[0:00] Good evening. It is Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. It is 6:30. This is the

[0:06] regularly scheduled select board meeting. Uh all of the select board

[0:10] members are present along with our town manager unless we have a quorum. Going

[0:15] to call this meeting to order and encourage anyone um to read the select

[0:21] board bylaws and if we have public session, uh we'll go according to the

[0:25] rules that are in the bylaws. Um, and anyone that's going to be recognized to

[0:30] speak will then get their get their turn and we'll recap if we need to go through

[0:34] those rules. Uh, so the first thing we need to do is the pledge of allegiance

[0:39] and the pledge the flag is at the back.

[0:45] » To the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands

[0:50] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[1:02] Is there any additional business not included on today's agenda that the

[1:05] board would like us to consider? >> Says no. Steve says no.

[1:11] » No, but I did say no. >> Talk I hear a little bit more about the

[1:14] feasibility state of the power grid thing. So I back up

[1:18] uh Steve's suggestion that we put that on the agenda in October. That was very

[1:22] interesting. >> Okay. So not for today. Keep track of

[1:26] that please. >> Not drop it.

[1:28] » All right. Uh any conflicts of interest with today's agenda?

[1:33] » Not here. >> So I am going to move the items on the

[1:38] agenda around a little bit and we are going to take the executive session

[1:42] first. Uh so I move to enter into executive session for personnel matters

[1:46] related to 1 MRSA section 4056A. Second.

[1:53] » Any discussion? Is it in favor?

[2:03] » Motion to exit executive session. Second. Any discussion? Those in favor.

[2:14] » Action. >> Shannon. Action.

[2:17] So, I will be assuming the role of town clerk and tomorrow I'll start

[2:22] advertising for the town clerk position, pending any comments or concerns from

[2:27] the select board. Do you have any objections?

[2:31] » Well, ma'am, sounds good to me. >> All right. And I will be appointing Lyn

[2:35] Trap, our tax collector and treasurer, as my deputy clerk.

[2:39] » Thank you. >> Take yourself out to another.

[2:45] All right, moving on. Next item on the agenda is the meeting minutes um

[2:51] for August 18th. Uh these were all distributed. They're also in your

[2:56] packet. Uh so can somebody move us to approve the minutes for August 18th?

[3:04] » Move to approve the minutes. Second. >> All right. Discussion. Any discussion on

[3:10] the minutes? favorite public comment note ever.

[3:14] Bud Stevenson gave a brief update on the current status of Angusagan Lake. As of

[3:19] today, the lake is blue. [laughter]

[3:26] » Any issues, any concerns with the uh with the minutes? I didn't see anything

[3:31] that was concerning to me, but yeah. And anybody else had sharp eyes and spotted

[3:36] any typos or anything? All right. Hearing no comments. Uh those in favor?

[3:44] 5 Z. Motion passes. Next on the agenda, uh payroll number 10. So move payroll

[3:51] number 10, please. >> Move to approve payroll number 10 in the

[3:55] amount of $12,51722.

[3:59] Second. >> Discussion. Shannon. Anything unusual

[4:02] about payroll number 10? >> Anything unusual about payroll number

[4:06] 10? Any discussion or questions? Those in favor?

[4:13] Motion passes. Zero. All right. Moving on to accounts payable

[4:18] number 11. Looking for a motion.

[4:24] » Move to approve accounts payable number 11. Any none of $6,1246.

[4:30] » Second. >> Shannon, what can you tell us about

[4:33] accounts payable number 11? This was a very small amounts payable. Um I think

[4:38] we knocked out most of our accounts for the roommates for August and then we'll

[4:43] be moving into our September for the next payroll.

[4:47] So very small.

[4:53] Uh any discussion?

[4:58] Those in favor? Is there okay I just lost my place.

[5:07] Okay, we are on to accepting donations for Lab Rec Center programs.

[5:13] Anybody like to move that? Move to accept donations in the amount

[5:19] of $1,686.80 to supplement the existing appropriation

[5:24] for Lad Recreation Center Province. >> Second.

[5:29] » Any discussion? Shannon, anything unusual? This is primarily just a

[5:33] reimbursement for the state for their child care um supplements.

[5:40] » Any discussion? Those in favor?

[5:44] Motion cares. 5 Z. Moving along to old business. Um

[5:53] so I think the protocol and the way we need to do this is uh we

[6:00] make the motion that's suggested and then we can have discussion.

[6:04] Um,

[6:09] so I can move that the board hold a public hearing on September 15th, 2026

[6:14] at 6:30 p.m. at the Lad Recreation Center, 23 Got Road on the merits of an

[6:21] ordinance amending the code of the town of Wayne scheduled to be voted on by

[6:25] secret ballot on November 3rd, 2026. I further move that the town clerk shall

[6:30] post notice of this public hearing pursuant to the requirements in 30A MRS

[6:36] uh section 2528 subsection 5.

[6:44] » Second

[6:52] » discussion. Henry, you look like you've got something.

[6:54] » No, I I like the motion. I I I don't believe your notice form is correct, but

[7:01] that's a separate that's a separate issue. I mean, the mo the the motion

[7:04] directing that notice be posted. That's a good motion,

[7:09] » right? >> I'm for it.

[7:10] » And this is the memo. >> The memo that I left,

[7:14] » but the there >> on my table,

[7:17] » but the it's when you get down to the form that was in the packet,

[7:21] » uh it was either in the packet or attached to the email, one one of the

[7:25] two. And it >> Yeah. and and it's you know I'm

[7:28] suggesting it just needs some changes to comport with the statute

[7:33] » and uh you caught something that needed to be caught.

[7:38] » No, that's fine. Sorry. >> To to to to make to make clear one of

[7:43] the one of the big deal, you know, well, it's not that matter. It's just that the

[7:48] statute said you have to post a copy of the warrant article. And so that was

[7:51] that was one point, right? The other thing related to the return. What a

[7:56] return is is that's a certification by a public official that an action has been

[8:01] taken. And that's what is evidenced when somebody comes in and says, "Was this

[8:06] posted?" So, if we're certifying a return saying that we posted something

[8:11] before we posted it, we're basically creating a false record.

[8:15] » And uh what and it's weird to have the the statute says the return is by the

[8:22] municipal officials, but we're not going to post it. what MMA suggests and it's

[8:28] not in their in their papers but that when I when you can see I sent them some

[8:32] questions and they answered they suggest when we when we do the notice if you

[8:37] don't want something hanging on a board with signature blanks that are unsigned

[8:41] put the return on a separate page and and make first have a return from

[8:45] whoever post it the the clerk or whoever and under that would be the return by

[8:50] the municipal officers and we can all come in when it's handy and sign it

[8:52] after it's posted and That's it. >> So, I think one of your suggestions was

[8:58] put put this on a separate page. Put the return on a separate page.

[9:01] » The return on the separate

[9:04] » Yeah. On a separate page. Yes, ma'am. Or and you don't have to. It's just people

[9:09] might not like posting something on a Bolton board that has these signature

[9:13] blanks that are not filled in. And so, uh,

[9:19] » so Sharon, what walk us through what are you, what are

[9:23] you going to do? You're going to separate the public hearing from the

[9:26] return for the suggestion. >> And then there was another suggestion

[9:29] Henry made. Um, my glasses, >> the article.

[9:34] » Yeah. Language. >> Yeah. And and I kind of wrote something

[9:36] that I would think might work. And uh and then the other thing was on the

[9:41] return portion. If you look at the uh if you look at the response of the MMA

[9:47] legal to the questions I asked them, they suggested that maybe on the return

[9:51] you want to have two sections. One where the municipal officer who posted does

[9:56] the return and then or the person who posted does return and then we'll come

[9:59] in and sign after that. >> Okay.

[10:03] what I had circled and I mentioned before we started the meeting that I had

[10:07] circled something. I think it's one sentence but somehow it got cut in half

[10:11] because your last above above this paragraph down here you say attaching

[10:16] the warrant you wrote if a written certification of the final approved

[10:19] ordinance language signed by a majority of the select board has not delivered to

[10:24] the clerk and then there's a period a new sentence starts

[10:28] » okay >> that says then after that the next

[10:30] sentence says that needs to take place before the clerk can attest to any

[10:33] copies of the ordinance so >> yeah I I think I was quoting from the

[10:36] statute and the statute says list a return will be done and delivered to the

[10:40] clerk and then I'm saying >> you got to do that after you post it,

[10:43] » right? It it's just a sequencing thing we're talking about here, right? Okay.

[10:47] » Yeah. >> Okay.

[10:49] So, are we all clear in an agreement that we can we can um vote on this

[10:56] motion? Shannon will separate this out so that we're not

[11:03] putting the blank things out, right? um and

[11:08] is going through the process of um

[11:15] » just wasn't the ordinance already here. >> Didn't we actually vote on the

[11:18] » We've already made the motion. We have um well last time we voted to approve

[11:24] doing this

[11:28] is the select board. Now we are I guess we are now approving to post

[11:36] that the board is holding public. >> Okay, we've already done this, right?

