Welcome everybody to the candidates forum for those people running for town council. We have six candidates with us.
They'll get a chance to introduce themselves and quickly say why they may be running for this office.
We'll take a series of questions. If you have a question, see Joshua, he will run that up here.
Each person will have two minutes to respond to the question.
They'll get a quick one ding or warning when you have 15 or 20 seconds left.
And when you have two games, your time is expired and we'll go right to the next person.
What we will do is we'll start with the first question.
So the first question we'll go all the way across and then the second question we'll start with blue and we'll work that way in that sequence all the way through to try to get some semblance of flow here.
So without further ado, let's start with what he and a little candidate background who you are and why are you running for town council.
And welcome everybody.
My name is Peter.
My wife, excuse me, my wife, Devin, I've been married for 33 years.
We have a daughter, Kelly, who went through the SAV 15 school system, graduated in 2005.
From there she went on to Boston University, worked hard, did well.
We felt in hindsight that her education in the local school system was very well done.
She was well positioned to make the jump from the little gray mane to Boston and did it quite well.
She is married to a fellow classmate, Matt Mingo.
I'm a USM graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
I was employed for 35 years by blue rock industries in Westbrook.
Currently I'm the president of Lathrop Asset Management in Portland.
I served on the town council before for a one three year term between 2008 and 2011.
And I was also chairman of the council for those three years.
I've also served a combined total of 13 years on the town planning board.
I also served the three year term on the committee for economic development.
I've also just recently served on the library expansion committee that has gotten us this room tonight for 15 months.
I'm currently a member of the public library board of trustees.
And I'm also one of the board of directors of the Royce and Abel Lake Association.
Thank you very much.
Hi, my name is Umi Encini.
I moved to Gray at the right age of six years old in late 1959.
I've pretty much been here since.
My first year of school was in the basement of what is now the superintendent's office.
My wife and Debbie and I have been there for 33 years.
We have four grown children and we have three grandchildren that are currently in the very lost school system.
I worked for a couple of local contractors when I first got into the building business.
I spent the last 40 years as a self-employed building contractor.
I think that goes a long ways to my attitude towards if something needs to be done, then let's get it done.
I really enjoy my job.
The job I've had the last three years as a counselor.
I like working with the people.
I like working for the people.
I like working with my fellow counselors on trying to make the best decisions for Gray.
To be perfectly honest with you, the politics gets a little bit exhausting at times.
I'm kind of a results-driven person.
Sometimes when I think it's taking a year to get something done that should take a week, it gets a little old.
I think my fellow counselors probably would share that too.
But I've developed some really good relationships as I've become involved in the politics of the town.
Almost a totally different, separate sect of people than I did in my working career.
And I'll tell you right now, I'm really impressed with the quality of the citizens of Gray
and I think that they are probably our largest and most important resource.
So hopefully, there's any chance that we can get to get them involved is good.
Basically, I look forward to continuing.
I would appreciate your vote for a second term.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Jim Henneman. I've been living in the town of Gray now for 13 years.
Married to my wife Wendy. We've been married 23 years.
We've got two children.
My oldest one is a just missed a sophomore year at UMaine.
My youngest one is at this moment at the National Ones Society Induction Ceremony over at high school.
He'll be a senior next year.
I am employed by Crown Fortless out of New England, Ohio.
I handle the state of Maine and I sell Fortless material.
The main reason I want to run for town council is I believe I can offer just a lot of just being me.
Just being a social person and getting a feel of making things work by not only getting a grasp around them
and making them move forward, but being able to talk to people and understand that there are different views.
And everybody who counts and some people just aren't going to get their way,
but you're going to have to at least be able to people in a civil way and make sure we're all neighborhood men.
I'm a master mason and a trainer.
That's kind of me in a nutshell.
You usually see them float around in a party.
Hi, I'm Cameron Roe and we've been here for about 40 years now.
I'm at Twinsby-Lewson Road where I've operated a very successful tax practice.
I've had it one time over 800 clients.
And to be tied just three years ago.
So I should be done.
I'm a collaborator and enjoying myself, however, I think I had a brain clamp down here tonight.
So if you don't mind, I'm just going to read a little intro and then I'll go into more of my background
and talk about my involvement and how it started 40 years ago.
We have brought the kids over to the library for a study hour at the time.
The librarian, which is appropriate for tonight, had talked us women into starting a study hour.
And there were six of us.
And so what we did was we met and once every six weeks we had to take that term.
So this is what somehow or another I end up getting into the activity of other things in the community as well,
which kept me up pretty much every night.
Luckily we had a reasonable advice.
Maybe so just so we could be able to take advantage of, you know, taking the opportunity.
So what happened was we had, you know, I do have this public speaking situation.
And it started in my senior year in college and I had to get an oral report on my thesis.
And that was a nightmare.
I still remember the pain being up in front of all my classmates
and speaking face-to-face, knee-shaking, you know, the whole night, yes.
So never got over that till this day, I guess.
However, I did tell Donnie that I was going to mention him this evening.
And I got to tell you, there was a time that he was the moderator at a meeting.
And we brought in a speaker, a loud speaker, which most of us engrave when I used to.
And so he, you know, raised it to my face and wanted me to speak through it.
And that was what started the whole public speaking era for me.
And since then, you know, I've been known to be at the microphone quite often
at our town council meetings especially.
And so this is where we started.
Now, one of the things that I found interesting, what?
Please.
Really?
I mean, go ahead.
We'll ask you more.
I put off my speech.
All right, I'll get right over to then.
I was going to give you a poll, but what we're going to do is talk about my background.
I am, as I say here, I grew up on Provincere Island.
I went to school there.
I went to Bryan College and had three majors, accounting, economics, and law.
And I married for 46 years, had two grown children, three grandchildren, all living in Maine.
I'm a downhill skier, a sailor.
And in my retirement years, I've taken up kayak and something brand new for me
along with extensive traveling, most recently to Japan.
And I also now have become and have been pulled up.
So basically that's it for now.
No!
Okay.
Why don't you get that microphone?
All right.
I'm John.
I'm John Cangway.
Thank you for coming, Joe.
I'm a moderate, and I'm a co-founder, so it's meaningful.
I'm a 42-year resident of Provincere Island.
I'm not a...
I have no...
Oh, so I mean...
I have no council experiences yet.
I mean, this is all I've been doing for 48 years.
I'm just a little positive.
I think that I have the knowledge and where it was all found to come.
Just a response both to the tax payers and the tax base, too.
I'm going to enjoy my hobbies.
I'm going to enjoy gardening and IPPs.
I'm going to be deeper in that part.
And I really do enjoy the town of Bray.
I enjoy the people in the town of Bray.
I don't work here specifically because my job fair has been different places,
but my occupation here has been different places.
But I do purchase a lot of your town.
I know a lot of people in your town,
and I really truly enjoy the people that live here.
I think this is a wonderful community.
I truly do.
Especially my neighborhood.
My neighborhood is fabulous.
I've told more than one person if I could design that neighborhood
and my choice, I wouldn't change it.
And I kind of feel that way about the town of Bray.
I think the town has a lot of things that could be improved,
but I think basically it is a nice thing to have.
Thank you.
Tracy.
I'm Tracy Shepple.
I did serve about a year and a half of an unexplored term
that Allison Libby resigned from when we first moved to Bray.
John and I are married over 20 years.
We have three grown children, one grandchild,
one on the way, and a wedding happening at our house in, you know, in August.
