[0:03] Oh one.

[0:08] Good morning

[0:08] everybody. Good morning,

[0:14] Dan.

[0:17] I'm gonna, it is 10 0 1.

[0:19] Welcome to town meeting 2026.

[0:25] Is this my, is this, can somebody turn the mic up in

[0:28] that case, are we better now?

[0:31] Close. Close. Close. Okay,

[0:37] Mic.

[0:38] Let's not get personal.

[0:41] Welcome to town meeting 2026.

[0:43] Ladies and gentlemen, it has been our tradition

[0:48] to start this meeting with a poem for decades read

[0:52] by our unofficial poet laureate Charlie Barish.

[0:57] Charlie has, I'm sorry to say, declined

[1:01] to read this year for understandable reasons,

[1:04] but I wanna keep the tradition of a poem

[1:07] and with, even though it was extremely cold last night,

[1:13] there is hope of spring and baseball season on the way.

[1:19] Therefore, I give you Casey at the back

[1:26] for your entertainment pleasure.

[1:30] The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day.

[1:34] The score stood four to two with,

[1:37] but one inning left to play.

[1:41] And then when Cooney died at first

[1:43] and Barrows did the same,

[1:46] a Paul like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

[1:50] A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.

[1:54] The rest clung

[1:56] to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast.

[2:01] They thought if only Casey could get a whack at that,

[2:05] we'd put up even money now with Casey at the back.

[2:09] But Flynn proceeded Casey

[2:13] as also did Jimmy Blake.

[2:15] And the former was a hoodoo, and the latter was a cake.

[2:21] So upon that stricken, multitude grim, melancholy sac

[2:25] for, there seemed to be no chance

[2:28] of getting Casey to the back.

[2:32] But Flynn let drive a single to the wonderment of all.

[2:37] And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball.

[2:43] And when the dust had lifted

[2:45] and men saw what had occurred,

[2:47] there was Jimmy safe at second

[2:50] and Flynn, a hug third.

[2:54] Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lus.

[2:59] It rumbled through the valleys. It rattled in the Dell.

[3:02] It pounded on the mountains and recoiled on the flat.

[3:06] For Casey, mighty Casey

[3:09] was advancing to the back.

[3:12] There was ease in Casey's manner

[3:16] as he stepped into his place.

[3:18] There was pride in Casey's bearings

[3:21] and a smile at Casey's face.

[3:24] And when responding to the cheers,

[3:26] he lightly docked his hat.

[3:28] No stranger in the crowd could doubt

[3:31] was Casey at the bat.

[3:36] 10,000 eyes were on him as he rubbed his hand with dirt.

[3:40] 5,000 tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.

[3:45] Then wild arriving, pitcher ground the ball into his hip.

[3:49] Defiance flashed in Casey's eyes

[3:52] and a sneer curled Casey's lip.

[3:56] And now the leather covered sphere came hurling

[4:00] through the air and Casey stood watching it in Horty

[4:04] grandeur there, close by the sturdy Batman ball.

[4:08] Un sped. That ain't my style, Casey said.

[4:13] Strike one, the umpire said,

[4:20] from the benches black

[4:21] with people there went up a muffled roar like the beating

[4:25] of the storm waves on a small stern

[4:28] and distant shore kill,

[4:30] kill the umpire shouted somebody in the stand,

[4:33] and it's likely they'd have killed him, had not.

[4:35] Casey raised his hand with a smile

[4:40] of Christian charity, great Casey's vision shown,

[4:45] and he stilled the rusting alt and he bathed the game.

[4:50] Go on. He signaled to the pitcher.

[4:55] And once more, the Dun sphere flew.

[4:58] But Casey still ignored it.

[5:00] And the umpire said,

[5:02] strike two fraud.

[5:06] Fraud cried the Madden.

[5:08] Thousands and an echo answered fraud.

[5:10] But one scornful look at Casey and the audience was odd.

[5:16] They saw his face gu, stern and cold.

[5:18] They saw his muscle strain.

[5:21] They knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

[5:27] The sneer is gone from Casey's lips.

[5:31] His teeth are clenched in hate.

[5:34] He pounds with cruel violence, his back upon the plate.

[5:40] And now the pitcher holds the ball. And now he lets it go.

[5:44] And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

[5:51] Oh, somewhere in this favored land,

[5:55] the sun is shining bright, the band is playing somewhere,

[6:00] and somewhere hearts are light.

[6:04] And somewhere men are laughing and somewhere children shout.

[6:09] But there is no joy in mudville.

[6:12] The mighty Casey has struck out

[6:24] the meeting's over.

[6:25] Now, before I begin,

[6:32] I just want, just really briefly, I, I'm, I'm indebted Mike,

[6:37] I'm sorry, I'm indebted Rebecca Ellis, who's the town

[6:41] moderator in Waterbury.

[6:42] I I put this in front porch for him.

[6:45] Posted some really nice information about Robert's rules.

[6:48] And I'll just go over a few of these before we start.

[6:55] So the discussion can only begin

[6:58] after an article is moved and seconded.

[7:01] Each person may speak once until everybody else who wants

[7:06] to speak has spoken.

[7:09] Motions can be amended, but only once.

[7:13] So excuse me, motions can be amended

[7:15] and the amendment can be amended only once,

[7:18] meaning you cannot amend to the third degree.

[7:23] If you want a motion

[7:24] to call the question meaning ending debate.

[7:28] In order to do that, you cannot shout

[7:30] that out from the floor.

[7:31] You must be recognized.

[7:34] And when you are recognized

[7:35] and you say, I, I wish to call the question

[7:38] or call the previous question, either one is acceptable.

[7:40] That stops debate that is won by a two thirds majority.

[7:50] You'll notice when I call for a voice vote, I'll ask

[7:54] for the yays and nays.

[7:56] I will say the yays appear to have it

[8:00] or the nays appear to have it.

[8:02] I will wait after I say that I am waiting for somebody

[8:07] to say division of the house, which means you're not unsure

[8:12] of how I called the vote either yay or nay.

[8:15] Anybody who wants a division of the house, you don't have

[8:18] to be recognized to say division of the house.

[8:21] And then we will count the votes by hand.

[8:24] We can also on any, on any motion,

[8:29] have a paper ballot.

[8:32] I would ask you to please remember, oh, it takes seven votes

[8:36] to sustain a paper ballot.

[8:37] So the person who calls for it, six others,

[8:40] I would remind you that a paper ballot takes forever.

[8:48] So that's that.

[8:52] I also wanna just acknowledge very quickly

[8:54] that Paula Emery is here to help me.

[8:58] Paula has been,

[9:03] she's been helping if, if you have an amendment, if you,

[9:07] if you have an amendment and you can possibly write it down,

[9:09] that would be most helpful.

[9:11] If you need help formulating an amendment,

[9:16] I will do my very best to help you do that.

[9:20] And so, and Paula is also, has also kept a queue

[9:25] and helps me because I don't hear very well

[9:27] and she can speak into my right ear.

[9:32] So with that said,

[9:33] before we take up article one,

[9:37] Our representative, representative Mark Mahaley

[9:42] and Senator Andy Perker here

[9:46] with no objection by, by unanimous consent.

[9:51] Or I will, lemme put it this way, is there unanimous consent

[9:55] to allow our elected representatives

[9:58] to speak before the meeting?

[10:00] Yes. Yes. Okay.

[10:04] Yes, there is unanimous consent.

[10:06] I wanted silence, but I'm gonna take that

[10:08] as humanist consent.

[10:11] Ladies and gentlemen, representative Mahaley, Senator Ley,

[10:20] What did we do for,

[10:31] I didn't need to hear Casey at the bat

[10:33] after being in the legislature.

[10:37] I kept hoping that he'd hit the ball,

[10:39] but oh well I kept hoping that Casey would hit the ball.

[10:43] It just reminded me too much of the legislature.

[10:47] So just first of all, where we are really quickly,

[10:52] we're about to be half over.

[10:54] That is not this Friday.

[10:57] Next Friday we have to have all of our bills out

[11:01] of our committees and over to the Senate.

[11:04] And same thing for them. So they go like this.

[11:08] So it's kind of hard to know what's gonna happen.

[11:12] But just a few observations really quickly.

[11:16] One is the,

[11:19] the craziness in Washington is unfortunately affecting us.

[11:23] It, it really, the federal government's efforts at the

[11:28] state level are kind of collapsing.

[11:30] You know, there's just a lot of money that we used to get.

[11:33] About a third of our budget more,

[11:36] I guess came from the federal government.

[11:38] And it's gonna be less,

[11:40] and Andy's gonna tell you he's head

[11:43] of appropriations in the Senate struggling with this.

[11:47] But I just tell my committee all the time, there's no money.

[11:50] You know, it's, it's a real problem.

[11:53] Also, although I'm head of the housing committee,

[11:57] I care a lot about flooding.

[11:59] Guess why. And

[12:02] so I had a bill last session which created a study

[12:06] and this session I think that Bill has a real, another bill

[12:11] to do disaster relief planning

[12:15] and set up a real system that works fast, I mean

[12:20] fast in the event of a problem at the dam.

[12:24] So I just keep pushing that issue

[12:26] because I really believe playing Field and Marshfield

[12:30] and really East Montpelier all would be in terrible trouble

[12:33] if there's a problem at that dam.

[12:35] So we're working on it.

[12:38] Everybody knows that there's not enough housing

[12:43] and what we've got is too expensive.

[12:46] And so I'm just gonna say I'm spending my time trying

[12:50] to make housing easier to permit less bureaucracy, trying

[12:55] to make it easier to finance

[12:59] and trying to make it a little harder to challenge,

[13:02] not impossible, but a little harder so that we get,

[13:07] you know, people who wanna build, can build.

[13:10] I'm spending a lot of time this session on rural towns

[13:15] and helping small towns

[13:17] and like this one build if they want.

[13:22] Healthcare is a total mess as you know, I don't have

[13:27] to tell you, but le we did pass legislation

[13:31] that makes it allows better negotiation over drug prices.

[13:36] And that saved $230 million.

[13:39] That sounded like a lot of money.

[13:41] It ain't compared to the total cost of healthcare,

[13:44] 230 million is a drop in the bucket.

[13:47] But it's something and we're continuing to work on it.

[13:51] Education, I think I'll let Andy talk about education

[13:56] for me, just in a word, I think the most important thing is

[13:59] to figure out how to change the financing.

[14:03] I mean, we're spending more and more money

[14:05] and we're not getting the quality we want

[14:07] and everybody knows that.

[14:09] The last thing I'll say is there are a number

[14:12] of bills in the house that would increase the tax rate

[14:15] for the most wealthy Vermonters.

[14:18] I have to say, I,

[14:22] although generally I don't think there's much room

[14:24] for a lot more taxes in Vermont,

[14:27] the most wealthy Vermonters have received huge tax benefits

[14:31] from the federal government.

[14:32] They're just paying a lot less

[14:35] and the federal government wants the states

[14:38] to take over everything.

[14:39] So I think some of that savings has to come back

[14:42] to the state and I support that.

[14:48] Thanks Mark. Yeah, and I, and I agree

[14:50] And there's work happening in the senate.

[14:52] Your other, one of your, your other two senators,

[14:54] Anne Watson, Ann Cummings, Ann Cummings is on the chair

[14:56] of the finance committee and they're working

[14:58] through a couple different ways of, of taxing the,

[15:01] the highest in income brackets, moving a bracket like

[15:04] to those that are making over $500,000,

[15:06] having a new marginal tax above that.

[15:09] So yeah, de definitely support that hope.

[15:11] Hopefully we can find a way to get it past the governor.

[15:13] 'cause the governor has been very clear

[15:14] that he would veto anything like that.

[15:16] But maybe as part of a whole package on education,

[15:19] we would have something that the governor can

[15:20] support on education.

[15:23] I wanted to, to say that we're, we're working on trying to,

[15:26] you know, maintain local schools.

[15:29] Some of us are trying

[15:30] to maintain local control and, and good schools.

[15:32] But at the same time we hear that we, we know that we need

[15:36] to do something about property taxes and the,

[15:38] and the whole education system as how complicated it is

[15:41] and how there isn't as direct connection

[15:42] to your vote on your local budget and what your taxes are.

[15:46] So we're trying to fix that.

[15:47] So I think we are, there's agreement between the governor

[15:50] and the majority of the

[15:51] legislators that we should do something.

[15:53] We will likely move to a foundation formula.

[15:56] But how the new districts get formed

[15:58] is really the sticking point.

[16:00] I'm supporting the, the Senate Education Committee is trying

[16:03] to do a more bottom up

[16:05] or organic kind of decisions on

[16:07] how the new districts are created.

[16:09] Where the governor's proposal is more just top down,

[16:11] just like Montpelier has to do it.

[16:13] We will decide, but I think that usually just doesn't work.

[16:16] 'cause they're gonna make mistakes all different towns

[16:18] throughout the, throughout the state.

[16:20] But I wanted to do a quick poll.

[16:21] I did this on Sunday in Marshfield.

[16:24] And also I wanna say, Jim,

[16:26] you guys are all packed in your feel guilty in Marshfield

[16:28] that we have the, the, the school.

[16:30] We're all spread out very comfortably when we're there.

[16:32] We probably don't have that many more people

[16:34] than you do here in Playfield.

[16:36] Yeah, but it, it's much cozier here.

[16:41] So if Twinfield was to merge with another district,

[16:45] I just want a quick poll to see whether you would support,

[16:47] which you would rather you have three choices

[16:51] move towards U 32, move west towards the Montpelier area

[16:54] or the U 32 district.

[16:55] Just kind of stay where we are

[16:57] or have our attention focused east to the bill,

[17:01] the Caledonia district

[17:02] or the third op option is you either don't care,

[17:05] need more information or want something else.

[17:09] So if you, just a show of hands,

[17:11] who would would rather have Twinfield merge East

[17:14] to the U 32 district.

[17:17] Okay, thank you. And who would rather stay

[17:19] with the Caledonia or kind of east of the Danville area?

[17:22] St. J. Okay. And then who's, who's the third option?

[17:26] Like don't care, don't know about another option.

[17:29] Okay, that's helpful. That's similar to what the,

[17:32] the boat was in, in Marshfield.

[17:36] And I'm on,

[17:38] I'm on the transportation committee and the appropriations committee.

[17:40] I just wanted to say something about transportation.

[17:41] We're having trouble in the transportation fund as of the,

[17:45] as the, as we are with the general fund.

[17:46] The general fund is, as Mark's talked about,

[17:48] the federal government.

[17:49] Not that the government's not just pulling back,

[17:52] but they're also completely chaotic and erratic.

[17:54] They'll say you have 65 million, you don't have 65 million.

[17:57] Oh there's 80 million coming,

[17:59] but we don't know when it's coming.

[18:00] So it's very hard for the state to budget when there's,

[18:03] they're drawing back, there's lawsuits they're doing drawing

[18:06] back funds saying that they're just holding it,

[18:09] but they may give it to us later.

[18:11] So it's making it very difficult

[18:13] to have the federal government as a,

[18:15] as a partner and a lot of things.

[18:17] The one exception is on transportation.

[18:19] The federal government is meeting our kind of current needs

[18:23] for federal funding for transportation.

[18:25] But the state pays somewhere around 30%

[18:27] of all the transportation costs in our revenue

[18:30] through gas tax and other things is not keeping up.

[18:32] So we're having trouble keeping up with the paving

[18:34] and the bridges and things, things like that.

[18:37] So we're trying to figure that out.

[18:39] What's the best way to make that gap?

[18:42] 'cause we want to be able to pull down all the federal

[18:43] funds, but right now we have about a $30 million gap to,

[18:47] we would leave kind of money on the table if we didn't

[18:49] find that, find that money.

[18:51] And the one other thing that we're working on that I,

[18:54] one thing that I've heard from constituents the whole eight

[18:56] years, seven and a half years that I've been there,

[18:58] is about the, our vehicle inspection system.

[19:02] And we've tried to amend it and work on it before.

[19:05] 'cause a lot of Vermonters have had a lot of trouble

[19:09] with getting their vehicles inspected, not feeling

[19:11] that it was a safety issue,

[19:12] but being told that it, they had to get, you know,

[19:15] repairs done $1,200 rotor jobs

[19:17] and things like that when they weren't really sure

[19:19] that the car only had 4,000 miles on it.

[19:22] So I had a bill to get rid of safety inspections entirely.

[19:25] There's no evidence that it really makes your,

[19:28] the straight the streets or the, the populace more.

[19:31] Yeah, thanks. More safe.

