TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ April 25, 2023

all righty good evening everybody Welcome to the select board meeting for the town of Durham at this time we'd like to ask everybody to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] so again good evening everybody um for tonight I will be filling in for Joe he is excused for this evening

um also we'd like to recommend our newly elected slugman um Mr Roy to the panel thank you for joining us tonight happy to be here all right before we get going [Music] oh we have a form public comment do we have anyone here for public comment

no public comment tonight department head reports tonight first up will be the fire chief haven't put my finger on it it looks different I have extra copies I'll give you a grant update that you haven't heard we submitted a county Grant to Ema for radios that was in the form of 21 000. um there's a lot of behind the scenes which you don't see so when I was in three-day class in the fall I went over there the other day and fought for us so we went to the top of the list for radio so three four Portables and one for the truck fighting against Lewiston Auburn just all of them but they recognized that we're small small pieces of the pie and we've been playing well with others so when you do diligence on the on the front side that takes a few months it goes up to the state level the feds it comes back down so but that all looks promising we also submitted a grant for a new boat to Firehouse Subs every quarter they take

grants as you know Firehouse Subs was formed by two firefighters they give back um tens of millions of dollars every year to Public Safety I don't have a dollar amount and I don't have a time frame but it's been submitted our boat is more than 20 years old we got it from the Stephen King foundation um so I'll keep you updated on that today if you drove by we did some hose testing annually every foot of hose has to be tested uh so I got 12 700 to 2.4 miles

tested in the rain we do contract with the company there's about four of us to help them out um so that's done three members of our guys just attended the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg Maryland they drove down there eight hours uh we sponsored them they took some classes rejuvenated came back full of piss and vinegar if you will and ready to ready to change the world but um Federal uh facility down there um top-notch instructors classes you can't get anywhere else

rfps have been sent out for our Capital Improvement plans I heard from one member today a vendor for the Quint uh the generator the exhaust system's been uh um given out and we're still waiting on the utility vehicle uh open bids are Friday for the utility and for the Quint Friday at 9. um we are starting up a fire Explorer Cadet program that's for ages 14 through 18. um we've been advertising slowly we'll have a start date for them to come in get them excited about Fire EMS

um we've had that before uh on the radar for the new members that's just for for next month I have some ambulance receipts to the tune of uh 36 000 that has not been paid over the last year and a half that's through uh com star billing so I will be reaching out to you with another packet of of Avenues of what to do with that we have several choices it's not just uh black or white so you'll receive that for for next month's packet um and if you have questions up front let me know and you may have heard finally it's not written down we had a structure fire last Friday at uh Friday morning about midnight one a.m I wasn't occupied dwelling on uh um was it Old Mill Road or Mill Pond Hill Pond right over there um again when you hear us when I explain that you know we go to other towns that those are deposits so the other night I had the Brunswick Chief sitting next to me Lisbon Chief and Deputy Lisbon guys

in the building Freeport guys in the building uh Brunswick and Lisbon tankers out on royalsboro and a special called palano and said four guys out of six that they have at 1am uh to station coverage so when we go to other towns they do uh appreciate it and they do uh return the favor uh no injuries uh the occupants did lose almost everything we contacted the Red Cross for them um they are staying elsewhere um I remind everybody that's probable it's undetermined but probable uh disposable of smoking materials outside something to think about smoke detectors did not alert them a dog did they were very lucky

have any questions for any questions for the chief I have a question sure I saw I think that I saw um it was posted on the fire department's Facebook page about um CPR yes that's funded Grant funded yes is that take I just think I couldn't quite catch where that was taking place I think I I've had several questions of interest if you click on that second one I believe it's out of the college that's where that Grant's gonna come from okay but I mean that that class is not happening here correct and I'll make sure it's okay clear okay because several have asked that we can as you know put on a CPR class that that one has two different dates eight hour days uh CPR BLS um free of charge and that's through the grant process through the college that we've hooked up with partnership uh with uh Lieutenant Joe Lamont who does that so um daycares um you know at home new at-home moms uh Boy Scout Troops anyone you know free of

charge uh but again I'll make sure it's clear on the website okay thank you and um great job on the radio Grant thank you I look forward to telling you when we get it and receive it and whatnot our radio line item it's 2500. someone nine ten times our annual budget for that uh it's just a constant as you know rotation and whatever comes down the pike so uh that was well thought

thank you thank you thank you next up we have the road commissioner Mr Calvin boomier [Music] you guys have the reports you all have it with all those town properties so getting rid of all the leaves and debrisio from the winter bio damage uh getting ready for mowing we've got all the equipment tuned and ready to go we've been working on the gravel roads to keep them passable in mud season if you've lived on a dirt road you know that uh when you start to get potholes and mud holes and so we've been adding gravel keeping those uh passable until we can grade them next month Jerry and I attended the bid opening for the stream Crossing grants and the only bidder was Saint Laurent as we were awarded the project at 276 450.