[11:39] » The the seems to be going in circles. >> Okay, the paper here's what and Shannon,

[11:43] if if you're not with me or you think I'm off on this, tell me, okay, please.

[11:49] The paper with no attestation with no with no return gets posted. Okay. What

[11:55] the paper says is sort of what I've suggested that there's that the actual

[12:03] warrant article is written there. It's a copy of the warrant article.

[12:07] » And then under that there should be a note that says attached to this notice

[12:11] is an attested copy of the ordinance >> referenced ordinance

[12:15] » and and an attested copy of the ordinance should be posted on the

[12:20] bulletin board and on the website with this paper. Right. And then after that's

[12:25] done, uh, the person who did that comes back

[12:30] to the clerk and signs a statement saying, "I've done this." And that's the

[12:35] return. And that's the proof that it was done. And under this particular thing,

[12:39] it says the municipal officers have to return also. So, we should need to all

[12:42] just stop by the office sometime and and sign our names also for the return.

[12:47] » So, what Hazel was asking though is when you said, "Wait, didn't we already do

[12:51] this?" know what we did last time was we approved the warrant the secret ballot

[12:55] referend referendum election on November 3rd with the following questions blah

[12:59] blah blah so we approved the warrant now we're saying move that the board hold a

[13:03] public meeting and further move that the town shall post notice of this so we

[13:07] didn't we didn't move all the specifications then

[13:12] I think there was some rewriting that had to be done

[13:14] » after the meeting that's why we couldn't approve everything

[13:18] » so we have the process cla knows process. We're all in agreement,

[13:22] » right? >> Is there any other discussion?

[13:25] » Oh, yeah. Well, not for me any can like

[13:29] » document this process so we remember it for next.

[13:32] » Absolutely. Yeah. Haven't been going through it. Save this memo.

[13:36] » Yes.

[13:40] » This this is good. Yeah. All right. We ready to vote?

[13:45] Those in favor? motion is 5.

[13:59] So next is a new business.

[14:05] Um so Shannon put in our packet and we did

[14:10] a little some updating in the packet. We put the um

[14:15] items that we've previously identified as needing board action so that we can

[14:20] start serving these up when we have uh select board meetings that don't have a

[14:26] lot of stuff on the agenda. We can start moving some of these things through. So

[14:31] today we are actually taking a couple of these items off here um that we're going

[14:36] to talk about next. And um the question for the select board tonight is are

[14:43] there any of these that we would like to prioritize

[14:48] um in terms of things that we think are important to to bring

[14:52] to the board or um for action. Henry, >> I don't have anything on prioritizing

[14:59] what's on here, but I sent a a email out a few meetings ago asking, do we want to

[15:08] add uh addressing the uh lad special fund?

[15:14] Y'all remember that? That's the money that's in the bank under the trust

[15:16] account. The the reason I keep I asked that is Terresa Kersner has sent me two

[15:21] or three emails asking me what the next steps are. And to be to tell you the

[15:26] truth, I've just kind of ghosted her on it. Uh and so uh you know, if if if

[15:33] that's something uh we think we should deal with, then maybe we want to add it

[15:38] to the list and and and figure out what needs to be done. And that is number

[15:43] one, getting the money out of the bank to repay. I think we need to repay the

[15:49] town for the funds that were spent out of the general fund without, you know,

[15:55] saying anything about it, without approval.

[15:58] » Uh, and then we need to decide uh if we want to have this program and if we do,

[16:04] how do we how do we do it?

[16:10] Well, if if you recall, we kind of suspended it. We said until this gets

[16:14] straightened out, the program is dead. and and uh we voted on that last last

[16:21] year and um uh and like I said, Teresa has an

[16:26] interest in uh in knowing when are we going to do the next steps.

[16:31] » So Shannon, is this something that the treasurer has on the radar and would

[16:37] take first pass it? So, um, with the special fund, I think what was left,

[16:43] what where we left off at was determining through probate court. Um,

[16:48] and I I think there was some discussion as far as reaching out, I don't know if

[16:52] we had any further discussion after that. What what what has to happen is

[16:57] since this this um this money was put in a trust fund, okay? Uh to to take it out

[17:07] of the trust fund, uh we have to go through a process and and and the the

[17:12] first part is easy unless somebody says no. Uh, I think we have to come up with

[17:17] a plan and an explanation. And since it's under $50,000, we send something to

[17:22] the Secretary of State. I think it's the Secretary of State. No, the attorney

[17:26] general's office. To the attorney general. Uh, and they uh they can

[17:32] object. But if they don't say anything within a certain time, then we just go

[17:35] do what we what we had said. Uh, if if that gets nixed, then you may have to go

[17:41] to the probate court to get that money out. I you know uh there's a there's a

[17:46] process to do that. I don't know what it is. Uh we probably need to uh that's I

[17:53] would guess that's a Phil issue. Now if uh if um

[18:00] Lynn wants to take a look at the process and give it a try, that's I mean that's

[18:03] okay. But but we have this money and we have $25,000

[18:11] approximately uh for the last special fund. And then

[18:14] also we have two other trust funds that we don't know what they are. The the

[18:18] Jorski fund and the Ruth Lee fund. Ruth Lee has something to do with the school.

[18:23] I think Jorski has something to do with the memorial park. I think

[18:27] » somebody clarified this for us. I thought one of the lads came in at one

[18:30] point and and explained what everything was. No, I don't believe that yet.

[18:34] » And Evie Black had done some research down at the library and I think that's

[18:37] what they came in to have that discussion about.

[18:40] » So, I can reach back out to them and then we can kind of come up with a plan.

[18:43] If that's what you'd like to do, if the select board would like us to do that,

[18:47] » it'd be nice just to >> tie things off and not have it come up

[18:51] again somewhere up a little bit. Give us new people some history here. Do

[18:55] » it. I don't have a clue what you guys

[19:01] please explain. Okay. Quickly >> back uh I think it was maybe like 1984,

[19:07] something like that. I think it was shortly after uh Helen's passing. Okay.

[19:12] » Yep. >> The uh the a fund was set up, the lad

[19:17] special fund. Uh and it was we can't find anywhere

[19:22] that it was accepted by the town. There was no process set up for what it's

[19:27] supposed to use, but it was it was uh managed sort of by I think two people.

[19:34] One is Ford's wife. I don't know her name.

[19:36] » Susan. >> Susan. And the other was by uh an an

[19:40] accounting guy who's dead. >> Peter Burbank.

[19:42] » Peter Burbank. [laughter] >> So Susan

[19:46] Hard's life in the dead account. uh they they were they were administering this

[19:52] uh and at some point in the early 90s, Mr. Burbank sent a letter that said,

[19:57] "Hey, we have to do something about this." Uh and the town should designate

[20:02] what to do with it. Uh and it went to a town meeting and nothing happened. As as

[20:07] a matter of interest, some of the suggestions that he had were an ice

[20:10] skating rink, which I like. Another one was a steel drum band for the elementary

[20:14] school, >> but but we never did anything. Okay. So,

[20:20] at some point in time, $25,000 was put into a trust account at a bank. Now, the

[20:27] trust, it was never there was never a trust agreement. Okay?

[20:32] When this got put in a trust account under the law, it said unless the trust

[20:36] agreement specifies otherwise, and there is no agreement, all you can withdraw

[20:41] from the bank is the interest. You can't withdraw the principal. Now, that being

[20:46] said, we went ahead and kept spending. Okay. And so, we've spent all this over

[20:51] the years. We spent this $25,000 writing checks,

[20:56] » but it's >> No, no, the whole the whole amount.

[20:58] » The whole thing. >> Yeah. We spent the whole thing writing

[21:00] checks, but it's been sitting there in the bank. So that those checks were paid

[21:05] out of our general funds, out of our out of our unrestricted reserves,

[21:10] » right? And now I think we need to dissolve that, get that 25,000 and put

[21:18] it back in the town's bank account since they have written since they have

[21:22] written these checks. Uh and we also have a um uh we also have

[21:29] a trust account over there. So really it's one trust account but it's for

[21:33] three different trusts. The lad special trust, the Jorski trust and the Ruth Lad

[21:39] trust. And and we and we should or not Ruth Lad a Ruth Lee is no. Yes.

[21:44] » Is that right? Okay. And my suggestion is

[21:49] we should make an arrangements to kind of figure out what those were intended

[21:54] to help and go to town meeting and ask town meeting to approve a donation of

[21:58] those funds to to whatever those people would be happy with.

[22:01] » So where does Teresa come into this? >> Teresa is helping Gloria. Uh, Goria is

[22:09] has the principal interest because it's a lad special fund and she has been

[22:14] contributing money every year like $1,500, you know, a year.