[19:34] There's, we're a one of only nine states

[19:35] that do annual inspections.

[19:37] You go to other states that don inspections, there's no,

[19:39] there's not more accidents than, there's not,

[19:41] the crashes aren't worse.

[19:43] So, but the, the DMV

[19:46] Scott's administration doesn't

[19:47] support just getting rid of it.

[19:48] So we're trying to work with DMV

[19:49] to just basically completely redo the inspection manual so

[19:53] that rust, if your high beam light isn't on,

[19:56] you don't pass inspection right now if you just have a small

[19:59] crack in a side window, you don't pass inspection.

[20:01] So just get rid of all those.

[20:03] And so it's really only some kind

[20:04] of very drastic like your brake

[20:06] lines are broken or something.

[20:07] And then everything else will just be a,

[20:09] basically a warning.

[20:11] So I'm, I'm hopeful that we can make that major change

[20:13] to our vehicle inspection system so that

[20:15] for Vermont can drive their cars.

[20:17] 'cause it's a major expense. It's basically a, just a,

[20:20] an un voted on tax of Vermonters

[20:23] to do all these repairs on their cars

[20:27] and yeah, I think that's, that's the update.

[20:31] The moderator has made it clear

[20:33] that I would strike out if, if we took any more time.

[20:37] So if you have questions

[20:39] or you wanna talk to us, talk to us, you know how

[20:42] to reach me and I'll just tell you right now,

[20:45] my personal email is mark, my name.

[20:47] It's just mark@mahaley.org and send me an email, reach out.

[20:58] Thank you Mark. And, okay, we're we're just about

[21:01] to Are is this microphone on?

[21:03] Can you hear me well enough? Yes. Okay.

[21:06] Before we get into article one, I neglected

[21:08] to say at the beginning when you are recognized,

[21:11] each time you speak, please state your name

[21:15] and also today when you are recognized,

[21:19] the microphone will be brought to you.

[21:21] I would ask you to stand unless you,

[21:23] unless if mobility's a problem and you can't of course,

[21:27] but it'd be it hopefully.

[21:28] If you stand, please state your name every

[21:31] single time you speak. Absolutely. Call

[21:35] It.

[21:36] I'm keeping stack, which means I'm gonna take your name and,

[21:39] and just cross you off when you've spoken

[21:41] and go to the next person.

[21:43] I may or may not know your name

[21:45] and so I may ask you for your name

[21:47] but I might, I'll point to you when it's your turn.

[21:49] Okay. So just, you don't have

[21:51] to keep your hand up just when I do this, it means I saw you

[21:55] and I got alright.

[21:56] Okay. If you have a mask on, I might not recognize you.

[21:59] Thank you. Article one.

[22:02] Shall the general obligation bonds

[22:05] or notes in an amount not to exceed $700,000

[22:10] subject to reduction by the application of federal

[22:14] and state grants and aid

[22:15] and reserve funds be issued for the purpose

[22:19] of constructing water system improvements, namely

[22:23] replacement of the waterline on School Street,

[22:27] the estimated cost

[22:28] of such improvements being $700,000.

[22:33] May I have a motion on Article one please?

[22:38] It's been moved. Is there a second? Second.

[22:41] Do we know who moved and seconded? I

[22:42] See Tim Phillips move Who Second.

[22:44] Scott Stewart. Scott

[22:46] Discussion on article one,

[22:50] Peter articles

[22:51] One, two and Three.

[22:53] Articles one, two and three are the subject

[22:55] of the Australian ballot not floor action.

[23:01] I thank you for the correction. Yeah,

[23:04] Those are the things that are people

[23:05] Keep Voting.

[23:06] I thought it was only article three that was so

[23:12] nevermind

[23:18] Article four

[23:20] to hear reports on the town officers

[23:25] hear reports of the town officers and act on the same.

[23:29] May I have a motion on article four?

[23:32] Motion Been moved. Is there a second?

[23:38] Second. Second.

[23:39] We need names of the first and second Scott Stewart

[23:42] And Tim Phillips Discussion,

[23:47] discussion on article four.

[23:50] Dan,

[24:00] thank you As much as I love Robert's rules, I we're about

[24:04] to hear about 15 different reports

[24:07] and I wonder if since it's one article on the ballot,

[24:10] if we could just have one vote at the end of the 15 reports

[24:14] rather than having 15 different votes.

[24:18] And so I guess I would make that an amendment to the motion.

[24:22] It it okay

[24:25] that we do one article vote rather than

[24:27] individual committee votes.

[24:29] Okay, it's been moved

[24:30] that we vote on all the town reports in one vote.

[24:34] Is there a second? Second

[24:36] Jeremy Discussion?

[24:41] Seeing none am am I missing discussion?

[24:47] Seeing none. All those in favor

[24:48] of voting on all the town reports and one say aye.

[24:52] Aye. Opposed say no. The ayes appear to have it.

[24:58] The ayes do have it

[25:01] and we will vote all in one.

[25:05] Is there any further discussion

[25:08] on the town reports?

[25:11] Any further discussion or questions on the town reports?

[25:18] Yeah, Charlie,

[25:19] Charlie ********>

[25:21] Mike Mike is gonna come.

[25:23] Charlie Cockwell, am I correct in

[25:25] that there is no treasurer's report in the town reports?

[25:34] I'm not gonna answer that. Peter.

[25:53] Yes,

[25:59] there is no narrative report from

[26:01] the treasurer in the report.

[26:02] There are four normal financial reports.

[26:06] Two of them are printed

[26:08] and there is a note that the other two were not ready when

[26:11] this went to press

[26:12] and they will be posted on the town website

[26:15] when they are completed.

[26:18] Any other discussion on article four?

[26:20] The town reports or questions on the town reports?

[26:27] Seeing none. Oh, in the back? Yep. Please go ahead.

[26:33] The mic is coming your way.

[26:39] I know we Are an electronic age, but

[26:42] I I find the idea of publishing on the website

[26:47] essential reports that are late completely unacceptable.

[26:53] That's not, I mean I I just, I'm dumbfounded

[26:56] that anybody would think that was acceptable.

[26:59] Not everybody has access partially

[27:02] 'cause some of us don't have really great internet access,

[27:05] but other people just may not be internet savvy.

[27:08] And it just seems like if that's the case, then

[27:12] what the board should be doing is delaying town meeting

[27:14] until there can be complete reports available to people

[27:18] ahead of time to peruse.

[27:21] I know another time we had an insert in the town report at

[27:25] the town meeting and I think there needs to be a lot

[27:28] of thought about the process

[27:29] and what it means in terms of accessibility

[27:32] and transparency to follow that kind of process that was

[27:36] followed this time and previous times.

[27:41] Any other discussion on article four?

[27:46] Seeing none, Carl?

[27:50] Yeah, I just have a more comment to respond.

[27:52] Yeah, by all means we do. Before you do

[27:55] Folks, I I I have a tendency not to look up sometimes

[27:59] if you're up in the balcony, please make a noise so

[28:02] that you get recognized in case I don't look

[28:04] Up there.

[28:05] Thank you. We have a list of people

[28:09] that do not have access to electronic

[28:14] reports and so they would have a report sent

[28:18] to them by mail.

[28:23] I don't know if that answers your concern,

[28:25] but we do, we do recognize not everybody's online.

[28:31] Rose Paul

[28:33] Rose Paul, I just would like a clarification

[28:38] on the select board report.

[28:41] Are we voting to accept the financial report

[28:46] as well as the narrative report?

[28:50] Yes, I believe we are. Well

[28:53] I Okay,

[28:57] Somebody tell me if I'm wrong please.

[29:00] Do you mean the budget?

[29:02] Well there's the budget.

[29:04] Sorry, I'm going to, all I know is baby talk.

[29:06] There's the budget that is for the coming year. Yes.

[29:11] But then there's the finances that review the past year

[29:16] and the past year has no actuals in it.

[29:20] It just represents the budget for that year.

[29:23] But we don't know how the numbers worked out.

[29:26] So I guess with that clarification, I

[29:30] I would like to have a separate vote on the select

[29:35] boards, the, the entire select board report.

[29:40] I I don't rose, IIII don't,

[29:45] I don't think we, I don't think we can reconsider the vote

[29:49] at this time since we already voted

[29:52] to accept them all at once.

[29:54] I I think it might be possible to reconsider the vote

[29:57] if somebody who voted on the winning side, which would you,

[30:02] you can ask, I think you can ask for reconsideration if,

[30:06] did you vote I rose?

[30:08] Yes. Then I believe you can ask.

[30:10] I believe you can ask for reconsideration.

[30:13] I I'm not Is that what you want to do?

[30:19] Yes, please. Okay, so is there a second? A second.

[30:24] So it's been moved and okay, it's been moved

[30:28] and seconded to reconsider the vote

[30:30] at, let me see if I can help.

[30:36] If, if I say this Rose would draw a motion, be I move

[30:40] that we reconsider the vote to take all the reports at once

[30:43] and discuss the select person's report.

[30:48] Is that a fair?

[30:51] I I well I I would simply like

[30:55] to have the select board report separated out.

[30:59] So if the, that I like your wording

[31:02] but it's the rest

[31:03] of 'em can be lumped. But the select board,

[31:06] It would only involve the select board report.

[31:08] What what I'm saying? So if you would, if you would say

[31:12] I move that we reconsider the vote

[31:14] to take all the reports at once

[31:17] and have a discussion about the select board

[31:20] report. It's not

[31:21] A discussion.

[31:22] It's the vote

[31:23] I didn't hear.

[31:24] It's not the discussion. It's the vote

[31:31] Saying it's the vote.

[31:34] It's not the discussion I'm

[31:36] Asking Rose State her amendment

[31:37] Is the vote on, well

[31:38] what she said is she didn't want the select board report

[31:41] voted on with all the other reports.

[31:43] So it's not a question of discussion, it's a question

[31:47] of being voted on separately,

[31:49] if I'm understanding correctly.

[31:50] But that's not what you phrase how you phrased it for her.

[31:53] And I see Rose shaking her head Yes.

[31:55] So I'm thinking that what, rather than saying

[31:58] to have a discussion separately, what you wanted to say is

[32:01] to have the vote separately for the select board report.

[32:04] Yes.

[32:05] I I I'm not sure I heard that

[32:09] Saying it's not the discussion,

[32:11] it's the vote that they're separating.

[32:15] I think that that it was initially stated as

[32:17] Rosa are you asking for a discussion or a vote?

[32:22] I would like a separate vote please.

[32:24] Okay. It's been moved

[32:26] and seconded that there be a separate vote

[32:30] not discussion as I understand.

[32:32] Thank you for the correction.

[32:35] All those in favor of having a separate vote. Peter?

[32:40] Yeah, Peter YoungBear.

[32:41] Could I ask a question of clarification?

[32:44] What you're looking for here?

[32:47] You talked about budget numbers, there is a vote

[32:52] the later article when we vote on the select board proposed

[32:56] budget, but it sounded like you were talking about something

[33:00] else other than the select board's proposed budget.

[33:04] The only other select board report is the narrative.

[33:08] I think you're asking, it sounded

[33:10] to me like you were asking something about

[33:12] the treasurer's reports.

[33:14] Well I may not understand properly,

[33:18] but the whole financial report of the prior year

[33:25] there, there are normally actuals.

[33:28] How did that year end up? Were you under over?

[33:32] What was the variance? I didn't see that in this year's

[33:36] Report.

[33:37] Right. And that is there, that is a notification.

[33:39] It actually appears twice in the report that says those,

[33:42] those two financial reports were not available

[33:46] and are not available.

[33:48] The, we have been without a basically an acting treasurer

[33:52] since the middle of December

[33:54] and we have a contract with an accounting firm, a CPA firm

[33:59] who is completing that work

[34:01] and that work is not yet done,

[34:03] which is why it's not appeared.

[34:05] Okay. So maybe I misunderstood

[34:08] and I thought all those financials were part

[34:11] of the select board report.

[34:12] If they're part of the treasurer report

[34:15] and we're not voting on it

[34:17] because we don't have a complete treasurer's report, then

[34:22] I'll withdraw my motion.

[34:24] Okay, thank you Rose. Thank you.

[34:26] Okay, any further discussion on article

[34:29] four in that case?

[34:32] All those in favor of accepting the reports of the town.

[34:35] Oh, article four reads to hear the reports

[34:38] on the town offices and act on the same.

[34:40] All those in favor of accepting the town

[34:42] reports, please say aye.

[34:44] Aye. All opposed? No, the ayes appear to have it.

[34:50] The ayes do have it.

[34:51] And you have accepted the town officer's reports.

[34:55] The Town Town reports Article five

[35:01] Shall the town vote to raise appropriate

[35:05] and expend the question?

[35:08] Any discussion until there's another article?

[35:15] Are you making a point of order sir?

[35:17] I yeah, I'm actually, what is your point of order? Phillip?

[35:21] Phillip Parisi. Phillip Parisi.

[35:24] You're not asking for Abstentions No.

[35:28] And aren't is that, isn't that part of Robert's rules?

[35:32] I don't believe it is. Huh.

[35:34] Okay, well then I'm glad you're not at the

[35:36] faculty assembly at Linden.

[35:37] Okay.

[35:42] Article five shall the Town vote to raise

[35:48] appropriate and expend the sum

[35:50] of

[35:50] $606,833

[35:56] and 6 cents for the support

[35:58] of Rural Community Transportation Incorporated

[36:02] to provide services to the residents of Plainfield.

[36:06] May I have a motion on Article five please?

[36:10] Second. Moved and seconded,

[36:13] Scott.

[36:14] Okay, so we got Scott Move and Tim Seconding

[36:19] Discussion on Article five.

[36:25] Yep. Dan,

[36:29] Mike, oops.

[36:31] Can we record this time too?

[36:37] I, I'll just say obviously this is an important

[36:40] infrastructure in our town,

[36:41] the rural community transportation

[36:43] and the actual sum they've asked for is totally flat.

[36:46] So they weren't asking for any more

[36:47] than we, we gave last year.

[36:48] So I think for both this

[36:50] and the the next article,

[36:53] they're both flat requests from these

[36:55] transportation providers.

[36:56] So hopefully we can all vote. Yes. Thank you. Okay.

[37:00] Any further discussion

[37:02] Over here?

[37:03] Yes. Rebecca? Yep. Rebecca down on

[37:07] I just, oh, thank you.

[37:10] I just wanted to let people know,

[37:12] and I am in support of this article,

[37:13] but I just wanted to let people know that they just

[37:18] canceled the mid-afternoon route,

[37:22] route two commuter route.

[37:23] So if anyone is relying on that there had, they didn't, I,

[37:28] I knew because a family member got a flyer on the bus,

[37:32] but even calling to check if it was running this week,

[37:37] there was not a lot of information.

[37:39] It took a, it was hard to get confirmation

[37:42] that yes indeed they canceled that route.

[37:44] So just want people to know that

[37:46] and I would, I would hope that there's an opportunity

[37:51] to try to get that back

[37:52] because I think that there are people that were relying on

[37:55] that that was the run

[37:57] that picked up in playing field at like 3 25

[38:00] or something like that on weekdays.

[38:02] So she wanted to let people know that don't,

[38:04] don't cow do riding that one anymore.

[38:08] Okay. Are you ready for the question on article five?

[38:14] Seeing none, the question is, shall the town vote

[38:17] to raise appropriate

[38:19] and expend the sum of $6,833

[38:23] and 6 cents for the support

[38:26] of Rural Community Transportation Incorporated

[38:29] to provide services to residents of the town of Plainfield?

[38:32] All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Oppose?

[38:36] No, the A's appear to have it,

[38:41] the ayes do have it.

[38:42] And you've accepted Article five,

[38:44] article six point of order.

[38:47] Yes. What is your point of order?

[38:52] I, I missed something and it's regarding article four

[38:56] and I apologize that I couldn't speak about this earlier,

[38:59] but I thought that the change in motion was

[39:02] to accept all the reports in one vote,

[39:05] but we haven't actually heard the reports.

[39:07] For instance, we haven't heard from the energy coordinator.

[39:09] We haven't. When when do we actually hear the reports?

[39:12] Mr. Michael? I'm gonna have to rule you out of order

[39:14] because we are, we are beyond that and,

[39:17] and it's just, it it is, it is out of order.

[39:20] So because we've already accepted it, it would've been,

[39:23] your argument is perfectly acceptable if it had been raised

[39:26] during that discussion, Michael. Okay,

[39:28] So point Information by the way,

[39:30] my ruling can be overruled

[39:32] by a majority if anybody wants to,

[39:33] So, so maybe I'll put it differently

[39:35] as a point of information.