we have 300 I believe we have 150 foot Grant and 150 for Capital that but you'll want to leave a little there for contingency if we hit ledge or some other issue arises so that would leave us with about 25 000. and hopefully we don't need it [Music] um I've been working on putting the bid specs together for the for the uh 1.5 ton truck working with a few different vendors to try to get that uh finalized should have that ready hopefully uh this coming week and ready to go out to bed we've removed all the uh lifted all the weight restrictions for spring

conference in Augusta where I received the MDOT Rhodes scholar award all right I see that's been published the uh Jerry and I attended the contracts and we signed the contract this morning with Saint grant for the 270 there's a there's a bit opening there's a bit of war and then there's this contract something so that's all been done um and uh last Friday I was made aware there was a leak at the Eureka Center and apparently the water heater blown up pressure relief valve so we changed that on Friday and a few of the floor tiles are turned up a little bit but it's drying and dry now and then we have to see uh where some of the tiles have been removed we're going to see what uh what Pearl wants to do there on a permanent basis and that's about it is that stream Crossing for the Swamp Road yeah what's when when what's the timeline for that they will be they can't do any of the in-stream work until between July 15th

September 30th so that's when they plan on getting that work done and then the decking and some of the out of stream work would be done early October so it should be done by November 1st I would say is going on right now over on 125. and any traffic situation with Swamp Road is that road going to be closed for them to do that work when they take that when they open the road up and they're pouring the uh the uh putting in the abutments and things yeah that would be close so they would have to go a little Brunswick or Quaker Meeting House but we'll have a meeting with a contractor come up with that plan and we'll publish that like we did on Bob and panel Road withdraw map put that up for everyone to see the WD tour signs and yeah

just died curiosity and maybe it's too early to tell or two previous hair but would that be a total closure of a road or would that just be down to like a one-way anything no totally they have to remove everything we've got 125 and swap Road closed yeah well 125 isn't closed it's alternating traffic ticket right

just if you could just refresh my memory on that that Grant was 150 correct so well it's 150 or is it 100 that's that's the question is it 150 up flat okay all right thank you and we had approved some in 2022 and then again in 2023 in that

total amount came to the 300. yes that was 101 the year before and then 49 or 50 this past year so okay perfect commissioner have any questions I'd just like to say congratulations on your award thank you very much yes Kelly nice job the word Scholars throwing me off a little bit but

all right Mr manager thank you um so May 1st starts our financial services contract so um myself and Jessica and Cindy have been compiling all of our financial reports to get ready it's quite an extensive list he's coming mark Roy's coming with one of his staff next Tuesday to grab everything that they need to get the onboarding process started so we're really I'm really looking forward to that um that's one of the things we've been working on um Opera reporting this is interesting uh so Opera reporting is due every April 30th so I went to do it MMA has a uh some help where you click on a link and it kind of guide you through the reporting and I got stuck where I didn't have a um an employee identification so I had to call the treasury and the treasury asked if we really actually got the arpa money I said I think so because there's no record that they have of us getting anything so the reporting didn't

get done last year either so right now we're on a case study so they're going to call me back who doesn't have record a treasure of the U.S treasury doesn't have record that they sent us the money there's nothing in their system that says anything about the town of Durham Maine the money distributed by the state it may have but they just didn't have anywhere because reporting should have been done last year and it never was done yeah so that was like a big block

30th so anyway I'm telling you it's going to be late because they don't have us in the system and um yeah they're going to call up they're going to call me back and help me get through this Reporting System there's nothing I could do we will stock she couldn't help me so she's holding on to someone else in the to get that done

so I want to follow up on the um the permit fees so George had spoken with the attorney and uh we can assess fees on anything that we give a permit for even if there's not one established we can establish one if we give a permit we can establish fees

um so Friday here um from 9 30 to 3 30 I think I enrolled in a basic Municipal budgeting Workshop invited the budget committee right in the select board more than welcome to come that's still on I got all the the zoom stuff that I need for Friday so if you Friday yeah what time at 9 30 I think it starts um I have a question about that do you want me to wait until you're done to ask my questions sure that's that's about all I have right now as far as what what I've been doing so I'd like to come on Friday yep um I just I might have to leave like a half an hour early would that be inappropriate no no and this is all voluntary um people have folks or folks have something to do and they need to screw that's fine there's nothing um I just did it for forever for everybody even myself I haven't attended a MMA basic Municipal budgeting either so it'll be interesting Friday from 9 30 to win 3 30. and they very rarely go though