So it's a little busy for us,
but we made a conscious decision to move to Bray.
We always knew we wanted to come to New England
and main beat in New Hampshire and Vermont
because it's got more beach.
And Bray was the place we chose
because of the potential that the community has
and its proximity to Portland and Lewiston
and all the places we like to visit and play
and things we like to do.
So we've lived here seven years this month.
Probably have had involvement up here
for closer to 14 because my brother lived here
before we moved here.
And so we spent a good deal of our time visiting him
and taking care of an investment property we had in Portland.
And I'm not even going to try to explain why
two weeks after we moved here,
my brother just started to move back to New Jersey,
and I have had a lifetime,
and I won't call it political, but government involvement.
I just have a passion for it.
And from the time I was not even legal to vote,
I was running municipal campaigns in the town
that I grew up in because it's just been a passion of mine.
My degree is in architectural and interior design,
and I have a real estate broker's license in New Jersey.
So when we came here,
because of what my education
and what we had done professionally in New Jersey,
I always had kind of a penchant for
economic and community development
and have always volunteered from PTA
on up to rent-leveling board,
ordinance review committees, et cetera.
So of course we get here,
and I start looking into ways that I can get involved,
and I decided to apply to be on
as soon to be defunct as I learned
the master plan committee because that project was done.
Made the application to be on that,
and then got a call from someone suggesting
that I apply for Allison's
unexpired seat for the next eight or nine months,
which I laughed at because I'm from away,
and John and I were hoping to be able
to relaunch our architecture business up here.
So after we had the conversation,
and he said, do you have a snowballs chance?
And he was getting appointed,
but if you stand on camera
and say shackled design three times, it's worth it.
So I did that, and lo and behold,
I was appointed, and then he ran
for the last year of her term.
My passions when I was on the council then,
as they are now, were communication,
transparency, and economic development.
I did try desperately to launch
an online newspaper to serve
Gray and Mubasa,
which was the GMGKZ.com,
and that is why I did not run for the seat
when it was up in 2000.
And now that that has not been a very successful business venture, I'm back. And that's why I want to work for economic development
and to continue a trend toward transparency and inclusion in our government.
Thank you.
So now we know a little bit about each of them. So now we're going to get into some of the committee
and we'll start with Lou and others. What issues can we tell you to run for the council and where do you stand on those?
Surprise.
There's one I want to get to.
Originally, when I ran in 2011, the original reason was because I thought although the town has a lot to offer
and I still think it does, I really thought that the town was stuck in a rut.
I think there's a lot of opportunities for the town to run up both economically for the town-wide citizens.
But for some reason or other, we seem to be having a hard time actually doing this thing about it.
And I said, well, I've got some ideas that are bad and don't know yet.
But I have some ideas about economic development and a few other things.
And I said, well, the way to get involved and get my ideas up in this way is to run for council.
I still feel very strongly about that.
I think the town of Gray has an awful lot to offer.
I think the citizens of Gray have an awful lot to offer.
But for some reason or other, we seem to struggle to make that offer and put that offer out there.
I think we have a perfect opportunity. I think we have a location.
We have a term plan kit. We have several assets that work in our FEMA to take advantage of economic development,
which not only brings business to the town that helps abroad and not tax-based,
but it also provides jobs and services.
And I've always been supportive of schools.
I think that's one of one of the big, great assets the town of Gray has had.
And I would continue to support the school.
Jim, welcome. How did it run?
Well, the biggest thing that has been in the race is the 26-quarter study that we've just done.
And some of the opportunities that are at Gray is faith-proof.
And I mean that there are opportunities, towns of the crossroads where if we decide to open a retail run through 26,
they want to come. So it's just a matter of whether we want to keep Gray a bedroom community
or whether we want to make it something else.
There's room in between, I think, to do something in the middle of that.
I am not against growth as a whole. I am not against taking the town of Gray
and taking the charm of it that brought me to Gray and throwing out the windows
and putting a bunch of Walmart targets or whatever else is coming in.
I am basically running to keep Gray a bedroom community.
I don't have a problem with businesses that want to come in.
We have bladed areas in town that we can definitely promote and increase
and get a development, an economic platform around it.
I don't want to see the baby out in the bathwater just changing everything.
I didn't move to Gray to be in an area like that or I wouldn't move to one.
And that's essentially it.
Thank you.
Fran.
Yeah. I'm finding that Gray is under a lot of pressure right now to grow
and what I'd like to do is support a more conservative approach to grow.
We've been very fortunate in the past to have so many wonderful businesses
that came into our community, which includes business like,
and I always mention the Brown Brothers because they are originally
a resident who had built businesses up and supported a lot of people with jobs
and also had built infrastructure that any citizen of Gray should be proud of
and in the sense of being baddest about.
We also have great moderns that offers everything for anybody, basically.
We have the China Village that just celebrated its 20 years doing business in our community.
So these are some of the businesses that have grown.
We had Castleboro when I first moved here who was a big employer,
a large employer, I should say.
And they moved, however, other businesses came into their location.
So we've had this steady growth with population and with businesses.
I just think a few businesses, by the way, to give an idea of what we do really should be proud of in Gray.
I find that the citizens, another issue is the citizens have been very careful
with their properties and taken very good care of them.
So we don't have a great-lighted community at all.
We have some very conscientious citizens who respect their properties.
So I think that I'd like to continue with that kind of attitude in growth
that it be steady and at this time also watching for our tax dollars.
That's the biggest plus, the most important issue.
Every year it goes up and we need to scrutinize our budget.
Thank you.
Chuck, what compelled you to run?
Were you staying on the issues?
As a lot of people know, I did run last year.
I ran against a very vulnerable boy.
I remember the customers at the time and he still lives with me.
That's a really good thing.
I don't bet that a lot, but that's the way it was.
I agree that Gray has to develop, but I think Gray has to develop at a reasonable rate.
I don't think we can change the town.
We are a better community.
We are essentially located between some really heavy-getters,
they cover in the Quarland, Williston, Summon, and Freeport Bay in that area.
We are a location where people want to live here to commute softly
or short trips to the work.
And I don't know if that's going to change.
The one thing that I think we do have, and I kind of researched,
I didn't do every town on the Turnpike bike.
The ones that I did do on the Turnpike bike,
you're the only one that you can drive off the Turnpike
and within just a few hundred yards, you're in town.
Everywhere else came on, you know, the South Quarland.
A lot of the others, Quarland, you are nowhere near downtown,
so why don't you get off the Turnpike.
So I think there is a definite class there
that I think Gray has a huge advantage.
If we do some industrial areas or whatever,
I think it could be a huge advantage.
That's kind of what made me, and I had a lot of people tell me
after last year that the notion of trying to get them,
so I'm watering that.
And so I'm, thank you.
I guess the most important factor for me is
economic development and appropriate economic development.
Gray has a lot of irons in the fire right now
with the agritourism zone that was created up
on North Raven Road and whether it fails
or comes back to life, the Monument Square project in the village
and the possible rezoning of Route 26 North,
there's a lot of stuff going on.
And there's, in my opinion, there is a more logical approach
to trying to make the different decisions
that we're trying to make for these different areas in town.
And as Mr. Henneman said, the people that moved up there,
moved up there because it's the RRA
and they wanted a rural area,
we moved to the village because I have a vision problem
and I don't drive, and I walk everywhere.
And trying to put myself in their position,
if Pine Land came and said,
Gray, we're going to give you $100 million,
sell us your village, we want to turn it into a farm,
I wouldn't be very happy about that
because all the services that I could walk to would go away.