[39:37] When will we hear the reports of the town officers?

[39:43] There, there they're in the,

[39:46] There, there usually is a verbal report.

[39:48] I mean, I'm just saying that in custom that's been the case.

[39:55] Yeah, I mean I think during that point when, when

[39:59] Donnie asked if there was discussion 12 different times,

[40:02] that was the time if anybody wanted to speak

[40:04] to their report they could have done

[40:05] so maybe that could have been clearer.

[40:07] But that is, we've moved past that.

[40:10] So I think there are, there is the other, other,

[40:14] whatever the last article is, if folks really need to speak,

[40:16] they could always do it then.

[40:17] Yeah, I mean I I frankly,

[40:19] and I don't wanna take more any more time on it than you do,

[40:21] but I, I thought we were voting

[40:25] after the reports we would only vote once, in other words,

[40:27] hear all the votes and only vote once.

[40:30] We would hear the reports and only vote once.

[40:32] And that's, I that's why I re

[40:34] that's why I didn't discuss anything.

[40:36] 'cause I thought I was just voting

[40:37] about how many times we'd vote

[40:38] I that I can see where there is a confusion

[40:41] and I don't that, that,

[40:45] that might have been confusing

[40:47] and I, I'm not sure what to do.

[40:48] Yes, please, please state your

[40:50] name when you state your name. I'm Carlos

[40:52] Siegel and it's just, it's, I'm Carla Siegel

[40:56] and it was just our experience that people stand up

[40:59] and talk about their, you know, their reports

[41:03] and so we just expected that.

[41:05] I also thought that we were just saying

[41:07] that at the end we'd vote on mass,

[41:09] but it seems like a other people thought that

[41:16] There's a hand back.

[41:19] You don't need to bring Mike all the way

[41:20] back here, but just affirming that.

[41:21] I also thought we were gonna hear report

[41:23] your name, vote on all of them.

[41:24] Sorry. Ren lanky. Ren Lansky. Okay, thank you.

[41:29] Peter. Do Okay

[41:34] Donnie.

[41:35] I I I think you the the,

[41:38] what I would say at this point is I think

[41:40] those points are well taken.

[41:41] It was misunderstood.

[41:42] I don't know how to go back on the order at this point

[41:45] because we have gone beyond the article

[41:48] so it would be wrong to go back.

[41:49] There was a chance to reconsider if it was misunderstood

[41:53] forever for whatever reason.

[41:55] I'm sorry I didn't understand it.

[41:57] There was clearly confusion

[41:59] but we don't, I don't believe that it would be an order

[42:02] to go back after we have passed the article.

[42:05] Dan? Yeah, so our article 14, which is the last article, is

[42:09] to transact any other non-binding business

[42:11] that may properly become before the meeting.

[42:13] I think if there are folks who want to verbally report

[42:16] that don't get a chance to, they could stand

[42:18] and be recognized during that period.

[42:21] Say that again please. Article 14, which is the non-binding,

[42:25] if let's say the emergency manager,

[42:27] emergency management director wanted to speak to his report,

[42:30] he could do it during that time.

[42:33] You could recognize him then

[42:34] and we could hear from the courts

[42:35] so it could come up under other business.

[42:37] Yeah, it's not called that but yeah.

[42:39] Okay, we're gonna move on. Article six.

[42:45] Shall the town of Plainfield appropriate the sum of 1,490

[42:51] shall the town of Plainfield appropriate the sum of $1,499

[42:57] as its share of the 2024 year

[43:02] cost of commuter bus service along route two

[43:05] with service into Montpelier?

[43:07] This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost

[43:11] of the service which will be supported

[43:14] by appropriations from other towns, state federal funds

[43:19] and passenger fares.

[43:22] May I hear a motion on article six?

[43:28] It's been moved. Is there a second?

[43:30] Second we have them, Scott

[43:32] And Tim.

[43:35] Discussion Peter,

[43:52] I would move To amend, I think there's a typo there

[43:55] that should read 2026, not 2024

[44:02] Seconded Jeremy, excuse me. It should read 2020.

[44:07] It should read. So Peter will you make that an,

[44:09] I think it needs an amendment.

[44:10] Yes. Yes. So

[44:12] Amen that to read 2027 fiscal year.

[44:15] So it's been moved. Is there a second Jeremy

[44:18] Mass second.

[44:19] Yes.

[44:20] So it's, it's been moved

[44:22] and seconded to amend Article six to read Shall the Town

[44:26] of Plainfield appropriate the sum of $1,499

[44:30] as its share of the 2026 year cost?

[44:35] 27 the year

[44:41] of 27 cost the commuter bus service along Route two

[44:44] with service into Montpelier.

[44:45] This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost

[44:48] of the service which will also be supported

[44:51] by appropriations of other towns, state

[44:53] and federal and passenger affairs.

[44:55] We are voting on the amendment.

[44:58] So your name please This discussion on the amendment

[45:02] Timothy Buxton.

[45:03] So, so you are doing it correct now you are voting

[45:06] on the amendment

[45:08] Correct with The previous article.

[45:11] Dan made an amendment to

[45:15] act upon all the reports at once

[45:17] and what we should have voted on was voted on the amendment.

[45:21] If the amendment was accepted

[45:23] then we would've voted that way.

[45:25] But anyways, the decision has made been moved forward.

[45:28] This is the correct way to do it.

[45:30] We're voting on the amendment and then we will vote on

[45:32] The you are correct and it is my apologies.

[45:35] No, no, but it's okay. You are correct. We're

[45:36] Good.

[45:37] Thank you

[45:39] Again.

[45:40] Up. Yep.

[45:46] I have a point of information on the,

[45:48] on the article not the amendment, so

[45:50] I'll wait.

[45:53] I think we can do that in the

[45:54] other business when we get there. No,

[45:56] It's on the article.

[45:57] Yes, on the, okay.

[45:59] So any further discussion on the amendment,

[46:03] which basically changes the year 2024 to 2027.

[46:07] I won't read it again. Any further

[46:09] discussion on that amendment?

[46:13] Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?

[46:17] No, the ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it.

[46:23] And you have amended Article six.

[46:28] Any further discussion on Article six as amended?

[46:33] We have Ren who's gonna come down the stairs.

[46:42] I just have a point of information on article six,

[46:45] which is, how is it different than Article five?

[46:47] My understanding is that RCT Rural Community Transit is the,

[46:51] the agency that runs the Route two Commuter

[46:54] and then Article six is about the Route two meter.

[46:56] I just don't understand the difference between the

[46:58] two line items.

[47:06] Two different entities. Yeah,

[47:09] folks are saying up here are two different entities.

[47:12] Green Mountain Transit and Rural Community Transit.

[47:16] Do they both run separate? They do.

[47:20] I think both together and we create separately.

[47:23] Okay. Any further discussion on article six?

[47:27] Are you ready for the question? Yes,

[47:31] I do have a question, right? Oh, we got one up.

[47:33] Yep. Those we can't,

[47:36] We need, please say your name

[47:37] And there's a microphone coming to you.

[47:46] Both of these rural transit companies have been cutting.

[47:50] John Hosford have been cutting their routes regularly.

[47:54] Green Mountain Transit a lot last year.

[47:57] Is there anything in our contracts with them

[47:58] that we get money back when they stop servicing us?

[48:06] Any further discussion on Article six as amended?

[48:17] Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting I'll,

[48:21] I'll read the, I'll read it again since it's amended.

[48:23] Article six as amended reads, shall the town

[48:26] of Plainfield appropriate the sum of $1,499

[48:31] as its share of the 2027 year cost

[48:35] of commuter bus service along Route two

[48:37] with service into Montpelier?

[48:39] This appropriation funds a portion of the total cost

[48:43] of the service which will be supported

[48:45] by appropriations from other towns, state and federal funds

[48:49] and passenger fares.

[48:51] All those in favor of accepting Article six, please say aye.

[48:55] Aye. All those opposed? No. The ayes appear to have it.

[49:01] The ayes do have it. And you have accepted Article six.

[49:04] Article seven Shall the Town Voters

[49:08] authorize the expenditures

[49:10] for the following nonprofit service agencies as recommended

[49:14] by the appointed Social Concerns Committee

[49:18] Capstone Community Action.

[49:20] $500 Central Vermont

[49:25] Basic Education $400

[49:28] Central Vermont Council on Aging,

[49:31] $1,450 Central Vermont

[49:35] Home Health and Hospice.

[49:37] $3,100 Circle

[49:42] $525 Elevate Youth Services

[49:47] $550.

[49:50] The Family Center of Washington County. $500.

[49:54] Good Beginnings, $400.

[49:58] Good Samaritan Haven $1,250

[50:04] Neighbors in action.

[50:05] $250 Onion River Food Shelf,

[50:09] $1,000.

[50:11] Our House, $100 People's Health

[50:15] and Wellness Center, $1,000

[50:20] Twin Valley Senior Center, $4,650

[50:25] Twin Valley Together mentoring program, $250

[50:31] Vermont Center for Independent Living, $175

[50:37] Washington County diversion.

[50:39] $400 for a total

[50:41] of $16,500.

[50:45] May I have a motion on Article seven?

[50:49] Jana Second Osman. Wait who? Who? Jana.

[50:54] Okay, so wow, okay, this is really throwing me off.

[50:57] Jana moved. Yeah, second Jeremy.

[51:01] Okay, You ought thank you.

[51:04] Discussion on Article seven.

[51:10] Steve State your name.

[51:12] Steven Farnam.

[51:14] I'm not proposing to change any of these

[51:18] because that's a very painstaking process.

[51:20] It'll take all day. But what I would like

[51:24] to know is a little more information about the numbers.

[51:30] I broke up my calculator last night

[51:33] and discovered that in some of these situations we're paying

[51:36] as little as a dollar 66 per person served.

[51:40] And on a couple of the others it was as much

[51:42] as almost $70 per person served.

[51:46] Some instances it was a family served as a,

[51:48] as opposed to a person.

[51:51] And I guess I'd like a little more context

[51:53] about what this means.

[51:56] You know, maybe some of these organizations have

[51:58] significant funding from elsewhere

[52:00] and they're just looking for a matching grant

[52:02] and maybe others this is the only money they get.

[52:06] I think a little more information about

[52:07] that would be helpful to understand

[52:09] how these numbers have arrived at

[52:15] The discussion.

[52:16] Judy, Judy sip.

[52:21] Judy Sip. And I'm a member

[52:22] of the Social Concerns committee.

[52:24] Can hear you. Can you hear me now?

[52:27] Okay, Judy Sip

[52:28] and I'm a member of the Social Concerns committee.

[52:31] Would it be helpful if I explained the process?

[52:34] So towns put in a request for funding every year

[52:39] and then we consider that requests.

[52:41] We ha I have to say we think all the organizations

[52:45] that put in requests are totally worthy of our support,

[52:50] but we have to consider the budget

[52:54] and you know, what the town can afford.

[52:57] So we look at the requests

[53:01] and we have some criteria that we use to make our decisions

[53:06] about how much funding

[53:08] and some of that criteria is what are they asking for?

[53:12] How much of an increase is it? How?

[53:17] How unique are their services to playing field?

[53:20] Are they local? Which we support more than a

[53:23] statewide organization.

[53:25] How many people do they serve?

[53:27] So there's a lot of things that we consider

[53:30] and so we really base it on what was their request?

[53:33] Have they been somebody that we funded in the past,

[53:38] which isn't, I mean we also fund new things

[53:40] and we just try and make a decision.

[53:42] We don't break it down into how much per person.

[53:49] Also a member

[53:52] You have to be recognized now you are. Okay.

[53:55] Hi, I'm Marcy Holle

[53:57] and I'm also on the Social Concerns Committee.

[53:59] And the other thing about the numbers is

[54:01] that the groups asking for money tell us sometimes

[54:06] how much they're spending.

[54:07] So it's not equal for group to group.

[54:10] So one group might say it costs a hundred dollars per family

[54:14] and another group might say it costs $25 per person.

[54:17] It just varies.

[54:19] And some of them are just asking for a show

[54:24] of support so that they could get other major funding

[54:27] and they're not really asking for us

[54:29] to give significant support.

[54:31] So it varies so much from group to group

[54:34] and some I, I really think they should ask for more.

[54:38] Not that we can give more,

[54:39] but it really is based on what they ask for.

[54:41] We can't give them more than they ask for.

[54:43] One group actually asked for less.

[54:45] I don't know if that was on purpose or not,

[54:47] but that's what they did.

[54:50] Yeah, it just varies so much. Does that help?

[54:56] Are you ready for the question or are there more?

[54:58] Is there more discussion?

[55:02] Seeing none if you are ready for the question.

[55:04] The question is, shall the town voters authorize the

[55:07] expenditures for the following nonprofit services

[55:10] as recommended by the appointed social concerns committee

[55:14] for a total of 16,500?

[55:17] I won't read them all. All those in favor of please say aye.

[55:23] Opposed? No, the ayes appear to have it.

[55:27] The ayes do have it. And you have passed Article seven.

[55:33] Article eight Shall the town voters

[55:37] authorize an appropriation of $56,000

[55:42] to the Cutler Memorial Library to pay for the librarian,

[55:47] a library assistant and the purchase of materials

[55:50] and services, including those to make the library

[55:55] accessible to the community.

[55:59] So moved. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second.

[56:02] Second. Your name Carla Steve Farner moved.

[56:07] It's been moved and seconded

[56:10] to accept Article eight discussion.

[56:18] Seeing none. All those in favor

[56:21] of article eight please say aye.

[56:24] Aye. All those opposed no ayes appear to have it.

[56:29] The ayes do have it.

[56:30] And you've passed Article eight, article nine.

[56:34] Shall the town approve

[56:40] $311,874

[56:45] for the operation of the water department for the period

[56:49] of July 1st, 2020 sixth

[56:53] to June 30th, 2027 to be paid for

[56:57] by the rate payers of the system.

[57:00] May I have a motion on Article nine?

[57:05] Been moved by, moved. Second.

[57:07] Second Moved and seconded.

[57:09] Discussion on Article nine please Steve.

[57:16] I would Say say your name again as Steven

[57:18] Farham.

[57:19] I would like to amend that to state the users of the system,

[57:23] not the rate payers because the rate

[57:24] payers doesn't tell you who they

[57:26] Are.

[57:27] Okay, so Steve, you you want

[57:31] to amend this exactly the same

[57:33] Substitute users for rate payers.

[57:37] So the EMO

[57:43] is, is there a second to this amendment?

[57:46] Second. What's

[57:48] Your name?

[57:49] Garfield Barn.

[57:51] Okay, so now we are on the amendment.

[57:54] It has been moved

[57:56] and seconded That article 10 shall read.

[58:00] Shall the town approve $392,055

[58:04] for the operation of wastewater department for the period

[58:08] of July 1st, 2026 to July 30, 27 to be paid

[58:13] for by the users of the system.

[58:22] All the article, article nine,

[58:27] I'm sorry, article nine by the users of the system.

[58:30] Any further discussion on the amendment stand?

[58:43] So just for clarification,

[58:45] the rate payers in the system are the users of the system.

[58:47] The reason we use rate payers is the Vermont

[58:49] League of Cities and towns.

[58:51] Attorneys have told us

[58:52] that's the best way for us to word this.

[58:55] We should be using rate payers

[58:56] because we wouldn't want a situation where

[59:00] there was some sort of weird definition of user

[59:02] that if you're gone for six months you're only

[59:04] half a user or something like that.

[59:05] So I would say we should reject this amendment

[59:07] because it makes it unclear who's paying the bill.

[59:10] Whereas rate payers is a clear distinction in law

[59:13] and with the water and wastewater department.

[59:15] So please vote no on this amendment.

[59:18] Further discussion on the amendment up,

[59:20] up in the balcony. Just

[59:22] To say a user could be a Rent.

[59:24] We need your name please, Janice.

[59:26] A user could be a renter.

[59:27] They're not the ones paying it, they're paying rent.

[59:30] So it should be the property owners defined by

[59:34] damn set rate.

[59:36] Payer Further discussion on the amendment.

[59:41] Seeing none. Yep,

[59:45] I I can yell Jeremy.

[59:47] Matt, we should follow the

[59:50] Advice or follow the advice of the lawyers is what I think

[59:56] then, then you would vote apparently for according to Dan,

[59:59] then you would vote no on this amendment correct.

[1:00:04] So any further discussion on the amendment, the amendment

[1:00:10] as put forward would read Shall the town approve

[1:00:15] $392,055 for the operation

[1:00:19] of the weight wastewater department for the, oh,

[1:00:24] I'm, I I'm sorry I

[1:00:26] They all look the same.