to 3 30. so I don't know what we'll do for launch maybe we know someone that works at a subway that can donate a plot or something I don't know but uh he knows Firehouse subscribe I've been been working on the last since the last time I I saw you I have a couple questions can just to make sure that I understand the arpa situation so we have received the funds yes we received them in 21 and 22. but the percent us the money don't have any record of us accepting the funds of accepting the fun it's the treasury that you report to dozen in that and last year there wasn't a report the report never got filed in okay so what's prompting so what's What is prompting them questioning us this year is you're trying to file the report and now they're saying we're not in the system okay all right do you think that it's a situation where it it wasn't reported because had we I don't think we had spent the

money by April 30th of 22. we only approved it at Town meaning in 22. but you still you still report it right but you're still going to report it that you have it you may have obligated but not spent it and that's the kind of information they're looking for I think it didn't get reported because you know the town was going through changes and it just didn't it just didn't get done I was just implied once they cash the check so you got it yeah I mean we have it again it's just a reporting part of it right do you know if there's any sort of penalty for not reporting she didn't mention any penalty or anything and I told her I said I'm here to do it and if you follow the video it isn't that hard to do but you've got to have an identification number and that just was never set up last year so like I said they'll call and help us out so it's just one of those and things that I'm trying to get done

cleaned up that was just I want to make sure I understood yeah and I'll keep you updated when once it starts and once I get it reported I'll let you know so I had I had a question that I wanted to ask about um while you're getting the onboarding process for payroll and for the other services um I'm noticing that when I'm looking at the warrants if someone's being paid they're being paid one amount but it may be a person who is either perhaps reimbursed for mileage or you know whatever and so I'm wondering and and I'm speaking for my own business experience right so if I have my employee and she is getting paid her regular hourly wage or she's getting paid time off or she's getting um early childhood education workers are getting a 200 Grant from the state um once a month that all gets separated out on her pay stub but her check is for one total amount so I know we're not seeing those individual lines but going

forward if we want to like be budgeting and tracking and making um adjustments or you know just for informational purposes I think it's important that when those accounts are set up where we're not just putting in one fixed thing per person that if like the chief wants to know or if Calvin wants to know or we want to know the information based on how people are being paid in what category that those that that's getting set up that way we wouldn't put that on a warrant no no I know it wouldn't be on a warrant I'm saying like I don't know if currently it's set the paychecks are set up that's just like if you guys you haven't gotten a paycheck here probably yet but it's just like any other business or any other company if if they use vacation time it's showing on their pay stub they use vacation time if they have an allotment or something taken out or whatever taxes they claim that's taken out but we wouldn't be

for say what they're claiming and things like that yeah and I don't want to know any of that what I want to know is for mileage can burst for whatever their cell phone their what like those types of things I think that those things should show separately in the account situation so that if we're trying to make budgeting decisions in the future we can see that we're reimbursing this total amount of money for mileage we're reimbursing this

total amount of money towards whatever other things where you you see what I'm saying I think it's going to be important to have that information available as we make decisions about the budget going forward I think one of the things that we haven't done well is track

I I think you're confusing two different things here everything that they're doing is is tracked he can tell you what their reimbursing the chief or let's say a cell phone or a mileage or something like that it's just not it's just not it's a it's a pay warrant it's just payables I'm not talking about the warrant I'm saying when they're doing this thing where they're setting it up with a new person keeping track of it that those things that we have the ability to run reports based on that's what it is no I understand but that's what I just told you that's we're doing all that already you're just not going to see that on a warrant right right everything is for lack of better words classified as they pay it out like for example if they're paying out mileage it's classified as mileage it doesn't go in there as gross pay or anything of that nature they're paying out Health Care it goes in under a line item of Health Care

okay so but it's not going to show up on what we see everyone as the total amount no because you would have that right right you get a bottle every time and that's completely fine I just want to make sure that like and and not just for necessarily those things but I think that you know anyway we can have a more detailed conversation about this if we want to but I when I'm looking at some of the other municipalities like they're and I know that we do this for like winter roads and summer roads but what they'll have like winter roads labor and summer labor and I just think if we're gonna be trying to make budgeting decisions part of what makes that difficult and I'm talking now as a budget Committee Member right is that we're looking at these big group categories that make it difficult to um figure out where dollars are being spent or dollars could be saved or dollars could be used differently