And, you know, that's why you have zoning.
And I think that building the economic base
so that we have the funds for the town
and the school system to grow is very important.
But I think doing it with forethought is something
that we just maybe haven't been the best at at this point.
And I have some ideas on how to better approach it
and that's really what's bringing me to the council.
One of the things that I hear from professionals
is we could zone the whole town for commercial.
If people and developers don't feel
that they're going to have a streamlined method
to get through the planning department,
they're not going to come here.
And right now, that, in my opinion, is a shortcoming.
I mean, if a developer who knows he can go to Wyndham
and in three months' time get approval for a project
and he knows it's going to take him six to nine years,
time is money, he's not coming here.
So we need to work from inside
in addition to ordinance refissions and zoning.
Thank you, Casey.
So some of you talked to Jim,
I think he started the discussion off.
Let's go to that discussion.
Oh, Pete, I'm sorry.
Pete, why aren't you running for council?
I think, to be honest, my number one reason for running
is I'm just concerned with where potential taxes are headed.
We haven't, and I'm going to use round figures,
we have an 8% increase last year
according to the latest information I got,
even today, you know, we're headed to a 5% or 6%,
5% to 6% increase if the budget is approved in June.
And I'm just concerned, my pay hasn't come anywhere near.
Keeping up with that the past two or three years
and I doubt if any of yours has.
So that's my biggest concern,
not that I have a magic bullet to cure that.
But I'm concerned that it's getting out of hand.
I do think we have to use every trick in the book
to bring some economic development to gray.
Like Jim said, I don't want to have to deal with them at all.
But we have a lot of assets.
We have a gas, natural gas main on the eastern part of town.
There's land over there.
We could try to create some sort of a light industrial pack in that area,
make use of that natural gas to attract business.
I think we have a lot going for us.
We just need the kind of hardest to get the town together
and make it work.
Those are my two biggest reasons
to donate for running again for the town council.
So Jim started with his response
to the earliest question about the Route 26 corridor.
So we're going to give you all the opportunity to expand a little bit.
So we want you to state your position
and explain your reasons on your thoughts
on the rezoning of that 1.6 mile Route 26 corridor.
Okay.
The Route 26 corridor is going to be redone.
There's nothing we can do.
It's got to do with the roads a mess.
There's too much traffic.
You can't kick kids down the road on a bicycle or sidewalk.
Get them into school.
So we have to do something.
Absolutely agree with that.
What I don't agree with is making that the opportunity
to turn that into a completely different resident
or take the residential feel out of that area.
It's a nice area.
There's a lot of people who live there.
And once you turn it so you turn a retail application,
even partially down that road,
it changes that area forever.
You don't ever see it go back.
Last time you saw a Walmart getting knocked down in the houses.
Usually it turns into something that's just predicate
for walking doors through many malls
or strip malls or what have you.
I think responsible development on that road is needed.
The Flinttown Planner has done some great visionary work,
I think, to look at this from the ground up
to lay out different ideas for front roads
and things like that if we decide to go that way.
I'm not saying I'm closed off to it completely,
but I definitely want to be very selective
of what gets in that area.
In fact, I don't want it to lose its charm
of being a small town.
And that road is coming when we're the others,
so we do have to address that.
I think the town council has been seeing
that the rest of it has done a good job
looking at that so far.
And I just want to be part of it,
continue through next time.
Do you actually need a degree of policy
to change this equally?
Sure.
Yeah.
I think I've spoken publicly on this
and I still feel the same that,
I need to be here definitely.
I've also found that the state is better receptive
in doing pretty much what we would like to have done
in that area.
I originally thought that they would only work with us
if we did economic development.
And it appears that,
at least tomorrow night's the meeting,
we'll find out for sure,
but it appears that it doesn't necessarily
have to be developed.
We have to do a little planning, I would think.
But anyway, basically what I've said before,
development, I believe,
the roads are already there
for Route 100 North and South.
That to me would be the natural transition,
but then again,
businesses are looking to go where they want to go.
And if some business buys up some land on Route 26,
and your incident is commercial,
some type of commercial,
then there's not much, you know,
the best that this can do.
So...
So maybe they need to look forward, you know, that area needs to look at who, if they want
a protection for that area to zoning or anything along those lines. They should be meetings
and discussions regarding the future growth of Route 26.
They should involve most of the townspeople because they're the ones who are going to be impacted with traffic
or with jobs or any of those types of things. So it's important to communicate and discuss
what needs to be done. I don't have any answer for it because that, again, as I say,
it's a natural transition just as it has been right around the 12th, the time of break,
that actually has developed every 100 north and south.
Thank you. Chuck. Thank you.
I believe Route 26 development is, I think it falls a little bit short, actually,
because I've traveled that road for many, many years.
I lived over in Los Alamos for a long, long time.
And I think the problem actually starts at dry mills.
I think that to just look at that one area between Santa Cruz-Sos Beach
or Viapas and dry mills, I think that's great to improve that section of road,
but I think it's going to improve the section of road if only it gets you to a bottleneck
when you go up past dry mills through the lake area and move it beyond.
I just can't quite wrap my head around spending a ton of money to move the bottleneck
from one section of the town a little further up.
So far as the development of that, I can't say that it shouldn't be developed
because it's a huge traffic area and it would be a mistake not to take
some credence to that amount of traffic that goes through there.
I think there's something to be said about how many people actually want to stop there
or how many people just want to get skewed.
I guess I'm on the fence about how many people just want to travel through there
and get through dodge and do what they want to do or get skewed or whatever it is.
But I definitely think that area is definitely a hot area of town
and I think it needs some cautious development.
I think it should be very cautious.
And I also would like to say, except for your input,
and I mean I've got a lot of calls meetings all the time
and just a few people there.
There might be thousands of people watching,
but I think there should be a lot more people actually speaking up
as to what they want.
This is a town of people of gray
and I think that people should be more informed
and be able to decide how that should be done.
Thank you.
Casey?
No, just kidding.
My jury is still kind of out on the rezoning of that question under the 26th.
I have a lot of questions in my mind.
First and foremost, I am absolutely in favor of the corridor study
and in favor of making sure that when the DOT makes the improvements
that we inevitably do because it's the only piece of 26
that hasn't been improved, that they'll take into account
what the citizens of gray want.
And what was unequivocally clear to me at the first of those
community forums was that the public wants the gesturing way,
maybe some guide paths, they want the kids to be able to get to school safely, et cetera.
That being said, as far as the future development,
I don't think anybody in the town has indicated,
or heard, a vision for what they want to draw there.
We have plans that show everything from light industry
to medical professionals to restaurants to hotels.
And I think you need to know what your market is
and if your market is tourist, they're not going to stop to get their teeth cleaned.
And they may want to stop to have a meal.
So tell her down to what exactly the market for that traffic corridor is.
And in my true opinion, without having someone sway me,
the people that came and put in that really lovely bypass
so that people that wanted to get from point A to point B
could bypass the village, keep the trucks out of the village,
keep the traffic down in the village.
And now what you're going to do is when they take that bypass,
create what could be another bottleneck that slows everybody down.
So they're still not getting through town.
And it's a catch-22.
We want them to come to town and spend money.
But if they're not going to stop in town,
we don't want them fluttering in town while they're trying to make their way through.
So like I said, I'm curious to see what the latest maconation is tomorrow night.