[1:00:28] I'm gonna take a vacation when this is over.

[1:00:35] We're on nine. Yeah.

[1:00:37] Shall the town approve

[1:00:39] $311,874 for the operation

[1:00:44] of the water department for the period of July 1st, 2026

[1:00:48] to June 30th, 2027 to be paid

[1:00:51] by the users of the system?

[1:00:58] That's the amendment. That's

[1:00:59] What we're voting on.

[1:01:03] No, we're voting on the amendment now.

[1:01:05] Am I we are voting on the amendment now. This is,

[1:01:10] That's the amendment Every now and again.

[1:01:13] I'm correct.

[1:01:20] The amendment basically changes rate payers to users.

[1:01:24] Is is everybody clear And are we ready

[1:01:26] for the question? Yes.

[1:01:27] Yes. All those in favor

[1:01:29] of the amendment which basically changes rate payers

[1:01:32] to users say aye.

[1:01:35] All opposed say no.

[1:01:37] No the nays appear

[1:01:41] to have it and the nays do have it

[1:01:45] and we are back to the original Article nine.

[1:01:49] Any further discussion on article nine?

[1:01:54] Seeing none if you are ready for the question.

[1:01:58] The question now is,

[1:02:00] shall the town approve $311,847

[1:02:05] for the operation

[1:02:15] We're here right?

[1:02:16] Article nine,

[1:02:19] Yeah.

[1:02:20] Shall the town approve $311,874

[1:02:24] for the operation of the water department for the period

[1:02:27] of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027

[1:02:32] to be paid for by the rate payers of the system?

[1:02:41] All those in favor please say aye.

[1:02:44] Aye. All opposed? No.

[1:02:46] The a's appear to have it, the a's do have it point of

[1:02:50] Order.

[1:02:51] What is your point of order Hug.

[1:03:01] Amen.

[1:03:06] I think now we're finally on article 10.

[1:03:11] We're done with that Article

[1:03:13] 10.

[1:03:15] Shall the town approve

[1:03:17] $392,055 for the operation.

[1:03:21] Oh that for the operation of the wastewater department

[1:03:26] for the period of July 1st, 2026

[1:03:29] to June 30th, 2027 to be paid for

[1:03:34] by the rate payers of the system.

[1:03:39] Can I have I

[1:03:40] Move Further discussion

[1:03:44] on Article 10.

[1:03:53] That's hard to accept that

[1:03:54] as discussion in that case.

[1:03:59] If you are ready for the question.

[1:04:02] The question is, shall the town approve

[1:04:05] $392,055 for the operation of

[1:04:09] wastewater system for the period of July 1st, 2026

[1:04:13] to June 30th, 2027 to be paid

[1:04:16] by the rate payers of the system?

[1:04:18] All those in favor of Article 10 say aye. Aye. Opposed?

[1:04:23] No, the ayes appear to have it.

[1:04:26] The ayes do have it. And you've passed Article 10.

[1:04:32] Article 11 Shall the town approve

[1:04:38] total fund expenditures of I had to rehearse this number.

[1:04:44] Shall the town approve the total fund expenditures

[1:04:47] of $1,842,047

[1:04:51] and 44 cents to pay for administrative operations,

[1:04:56] fire and rescue department

[1:04:58] and highway department of the town of Plainfield

[1:05:01] for the period of July 1st, 2026

[1:05:05] to June 30, 20, 27 Of which

[1:05:09] $1,326,787

[1:05:14] and 47 cents shall a 44 cents

[1:05:21] It's just 3 cents for God's sake

[1:05:28] shall be raised.

[1:05:30] And I'll start from the

[1:05:31] beginning article.

[1:05:36] Article 11, shall the town approve a total fund expenditure

[1:05:41] of

[1:05:41] $1,842,447

[1:05:46] and 44 cents to pay for the admin pay

[1:05:50] for administrative operations, fire and rescue department

[1:05:54] and highway department of the town for the period

[1:05:57] of July 1st, 2020 sixth

[1:06:00] to June 30, 20, 27 of which

[1:06:04] $1,326,787

[1:06:09] and 44 cents shall be raised by taxes

[1:06:14] and $515,260

[1:06:19] by non-revenue,

[1:06:20] by non-tax revenue. May I have a motion?

[1:06:25] I move that this article be postponed to a date set

[1:06:30] by the select board

[1:06:31] after the full financial reports have been received.

[1:06:35] I don't see how we can possibly do a vote on this without

[1:06:38] having complete financial reports. Just a minute. You, you

[1:06:40] Are.

[1:06:41] My motion is that this be postponed

[1:06:43] and not voted on at this meeting.

[1:06:45] That's not a point of order. That's a motion.

[1:06:47] It's a motion on the article

[1:06:49] to not vote on it during this meeting.

[1:06:51] It's not out of order. You weren't, you

[1:06:53] Weren't call them, you weren't.

[1:06:54] You don't have to. Everybody else goes so moved.

[1:06:56] And so I don't go so moved.

[1:06:58] I move that we do not vote on it at this town meeting

[1:07:02] and it be, it will be voted on at a date certain

[1:07:05] after all the financial reports have been received.

[1:07:11] You got me confused now you have not been recognized right

[1:07:14] now you are out of order.

[1:07:16] You need to be recognized to speak

[1:07:17] Number one.

[1:07:18] Okay. Could you recognize me please?

[1:07:23] There is also no second so far Pete.

[1:07:27] I not Did you have a point of order?

[1:07:29] I have you Scott moved. I will second, second.

[1:07:35] I'm sorry. I don't know what I

[1:07:36] Scott moved Tim Phillips seconded Now

[1:07:40] where we're at. Discussion.

[1:07:42] Okay, so now we're at discussion of the motion.

[1:07:48] Do you wish to make an amendment Sasha?

[1:07:50] Do you wish to make an amendment? You may make an amendment

[1:07:54] Discussing.

[1:07:55] I'm I I'm moving that we not vote on this.

[1:07:59] Not to make an amendment to the content.

[1:08:01] I am moving that the, that the vote on this article 11

[1:08:06] be delayed to a time

[1:08:08] after which all the financial reports have been received.

[1:08:13] I'm not asking to delay the entire town meeting,

[1:08:16] but I am asking and moving that this article

[1:08:20] not be voted on at this town meeting

[1:08:23] and be voted on at a subsequent town meeting at a date

[1:08:27] set by the select board.

[1:08:28] After all financial reports have been received, including

[1:08:32] Are, are, are you moving to postpone to a definite time?

[1:08:37] I'm not moving to postpone to a definite time.

[1:08:39] 'cause so far nobody has any idea when the audit, when the,

[1:08:43] you know, financial formal financial audit will be done.

[1:08:45] So I'm moving to postpone vote on this article

[1:08:49] to a date set by the select board.

[1:08:53] After all financial reports relate,

[1:08:57] have been received, including the financial

[1:08:59] report for the previous year.

[1:09:01] Can you put it in writing please?

[1:09:03] It would be very helpful

[1:09:04] if you could put your motion writing.

[1:09:05] I'll be, be happy to do that for,

[1:09:06] I think what you're trying to do is postpone definitely

[1:09:11] that, that, that that's what I see on, on

[1:09:14] as I understand my Robert's rules of orders that you,

[1:09:16] it would be very helpful Sasha,

[1:09:18] if you would put your amendment in writing please.

[1:09:21] Well, I don't know what the effect

[1:09:22] of postponing indefinitely is and I do wanna relate it.

[1:09:25] I don't either. I do wanna relate it to a time to be set

[1:09:30] by the select board after all the financial reports have

[1:09:33] been received, including the one

[1:09:35] for the done by the auditors.

[1:09:37] I'll try and write it out.

[1:09:38] But you probably have a recording somewhere.

[1:09:40] Dan, I I I won't weigh in on, on this postponing though.

[1:09:45] I do believe you in Robert's drills, you either have

[1:09:48] to postpone to a date or postpone indefinitely.

[1:09:50] Those are your two choices. You,

[1:09:51] you can't postpone to other action.

[1:09:53] But what I wanted to say is, so you know,

[1:09:56] we haven't had a town treasurer who's been physically able

[1:09:59] to do the job since early December.

[1:10:01] And so I just wanted to explain how the select board came

[1:10:03] to a budget that we have today.

[1:10:04] So when we knew Josh was out the board selected two of us,

[1:10:09] Peter Young Bar and myself to work

[1:10:13] independently on the budget.

[1:10:15] We contracted with Sarah Macy, who is the director

[1:10:18] of finance for the city of St.

[1:10:20] Alban's. And so we worked through our, our budget,

[1:10:25] we worked with all the different departments within the town

[1:10:28] for how much they've spent.

[1:10:30] You know, in the last years

[1:10:31] and this year we did also speak with the bowel shelter

[1:10:35] and associates who were the auditors who we've been working

[1:10:37] with and using their financial acumen along with a lot

[1:10:41] of input from all of the different departments

[1:10:43] and volunteers and folks in town.

[1:10:45] We created this budget that is a little,

[1:10:48] a little under 2% under last year's taxed amount.

[1:10:51] So it's actually not even a flat budget.

[1:10:53] It's a, it's a negative budget partly

[1:10:55] because we have some funding we're able

[1:10:57] to pull across from this budget into next year's budget.

[1:11:00] And those numbers were verified by Sarah Macy, the,

[1:11:03] the financial director of the city of St.

[1:11:06] Alban's along with the folks at the batch

[1:11:08] Elders and Associates.

[1:11:09] So we worked very dig diligently for about two months

[1:11:12] to come up with those numbers.

[1:11:14] And it is not an issue of us not knowing

[1:11:18] what the budget should be, what we spend

[1:11:21] or any anything else.

[1:11:22] There are some official reports,

[1:11:23] some official auditing reports that it just take time

[1:11:26] that we don't have because we didn't

[1:11:27] have a treasurer for those times.

[1:11:30] It is not a situation where we are,

[1:11:33] we don't know what's going on in the town finances.

[1:11:35] So I think that's probably fair.

[1:11:36] And I don't know if Peter has anything to add,

[1:11:38] but I, I am reading the, the two choices.

[1:11:42] It seems to me parliamentary are either to postpone

[1:11:45] to a definite time or postpone indefinitely.

[1:11:48] I have been handed this in Vermont town.

[1:11:52] This is from Robert's Rules

[1:11:53] of Order in Vermont Town Meetings, which are governed

[1:11:55] by Robert's Rules of Order as modified by state as modified

[1:11:59] by state statute, the motion to postpone indefinitely acts

[1:12:04] as a procedural tool to kill a main motion,

[1:12:08] a warrant article, without having to take a direct vote

[1:12:12] on the issue itself.

[1:12:14] Here are the specific effects

[1:12:16] and rules for this action in Vermont.

[1:12:19] Final disposition for the session.

[1:12:22] If a motion to postpone indefinitely is adopted,

[1:12:25] it effectively defeats the original main motion article

[1:12:30] for the duration of that specific town meeting.

[1:12:34] It avoids avoids direct vote.

[1:12:37] It is used when the assembly does not wish to vote yes

[1:12:41] or no on a sensitive, embarrassing,

[1:12:43] or badly worded motion, allowing them

[1:12:47] to avoid talking a direct position.

[1:12:50] No automatic reconsideration.

[1:12:53] Once an article is postponed indefinitely,

[1:12:56] it cannot be brought back in the same meeting

[1:13:00] limits on reconsideration.

[1:13:03] While it kills the motion for the current meeting,

[1:13:06] it does not prevent the issue from being warned

[1:13:09] and brought up at a future or annual or special meeting.

[1:13:14] Procedural requirements Debatable.

[1:13:17] The motion to postpone indefinitely is debatable

[1:13:20] and debate can include the merits of the main motion.

[1:13:25] It requires a majority vote rank.

[1:13:29] It is the lowest ranking subsidiary motion, meaning

[1:13:33] it cannot be made while other motions like amendments

[1:13:37] or to postpone to a specific time are pending

[1:13:41] distinction from table.

[1:13:43] It is often misused for the motion to lay on the table.

[1:13:48] In Vermont, Robert's rules postponing indefinitely is

[1:13:52] attended for the final disposal, not a temporary delay.

[1:13:56] The context of Vermont town meeting articles except

[1:14:00] for the election of candidates generally cannot be passed

[1:14:04] over, but it can be postponed indefinitely.

[1:14:08] Those are the rules, as I was just understanding.

[1:14:11] So There is a motion on the floor.

[1:14:18] Do we have it? Well, there's

[1:14:21] Steven's hand is up.

[1:14:23] It was just a point of order that we had a motion

[1:14:25] that hasn't been seconded that I've heard.

[1:14:28] So this is Jeremy,

[1:14:29] By the way, right?

[1:14:30] It's been seconded. Oh, it has? Yes.

[1:14:32] Yes. It's been seconded. So we have Steve with Carla,

[1:14:37] but are you, he hasn't called discussion yet. I'm

[1:14:40] Just Point of order.

[1:14:41] No, Sasha's made a motion that hasn't been seconded that I

[1:14:44] Heard.

[1:14:45] But we need to hear Sasha's motion.

[1:14:47] You don't have to be recognized for a point of order.

[1:14:49] You can just stand up and say it

[1:14:50] and we'll hear the point of order.

[1:14:53] I just felt confused if we were in discussion or not,

[1:14:56] Or we are not in discussion yet. Okay.

[1:14:59] But we're going to be right. Hopefully

[1:15:02] Hope springs eternal.

[1:15:08] Okay. Is this Sasha's amendment? Well,

[1:15:10] This is right.

[1:15:13] Sasha, are you moving to postpone to in, are you moving

[1:15:17] to postpone indefinitely?

[1:15:19] Which in effect, as we just read, kills the motion.

[1:15:22] Well, it doesn't, it kills it at, at this town meeting,

[1:15:27] as you mentioned, in two separate times in that account.

[1:15:31] And I appreciate that account.

[1:15:32] So I am, I, I I think my motion would've worked,

[1:15:36] but my motion would be I moved to

[1:15:39] postpone the vote on Article 11

[1:15:43] to an indefinite date.

[1:15:46] After all financial reports have been received,

[1:15:51] including those

[1:15:53] for the 20 25, 20 26 fiscal year.

[1:15:58] Thank you. Will you hand that up please, Steve? Okay.

[1:16:03] It's been moved and it is now

[1:16:05] that this is an official motion.

[1:16:07] Is there a second? Because we really didn't have an official

[1:16:10] motion until this, now there's

[1:16:12] an official, is there a second?

[1:16:16] It's been moved and seconded.

[1:16:19] Now there's a discussion on the amendment.

[1:16:22] Let me, as soon as Paula gets this, I shall,

[1:16:24] well, I'll do my best. So

[1:16:26] Sasha, you're gonna need to fill in some

[1:16:28] blanks. Probably. We'll

[1:16:29] Send it up.

[1:16:30] Sasha, can you send your, your, your up here

[1:16:32] so I can read it correctly.

[1:16:43] Thank you.

[1:16:48] Sasha has moved.

[1:16:49] I, Sasha says I move to postpone the vote

[1:16:53] on Article 11 to an indefinite

[1:17:07] to an indefinite a date.

[1:17:11] DATE. Sir, I moved

[1:17:13] To postponed on Article 11 to an

[1:17:17] Inde indefinite date to, in i I moved

[1:17:20] to postpone Article 11 to an indefinite date.

[1:17:23] After all financial reports have been received,

[1:17:27] including those for 2025

[1:17:31] and 2026 fiscal year.

[1:17:35] Sasha, do I have your amendment correct? I think so, yes.

[1:17:38] Okay. It's been moved. Discussion.

[1:17:42] We are now on the, on Sasha's amendment. Steve,

[1:17:47] So it appears to me Say your name every time, Steven

[1:17:50] Far.

[1:17:51] It appears to me that we have the option of

[1:17:54] indefinite postponement

[1:17:56] or a date certain that we don't have, excuse me, a date.

[1:18:00] Certain or indefinitely.

[1:18:01] It doesn't seem like we have any other option,

[1:18:04] but we could have a date certain,

[1:18:06] if the select board could say we might have this information

[1:18:09] ready by a certain time

[1:18:12] and then we could set that date.

[1:18:16] And the reason I raised this point is I assume if we're

[1:18:19] gonna postpone this vote, we'll have

[1:18:20] to convene a second meeting to vote on it. Am I correct,

[1:18:24] Steve?

[1:18:25] I think that what you can do if you want to is amend

[1:18:29] Sasha's amendment from indefinite to a certain time.