without that kind of detail that that would help us make decisions like that or information it's probably not the time or place but in the past four or five years we we don't do a line item budget anymore in this town we're not breaking down everything so if if you got five hundred thousand dollars for the chief for example he might break down 150 000 for labor fifty thousand dollars for maintenance things like that but he's not going to make break down the fifty thousand dollars ten thousand dollars as oil changes seven thousand dollars of tire rotations things like that that that's would you would you agree that it would be helpful to have a maintenance line that we know if we're spending maintenance on the firehouse building or for spending maintenance on this building maintenance we do have a maintenance per building that's already there that's always been there there's a maintenance side for every

building that we have I feel like that's not what we're seeing at least the budget committee that's that we're we're seeing those times for you before you go into that the budget committee sees the same stuff or has access to the same stuff and you can I mean we you can get that breakdown I don't know if that's really going to help you put the budget together because it is to be a better conversation to have after we do the thing on Friday yeah [Music] yeah it's it's probably if it's something like we're looking to change the budgetary structure that's something that we need to address in an agenda item right um it's not it can't be addressed right now obviously because that would require some uh everybody to have some thought and put into it so we're doing this with this person before May 1st is he telling you the categories or are you telling him the category he's going to use what we have but we're going to update them

because they're difficult to follow like for instance and again I I don't know if this is the appropriate time but and the Public Works utilities line is cable and fuel mixed so you would never know that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about yeah well we're that's all part of the process it's going to take some time to get there though you know yeah and like with wages I mean I I know people want to see what everybody makes but when you're but when you're putting a budget together you just want to deal with wages because there's a lot of math that goes in to that and figuring out FICA and all this if you have to deal with that for every employee and break it down it's just a risk for mistakes so if you do it once under wages you got your FICA taken care of but we can talk about that in a budgeting Workshop or class or whatever whatever okay it's

like the thing with the utilities right if we're talking about that we're going to be going and trying to do the lights the grant for the lights but now our utilities are mixed as lights and fuel that makes it difficult to give them that information because you have to give very specific information when you're filling out those applications but electricity is electricity it's not going to break down lights and and copiers and no no I know that I'm just you're you're saying in utilities that it was counting counting that's the way

but this is this is exactly right we're working on that all right all right we can address this in a in another meeting if you guys want to put it on an agenda but it's it's not on the agenda right okay so my only question is when do you expect to hear about this arpa stuff from the feds when you're dealing with the feds that's a really good question if I had a crystal ball and I could see I would tell you but I I don't know I got a case number and that's where it was left when we hung up the phone

I'm worried about the the sanctions for not filing I don't think there's really any sanctions I and I and I don't pay taxes this this looks like 488 towns in this state and I'm sure we're all face some of us are having a hard time finding out eui number which is a big it's it's a it's a problem yeah it's called the eui eui employee unique identification number or something like that we just got it activated so there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that we could we could sit here until 10 o'clock tonight and talk about those but uh it's getting taken care of it's just yeah I just think if there's uh if if someone calls you again or whatever if we figure out if there is a penalty or something because sometimes they're with federal funds obviously there's like if you haven't allocated it or properly retracted or whatever and I know you're doing everything to get a square which

is great just wondering if there's something we have to expect down the road um well when I know I'll let you know yeah that's for sure I appreciate you getting on top of it the filing is to make sure you're using the money appropriately correct exactly what you have obligated what you have expended it's not about adjusting income and things like that no not just that you you're doing the proper things with the money and you've taken the proper steps to use the money correct that's correct okay

no sir gonna go into some old business here and at this time we'll call up um George Berg and John Talbot so I'll just I'll just start off while they get uh situated so we sat down today to talk about word kind of out of the equation here because it's not after talking about it it's really just after town meeting

um talking about what do we want to work on next as far as ordinances is it affordable housing is it anything with a historical uh commission is it anything to do with solar arrays anything like that um so we can move forward and get the right people involved because they're all involved when you think about it I mean because of the historic district commission is doing something the planning board is going to be involved if their solar rays maybe the Conservation Commission is going to be involved and they need to talk to the planning board so it's more of collaborating in that sense but that direction has to come from the board just just like what we're going to try to do hopefully both tonight's not on the agenda but establish a date to have a workshop to talk about where are we going in the next year and once we talk and we talk about what ordinances you want to look at a change and I can relay that back to

the planning border Georgia say this is this is the direction that the town wants to go in so it's it's more of like a ordinance Summit if you will and getting people together to talk because they all need to talk to one another we don't it's not nice to work in silos because one Silo doesn't know what the other Silo is doing so and it really does affect the other the other entity so that's fine I think that's a great idea but the only thing I would say differently is I would I would like them to come to the board to see what organ what ordinances they would want to change I guess that's that's my question do you agree that it's the planning board's responsibility to update the ordinances yes I mean and yeah I mean I don't have any in in George as a Spiel as well but I see that from my view this committee yes and I don't like people interfering with you know would not be happy if people start interfering

