if you're a registered

[34:29] voter in the town of Jamaica. If you

[34:31] haven't picked up your paper ballots,

[34:32] please go see Sarah and Heather and do

[34:34] that. Um,

[34:37] all votes will be will be will start off

[34:39] as being voice votes from the floor. If

[34:42] it's unclear if an article passes, then

[34:43] we'll go to a uh hand vote. If that vote

[34:47] isn't definitive, then we'll go to a

[34:48] paper ballot vote. At any time, seven

[34:51] members of the body can request a paper

[34:53] ballot vote. Uh when we're doing the

[34:55] paper ballots, I want everyone to come

[34:57] through the center, come up to the

[34:59] ballot box, which is at the front here,

[35:00] and then exit towards the sides. Please,

[35:03] of course, only vote once. Um if someone

[35:05] needs help depositing their ballot,

[35:07] please let me know and I can have a

[35:08] Justice of the Peace or Rob Willis uh

[35:11] constable come and bring the ballot up

[35:12] for them. You please don't bring someone

[35:14] else's ballot up. Um, and lastly, um,

[35:17] please let's everyone silence their cell

[35:19] phones. Uh, we don't want any phones

[35:21] going off during our discussions and

[35:22] such. And lastly, the bathrooms are in

[35:24] the back for people who don't know that.

[35:26] So, thank you for all coming today. It

[35:28] was a cold morning. So, moving along to

[35:30] article two to review the town report.

[35:34] Do I have a motion?

[35:39] » Olivia.

[35:41] Second.

[35:44] » Second. Second, Andy Coin.

[35:47] >> Thank you. Uh, any discussion on the the

[35:49] town report?

[35:55] » You want to call the motion?

[35:56] >> Call the vote.

[35:56] >> Okay, I'm going to call the vote.

[35:57] Hearing none, we're going to call the

[35:58] vote. All in favor of uh accepting the

[36:01] town report, say I.

[36:04] >> I.

[36:05] >> Against.

[36:06] Motion passes. Article passes.

[36:10] On to article three to elect the

[36:12] following officers as required by law.

[36:15] Uh

[36:16] first position is selectman for the term

[36:18] of three years.

[36:21] That position is currently held um

[36:25] >> by I think it was who was that held by?

[36:27] That was held by Andy Coin. So do I have

[36:29] any nominations for selectman of for one

[36:32] year for three years? I'm sorry.

[36:34] >> I nominate Robert Brooks.

[36:36] >> Robert Brooks has been nominated by

[36:37] Karen Amaden. Do a second.

[36:40] >> Terry second.

[36:41] >> Terry Utel second.

[36:45] Any other nominations?

[36:47] >> Hearing none. I'm going to close

[36:48] nominations. All in favor?

[36:51] >> Oh, sorry.

[36:52] >> Can the people stand up when they're

[36:54] nominated?

[36:55] >> Yeah, if you want to. That's Robert

[36:57] Brooks.

[36:57] >> I'm Robert.

[36:58] >> Hi, everybody.

[36:59] >> Robert was appointed select board uh

[37:01] what about a month and a half ago?

[37:03] >> Yeah. So, therefore, so all in favor of

[37:05] Robert Brooks. I

[37:09] >> Robert passes. Robert Robert gets the three-year position of

[37:12] selectment. Thank you, Robert.

[37:13] >> Thank you.

[37:13] >> U next position is select select person

[37:16] for term of one year. This position is

[37:19] currently held by um I think it's by

[37:22] Kate Olman.

[37:25] Do I hear any nominations for uh select

[37:28] person for the term of one year?

[37:29] >> I nominate Kate.

[37:32] >> Who seconded? I'm sorry.

[37:34] >> CJ seconded. Any other nominations?

[37:38] Hearing none. I'm closing nominations.

[37:40] Um, all in favor?

[37:42] >> I.

[37:44] >> Kate Omen. Thank you. Co Kate for the

[37:46] select person of one year. Third

[37:48] position is a select person for the term

[37:49] of one year.

[37:52] This position was held by Christina

[37:54] Robinson who is resigned. Um, do I hear

[37:57] any nominations for this position

[37:58] >> and and was filled

[37:59] >> and was filled by um

[38:00] >> Jason C last week. So, do I have any

[38:05] nominations for uh position of select

[38:07] person for one year?

[38:08] >> Chrissy made it.

[38:11] >> Chissy,

[38:12] >> you you nominate Jason. Okay.

[38:15] >> Thank you. Any other nominations?

[38:18] Hearing none. Uh all in favor of Jason C

[38:21] getting the select person for a term of

[38:23] one year.

[38:24] >> I

[38:26] >> Congratulations, Jason.

[38:28] Uh next position is for the listister of

[38:30] a term of three years. This position is

[38:32] currently held by Pat Melman's.

[38:35] Any nominations?

[38:37] >> Pat Melman's.

[38:39] >> Nominate Pat Melman.

[38:40] >> Karen AMD nominates Pat Melman's.

[38:45] » Any other nominations?

[38:49] Hearing none. Uh all in favor of Pat

[38:51] Melman's for the listister for the term

[38:53] of three years. I

[38:54] >> I

[38:57] >> next is for the constable for the term

[38:59] first constable for the term of one year

[39:01] currently held by Rob Willis.

[39:05] >> Do I hear any nominations for constible

[39:06] of one year or first constable for the

[39:08] term of one year?

[39:12] >> I'll second.

[39:12] >> Rob Willis has been nominated. Any other

[39:15] nominations?

[39:17] Hearing none. All in favor of Rob Willis

[39:19] for the con for the term for the first

[39:21] constable for the term of one year. I

[39:24] >> thank you. Uh for the term for the

[39:27] second constable for the term of one

[39:28] year currently held by Ben Williams.

[39:31] You don't hear no nominations

[39:34] >> for second constable for the term of one

[39:36] year.

[39:36] >> Ben Williams.

[39:37] declines.

[39:40] >> Yep. Okay.

[39:42] >> Yep.

[39:43] >> Any other nominations?

[39:47] » Anybody interested?

[39:53] Anybody?

[39:54] >> I'll nominate Erica Bowman.

[40:00] » Erica respectfully declines.

[40:03] >> Um,

[40:07] » anybody?

[40:08] >> It's not a big job.

[40:09] >> Yeah.

[40:10] >> Clara, did you have

[40:13] >> Could the person explain the job?

[40:15] >> Basically, yeah. I mean, Rob, you want

[40:17] to explain that because you're the first

[40:18] constable. Um pretty much it's we become

[40:22] uh glorified dog catchers. So

[40:26] when I leave town then the second

[40:28] constable fills in. So if you get if

[40:29] there's the state police call or someone

[40:31] calls about an animal that's been

[40:33] missing or found on the road then

[40:35] sometimes you need to go there and pick

[40:37] the animal up and go to the humane

[40:39] society with the animal or try to use

[40:41] the list and um bring the dog back to

[40:43] its owner.

[40:44] >> So it's it's pretty pretty easy.

[40:48] Yes, sir.

[40:48] >> Andrew Schmidt.

[40:50] has been nominated for

[40:52] second constable.

[40:53] >> I second.

[40:56] >> Any other nominations?

[40:58] >> All in favor of Andrew Schmidt being

[41:00] elected second constable for one year.

[41:02] >> I

[41:03] >> Thank you, Andy.

[41:05] >> Thank you. Um,

[41:08] next position is trustee of public funds

[41:10] for the term of one year

[41:12] currently held by Rob Willis.

[41:16] Do I hear any nominations

[41:19] for public trustee of public funds for

[41:22] the term of one year?

[41:23] >> I'll nominate Rob Willis.

[41:24] >> Rob Willis has been nominated.

[41:27] >> Any other Any other nominations?

[41:30] >> You need a second.

[41:31] >> You had a second.

[41:32] >> I had a second back there.

[41:33] >> Okay.

[41:33] >> Y

[41:34] >> hearing none. All in favor of Rob Willis

[41:37] being elected trustee of public funds

[41:39] for the term of one year. I

[41:43] >> agent to deed land for the term of one

[41:46] year

[41:48] currently held by um Andy Coin.

[41:52] >> You want to hear any nominations for the

[41:54] agent to deed land for the term of one

[41:56] year.

[41:58] >> I'll nominate Andy Coin. Andy, are you

[42:00] going to be around because you'd

[42:01] actually have to sign some deeds this

[42:02] year.

[42:04] >> Andy Coin has been nominated.

[42:07] >> Hi.

[42:08] >> Do I hear any of the sec nominations?

[42:10] Second. Chris, do I hear any other

[42:12] nominations for the for the agent of to

[42:14] deed land for the term of one year?

[42:19] All in favor of Andy being elected?

[42:21] >> I.

[42:22] >> Thank you, Andy.

[42:25] >> We're cruising through these. Library

[42:26] trustee for the two for two years of a

[42:29] five-year term. Um,

[42:32] currently held by Marylu Lamar Dawi.

[42:36] Um, do I hear any nominations for uh,

[42:40] library trustee term of two out of two

[42:42] years out of a three-year term?

[42:44] >> I nominate Siobhan Mcder.

[42:46] >> Siobhan McDerman has been nominated.

[42:49] >> Okay. Any other nominations?

[42:54] Hearing none. All in favor of Siobhan

[42:56] being elected uh, library trustee for

[42:58] the term of two years of a of a 5-year

[43:00] term.

[43:01] >> I

[43:02] >> Okay, she's been elected. I also um and

[43:05] it's my I will take responsibility for

[43:07] this. There is another library position

[43:09] open but it was not warned properly. So

[43:11] if you are interested being a library

[43:13] trustee talk to either Meline or the

[43:16] board and you can be appointed to that

[43:17] position. So unfortunately it's not

[43:19] being worn so we can't vote on it today.

[43:22] I apologize for that. Um

[43:26] article four to see what sum of money

[43:28] the voters will vote to pay the town's

[43:30] running expenses and how it will be

[43:32] collected. Do we hear a motion?

[43:36] Bonnie

[43:41] motion that we spend a total of

[43:45] 2,221,138.13

[43:52] of which 1,64,873.17

[44:02] will be raised by taxation

[44:06] for running expenses of the town. And

[44:09] this along with the anticipated revenue

[44:12] of $616,264.96

[44:20] equaling total budget of the

[44:22] $2,221,138.13

[44:29] and payment will be due on or before

[44:33] October 1st, 2026

[44:36] and all unpaid taxes will become

[44:38] delinquent on October 2nd, 2026 with an

[44:44] 8 added 8% penalty plus starting

[44:48] December 1st, 2026, interest at the rate

[44:52] of 1% will be added until paid in full.

[44:58] >> Do I hear a second?

[45:00] >> Greg Jolly second.

[45:03] >> Does anyone want to discuss this?

[45:06] >> Yeah. What was that?

[45:10] numbers

[45:11] >> those numbers were the numbers that were

[45:12] uh proposed in the town report and the

[45:15] budget

[45:15] >> Patty the budget's actually in the

[45:17] report right

[45:18] >> if you have yeah if you have any

[45:20] questions

[45:21] >> okay

[45:21] >> y%

[45:24] fee

[45:26] >> the state

[45:27] >> that's a state fee we don't have any

[45:28] control

[45:29] >> that's by statute

[45:30] >> my name is I have a question is there

[45:32] accountants hired to do the the validity

[45:36] of these numbers

[45:38] Yeah, there's

[45:38] >> sir Whiz the treasur.

[45:40] >> What's the question? Is there a town

[45:42] that the town hires that would validate

[45:44] the numbers?

[45:45] >> Uh, no. Myself and the select do the

[45:47] budget.

[45:48] >> Well, there's a

[45:51] check after

[45:53] >> absolutely

[45:54] >> yes.

[45:56] >> We have an outside auditor.

[45:59] » They haven't checked it yet.

[46:03] >> Yes.

[46:05] Last fiscal year.

[46:09] Other other discussions, other comments,

[46:11] anybody

[46:14] vote?

[46:15] >> Move the question.

[46:16] Thank you. All in

[46:18] favor?

[46:19] >> I against

[46:23] the budget passes.

[46:26] Article five to see if the voters will

[46:28] authorize the select to borrow money in

[46:30] anticipation of taxes.

[46:32] Do I hear a motion?

[46:36] I'll make them up.

[46:37] >> Greg Jolly moves. Seconded.

[46:40] >> Second.

[46:42] Rob Willis. Any other comments on any

[46:44] other discussion on that point?

[46:47] >> All in favor?

[46:48] >> I.

[46:51] >> Article six. Shall the voters authorize

[46:53] the select board to spend unanticipated

[46:56] funds such as grants, gifts, or other

[46:58] interests?

[46:59] Can I get a motion?

[47:02] >> So move.

[47:04] Dana West. Second,

[47:06] >> I have a question. How are those things

[47:09] defined? Like, can you give any grant or

[47:13] is there some parameters? This just

[47:16] feels a little open-ended to me. I know

[47:19] I'm new here, but that's why I want to

[47:21] understand what it really means.