[22:19] » Gloria has. story has and uh this year uh or actually it was last year uh I I

[22:27] said no I I don't think we can take your money because

[22:32] even over and above the 25 in the past they continued spending we

[22:37] were two grand in the whole over and above the 25

[22:40] » and and and I was and my position was if you give us this you're giving us this

[22:44] money to help people like general assistance to help poor people but no

[22:49] we're going going to take it and we're going to pay off this deficit. And so I

[22:52] don't want to I don't think the town should take your money if we're not

[22:57] going to use it the way you think it's going to be used.

[23:02] » That's the story as best as I can remember it today.

[23:06] » A little clearer. >> And and Teresa was helping um Gloria.

[23:13] Uh Gloria was confused as to why we don't want to take her money anymore.

[23:19] » [laughter] >> And uh and so she was just trying to get

[23:23] an understanding and Trace was helping her.

[23:26] » Well, with Henry coming in, Shannon coming in, did the intern help any of

[23:30] this? But I mean, there was a lot of sleuth things saying, "Okay, what's

[23:33] going on with the records and the files and we don't have we can't look back. We

[23:37] can't search to find answers to things." So, a number of things like that came up

[23:43] where there accounts and >> and you can't search. Why? Well, it's

[23:47] not digitized and they're in old boulders that might have been in the old

[23:51] town office that never got moved. And so there's been a lot of digging in boxes

[23:55] trying to come up with answers and eventually

[23:57] » it's like, okay, these are the unanswered questions that I don't think

[24:00] are ever going to be answered unless somebody recalls and do we want to let

[24:05] this persist or do we want to try to do something just to tie it off here?

[24:08] » Yeah. So for the purpose of this conversation which was to look at the

[24:13] priority list, I think we need to add the lad special fund and I'm hearing

[24:17] there is maybe not an urgency but it's it does sound like it's it's a higher

[24:21] priority to try to get to resolution because of the

[24:26] interest in it and and the lack of direction. So this has nothing to do

[24:32] with the the warrants we keep seeing with the

[24:38] » no no >> payments to the lab.

[24:40] » No, that's for the lad programs. That's a totally different thing. That's that

[24:43] that's the budget for to operate the lad center programs that the youth programs

[24:48] they have here in the building. still use the word program before and that

[24:52] that made me perk up. I go the programs what programs were cancelled but it but

[24:56] it was just >> because I conflated those two as well

[24:58] when I heard program before but then I went no no

[25:01] » no no no the fund we we we said we're got we're not doing we're not

[25:05] distributing any more monies we're not doing anything on this lad fund until we

[25:11] get it settled because how really it came to how it came to to notice was

[25:18] Stan Davis was going to go have a public presentation about resources available

[25:25] to the needy that included come see the town about getting money from the last

[25:29] special fund and and that that's what brought the that's what brought the

[25:36] whole matter forward. >> So there are people that need money that

[25:39] are not getting it because we're not addressing this.

[25:42] » Well, >> no.

[25:43] » The what we would want we >> have a general assistance program. This

[25:48] is a this is a the lad special fund is a separate supplemental

[25:54] assistance type fund which if if I would suggest if that's something that we want

[26:01] to do that's something that the town meeting should decide there should be an

[26:05] ordinance setting up this program and rules on how it works and if the town

[26:10] wants to take up a a a supplemental public assistance type program then

[26:18] That's a matter for the town to decide on. I That would be my suggestion.

[26:23] » So, I think let's flag this one as high and Shannon volunteered to go uh get

[26:29] more information from Teresa and Amy and I think maybe talk with Lynn and between

[26:35] between you come up with a plan on what we need to do and how to move this

[26:40] forward to satisfy >> town clerk to the extent that you might

[26:43] need additional help. >> Yeah. Yeah. ask your clerk to help you

[26:47] if you could. >> Um, so other other things on this list,

[26:51] I think we've we've we've uh marked the where is the purchasing policy? We that

[26:57] one's active. I think we can legitimately call that one a high one.

[27:01] Um, the debit credit card policy was teed up. Um,

[27:06] so technically we'll call that one a high.

[27:09] » If you'd like to read page 159 >> along with Yeah. along with not

[27:16] necessarily going to take action on it today based on page 159, but uh the MMA

[27:20] legal policy I think we can tick off and the uh housing update I think we could

[27:25] takeick off. >> Um I don't know if you have other things

[27:29] that you think are high. Personally, I think the town communications policy is

[27:33] high. It's a new one that we put on the list. uh we did have an incident in a

[27:39] potential incident where people are representing the town without it going

[27:44] through the proper channel. So I think we should have some kind of a

[27:48] communications policy that um that speaks to who can represent the town

[27:55] because without in the absence of a policy um that's a little hard to hold

[27:59] people accountable. So I would like to flag that one as high. Uh any

[28:02] disagreement on that one? Um Shannon and I added the LAD rec

[28:09] center usage policy and the personnel policy. I think the LAD rec center usage

[28:14] policy was around um

[28:20] since the town is now responsible for the physical building but the rec center

[28:27] administers whatever paperwork and does rentals

[28:32] » if damage occurs. if you know there's a split responsibility here. So, it seems

[28:38] like we should have some kind of policy that uh Shannon and the uh bad center

[28:44] director could probably take some action on, but um can we flag that as a high

[28:51] because it it f it's another of these um gray areas. We we came up with the

[28:58] ordinance. We've sorted out the finances, but we've still got some gray

[29:02] uh on the on on the the usage. Just seems neat to all the lad center things.

[29:11] We just bucket them all and say, "Let's take care of the lad center things."

[29:14] » Yeah. We mark them all as high that >> holes in the walls.

[29:19] » Yeah. That effect essentially just bucket them and Okay. Lad centers are

[29:24] good. Um they're spread all over the place.

[29:28] » Shannon, talk to me about the personnel policy. Remind me what we were thinking

[29:32] and if we had a priority on that one. >> Um when I spoke with our town attorney

[29:37] this past week, he had actually recommended reviewing our town personnel

[29:41] policy. Uh there was one statement, especially with grievances, that he

[29:47] recommended we remove the select board um from that grievance procedure. Uh

[29:53] just makes things messy. Um, so in the process of complaints at the office,

[29:58] they come to the town manager and then if there's a grievance to the town

[30:01] manager, it goes straight to superior court. So that was a recommendation uh

[30:06] from the town attorney. Um, and so just he said that there's a couple things in

[30:12] there that we could take a look at.

[30:17] Would that for example have negated if that had been enforced today would have

[30:21] negated an executive session to even discuss it in this?

[30:25] » No, I don't think so. We can still uh just go over some different things. I

[30:29] mean it's just obser observations as we were going through the personnel policy

[30:33] and talking about next steps for different things then just that and then

[30:38] um some other things to address as well when we start looking at uh benefits and

[30:45] vacation and sick time and things like that too what we offer and what we don't

[30:49] offer. Um we had main municipal employee health trust today come up and say are

[30:53] you still offering this? Are you still offering that? Well, let's take that off

[30:56] and just provide a memo saying you're not providing that. Um, so I mean just

[31:01] to kind of review those things, they can be added back in with a memo, but just

[31:05] to keep it updated. I think it was last uh revised in 2010

[31:11] something like that. So just to look at it again.

[31:18] » So do you think that should be a high? >> I think that would be a good top of the

[31:22] list. Uh so we've flagged uh three or four that are high.

[31:32] Are there others that anybody on the select board would like to flag as high

[31:36] or put a medium or dare we go low? Um any kind of

[31:42] sequencing that you want to see on here? Henry, how do you feel about the farmers

[31:47] market ordinance? Um, I think we could do we should do a

[31:54] farmers market ordinance like we did a uh like we did the aging at home

[31:57] ordinance. Uh,

[32:01] farmers market I don't think is it it aging at home I thought was more

[32:06] important. >> Uh, I'm I'm I don't get that psyched up

[32:10] about the farmers market. I don't think it it's it's it's that big of a deal.

[32:13] But it wouldn't hurt to have a farmers market ordinance. I wouldn't put it

[32:16] ahead of any of your uh I I I I

[32:23] wouldn't knock out important items in red for farmers market ordinance, but we

[32:27] could certainly do one. We could do one this year. Uh maybe put a medium on it.

[32:33] » Yeah. [clears throat] Um any of the others? I'm I'm looking.

[32:38] We've got the IT policy kind of buried in with the remote and hybrid policy.

[32:42] Um, but I think you know there is growing concern about it and the absence

[32:48] of an IT policy is a little risky. Although Shannon you and some of the

[32:54] we're getting help from the state on some IT stuff.