with the fighting board whether it be the Swagman or another committee or whatever it may be you know it tells people with pitchforks whatever it may be um so yes and that's something that you stay on top of yes I I think we do I mean that George George has a spiels

to talk about anymore I mean if that's if that's your responsibility you know that and you're working on it yeah I mean well they can take direction as far as like you know how the board you know if they have something that they want to bring to the board like Hey we're looking at making these changes just to keep us surprised of it yeah you know that's really what it should be you know my opinion um and I think they agree like we shouldn't be influencing every every step that they make a lot of times with these ordinances why they're asking for change is simply to clarify them it's not necessarily we haven't changed correct me if I'm wrong George and we change ordinances but it's really just the the clarification because of their whether it's the ambiguity of them or um maybe they just there's no need to have them anymore and state changes or something of that nature but I mean personally I've always been on the

belief that you have a planning board you have a town planner um let's not micromanage and let them do their job but go ahead jump yeah just from my perspective having been with the town now almost five years uh started with the comprehensive Plan update and uh that was unanimously adopted at the 2018 town meeting and it said three goals for the town first is to preserve the rural character the town had had a growth area and that kind of got decided that that's just not going to work here in Durham so rural character natural resources protection and agriculture we like the three big themes that came out of it and that plan had a whole series of recommended policies uh for lots of different areas as required by the state so we've been following that in a lot of different areas like the resource protection realignment um and so the question becomes I think it's more than just you know because we

did do a lot of reconciling of messed up languages and organ systems all over the place almost like your budget trying to pull that process together so what I observed was that the first year of implementation after the comprehensive plan we overhauled the land use ordinance and fixed it so it was a workable document and that got through the town meeting pretty good but then after that it's like the next couple of times and we spend a lot of time the Committees and staff time putting together ordinances or amendments and then it gets to town meeting and there's this big debate at the town meeting on process that was what was really uh kind of made the machine go off the track and

so what we did in the last year was We really focused on getting cooperation communication between the Conservation Commission and the planning board and the select board and and it went much smoother this year so I think that's really what we're talking about and from my perspective as kind of the Town planner doing most of the legwork on this stuff it's really really important that the process be efficient and so our concern is that if the planning board takes on this new affordable housing issue and heads through a whole summer of trying to put together uh regulations then it comes back to the select board and you may have a completely different view on what the town should go in terms of Direction so you'll remember Heather how much time the planning boards spend on home-based businesses spent the whole summer working on it yeah and then got nothing out of it so that's my concern and what

I see the benefit of this idea of of the policy committee groups planning board has primary responsibility but Conservation Commission has has their area of uh of responsibility as well as does the historic district commission and the board of appeals and so kind of just as a model what I was envisioning is that this coming year the affordable housing issue is coming down it goes into effect on July 1st unless there's a delay by the state which I don't anticipate is going to happen so uh the

planning board has been focusing on that for the last year and is really on top of it we have no regulations in this town for solar farms and we've had people working on applications so when that comes to the planning board there are no standards to review a 20-acre solar farm array that's obviously an issue in terms of your sustainability the conservation commissions addressed in you know renewable energy so there's kind of common ground for there and so the goal would be to get the groups that finding common ground and working together so that you know what's going before the the town meeting and everybody's on the same page like this this last round instead of the last round where everybody was coming at it from different angles then it just dissolved on the floor of the town meeting which is really a waste of time so that's kind of our concept is to just get these groups in an organized fashion

to meet right after town meeting to say okay what are the issues which you know you can only get three or four on the town meeting effective uh and so what are those going to be and who's going to work on it and put it together and then bring it back to the select board to say look this is what we're going to be working on and then Labor Day is when you start the process the public process so everybody is in the loop and we're all working together it it I would build on that to say that I think two things what one is there's there's a limited resources and that towards the long poll attend because he has put a lot of time in a writing whatever the ordinance is whether it be resource protection affordable housing so we need that we need to prioritize as a group so that for instance if we come in and we say okay affordable housing we may or may not have to work on this year depending upon what happens with state laws but that's

a huge chunk of time and then historic district may have their thing that may or may not be a maybe something simple like how do you rename private rows or how did who accepts private roads and then a solar may be another one and I think the best example Josh to your point is that last year in June the planning board sat down and said okay what do we want to take on by ourselves and we said okay we want to do we see affordable housing had just become the law uh we talked about resource protection that gotten his butt kicked at the town meeting and I forget what else and then as a planning board we said well we can take on one of those big things affordable housing we'll ask the can I point to Joe because he's on the conservation committee at the time will ask them to take the lead on working up the the background if you will That's History so they held the first public information meeting yeah they kind of took the lead