[1:18:34] Well, I'm asking for a recommendation 'cause I

[1:18:36] Not from me.

[1:18:37] You're not gonna get one. Well, there's

[1:18:40] A select board up there.

[1:18:41] Can they give a date that we can

[1:18:44] Use?

[1:18:45] That we can set? Are you making I, I'm sorry, Steve.

[1:18:49] I I don't, I'm confused. I need to know what your,

[1:18:52] I would make a motion if I had a date

[1:18:54] to move it too, is my point.

[1:18:55] That is out of order at this point.

[1:19:00] Okay, so we have, we have a few people.

[1:19:03] Okay, we're on the amendment. Jana.

[1:19:06] Oh, Charlie Carla. I think

[1:19:10] Jana Michael.

[1:19:11] Okay. Oh, it's got that. I have the mic in my hand.

[1:19:15] You have what? That doesn't matter. Janet.

[1:19:22] No, no dispensation for wives.

[1:19:25] Thank you. Charlie. Cogno.

[1:19:27] Actually, I have been pondering this exact problem

[1:19:30] for the past since I received my annual

[1:19:33] Report.

[1:19:35] I think there's a confusion between

[1:19:38] the financial report and the budget.

[1:19:42] The financial report is for the treasurer and assistance

[1:19:47] and the auditors to present what has happened in the past.

[1:19:54] The Budget proposal is a proposal

[1:19:58] of the select board.

[1:20:01] Now we're snookered

[1:20:03] because the select board could not take into account

[1:20:07] what the auditors haven't gone over.

[1:20:12] But the select board budget can stand alone

[1:20:17] without having those.

[1:20:18] In fact, I would predict that if we postponed it,

[1:20:21] we might end up with financial reports,

[1:20:25] but we would end up with basically the same budget, which is

[1:20:29] what should be on the table here.

[1:20:32] So what I suggest is that we have a discussion,

[1:20:36] we defeat the amendment to pass over,

[1:20:39] or excuse me, the motion to pass over

[1:20:42] and then consider the budget.

[1:20:45] Yes, we have all heard

[1:20:47] that the financial reports are coming.

[1:20:51] Who knows when the town has an audit that's ongoing.

[1:20:56] The town has consultants.

[1:20:58] The town has two select board members

[1:21:00] that have gone in great detail over

[1:21:03] what this budget should be.

[1:21:06] I think we should get on and discuss the budget

[1:21:09] and not worry about what is missing

[1:21:11] that will not change things.

[1:21:24] Carla Siegel again, I don't mean to cause trouble,

[1:21:27] but information is everything.

[1:21:32] And some of us have it and some of us don't.

[1:21:34] And I do trust our elected officials,

[1:21:38] but we audit for a reason.

[1:21:43] I don't think we should put the cart before the horse.

[1:21:47] I think we should mind our Ps and Qs.

[1:21:49] And I think it's the end of democracy when we start saying,

[1:21:52] oh, trust us, it's fine.

[1:21:54] We are supposed to be here to look at the information.

[1:21:58] We're supposed to have time to consider the information

[1:22:02] and I just don't think we should rush past that.

[1:22:09] We pause one sec. We need to pause

[1:22:12] One moment.

[1:22:13] The moment's recess.

[1:22:15] I only got the first part of,

[1:22:19] No, it, I mean Charlie, I don't, we need, we don't need

[1:22:23] to record it word for word. Okay.

[1:22:24] So then Jana. Okay. Jana point of information. Yes.

[1:22:29] You have a point of information. No, I can. Oh, okay.

[1:22:32] Thank you. Janice. I wanted

[1:22:35] To support, I wanted to say Exactly what

[1:22:37] Charlie said.

[1:22:39] Okay, well said.

[1:22:42] Is there any further discussion on the amendment?

[1:22:45] Michael and Jeremy? Michael.

[1:22:49] Michael Billingsley. I just wanted to say,

[1:22:53] I think this is appropriate that in our

[1:22:57] ongoing fiscal year, which ends in the, at the end of June,

[1:23:03] our present fiscal year is the one

[1:23:05] that has already been budgeted

[1:23:07] and the budget was approved in last year's town meeting

[1:23:10] that we're living by, I just speaking

[1:23:12] for emergency management have not expended all my budget

[1:23:17] and to report on it in part of the year.

[1:23:20] In other words, if somebody wants what's going on

[1:23:21] with emergency management, how long, how much of your budget

[1:23:25] that we allocated for you have you spent so far?

[1:23:29] We often spend somewhere close to 40%

[1:23:32] of our budget in the last three months of the fiscal year.

[1:23:35] And it wouldn't be helpful for you necessarily to know that

[1:23:37] unless we're vastly off track.

[1:23:40] So at any point

[1:23:42] that a report is made about the current year,

[1:23:44] it's always going to be a shifting landscape

[1:23:46] because each of the departments is spending money

[1:23:48] as it goes along, as the need arises.

[1:23:51] So I personally don't feel we're gonna gain much

[1:23:53] by changing the data, which we examine the financial data.

[1:23:57] Further discussion on the amendment.

[1:24:00] Jeremy?

[1:24:04] Jeremy, that's fine.

[1:24:07] I've spoken a lot. You can cheat. Okay. Which is it?

[1:24:10] Yeah. Jeremy first, I believe

[1:24:13] Jeremy, Matt.

[1:24:15] I also think that we have enough information to vote.

[1:24:17] We know what the costs are.

[1:24:18] I'd also be concerned about, you know, these important

[1:24:22] things that we're trying to fund here.

[1:24:24] Being left without a budget indefinitely

[1:24:28] until we get some financial reports

[1:24:31] that we don't know when they're gonna arrive.

[1:24:34] I don't know. I I just, I I I think

[1:24:36] that Charlie said it really well.

[1:24:37] So yeah. Vote no.

[1:24:44] Allison, joy, IL My question is,

[1:24:49] if we don't pass this today, how does this affect,

[1:24:54] for example, salaries of our road crew, et cetera?

[1:25:04] Dan, you wanna respond to that?

[1:25:05] So the budget year starts July 1st,

[1:25:08] and so as long as the budget is passed by July 1st,

[1:25:10] it wouldn't have any effect.

[1:25:11] I mean, even beyond that,

[1:25:13] there's provisions if we didn't somehow pass a

[1:25:15] budget for what our budget would be.

[1:25:17] So it's not gonna affect anybody's salaries.

[1:25:19] Folks are getting paid regularly. Okay.

[1:25:22] Any other further discussions? Betsy?

[1:25:27] It's coming.

[1:25:31] Hi, Betsy Zigler. I'm just disappointed.

[1:25:35] I feel like this is no way to run a business.

[1:25:38] This is our town business

[1:25:40] and we should know what we've spent,

[1:25:42] even if it's three quarters of the money spent.

[1:25:45] I, I have beyond the regional plan, regional

[1:25:50] solid waste district,

[1:25:51] and I said to long meetings of looking at spread sheets

[1:25:55] and looking at quarterly reports.

[1:25:58] I mean, this is how you should be running an organization.

[1:26:00] And I'm sorry, this person who was, was our treasurer is,

[1:26:04] was unavailable, but it seems like we're late in

[1:26:07] getting fixing that problem.

[1:26:12] Karen,

[1:26:17] Karen Hatcher.

[1:26:20] I just wanna say that I appreciate all the work

[1:26:23] that the board did to try and figure out this budget.

[1:26:25] And I also wanna just acknowledge that Josh Pitts

[1:26:29] put in a lot of time and energy

[1:26:31] and effort into creating the beginning of this budget.

[1:26:35] And yeah, it's, it is unfortunate that he took ill,

[1:26:39] but I think life's not perfect.

[1:26:44] You know, we've been dealing with a lot of things

[1:26:46] and this board has taken on a lot

[1:26:48] and I, I think that the kind of expertise that you went

[1:26:52] and got in Sarah Macy

[1:26:54] and the batch shelter group consulting with the League

[1:26:57] of Citizen Towns and doing your best work to create a budget

[1:27:00] that we, you know, that all of us

[1:27:03] who worked on it feel pretty good about.

[1:27:07] I think, you know, I would just say

[1:27:11] for me it's a, we should go ahead.

[1:27:13] I,

[1:27:18] Any, any further discussion on the amend on, on the,

[1:27:21] on the, on the motion.

[1:27:23] It's not an amendment, it's a motion.

[1:27:24] Any further discussion? Steve,

[1:27:26] Can you just clarify if we're voting no on this motion,

[1:27:30] that means it's going to be defeated

[1:27:32] and we're get a second chance to vote yes on the budget

[1:27:35] Or the amendment?

[1:27:36] What's the process if you vote no,

[1:27:37] the amendment will be defeated

[1:27:39] and we will go back to the original article.

[1:27:44] Is that, is that what you're asking? Yes.

[1:27:47] Any further discussion on the amendment?

[1:27:52] Glenda, is your hand up? I'm sorry. Okay.

[1:27:56] Seeing none, I shall read Sasha's amendment.

[1:28:01] Sasha, please again, correct me if I, if I get this wrong

[1:28:04] because which are Sasha moves

[1:28:07] to postpone the vote on Article two

[1:28:10] to an indefinite date After all financial

[1:28:13] reports have been received. Article

[1:28:15] 11.

[1:28:18] I didn't

[1:28:22] Oh, article 11.

[1:28:24] Yeah, I thank you.

[1:28:28] I moved to postpone the vote on Article 11

[1:28:32] to an indefinite date

[1:28:34] after all financial reports have been received,

[1:28:36] including those for 25, 26 fiscal year.

[1:28:41] All those in favor of the amendment say aye,

[1:28:45] Aye.

[1:28:46] All those opposed say no.

[1:28:48] No, those appear to have it

[1:28:52] and the nays do have it.

[1:28:54] And we are back to the original article.

[1:28:57] Further discussion on Article 11

[1:29:05] if you are ready for the question.

[1:29:07] Yep, Betsy.

[1:29:12] Okay, I'm looking at the,

[1:29:14] I think I'm looking at the budget.

[1:29:17] We are in the budget. Is there money allocated

[1:29:19] for the central Vermont Solid Waste Planning District?

[1:29:23] I don't see it. What what pa what Under what area

[1:29:29] Aren't we talking about the budget?

[1:29:31] Am I sorry, am I at the wrong?

[1:29:34] No, No, I I think that

[1:29:36] The article We're on article 11, which, which

[1:29:40] Does not, I'm, yes, I, okay,

[1:29:43] maybe I'm in the wrong spot,

[1:29:45] but I'm looking, I'm asking the select board,

[1:29:47] where in the select board's budget did they allocate money

[1:29:51] for the central Vermont Solid waste planning districts?

[1:29:55] Thank you.

[1:29:57] Okay, Dan?

[1:29:59] Yeah, so we have a, a section

[1:30:01] of the budget called public safety.

[1:30:04] Okay. Oh, I, I'm looking at the,

[1:30:08] let me see if I can find it on the pages

[1:30:10] 'cause I'm looking at the spreadsheet.

[1:30:12] Page 46,

[1:30:15] Number 75, Number 75.

[1:30:18] Apparently you guys are there faster than me

[1:30:20] because I was looking at the spreadsheet. 75

[1:30:22] Line 75. Line 75.

[1:30:24] There you go. It should be $1,900 for solid waste.

[1:30:29] Okay. Okay. Page 46, line 75.

[1:30:38] Thank you. That wasn't clear to me.

[1:30:42] Bob. Bob

[1:30:47] Enson, energy coordinator on page, I talked

[1:30:52] with Carl about this yesterday.

[1:30:53] We got on page 45, line 64,

[1:30:59] the energy conservation budget was put

[1:31:04] into the conservation commission budget.

[1:31:08] So I'd just like that to be weed out.

[1:31:09] It's not gonna change the amount at all

[1:31:12] in the overall budget figure,

[1:31:14] but I'd just like that

[1:31:15] to be Donnie

[1:31:20] Dan.

[1:31:21] So in, in an effort to make our computer system work better,

[1:31:24] Josh has been, was implementing some changes.

[1:31:26] It's really hard for our system if,

[1:31:29] if like literally one thing is its own

[1:31:31] department, so like energy.

[1:31:33] So we've been grouping things into departments.

[1:31:35] So your $500 budget is still your budget.

[1:31:38] It's just the way that it comes out on here.

[1:31:40] And the conservation commission has their own

[1:31:42] written, we just have to group things.

[1:31:43] So like public for example, solid waste being part

[1:31:46] of the public safety grouping.

[1:31:48] It's just the way that our online system works.

[1:31:50] And so we're trying to have this budget match

[1:31:53] what we use in the online system.

[1:31:54] So there's less confusion

[1:31:56] as we actually try to track things.

[1:31:57] I know there's been a regular problem

[1:31:59] of folks not knowing exactly

[1:32:00] how much might be in certain accounts

[1:32:02] or which committees have, which budgets left.

[1:32:04] And so we're try as in a way to do that.

[1:32:06] And we may be able to turn change the title

[1:32:07] of it in the future from Conservation Commission

[1:32:10] to Environmental Commissions or something.

[1:32:12] But that's the reason they're together. Okay?

[1:32:15] It's not that they're in control of the budget.

[1:32:17] Well, in trying to Avoid

[1:32:19] Confusion, you created confusion.

[1:32:22] Confusion for you left, confusion for office staff.

[1:32:27] Okay, further discussion.

[1:32:28] Article 11. Charlie.

[1:32:33] Charlie, yeah. Charlie Cobell.

[1:32:37] I've always been confused whether we can line item

[1:32:41] change the budget.

[1:32:44] That's just a que an open question.

[1:32:47] We certainly can change the bottom line,

[1:32:50] but I'm not gonna address that right now.

[1:32:53] The only thing in the budget that this body has control over

[1:32:58] are the salaries paid town officers.

[1:33:01] That's by statute and by our charter.

[1:33:05] That's the point of information I want to jump on

[1:33:08] to the budget itself.

[1:33:10] The budget itself proposes about 15% more

[1:33:15] expenditures, but that is balanced by revenues.

[1:33:20] Two lines of revenues, one hold harmless,

[1:33:24] $180,000

[1:33:27] and another prior year surplus,

[1:33:32] I hate to say who determined prior year surplus

[1:33:36] after all the discussion,

[1:33:37] but there's $200,000 in in the budget

[1:33:41] that brings the budget below level funded

[1:33:47] tax needs from the town.

[1:33:53] I would hope that the, the various items such as the flood

[1:33:59] received as revenues for reimbursement

[1:34:01] that are would come in in this fiscal year.

[1:34:03] I would assume that there are many other things

[1:34:06] that are totally unable

[1:34:09] to estimate was it sits now we have

[1:34:13] a better than level budget

[1:34:16] and we have an opportunity to vote

[1:34:20] that which is our taxes.

[1:34:23] I would say with all the uncertainties,

[1:34:26] this is about the best we're ever gonna get.

[1:34:29] So I, I support voting that as the budget

[1:34:34] and let it play out as it plays out.

[1:34:39] And we might hope to have $200,000 more in previous year

[1:34:43] because it was wrong.

[1:34:48] Any further discussion? No.

[1:34:50] Yeah, just, I'll just explain the,

[1:34:53] the previous year surplus.

[1:34:55] So a big part

[1:34:57] of our flood work is actually like our road crew spending

[1:35:00] time and energy on flood recovery, flood repair stuff.

[1:35:05] And so we're paying 'em in this year,

[1:35:07] we're paying their salaries

[1:35:09] and things like that in this year.

[1:35:11] And so when, when we get reimbursed, a lot

[1:35:14] of the reimbursement money comes right to the town.

[1:35:16] And so not all of it,

[1:35:18] but some of it is what we were push we're putting forward.

[1:35:20] And I'll say Josh, Josh Pitts had a whole spreadsheet of of,

[1:35:25] I mean I think he feels we could have a bigger number there,

[1:35:28] but in working with Sarah Macy,

[1:35:30] who's the director of finance from St.

[1:35:31] Albans town and working with our auditor,

[1:35:34] we felt the most conservative

[1:35:35] and comfortable number that we could put

[1:35:37] as prior year surplus was the 200,000.

[1:35:40] I will say Peter and I spent a frantic four

[1:35:43] or five days getting ourselves to a budget that was even,

[1:35:46] or at 2% without that 200,000.

[1:35:48] And then we reinstated funding once we found out for sure

[1:35:51] that that 200,000 was there.

[1:35:52] But we did have a plan, a plan B

[1:35:54] scenario in case we decided we couldn't do the surplus.