[47:23] >> You want to talk? You want to address

[47:24] it, Jessica?

[47:25] >> Yeah, Patty, you've asked this. The

[47:28] question has come up before. Um so you

[47:31] see that the language like is in

[47:33] quotation marks because it's actually

[47:35] comes from the statutes. Um if we don't

[47:38] we just if we don't follow the statute

[47:41] then we arguably don't we can't utilize

[47:43] the definitions that are there but it's

[47:47] you know it's what you would expect if

[47:49] we can um we often do throughout the

[47:52] course of the year. There's some folks

[47:53] in the audience that also participate in

[47:56] obtaining grants for us. If we don't do

[47:58] this at town meeting, we can't apply for

[48:00] those grants and spend the funds.

[48:02] Actually, we could probably apply for

[48:03] them, but but we wouldn't necessarily

[48:05] have clear statutory authority to spend

[48:07] them. Um, I think we were talking about

[48:10] the water study, for example. Um, there

[48:12] is a one remaining grant, you know,

[48:14] piece of money that we applied for last year or the year before, I can't

[48:19] remember now. And we we can spend that

[48:21] because we passed this as a town, this ordinance. Um,

[48:26] uh,

[48:28] it I mean I can afterwards I can I I I I

[48:31] can send to you the statute.

[48:34] >> I like to approve my

[48:39] >> No, I mean

[48:40] >> I just didn't care. I'm just trying to

[48:43] >> Yeah. And and by the way, the select

[48:45] board takes these actions. So come to

[48:48] meetings, zoom in or come to meetings or

[48:51] you know, you would see it as a as an

[48:53] issue. Typically, it would be on the

[48:56] agenda. So, if you see, you know, um

[48:58] approval of a grant application, if you

[49:02] want to know what that's about, just

[49:04] come to the meeting or zoom in.

[49:06] >> Fantastic. Thank you,

[49:07] >> Jean. And then CJ,

[49:09] >> I agree with the statement that was just

[49:10] made. This is an open-ended

[49:13] article number.

[49:16] And so I would like to suggest that the

[49:19] select board change this article from

[49:22] the open-ended statutory language and

[49:24] put in a list of priorities so that the

[49:27] public knows what it is the select board

[49:30] is thinking needs to be done.

[49:33] >> Okay. What you can do, you can ask to

[49:35] amend this, but this is this has to be

[49:38] voted on as warned. We can make

[49:40] amendments to the to the article that

[49:42] was warned, but we can't change the

[49:43] article in this meeting.

[49:47] Can I suggest?

[49:48] >> You could suggest You would have to

[49:50] You'd have to suggest the list though

[49:51] that I mean you'd have to say

[49:52] >> I want to suggest priorities like that.

[49:55] >> So we're going to be voting. So we're

[49:57] going to So I need you to make the

[49:58] motion on the amendment. So you'll make

[50:00] a motion that you want to amend this

[50:02] article and then the body can vote on

[50:06] that amendment if it's voted up or down.

[50:07] And if it's voted up then then it falls

[50:09] then we go back to voting on the actual

[50:11] article with the the amended article.

[50:14] I amend this article so that in a way

[50:18] that the selective will list the

[50:20] priorities

[50:21] clarifying the unanticipated funds such

[50:25] as grants and or to be more specific.

[50:29] >> Okay. Priorities. Okay. Did you get

[50:32] that, April?

[50:35] >> Thank you. Uh do I hear a second on that

[50:37] amendment?

[50:41] » I'll second it.

[50:43] >> Can you read that? Reread that back.

[50:47] » Um I she motioned to amend the article

[50:51] with a list

[50:53] >> of uses to clarify

[50:59] » I don't remember the rest clarify the

[51:02] priorities of the select board

[51:04] um

[51:06] using the unanticipated funds such as

[51:08] grants, gifts, and interest.

[51:11] So basically she's asking for a list the

[51:14] select board to come up with a list to

[51:15] clarify what those things are.

[51:18] >> Seconded. What's your name?

[51:19] >> Michael.

[51:20] >> Mike Luen.

[51:22] >> Okay.

[51:24] Discussion.

[51:25] >> Uh yeah on that. Um I'm the grant writer

[51:27] for Grace Cottage. Um there are all

[51:30] kinds of uh there's money available from

[51:33] state and federal agencies to take care

[51:36] of a lot of infrastructure projects.

[51:38] There are things that only towns can

[51:40] apply for um including right now

[51:43] congressional appropriations.

[51:45] Um and um

[51:46] >> CJ,

[51:47] >> I don't want to cut off, but we're

[51:47] talking about the amendment here. You're

[51:49] >> getting

[51:50] >> And what concerns me about uh the

[51:53] amendment is that um there may be

[51:56] opportunities that you have to pass up

[51:58] because they're not listed in the

[51:59] priorities.

[52:00] >> Okay, makes sense. Okay, thank you.

[52:02] Eric, did you have your hand up?

[52:03] >> Um that was the same thing. I was going

[52:05] to say it's unanticipated so you don't

[52:07] really know you're going to need it to.

[52:09] >> Thank you.

[52:10] >> I was just maybe I can make the

[52:11] suggestion that if it is a significant

[52:14] amount of money that we have a warning

[52:16] or a notice posted and that's all. And

[52:18] if someone wants to say something then

[52:20] they're warned or noted and then you

[52:22] don't have to amend anything. You just

[52:24] kind of got to put it somewhere so

[52:25] everyone knows about it before you do

[52:28] it.

[52:28] >> Thank you.

[52:29] >> So right now we put we put it on the

[52:31] agenda for the select board meetings. So

[52:34] just there it's posted around post

[52:37] office and yeah

[52:38] >> so right now so we're going to be voting

[52:40] on the amendment

[52:42] >> to add a list of priorities from the

[52:45] select board that will discuss the there

[52:49] will be a list of priorities to what the

[52:50] unsupported funds grants and gifts and

[52:52] interest are for. That's the motion

[52:55] that's on the table is the amendment.

[52:57] >> So obligation

[52:59] >> would this obligate the selection board?

[53:02] Yes, that would obligate the select

[53:03] board to come up with that list. Yes.

[53:07] >> Would that list be would that list be

[53:10] strict like they can't go past that?

[53:11] >> That's correct. Yes, that's what I'm

[53:13] understanding from the from the from the amended article. Yes,

[53:16] >> Greg.

[53:16] >> Yeah, Greg.

[53:18] >> Jason.

[53:19] >> Oh, yeah. Jason.

[53:20] >> Jason, I'm sorry. just as a as a

[53:22] possible alternative. It could be an

[53:25] amendment to say that any of these funds

[53:29] collected are spent in a manner that's

[53:31] consistent with how they were given to

[53:33] the town.

[53:34] >> You could propose another amendment when

[53:35] this is done if you'd like to do that.

[53:37] >> I'd like I'd like to add too. I mean, I

[53:39] me being the road commissioner, I I kind

[53:41] of um coordinate a lot of the grants

[53:44] that come to the state and and FEMA, and

[53:47] the key word in there is unanticipated.

[53:50] Um we we have obviously our role is to

[53:54] maintain the roads as an example but we

[53:56] can't specifically say we are going to

[53:58] apply it to this. I mean we we we see

[54:01] needs we see grants and we connect the

[54:03] two. It's it's just very very hard to

[54:06] sit there and anticipate an unant

[54:09] anticipated

[54:10] funding.

[54:12] Any other discussion on the amendment?

[54:15] I'm going to call the question on the

[54:17] amendment.

[54:18] All in favor of the amendment say I.

[54:23] >> Opposed.

[54:26] >> The amendment fails.

[54:29] So back now to the original article six.

[54:32] Shall the voters authorize select board

[54:33] to spend unanticipated funds such as

[54:35] grants, gift, and or interest? Do we

[54:39] have any more discussion on this? This

[54:41] has already been it's already been okay.

[54:43] Call in the question. All in favor? I.

[54:46] All against.

[54:49] Article passes.

[54:51] Article 7 to set the time for the

[54:54] opening of the next annual town meeting

[54:55] to be held the first Tuesday in March

[54:57] 2027.

[54:59] Do you have a motion?

[55:01] >> So move.

[55:02] >> So moved by Meline.

[55:03] >> Second.

[55:05] >> Drew Hazelson.

[55:07] >> Um, what's the date on this? It's the

[55:09] 4th next year, right? Do we know?

[55:13] >> The one thing I didn't write in the

[55:14] book.

[55:19] the second next year. Sorry, it moves

[55:20] the other direction. Okay. Um,

[55:24] >> yes, March.

[55:25] >> So, March 2nd next year. Does I mean,

[55:27] we've talked about moving it to

[55:29] Saturdays. I know we moved it to

[55:30] Saturdays. It hasn't been I don't think

[55:31] the turnout was any different. I think a

[55:33] lot of the same people here. Um, the

[55:36] motion's on the table to have it on the

[55:37] second. Does anyone have any discussion

[55:39] about that? Want to talk about that?

[55:41] >> Yes.

[55:43] Time for the opening. Time in there.

[55:45] Does 10:00 work for people?

[55:47] >> Okay.

[55:48] >> Yep.

[55:50] >> I'm just saying you might want to

[55:52] include that instead

[55:54] of the time.

[55:56] >> Sue,

[55:56] >> um Suski, what is the process in order

[56:00] to possibly have it changed to a

[56:03] different time? There are a lot of young

[56:04] families. I'm looking around and there's

[56:06] younger people here now, but there are a

[56:09] lot of the younger generation that live

[56:10] in town that are working today and they

[56:12] would love to be involved in the the

[56:16] politics of Jamaica, but they can't. Um,

[56:19] and the pro I mean, it's not just this,

[56:21] it's that the town clerk closing at 4 is

[56:24] also difficult than the post office

[56:26] closing when it's at their time. So

[56:28] there's like there's a lot of that

[56:29] stuff, but what is the process we need

[56:31] to do to possibly get it on next year to

[56:35] change?

[56:35] >> We select it right now. You're here

[56:37] right now. We can do it right now to say

[56:39] what time we want to do it for next

[56:40] year.

[56:40] >> Yes.

[56:41] >> Um like I said, we've we tried the pass

[56:44] through on Saturdays and the turnout

[56:46] wasn't any different. And it was the

[56:48] same complaints. I have kids in school.

[56:49] I have to work. Saturdays came around

[56:51] and and people didn't come. I I'm just

[56:54] saying from history. It was we did it a

[56:56] couple years at the town garage during

[56:57] CO and people didn't show up. So, but

[57:00] I'm not saying either way, you know,

[57:02] that's it's your decision as the body.

[57:08] » Some people have it in the evening. I

[57:10] know that some towns have had select

[57:12] last night. Brooklyn and Vernon had

[57:13] theirs last night. They do an evening

[57:15] meeting. Um Vernon's went till what

[57:17] 12:15 last night. So, if you're

[57:20] interested in that, that's that's up to

[57:22] you guys.

[57:25] So, the motion is on the table to do the

[57:27] meeting um

[57:30] the first Tuesday, March 2027 at 10 a.m.

[57:33] >> Anyone? I mean,

[57:35] >> question has been moved. All in favor of

[57:37] that time and date.

[57:38] >> I

[57:39] >> opposed.

[57:42] Motion passes.

[57:44] >> Article passes. Uh article 8 to transact

[57:47] any other business that may legally come

[57:49] before this meeting. Can I get a motion?

[57:53] >> John Began second

[57:57] >> CJ to talk about anything else in the

[58:00] meeting?

[58:00] >> Open discussion.

[58:02] >> Open. So right now we're here to

[58:03] transact any of the business that may

[58:04] legally come before the board before the

[58:07] meeting. Does anyone have anything to

[58:08] talk about?

[58:10] >> Nelson.

[58:11] Coleman. I just have a couple

[58:12] questions. One is about the deficit you

[58:15] had back a couple years ago that we sat

[58:17] on for a long time and then we were

[58:18] supposed to came up as an odd and was

[58:20] supposed to move. It was like a million

[58:22] dollars or something like that. Did FEMA

[58:24] money take care of that? So that has

[58:26] been erased or is that still sitting on

[58:27] the boards?

[58:28] >> So do you mean the the flood fund

[58:31] deficit?

[58:32] >> So yeah, remember last year we voted um

[58:35] approximately a half a million dollars

[58:36] to be placed in that fund. You'll you'll

[58:39] see the change when when the audited

[58:42] financials come out because that's where

[58:44] you see the ex, you know, the status of

[58:46] the current funds. Okay.

[58:47] >> Yes.

[58:49] >> But yeah. Oh, Sarah's

[58:50] >> Sarah's got an answer here. Sarah,

[58:52] >> we areing $25,000 a year is my item 200

[58:56] for the FEMA repayment from Irene. So

[58:59] that's where you're going to see in the

[59:00] budget.

[59:01] >> So do you know where the status is?