on that while we were the credit board was working on uh affordable housing and then uh at the end of the day the only ones who could have a public hearing and correctly wrong on the planning board so conservation can't have one history cans cemeteries can so we would we could come back with historical if they had something they wanted to do after they did the leg work with George's input and all that other stuff and said this is what we're thinking about too these are the this is the draft art these are the bullet points for that article yeah they would hold that public information meeting get it to the point where they were comfortable with it we would like to have some input for the selecting to say you're on the right track or not then the planning board would hold a public hearing and with conservation there resource protection you know that's what we did we didn't get it really get totally involved until

the public here at hearings came along so but I don't think that we need the selectment to come to our meetings and help us write that I mean that's so so at our last meeting there was talk about forming a committee an ordinance committee that would look at the and I think the leading suggestion was that's what the planning board is for so why do we need that but it sounds like you want something like that well I think in terms of helping sort of the historical commission and I'm just picking on them but the cemetery committee came in and said you know we want to rewrite the block and we want cemeteries and they went off and just did it and that's a really bad example but they don't have any authority to do that yeah they uh if historical came in and said we just we're going to rewrite our section and then they just went off of the stovepipe and did their thing and then brought it to us in January said to hold

a public hearing that's what we were trying to avoid that's we're having an early meeting uh would help and we could say okay look at George has X number of hours yeah affordable housing is going to take I may throw numbers out there are overlaps between this stuff because what the realignment of the resource Protection District you will recall we were telling people if you here's the process of getting that specific boundary that involves the board of appeals so what the Conservation Commission and the planning board put together on resource protection without any real input from the board of appeals could throw an awful lot of work at that board yeah so there's Ripple effects of each group yes decisions and making proportions so I thought everybody's involvement is at the beginning so you don't really need committee or Workshop he wants to call it a summit everything whatever that's what we talk about it

that's just Summit whatever you want to call it so we get together the reason why with the select board in particular and you put one member of a select board in a committee like that you get townspeople running their models hey that person's influencing in their own agenda it happens it's happened in the past and that's why I don't like select board members in the there's no reason why a planning board and a conservation Committee in the historical district can't get together and what they should do is come and formulate a plan of what they want to work on and what they want to present to the select board and then you present that to us every so often so the way I've heard you describe it in the past George um is essentially that a member from each of this town standing committees or commissions essentially would all get together and say here's our town comprehensive plan what are priorities

that we are interested in seeing the town pursue this year whether it's the resource Protection District whether it's addressing roads whether it's addressing um zoning agriculture or critical rural or whatever and so it sounds like what you're suggesting is that there just be like a precedence that it says every year after town meeting a representative from each one of these boards gets together discusses what can we take on like you were saying you know we can only take on so much but they might say you know our committee has members who are passionate about this and would be willing to at your request planning board work on drafting something to present for you and kind of do some of the leg work as volunteers ultimately like it went with the Conservation Commission you could say we don't like this we do like this we do like that and then the planning board then comes back to us but it seems like

your process there that would be different it's just everyone's getting together planning boards agreeing these things are you all going to work on and then you come to one of our meetings say hey these are the objectives that we're trying to track down this year we're going to work independently on them we're just letting you know this is the direction we're going or if there is and hopefully there's not but if somebody says we've got 500 hours of George

hours of George time and affordable housing is going to take 200. conservation committee is going to take 500 there's not enough resource there and if we can't work something out then we'd come back it's a priority well and I and I think that this seems like a planning exercise planning exercise within the planning board right you know planning for what resource priorities are what con what con plan priorities are which I think is a good idea because when you start communicating earlier on there's less miscommunication opportunities and there's less confusion at the at the end so is it what you are all looking for is kind of like a formalized like yes the select board agrees that you should have a member from each person meet annually and put that down somewhere or just say business as usual but do maybe consider this process because I like the idea of like having an annual Summit where you know

things change there's new pressure for developing solar that there might not have been or a new sort of business type moves in and the town doesn't have anything any way to you know handle that sort of request you know I think it's important just to be planning properly for that

I don't disagree with that but really what should be taking place and correct me if I'm wrong as you gentlemen you as the planning board chair and the planning board should be tackling whatever issues that you see as the highest priority and then once you identify those issues then that list is made and then ask for the summit my fear is you bring in conservation you bring in everybody has their wants and wish list and everybody thinks their wants and wishes are a higher priority than the planning boards but the planning board should be the ones setting the precedent for the year and then asking for the input during that I'm okay with that I mean I I don't I think it's probably I could say a six and one half dozen another but yeah I just I want you guys to not get monopolized on stuff that you guys feel as a board your board which is an actual you know [Music] quasi-judicial quasi-judicial board not

you know all of a sudden you're getting inundated because the conservation committee wants X the historical district wants X it should really be what is your goals and agendas in utilizing those resources to meet those goals and agendas yeah to me it would be more like you know what the department heads do every budget season is they present here are priorities you rank them as a planning board and then make a plan going that way I just don't want you getting inundated because everybody's going to have a wish list when you open it up to okay what's everybody want to do this year essentially and conservation is going to have you a list historical districts definitely going to have you a list um I think the priority you guys should be the priority or who determines what that's on that list go ahead so my two concerns with this are one