[1:35:57] But so three different folks, our treasurer,

[1:36:01] the director of finance from St.

[1:36:02] Albans and our auditor all felt that

[1:36:04] that 200,000 was a justifiable

[1:36:06] and pretty conservative number.

[1:36:08] Further discussion.

[1:36:10] Article 11 if you are ready for the question.

[1:36:15] The question is, shall the town approve total fund

[1:36:19] expenditures of

[1:36:20] $1,842,047

[1:36:24] and 44 cents to pay for administrative operations,

[1:36:29] fire and rescue department

[1:36:31] and highway department of the town of Plainfield

[1:36:34] for the period of July 1st, 2026

[1:36:37] to June 30, 20, 27 of which

[1:36:42] $1,326,787

[1:36:46] and 44 cents shall be raised by taxes

[1:36:51] and $515,260

[1:36:55] by non rev, by non-tax revenue.

[1:37:00] All those in favor of Article 11 please say aye. Aye.

[1:37:05] Opposed? No, the eyes appear to have it.

[1:37:10] The eyes do have it. And you've passed. Article 11,

[1:37:17] article 12.

[1:37:20] Article 12 reads, shall the town of Plainfield

[1:37:24] authorize the select board

[1:37:26] to apply any surplus from the current fiscal year

[1:37:31] to reduce taxes in the next fiscal year?

[1:37:35] May I have a motion on Article 12, please?

[1:37:39] Second, Jeremy Been moved

[1:37:42] and seconded to pass article

[1:37:44] 12 discussion.

[1:37:52] Seeing none. All those in favor of article 12 say, aye.

[1:37:56] Is there up? Yep, go ahead. Sorry.

[1:37:59] Aye Steve, we got

[1:38:01] A comment there.

[1:38:02] It was behind

[1:38:07] Garfield Barnes.

[1:38:08] I was just Garfield Barnes, your

[1:38:11] Name please.

[1:38:12] Garfield Barnes. Thank you.

[1:38:14] And I was just wondering if anything

[1:38:17] that was left over could be reserved as a contingency for,

[1:38:23] you know, like a rainy day rather than going through

[1:38:27] and having to have everybody

[1:38:30] get back 57 cents or $2 and whatever,

[1:38:34] or whatever it might be.

[1:38:37] Is that possible? It's our choice, right?

[1:38:41] Well, it is, it is our choice.

[1:38:42] So what typically happens is if there's un unattributed

[1:38:45] surplus at in June, at the end of June

[1:38:48] before anybody gets a tax bill, that surplus would then be

[1:38:52] put towards the next year

[1:38:55] and then the tax bills would be decided on.

[1:38:57] So the idea is, is it would buy down tax bills

[1:39:00] before the tax bills happen.

[1:39:01] And so this taxable amount that we just set of

[1:39:06] to raise of 1,326,000, et cetera,

[1:39:10] could become smaller if we have extra money.

[1:39:13] So that, that's the idea.

[1:39:15] We definitely don't have to do that.

[1:39:17] It's, I think what we've done at

[1:39:18] least as long as I've been in town.

[1:39:19] But it is a way for us

[1:39:21] to ensure the lowest tax rate possible for the residents of,

[1:39:25] of Plainfield for the discussion on Article 12.

[1:39:31] If you're ready for the question.

[1:39:33] The question is, shall the town

[1:39:36] of Plainfield authorize the select board

[1:39:38] to apply any surplus from the current fiscal year

[1:39:41] to reduce taxes in the next fiscal year?

[1:39:43] All those in favor say aye.

[1:39:46] Aye. Opposed? No, the ayes appear to have it.

[1:39:51] The ayes do have it. And you've passed Article 12.

[1:39:54] Article 13 shall the town vote

[1:39:58] to accept the provisions of public statutes relating

[1:40:02] to the collection of taxes by the town treasurer VSA

[1:40:07] section 30 VSA 32,

[1:40:10] section 47 91,

[1:40:13] and vote to collect municipal taxes 30 days from mailing

[1:40:17] and not prior and not prior to August 19th, 2026

[1:40:23] and collect school taxes

[1:40:26] on November 18th, 2026

[1:40:29] and February 10th, 2027, collecting half

[1:40:34] the total school taxes on each of those dates.

[1:40:39] May I have a motion on article 13?

[1:40:43] Motion Been moved. Is there a second?

[1:40:47] Second Discussion on Article 13?

[1:40:55] None. Seeing none.

[1:41:00] All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? No.

[1:41:05] Ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it.

[1:41:07] And you've passed Article 13, article 14

[1:41:12] to transact any other business

[1:41:14] that may properly come before the meeting.

[1:41:17] Michael.

[1:41:24] Thank you Michael Billingsley.

[1:41:28] I wanted to take this opportunity

[1:41:29] because it's going to be pretty clearly to me.

[1:41:33] My last report as Emergency management director.

[1:41:38] I announced to the select board in November.

[1:41:42] I think that I was planning to step down in the spring.

[1:41:44] It was pretty, it was a soft date initially,

[1:41:48] although I did have May 1st

[1:41:50] as my assistant is leaving her job.

[1:41:52] And I felt it would be hard to continue

[1:41:55] after that in full capacity.

[1:41:57] But I fell down a flight of stairs in December and,

[1:42:01] and tripped at the top and, and

[1:42:03] and permanently pulled a tenant away from my shoulder and,

[1:42:08] and had a concussion and stuff.

[1:42:10] And so I pretty much saw that as a sign

[1:42:13] that I better be definite.

[1:42:15] I knew that exhaustion and distraction played into that.

[1:42:18] And I don't think at this point I didn't want

[1:42:21] to celebrate my 80th birthday in June

[1:42:22] and still be in this capacity.

[1:42:25] So I'm pulling away from it.

[1:42:26] But in the context of doing that, I also wanted to say that

[1:42:30] what lies ahead on some level I can be

[1:42:34] very optimistic about.

[1:42:36] We have, and on another level, I'm,

[1:42:39] I'm feeling a little bit glum, but first of all, we do have,

[1:42:44] and and probably I should say

[1:42:45] for the first time in a long time,

[1:42:47] we have a very solid public safety presence.

[1:42:50] And I'm using public safety in this context,

[1:42:52] not the way it's written in the budget,

[1:42:54] but the way it's defined at the state level.

[1:42:56] There is a department of public safety.

[1:42:57] Underneath of it are the police are the,

[1:43:00] which would be equivalent to our constable.

[1:43:03] There's also emergency management,

[1:43:05] there's also hazard mitigation, there's also all

[1:43:09] of the attendant things to keep people safe.

[1:43:12] That's what public safety is.

[1:43:13] And here in town, we have a really wonderful team right now

[1:43:18] with a constable, a public health officer,

[1:43:22] a emergency management coordinator,

[1:43:26] animal control officer and emergency,

[1:43:28] and an emergency management assistant and GIS mapper.

[1:43:32] And in order to go forward to have those services continued

[1:43:36] to be present for the town, I'm laying

[1:43:40] and have been laying that groundwork

[1:43:42] for the last six months.

[1:43:43] So I can announce that I have two very strong candidates

[1:43:46] to take my place and

[1:43:48] that they will be stepping into position when I

[1:43:51] retire on the 1st of May.

[1:43:53] I'm also working on finding the funding

[1:43:56] to have another emergency management assistant paid

[1:43:59] for in this case by AmeriCorps, starting in the summer,

[1:44:03] working under the new person who would take my place.

[1:44:05] So we can look forward to that.

[1:44:07] And then in the past, of course, we've had an enormously

[1:44:11] grueling year actually as Karen Hatcher certainly can speak

[1:44:14] to and Josh, but our funding group started out with all

[1:44:17] of the multiple ways in which we've lost money in which

[1:44:20] we've been hurt as a town by a constant procession of floods

[1:44:25] and, and financial disasters in a sense

[1:44:28] because there's a lot of costs going out.

[1:44:30] And we still don't know that all of those costs

[1:44:32] and monies are gonna come back.

[1:44:35] And so with our volunteers, people

[1:44:39] who have put in tremendous amount of time, we've pulled

[1:44:42] through that particular rough patch, we're now waiting

[1:44:45] to see what the federal government would do.

[1:44:48] I mean, I'm familiar in, as most of you are, that floods

[1:44:51] and are,

[1:44:54] we're about our biggest issue all along in history.

[1:44:56] I mean, I grew up in Northfield

[1:44:59] and went to elementary school there

[1:45:00] and I saw floods in Northfield

[1:45:02] and there are floods in any valley town,

[1:45:04] and we're going to see those again in the future.

[1:45:06] What we've always counted on is having the federal

[1:45:09] government assist us.

[1:45:10] We've always counted on the fact that when we,

[1:45:14] and it's through the state, a lot of that funding comes.

[1:45:16] The state receives a big chunk of money from fema.

[1:45:19] And what I now know is that this war

[1:45:21] that has just gotten engaged in in the last three days is

[1:45:25] costing a billion dollars a day.

[1:45:30] That money is coming from the quote savings accomplished

[1:45:34] by Doge as they gutted federal department

[1:45:38] after federal department

[1:45:39] and took away many of the skilled people

[1:45:42] that have helped our country navigate

[1:45:45] through enormous disasters.

[1:45:47] We've lost a skilled team or part of a skilled team

[1:45:50] and we're lost the money.

[1:45:52] Just got the notification on Thursday that fema,

[1:45:56] which has taken a lot of its budget under the decision

[1:46:00] of the Director of Homeland Security under which FEMA is,

[1:46:04] they're almost outta money.

[1:46:06] They haven't been putting new money in

[1:46:08] and they have not been basically squirreling away money

[1:46:12] for an increasingly damaging future

[1:46:15] from the point of view of climate.

[1:46:16] So we're all going to have

[1:46:18] to pull together a whole lot more than we have.

[1:46:21] And our state will be greatly stressed because the 30%

[1:46:26] or so of what our disaster recovery costs

[1:46:30] and it come in some instances up to close

[1:46:32] to 75% has been coming from the feds, may not come anymore.

[1:46:38] So I'm just kind of warning you in a, in a,

[1:46:41] in an encouraging way to, to, to,

[1:46:45] to believe that yes,

[1:46:48] Vermont is probably in a better position to weather

[1:46:53] all of the likely disasters

[1:46:55] that are still heading down the pike toward us

[1:46:57] because climate is not getting any cooler.

[1:47:00] The num amount of moisture in the environment is not

[1:47:03] reducing, it's increasing, which means the storms

[1:47:05] that we have will continue to both, both pound us

[1:47:08] and perhaps pound us work more

[1:47:11] water than even we experienced last year,

[1:47:13] which is unbelievable and hard to take in.

[1:47:16] So I want all of you to pull together, please

[1:47:20] to put aside the bickering,

[1:47:22] to put aside all the ways in which you might not

[1:47:24] comfortably work together.

[1:47:26] 'cause we're going to need to work together.

[1:47:29] We need to be a team no matter what our backgrounds are,

[1:47:32] our education, whether we voted for

[1:47:34] or against Trump, whether

[1:47:36] or not we support any particular kind of political party.

[1:47:40] This is a Vermont town with a long history

[1:47:43] and a lot of the history has included disasters

[1:47:46] where people have pulled together in the past.

[1:47:48] I'm encouraging you you to continue to do

[1:47:50] that again in the future.

[1:47:52] And I hope from the town's point of view

[1:47:54] that we can have a skilled emergency management team working

[1:47:58] to see our way through each disaster as it occurs.

[1:48:02] But I thank you for all your support

[1:48:03] for the select board support and for everyone else's support

[1:48:06] and let us go forward hopefully

[1:48:08] with optimism and collaboration.

[1:48:31] Thank you Michael. I know I speak for this entire town.

[1:48:34] When I say to say you have gone above

[1:48:37] and beyond is the understatement of the year.

[1:48:40] Michael has been phenomenal.

[1:48:44] Thank you so much for all you've given

[1:48:54] other business, Becky?

[1:48:56] Yes, Pies.

[1:48:58] We still have some pie slices here

[1:49:01] and if you've already had a piece

[1:49:04] and would like to put your used fork in this container,

[1:49:08] we will give it back to you next year.

[1:49:11] But, but it'll, it'll be, it'll be clean

[1:49:15] Other, So please, please bring your forks back and come

[1:49:20] and get another piece of pie that we've got about,

[1:49:22] I don't know how many, but they look wonderful.

[1:49:25] Thank you.

[1:49:27] Thank you. Bob. Are you

[1:49:39] For usual?

[1:49:40] Michael is a extremely hard act to follow,

[1:49:43] but I just wanna give you a quick little summary from

[1:49:47] energy coordinator.

[1:49:49] We've started to spend down the

[1:49:52] municipal Energy resilience program, grant Money merp

[1:49:57] and the town garage has benefited from

[1:50:01] two brand new overhead doors that, guess what?

[1:50:04] You don't have to climb down out of the grater

[1:50:06] to get the door open by pulling the chain fall,

[1:50:10] push a little button and it goes open for you.

[1:50:12] So there's a big improvement there that I'm hoping

[1:50:16] is much appreciated.

[1:50:17] And we've also contracted for solar array

[1:50:20] for the roof of the town garage.

[1:50:22] And I was able to get the group net metering thing in place

[1:50:27] so that that power can be shared throughout the other

[1:50:31] buildings owned by the town that's going on.

[1:50:38] We're gonna have a few meetings with the building managers

[1:50:42] coming up and seeing what we can best do for each facility

[1:50:47] as we go down through that.

[1:50:49] It's been really difficult.

[1:50:52] Everybody knows by having budget cuts

[1:50:56] that Michael was referring to,

[1:50:59] we've lost the 30% incentive as of the end of last year.

[1:51:04] There are still opportunities through efficiency Vermont,

[1:51:08] because by rate payers as a demand side utility.

[1:51:12] So would you please read the, my report

[1:51:16] and the town report?

[1:51:19] And if you've got any questions, please see me

[1:51:22] and we will see if we can work out the best way together.

[1:51:26] Solar still remains a very good value

[1:51:29] and a way to make power that is not involved

[1:51:33] with the fossil fuels of the world.

[1:51:36] Take care. Thank you.

[1:51:42] Okay. It's it's gonna be

[1:51:44] Next up.

[1:51:45] Paula, Karen, and then Jeremy.

[1:51:48] I have a question. I'm Paula Emery, can you hear me?

[1:51:51] Hi, are your hands up?

[1:51:56] Yes. Okay, you're on stack.

[1:52:01] I have a question about page 21,

[1:52:02] statement of delinquent taxes.

[1:52:06] The amount the balance owed for 2024 seems so high.

[1:52:11] 55,000.

[1:52:12] And I was wondering if anybody on the select board could

[1:52:15] speak to that.

[1:52:16] Is, is does this have to do with the flood?

[1:52:19] Is this, are these taxes, are people

[1:52:23] who lost their homes still responsible for paying taxes?

[1:52:27] And I, I just would love to hear a little bit

[1:52:31] of information about how that works.

[1:52:36] Peter, Peter And Sasha.

[1:52:41] Here's your notebook.

[1:52:48] Peter Young bear. Paul,

[1:52:50] I heard two different questions there.

[1:52:51] The, I'll take the second one first.

[1:52:54] Do people who lost their homes, are they still paying taxes?

[1:52:58] The answer is yes, but in most cases, the listers

[1:53:03] and if not all cases,

[1:53:04] and the listers can correct me here if I'm wrong,

[1:53:06] but the land values

[1:53:09] and house values were much reduced.

[1:53:14] There was a major, I, I can't remember how many,

[1:53:18] some 30, 32, 36 properties where we abated taxes

[1:53:24] in the, the year immediately following the flood.

[1:53:26] And then the reappraisals took those reduced

[1:53:29] values into account.

[1:53:32] So that's that the first part of your question had to do

[1:53:36] with the delinquent tax collectors report.

[1:53:39] And I was just trying to look back to the year

[1:53:43] before from last year's report.

[1:53:47] It is not unusual to see the high number in the most

[1:53:50] recent year.

[1:53:53] What it doesn't show, this was, this is also for the year

[1:53:56] that ended June 30th.

[1:53:58] So it's not what's going on in the current year.

[1:54:02] That is, this is the report for the year that ended already.

[1:54:06] So

[1:54:08] Karen,

[1:54:16] Steve, you got Steve.

[1:54:22] Thank you. I just wanted to take a moment to thank

[1:54:27] and acknowledge Carl bis.

[1:54:29] Yeah,

[1:54:53] you are well loved Carl,

[1:54:55] and you will be missed on this board,

[1:54:57] but I'm sure you will be everywhere the way you have been.