[59:02] What's left on that million dollars or

[59:04] whatever it was?

[59:05] >> I can get it for you.

[59:07] But we are working on it.

[59:08] >> Yes, we

[59:11] >> have been very You need to do this.

[59:14] We're trying.

[59:15] >> It's just It won't show up until we see

[59:16] the auditors report.

[59:18] >> Correct.

[59:18] >> Okay. And then the other question, I'm

[59:19] sure it's it's just a maintenance thing,

[59:21] but a fee on the transfer station for

[59:24] 95,000. Is there going to be a bunch of

[59:26] repairs taking place up there this year?

[59:28] >> Yes. Yes, I can answer that as as town

[59:30] administrator. Um we are we have an RFP

[59:33] out. Hunter has accepted it. Uh we will

[59:35] be doing we'll be pulling what pulling

[59:37] down the awnings and rebuilding

[59:39] basically regrading everything

[59:40] rebuilding everything and and building

[59:42] it back up. It's really in disrepair

[59:43] right now. So that is going to start in

[59:45] the spring.

[59:47] >> Tie.

[59:48] >> Is this a good time to ask about that

[59:50] dredging of the rest of the river?

[59:52] >> Yeah, you can talk. Yeah, you can ask

[59:53] that now.

[59:55] >> Yes, it is. Thank you.

[59:58] >> Anyone have any thoughts? I spoke

[1:00:02] personally with Hunter and he told me

[1:00:04] there was no access to that part of the

[1:00:06] river which I own it. So I will

[1:00:09] >> where you saying downream

[1:00:11] >> on the other side of the bridge where

[1:00:12] the rocks are where the swimming hole is

[1:00:14] that there is a huge amount just like

[1:00:17] happened is the whole mountain came down

[1:00:19] that river and deposited itself right

[1:00:21] where Jamaica started all the way

[1:00:23] through the town all the way down to

[1:00:25] where the west river meets it. Right.

[1:00:27] That's right. And we were very great

[1:00:29] about dredging a large portion of it up

[1:00:33] to the river on Depot Street. And it's a

[1:00:35] nice well-made thing after the river on

[1:00:39] Depot Street. It's flat and full of

[1:00:42] rubble that up to the up to the edge of

[1:00:45] everybody's lawns. So you have a ton of

[1:00:48] water that's going to come down in the

[1:00:49] spring.

[1:00:50] It's going to hit all that stuff that

[1:00:52] didn't get dredged. And it's going to

[1:00:54] spread out on a lot of our properties,

[1:00:57] mine in particular, and uh, of course,

[1:01:01] my neighbors and just anybody that's

[1:01:03] down and experienced that flood and we

[1:01:05] all had to remove our animals that time

[1:01:08] when the dam was having so much. I do

[1:01:11] not want to relive that. And I want to

[1:01:13] know if anybody had mentioned that.

[1:01:17] >> Well, the dredging happened. It was a

[1:01:19] part of FEMA funding. Yeah, Greg can

[1:01:21] speak on that. I'm sorry. I have

[1:01:22] multiple roles

[1:01:24] >> that the debris removal FEMA dredging is

[1:01:28] a four-letter word in in FEMA terms. So,

[1:01:30] but anyway,

[1:01:31] >> so we we removed debris.

[1:01:34] >> So, we we actually were able to define

[1:01:37] and luckily uh we were able to define a

[1:01:39] project to remove that debris within the

[1:01:41] village um because of infrastructure and

[1:01:44] whatnot, bridges and homes. Obviously,

[1:01:47] your homes are down there, too. Um, we

[1:01:50] were not able to define a project to

[1:01:52] remove the debris down lower. I'm not

[1:01:55] denying that it doesn't need to be done.

[1:01:57] Um, but it could be worked on. I mean,

[1:02:00] it would be very, very, very challenging

[1:02:02] to get the funding for it. Um, this

[1:02:05] particular just that small section in

[1:02:07] the village was over a half a million

[1:02:09] dollars. Um, and which was wonderful

[1:02:12] that we were able to get that. Um, and

[1:02:16] not to say that we can't look again look

[1:02:18] for grants or things like that. I mean,

[1:02:20] it would it's it's well beyond anything

[1:02:22] that we could do ourselves. Um, but we

[1:02:25] >> we should be looking at things like that

[1:02:26] for sure.

[1:02:27] >> Yeah.

[1:02:28] >> Okay.

[1:02:30] >> And I can look into it too as as town

[1:02:32] administrator. I can look at grants and

[1:02:33] things to see if I can find anything.

[1:02:35] But again, it's going to be getting the

[1:02:36] money to do it. We all we all

[1:02:38] acknowledge that there's a need to do

[1:02:39] it. It's just trying to find the funds.

[1:02:42] The other thing I would just say one

[1:02:43] other thing which is that Scott Jensen

[1:02:45] who's the person from the state who is

[1:02:48] you've met him he he issues the um

[1:02:51] permits to access the river and make

[1:02:53] those changes. He he was I mean

[1:02:56] obviously I'm concerned it was fight we

[1:02:58] all you know the Meadows Road crew we

[1:03:00] all we you know we were yeah um he felt

[1:03:05] by the at the conclusion of the $600,000

[1:03:10] project that we were able to complete

[1:03:12] with with federal funds that that work

[1:03:15] is going to improve our you know our

[1:03:17] situation. um channels have already sort

[1:03:20] of naturally been created there and he

[1:03:24] felt that there would be continued

[1:03:26] improvement behind your and and the hunt

[1:03:29] house and around you know basically

[1:03:31] impacting all of us. No guarantees but

[1:03:34] he definitely felt that that that

[1:03:36] project ameliated our situation. It

[1:03:39] doesn't mean it wouldn't be great to

[1:03:41] have another $200,000 to to do the rest

[1:03:44] of the work or a quarter of a million

[1:03:46] roughly to do the rest of the work.

[1:03:48] >> I I can't imagine that that level

[1:03:50] doesn't bring money like that that that

[1:03:53] they I can't believe that that Phil

[1:03:56] doesn't bring money.

[1:03:57] >> So, we can't sell it. But Greg,

[1:03:59] >> but we I mean it did bring value. Um we

[1:04:02] were able to use it on our

[1:04:03] >> We used it on our roads build up our

[1:04:04] roads.

[1:04:05] >> We can't sell it. We we can only

[1:04:06] >> We can't offset the cost. cost him and

[1:04:08] it still would be a cost, but if we

[1:04:09] could apply it and improve other areas,

[1:04:13] >> tiny, what I'll do is I'll follow up

[1:04:14] with Scott Jensen about this and I'll

[1:04:16] talk to him because obviously

[1:04:17] >> if they want access through my land all

[1:04:19] day long,

[1:04:20] >> okay, so as as Jessica said, Scott

[1:04:23] Jensen said he believes that that what

[1:04:25] we've done will mitigate to some degree

[1:04:27] the flooding lower down on the river. I

[1:04:29] will I will follow up with him on that

[1:04:31] and get back to you. Okay.

[1:04:33] Hi, I'm Barbara Dalia on West Jamaica

[1:04:35] Road and I just want to address you say

[1:04:37] we used it on the roads and I wanted to

[1:04:39] thank you many times for

[1:04:44] so much.

[1:04:45] >> Thank you to a lot of people our road

[1:04:47] crew. I mean hard to get through all

[1:04:49] those things over the past few years.

[1:04:51] >> Mary Mary

[1:04:52] >> Yes. Um I have a question about the dump

[1:04:55] and the changing of how the dump was

[1:04:57] going to be done. I was told by two

[1:05:00] different people that changing the way

[1:05:02] it's done. So, is there something we can

[1:05:05] talk about that the difference of price,

[1:05:07] difference in the bags, different?

[1:05:09] >> You talk about the bags, you talk about

[1:05:10] the actual construction.

[1:05:11] >> No, the bags and the cost of the bag.

[1:05:14] >> Can you repeat the question?

[1:05:17] >> Yes.

[1:05:18] >> The question was regarding what changes

[1:05:20] are happening at the dunk regarding bags

[1:05:22] and tokens and I'm going to defer to the

[1:05:25] select board on that. Kate Alman.

[1:05:27] >> So, uh we have ordered tokens which will

[1:05:29] be instead of bags. So, you don't have

[1:05:32] to use bags. You can use a cardboard

[1:05:34] box. You can use paper bags from the

[1:05:36] grocery store. You can uh you don't So,

[1:05:40] we're not going to be selling bags

[1:05:41] anymore. We still have some left and we

[1:05:43] would hope that people would continue to

[1:05:45] use them till till they're gone because

[1:05:47] they were expensive, but we have

[1:05:49] purchased tokens. We'll have green

[1:05:51] tokens which will correspond to the same

[1:05:54] size as the green bags and yellow

[1:05:57] tokens. Uh all of the tokens are from

[1:05:59] recycled materials uh which will

[1:06:02] correspond to the size of the yellow

[1:06:04] bags like 13 gallon and 30 gallon

[1:06:07] roughly. And uh so uh we haven't set a

[1:06:12] price yet.

[1:06:13] We have to do that probably next month.

[1:06:16] >> Yeah. Watch watch the agenda for select

[1:06:18] board meetings if you want to

[1:06:19] participate in that.

[1:06:20] >> Eric, I'm sorry. What's your name?

[1:06:23] >> Betsy Thompson.

[1:06:24] >> Betsy Thomasson. She's she's next. And

[1:06:25] Erica, you're next.

[1:06:29] Oh, regarding the transfer station, uh I

[1:06:32] was there in a very cold day a couple of

[1:06:34] weeks ago and uh I was concerned about

[1:06:36] Ernie's health up there in a cold, you

[1:06:41] know, frigid environment is in in this

[1:06:44] um reconfiguration or whatever of the

[1:06:47] transfer station, will there be any warm

[1:06:50] place or safe place for the attendant to

[1:06:53] um to to stay for for 8 hours.

[1:06:58] >> He had a heated shed.

[1:06:59] >> He has he has to heat in the shed

[1:07:02] >> in his his office.

[1:07:04] >> You know, the um uh uh the the the used

[1:07:09] exchange house is larger than Ernie's

[1:07:12] shed,

[1:07:14] you know. I mean, he you can turn around

[1:07:16] in it and

[1:07:18] >> I don't know. I just concerned about the

[1:07:20] health and welfare of the people who

[1:07:24] >> whatever happened with that. We we had

[1:07:25] talked about increasing the size. Did

[1:07:27] you guys Yeah.

[1:07:28] >> I think the the cost of other

[1:07:30] improvements, but um yeah, that's

[1:07:33] something to consider for sure.

[1:07:36] >> Erica,

[1:07:37] >> I just wanted to go back to the bags for

[1:07:38] a second. Could you bring a trash can

[1:07:42] without bags and dump it into the thing?

[1:07:45] >> Yes.

[1:07:45] >> Oh, so it's it's actually potentially

[1:07:47] could reduce the pl Is that the

[1:07:51] idea? Yeah. and and at least one citizen

[1:07:54] already does that.

[1:07:58] » Um I have a couple of of things mostly

[1:08:01] about all the activity that's been going

[1:08:04] on in Jamaica. Uh Jamaica Community Arts

[1:08:07] Council has been working really hard at

[1:08:09] providing yoga in here and exercise and

[1:08:13] we'll be working on more

[1:08:16] activities in here. Uh there's the

[1:08:19] library does movies and all kinds of

[1:08:23] exciting things. Jamba is putting trails

[1:08:25] into the uh Ball Mountain Dam area and

[1:08:29] we're working on other trails.

[1:08:31] Uh we have a calendar. Tom has a

[1:08:34] community calendar

[1:08:35] >> on the calendar on the town website.

[1:08:36] Yes.

[1:08:37] >> And and we're posting a lot of things on

[1:08:39] the Jamaica Community Arts Council

[1:08:42] website, Facebook pages. It's on the

[1:08:44] Jamaica Facebook page. the Rossonville

[1:08:47] Schoolhouse. We have a committee that's

[1:08:50] working on that um to try to gain access

[1:08:56] to have programs and things like that up

[1:08:58] there. We're going to have an open house

[1:09:00] probably in May. You'll see things about

[1:09:02] that. The Jamaica Historical Foundation

[1:09:06] uh will be open from miday till mid

[1:09:09] October. So, pop in and see us. People

[1:09:12] are donating photos. They're donating

[1:09:15] memorabilia, articles, and things at a

[1:09:18] couple times a week. We're getting

[1:09:19] things. It's really quite wonderful. Uh,

[1:09:23] Jamaica Day is Saturday, August 15th.