But my big passion where that's concerned is to see that
whatever the DOT does has...
pays close attention to what the citizens of Grey want,
which at this point seems like pedestrian ways
and safe passage for people on feet and mics.
Which is 8.26.
Tracy is correct that that is the last un-improves route 26
between Handels and Norway.
It's a matter of time, fairly short time,
and all probability before the DOT rebuilds that.
I think the council and the town as a whole
have done the proper thing in trying to team up with the DOT
and make plans for when the day comes that that is rebuilt.
From what I've seen of the various plans that have been floated out,
it will not look like North Windham should it be developed.
But business will determine where they want to go.
We won't do that for the most part.
We can offer incentives, tips, things of that nature.
But they'll decide where they want to go.
And obviously the big attraction there is the 16,000 to 17,000 cars per day.
I do think there are other places in town
that could be stronger candidates for various reasons,
natural gas being one very strong one.
But I think my general comment is the town has so far done
a cautious, thorough approach
to looking at the 26th corridor from a development point of view.
Thank you.
Of course, this is a subject I've been involved in since its conception.
And first of all, in front of where I was paying attention,
I think it's been, I don't think there's any question of the fact that
what has been done so far has been taken the path of well thought out
and well planned development.
We said right from the beginning that there would be no zoning changes
until all new zoning language and design standards were in place
so that we would be 100% prepared.
And this is an opportunity basically the state invited us to the table
which every town gets the opportunity to sit at the table
because doing a corridor study they said,
well, what are your plans for the land along that corridor
because that is going to have an effect on their corridor study.
And so we said well, this is an opportunity for us to pass on.
Now, tomorrow night hopefully there's going to be some more information
released about, especially about the dry mills area, the innocent area,
the traffic problems.
Phil and Councilor Matt Gaudy has mentioned on many occasions
that the traffic is a very important part of the corridor study
which is true.
But these are all, we're trying to deal with all of these.
And right now this is just a plain, this is a conception
of what could happen, but why wouldn't they take the opportunity
to at least look at the possibility of commercial development up there.
Because I, number one, I think the town needs to think,
number one, the plan you're using doesn't seem to be working
and my tax bill says it is not working as good as we hoped it would
but we should be willing to diversify
and it's great if Route 26 is the hot area
and why don't they take advantage of that.
And maybe two years from now, five years and now the village
on Route 100 or 202 someplace else will be the popular area.
And I heard you mention the other day that we shouldn't, you know,
we shouldn't do these things
because of something they have on the town of Gray
and they were really too good for this one.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, we're going to switch gears just a little bit
from solving economic development to a little budget talk.
I'm going to start with you.
Oh, okay.
Are you ready?
Yeah, I am.
Capital funding is always limited.
Do you have any, what are your priorities
for capital projects for the town of Gray?
We seem to be, you know, the major road construction
that we've had going on.
The fact that we had to bow for that is something
that is bothersome.
That should have been something that would have been
taken out of our regular operating budget.
And that, because of that and the other funding issues
that we have taken over in the last three years,
I think limits the amount of tax files available
to other types of capital improvements.
We have the public safety garage area,
evidently, it needs some work, serious work to it
and it should be studied.
We should start funding for something like that.
Or other kinds of buildings that need,
in the future, some repairs.
So I think we take away from major,
necessary capital improvements in buildings and in roads
and, you know, end up using the funds elsewhere.
So I think that that's a serious situation.
One of the things that happened was we thought
that we needed to improve the village.
We went ahead and took some funding for that
to grant as well as taxpayer dollars.
And that money now, you know, has been used
and we haven't accomplished what we set out to do.
So I guess we have to stop and think about these projects
that we have.
And we need to do a better handle of using our funds
for the things that are necessary for improvement.
Charles, capital funding limitations and priorities.
I think one of the priorities we have to be,
we have, it's actually what we do with schools.
I think we have a lot of school buildings that are coming up on stage.
I don't know if we have capital improvements on the school budget
but it's still self-paced from the taxpayers' questions.
I think that's one of the major things
that really should be watching out for,
that I think the education is the only thing
to sort of keep bringing new people and new people
that want to have good education for children
in the town, right?
The other thing I think there are some things
in town that definitely need to be done.
But I really think that if there's anything we can put out
until we can get the capital improvement process
to build up a little bit more, I think we should.
I think we should wait on things that are absolutely pressing,
let the things go a little bit more
way down to no capital reserves, basically.
And I think that's a very dangerous position.
My issue is not so much what should be done,
what capital improvements we should make or not make.
I think that's for council staff
and particularly department heads
to bring to council for recommendation.
But what I think the council needs to do
is to find a way to ensure that future councils
don't dip into the CIP
or at least dip into what was supposed to go into the CIP
for future repairs.
And that's happened historically,
and I'm sad to say it happened when I was on the council
and it's happened since I've been off the council.
And in an effort to keep the tax rate as flat as possible
or make up for whatever the increase in the school budget
is going to be in its best efforts,
council continually tries to juggle money
and it always seems that the CIP
is the thing that loses out.
And it's my understanding.
The talk of fiscal policy
and a potential charter revision that addresses that
because technically,
and this is one of the things I learned
from the council last time,
is one council cannot make a decision
that holds another future council to it.
But if it's a policy or an ordinance or a law,
it can.
And I think that the department heads know
they're not on a budget,
I'm going to need a dump truck in three years,
I'm going to need a fire truck in five years
to tell the council what they need
and how they're planning for it.
But it's the council's job
to make sure the money gets put into the account
so when those things come due, it's there.
And I think that's the biggest issue,
not what needs to be done or what doesn't
but how to ensure that
for going forward forever
that that account always stays funded appropriately.
I'm probably going to go against everybody else in the room
but I was on the council
when we acknowledged
our first lease purchase of dump trucks
and it's a way to keep
annual costs down
and spread out over a longer period of time.
The dump trucks
If you see Steve LaValley running over the road today, fully equipped are probably $100,000 at least.
The ladder truck that I heard is getting close to replacement for the fire department I believe is over $1 million to replace.
I don't think personally, and I'm a very conservative person financially, but I don't think you have a choice.
I think you're going to have to borrow in order to keep the annual, whether it's CIP or equipment though, whatever you want to call it,
to keep the annual cost within reason or the tax rates are going to go out of sight on certain years where the $1 million ladder truck is bought for the fire department.
I think you've got to have a way to even out it.
The other thing right now, interest rates are very low and I'm paying a great deal of interest expense to borrow money.
It is an opportunity to make at least make use of that situation for the future.
Basically, I agree with what Pete said and the council adopted the plan to go to a lease program for the vehicles.
And as it turned out, it cost us about half per year that it was costing us to put into the long term CIP plan every year.
But what that does is that frees up somebody to go into other areas of the CIP.
Now, I think anybody would tell me that a long term CIP plan doesn't be shaped as not telling you the truth because it's not.
And we have some serious issues that we're trying to deal with.
Personally, I think the current council did pull it off.
I thought it was a really spot move by pulling it back to a more like a five year plan as opposed to a 20 year plan because it makes it a little bit more manageable.
And I think it was Tracy, as someone mentioned, because things do happen and that's easy money to grab.
And I don't know how many of you remember, it wasn't too often, many years ago when we had the floods, roads were washed out, culverts were washed out, you know, just millions of dollars worth of damage.
And that's where they got the money to fix that.
And the other capital reserve funds that we've had over the years were spent on paying our tax rate now so we don't have taxes.