[32:57] » Yes. Uh UB Key I think is something that they're starting to implement and they

[33:02] want to start doing training for cyber security and so I've been participating

[33:06] in some of their online little webinars and question sessions and I mean it's a

[33:10] slowgoing process. uh they're trying to get UB keys sent out to all the

[33:14] municipalities that are participating. So, we're expecting to receive that in

[33:17] and then we have to get our set up and then we'll go through and administer

[33:21] training um mostly for understanding fishing attempts and spam and things

[33:26] like that. Um, but in our IT policy that is also in there are portions of the IT

[33:33] realm in our personnel policy that could be looked at or incorporated and removed

[33:38] out of the personnel policy and put into an IT policy. I think some of our

[33:43] policies and overlap and it's just a matter of finding them in different

[33:48] documents and then putting them in together in one thing. So can you split

[33:52] that line so that it's two lines so that the remote and hybrid policy and the IT

[33:56] policy is separate please? Yeah. >> Um and then

[34:00] do we want to flag the IT policy as high but it's

[34:06] going to take a little longer to get through?

[34:08] » I think so. >> Anybody see it policy is

[34:14] less than half or want to put anything else above it

[34:19] » other than my tree? No.

[34:26] [laughter]

[34:30] » Were you injecting humor into the meeting?

[34:32] » Yes, ma'am. Am I allowed to? >> You Yeah, you can inject humor into the

[34:36] meeting. >> There's the one item that it says it was

[34:40] last updated in 1996 and there's an LD that was associated with it. I'm

[34:45] assuming that's public law now. >> Yes. Uh, so I just didn't know if there

[34:48] was like a time consideration for that bullet if that would make it a higher

[34:52] priority. >> Well, we have to we have to do what the

[34:55] law says anyway. I I you know, we we can we should fix it up for sure.

[35:03] » Is that is that an or is that an ordinance? It's an ordinance, isn't it?

[35:06] » Yeah. >> Policy.

[35:08] » Yeah. Uh, first off, I don't know why we need an ordinance and a policy, but but

[35:12] but yes, our ordinance doesn't comply with the current statutory requirements,

[35:16] and we probably ought to fix it. >> Yeah.

[35:23] » Because it basically meaningless to the extent it it it conflicts with the

[35:27] statute. It doesn't mean any It doesn't mean anything. Might as well make it

[35:30] right. >> Okay.

[35:32] So, are we making that uh what are we classifying that as high, medium, low?

[35:40] Because you're right, the law and the LD drive what we do, but we we have a

[35:45] policy out of there out there that's significantly out of date.

[35:50] » Make that one medium.

[35:56] » Um, there's probably some lowhanging fruit

[36:00] in here, too. use of the town attorney policy. Didn't we just put that into our

[36:05] bylaw or into a document last meeting? >> Well, we had two of those. We have that

[36:09] and we have the one that was on the agenda for today.

[36:12] » Yeah. So, >> that is low hanging.

[36:14] » The MMA legal advice policy is on the back of this page um for consideration

[36:19] for repeal. Um and that's because in your bylaws you are already directed who

[36:27] had access to MMA, right? specifying the chairs and different organizations or

[36:31] groups that can access that. So, just to repeal that policy when we come to that,

[36:37] if you choose to do so, then I will um take that down off of the website and

[36:41] make a note into our minutes include that.

[36:44] » Can hear this page being printed. >> Yeah.

[36:47] » Lowanging fruit. Uh Hazel is review and repeal the speed limit ordinance. First

[36:52] off, that thing that's on our website isn't an ordinance. Read it. It's a

[36:56] notice of a hearing. And second, the town's got no authority

[37:01] to set speed limits anyway. >> So, uh

[37:06] I don't believe we do. Uh and that and that and that ordinance was one that was

[37:12] enacted by the select board. Not well, maybe an ordinance was enacted by the

[37:18] select board. Uh the thing the thing on our the thing

[37:22] on our website, like I said, is is not an ordinance.

[37:28] » Um >> so that one's easy.

[37:31] » So it's easy. It's a medium, but we might or medium or low.

[37:34] » We can we can scratch it off the list. >> Scratch scratch.

[37:37] » Oh, no. Well, I'm saying it's easy to get it scratched off. Yes.

[37:41] » High priority and then we can cross it off right away.

[37:44] » Yeah. >> So good. or

[37:46] » sounds like the winter traffic on Wilson Pond might be equally

[37:49] » easy to dispose of.

[37:54] » That's not Wilson Pond Road. >> Wilson Pond.

[37:58] » Yes, it's actually riding on the lake. Yeah. No driving on the lake.

[38:01] » No driving on the lake. >> Yeah.

[38:03] » Only Wilson Pond though. >> Yeah. Great.

[38:05] » The other six we can don't have a problem with it. And I think that's only

[38:09] at night, isn't it? >> But I could be wrong.

[38:15] So, we put what are we putting on that one? Does it go ahead of anything else

[38:18] or do we leave it in the hopper? >> I'm agreeing that we should just clean

[38:22] up the easy ones. >> Yeah. Okay.

[38:25] » Okay. >> Make me feel better.

[38:27] » All right. Small list. >> I like that. Clean up easy. Low hanging

[38:30] fruit for >> the road change order so we don't allow

[38:34] people to live on lakes. Didn't that come up uh last spring

[38:41] around the state? people were putting houseboats on lakes

[38:46] » and uh so I remember I think it was in one of these one of these one of these

[38:51] guides was saying towns are starting to put this order together because people

[38:55] can't find places to live so they're putting house boats or makeshift house

[38:58] boats >> on lakes and the towns don't have

[39:01] anything to stop them from doing it >> just an idea

[39:07] » but we don't own the lakes >> I don't know how that works

[39:13] somehow >> came up with the the whole mooring

[39:15] thing. Uh the things in black, this group of four black things are assigned

[39:20] to other other folks. So I don't know that we need to prioritize those because

[39:24] I think they're already >> somebody else is looking at

[39:27] » and the group in the miscellaneous. I'm not sure that we need to keep these

[39:33] um economic development committee and affordable housing committee. Wouldn't

[39:36] that Steve go through our um comprehensive plan stuff?

[39:43] » Yeah, first we're stepping in at least. Yeah.

[39:45] » So, I think we could probably scratch those from from our tracking because now

[39:49] we've got >> just had u

[39:52] » I got two phone calls today about parameulating [laughter]

[39:55] » and so uh paramulating the boundaries. Um

[40:01] » it's Lloyd's baby, right? There's like a forum event about it

[40:06] coming up. >> There's Yeah, there's a Wayne presents

[40:08] on it coming up. Um, but in terms of it being on a no

[40:14] » tracking, do we feel the um it's it's romance. It's it's not policy.

[40:23] I don't I don't think that there's any obligation we have anymore to be doing

[40:27] this. I don't know how important it is. It's romantic. I mean that in a in a

[40:33] good way. I love Lloyd for wanting to do this, but I I don't know that it matters

[40:37] at all. So, >> no, I used I think it mattered back in

[40:42] 1800. I'm not sure it matters now. >> No. And I I went I would love to have

[40:46] more time to do it. I went and it was enjoyable. But

[40:51] » well, for having taken Lloyd out in the boat to try to find the boundaries in

[40:55] the middle of Lake Amber and almost ruining my boat.

[41:01] [laughter] >> I have no no further interest. I told

[41:04] Lloyd, I'm not going out in that boat again with you. He wanted, we talked

[41:07] about that last fall and he wanted to go out like on opening weekend. And I said,

[41:12] Lloyd, I'm not going paramulating through the woods unless we're wearing

[41:16] bright orange t-shirts and even then I'm not going out in the woods with you.

[41:22] » Um, so what action would you like us to take

[41:26] on that one? Are we scratching that from our from our list of this was a running

[41:32] list of things that came up at select board meetings over

[41:36] various terms and they've just been hanging on as

[41:39] » no I think it's a good idea >> come back to it's maybe a good idea but

[41:42] » do this on a regular basis >> yeah calling things that make sense a

[41:46] year does allow us to focus on the things that we prioritize so

[41:51] » we can always assign it to somebody and say come give us a report how about we

[41:54] just leave it out there as low not kind of miscellaneous, but just stick it

[41:58] there as a low priority and nice. >> I am nice.

[42:04] They're great. Thank you, uh, Shannon. I don't know. I kind of scratched I think

[42:10] I think we hit most of those. So, we can probably update that list with the high,

[42:14] median, and the lows. Unless anybody wants to take any further conversation

[42:18] in in that item, I think we can move on. Okay. Next, uh there's a suggested

[42:25] motion. Um would somebody like to make this motion? It's around a um low

[42:33] hanging fruit. >> Move move to repeal the March 26, 1993

[42:38] policy on excess access to legal advice from MMA. Second.

[42:43] » Okay. So discussion Shannon this is a piece of housekeeping um on a

[42:53] um very old policy. Can you uh give us some talking points please?

[42:58] » Yep. So this is just as you stated a policy regarding um access to MMA. Uh as

[43:04] we stated previously you already addressed this in your bylaws and signed

[43:08] off on that and so just guidance from MMA to repeal it. They said be as

[43:13] specific as you could could. If you had a date, uh a title, uh include that in

[43:17] your motion, which you just did. And then, um I can then go ahead and include

[43:22] it in the minutes, and I will take it down from the website.