[1:09:27] Uh, think about what you can put in the

[1:09:29] parade or how you can help or just come

[1:09:31] and enjoy the day. Um, I know there's a

[1:09:35] lot of other things that I'm forgetting,

[1:09:37] but um, we've got a lot of exciting

[1:09:40] things happening. We have a lot of new

[1:09:42] young folks that are moving into Jamaica

[1:09:45] and this is sort of getting into the

[1:09:47] whole education bit of it and I'm hoping

[1:09:49] that Drew will talk in just a second and

[1:09:51] maybe Dana

[1:09:53] um

[1:09:56] >> we need to talk about the school and and

[1:09:59] what's happening which Drew will mention

[1:10:03] but what do we need for our community

[1:10:05] for the next 20 25 years and how do we

[1:10:09] keep these young folks who have moved

[1:10:11] into town

[1:10:13] staying here and and what do they need?

[1:10:19] » Andy Coin,

[1:10:20] >> may I go back to a couple of things? I

[1:10:23] >> You can go back. Yeah, go back to the

[1:10:24] dump.

[1:10:25] >> Am I going to be able to still use bags

[1:10:27] if it be my uh

[1:10:29] >> my choice?

[1:10:30] >> There's no bait and switch here. Yes,

[1:10:31] you'll be able to use the bags until

[1:10:32] your bags are gone. That's

[1:10:34] >> like uh for demo, you can use contractor

[1:10:37] bags. It's a whole different thing that

[1:10:39] >> that's different. That's what tok that's

[1:10:40] that the other tokens which we already

[1:10:43] currently

[1:10:44] >> I understand that. Um so back to the

[1:10:48] question about u the uh what was that

[1:10:52] called Greg the $600,000

[1:10:57] » debris removal.

[1:10:59] I mean maybe Tom can uh comment on this

[1:11:02] but I've seen some pretty high water hit

[1:11:04] that. I mean, not the highest, but it

[1:11:08] certainly seemed to handle it a lot

[1:11:10] better,

[1:11:11] >> especially on his part. I

[1:11:12] >> I rest much easier. I will say that the the the dredging or the taking of

[1:11:17] the debris out of of the brook near my

[1:11:19] home is it's it's transformative. I

[1:11:23] mean, the river would always raise up

[1:11:25] close to the road when it when it was

[1:11:28] flood stages and when the rain and such.

[1:11:30] And since then, it hasn't it hasn't got

[1:11:32] it hasn't ever gotten higher. and it

[1:11:34] does seem to fan out better. I know it's

[1:11:36] very concerning, but it's much better

[1:11:39] than it did. And I just want to thank

[1:11:42] Greg, our previous uh assistant town

[1:11:44] administrator and the board for really

[1:11:48] doing every single thing that the powers

[1:11:52] that be were asking asking them to do

[1:11:55] and getting that last funding back was

[1:11:59] sort of not really rolling the dice, but

[1:12:01] it was a little nerve-wracking.

[1:12:03] But it it what we found is all better

[1:12:05] for

[1:12:06] >> Thank you.

[1:12:07] >> A huge improvement.

[1:12:09] >> I just have a really quick question.

[1:12:11] >> Yes, CJ. That's fine.

[1:12:12] >> So, back to the to the tokens. Do you

[1:12:14] have a timing for us? Can you tell us

[1:12:16] the timing?

[1:12:18] >> They've been ordered and they said it

[1:12:20] only takes one to two weeks to get here.

[1:12:22] So, they should be here soon. Uh again,

[1:12:25] we are hoping that people will continue

[1:12:26] to use the bags because we don't want

[1:12:28] them just to sit there. um they do

[1:12:30] degrade over time and and we spent money

[1:12:33] on them, but yeah, it will be very soon

[1:12:35] that you um I I'm thinking we'll have a

[1:12:37] grace period where you could use either.

[1:12:39] We haven't really decided for sure.

[1:12:41] >> And you buy them at the same place.

[1:12:43] >> Yes.

[1:12:44] >> Okay.

[1:12:45] >> So, this is very soon.

[1:12:46] >> Yes.

[1:12:47] >> Okay.

[1:12:47] >> Very soon. And and again, we probably

[1:12:49] have four four or five boxes of the

[1:12:51] yellow bags left. It's not a ton. And I

[1:12:53] know Forest will come in for for West

[1:12:55] River provisions and buy 20 or 30 boxes.

[1:12:58] And I think in a box is 40. So I mean in

[1:13:00] a couple of weeks we're going to be

[1:13:01] pretty much out of the yellow bags at

[1:13:03] the town office

[1:13:04] >> and then at that point

[1:13:06] >> hopefully we'll start the transition

[1:13:07] then. That's my that's my goal as town

[1:13:09] clerk.

[1:13:10] >> Yes.

[1:13:11] >> And I just wanted to carry on. You said

[1:13:13] you're not sure of the cost, meaning

[1:13:16] you're considering raising the price of

[1:13:18] each level.

[1:13:19] >> We have decided on the price.

[1:13:22] >> Um I did also want to mention that

[1:13:24] construction bags will not be allowed.

[1:13:26] They don't work well in the in the

[1:13:28] compactor. So, you're not allowed to use

[1:13:31] construction bags in the reg for the

[1:13:33] regular household trash. They have to go

[1:13:35] into CN.

[1:13:36] >> Can Here's a question for you, though.

[1:13:38] Do you take if you bring it in a

[1:13:40] construction bag, can you just dump it

[1:13:42] out and take the bag back?

[1:13:45] >> Patty in the back.

[1:13:48] >> Okay. Can we Can we stick to the dumping

[1:13:50] for now? As people winding this down,

[1:13:52] are we are the questions answered? Jean

[1:13:57] What date is the select? Did you have

[1:13:59] any discussion?

[1:13:59] >> Oh, you did. I'm sorry. I didn't know.

[1:14:00] I'm sorry. Too much going.

[1:14:05] » What date is the select board going to

[1:14:07] list the topic of the bags and

[1:14:11] >> Watch out for the agenda. It's published

[1:14:12] every Thursday.

[1:14:16] The agenda is published on the website

[1:14:18] and at the at various locations around

[1:14:20] town every Thursday prior to the Monday

[1:14:23] select board meeting. So the agendas are

[1:14:25] online and they're also at the post

[1:14:27] office at West River Provisions and at

[1:14:29] the town office.

[1:14:30] >> So it's not being

[1:14:33] >> the the the agendas for the meetings are

[1:14:35] generally uh I receive those as town

[1:14:37] clerk on the Thursday before the

[1:14:38] meeting. So those Jessica creates those

[1:14:43] usually that week before the meeting.

[1:14:45] Yeah, that's generally how it works. Oh,

[1:14:47] sorry, Patty. Let Patty, I'm sorry I cut

[1:14:49] you off, Patty. Go ahead.

[1:14:50] >> I have lived uh before in a place that

[1:14:54] has pay as you go dumping and recycling.

[1:15:00] And um I think it's factual that as you

[1:15:04] increase the price, you price out

[1:15:06] people's ability to use that service.

[1:15:10] And I'm concerned about that, that

[1:15:12] people will not be able to afford to

[1:15:14] bring their garbage to the dump and dump

[1:15:17] the way we want them to. And so I I

[1:15:21] would love for us to look into some kind

[1:15:24] of discount support grant program for

[1:15:28] people who meet some criteria um to help

[1:15:32] support them in using this facility

[1:15:35] because um what happens when people

[1:15:37] can't afford to dump is they dump

[1:15:39] wherever they think they're not going to

[1:15:40] get caught dumping and it increases some

[1:15:43] of the cost for the community in the

[1:15:46] form of garbage pickup and just

[1:15:49] unsightliness and unwanted rodents and

[1:15:52] so forth. So, I I would love to see us

[1:15:55] um find a way to support people who may

[1:15:58] be priced out of the new um structure.

[1:16:03] >> I second that.

[1:16:05] >> Thank you guys. Thanks for the comments.

[1:16:06] Um Chris, did you have something?

[1:16:08] >> Yes. I'd like to go back to uh what

[1:16:11] Karen was talking about just in

[1:16:14] relationship to Jamaica date. I'd like

[1:16:17] to ask anybody in this hall if they

[1:16:21] would be part of our Jamaica Day

[1:16:24] preparations. Seems like there's like

[1:16:27] just four of us. Four women are the only

[1:16:30] ones right now with the exception of

[1:16:32] Craig, Craig, Jolly, and that that seem

[1:16:36] to be doing any of the work.

[1:16:40] So, I would love anybody who would like

[1:16:42] to get involved to get in touch with

[1:16:44] Karen, please. And thank you, Kristen.

[1:16:47] >> I have a question about the uh compost

[1:16:50] bins, please. Um you you ask us to

[1:16:54] compost and I do because I can't do it

[1:16:57] at home because of the bears and um but

[1:17:01] we don't get to when it's I I I know

[1:17:04] that they take it and that that they

[1:17:07] actually do compost. It's you get nice

[1:17:09] dirt and why can't we go someplace to to

[1:17:14] get some of that?

[1:17:16] >> Yeah. Uh Winters All the Waste uh down

[1:17:19] in Brattleboro sells it and they have a

[1:17:21] huge operation. They've done a whole lot

[1:17:23] of work on the composting and they do

[1:17:26] sell it down there.

[1:17:27] >> Oh, they do?

[1:17:27] >> Yes.

[1:17:28] >> Okay. Is it very expensive?

[1:17:30] >> I I don't actually know.

[1:17:31] >> Okay. Um,

[1:17:35] >> Claire,

[1:17:36] >> this is I I understand it's not it's not

[1:17:39] a compost question, so I don't know if

[1:17:41] anybody wants to hear because it looks

[1:17:43] like that's very popular. Um, I have a

[1:17:46] question for the board. Um, when the

[1:17:49] people, I don't know their names, but

[1:17:51] anyhow, um, come down street with the

[1:17:53] new poles all the way to the state park,

[1:17:56] what's your plan for traffic when it's

[1:17:58] summertime? because I I was I was

[1:18:01] speaking to one of the gentlemen that's

[1:18:02] in charge of it and he said he had

[1:18:05] nothing from the board that said that

[1:18:07] there was going to be campers and

[1:18:10] whatever. I said, you know, there's

[1:18:11] going to be a traffic problem. He said

[1:18:13] that won't work.

[1:18:14] >> Have you discussed this with them?

[1:18:18] >> I'm not sure because we do GMP comes to

[1:18:21] meetings

[1:18:23] though all the way down to the state,

[1:18:25] >> right?

[1:18:26] >> And they're going to do it this summer,

[1:18:27] >> right? So, at the same time, every

[1:18:31] camper that comes through, the big

[1:18:32] campers that come through are going to

[1:18:34] use the same road. And when I spoke to

[1:18:36] him about it and asked him how that's

[1:18:38] going to work, he said

[1:18:41] he had no idea.

[1:18:43] >> And this is this is

[1:18:45] from Pennsylvania, right? Normally they

[1:18:47] come to the board, they tell us what

[1:18:49] their plan is, they say the dates and

[1:18:51] times. We work with them to publish

[1:18:54] those, particularly in the area that

[1:18:57] you're talking about, which is adjacent

[1:18:58] to the park because some folks on the

[1:19:01] other side of the existing bridge could

[1:19:04] get can get stranded. So they all have

[1:19:06] to be notified, that group gets notified

[1:19:08] separately. And then in terms of any

[1:19:12] time that the road is going to be

[1:19:13] obstructed or partly obstructed, it's

[1:19:16] not that the town itself does not

[1:19:18] actually manage that traffic. GMP does,

[1:19:21] but they do tell us that they're going

[1:19:22] to be going down to one lane, et

[1:19:27] isue in the past.

[1:19:28] >> We had the general meeting where they

[1:19:29] said what the project was. They told us

[1:19:31] about the projects at the at the

[1:19:32] meeting,

[1:19:33] >> right? But then they also

[1:19:34] >> but we didn't get the specifics of it

[1:19:36] >> exactly when they're when they're

[1:19:38] coming, what the hours are, the days,

[1:19:40] and then they put up the flaggers, etc.

[1:19:43] So, I'm not sure. It might be helpful

[1:19:45] just to know who you spoke to cuz that's

[1:19:47] not consistent with what

[1:19:48] >> several several people

[1:19:53] that

[1:19:55] Yeah, that's the person that's in charge

[1:19:58] from I think he's in Pennsylvania or

[1:19:59] something. Anyhow, and when I mentioned

[1:20:02] that state park is very very busy in the

[1:20:05] summer and there would be big campers

[1:20:06] going through, he said this is not going

[1:20:08] to work because we can't take things

[1:20:10] down. So he asked me asked me if there

[1:20:12] was another way around and I said yes

[1:20:14] but you need to speak to the select

[1:20:16] board. So maybe there needs to be you

[1:20:18] have the need to person that came to

[1:20:20] you.

[1:20:20] >> I have his name. I can I can contact him

[1:20:23] and find out. I'll get more information

[1:20:24] from him. Thank you, Clara. Because

[1:20:26] yeah, because we we can figure that out

[1:20:27] then

[1:20:27] >> because it's going to go around

[1:20:31] It's it's a tough turn though.

[1:20:33] >> People need to know where the traffic

[1:20:34] from the state park is going to come

[1:20:36] from.