So everybody said, well, taxes are going to realistically low to our surrounding areas.
Well, if not for reasons like that, I think it would be in excess of $20,000 now.
Okay, but at some point we need to pay the price of that.
Now, what the exact plan is to best accommodate the long-term CI plan?
I don't know, I think that something is still working on and hopefully the finance committee is working on that.
But there are certain things that have to be funded.
I think another issue that we need to deal with is we need to stop patching our roads and stop fixing them.
Jim, capital funding limitations and priorities.
Okay, before I worked in the forklift sales when I was, I spent seven years doing heavy-duty trucks for municipal trucks, including NDOT and the Turnpike Authority, and I also did fire engines.
The municipal lease package that you folks have come up with is actually a very effective way of doing things the council has now.
The one thing I disagree with is, and you were stopped, because they were stopped, the town council was stopped for what we had,
but you need to do this stuff when they come due.
You can't have five trucks come in at the same time.
We have five dump trucks that we picked up the plows on in the town of Gray.
And if you try to do a budget for that, it's almost impossible, because trucks have life cycles.
First year, you get them, there's nothing.
Year two, a couple of things to do on by year three, you put tires on them, and then you start doing overhauls,
and you start doing this, and then the chains on the sanders and all that stuff.
So you start doing this.
Well, if you've got a whole series of trucks, they all come somewhere in the valleys,
and you have a budget line across them, and you can have a lump sum of half a million dollars, whatever the number might be for making some of the trucks.
When they're doing this, you go from nothing to 700, you're all over the ban.
So the ideal way of doing it, to minimize your cost, would be to have one a year, or one every two years,
or whatever you're going to do to minimize the two, to get this together.
In a perfect world, that's great.
You know, the valley had no choice.
The trucks were falling apart around it.
He had no life.
He had to do something, and that's what we did, and I'm not saying it was a bad move,
but the fire engine's the same thing.
Land life cycles, no one to come and do it.
If the department has, they should know when they're coming.
The town council's job is to have plan for it, so that we know there's something coming.
If you have a stretcher next year, once in a while, that's one thing, but you can't put them off.
And look, the thing is just rust to the ground.
That's when you start getting into trouble.
And the long you leave things before you address them, same with the roads.
Patch them again.
You patch and patch and patch them.
Next thing you know, you've got $10 million bill because everything else is telephone and anything.
You need to take the stuff by the horns and go over it,
and get creative and looking for funding.
Jim, thank you.
Chuck, we're studying with this one with you.
What are your feelings about a town meeting like we used to have?
I'm glad you asked that.
I didn't ask you. Someone else did.
I'm glad they asked me that.
I do talk to a lot of people that say they really miss the town.
And one of my strongest concerns is that I really think if we could get a higher population
of the town to come out to the council meetings and make it easier or more comfortable
or whatever it takes for people to come out there and speak their mind
and get a lot of these ideas rolling around and asking about that.
I think that's what people miss.
And I think people are reluctant to come to the town meeting
because it's only their television.
I mean, it's plain and simple.
And when I started school, it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy. It still isn't.
But so I think the town meeting, I don't know that the town meeting format
will never be anything we'll ever go back to completely.
But I think the idea of being able to be in with a larger group of people,
speak to your mind freely, listen to your neighbor,
listen to everybody else's opinions,
and whatever could be the changing mind or just your attitude.
And I don't think you'd go in with that.
I feel that possibly we could definitely benefit
by having more people attend a lot of these different meetings.
Thank you.
When we first moved here, we were still doing the bifurcated town meeting.
And basically what that means is there was an open floor town meeting
and the public could do exactly what Mr. Tang Wei described,
discuss each individual item, throw their two cents in,
reduce amounts, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then a month later in June, all of those questions would go to the polls
and people could go and vote on them essentially a second time.
And I think, I don't know the history of how that happened here
because I know other towns just have an annual meeting
and they don't have the second vote.
But I think it created a lapse in why would I come and sit for four hours
and debate with you over these items when I can go vote yes or no in June.
So I think that that may have hurt the attendance at the open floor meeting
and it was decided, I guess, when I was on the council
to take the bifurcated meeting and eliminate the open floor portion
so that people could come at full.
And hindsight being 2020 and not being very well-versed
because we had nothing like that in New Jersey.
I kind of missed the town meeting,
but I think in order for a town meeting to be successful
the bifurcated part of it should go away
and maybe the referendum portion goes away
so people put their stock into making the time to come to the open floor meeting.
I know it was a great challenge for me.
The first one we had after I was on the council
I got together with the rec department
and we had babysitting available
and we had a barbecue and 286 people showed up
and it was the demographic.
It was the 30-somethings who can't leave their three kids at home
every day for the five hours.
Excuse me.
The following year we didn't have a straight attendance
but we did attempt to do the babysitting thing
and welcome families because that's what you need to do
because the town is filled with families.
But again, I think that if we were going to go back to an open floor town meeting
we should take the referendum out of it
because I think it waters down the importance of the open floor meeting.
Well, I was on the council that voted to do away
with the open floor town meeting.
I voted for that to do away with it
for a couple of reasons.
One, poor attendance.
And it wasn't just gray, it was poor attendance.
Winden was worse than gray,
the particular year that I was involved.
I was concerned and I still am concerned
about a vocal minority controlling things in town
by attending the town meeting.
I was in favor of the vote,
the referendum vote that I would call it
because I knew more people would participate
and I thought it would be a broader view
of the various issues in front of the voters.
I still feel that way.
I haven't seen a landslide,
a landsaw swell of people interested
in what's going on in the town government
where I could see that, see that change,
then I would feel differently.
But that's why I voted the way I did.
I still feel that way.
Could my mind be changed?
It could.
If I felt as though things were changing
and more people wanted to attend.
I was very concerned that a small group
would control over the destiny of the town.
Thank you very much.
Did it?
I personally was funny when I asked that question
because I was talking more white just the other day
instead of I could do two things in gray
if I had the power to do them.
One of them would be to bring back the open town meeting.
And I still, and I honestly believe that
and I don't disagree.
Number one, I don't have a problem with having
the town meeting and the referendum vote.
Number one, if you have the town meeting
that gives you one more opportunity
to have the face-to-face,
come face-to-face with the citizens
and hear what they have to say.
And it also gives you an opportunity
to change the numbers.
Okay, I've seen that happen before.
You know, they may not necessarily take a particularly
and throw it out, but they may,
the discussion may lead to a lowering
of a particular article that's going out to vote.
Now, personally I think if the people,
the people that won't show up
and the people that should make the decisions,
it's as simple as that.
Great, a lot of people showed up
to the last couple of town meetings
and I understand why that caused a concern.
But what are you going to do if 50 people
show up and vote and you're going to do away with that too?
You know, I think you really need to think
that any opportunity you have to deal
face-to-face with the public, I think,
is an opportunity you can't pass up.
And, you know, maybe with
a little bit more enthusiasm
and maybe even a little bit more,
I think government should lead by example.
And I think it's done and done correctly
that more and more people can
and will get involved.
There's some serious issues in this town
that need to be dealt with.
There's a lot of great things happening in town,
but there's still some serious
that need to be dealt with
and I think the people are really...
Jim, your stance on how many of the way you used to be.
I would be willing to look at those meetings.
There are some questions I'd have
with the fact that if you get up 25 or 30 people
making a lot of decisions under the fees
of 100 people, whatever they come to
with a count of 7,000
that can change everything from the tax rate
to what we're doing with anything in town.