[43:28] » Also, while you're in there, >> we all the ordinances that are in the

[43:32] new code, >> but are also still listed on the website

[43:36] as ordinances. Take all those out. >> Take those out. Okay. Thank you.

[43:39] » You know, zoning, solar, all that stuff.

[43:46] Any other discussion on this one or would we

[43:51] uh like to vote on this questions? Discussion

[43:54] » low hanging >> low hanging fruit. Those in favor

[43:59] » passes 5 zero. Thank you. Shannon, can you uh do the business?

[44:04] Okay, let's talk about the town purchasing policy. So to tee this one

[44:11] up, uh Shannon, thank you. You you sent out uh the policy with some red lines.

[44:18] Henry, thank you. You put some um editorial comments out there and you did

[44:25] some substantial work on the um definitions and then you were looking

[44:31] for some input before taking this any further. Um you inspired me, Henry, on

[44:37] Sunday morning. I there was some things I think that are also missing from the

[44:41] the purchasing policy um that I would like to see put in. But you inspired me

[44:46] and I was like, "Huh, I wonder if I put this through C-Pilot and get a little

[44:50] bit of AI help on how to review and refine and modify and co-pilot was super

[44:55] helpful. It went out and it compared to other towns and and I kept, you know,

[45:00] responding to the prompts. So anyway, I ended up with kind of a document that is

[45:05] also, you know, like vastly different than this one. So I think the

[45:09] conversation we need to have today is to come to agreement on how can we get this

[45:14] purchasing policy significantly updated to be more relevant and um address the

[45:22] gaps and the confusions and in um Henry's suggestion that got via email

[45:29] was to have a subcommittee. Um if you could see how much red lining

[45:35] between all of us is on there. I think that's pretty much a begin from scratch

[45:39] and I don't think it's a good use of anyone's time to do that in a public

[45:44] meeting with all of us line by wood by word

[45:48] » and and I don't see the need to be um stuck

[45:56] with substantially following this format. For example, you you said you

[46:01] went to AI, they had some other suggestions. I mean there there's no

[46:05] reason there's no reason to there's no reason to conform my rewrite to this to

[46:12] to this outline. >> Yeah.

[46:14] » Uh especially if it's going to make it harder.

[46:16] » It will. >> Yeah.

[46:17] » Yeah. And I actually I actually got my AI co-pilot version that I went through

[46:22] and tweaked it and made it, you know, like took out some stuff that you have

[46:26] to do in human verification. And then I did a word document compare and this

[46:31] entire document was red light. >> No. Yeah. It's like it's almost a you

[46:35] know you you can pinpoint this section and this section you can you can you can

[46:39] you can see the differences but I think the bigger the bigger question is um who

[46:47] who feels um who feels really intrigued by a

[46:52] purchasing policy and would like to be on a subcommittee to go through this.

[46:57] Pick me. Pick me. Pick me. [laughter]

[47:01] Are there rules about how many people need to be on sub meetings?

[47:04] » There has to be two or else we're going to have to have a public meeting because

[47:08] if there's three of us, if there's three of us, then it's a quorum. So,

[47:11] » right. >> So, the other thing I would suggest on

[47:14] this um and I know Henry, you've had a lot of your your eyes are very different

[47:20] from my eyes and so you see things that I don't see. And I'm like, oh yeah,

[47:25] Henry's right. I get that. Um, but one of the things in this policy is it's for

[47:30] all town departments except for the fire department.

[47:33] » Yeah, I don't see why that is. >> I don't know why that is. The fire

[47:36] department, the fire chief hasn't um hasn't managed to surface like a

[47:40] document or any any anything that uh governs fire department. So, one of the

[47:46] things I asked my AI friend was make it apply to the fire department, too. But

[47:50] if we're going to do that, I think we should get representation from at least

[47:54] in that section um to get the somebody from the fire department on a hospital

[48:00] subcommittee. Henry,

[48:03] » no, I I I'm happy to work on this. I've I've done this for 50some years. uh

[48:12] you know 53 years ago I was a a young lieutenant contracting officer in the

[48:18] Air Force and I've done public contracts since then

[48:25] and there are some things that I think uh are are different you know you know

[48:30] for example I put in a definition you saw of standard uh of standard

[48:35] commercial items and and that's because there's a whole category of stuff that

[48:39] competitive bidding really doesn't apply to like the chairs we're talking about.

[48:43] You know, I've suggested we buy a specific chair from Amazon. You don't

[48:49] need to go out and get competitive bids when you're buying a standard commercial

[48:52] item that's sold in substantial quantities to the public because the

[48:56] reasonleness of the price is set by the market. Uh and so there's some things

[49:01] that need to be there's some things that need to be changed. The bonding stuff is

[49:05] not correct. the the you know the the numbers are wrong and

[49:09] » and there's some stuff that >> there was a section that you suggested

[49:12] breaking out and my co-pilot friend >> yes

[49:15] » broke it out. >> Yeah. Yeah. So yeah um the other thing

[49:18] that's missing from here is we can leverage state master agreements state

[49:22] of main master agreements from uh the office of procurement services and and

[49:26] so you know I think that should be referenced because

[49:28] » yes >> yeah in lie of competitive bidding

[49:30] they've already done that we could just be piggybacking on

[49:33] » yeah there should be a whole section contract there would be a whole section

[49:36] on exceptions to comp you know exceptions to comp exceptions to comp to

[49:40] competitive purchasing but >> so

[49:42] » but yeah it um I'm happy to work on that.

[49:47] » So, Gemini says, "Town purchasing policies usually apply to municipal fire

[49:50] departments, but exceptions occur when the fire department operates as an

[49:54] independent legal entity or handles specific emergency exemptions

[49:59] and some of those e but it seems like the emergency exemption would be in

[50:03] emergency situations. Um, not completely excluding them from the purchasing

[50:08] policy. >> I believe there's a whole bunch of weird

[50:10] stuff that applies to main volunteer fire departments that I don't really

[50:14] know about. I've just have seen it in passing and said, "Oh, I don't want to

[50:18] look at this." [laughter] >> Which is why maybe that's why we we call

[50:24] somebody from the fire department. >> And so speak that has something to do

[50:28] with the with the statement in here that the fire department is excluded from the

[50:32] purchasing policy. Oh,

[50:35] » so it it warrants research, but um my my my co-pilot friend was not shocked and

[50:42] seemed to think that it was pretty normal to have the fire department

[50:46] included, but to have a specific subsection because of the uniqueness or

[50:51] the exceptions that that they they need. 10 years ago, we had we had issues

[50:59] around the fire department and the bottles and

[51:03] the the events that they had which were not run through the select board and uh

[51:10] created quite a quite a an upsurge

[51:17] of emotion. I don't know where it came from, but it was uh it was very

[51:21] difficult to deal with just a simple matter saying, "Hey, just tell us how

[51:26] much money you brought in on the bottles and where you want to spend it and

[51:30] things like that." So, I don't know. I don't know why. I don't think we ever

[51:34] figured out what were the what the issue was, but they backed us down. I remember

[51:37] that. >> Oh,

[51:41] interesting. Well, we will probably be picking your brains. there's some

[51:45] historical um historical stuff that that we can pick. So, I think what um I'm not

[51:51] hearing any exception to a sub committee taking this. Um Henry, I would love to

[51:59] share my co-pilot version and have you start looking at that. Um, and I think

[52:06] because this is a big elephant to eat, we might want to bring it back piece at

[52:13] a time like in one meeting maybe we want to look at the definitions and and

[52:17] instead of trying to attack it. We'll see how we how we do, but I think

[52:20] because it's going to be pretty significant revisions. I think Henry and

[52:24] I and if we can get a rep from the fire department um uh we can bring it back so

[52:30] you'll all be part of out it. But um it is there's

[52:36] » there is currently a purchasing policy. >> Yes.

[52:38] » So this will be a revised purchasing >> policy. Yeah. Or it could just be it

[52:42] could just be a new policy that >> supersedes that that replaces the old

[52:47] talking about red lines and I'm thinking spark clean.

[52:50] » Well, this looks like somebody had a bad somebody had a bad razor when they were

[52:54] shaving. If you look at this thing, >> forget [laughter] about red lines.

[52:57] » Oh, you should see what happened. Yes. this thing maybe to make sure that

[53:01] you're not missing a section that you forget. But

[53:04] » yeah, thanks Henry for really uh really inspire inspiring

[53:10] » on Sunday morning.

[53:15] » I think this is what my co-pilot friend did.

[53:18] » Oh, okay. That's good. Thank you. >> I'll send it to you electronically.

[53:21] » Okay, great. And you know that was just like you can keep going on and you just

[53:25] you keep answering a prompt and it comes up with something else. So this is kind

[53:29] of like you know it's a starting point but um if uh everyone's in agreement on

[53:34] that I think that will be our process on how we uh get through revisions to the

[53:39] uh purchasing policy. Well, good to me.