[1:20:38] >> I'm just saying it's something that

[1:20:42] >> Okay, I would look into that.

[1:20:45] >> It's concl

[1:20:49] » I'm sorry. Who? Oh, I'm sorry. John.

[1:20:53] >> My name is John Began and I would like

[1:20:56] the town to consider supporting these

[1:20:58] two resolutions.

[1:21:01] Um, voters of Jamaica, Vermont condemn

[1:21:04] the current activities of ICE operatives

[1:21:08] and call on the US Congress to defund

[1:21:11] and abolish the agency as it now exists.

[1:21:16] And the second one is the voters of

[1:21:18] Jamaica, Vermont

[1:21:20] condemn the war against Iran and call on

[1:21:24] Congress to invoke the War Powers Act

[1:21:27] and that the president bring our troops

[1:21:30] home now.

[1:21:32] >> Unfortunately, it's not being warned

[1:21:35] >> as articles. We can't vote on those that

[1:21:37] are any any binding

[1:21:39] >> resolution. You have to warn articles

[1:21:42] such as those beforehand. Isn't there a

[1:21:44] way to do that? We can official

[1:21:47] >> We can unofficially do it, but it's not

[1:21:48] I mean

[1:21:49] >> opinions.

[1:21:50] >> We can do an opinion that we we feel

[1:21:51] that but it's not anything binding,

[1:21:53] >> right?

[1:21:54] >> Because you need to read them out

[1:21:57] separately like we'd have because it's

[1:21:58] two separate articles.

[1:22:01] >> I mean I I the

[1:22:03] >> again it's just a consensus of the town

[1:22:04] that we agree with this. It's not

[1:22:06] something that's going to be binding or

[1:22:07] anything like that.

[1:22:08] >> Right. Let's do it.

[1:22:09] >> Did you want to do it again and do the

[1:22:12] first one

[1:22:13] >> and then see if there's a second?

[1:22:15] >> Read.

[1:22:15] >> Yeah. Read the first one. Read the first

[1:22:17] one by itself. Yeah.

[1:22:18] >> The voters of Jamaica, Vermont

[1:22:21] current activities

[1:22:23] of ICE operatives and call on the US

[1:22:25] Congress to defund and abolish the

[1:22:28] agency as it now exists.

[1:22:31] >> Second.

[1:22:32] >> Okay.

[1:22:33] Second.

[1:22:34] >> Yep. Second. Sec. It's been seconded.

[1:22:37] >> Does the town

[1:22:38] Want to all in favor of that?

[1:22:42] >> I

[1:22:44] against

[1:22:45] >> no.

[1:22:46] >> Couple of nays.

[1:22:48] >> Second.

[1:22:49] >> Then read the second one.

[1:22:52] >> Voters of Jamaica

[1:22:54] condemn the war against Iran and call on

[1:22:58] Congress to invoke the War of Powers Act

[1:23:01] and that the president bring our troops

[1:23:04] home.

[1:23:06] I second.

[1:23:08] >> Second.

[1:23:09] >> Any discussion?

[1:23:12] >> Close the question. All in favor?

[1:23:15] >> All against?

[1:23:16] >> No.

[1:23:18] >> Eyes have it.

[1:23:20] >> Okay. Thank you, John.

[1:23:21] >> Thank you.

[1:23:22] >> Heather.

[1:23:23] >> Um, any pictures to the state park that

[1:23:26] you brought up? There is a meeting

[1:23:27] tomorrow

[1:23:29] >> to discuss what's happening uh

[1:23:31] development plans for Pikes Falls,

[1:23:34] >> Hamilton Falls.

[1:23:35] >> Hamilton's fall, excuse me. Thank you.

[1:23:37] It's at 6 p.m. For some reason, it's in

[1:23:41] town.

[1:23:42] >> It's really important. And Amos should

[1:23:44] speak on that. Yeah,

[1:23:47] >> we've been in contact with the state and

[1:23:49] they have told us that they do not have

[1:23:51] a plan for

[1:23:53] >> this meeting tomorrow night in town is

[1:23:55] about the long-term plan for the state

[1:23:57] park not including Hamilton Falls. They

[1:24:00] say

[1:24:02] >> they didn't first announce it as being

[1:24:06] about Hamilton Falls and then later said

[1:24:09] what you're saying?

[1:24:12] I can't keep track but I know um my wife

[1:24:15] Alana and also my sister-in-law Yan have

[1:24:18] been in touch with them and they have

[1:24:21] said more than once this is not about

[1:24:24] policy or say anything about that they

[1:24:26] don't have a plan about policy this is

[1:24:28] about

[1:24:32] » thank you there there is a notice in the

[1:24:35] front window the little box outside that

[1:24:38] describes the meeting time and location

[1:24:41] and a lot of us are car pooling. If

[1:24:43] anyone needs a ride, I'd be happy to

[1:24:46] pick you up.

[1:24:46] >> Okay, thank you.

[1:24:49] >> Any other items to bring up? Meline?

[1:24:52] >> Um, I just wanted to say a few things

[1:24:54] for the library. I'm Maline. I'm the um

[1:24:57] librarian. Um, as part of the budget

[1:24:59] that we all passed today, the library

[1:25:01] will be expanding hours and we hope to

[1:25:04] be open a little bit earlier in the

[1:25:06] mornings and more consistently hopefully

[1:25:09] every day for at least a couple hours.

[1:25:12] So, keep a lookout for that. And also,

[1:25:15] this summer we will have three bicycles

[1:25:18] able to be rented um with your library

[1:25:21] card for free.

[1:25:28] So, uh, just make sure to keep an eye on

[1:25:30] um the website jamaabbt library.org or

[1:25:34] pop by the library anytime. I'll be

[1:25:37] there.

[1:25:38] >> Thank you.

[1:25:45] » Oh, sure. Um, I'm I'm in the midst of

[1:25:49] applying for a very large grant for the

[1:25:52] library through the Vermont Department

[1:25:54] of Libraries, um, all the way up to

[1:25:56] $400,000. But it it's to insulate the

[1:26:00] library um, to hopefully make it so we

[1:26:03] can use the downstairs of the library

[1:26:06] um, and do a new HVAC and improve the

[1:26:09] accessibility of the building. So, like

[1:26:11] making sure that the ramps are safe and

[1:26:13] the doors have automatic openers. um and

[1:26:16] things like that. So, it can be

[1:26:18] available and used for years and years

[1:26:20] to come and it won't just kind of go to

[1:26:23] this repair.

[1:26:23] >> Great. Thank you so much.

[1:26:28] » I've got a question for road

[1:26:30] commissioner/

[1:26:32] highway department. Um on the fire

[1:26:34] department, we've got a uh returning

[1:26:38] call on Pikes Falls Road. been six times

[1:26:41] somebody's gone over the bridge at the

[1:26:43] first bridge on Plex Falls. Coming down

[1:26:46] from Stratton, their GPS reroutes and it

[1:26:48] saves them three minutes going home to

[1:26:51] 91. They don't see the turn that it's a

[1:26:54] 90° turn and instead of going down the

[1:26:56] driveway, they try to make the turn,

[1:26:58] jump over the guardrail that's been hit

[1:27:00] six times and spraying flat and land in

[1:27:02] the river. Um, we get called out. It's a

[1:27:05] waste of our time's resources to go deal

[1:27:07] with that. What is is there any plan to

[1:27:10] fix that guard rail and increase

[1:27:12] visibility on signage

[1:27:13] >> for that corner coming down that strap?

[1:27:17] >> That is an excellent point. Um

[1:27:20] >> there's not specific I mean a very very

[1:27:22] good point. I mean there's not specific

[1:27:24] plans for that. We could easily enough

[1:27:26] go put up a new sign. I can probably

[1:27:28] without being surprised to anybody. It's

[1:27:31] probably won't make a difference,

[1:27:32] >> right? Um, but we can easily put up a

[1:27:34] new sign and and um take a look at the

[1:27:37] guardrail again, you know, once the snow

[1:27:39] bank's nothing but I know it's been beat

[1:27:40] up.

[1:27:41] >> There used to be some kind of light

[1:27:43] flashing or strobing and

[1:27:45] >> like I said, the guard rail just

[1:27:46] destroyed at this point. People are

[1:27:47] going to keep ramping off of this.

[1:27:49] >> Okay,

[1:27:50] >> thank you for those

[1:27:54] » um just a reminder that um dog licenses

[1:27:58] are due April 1st and that's not a town

[1:28:01] thing. It's actually a state law. Um, so

[1:28:03] if you see dog owners, remind them that

[1:28:05] they need to get their dogs licensed.

[1:28:07] Um, and they can do that at the town

[1:28:09] hall.

[1:28:10] >> Town office.

[1:28:10] >> Oh, town office. Excuse me.

[1:28:12] >> Karen, good.

[1:28:12] >> I would like a discussion on education.

[1:28:15] >> Yeah. Can I just remind everybody first

[1:28:17] of all that um the meeting has been

[1:28:20] warned for April 8th. We were asked by

[1:28:24] um the school board, the uh West River

[1:28:26] Unified Education District to um vote as

[1:28:30] a town whether to close the school. And

[1:28:34] we warned a second article which is that

[1:28:37] if in fact the town does vote to close

[1:28:41] the school, do we as citizens um agree

[1:28:45] that we should buy that property back

[1:28:47] from the school district for a dollar?

[1:28:50] Um, we also warned an information

[1:28:52] session for March 31st. It's the Tuesday

[1:28:55] before the April 8th um, election. The

[1:28:59] April 8th election is Australian ballot.

[1:29:01] It's not here on the floor like we do

[1:29:03] town meeting. Um, it's uh, voting is

[1:29:06] open. We What did we change it? 9:00

[1:29:08] a.m. till

[1:29:09] >> it's that's 9 to 7.

[1:29:10] >> 9 till 7. Yep.

[1:29:12] >> Um, and we can do we can do absentee

[1:29:15] ballots too, right? You can do absentee

[1:29:16] ballots on that as well.

[1:29:18] >> That's a regular election. That's a

[1:29:19] regular

[1:29:21] >> um and the information session is also

[1:29:24] at the town office. I do encourage

[1:29:26] people to come. There's a subcommittee

[1:29:28] of the select board um right now that's

[1:29:31] in the process of preparing um concepts.

[1:29:35] I mean maybe can I can I leave that to

[1:29:36] you Robert? Do you want to just talk

[1:29:38] about the committee?

[1:29:39] >> Yeah. So, we have a subcommittee

[1:29:40] starting this Thursday evening run by

[1:29:42] Jason, myself and a number of people

[1:29:44] from the community who are looking at um

[1:29:47] potential uses for the Jamaica Village

[1:29:49] School property if the town votes to

[1:29:52] close the school. Um it's more of a

[1:29:54] preparation. We're not talking about

[1:29:57] during this committee if we should or if

[1:29:58] we should not close the school. It's an

[1:30:00] if and type of scenario. So, we are just

[1:30:04] reaching out to community members. If

[1:30:06] anybody would like to join us, you can

[1:30:07] definitely reach out to myself or Jason.

[1:30:09] Um, we're having our first meeting this

[1:30:11] Thursday, 7:00 at the Jamaica Village

[1:30:14] School. And anybody with an idea is

[1:30:16] welcome. More the marrier. I think the

[1:30:18] more ideas we get, the better off we're

[1:30:20] going to be.

[1:30:21] >> What we heard from a lot of people was

[1:30:23] how do we possibly as a as as a group of

[1:30:26] citizens vote whether to take back the

[1:30:28] school if there's not if there hasn't

[1:30:30] even been a discussion yet of what that

[1:30:33] what the property might be used for. So

[1:30:36] yeah, so that's that's what the

[1:30:38] committee is going to be doing and

[1:30:40] that's what the information session is

[1:30:42] about for us as a town to to contemplate

[1:30:44] that.

[1:30:45] >> Jessica,

[1:30:46] >> oh, hold on. No, no, sorry. Kia, you're

[1:30:49] next.

[1:30:49] >> Um, sorry. Could you just repeat when

[1:30:52] that March 31st info session will be?

[1:30:55] What time?

[1:30:55] >> It's 7 o'clock at the town offices.

[1:30:58] >> Okay. Yes,

[1:31:00] >> Jean again.

[1:31:02] At the select board meeting that I did

[1:31:04] attend, it was asked what the value of

[1:31:07] the school was to the listister and it

[1:31:09] hasn't been done. Is there any new

[1:31:11] action on the value of the school before

[1:31:13] we have this discussion about what to do

[1:31:16] if the town votes to close the school?

[1:31:18] >> It has been done.

[1:31:23] >> So, is there a value now? Thank you.

[1:31:26] >> There is a value. I don't remember

[1:31:28] exactly what it is. We you'd have to

[1:31:30] come into the lister's office and ask

[1:31:32] for the value. We don't memorize them.