It is the way towns like ours work.
I'm wishing to wash my hands.
I'd be almost seen away.
Thank you.
Ryan, how mean.
Yeah, I'm totally in favor.
I always have been up to town
meaning whether it is 50 people
or 500 people.
We've had some very exciting town meetings in the past
when an issue is controversial.
People do come out.
It's been historic.
They get an opportunity to speak
on both sides of the issue.
I think it's a great opportunity for community.
When we eliminated the town meeting,
we got a total disconnect between
the government and this becomes
very difficult now for the citizens
to be able to get their views.
Mainly, you know, people say
well, they could come to a town council meeting.
They're quite the same when
because they don't get to vote at a town council meeting.
They can vote at a town meeting.
That's what we should have.
I would work if I was selected
diligently to get that format back
to get back out again.
And to say that,
I did speak with some just recently
in their 40s
who was giving me some reasons
why that age rule price is very difficult
to attend meetings.
Basically because the business schedules and all,
they believe that government needs to have
a different format and reach it out
and get information to the public.
I totally agree with that.
That's where the information gets to the public,
to, we could even do
Facebook, I think,
or whatever those things are.
Even my old posting group
have all these connections
that you can communicate.
But in government,
we just seem to have
information coming out in one venue,
which is the, you know,
internet, and then there's
no back and forth communication.
So that's where we need to
take it to that other part
and have the back and forth conversation.
And at that point,
citizens would probably
have the information on these things
and then be able to come to the meeting
and get those.
Okay. Taking off from community town meetings, let's talk about how do you increase, oh, Chuck,
I think it's a tummy.
Are you watching?
Tracy, are you ready?
Yes, I think so.
Watching me down to increase volunteerism, public service, communications between town and the residents.
Okay.
Thanks. I think that we have a really good level of volunteerism in this town.
I think that there could be a little bit more consideration and respect of certain volunteers.
Everybody can work on something that's popular across the board and sometimes volunteers get a bum rap.
I don't think this is only in gray, but a lot of times, you know, we tend to study things to death and we charge committees with, do this,
Village Master Plan or do this, and they work really diligently and then they bring it back to the council
and either the council that's sitting is different and it's not their priority anymore
and there's some reason why this is great work and we'll get to it someday and it gets put on the shelf
and I think that that has a chilling effect on how people choose to spend their time
because time is really valuable and if somebody is going to devote a night a month and sometimes more to a committee
and work on a project for eight months and then they're going to find out that after all the hard work
nothing is going to go further with it, why wouldn't they put their efforts into coaching a little team
where they might see a victory or something.
So I think that there needs to be a better connection and that the council and council staff need to more embrace the people
that are volunteers that they charge to do things with.
What was that? Communication? That was the other one.
And I think that the website and the monthly newsletter that's been initiated is a really great help
but there is also a population out there that just simply doesn't want to be online
and doesn't want to get their information that way
and I'm not a fan of spending cash dollars to put things in the mail
so maybe it's a matter of putting some things on paper and having them at the library
and places where people go so the people that may be intimidated by this internet
can pick up a piece of paper and read what's going on
because some people just don't want the e-mail that most of us sign up for
but I think getting back to the volunteers, that is the most important thing
is to make them feel appreciated and respect them.
One of the things that I'm personally most proud of from my previous service
on the town council is the two electronic signs that are located at that panel on the fire station.
I advocated heavily at the time to put those into the budget
because I wanted to try to improve communications between the town and its citizens.
Do I think they have been used at their optimum? No, I don't
and I've criticized the town managers a few times for trying the need to do more with them.
As far as volunteerism, I don't have an easy solution.
I think you either want to volunteer to help your town or you don't.
I can tell you one of the people sitting in this room tonight
that I'm probably the most proud of is Matt Deli.
He's a young guy who has three young children
and yet he's here tonight taking in the debate
and I think it's either within you to make the effort
to find the time or not.
And those are the people that find the time and want to volunteer are here
in various committees throughout the town.
There's no magic cure in my opinion.
Everybody's lives are very busy.
So is mine. I live way on the west side of the town.
It takes me 20, 25 minutes just to get here.
So you've either got to want to do it or you don't.
One thing that the current council, I should make it a conscious effort to do
in the last all three years I've been there anyway
and I'll have to give the large amount of the credit to Richard Nodder
to see that the committee volunteer committees are more filled
and I can't remember the exact numbers right now
but I know the numbers of the committees, the vacant seats in the committees
a lot of them were filled.
We had some really good people that had to leave
because of business and family issues were just tough.
One of the, I mean, I'm basically sent to retire
so I have the time to do this.
I agree with Peter how a person who holds a full-time job would do this job.
I don't know. I don't know how we do it.
So it does take a lot, it asks a lot of the committees that you volunteer.
And I think a big part of the council's job is to give clear and direct
guidance to their committees and their boards as to what they want.
Now they may not always agree with them.
They may not always accept their recommendations.
That's just part of the, again, the council may charge to do certain things.
But I do think it's very important to give direction
as to the things that they want some of these committees to work on
and there's always specific projects that the council's trying to get information on
to ask these people to do.
Ken?
Yeah, I do a lot of volunteer work and I'm also in charge of a lot of volunteers
getting people into some of the things that I do.
I'm part of the booster club in town.
It was going to put the burgers in a snack shack behind the high school
couple nights a week there in the fall.
It's more along the lines of asking people to do it,
appreciate them, don't criticize them,
and then allow them to do what they're asked to do.
If you sit there and micromanage them nobody wants to do it.
It's not fun anymore.
Give them some, give them a task, let them go with it and run with it.
I'm vice president of the main shrine obstacle.
I've got field operations in my job.
I've got 150 volunteers that I have to get into place to do everything
from ticket sales to vending to clean up and all the other stuff that goes on.
You need to find them, ask them if they'll help,
and once they've asked you, give them the task, let them do it.
Don't sit there and tell them,
I didn't like the way you stacked those chairs.
Let them do it.
If it's something that's bigger than the person,
you get someone else to help them or pay someone to do the job.
If it's a volunteer you treat them as a volunteer,
they're helping you.
If they're not helping you find somebody you need to readdress for
whether it's a volunteer position or should you pay for it.
Yeah, I think back to when I sat on many of the committees
and organizations that I belong to in town,
and there were quite a few.
The way I got involved was people asked me.
They asked me to join, be part of the group.
If there was something of interest to me, then I would.
I was working, I had a family, but once in a while I was able to take the time
to find something that was of interest to me.
We also, pretty much as committee members,
were able to discuss the pros and cons of the issues that we had in front of us
and come to a conclusion.
Sometimes we even had a minor report to go on with the majority report.
They were very interesting and educational experiences that I feel that we had in the past.
I'm not sure what the direction is today.
We didn't really receive any direction from the government, from the council as such
that they just stated they needed, they had a need and then we citizens came forward
and tried to fill that need.
I'm not sure today that that's very clear that the constitution is very clear indication
that they want, so that keeps people from wanting to participate.
We need to, one natural person though, as far as getting the word out,
one natural person in Citizen and Grade just told me recently
that in other communities they put up signs.
Along the way, if something's happened until that particular day,
there's not just a sign in front of the town office,
but it's in all the intersections and stuff.
That's a very good suggestion.
It gives the people an opportunity to say,
well, maybe I might be interested in that.
I think I'm going to try to get there tonight.
That's how, you know, I think we can increase participation
and volunteer and fight personal contact and guidance.