[53:46] » Okay, moving on. The weigh in debit and credit card policy which is in the

[53:52] packet and was submitted for review

[54:00] and

[54:05] just think about the best way to talk through this one. Um,

[54:10] Shannon, perhaps you and Tia have the process that you used or who was

[54:15] involved in this. >> Yep. So, um, our town treasurer and I

[54:19] discussed the use of our credit cards. We currently have credit cards. We don't

[54:24] currently have debit cards. I will be looking at page 159

[54:28] » before I go any further on debit. Um, but as far as credit cards, we currently

[54:32] use them for things like Pidium Internet. We use it for

[54:39] office supplies like paper and things that we need to get on a day-to-day

[54:43] basis for day-to-day operations. Um, but when we looked at this, it looked like

[54:49] we hadn't really been following the policy because there were certain forms

[54:54] and certain things and that needed to be put into place before you got your

[54:58] credit card. And when um I showed up, it was kind of like here, here, sign this,

[55:03] there's your credit card. So, that was great. Uh, go ahead, make some

[55:06] purchases. Um, but I mean between Lynn, Lynn really kind of dove into this and

[55:12] we can't really explain any of the color changes between the fonts or anything.

[55:16] Uh, formatting was definitely a pain. So, I think that this would probably

[55:20] also be better just starting over uh, and recreating it. Uh, the whole first

[55:26] three paragraphs were additional. Um, they were added in there even though

[55:30] they're re Okay, I took them out. they were repeated, but we've been trying to

[55:35] kind of simplify it. Again, the uh formatting is challenging. We added in

[55:39] some definitions. Um we updated some of the uh process and what we really also

[55:48] wanted to identify are what are acceptable purchases. Uh because certain

[55:54] things when you start looking at food, is food necessary purchase for the town?

[55:59] Maybe. It just depends that maybe do define for events for certain type types

[56:05] of um just events and things like that. So um and then just other purchases. So

[56:12] trying to define that uh understanding the approving authority because um we'd

[56:18] like it to go to the select board to authorize the uh issuance of a credit

[56:24] card and then uh to review the overall policy and understand what the limits

[56:29] are for each department head or town manager and then um making sure that

[56:35] that is also aligned with our purchasing policy too. So, kind of making sure that

[56:40] those things we found that they were a little conflicting uh between the

[56:44] purchasing policy and then what you're able to do on the credit card. So, we

[56:47] want to make sure that those if you have an emergency purchase and you need to

[56:51] use a credit card um how you document emergency purchases um and then how that

[56:57] is submitted and presented to the select board for their review. Uh so, just I

[57:03] mean just some updates and things. Um, we I think Lynn added in uh the uh

[57:10] approval limits and then a lost and stolen card notification and transaction

[57:14] dispute form. Those were in there. I don't think that we've had any disputes.

[57:19] Uh I think we've had one credit come back. Uh so that was just an accounting

[57:25] in our accounts payables. And then um yeah, I think the biggest thing would

[57:30] just be if there's an emergency purchase and how you would document that in here

[57:34] and what the per uh process is in accordance with the purchasing policy.

[57:39] » Question. Do you currently have a list of who has a debit card and who has a

[57:44] credit card? >> There's only three people. It's the

[57:46] Ladre Center director, the fire department chief, and myself.

[57:49] » And are they debit cards or the credit cards?

[57:51] » Credit cards. >> Yeah. in in that page 154. It's just in

[57:55] in or what whatever whatever it was >> MMA believes you you MMA believes debit

[58:02] cards are nos. >> Uh now

[58:05] » from a practical [clears throat] standpoint I don't see the difference

[58:07] but technically they say a debit card is a withdrawal from your bank account and

[58:12] that can't be done that can only be done by the treasurer on a warrant on an

[58:16] approved warrant. So just if if you if you're interested in uh

[58:24] being copathetic with that opinion on their part, just scratch out all the

[58:27] debits. We don't use them anyway. >> Yeah.

[58:29] » So debit card was included already on the policy. Yes,

[58:33] » Lynn and I have discussed the debit card only in the sense of um we've had a

[58:38] couple of instances where we've been trying to keep up with getting the

[58:42] online statements because for a period of time online statement or statements

[58:47] were just coming in through the mail and it was snail mail. And so the town

[58:50] office would get that statement and then by the time it went through accounts

[58:54] payables and got approved it would then get sent back and then they would

[58:58] disconnect your card because it was too late. And so then when they shut off

[59:02] your card, then it shuts off your internet. It shuts off uh your phones

[59:07] because that's where all of the automatic payments are enrolled under.

[59:10] So that way you're getting that approval every um payroll to or accounts payable.

[59:15] So it kind of turned into a pain. And then on top of that, you would get um

[59:19] fees tacked on. And so at one point we kind of had this nightmare of just

[59:25] trying to address the fees because then we would stay on top because they in

[59:29] order to keep your card you would have to send them another check. And so then

[59:33] by the time they got the next check they would have already processed the first

[59:36] check but then they didn't take off the fees. And so we've worked through a lot

[59:41] of that and we're trying to focus on our process. Um but we've also talked about

[59:46] debit cards in that sense where it would be a little bit nicer. um if there were

[59:51] some barriers put in place um just being able to have those automatic

[59:56] transactions maybe for um Fidium or yeah consolidated and things like that.

[1:00:04] » Well on the on your on your credit cards you can get on the don't they have uh

[1:00:09] like uh login to their website to to print your bills and you know look at it

[1:00:15] the same time every month. Is it just one account that's has three cards on it

[1:00:18] or how does that work? And so I'm able to log in and so now usually uh they

[1:00:23] will release it around the fifth or sixth or seventh of the month. And so as

[1:00:27] long as we get in there and then we're able to get it by that first warrant or

[1:00:32] ideally by the second warrant and then get it out in the mail. Sometimes if it

[1:00:35] takes a week to get out in the mail though, then that's where we have the

[1:00:38] issues. But we've been trying to make sure remind ourselves to go back and

[1:00:43] check that um invoice the bill every month. I have

[1:00:49] to make a note which is fine but

[1:00:54] » just for your awareness. >> So

[1:00:58] » it does clearly say um that they are debit cards are

[1:01:03] unlikely to comply with statutory dispersement approval requirements.

[1:01:07] » Right. >> So is there a way for you to fix the

[1:01:11] operational process using the credit card or using another

[1:01:16] way to pay the credit card checks have to be

[1:01:20] mailed to the credit card companies because the

[1:01:25] » not you know the credit card you you talk about fidium and lights going out

[1:01:30] but >> the credit card would be

[1:01:34] as soon as we approve it pay those bills immediately

[1:01:38] » prove it on a warrant can you pay it online

[1:01:43] » yeah you could have a you could have a you could have a payable warrant that

[1:01:48] says so much to the credit card bill and then the next day you can go online and

[1:01:53] take and just have it have let them hit your bank account.

[1:01:56] » The treasurer I think can do that once we've approved the warrant. It's a

[1:01:59] dispersement >> an a withdrawal.

[1:02:01] » Yeah. It's the same thing as you do with your payroll. You know, we don't write

[1:02:05] checks to the we don't write checks to our many of our employees. Maybe some,

[1:02:08] but I don't know. I would assume most people are are automatic. So,

[1:02:13] » we'll look into that then. That's that's I think it could I think it could come

[1:02:16] on a once the warrant is signed. >> You don't need to write and mail a

[1:02:21] check. I think you could go online and have it taken out of your bank account

[1:02:24] or out of the town bank account. >> Okay, we'll look into that. I know

[1:02:28] Lynn's been looking into our TRIO software to see other options that um on

[1:02:34] doing that like she was able to identify how we could put a credit back in

[1:02:38] through the accounts payables process. And so I think we'll try to figure out

[1:02:42] the AC withdrawal process through the accounts payables. It's a different I

[1:02:46] mean it's within TRIO but payroll is a different setup than the accounts

[1:02:51] payables. And so going in is just trying to figure that out a little bit. So

[1:02:56] we've had we're working on our processes. So

[1:02:59] » and and what I said may not work with TRIO. I don't know. But that's

[1:03:03] » uh >> we'll look into it.

[1:03:04] » Yeah.