[1:31:36] >> So she they're saying you could come

[1:31:37] into the lister's office. They're tomorrow 10 to 3 and they they

[1:31:41] can give you that number.

[1:31:45] » Other topics? Anything else? Olivia, did

[1:31:47] you have something you wanted to say?

[1:31:48] I'm sorry.

[1:31:49] >> No, I was asking what time you can see

[1:31:50] what time the meeting was, but

[1:31:52] >> Oh,

[1:31:53] >> seven. Seven. Okay. Sorry.

[1:31:58] » Anybody else? something. Yeah.

[1:32:00] >> What is the status of a town wastewater

[1:32:02] project?

[1:32:04] >> Great question.

[1:32:05] >> What's what ask us what what is the

[1:32:08] status of the wastewater uh project in

[1:32:10] town?

[1:32:14] » Well, pretty much Chrissy, can you talk

[1:32:17] a little bit? Thank you.

[1:32:19] >> Um I'm the engineer for the project and

[1:32:24] for London.

[1:32:26] Um the legendary got a bunch of money

[1:32:29] uh like three or four years ago. Um that

[1:32:33] was our money and unfortunately it was

[1:32:36] all given out in one round. It was

[1:32:38] supposed to be given out two rounds and we weren't ready for the first round

[1:32:41] so we were little the second round but

[1:32:44] then they gave it all out the first

[1:32:45] round. Um I explained to the state they

[1:32:49] um so we have the um we have the study

[1:32:55] done and we we have we have to do a

[1:32:58] final presentation still um and so

[1:33:01] actually Jessica and I just talked about

[1:33:03] that the other day um about trying to

[1:33:05] schedule um the final presentation. We

[1:33:08] do have some extra money left over from

[1:33:11] the funding we already got, which is

[1:33:13] 100% grant. Um, and so I'm going to be

[1:33:17] talking to the state about um the

[1:33:20] possibility of taking that money and

[1:33:22] turning it around to use it um on

[1:33:25] getting like the first part of the

[1:33:27] design done just to get as much done as

[1:33:29] we can with the money we have. Um, and

[1:33:33] then moving forward there there are some

[1:33:35] funding opportunities to continue

[1:33:37] design. It's not 100% grant though. Um,

[1:33:40] so that's something that um I'm going to

[1:33:42] talk to Jessica about and I'm sure the

[1:33:43] select board will will be talking about

[1:33:45] it then. Um, so keep an eye out. There

[1:33:48] will be a meeting coming up to just

[1:33:50] finish out the study part of it. Um, and

[1:33:54] uh, and then that'll be the final

[1:33:56] meeting for the study and then hopefully

[1:33:57] we can move to some design. enough. So,

[1:34:00] correct me if I'm saying anything wrong.

[1:34:02] So, at that point, right, because there

[1:34:04] aren't federally funded monies that are

[1:34:07] available for us to to attempt to

[1:34:09] capture, and it doesn't seem likely, at

[1:34:12] least with the current federal

[1:34:13] administration, that more funds are

[1:34:15] going to be coming into states like

[1:34:16] Vermont for these kinds of projects. we

[1:34:19] have the option to either sit and wait

[1:34:22] until maybe a further a future

[1:34:24] administration

[1:34:26] um pushing out some funds or we can

[1:34:29] always as a town opt for potentially you

[1:34:32] know there are different options.

[1:34:34] There's like the lowest cost option and

[1:34:36] the highest cost option. So we can as a

[1:34:39] town potentially agree that we want to

[1:34:42] go with one of those options and to seek

[1:34:44] a bond. So we could finance it the same

[1:34:47] way the town financed the current town

[1:34:49] garage which is nearly actually that

[1:34:52] bond is nearly paid off and that go so

[1:34:55] there are other ways that we could

[1:34:57] undertake that project other than

[1:34:59] federal funds but it would mean the town

[1:35:02] is borrowing the money.

[1:35:04] >> That that is correct. Um it the ARPA

[1:35:07] money is is

[1:35:10] that kind of money comes around once

[1:35:12] every

[1:35:14] 10 to 15 years. The last time was the

[1:35:16] era money which was back to 2008. So we

[1:35:19] had era money in 2008. We had ARC money

[1:35:21] in 22.

[1:35:24] >> So that's the time frame we're looking.

[1:35:26] It's usually triggered by some sort of

[1:35:28] major thing. the pandemic. Um I think we

[1:35:31] had a

[1:35:34] um we had this economic downturn,

[1:35:35] >> right?

[1:35:36] >> Um so we can't we we can wait for that

[1:35:40] money. It could be another 15 plus

[1:35:42] years.

[1:35:43] >> Um but the thing is that when that big

[1:35:46] pot of money comes out because of some

[1:35:48] event that happens, the projects that

[1:35:51] get it are the projects that are ready

[1:35:52] for it. And so it's important for us to

[1:35:55] keep moving forward as much as possible

[1:35:58] and to put some sort of design on the

[1:36:01] shelf so that we're ready when that

[1:36:02] money does come. So it it's it's a

[1:36:05] long-term schedule.

[1:36:12] >> Yes.

[1:36:13] >> Yeah. That's why we're finishing it

[1:36:16] >> or as much as we have money for

[1:36:20] this. to get the town on on water and

[1:36:25] septic, not what they're doing now, so

[1:36:27] they can expand. Is that

[1:36:29] >> I believe the plan was to get a septic,

[1:36:32] >> not water. So people would still have

[1:36:34] wells in town, but the septic would be a

[1:36:36] shared septic and that takes away all

[1:36:38] the regulations of the 100 ft distance

[1:36:40] between your well and your other. So

[1:36:41] that that's that's what we're trying to

[1:36:43] do is you take out that one piece and

[1:36:45] that frees up people to expand capacity

[1:36:47] in restaurants or the store, whatever

[1:36:49] they want to do. That's correct.

[1:36:50] >> That's my understanding.

[1:36:51] >> Thank you.

[1:36:53] >> Yes.

[1:36:53] Peter. Um, so as I understand it,

[1:36:57] this project is the whole town is going

[1:36:59] to pay or contribute for this whole

[1:37:01] project that's going to benefit a dozen

[1:37:04] locations in the downtown area.

[1:37:06] >> And so we're going to be you're asking

[1:37:08] the town everybody in town to pay for

[1:37:10] the 12 people or so or dozen properties

[1:37:13] in downtown.

[1:37:14] Well, we're not asking anybody anything

[1:37:16] because there are no funds that we're

[1:37:18] going for. The the design includes

[1:37:21] funding sources and uh it would Yeah,

[1:37:25] it's it's uh like all municipalities in

[1:37:28] the state of Vermont where there's uh

[1:37:33] » he still he still has the floor.

[1:37:35] >> So, is there any other restriction? And

[1:37:37] I know in a nearby town, a neighboring

[1:37:39] town, there's a a water water department

[1:37:43] company that was a private consortium

[1:37:46] between the land owners and that solved

[1:37:50] their problem. Is there anything

[1:37:51] preventing this town from doing that

[1:37:54] same thing, the land owners here from

[1:37:55] joining together and creating that kind

[1:37:57] of an opportunity that that way the cost

[1:38:00] isn't shared by the entire town for the

[1:38:02] benefit of just the people in the

[1:38:04] downtown area?

[1:38:06] I don't do you know what that is,

[1:38:08] Chrissy? I'm not familiar with

[1:38:10] >> So, I'm not familiar with with anything

[1:38:12] private, but there there's some options

[1:38:15] the town has. So, the town can there

[1:38:17] there's funding available. There's there

[1:38:19] are loans available. Um the town could

[1:38:22] choose to take out a loan to finish

[1:38:25] design and and do construction. Um that

[1:38:29] loan then has to be paid back. So the

[1:38:33] town can choose that everybody in town,

[1:38:36] every taxpayer in town has to pay that

[1:38:38] loan back through your through your town

[1:38:40] taxes or they can apply that loan to the

[1:38:44] users of the system only and the users

[1:38:47] pay it back. Um so most towns, you know,

[1:38:52] you go to let's say Manchester and they

[1:38:55] take out a loan to fix a sewer main the

[1:38:59] users of the sewer system pay for that.

[1:39:01] The whole town does not pay for that.

[1:39:02] just users pay for that. London with

[1:39:06] their new wastewater system that's going

[1:39:08] to be constructed. Um they have uh

[1:39:12] elected to have the entire town pay for

[1:39:16] the loan cost and the users pay the

[1:39:19] operation maintenance of the system. Um

[1:39:22] so each town can do it differently.

[1:39:24] >> Um and and Jamaica can choose to do it

[1:39:26] however you want.

[1:39:28] >> Thank you.

[1:39:29] >> But those decisions haven't been made

[1:39:30] yet. who now

[1:39:35] » right before I I'm gonna Anyone else

[1:39:37] have anything to say before we go into

[1:39:38] the school discussion?

[1:39:41] >> Unrelated thing to say.

[1:39:43] >> I was going to say something to his town

[1:39:44] clerk. I just want to let everybody know

[1:39:45] that the town office hours have

[1:39:47] increased. I know you said till 4:00.

[1:39:49] The office is now open 7:30 a.m. till

[1:39:52] 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. So,

[1:39:54] we're still closed on Fridays, but it

[1:39:56] does give people time before they go to

[1:39:58] work and possibly getting off work a

[1:40:00] little early and coming in. I know that

[1:40:01] there was 9 to4 previously. So, we have

[1:40:03] expanded that significantly since I've

[1:40:05] become town clerk. So, just so everybody

[1:40:06] knows that, coming in to say hello. We'd

[1:40:08] always like to have visitors,

[1:40:10] >> Erica. And then we're going to go to the

[1:40:11] school discussion.

[1:40:11] >> Okay. I have a fun thing to announce.

[1:40:15] >> On March 15th at 300 p.m. there is going

[1:40:20] to be a fantastic event in this town

[1:40:22] hall. Oh. Um, we have a conflict with

[1:40:25] that. We need to talk about that.

[1:40:27] >> Sorry.

[1:40:30] I I don't want to shut you down,

[1:40:32] but we we need to we need to talk about

[1:40:34] that

[1:40:34] >> secretly. Yeah. Ask her secret.

[1:40:43] » Sorry. But yeah, Drew, you want to go

[1:40:45] Drew and Dana, please talk about the

[1:40:47] schools? Um,

[1:40:50] so Jay and I represent the town of

[1:40:51] Jamaica as part of the West River

[1:40:53] Education District. So that is the other

[1:40:55] part of your tax bill, the much larger

[1:40:57] chunk of your tax bill,

[1:40:58] >> more expensive.

[1:40:59] >> Um,

[1:41:00] >> and in fact, the biggest chunk that you

[1:41:03] don't control of your tax bill.

[1:41:05] >> And I wanted to take a moment to explain

[1:41:07] where we're at right now with uh

[1:41:10] education. And if you want to come to

[1:41:13] schoolboard meetings, we love

[1:41:14] attendance. Um so please come and join

[1:41:18] us. So just to bring everybody uh into

[1:41:21] the same place. Um over the years um

[1:41:25] Jamaica has decided to do certain

[1:41:28] things. So if we go way back before I

[1:41:30] was born um Jamaica uh became one of the

[1:41:34] Leon and Grey towns. So we joined a

[1:41:38] union school district um which was Leon

[1:41:40] and Gray. So we had a local school board

[1:41:42] and then we had a little Grady school

[1:41:44] board um that took care of our high

[1:41:46] school kids. So for a long time our we

[1:41:49] had two different boards, two different

[1:41:50] budgets. They got merged and that's what

[1:41:52] you paid your taxes on before that to

[1:41:54] make it care of all of your own kids.

[1:41:57] Fast forward a few years um and we

[1:42:00] through a whole bunch of legislative

[1:42:02] action we had some options to either try

[1:42:05] to get out of that um or not.

[1:42:08] Ultimately, Jamaica decided to stay in

[1:42:11] mostly because of the how complicated it

[1:42:13] was to remove ourselves from that union

[1:42:15] school district.

[1:42:18] Fast forward another few years, more uh

[1:42:20] legislation brought us to merging

[1:42:23] governance, much like Laura talked about

[1:42:25] this morning. The first step was merging

[1:42:27] governance and you had to merge into

[1:42:29] like districts. Well, we were already um

[1:42:32] a you in the district with New Fain and

[1:42:34] Brookline and Townsen as part of the

[1:42:36] Union School District. So, we've merged

[1:42:38] into what is now West River Education

[1:42:40] District. So, West River Education

[1:42:43] District now controls education from preschool to 12th grade. Um, it's

[1:42:49] one board that controls that education.

[1:42:52] That board operates currently uh four

[1:42:55] school buildings, one here in Jamaica,

[1:42:57] one in New Feay, one in Townsen, and the

[1:43:00] Leon and Gray campus.