I I believe that it has happened in the past where it hasn't been resident LED and therefore we get to town meeting and it's not something that people are gonna pass because they haven't had input in the process and I think that you guys did an amazing job this year compared to last year involving the residents thank you very much the other concern that I have with that is that this is the only board that's elected other than the budget committee which would not be part of this all of these other boards are appointed by the select board and so therefore again that's taking that away from the residents because those people are appointed by us that sit there and so I would just like to put the idea out there that perhaps the planning board has their list of five or ten or maybe

tens too many and that that initially goes out in a survey to the town the way that you guys did the survey this past year and the residents rank but how do you how does the residents determine what their priority needs are

a state mandate right so we know that that has to be on the list if it doesn't get kicked down the road for two years like they're talking about right but then the other things like if we know we're not going to have the ability to take on more than two or three here's your list of five other than affordable housing which we have to deal with what are your priorities and then the residents have input at the initial stages because I don't want us to be in a situation where you we spend all this time on these ordinances and we get to town meeting and they don't pass that's wasted tax dollars that's right so if we pull from the beginning and we know what people want to take on by majority outside of what we have to take on then I think we have a better chance of succeeding than getting there and have spent everybody's time and money all year for it to not pass that I can respond to that in that there's seven

planning board members who are all residents right there's a company on historic there's X number on conservation that's where I I respectfully disagree a little bit on that because that to me feels like you're getting more towards like a direct democracy where everyone's voting on everything I think that there's really good opportunity even in the Committees and commissions for people to show up and share opinions like at the Conservation Commission any they're open to the public and gladly anyone who wants to show up can say I think this is something I think you guys should do no solar I think you guys should do all solar like well that's open but we don't have that that all goes to them so I think that there's already that opportunity especially because a lot of these boards have openings where people could choose to volunteer too um so I think that at some point it gets to the point where it's like we do have

a responsibility to delegate to people to kind of be where the rubber hits the road kind of um so that's my kind of thought on that rich in your comment Rich would like uh people coming all sorts of different directions I think that the one benefit of saying there's a set format where you have a summit is that each board in each committee has its different strengths and has a different makeup of citizens and people who have different experiences so um you know there might be the historic commission might bring something to everyone's attention that could be an important thing that no one else on the other commissions are even thinking about and that ultimately it's the planning board the Quasi governmental organization that gets to decide but I think that just opens up the opportunity for them to say here's where our organ our commission strengths are here's something we noticed is this something

you want us to help you with and the planning board could say that's not a priority for us but thank you for bringing it up maybe it's something we look at in the future so I think it still gives the power to the planning board but then allows kind of those more voices to get hurt and I kind of think of those commissions as each it's kind of like a representation yeah and that's where it's like you know the commission if you come to as a commission and say hey we really want to tackle this issue this year and you say we just don't have enough time George is going to be tied up with this we're tied up with that um the commission has other stuff they can go do Conservation Commission can Park stuff they can do workshops for the town or whatever but they can say we made the offer because this is something we have experience with there's people on the commission who are project managers for solar projects there's

people on the commission who are specialists in um you know conservation easements so it's like one of those things that the planning board could say we're not interested in any of it or yeah we do want your help so I think that a summit like what George and what you're describing is beneficial ultimately it's still the planning board's decision and I think of it as a way to just kind of funnel more people to say we're here to help if you want the help you know kind of like what happened with the Conservation Commission so long-winded but that's kind of that was a good example of how it worked I thought that was amazing to take the load off of the if I didn't take the load off George somehow George still ends up with plenty of stuff to do um I don't think it does that but yeah but I think what helped with the planning of the planning board saying hey we've got all these applications coming through could you take the

initial step to get that public input process and that's where the explanation and all that stuff and I think it paid dividends in terms of whether you agreed with the vote or not it seemed like more people were ready to go at the starting line when the vote came along so like I said that's that's fine yeah but they should be driving the agenda the agenda shouldn't be dictated to them by the other I think it's just opening to suggestions saying that these are here's the things we've noticed that you may not have noticed that we might be interested in volunteering and they still drive the agenda because they can say we're not putting it on the agenda but thanks for the input here's our wish list you decide out of all these that are submitted from all do that but the primary wish list should be developed by the planning board in the in the individuals of these other boards right the individuals On The Other Board