[1:03:07] » So what are we going to do with this? We got to

[1:03:09] » we can one one point on this though and you can talk to L about this

[1:03:14] most of the companies many of them will allow you to choose what date of the

[1:03:18] month you're going to make your payments theoretically we have I don't know how

[1:03:21] many accounts we might be using to pay credit cards if you can get them all

[1:03:25] aligned where the payment is due on the same date and you can make that fit the

[1:03:30] calendar just have it be it'll be the same maybe the same payment every month

[1:03:35] rates go up I get it but whatever it's going to be

[1:03:39] just have it so that it it can make that transaction

[1:03:44] » the utilities fidium and whatever else credit cards paying those so you're just

[1:03:49] worried about the float on the credit card you know what I mean because like

[1:03:54] the accounts themselves should be covered

[1:03:56] » and you're just paying that credit card bill because it's just like us as

[1:03:59] individuals it's the same thing >> it's a timing constraint

[1:04:03] » it's a timing constraint and we have the delay

[1:04:06] and then >> and then the check in the mail but be

[1:04:09] able to get that done if we >> so I thinkable

[1:04:13] » I think the action is well I I think we should look to remove

[1:04:18] the debit card from here so it's just a credit card policy

[1:04:22] » and have Shannon and Lynn look into um possibilities of a improving their

[1:04:32] timeline in a way that they can not get in the card shut off

[1:04:38] Yeah, that shouldn't wouldn't have >> I don't know that we can do this, but if

[1:04:43] you would just pay one month in advance, you'd always be ahead of the game if

[1:04:47] there was a way to do that. I don't know how accounting you're going to

[1:04:50] » You mean for the internet and stuff >> for the credit card bill if

[1:04:53] » Well, you can't pay the credit card bill in advance, but you can't Well, you you

[1:04:56] you can pay what's been charged. >> No, I pay them in advance.

[1:05:01] » Okay, but >> do a credit balance.

[1:05:03] » Yeah, you can do a credit balance, but then what are we going to put on the

[1:05:06] warrant? what accounting uh right >> classifications does it go to? I mean I

[1:05:10] I don't know that that would be See, we pay the credit card.

[1:05:14] » We say one check to the credit card, but on your warrant you have a whole bunch

[1:05:19] of different entries, don't we? >> Yes, we do. So the we break it down for

[1:05:23] Ladrack Center, which I think is the most uh

[1:05:27] » fluid because of the summer camps and programs and all the different things

[1:05:31] that they're doing that usually shows up on some of their credit card statements.

[1:05:35] Um, and then snacks and food for the kids. And then for the fire department,

[1:05:40] it's usually like oil changes and things that um the fire tech and safety and

[1:05:46] winds are up. And then through the office, it's more so like, oh, well, we

[1:05:49] need two boxes of paper or we need certain things, but I mean, we can plan

[1:05:56] for that a little bit more in advance. Uh, it's more so just storage, I think,

[1:06:00] for one and then for two. Um I mean I think we we pretty much try to buy in

[1:06:04] bulk when we can um for office supplies. It's yeah more of the flexibility or

[1:06:10] excuse me the fluidity in uh Ladre Center. Like I don't expect to see

[1:06:14] significant transactions from Ladre Center moving into the school year now

[1:06:19] as we did over the summer. >> Okay.

[1:06:26] All righty. Are we good on this one? Shannon, you have a direction?

[1:06:31] » Yes, we'll go back and um incorporate in some of the AC withdrawal.

[1:06:38] » All right, moving on to public comments. Do we have any public comments? Do we

[1:06:45] have any public? >> We have two people online. Uh not seeing

[1:06:48] any hands.

[1:06:52] » No public comments. Moving on to the town manager report. So, uh, today and

[1:06:58] also on the other day, I've been driving around a few times, uh, checking on the

[1:07:03] work of Pike Industries. They're out there. Uh, they've been, they've already

[1:07:08] replaced the two culverts on Fairbanks Road. And so, I appreciate the patience

[1:07:12] with uh, some of our residents as they closed off the road last week. And then

[1:07:17] they also replaced two of the driveway culverts. I went out and took some

[1:07:20] pictures of that. It looks fantastic. Uh, they've been doing a wonderful job

[1:07:23] on that. And then also today they completed Hard Scrabble Road. So there's

[1:07:27] two cross culverts that have been completed on that as well. Uh now

[1:07:31] they're up on Greenrew Road doing ditch work. Uh then they'll be going over to

[1:07:35] Old Win Road and then to Pond Road, then Strickland Ferry, then Bessie, then Inis

[1:07:40] Road for ditching. Uh and that'll take us until about um the end of September.

[1:07:46] At the same time, they'll start with the reclaim um midepptember over on

[1:07:52] Fairbanks and they'll be reclaiming that whole road and then going to hard

[1:07:55] scrabble as well. So, they'll be doing that right in the middle of September.

[1:07:59] They'll have some overlap on their ditch work and their um

[1:08:03] and their reclaim. Um this last week or the week before I reached out to one of

[1:08:09] our local contractors and they went and had some potholes filled on Berry Road,

[1:08:14] Kings Highway, Mount Pisco Road and North Wayne Road. We had some calls

[1:08:18] about potholes there. So we had those filled. Uh also recently um we had a

[1:08:23] sinkhole over at the corner uh of Walton Road and Lovejoy Pond Road right at the

[1:08:30] intersection. And so just today that got cut out and it was about two feet by two

[1:08:35] feet um big hole and uh we just had it filled with gravel. Unfortunately, it

[1:08:42] might be something that we'll see in here again. And so I've got to discuss

[1:08:46] that with the infrastructure committee because it looks like there I couldn't

[1:08:50] find a culvert, but just to the right of it, it looks like there used to be a

[1:08:54] metal culvert there that might have gone all the way down to the stream. um

[1:09:00] parallel to Lovejoy Pond Road and where the dam is right there, but I couldn't

[1:09:05] find the specific exit of that culvert. And it I think it might have just

[1:09:11] failed. And so that dirt and how it seeped into whatever that is, it might

[1:09:17] have plugged it up, but at the same time, I feel like it may end up going

[1:09:20] back down into it. So, I'm going to see um if there's anything else that we need

[1:09:24] to get done, especially before we go into winter as far as drainage goes for

[1:09:28] right there. Um but that's something I'll be talking with the infrastructure

[1:09:32] committee about at the end of the month when they meet. You have a question,

[1:09:35] Henry? >> Yeah. No.

[1:09:36] » Okay. >> Do you have anything about when I went

[1:09:39] out with Mark Bwell, he was pointing out where beaver dams were causing problems?

[1:09:43] Are you familiar? So, I'll go back to him. So,

[1:09:46] » and a specific reason. for beaver dams. I'm familiar where there was we did a

[1:09:50] beaver cleanout um last fall um or spring, I'd say. Uh over on Old Win

[1:09:59] Road, um right before gingerbread perennials, uh there's that pond right

[1:10:05] there. There tends to be a beaver that builds up in that. Last year there was

[1:10:08] also a beaver buildup down at Tempe Bridge,

[1:10:11] » Tempe Bridge. And then there's another one over um on not Lord Road, but the

[1:10:16] other road that goes right next to it. I think it's that Maxim Road.

[1:10:19] » Yep, Maxim. >> Yep. So, right when you go down right

[1:10:22] there, there tends to be there's a whole Beaver Dam building back there, but I

[1:10:25] haven't seen any significant buildup around the culbert itself, but I've got

[1:10:30] to go back down and do an assessment of that again. I'll check with Mark because

[1:10:34] there was an article in one of these guys a month or two ago which was

[1:10:38] fascinating >> how towns it it's expensive and you have

[1:10:43] to do this work every few years and >> and it's destructive and defensive and

[1:10:48] there's a guy who started a company and he's going he's been around the world

[1:10:51] but it's beaver deceivers >> and what they

[1:10:56] » did they did they put in PVC pipes in the in the ground

[1:10:59] » they they put in basically They block off access. They divert the water flow.

[1:11:05] So the beaver makes a dam over here instead of over here. But it said it

[1:11:10] typically >> helps the environment because things

[1:11:13] build up. It doesn't block where you need it to stay open. And the guy's

[1:11:17] going around the world making all this money doing it. He said, "And it's a

[1:11:20] less expensive solution for towns in Maine and around the world." I thought

[1:11:25] it was awesome. >> It's so cool.

[1:11:29] Nice job. that

[1:11:31] » beaver deceivers. So, but maybe I I'll bring it. Is Mark most on top of this,

[1:11:36] do you think? Or maybe you're more familiar because he was pointing them

[1:11:39] out to me and he's these damn beavers. >> Yeah, they're all over the town of Wayne

[1:11:44] um tends to be a lot of marsh area >> taking an awful lot of trees out of my

[1:11:47] yard. I can't understand them, but now I like them more.

[1:11:50] » Yeah, I we I have a trapper um on my phone, so if there's a significant issue

[1:11:56] um I'll call the trapper to have them come out and remove. Unfortunately, when

[1:12:00] there's lodges nearby, it's hard to tell if you've gotten the whole family of

[1:12:04] beavers or if you're just taking away one and then the rest of them are going

[1:12:07] to come up and um continue on the the dam. Um but then I'll usually call

[1:12:13] someone to come out and unplug whatever's been built up.

[1:12:16] » Why bring it up? It's interesting, but also from a cost perspective. If we're

[1:12:20] spending a lot of money every few years on this stuff and there's potentially a

[1:12:24] solution that has a 105 year duration and you pay this much money, it might be

[1:12:30] worth looking at and we could say we've got these. I want to go look at these

[1:12:34] things. But it might be worthwhile. Beaver deceivers. Hey, it's in here.