[1:43:03] that West River Education District is

[1:43:05] part of the Windham Central Supervisory

[1:43:08] Union. Windham Central Supervisory Union

[1:43:11] um has other school districts that also

[1:43:15] um are part of the the supervisory union

[1:43:18] including Malo who is being whose

[1:43:20] populace is being asked to close their

[1:43:22] school today. um River Valleys which is

[1:43:25] a merger between Dover and Wartsboro and

[1:43:28] then Stratton uh who's a non-operating

[1:43:31] district and Windham who's also now

[1:43:33] nonoperating. So that's the structure.

[1:43:36] What's important to understand is that

[1:43:38] as this legislative process has happened

[1:43:40] over the last 20 years, responsibility

[1:43:43] keeps shifting. So more things um more

[1:43:47] responsibilities have been shifted away

[1:43:50] from local control here in this room.

[1:43:53] Like we are not voting on a budget here

[1:43:55] today, right? Has moved away from the

[1:43:59] school board and moved to for example

[1:44:01] the superintendent's office. So, if you

[1:44:04] were to look at those budgets today,

[1:44:06] you're going to notice that a large

[1:44:08] percent of our local education budget is

[1:44:11] an assessment from the supervisory union

[1:44:14] that you guys don't get to vote on ever.

[1:44:18] Um, I think this is really important for

[1:44:20] people to realize. That number this year

[1:44:22] alone, um, for us in West River

[1:44:25] Education went up by over $700,000

[1:44:28] in the assessment side. Now, that

[1:44:31] assessment went up because of offsett

[1:44:34] offsetting revenues that were not coming

[1:44:36] from the federal government. But that

[1:44:37] assessment also went up because the

[1:44:40] school district and the supervisory

[1:44:42] union have been utilizing fund balances

[1:44:45] since the end of the pandemic to buy

[1:44:46] down tax rates. So, this year alone, the

[1:44:49] supervisory union budget um was bought

[1:44:53] down by $1.1 million in fund balance and

[1:44:58] you guys had to kick in another

[1:44:59] $750,000.

[1:45:01] So, that's impacting our local budget.

[1:45:04] We went through a very long process of

[1:45:07] budgeting this year with our our

[1:45:10] district looking at uh what our tax rate

[1:45:14] might look like if we kept programming

[1:45:16] the same. and we were looking at almost

[1:45:18] a 30% tax increase uh in your education

[1:45:21] taxes um by taking that assessment from

[1:45:25] the SU and just level funding programs

[1:45:28] across our um district. Ultimately, we

[1:45:33] did decide to come back to the town of

[1:45:35] Jamaica and ask to close the Jamaica

[1:45:37] Villa School and the programming at

[1:45:40] Jamaica Village School with the intent

[1:45:42] that we could offer the same or similar

[1:45:45] programming um at the other facilities,

[1:45:48] bringing down the uh the total cost.

[1:45:51] Now, keep in mind that we're reducing

[1:45:53] costs in our local budget,

[1:45:56] but we're not actually reducing costs

[1:45:58] because we had a massive increase in the

[1:46:01] assessment that came down to us. So, if

[1:46:03] you were to go to one of our school

[1:46:05] board meetings and look at the

[1:46:06] spreadsheet that we were working with,

[1:46:09] um, every reduction we made in

[1:46:11] programming in our local district was

[1:46:14] offset, um, by additional assessments

[1:46:17] that were coming to us. So, it's a very

[1:46:19] difficult um discussion. We try to get

[1:46:22] through it with making as little program

[1:46:25] changes to kids as we can.

[1:46:28] Unfortunately, we don't get to control a

[1:46:30] lot of the expenses.

[1:46:33] We also bought down our own tax rate in

[1:46:37] our district utilizing fund balance. So,

[1:46:40] we utilize about 350,000 of local West

[1:46:43] River Education District funds to buy

[1:46:45] down the tax rate.

[1:46:47] We don't know the final number yet

[1:46:49] because the legislature has to set that

[1:46:51] in June, but you're probably going to be

[1:46:53] looking at roughly a 10% education tax

[1:46:57] increase even if the town votes to close

[1:47:01] the school and even with all of the fund

[1:47:05] balances which total about a million a

[1:47:08] half dollars um of buying down the tax

[1:47:11] rate.

[1:47:12] I want to bring this up because this is

[1:47:15] the last year of fund balance. Um the

[1:47:18] supervisory unit has no more fund

[1:47:19] balance. The education district has no

[1:47:21] more fund balance. So next year um the

[1:47:25] full weighted budget is going to hit

[1:47:27] your taxes. Like there's nothing there's

[1:47:29] no other levers that the boards have to

[1:47:33] pull in order to reduce the impact of

[1:47:35] education taxes. So that's the good news

[1:47:40] I have to share with you all.

[1:47:42] Um, and if anybody wants to uh come to a

[1:47:46] board meeting and wants to take over my

[1:47:48] board seat, um,

[1:47:49] >> can we also share that all of this

[1:47:52] information is actually on the website

[1:47:54] and it's very well presented, including

[1:47:56] the evolutions of the budget drafts.

[1:47:59] >> So, I got the pleasure of taking over as

[1:48:01] the chair of the Western Education

[1:48:03] District this year, and my goal has been

[1:48:05] about public transparency and making

[1:48:06] sure you can find this information and

[1:48:09] we have um,

[1:48:11] We've been very aggressive with the

[1:48:13] administration about making sure that

[1:48:14] this information is available. So, you

[1:48:16] can go to the website and see every

[1:48:18] draft of the budget meetings and

[1:48:20] discussions for West River. The

[1:48:23] documents for the SU are less clear, but

[1:48:27] better than they've ever been. Um,

[1:48:30] >> what's the website?

[1:48:31] >> Uh, so look at Windham Central uh

[1:48:34] Windham Centrals.org or Windham Central

[1:48:37] Supervisory Union and it'll link to

[1:48:39] that. you want to do the full thing

[1:48:41] because there's other entities out there

[1:48:44] on the internet. If you go WCS,

[1:48:46] >> I can put one out there.

[1:48:47] >> You'll get sites you don't want.

[1:48:49] >> We just And we just

[1:48:50] >> I'll put a link on the website to

[1:48:51] everybody. So, there'll be a post and

[1:48:53] there'll be a w link on the website.

[1:48:55] >> A link. Yeah.

[1:48:56] >> And if any specific questions, I I don't

[1:48:58] have much more time, but I'll try to do

[1:49:00] my best to answer. Um certainly, you're

[1:49:04] welcome to come to board meetings. Um,

[1:49:07] if you have spare time and you're

[1:49:10] interested to see where the state is,

[1:49:12] you can go on to YouTube and you can

[1:49:14] watch the state house and senate

[1:49:17] education committees. They are

[1:49:20] discussing

[1:49:22] redistricting. Um, there is a big push

[1:49:25] for regional high schools, centralized

[1:49:28] middle schools, and limited elementary

[1:49:32] schools. like they want them more or

[1:49:34] less centralized too. They want bigger

[1:49:37] districts. Laura mentioned this morning

[1:49:39] there's a couple maps out if you haven't

[1:49:40] looked at it. One of the maps would

[1:49:42] actually take this swath and combine us

[1:49:44] with the Bellis Falls area. Um again

[1:49:47] further removing governance local

[1:49:50] control

[1:49:51] >> and adding bigger

[1:49:53] >> basically everything from Winhaul all

[1:49:55] the way like a almost a square swath all

[1:49:58] the way over to Phil Falls. We become

[1:50:00] part of a single district with that

[1:50:02] entire area. That's one of the

[1:50:03] proposals. That's the house. The Senate

[1:50:06] has us lumped in with Twin Valley and

[1:50:09] Bradboro probably Bradboro because they

[1:50:12] wanted to base the regional high schools

[1:50:13] around career centers. And there's a big

[1:50:17] push for that on the governor and the

[1:50:20] senate side. So we'd be lumped in with

[1:50:22] Bradboro, Southeastern, Southwestern,

[1:50:26] Windham, and Central

[1:50:29] and Wartsboro and Dover would be taken

[1:50:32] out of our district and given to uh

[1:50:36] >> over the hill Manchester.

[1:50:38] >> Other questions for for Drew and Dana?

[1:50:41] Jean. Jean, you're I did you have a

[1:50:44] question?

[1:50:45] Thank you both. I've been watching this

[1:50:47] for a while and you guys are eloquently

[1:50:50] transparent and on our side as people as

[1:50:53] we people. My question is my

[1:50:56] understanding is there was a contract

[1:50:58] signed a while back that made the town

[1:51:02] of Jamaica unable to step out of the

[1:51:06] district. Do you guys have an access to

[1:51:09] an attorney who could help us do that if

[1:51:12] that's what the town decides? So, it's

[1:51:14] not that we can't get out. So, the the

[1:51:16] legislature created a process for uh

[1:51:20] dissolving these types of unions. And

[1:51:22] what it is is Jamaica would have to vote

[1:51:24] to leave and then all of the other towns

[1:51:27] that were partners with would have to

[1:51:29] vote to let us out. So, the process is

[1:51:31] clearly defined. Um it's just very very

[1:51:35] unlikely that all of the other

[1:51:37] communities because then they would

[1:51:38] fully um the taxation. So, it's not

[1:51:43] there isn't a process. The process is

[1:51:45] very well defined. It's just there's

[1:51:47] nobody that believes that would ever

[1:51:49] actually get through there. Um, now that

[1:51:52] being said, the legislature with what

[1:51:54] they're doing in Montpillar um may be

[1:51:56] changing that process and force

[1:51:57] dissolving some of these mergers through

[1:52:00] legislation.

[1:52:01] >> Mary, did you have something?

[1:52:02] >> At one time, I thought there was

[1:52:04] something that states so many students

[1:52:08] go to schools every day. It was a large

[1:52:12] number or something would happen to that

[1:52:14] this I can't imagine that we have that

[1:52:17] number that they request like 1,200 or

[1:52:20] students a day.

[1:52:21] >> There was originally but they jumped

[1:52:24] that down to 2,000 to 4,000

[1:52:27] >> but originally they wanted uh

[1:52:30] >> 4,000 to 8,000 12,000.

[1:52:32] >> Right?

[1:52:33] >> So put it into perspective. Our entire

[1:52:35] supervisory union only has 600 children.

[1:52:39] So, we're not even close to the minimum

[1:52:42] sizes that they're kicking around at

[1:52:43] Montpillar. Um, so again, there's definitely more changes coming

[1:52:47] because every time and we've been

[1:52:50] watching kind of the movement up there,

[1:52:52] uh, when they look when they talk about

[1:52:53] minimum size for a high school or

[1:52:55] minimum size or class size or minimum

[1:52:58] whatever their new minimum discussion of

[1:53:00] the week is, um, we don't seem to meet

[1:53:03] any of them.

[1:53:04] um they're definitely not designed for

[1:53:06] rural communities and the only their

[1:53:10] answer is well then we'll just move

[1:53:11] those kids to more urban areas like and some of the the busing guidance that

[1:53:16] they put out they're ex they're

[1:53:19] accepting an hourong busing as

[1:53:22] reasonable for elementary and 90 minutes

[1:53:24] for for secondary.

[1:53:25] >> Yeah.

[1:53:26] >> So like these are some of the numbers

[1:53:27] that are kicking around as part of this

[1:53:29] policy discussion

[1:53:30] >> um up in Mont Pillar. So it's very

[1:53:34] possible that through this there could

[1:53:37] be um an expectation that our kids are

[1:53:40] on buses for a very long time. There is

[1:53:44] um some talk of eliminating school

[1:53:47] choice.

[1:53:48] The whole thing they uh feel there's the

[1:53:52] push for public education

[1:53:55] uh you know trying a high school trying

[1:53:57] to give AP classes and they only got

[1:54:00] five kids. Well, it's because the kids

[1:54:03] that would be in that class have school

[1:54:06] choice.

[1:54:07] See, they're looking at you could do

[1:54:09] early college. Well, they're talking

[1:54:10] about doing away with that, which gave

[1:54:12] kids opportunity to get programming that

[1:54:16] they couldn't get in their high school.

[1:54:19] We're fighting against each other in a

[1:54:20] way either, you know. So, the school

[1:54:23] choice question is even coming up to

[1:54:25] where they may abolish that.

[1:54:27] So, what can we do as a community to

[1:54:32] support you or to make better choice uh

[1:54:35] choices that don't take things away from

[1:54:38] our kids and put them on buses for three

[1:54:41] hours a day? What can we all do? What

[1:54:44] action can we take?

[1:54:45] >> So,

[1:54:47] a lot of those decisions uh right now

[1:54:49] are out of our local hands. So, um,

[1:54:54] contacting Laura, um, Emily Long, who's

[1:54:58] a new thing representative, sits on

[1:54:59] House Education. So, um, again, continue

[1:55:02] to communicate with our legislators in

[1:55:06] Mont Pillar. Um, and then locally on the

[1:55:09] board, we we want to hear from people.