Thank you, Simon. Chuck. Yes. Thank you.
I think volunteering, you know, is essentially critical.
The amount of people that do a lot of volunteer work and stuff
take such a load off of all the rest of the employees
that would be filling the gap and doing those things.
I think that's a great point.
The one thing that I do feel, and I agree with the whole audience
and Tracy, that volunteering really needs to be appreciated.
They need to know that they have to step up to the plate
and do whatever there has to do.
It's really recognized.
We have a volunteer recognition.
I've learned a lot from this interview.
And it was pretty well attended, I have been.
And I think it's essential that the more people
feel more comfortable with doing things to help off the town
and I think that's going to be a key to helping people
get involved and do things.
I think once you start getting involved
and you start meeting a lot of the people
that really are the energy of this town,
the volunteer energy is helpful.
It's really, it's personally helpful. Thank you.
This is probably going to be the last question
so we'll give you all the chance to read that
and make your final statement so we make sure
we get it all on tape.
So this one comes from some of the attendees.
So I think we're studying with you on this one.
Where do you stand on educational impact fees
on large subdivisions?
We might as well end it with a thank you.
Unfortunately, residential housing is a necessary evil
for every town, not just the gray.
The town of gray cannot cover its costs
based upon the back of residential housing.
You have to have other revenues coming in
in order to support your school system.
I happen to think we have a gray school system in SAT 15.
I think the impact fee has some merit
because we desperately need to find other funding mechanisms
to support our tax base, you heard me say,
but we had an 8% increase last year.
We're going to be five or six percent
by the end of this year.
And personally, we just cannot keep going in that direction.
So I'm in support of the assessment.
Thanks, Donnie.
I assume it's already the election
and it doesn't likely pay a fair price to that.
I brought this up with me.
It was brought up for that very reason that Peter stated.
If we are going to continue to struggle
in accepting economic development
and trying to increase revenues that way,
we're going to have to search out other ways
to increase our revenue intake.
The reason I picked on big sub-divisions
was that, and I said this at the meeting,
is that major sub-divisions is a business.
It's not a right that you have
like a person that has a fine ache a lot
and wants to chop it in half
and give his one of his children
a house lock styled on.
That's a different story.
Major sub-divisions are big business.
And when big business comes to town
that's hand if it's big.
And some others, they get treated a certain way.
And we ask a certain amount of them.
We ask them to do things.
And hand if it's did a lock trust
when they came to town,
simply because we asked them to do it.
And I think if you look at it,
if you would treat sub-divisions
like you would a business,
you realize that, okay,
if you put a sub-division,
it causes a major problem,
and then in the section or something like that,
then I don't think you should be treated any different
than it would be if it was a business
because chances are you'd have that business
if not paid for the opening,
paying a large part of the cost
of fixing that intersection.
And plus the fact that it gives us
help down the road,
maybe to buy some sports equipment
or uniforms or something
that we can use in the school.
We did that and say everybody put something in there
so that every 15 or 20 years,
regardless of whether or not it has to be spent.
And what that does,
it takes a little of the tax burden off the tax payers.
Jim,
major sub-divisions,
educational and impact agencies.
Education? Education is a piece of the right subdivisions.
Once the subdivisions put in, kind of worse it out of our, you need to have that planned ahead of time.
If you're going to have some proof of subdivision, I think we need to address it.
There's going to be an implication for the schools. You're going to get overwhelmed in school.
You're going to have people coming in. It's part of what veteran communities deal with.
If we're going to be busted, it seems, in the school, we know what you're going to do.
It's that simple. If we're going to have 400 houses in the way and we're already maxed out
in the school district and that's going to bring 800 more kids into the school district,
we then even decide to have them help us build a new school,
or we need to have them say, sorry, you can't put that many kids, you can't put that many houses in.
It is part of planning. It is part of zoning.
It is things that we do deal with, just like if the guy who was the road intersection point
would kind of be a problem. I don't have a problem putting an assessment on the subdivision.
But once the subdivision is built, you can't go back to them year after year
because that business could fall into whatever, they're gone.
Once they need to deal with people who live in town and their residents just like the rest of us,
and you really can't go back to them and say, oh, by the way, we need more money out of you
because you're moving to a major that was up last time. So it's got to be done
after the development time and before you give them approval to start building. I don't have a problem with that.
Thank you.
Yeah, I see that as an additional
tax on the residents in that subdivision.
Perhaps the builder of the subdivision is the business, but then the residents
are left the same as myself or anyone else in this room.
And they're already going to be paying their taxes
for the valuations as everyone else is. So to use
that, just because they came in a
neighborhood instead of an individual housing,
I don't feel it's proper to tax them
and that's what I would call that. If there's going to be an impact
based on that subdivision of intersections and things of that nature,
that should be taken care of right up front. That's the responsibility
of the planning board and others who review and engineers who review all these
plans of the subdivision and make sure that they won't
be the negative impact on the community or in the neighborhood.
So the funding for additional items for the schools
will have to be paid like it normally is, you know, for fundraising and things of
that nature, but I don't think it's fair additional
taxation to citizens inside, I believe.
Thank you, Fran.
Thank you. I don't believe that the original assessment
is to the developer is certainly just going to be passed down the corner about that rate.
I don't know if that's the clearest way to
raise that revenue for the
school fund.
I think there are definitely things that
there are definitely costs that are going to come with having any major subdivision.
I think that a lot of people would
really walk at a
large amount, I certainly would.
If I was thinking about making something for everyone, I know
a $500,000, $600,000 assessment would have been a lot. I don't think that would be there.
So I have to say that I think
that I have to agree with Mr. Monroe that we take the taxes
and we go down into these individual assessments and be like,
this is a commercial building based on public
poison that they might have or whatever.
I think it's a way to raise revenue and I can just agree with that.
But I don't think it's a problem.
I don't have a particular problem with educational impact fees.
Right now, we have a recreation impact fee
and when you put up a house, not so much when you get your development approval,
but when you actually build the house, if you as a developer are not providing
public green space within your development, I believe it's $400
per residence that gets put into the subdivision recreation
fund which the taxpayers have discretion over to buy land.
We bought part of the land behind the panel to expand the fields.
We used it to buy part of the Libby Hill trails.
In theory, an educational impact fee is acceptable to me
and if it's another $400 or $500, absolutely the developer
is going to pass it on to the buyer but so be it.
My big concern with that would be what are you going to do with that money down the road
because in my mind, if you're collecting money because of educational
impact, it's going to be because eventually the school is going to need to float
on because they're going to need to build extra space or they're going to need to rehab
a field because of the wear and tear. I would be more worried with
what happens after you start collecting the money and how it was allocated
to whom and by whom and that's where my concern would be
with it because a lot of times in maybe not just locally but even at the state level
people come up with these great ideas like school consolidation
and everybody runs around crazy and comes up with a way to do it and then nobody thinks about
what happens tomorrow after your school consolidates and that would be my concern with the
impact fees is how would they be administered and what would they be used for
and in my opinion it wouldn't be football uniforms and computers
I think it would be for capital improvement.
Thank you. We thank all of you for being on target
and answering the questions without dodging them.
You'll have up to five minutes, three minutes.
We're going to run out of time.
Sorry I said five minutes for three
for time on you. So we're going to go, when we get in those prides it's not jumping up and down.
So we're going to start with Lou
when you're closing the comments to everyone in the voters.
First of all I'd like to make all of you coming out.