[1:12:38] It's being recommended to [laughter]

[1:12:42] » so cool. >> All right. Uh on the town manager side,

[1:12:46] um one of the other ordinances that we had previously discussed was a road

[1:12:51] posting um a policy or ordinance, but uh I actually reached out to Inland

[1:12:56] Fisheries and Wildlife. They came down uh was it last week, I believe, to do

[1:13:01] some repair on the Andes Lake boat ramp. And so when they came down, I asked them

[1:13:07] to remove and or move the signs that were down there uh to align with the

[1:13:13] policy that you had in place. And so they did do that because they currently

[1:13:18] showed no parking um on the south side of 133 or I don't know I

[1:13:26] guess the west side of 133 the Androskan lake side of 133 from one address to

[1:13:32] another address but it showed no parking the whole way around and so it basically

[1:13:36] just opens it up according to the policy that you had in place from I think three

[1:13:40] years ago. um just to make sure. He said that they were just put there as part of

[1:13:44] their standard DOT practice. They always put them up. And so he just said, "Okay,

[1:13:49] yep, we'll move them." So they moved them. I went down and checked on that.

[1:13:53] Uh and I responded back to that resident who had inquired about it. I also met

[1:13:58] with Ted Tucci regarding the dam committee. And so um just to kind of get

[1:14:02] a little bit more guidance, I got a copy of that memorandum of understanding. I

[1:14:06] believe I forwarded it to the select board for your review. Um, and if he if

[1:14:12] he would like to proceed with getting signatures on that, we can absolutely do

[1:14:16] that. He said for the most part it what he's looking for is just some support

[1:14:20] when he goes to the DP and um the Department of Agriculture, Conservation,

[1:14:26] and Forestry. They're also the ones um and he gave me some great background and

[1:14:30] history of the dam and when it was built and accepted in 1930 and what the

[1:14:35] purpose of it was and what the dam committee really does. and they really

[1:14:38] only just meet once a year and usually that once a year meeting is them going

[1:14:43] out and cleaning out trees and things that have gathered down right in front

[1:14:47] of the dam. Um so in the future just or when we do any kind of appointments and

[1:14:54] things on that as well it's just taking into consideration

[1:14:57] um any kind of reporting and involvement with that. the leads, the town of Leeds

[1:15:03] currently has a reserve account for that dam and they manage that and in their

[1:15:08] policy I think anything over 2500 had to go to the town of Leeds for approval. Um

[1:15:13] but most of it he says is underneath uh that limit. So their purchases are

[1:15:19] usually um just to help with the cleanup. And so I think a couple years

[1:15:24] ago looking at the annual report it had about $25,000 in that account. He said

[1:15:29] that it's down to about $19,000 now. So, more so just anformational meeting and

[1:15:34] just a follow up on his presentation on the the damn committee appointment.

[1:15:40] » So, the reason we had that conversation though was we need to put somebody on a

[1:15:45] committee without a charge and without any

[1:15:50] documented roles and responsibilities. So,

[1:15:54] » yeah. So, but I'm just looking to see if we have other sort of external

[1:16:00] committers where people It doesn't even say how often

[1:16:05] he's going to report back. In fact, it's not even listed in a

[1:16:10] » no committ

[1:16:14] um

[1:16:19] actually. And this is a much shorter list than the list we see when we do all

[1:16:23] the appointments. Well, we think this should committee keep an eye on that.

[1:16:29] Damn. Does it roll up there?

[1:16:38] We could uh we could pose that question to the infrastructure committee. I'm

[1:16:42] just, you know, I don't think it's bad to have a simple charge that says

[1:16:49] this is what you're responsible for doing, especially in the absence of a

[1:16:53] policy that says who can um communicate on behalf of the towel.

[1:17:00] Um so I don't I don't particularly want to just let that one drop without even

[1:17:06] though they only meet once a year. Mhm. >> Well, um, but Shannon, maybe you and I

[1:17:10] can, since I'm seem to be the one that has the has the anxiety about this one,

[1:17:15] maybe you and I can uh >> bounce some ideas on a simple

[1:17:21] » Well, this dam is in is in leads, right? >> Correct.

[1:17:24] » Yeah. >> Okay. And under the thing that and I I

[1:17:28] confess I didn't read the what uh Ted sent out uh under the under the document

[1:17:38] that he asked us to sign or or to think about signing that we that the town

[1:17:41] hadn't signed. Does that share responsibility for the maintenance of

[1:17:45] the dam among the different towns? >> There isn't any specific designation as

[1:17:50] far as costs go. Um what he had identified in the memorandum of

[1:17:54] understanding is that cost would be solicited from other organizations. Uh

[1:17:59] it didn't specify anything from town appropriations.

[1:18:02] » Um but only Yeah, it didn't it didn't specify.

[1:18:07] » Okay. Does because it's not it's not in the town. We don't have any budget items

[1:18:14] appropriate any funds for it. So I don't really know what

[1:18:18] » Yes, it is. I don't know what uh

[1:18:23] what what our what our business would be on it.

[1:18:26] » It's really in here. >> It is in here, but we do have a

[1:18:29] representative on that listed on the Dead River Dam maintenance committee and

[1:18:34] also on the ALIC committee, >> but typically they're supposed to also

[1:18:40] report um and provide a segment of the um annual report. For the last two

[1:18:45] reports, I don't have one from them. So, I said I'd be requesting one for

[1:18:49] upcoming reports to make sure that you have an overview of all the finances and

[1:18:53] everything as well and any initiatives that they've taken on cleanup um or any

[1:18:58] proposals for upcoming projects and things.

[1:19:01] » Did they mention what time of year they meet?

[1:19:04] » If you can sync it up with when you're trying to get all your information

[1:19:06] together for the annual report or a month prior to that, that might be

[1:19:09] helpful. >> All right, sounds good. I'll double

[1:19:13] check with him on that. I think it's usually in the spring.

[1:19:19] Um, okay. Anything else on that? I'll talk with you, Hazel, more about it.

[1:19:23] » Uh, for the comprehensive uh plan, the CMP feasibility study, uh, I talked with

[1:19:29] one of the comprehensive plan committee members that had drafted that just to

[1:19:32] ensure that it hadn't it was drafted in the form of an email to CMP uh

[1:19:38] requesting a feasibility study. So, I just confirmed that that was not

[1:19:41] actually sent to CMP, but more so just presented as a consideration and

[1:19:46] something that the comprehensive plan has found. Uh, I would like to discuss

[1:19:51] that with the comprehensive plan committee um prior to the next meeting

[1:19:55] as far as um if that's something that they feel that they should do. I think

[1:20:00] that that might be more appropriate in their strategies as an identif uh as

[1:20:05] identifying a vulnerability in the town if that's something that they feel is a

[1:20:09] vulnerability and it aligns with the other uh categories that they've

[1:20:14] discussed in the comprehensive plan such as um do they want to keep it more

[1:20:18] rural? Do they want to develop certain kinds of aspects of that? I think that

[1:20:24] that might be more of a discussion with the comprehensive plan before you take

[1:20:27] any action on that. Um, I'll still look at putting that on the October agenda

[1:20:33] and then maybe we can get some more direction from the comprehensive plan

[1:20:36] committee if that's something they choose as a whole to move forward with.

[1:20:41] Um, so with the referendum coming up, um,

[1:20:47] also the gubernatorial election in November, we'll start seeing a lot more

[1:20:51] election signs. Uh our code enforcement officer has also been going around and

[1:20:56] looking at business signs um because right now uh we currently have a

[1:21:01] permitting process for business signs through our land use ordinance which I

[1:21:05] don't think has really been followed previously. So she's been going around

[1:21:08] and identifying a lot of those more local business ones. But also with that

[1:21:13] and the election signs uh there's certain rules and requirements uh that

[1:21:17] need to be adhered to for those. Uh so just I'll be putting out some kind of

[1:21:22] verbiage regarding um some of the state statutes pertaining to categorical signs

[1:21:27] and political activities to make sure that they also align with the timelines

[1:21:32] for elections coming up and placement as well. Um and then how to uh reach out to

[1:21:39] those individuals if they need to be moved or um addressed. Uh other than

[1:21:45] that I don't have anything else.

[1:21:53] All righty. Thank you. Board member reports.

[1:21:58] Think I started with you last time. Don't think I have anything. Okay, I'll

[1:22:01] start with you. Um

[1:22:08] Henry, >> no. Nothing.

[1:22:10] » Steve, for me, >> nothing. I don't think I have anything.

[1:22:15] All righty. Uh so with that um that takes us to adjournment. Um somebody

[1:22:22] like to make a motion to adjourn. >> Move we

[1:22:29] second. >> Is there in favor?

[1:22:33] » Thank you everybody. very well. Uh, no, Sweden.

Select Board Meeting 9/1/26

Transcript