[1:55:02] I just have been honored to work

[1:55:04] with you these last two years.

[1:55:08] There is no one with a bigger heart for this town than you.

[1:55:13] And I don't know

[1:55:16] what I would've done without you as a partner.

[1:55:18] And I just wanna say how much I love you

[1:55:20] and I, I appreciate all that you've done

[1:55:22] and all the ways that you have led during these really,

[1:55:26] really difficult times.

[1:55:27] So thank you for being my friend and for being our friend.

[1:55:31] Appreciate it.

[1:55:40] Karen. I Would just like to take the

[1:55:43] A moment to say amen.

[1:55:48] Jeremy. Jeremy, you're up.

[1:55:54] Hi everyone. Well that was a tough act to follow.

[1:55:58] Just wanted to give a quick update on CV. Fiber.

[1:56:00] I don't really have anything prepared,

[1:56:03] but some really good news.

[1:56:05] We got a rather large grant from the federal government

[1:56:08] that will allow us to continue building

[1:56:11] and we'll build out the rest of our network.

[1:56:13] We are going to all addresses that are on grid is kind

[1:56:18] of a, a little bit of the line.

[1:56:20] There's some detail there if you want to talk to me.

[1:56:24] I'm over here. The other good news is

[1:56:28] that Plainfield is kind of front of the line.

[1:56:32] Plainfield, Marshfield, orange.

[1:56:33] That area is where our first phase of build is going

[1:56:36] to be once the bead funding arrives.

[1:56:40] However, that is a little bit of a

[1:56:44] uncertainty because there's so much federal red tape

[1:56:47] that needs to be completed.

[1:56:49] There's, you know, this review in that review

[1:56:52] and environmental reviews.

[1:56:56] I don't have a firm date still, which is frustrating.

[1:56:59] I, you know, I've been at this for, you know, close

[1:57:03] to a decade now, trying to push this forward

[1:57:06] and we're still working on it

[1:57:08] and we still don't have a date of like,

[1:57:10] we're gonna be served by this and such a date.

[1:57:12] But we're getting close.

[1:57:14] And yeah, if you have any questions, come by

[1:57:17] and have a chat with me.

[1:57:19] Thanks all.

[1:57:27] Alicias. Oh, I'm sorry, I got it out of order.

[1:57:31] But Betsy's next after

[1:57:34] You're outta Florida.

[1:57:36] Alicia Weiss, I am a member.

[1:57:38] I'm the chair, current chair

[1:57:40] of the playing Field Accessibility Advisory Group.

[1:57:44] And I wanna rec, sorry. Okay, better. I'm a New Yorker.

[1:57:47] I always think I'm too loud. Thanks. I wanna recognize that.

[1:57:52] I want us all to think about the fact that

[1:57:55] although some people chose not to come today,

[1:57:57] there are people who are not represented in this room

[1:58:00] because they couldn't be here for accessibility reasons.

[1:58:04] Accessibility means more than having a lift,

[1:58:08] which I'm glad we have.

[1:58:10] Vermont is one of unique,

[1:58:14] the unique states in the, in our union, if you will, that

[1:58:20] has voting laws that fly in the face

[1:58:25] of the Americans with Disability Act

[1:58:27] and its own disability laws,

[1:58:31] which in fact are more expansive than the a DA.

[1:58:35] The a DA needs to be the floor.

[1:58:37] It doesn't need to be the ceiling.

[1:58:39] And we have made our disability protections

[1:58:42] for inclusion stronger in Vermont.

[1:58:45] But the Vermont voting laws, which

[1:58:50] you know, began hundreds of years ago

[1:58:54] and more recently, the Secretary of States

[1:58:58] interpretation of them

[1:59:01] have really amounted whether intentionally

[1:59:04] or not to voter suppression for many, many people

[1:59:09] with disabilities.

[1:59:10] And that's not all people

[1:59:12] who are not able to be in the room.

[1:59:13] Maybe people with children

[1:59:16] with special, you know, with needs.

[1:59:18] They can't be accommodated at the daycare,

[1:59:22] which we thoughtfully provide people who are elderly, people

[1:59:26] with transportation issues of right people.

[1:59:29] It's a class issue. People who can't,

[1:59:32] don't get this day off, can't afford

[1:59:34] to take a day off unpaid and don't have personal days.

[1:59:40] Why am I telling you though,

[1:59:41] this other Vince is say you a bummer.

[1:59:44] I mean, we rarely think of ourselves as being a very caring,

[1:59:46] inclusive state and and town.

[1:59:51] The accessibility advisory committee is going to be

[1:59:56] launching a public education

[2:00:00] and outreach program this year, which we,

[2:00:05] our intention is to bring an article for the

[2:00:11] somewhat revision of how we do town meeting

[2:00:16] some alterations, modifications to

[2:00:20] this group next year.

[2:00:23] Okay. As an article, what I'm asking you is to just,

[2:00:28] you know, we all have really busy lives

[2:00:31] and we all get way too many notifications,

[2:00:35] but it real, we really need everyone to, when we

[2:00:40] put out calls for input or we have public meetings

[2:00:45] 'cause we wanna educate people

[2:00:46] and we want to hear what you say.

[2:00:48] Have to say, we wanna come to a solution together, not

[2:00:51] by us showing up and suggesting one or trying to impose one.

[2:00:56] Please take time out of your schedules to think about

[2:01:01] the people who may wanna be here

[2:01:02] and are, you know, we pride ourselves a lot on participatory

[2:01:05] democracy, see, in Vermont,

[2:01:08] but it's not participatory democracy.

[2:01:11] If people can't attend floor votes are usually

[2:01:16] maybe only 2% as they're currently conducted

[2:01:20] of people in a town.

[2:01:22] There are ways to make that better. We can do better.

[2:01:25] Vermont actually ranked 49th in terms

[2:01:28] of disability voting access,

[2:01:31] which I think is pretty appalling.

[2:01:33] So again, thank you all for being here

[2:01:37] and thank you all for being the people I know we are

[2:01:40] as a town who care.

[2:01:41] And I'd like to echo Michael's

[2:01:47] request, his ask or maybe even plea for us to come together.

[2:01:51] You know what? Social media, I often feel that we

[2:01:54] as a species have not evolved as quickly

[2:01:56] as our technology is.

[2:01:58] And social media for all it's good evils

[2:02:03] and in between seems to have unleashed

[2:02:09] a tendency for us

[2:02:11] to put things out there without thinking about the effect

[2:02:14] things we might not say to people

[2:02:17] or might not say to people if we didn't

[2:02:20] or might not say if we didn't have access to public media.

[2:02:25] And this goes for everyone. Let's not just be critical.

[2:02:29] Let's think critically.

[2:02:32] If there, you know, I see on all ends of the spectrum,

[2:02:37] all political sides, all sides of issues in,

[2:02:40] in this town that have been divisive.

[2:02:42] I see people making assumptions

[2:02:44] and attributions about people they don't know.

[2:02:47] What is their motivation for doing this?

[2:02:49] What is their motivation for not wanting to do this?

[2:02:52] Ask someone or at least put the question out there.

[2:02:55] But please, let's stop assuming

[2:02:57] that we know why people are taking positions they're taking,

[2:03:00] as Michael says, we're going to need each other a lot more.

[2:03:05] You know, I ju it's not just in terms

[2:03:07] of Envir environment right now.

[2:03:10] States are scrambling to

[2:03:14] ensure voting rights

[2:03:15] because federally,

[2:03:17] there's a good chance they're going to be decimated.

[2:03:19] We really need each other

[2:03:21] for the good people we are fi Finally,

[2:03:24] I wanna say thank you to Michael.

[2:03:26] You are unbelievable.

[2:03:29] You know, you, you're sort of in many ways, not all,

[2:03:32] but many ways who I want to be when I grow up

[2:03:34] as an ethical conscious

[2:03:36] and you know, someone with mindful service.

[2:03:40] So thanks everyone.

[2:03:48] Thank you. I just wanna say a couple things.

[2:03:51] Betsy Ziegler is my name.

[2:03:54] I'm requesting that in the next report we say it's the

[2:03:57] central Vermont Solid Waste Management District

[2:04:00] that's receiving the money from, so that it's not confused

[2:04:04] with the Northeast kingdom.

[2:04:07] You know, there's other solid waste management districts.

[2:04:10] Okay, thank you. And the solid Waste Management district has

[2:04:14] now opened the Eco Depot, which is up on Granger Road.

[2:04:19] And it will take all kinds of hazardous waste.

[2:04:22] It will also take just

[2:04:27] especially recyclable items

[2:04:32] such as batteries, light bulbs,

[2:04:37] other devices like computers, anything, anything

[2:04:41] that has mercury, propane tanks, et cetera, et cetera.

[2:04:45] If you're not sure what to do with something that needs

[2:04:47] to be disposed, check their website or call them

[2:04:51] or email them.

[2:04:52] But you can make an appointment Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

[2:04:56] So they're open now

[2:04:58] and a lot of the alternative recycling items are free.

[2:05:03] So thank you. And the other thing is, as a representative,

[2:05:07] I could use an alternative alternate.

[2:05:09] I could use an alternative too. But anyway, I could use it.

[2:05:12] We could use an alternate.

[2:05:14] So if there's anybody interested,

[2:05:16] they're a really well run organization

[2:05:18] and it's a worthwhile spending.

[2:05:22] It's usually worthwhile spending their time at the meeting.

[2:05:25] I wanna say one more thing.

[2:05:27] Thank you to the people who are leaving us

[2:05:30] and who have put in so much over the last years

[2:05:35] Damn f Carl Bishop.

[2:05:42] And I wanna, I also, I also wanna say thank you

[2:05:47] to our town clerk, Graham Tobin, who's leaving as well.

[2:05:52] They, all of you

[2:05:54] and many others have served us very with, with, with

[2:05:58] unbelievable amount of time

[2:06:00] and energy over the last few years.

[2:06:03] Not much. Thank you.

[2:06:10] I believe you have something, make a statement

[2:06:13] and then hand it up to us please.

[2:06:15] Ray Carter. Two things.

[2:06:17] One is there's an update on the playing field Resilience hub

[2:06:20] info sheet floating around.

[2:06:22] That's an update from what's in the

[2:06:23] town report if you are interested.

[2:06:24] It's on a few different tables.

[2:06:25] And I'm also here to make a motion

[2:06:29] for a non-binding advisory resolution

[2:06:32] to petition the Vermont State legislature to adopt the right

[2:06:35] to grow food and restore the regulation of farming and farm

[2:06:39] and farming and farm businesses to the Vermont Agency

[2:06:43] of Agriculture Food and Markets.

[2:06:45] I've never done this before, so I don't know if I

[2:06:47] say something else.

[2:06:48] You said, I make a motion that, and

[2:06:50] So I am making a motion for the non-binding advisory

[2:06:53] resolution second,

[2:06:55] Jeremy.

[2:06:56] Okay. Okay. If you hand it up,

[2:06:57] I'll not the microphone.

[2:07:02] Thank you very much. Oh, that's mine. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

[2:07:07] Can I have my copy? Yes.

[2:07:13] Okay. So it's been moved and seconded.

[2:07:16] This is the right to grow food.

[2:07:17] This is how Ray Rays

[2:07:20] resolution reads a non-binding resolution to petition

[2:07:24] the state legislature to adopt the right to grow food

[2:07:29] and restore the regulation of farming

[2:07:31] and farm business to the Vermont Agency

[2:07:34] of Agriculture and Food Markets.

[2:07:37] This non-binding resolution is intended

[2:07:40] to encourage the state legislature

[2:07:43] to restore the longstanding exemption for farms

[2:07:46] and municipal zonings

[2:07:47] and to codify the right to grow fruit

[2:07:50] that clearly includes the right to raise livestock

[2:07:55] and to sell agricultural products.

[2:07:58] The Vermont Supreme Court ruled on May 30th, 2025

[2:08:05] re Taft Street, DRB

[2:08:07] and NOVO Appeals 2025 Vermont.

[2:08:11] That farming is not

[2:08:14] exempt from all municipal regulation.

[2:08:16] Instead, the court interpreted exemption in 24

[2:08:21] VSA section 4 4 1 3D one A,

[2:08:26] the multiple zoning statute as a reference only

[2:08:30] to the policies and standards intended

[2:08:33] to reduce agricultural and water pollution.

[2:08:36] The court concluded

[2:08:38] that municipalities may regulate all aspects of farming

[2:08:42] that do not relate to water quality,

[2:08:45] thereby setting a new precedent.

[2:08:47] In stark contrast to the previous statewide understanding

[2:08:52] that farming is exempt from municipal regulations.

[2:08:58] Granting municipalities this new authority allows them

[2:09:02] to determine where farming may or not occur

[2:09:05] and potentially require new permitting for the events,

[2:09:09] for events, farm structures and other farming activities.

[2:09:13] All of which would add regulatory hurdles,

[2:09:16] operational costs,

[2:09:17] and additional burdens to farms, many

[2:09:20] of which already struggle with financial vulnerability

[2:09:23] and viability as all qualifying farms are subject

[2:09:28] to wraps required agricultural practices overseen

[2:09:33] by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture

[2:09:35] and Food Markets, regardless of their relationship

[2:09:38] to a water body.

[2:09:41] This ruling and newly granted authority creates

[2:09:46] where a farm is located.

[2:09:48] It it could, I'm sorry, a confusing

[2:09:51] and complex regardless of their relationship.

[2:09:54] This ruling and newly granted authority creates a confusing

[2:09:58] and complex mosaic of regulatory oversight

[2:10:01] that farms now face, which depend on

[2:10:04] where a farm is located.

[2:10:07] It could be subject to different levels of local regulations

[2:10:10] and oversight that others are not exposed to.

[2:10:15] Town by town farm regulation

[2:10:18] variances create a patchwork

[2:10:20] of regulatory framework across the state,

[2:10:23] which will be difficult to navigate and administer.

[2:10:27] This ruling also raises questions

[2:10:29] for farmers whose operations cross town lines potentially

[2:10:33] requiring different regulations for different parts

[2:10:35] of their farm properties.

[2:10:37] All subject to change over time, allowing municipalities

[2:10:42] to regulate private

[2:10:43] and commercial food production

[2:10:46] threatens the agricultural economy with inconsistent

[2:10:49] and destabilizing regulations for farmers across the state

[2:10:53] as well as for institutions that help keep farming alive.

[2:10:57] In Vermont, farmers are already grappling

[2:11:00] with many emerging challenges, including flooding

[2:11:03] and other impacts of a changing climate, changing

[2:11:06] to fed changes to federal funds and widespread inflation.

[2:11:10] Opening the door for municipal regulation

[2:11:13] of farms contradicts the longstanding policies, culture,

[2:11:17] and precedent that has protected Vermont's rights

[2:11:20] to farm the land

[2:11:22] and that farm the land they have access

[2:11:24] to hindering Vermont's ability to produce its own food.

[2:11:28] And by extension,

[2:11:30] comprising compromising the state's food security.

[2:11:34] The longstanding interpretation

[2:11:36] of the legislative intent has been

[2:11:38] that agriculture is not subject to municipal regulations,

[2:11:42] including practices defined by the jurisdiction of the state

[2:11:45] of ag, of state agency of agriculture, food and markets.

[2:11:51] Almost there folks. The new ruling

[2:11:56] diverges from this interpretation intent

[2:11:59] and now draws a distinction between regulation

[2:12:01] of agricultural practices broadly

[2:12:04] and the regulation of agricultural practices

[2:12:07] as they apply specifically to water quality impacts.

[2:12:11] This resolution proposes to resolve this divergence

[2:12:15] and return the ag exemption

[2:12:17] of 24 VSA section 4 4 1 3D one a,

[2:12:22] back to its original intent, as well as to codify

[2:12:26] the right to grow food for anyone engaging in substance

[2:12:30] or cultivating practices that are beneath the criteria

[2:12:34] of the RAP rule in order to protect the rights of the public

[2:12:38] to engage in food growing practices on any land they

[2:12:42] have access to.

[2:12:45] Has there been a second been

[2:12:50] moved and seconded? Discussion?

[2:12:53] Oh A second. Oh, I'm sorry.

[2:12:56] There's this, there's a back page.

[2:13:04] Okay. Therefore, okay,

[2:13:05] I'm gonna skip this part, be it resolved.

[2:13:09] Here's here, here's, I think this is the meat of it, Ray,

[2:13:12] please correct me if I have this wrong.

[2:13:13] Please. Therefore be it resolved that the town

[2:13:18] of Plainfield petitions the

[2:13:20] legislature of the state of Vermont.