[1:55:12] We've got some really really tough

[1:55:14] decisions um, you know,

[1:55:16] >> that that are happening now. We are

[1:55:17] having to downsize staff. um we are

[1:55:21] having to make decisions that are

[1:55:23] affecting kids and we don't have a

[1:55:25] choice. Um we have so we started

[1:55:31] when the enrollment started dropping so

[1:55:33] you know Jamaican village boosts have

[1:55:35] 100 children in it. U we don't have 100

[1:55:37] children in that age range across three

[1:55:41] towns now right it's just we just don't

[1:55:43] have the kids. So as we've continued to

[1:55:46] consolidate and made it get smaller um

[1:55:49] the grades that are coming in are

[1:55:51] smaller than the grades that are going

[1:55:52] out. So our population and the way that

[1:55:54] the formula works is based on um per

[1:55:57] pupil spending. Our per pupil spending

[1:56:00] this year we we were through some sort

[1:56:03] of formula anomaly and we're not going

[1:56:06] to tell the state about it. Um, our

[1:56:09] makebelieve student count, our per pupil

[1:56:12] students actually went up. Even though

[1:56:15] that's not the way you count children,

[1:56:17] >> it's not a one-on-one.

[1:56:18] >> And I'm just going to hang on, let me

[1:56:19] just back up a minute cuz it probably

[1:56:21] sounds like I'm confused, right?

[1:56:23] Everybody in the room, if I ask you how

[1:56:24] many kids were in the district, you go

[1:56:26] in there and go 1 2 3 4 5, right? That

[1:56:29] is not how the state of Vermont counts

[1:56:30] kids. Um, there are some kids that are

[1:56:32] worth less than one. There are some kids

[1:56:33] that are worth more than one. And we

[1:56:35] have Oh, yeah. preschool kids. By the

[1:56:38] way, anybody here ever tried to manage a

[1:56:40] preschool age child? They're they only

[1:56:42] count as point4. Yeah. I can tell you

[1:56:44] that in my house that was like a 2.0.

[1:56:48] So, but anyway, so there there's these

[1:56:51] different weights. So, even though we

[1:56:52] only have, you know, roughly, you know,

[1:56:55] 400 kids, we have a pupil per pupil

[1:56:58] count that's 817. And it changes. These

[1:57:01] weights all change. So that's a major

[1:57:04] part of the formula, but they changed

[1:57:05] the way they count the kids every year.

[1:57:08] And so this year we got pretty lucky

[1:57:09] because our make believe number was a

[1:57:12] little bit higher, which means our total

[1:57:15] per pupil spending went down because

[1:57:16] that's how you divide it up. Total

[1:57:18] spending divided by number of students.

[1:57:21] Next year that's going to drop. Uh

[1:57:23] there's no question in my mind that that

[1:57:25] our total number of students going to

[1:57:26] drop, which is going to make our per

[1:57:27] pupil price go higher. they reinstituted

[1:57:30] our penalty this year last year. Um, so

[1:57:34] every dollar we spend over the

[1:57:36] allowable, we get taxed twice. It's a

[1:57:39] 100% penalty that the state is imposing

[1:57:41] on us. Um, now again, this is designed

[1:57:45] in my opinion to hurt rural communities

[1:57:48] because it's impossible for us to

[1:57:50] provide quality education and stable

[1:57:52] threshold. So now we have to pay two to

[1:57:55] one uh for every dollar that we spend

[1:57:57] over it. The other thing they changed is

[1:58:00] uh it used to be that infrastructure,

[1:58:03] bond payments and things like that were

[1:58:04] not counted in your per pupil spending.

[1:58:06] So you could make changes for

[1:58:08] efficiency. So we for example could

[1:58:10] reconfigure one of our buildings um

[1:58:13] become more efficient and the bond

[1:58:14] payment through that reconfiguration was

[1:58:16] not considered. They took that away from

[1:58:18] us. Every improvement, every capital

[1:58:20] investment we make all goes into uh the

[1:58:23] per pupil spending. So they've

[1:58:25] handcuffed us in the in the world of

[1:58:28] innovation too. So the idea that hey we

[1:58:31] could become more efficient if we just

[1:58:33] you know modernized our build building

[1:58:34] so we didn't have to have four

[1:58:36] principles. Well that bond would drive

[1:58:39] us over the threshold and we'd be paying

[1:58:41] double taxation on every dollar over. So

[1:58:44] there's a lot of things like that are at

[1:58:45] play. The other pieces that you guys

[1:58:47] have to remember in Jamaica is that we

[1:58:48] have a CLA that is 4

[1:58:52] >> 48 48

[1:58:54] >> 48

[1:58:55] >> um which means your property valuations

[1:58:57] they consider to be 50 roughly half of

[1:59:00] what they should be. So Mont Pillar came

[1:59:03] up with a multiplier this year which is

[1:59:06] 77 I believe. So now we have a

[1:59:09] makebelieve number of students, a CLA

[1:59:11] that's low, a.77 multiplier that was

[1:59:14] added to it, and then the legislature is

[1:59:16] going to pick a yield sometime between

[1:59:18] now and June, and that's going to set

[1:59:20] your tax rate. Um, so that's why I can't

[1:59:24] tell you exactly what it's going to be.

[1:59:26] Um, they like to tell us all that the

[1:59:28] spending decisions are local. Um, if

[1:59:30] anybody can figure out that formula and

[1:59:32] tell us what that local decision is

[1:59:34] there, I would love to hear it. Patty,

[1:59:36] did you have your hand up?

[1:59:37] >> I just want to know, are we better off

[1:59:39] with more fake kids or less fake kids?

[1:59:44] » More fake kids. More fake kids.

[1:59:47] >> Yes. More

[1:59:49] >> grand kids. Yes.

[1:59:57] » And And if anybody, we had a nice

[1:59:59] discussion at Kama Village School um

[2:00:02] earlier this winter. If anybody wants

[2:00:05] like the real details as to how the

[2:00:07] formula works, um I will go through all

[2:00:09] the numbers with you and show you where

[2:00:11] it works and how we came up with the

[2:00:13] budget. Um it's one of my favorite

[2:00:15] topics. So if you want to come, um we'll

[2:00:17] go through that. you want to come to

[2:00:19] board meetings and tell us about um

[2:00:21] programs that you really don't want us

[2:00:22] to cut. Um next year is going to be a

[2:00:24] it's going to be a brutal budget

[2:00:26] discussion

[2:00:27] >> because without fund balance to buy down

[2:00:30] the tax rate. We know that we have

[2:00:32] contractual obligations for um uh

[2:00:35] raises. We know that health insurance is

[2:00:37] going to go up again. Um you guys are

[2:00:39] going to be looking at tax increases

[2:00:41] next year that you probably never heard

[2:00:43] of, thought about and certainly don't

[2:00:45] want to see. Any other questions?

[2:00:48] Christie.

[2:00:49] >> Um, so as Drew just mentioned, there was a great meeting that they had

[2:00:54] a few weeks ago. Did a great job giving

[2:00:57] us all of these details and even more

[2:01:00] details at that meeting and we had there

[2:01:02] was about 20 people there. We had a

[2:01:04] great discussion about all of this. We

[2:01:06] really encourage everybody to get

[2:01:08] involved. Reach out to through Dana and

[2:01:10] get that information. It is really

[2:01:12] important right now. And if you're not

[2:01:15] following all of this, you you really

[2:01:17] need to start. And it's going to affect

[2:01:19] our town a lot more than, you know,

[2:01:22] Burlington and Warner Town. Um, a few

[2:01:26] friends of mine and I got together and

[2:01:28] started a Facebook page. It's called

[2:01:30] Southern Vermont and Rural Communities

[2:01:33] School Forum. And we're not giving sides

[2:01:36] there on any of this, but we're just

[2:01:38] getting information out. We're we're

[2:01:40] sharing news articles. for sharing

[2:01:42] snippets of the legislative meetings. Um

[2:01:45] there's there's people behind this page

[2:01:47] that are doing a lot of the research for

[2:01:49] everybody so that we can make it easy

[2:01:51] for people to stay involved and stay um

[2:01:55] up to speed on what's going on. So if

[2:01:57] you want to join that page um you know

[2:02:00] we try to do the work for you and keep

[2:02:02] everybody.

[2:02:05] >> Thank you. Any other questions for Drew

[2:02:07] and Dana?

[2:02:09] Sue,

[2:02:10] >> you mentioned that the supervisory

[2:02:12] union's budget is a handsoff thing. How do we change that? They they seem to

[2:02:18] be getting um a helper for helper of an

[2:02:22] for an assistant for an assistant. They

[2:02:24] seem they seem to be making up positions

[2:02:27] to fill it and there's nothing we can

[2:02:29] do. So, we're having to cut programs and

[2:02:32] they're they're adding staff. Okay. Um,

[2:02:35] so we're taking away from the kids,

[2:02:37] which is the purpose of them. How how do

[2:02:40] we how do how do you how do we fix that?

[2:02:43] Is that what's done all over the state?

[2:02:45] Is that is their budget put into it and

[2:02:48] voted on by the super board prior to

[2:02:52] anything so that nobody can touch it?

[2:02:55] >> So, um, our district runs the same as it

[2:02:58] does everywhere in the state. So, what

[2:02:59] we're doing here is consistent. Um, so

[2:03:03] the supervisory union budget is voted on

[2:03:05] by representatives from each of the uh

[2:03:08] school boards. So I do sit on the super

[2:03:11] advisory union board and anybody that's

[2:03:13] watched the meeting knows I voted

[2:03:15] against the budget um and for many many

[2:03:18] reasons. Um and the major reason was

[2:03:22] that we were the budget was introduced

[2:03:25] to us um and they called a vote on it in

[2:03:29] less than an hour.

[2:03:30] um without explaining what they were

[2:03:32] spending the money on, which is

[2:03:34] obviously why I had to express my

[2:03:36] opposition to it and vote against it. Um

[2:03:40] there's a lot of things that the state

[2:03:42] has mandated have to be in the

[2:03:44] superintendent's budget. Um the largest

[2:03:46] one being special education. So that

[2:03:49] used to show up in a local budget so we

[2:03:51] could see how that money was being

[2:03:52] spent. Now it's lumped together for the

[2:03:54] entire SU and we are a portioned chunk

[2:03:57] of it. So, we have no idea whether that

[2:04:00] money is being used to educate our kids

[2:04:03] or somebody else's kids. Um, and and

[2:04:06] again, that's a legislative mandate that

[2:04:08] it has to be done that way. Um, I think

[2:04:11] part of what this redistricting and

[2:04:13] mapping is about is trying to shrink

[2:04:16] some of that supervisory structure.

[2:04:18] We've got four superintendents in

[2:04:20] Windham County. Um, and again, the

[2:04:23] superintendent's offices are they're

[2:04:26] very well- paid positions. Um, far

[2:04:29] better paid than the teaching staff

[2:04:30] positions in in most cases. And we have

[2:04:35] um a lot of that administrative overhead

[2:04:37] is coming down to um our local. So, just

[2:04:40] to put it in perspective, there are 89

[2:04:43] full-time employees at the supervisory

[2:04:45] level um in our district. Those are

[2:04:50] teachers

[2:04:50] >> super they are not teachers teachers.

[2:04:52] >> Um now some of those provide teaching

[2:04:55] staff. So some of those are special

[2:04:56] educators but those are not the

[2:04:59] classroom teachers. U the classroom

[2:05:01] teachers and the principles of the

[2:05:02] building are in our local budget. That's

[2:05:04] what you guys get to vote on on the

[2:05:07] >> whatever date it is

[2:05:08] >> of the eth.

[2:05:10] >> You guys get to vote on on the local

[2:05:11] budget on the 8th. Able

[2:05:13] >> uh Able, which is the local teachers and

[2:05:17] the principles that are in the local

[2:05:19] building. Uh the assessment we have to

[2:05:21] pay regardless,

[2:05:25] » right? Any other questions? Any for

[2:05:27] them? Thank you guys so much for for

[2:05:29] talking about that.

[2:05:35] Any other business to bring before the

[2:05:37] body? And just remind our paperots to

[2:05:41] just hand those back.

[2:05:42] >> Yeah, bring them back. Just send them

[2:05:43] over to Aaron and Heather. Thank you.

[2:05:46] >> Um, so I I I'm going to entertain a

[2:05:49] motion to close article nine.

[2:05:54] » Moved by Greg Jolly. Seconded.

[2:05:58] >> You seconded. I'm sorry.

[2:05:59] >> Yes,

[2:06:00] >> Peter. Um, all in favor of closing

[2:06:03] article 9,

[2:06:04] >> I uh article or article eight rather.

[2:06:07] Article 9. Uh, can I get a motion to

[2:06:09] adjurnn?

[2:06:11] >> Greg Jolly Peter second. Closing the

[2:06:15] question. All in favor of adjourning. I

[2:06:18] >> meeting's closed.

[2:06:20] >> Excellent discussion.

2026 Jamaica Town Meeting 3/3/26

Transcript