I just said earlier I am running
for second term of the town council.
I do enjoy the job. I think this council
that I'm sitting with right now I think we've done a good
job. I think we've come in a lot of topics. I think we've
made things better and great for the
years that I've been here and I think that we
have a good grasp on so the needs of the town, the needs of
the people. I think I
bring the open mindedness to the table
I definitely have my ideas and my concerns
but I'm willing to listen to anybody and if you can
convince me that I'm wrong you're all right I don't have a problem with that.
I think the thing you have to do is to and what I always try to do
and I try to make my decisions based on what I think is best
for the most people in the town of Gray, for the majority of the town of Gray
and I think that's basically the major job of the government
of the town council per se is to
put together some sort of
plan that says okay we have got X amount of tax dollars
now what can we do with those tax dollars to make
all the things we want happen that have the most positive
effect on the most people in Gray. I can't keep them all
happy so I'm lucky to get half of them happy
and that's part of the game but I really
want to appreciate you both. I'd like to have another year to serve the town.
Thank you. I'd also like to thank everyone
for coming thanks for watching and thanks for moderating.
It's been a enjoyable evening. One of the things I want to touch
kind of come back on who's been talking about volunteers and one of the things that I think
make some of what we have brought up that maybe think of it. One of the things why I think people
don't like to volunteer is because they're afraid if they volunteer they're going to have the whole thing dropped in their lap.
One of the biggest things about finding volunteers is to say hey I need you for
two hours on Saturday to do something. I need you to run something.
And that's a way to get people involved so that they really can do it for an hour or two
not for the rest of their lives and having a full time job. So getting back on target.
Again I thank you. I hope I
could earn some of your votes out there. Does anybody have any questions
that I always find me I'm listening. I'm listening in the phone book and there is no
phone book in the back. I appreciate that.
Fran. As I said I've been here
for over 40 years. I have been a town council in the past.
I've also served on many committees, started up many organizations
and groups in town especially economic development
and being a chairman and
chairman of the Republican Party and all
kinds of aspects of community involvement. Also
I am besides being retired as an accountant
who had to serve and service my clients
I am presently employed by the seasonal
job at Eloving and well if anyone's
familiar with the history of Eloving they expect in the end that we
provide a great service for the customer. And
I feel that that's another
aspect that I have for
asset and able to be able to listen to the public and do what the public wants.
My opinion doesn't really have much to do when there's an issue in front
of us and someone gives me information to help me
make a decision. I think it's that's what makes it good council.
It's someone who's open and listening and I think that I've had
a lot of experience in that and I feel that I have done
it in the past and I will continue on being a good listener and take
the information that the citizens provide me with to make this even a better community
for themselves as well as their fellow citizens.
So I hope that people do consider me for the vote and I do want to encourage everyone
to vote on June 10. Until that we do
give as a group of citizens that we want to be part of
our government and that's one easy way of doing it.
So thank you all for coming and I hope that I get to see you on
June 10. Thank you so much.
We also would like to thank you for showing up. I'm really good proud that you're
actually there when I thought about it. And I would just like to say
that I think my one goal as a council should
be, but this is a personal goal, would be to make the council and the council meetings
more accessible and more comfortable to people.
That's what I ran against when I first became involved with
not the policies to speak but just with
the council. It was scary. It was scary at best
because I really felt like the previous council, not this one
was sitting out of the previous council, was kind of
disconnected and I felt bad. I really felt bad for our issue.
I felt bad for some of the people that
proceeded to be another issue that really could have had more. And I really
think that should be one of the most comfortable places for people to go
and maybe not have that
commenting feeling because there probably will never be 250 people at the council meeting.
But I think they should still be able to go there without any fear
especially on intelligent neighbors watching or whatever
and be able to speak comfortably to
people who are making decisions.
And I think one other thing that I
strongly say that I'm going to tend to, I will listen. I will listen
to anything and everything that anyone has to say. But beyond that
I will listen intently and respectfully.
I think I can comfortably say that I can
and I would at the end of my
terms that should be elected, I would hope to say that
I could run on my entire term without
making an apology to anyone.
That would be my only
thank you so much for coming out. I would appreciate you both. I think this
is a great opportunity for
it can be great.
That's a tough one to be. I can't imagine if you would
apologize or anything. I again would like to thank everybody
but with only three minutes I'm not going to go into it. But thank you for coming. Thank you for giving us this
opportunity because certainly our newspapers as they stand right now are not going to
provide us with this forum. I do want to talk just a little bit about
my campaign. I'm one of these people that runs around
talking about the village aesthetic and I helped to offer the new sign ordinance
and did a lot of research and I'm very concerned about
the aesthetic of the village and to that end I am not putting up
paper signs. I think they're unsightly and they're clutter some and
I'm not putting them. Please don't take that indication that I don't want to be elected.
It's just I'm putting my money where my mouth is or I should say I'm not putting my
money there because they also cost money. In that same
vein I'm not sending out mailings and spending money on postage and printing
because I'm physically responsible with my own money and plan to be
that way with yours should you elect me. So that out of the way please
don't take it as I'm not really caring if I get elected I'm just trying to be responsible.
I do have a couple of resumes with me in case anybody didn't get the email I sent
and anybody who'd like to give me their email to get more information is welcome to do that before
the night is out. The only thing that I can say
about why you should vote for me is
what comes out of my mouth is my truth.
You may not agree with my opinions and I'm one vote of five
and if I'm a descending vote and you don't agree with me you can choose
not to agree with me but I can guarantee you that what comes out
of my mouth is what my heart feels and I'm not giving you lip service to give
you what you think you want what I think you want to hear. And good bad
or indifferent that's the way I am it gets me in trouble.
Sometimes it doesn't, but there's plenty of people in this room that I consider my friends,
and there's times where we vehemently disagree, and we're still friends.
And at least they know that what I'm saying is wrong.
And when I was on the council in the past, and in everything I've done since then,
I've always tried to consider what is in the best interest of everybody in town, or at least the majority.
And the beauty of democracy is whether I agree with my fellow councillors
who are not on one vote and five, and whether you agree with me or not,
come election time, you can vote me off the island if that's the need to.
But I hope that on June 10th they'll support me.
And at the very least, don't vote because it's our right and our privilege.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tracy.
Pete?
Well, last but not least, but I'd like the rest.
I want to thank you all for coming.
It means a lot.
I've always said at our planning board meetings that we learn so much from the public.
I've got the experience to do the job. I've been the job.
I volunteer countless years and hours for the town.
I also think I'm a neutral party.
I don't live in the village.
I live almost on the ringing line.
So a lot of the issues that impact gray, I really don't have a vested interest in
other than being a taxpayer for three, five years.
So I'm willing to listen to any argument or position and try to be fair
in hearing what you have to say.
There are major issues.
June 6th besides taking two out of us six, the Phillipa Council seat.
There are school budgets, municipal budgets.
And I certainly urge everybody to make the effort to get to the polls June 6th,
June 10th.
And also there are absentee ballots available today.
So I encourage you to get up there and vote.
And I want to thank Brad for running the camera and Josh for running the ballot.
Thank you.
Thank you, Pete.
I'd like to thank Josh, our timekeeper and the library for hosting this.
I'd like to thank Brad and the folks at Cable who make all of these things possible.
All of you for showing up, particularly the candidates for giving their time
and getting ready to put their lives on public view for everybody.
They've spoken, it's up to you on June 10th.
Go vote.
Thank you all for tuning in.