[2:13:21] Two, restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming

[2:13:25] and ensure statewide consistency in the regulation

[2:13:29] of farming and agriculture under the authority

[2:13:32] and expertise of the Vermont Agency

[2:13:34] of Agriculture, food and Markets.

[2:13:36] Codify the right to grow food

[2:13:39] that explicitly includes livestock, protect the right

[2:13:44] of Vermonters to grow, raise, produce, donate,

[2:13:47] and sell the food they have produced, relieve municipalities

[2:13:52] of unintended regulatory burdens resulting from

[2:13:56] judicial interpretation.

[2:14:00] This resolution is in solidarity with ongoing organism

[2:14:04] and advocate and advocacy of rural Vermont.

[2:14:07] The Vermont Farm Bureau, Aramark Cabot,

[2:14:10] Vermont Dairy produces Alliance, nofa, Vermont nofa,

[2:14:15] Vermont, Vermont Association of Conservation Districts

[2:14:19] and the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance Farm

[2:14:24] to Plate, American Farmland Trust, the Land Access

[2:14:28] and Opportunity Board, more organizations and farmers

[2:14:33] and communities and more across our state discussion

[2:14:39] Or to this, James,

[2:14:42] I'm not calling on you, he's calling on you.

[2:14:44] I'm, I'm just pointing it out. Okay. Yeah.

[2:14:48] Toby Buxton, could you read

[2:14:50] sentence number eight in paragraph 64?

[2:14:55] No, I'm just get, so that was way too much.

[2:14:58] So could you just read what the resolution is? Not the whole

[2:15:03] Okay.

[2:15:04] I thought I just did, I fell asleep in the preamble,

[2:15:06] but because I agree with that, but I

[2:15:08] I'm happy to do it again.

[2:15:09] Thank you.

[2:15:13] It, So the resolution

[2:15:14] therefore be it resolved that the town

[2:15:17] of Plainfield petitions the legislature of the state

[2:15:21] of Vermont two, restore the municipal zoning exemption

[2:15:25] for farming and ensure

[2:15:28] statewide consistency in the regulation of farming

[2:15:31] and agriculture under the authority

[2:15:33] and expertise of the Vermont Agency

[2:15:36] of Agriculture Food and Markets.

[2:15:38] That's one bullet point.

[2:15:40] The second bullet point codify a right to grow food

[2:15:44] that explicitly includes livestock.

[2:15:47] The next bullet point, protect the right of Roman Vermonters

[2:15:51] to grow, raise, produce, donate,

[2:15:54] and sell the food they have produced.

[2:15:56] And the final bullet point, relieve municipalities

[2:16:00] of unintended regulatory burdens resulting from

[2:16:04] judicial interpretation.

[2:16:08] Ray, I just wanna make sure we have it exactly

[2:16:10] right wherever you are.

[2:16:12] Yeah, I I did not write this. Yes. This is why Yes.

[2:16:16] That is what is proposed by all of those

[2:16:17] Organizations that you Okay.

[2:16:19] Further discussion in that case.

[2:16:22] Ellen? Oh, I'm sorry. Where, where are we? Janice?

[2:16:26] Janice, Janice first and then, and then Ellen.

[2:16:28] I think I just wanna speak from a town perspective

[2:16:33] and a member of the DRB

[2:16:36] adding more municipal rules by volunteer boards in towns

[2:16:41] that we don't have any expertise over controlling farms

[2:16:44] and far people growing food is not a wise idea.

[2:16:47] So as a town representative, if somebody has

[2:16:50] to enforce rules, I do not support what happened in the law.

[2:16:55] And I support us wholeheartedly allowing people to grow food

[2:16:59] and care for animals.

[2:17:01] And there are other ways, if we find issues with people care

[2:17:04] for livestock, we can deal with that through animal control

[2:17:09] and through the state to main situations.

[2:17:11] So we don't need more laws in towns to regulate things

[2:17:15] that we already have laws for,

[2:17:17] and we need people to be able to grow food

[2:17:19] and share food without municipal rules.

[2:17:21] So that's what I want to say.

[2:17:28] Ellen,

[2:17:35] I I don't know about everyone else. We need your

[2:17:36] Name again. Ellen. Sorry,

[2:17:38] What's that? Your,

[2:17:39] Your name?

[2:17:40] Oh, Ellen Sitz. Thank you.

[2:17:43] I didn't have a chance of being able to process all that.

[2:17:49] I can't imagine that I wouldn't wanna support this

[2:17:52] just based on what I could understand,

[2:17:55] but I,

[2:17:58] I ha I find it really difficult when we had non-binding

[2:18:01] proposals at the end of long meetings

[2:18:06] to really be informed about voting on them.

[2:18:09] And this is more of a, a question about that process.

[2:18:13] I know we can't warn these proposals ahead

[2:18:18] of time if they're non-binding,

[2:18:21] but can we at least get information ahead

[2:18:24] of time from anybody who is planning

[2:18:29] to propose something new

[2:18:40] Okay. In the balcony.

[2:18:42] Yeah. I support what race that proposed.

[2:18:47] I know she didn't write you to your name, please.

[2:18:49] Deb Barnwell. I used to work at the color.

[2:18:53] From everything I've been reading online,

[2:18:54] there is a tremendous amount

[2:18:56] of pressure from the billionaires

[2:18:58] to greatly suppress our freedom of sovereignty

[2:19:02] with seed saving, food growing,

[2:19:05] and keeping it within our freedom to be able to do,

[2:19:10] they have a large attention.

[2:19:12] Bill Gates specifically who owns a great percentage

[2:19:15] of every seeds seed bank on the planet to

[2:19:21] interfere with our freedom as far as seed savings,

[2:19:25] food sovereignty, globally.

[2:19:27] It's not just here that they're trying to do this too.

[2:19:31] And I feel like this is an extremely important thing

[2:19:33] that need to be researching.

[2:19:35] I'm very upset the fact that

[2:19:37] that legislation has already inhibited our

[2:19:40] ability to do some of this.

[2:19:42] And they have every intention of pushing that envelope

[2:19:45] as far as they can.

[2:19:51] Okay. We're still on Ray's proposal.

[2:19:53] Anybody any further discussion?

[2:19:57] Ray, Ray,

[2:20:01] Ray Carter.

[2:20:03] This information has been circulating

[2:20:05] through the different organizations

[2:20:07] that were mentioned being asked

[2:20:09] to be on town meeting agendas.

[2:20:12] And it wasn't until six o'clock last night

[2:20:14] that I was asked to do this.

[2:20:16] And so I did the best that I could.

[2:20:19] I know that there, it would be push pushback

[2:20:21] around the non-binding resolution.

[2:20:26] And I took a risk to bring this forward

[2:20:28] because I think it's important for this community

[2:20:30] as a farmer, as the manager of volunteer manager

[2:20:33] of the farmer's market, I printed out on my own printer a

[2:20:36] couple of copies to hand it

[2:20:38] and did the best that I could to bring this forward.

[2:20:40] This is something that is going to impact us, us all.

[2:20:43] And this is something that Marshfield already passed

[2:20:45] and other towns are passing.

[2:20:46] And rather than it being called on individuals

[2:20:49] to contact slate state legislators over

[2:20:51] and over, which we are already doing for so many reasons,

[2:20:54] this is something that the old town can communicate about.

[2:20:57] And I will take the responsibility of if it does pass, go

[2:21:00] and make sure that that's reported back so

[2:21:01] that it gets back to the legislature.

[2:21:03] Thank you so much.

[2:21:09] Are you ready for the question

[2:21:10] or is there more discussion?

[2:21:15] I

[2:21:17] Do.

[2:21:18] Is the resolution the last couple of

[2:21:20] Paragraphs?

[2:21:21] Yeah. Let, I think we're, I think we're there if, if I may.

[2:21:25] So the question is, there's no more, the question is

[2:21:28] therefore be it resolved that the town

[2:21:31] of Plainfield petitions,

[2:21:32] the legislature of the state of Vermont.

[2:21:33] Two, restore the municipal zoning exemption for farming

[2:21:37] and ensures statewide consistency in the regulation

[2:21:40] of farming and agriculture under the authority

[2:21:43] and expertise of the Vermont Agency

[2:21:45] of Agriculture, food and Markets.

[2:21:48] Next bullet point, codify the right to grow food

[2:21:52] that is explicit, that that explicitly includes livestock

[2:21:58] bullet point to protect the right of Vermonters to grow,

[2:22:02] raise, produce, donate and sell food they have produced.

[2:22:07] And the last bullet point, relieve municipalities

[2:22:10] of the unintended regulatory burdens resulting

[2:22:13] from judicial interpretation.

[2:22:16] All those in favor say aye. Opposed?

[2:22:20] No, the ayes appear to have it,

[2:22:25] the eyes do have it, and you have passed the resolution

[2:22:33] On.

[2:22:34] Okay. I got four people on stack, Janice,

[2:22:36] Deborah Poller and, and Michael,

[2:22:39] I was gonna do the same resolution, so,

[2:22:43] Okay. Deborah.

[2:22:45] Deborah. All right.

[2:22:49] So another non-binding resolution

[2:22:53] that I would like to bring to the town is that I would like

[2:22:58] to the town of Plainfield to urge for,

[2:23:04] to, to make a statement, we know this is non-binding,

[2:23:07] but to make a statement that we urge the abolishment of ICE

[2:23:12] to keep all of our citizens safe.

[2:23:16] Okay. Can you hand it up, Deborah? Do you have it written?

[2:23:18] I just scribbled it. We'll, we'll, we'll do our best

[2:23:21] to interpret scribble.

[2:23:25] Okay. Is there a second?

[2:23:28] I'll second. Second. It's discussion.

[2:23:36] Well, immigration and custody enforcement is what ice is.

[2:23:42] All right. Let's see if I can read the scribble here.

[2:23:46] If, are you ready for the question?

[2:23:47] If you are ready for the question.

[2:23:48] That is a non-bias statement that the town of Plainfield

[2:23:59] recognize.

[2:23:59] Oh, recognize that the town of Plainfield

[2:24:03] demand demands the abolishment

[2:24:06] Of Ice, of ice and to keep,

[2:24:09] To keep all of our

[2:24:11] Citizens and to keep all our citizens safe.

[2:24:14] So the statement that we abolish ice

[2:24:16] and keep all the citizens safe,

[2:24:17] it's been moved and seconded.

[2:24:19] Is there any further discussion?

[2:24:21] Actually some, Yes, go ahead.

[2:24:25] I'd like to Amend that to We need your name please.

[2:24:28] Michael Morland. I would like to amend that to all

[2:24:31] of our citizens and residents safe.

[2:24:35] Okay, Deborah, if that's a friendly amendment,

[2:24:39] we can just accept it.

[2:24:40] Yes. Yes. And I, I wanna say

[2:24:43] that even though this is just a non-binding resolution,

[2:24:47] what's important about it is

[2:24:48] that this would go into the papers, right?

[2:24:51] So others around the state of Vermont would see

[2:24:56] that there are towns that want to ensure

[2:24:59] that all their citizens and residents are safe.

[2:25:07] Okay. I I'm just waiting a minute while,

[2:25:08] while Paul puts this in a, a form, I can read

[2:25:17] any further discussion while we're waiting in that case.

[2:25:22] Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, Wait. To

[2:25:25] To keep, what did you say?

[2:25:26] All of our residents,

[2:25:28] Citizens, residents.

[2:25:43] Okay. So it has been moved

[2:25:45] and seconded that the town of Plainfield

[2:25:48] demands the abolishment of ICE to keep all of our citizens

[2:25:52] and residents safe.

[2:25:55] All those in favor, please say aye.

[2:25:58] A All those opposed No, the aye appear to have it.

[2:26:02] The aye do have it. And we passed the resolution.

[2:26:09] Paula, you're up next.

[2:26:10] Michael, you're up after me.

[2:26:13] I am the plaintiff representative

[2:26:14] to the Central Mountain Regional.

[2:26:17] Oh, Sorry,

[2:26:23] My name's Paula Emery.

[2:26:25] I am your playing field representative

[2:26:26] to the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission.

[2:26:30] That means, you know, I want you to think about region as,

[2:26:34] as a watershed, as a a bio region, right?

[2:26:39] We are one little spec in a much bigger place.

[2:26:44] So when we talk about responsible development

[2:26:47] and all that, I, I really wanna encourage people to

[2:26:50] join me when I go to these meetings.

[2:26:52] We meet, they're really excellent conversations.

[2:26:55] Most of the time you can go by Zoom

[2:26:58] or you can ride in a car with me to Montpelier and,

[2:27:01] and a lot of times there's pizza.

[2:27:05] So it's a, the second Tuesday of every month.

[2:27:09] And, and it's fascinating

[2:27:11] and it, it just, it will help, it, it can help to sort

[2:27:13] of build understanding for people

[2:27:15] who wanna really focus on responsible development.

[2:27:20] Okay. Michael, I think you're next.

[2:27:26] Michael Billingsley,

[2:27:27] before we all disband, I wanted to quickly also add that

[2:27:32] in addition to the people we know have been working out

[2:27:34] front helping the town, and particularly people like Dan

[2:27:38] and Peter and Karen, who sort of officially are visible

[2:27:43] as helping us recover from our disaster,

[2:27:46] there are also two people who efforts are also heroic

[2:27:50] and involved, not just but weeks and weeks

[2:27:52] and weeks of solid effort.

[2:27:54] Who on whose coattails I now

[2:27:58] and others are getting the benefit,

[2:28:00] and particularly in terms of grants that were written

[2:28:02] or programs that are coming to fruit

[2:28:04] or repairs to our highways.

[2:28:06] And that is Gary Smith, who has just retired

[2:28:10] as from the funding group

[2:28:12] and whose work was incredibly important in breaking down the

[2:28:15] Great Road, great Brook, excuse me, the Brook Road and,

[2:28:19] and other assorted infrastructure projects.

[2:28:22] And also Michael Zaner, who

[2:28:24] although a Marshfield resident devoted incredible amount

[2:28:26] of time to help us get through a state

[2:28:30] and federal process to bring into the town hundreds

[2:28:33] of thousands of dollars, which we are in the process

[2:28:36] of putting to work.

[2:28:37] So I'd like to just add my thanks,

[2:28:44] Peter, Peter Young bears up.

[2:28:46] Yeah, I I would like to sort of make an announcement

[2:28:50] and to extend an invitation, several folks, Betsy, Paula,

[2:28:55] stand up and say they are our representative to such

[2:28:58] and such a, a committee or commission, et cetera.

[2:29:02] Most of those are annual appointments

[2:29:05] and those come up,

[2:29:06] those will all come up a week from now when the new select

[2:29:10] board has what is known in the statute

[2:29:12] as its organizational meeting.

[2:29:16] I can tell you in the approximately year, year

[2:29:19] and a quarter that I've been on the select board,

[2:29:22] that we often get a request to appoint someone

[2:29:24] to a committee or a commission to fill a vacancy.

[2:29:29] And we don't know for how long that term is

[2:29:32] because we really haven't paid close attention

[2:29:36] to that for a while.

[2:29:37] I have been comparing the list that appears in the beginning

[2:29:41] of this year's annual report with last year's

[2:29:44] and there are innumerable inconsistencies in the terms

[2:29:48] and we've been trying to get that straightened out.

[2:29:52] But in the meantime, if you are one of those appointees

[2:29:56] and would like to be reappointed,

[2:29:58] please contact Jamie at the town clerk's office

[2:30:02] and let them know they've been keeping a list

[2:30:05] and let's certainly let the select board know.

[2:30:08] And if you know the term of your office, we need

[2:30:12] to know that as well.

[2:30:14] This is something we've been trying to clean up along

[2:30:17] with a number of other things

[2:30:18] and your help is appreciated on the town website has been a

[2:30:23] list of vacancies.

[2:30:25] Those continue. We need and,

[2:30:28] and it's in the, in the back of the report.

[2:30:31] We do need you all to chip in and help out.

[2:30:35] We cannot do it without the volunteer work.

[2:30:37] So please step up,

[2:30:39] please let us know if you'd like to continue.

[2:30:41] Please let us know if you'd like to serve. Thank you.

[2:30:49] Is there anything else to come up under other business?

[2:30:55] I seeing none. I would be more than delighted

[2:30:58] to entertain a motion to adjourn.

[2:31:01] So is there a second?

[2:31:04] All those in favor of adjourn, say aye. A.

[2:31:08] All those opposed, keep it quiet.

Plainfield Town Meeting 2026

Transcript