should be providing their input for what they're trying to work yeah I think we're from my perspective one of these things are getting updated and reviewed I don't care how it happens yeah because it's your role not ours

don't know of any meeting that's not open to the public I Don't Think We're Alone yeah everything but executive session you know what I'm saying sort of this thing that like nobody gets any input there's plenty of opportunity for input If people really want we don't always take part we could you always take public comment well there's a three minutes I do we did I think from affordable

housing the first meeting we had was an information meeting where we took a public input yeah those are great and then you know we then got in and at some point okay stop we've gotta we gotta put an article together that we can take to a uh public hearing so

competing priorities do you want the planning board and George to to establish the priority list or is that going to be coming from the board that's my question as as I thought we were pretty clear on this but the planning board should be setting the directive of what they want to be bringing to us we don't know what's on their agenda we don't know what the the hardships or whatever they're having in terms of their you know I don't want to be creating which direction or appointing them to what ordinances they should constantly be changing I I think that's kind of an overstep so two things that could come out of this would be to delegate to the plane Board responsibility for putting together priorities for the next town meeting land use policy uh proposals on why that

would have to be delegated they already have that Authority stamp of approval and because because when we go out to the other committees it's important that they understand the select board is on board with this and supports it I think they just have to watch the video I think they just need to read you guys as a mandate if anybody has a question of it so I think I I I do understand why you're here and I think it's fair because

bring warrants to this board and we're either going to say yes or no based on whatever it is that you bring us and so right out of the gate if this board doesn't feel that what they're working on aligns with the policy the comp plan you know whatever I I completely understand why you're here and I think it's fair um I I think that that's what they're looking for is that they don't want to go through all that work to know that they're going to come here and it's going to get rejected I I think what your appointment rich is though is that it's up to them to go through it all so they can start something and then come to us and we can either say at the end yes it's a good idea or no it's not something we're gonna put on a warrant issue and what they're advocating for is maybe a little bit more of communication up front so they know hey we're not going to spend 500 volunteer hours on this if we know

that the select board is not interested in bringing this to the town if a planning board that you support and they answer to you comes to you and saying hey we're having problems with this why would you dismiss them I'd say I'm not voting for you next year yeah I mean I'm not saying I agree with you I'm not saying I understand I understand the point I agree with you 100 I don't get I mean this is just I mean and we're gonna Superfluous we're going to be for Authority from us for Authority that you already have and we're going to be kept up to date at these monthly meetings yes and I'm assuming that um I don't think any of us are so shy that we won't say what the hell are you doing exactly so I think I think you'll get an idea and I think that's fair I think that's if that's what we're looking for you're obviously I mean you all okay I mean that some maybe another everybody's sitting in the table there uh came so

and I'm good and that may be my personality if I could just say you know here it is you know cite it because it's now the law I'd be perfectly happy too but it's just democracy don't work that way uh you know we want to keep it fair we want to have an open process you know that's why all these meetings are public and everybody has a chance and they can I mean everybody has the opportunity they can call you they can call a member of your panel they can call George is the thing I'm sure people on this panel have called George before um everybody has that option in town so the discussion that we had about affordable housing in the in the state the timing of it do we move forward now with it who makes that decision are we going to work on it now or are we going to put it on hold and this may be an awareness issue more than anything because it's too premature right it's too premature and I push to get it done

last year and obviously that turned out to be a dumb idea um so I just want to make you all aware of that right now there's no way we can get anything done before the first of July so if they don't extend it or they don't exempt from it there's going to be a window or whatever you want to call it vulnerability or a window where somebody could come in and say I want to put three houses you know on this lot for the not exaggerating a little bit they could come in so there's a win of opportunity where somebody could come in and do it according to the state law and my recommendation is and what I would shoot forwards for your information is that we not do controversial land use changes at a ballot election I think there is much to be so rather than shoot for the November deal my recommendation is we wait until the town meeting where we've had plenty of time to vet all of this stuff and there's much to be done

learned whatever on the floor of the Town Hall uh meeting so you would so you're just so that I'm clear you're suggesting to stay vulnerable from July until April that's what that's what I would suggest we do rather than rush it for a ballot thing where you're going to have a very low turnout and you can't at least in the town meeting you can explain it you had people get up on both sides and say this is why I don't want to do the resource protection this is why we need to do the resource protection and I don't think we're talking about hundreds of houses I mean I think you know we're probably not talking about that big of a of a gap so that's I guess that's what my plan of attack would be is that we let the state finalize their rules we find out what's going to happen to there's 17 different pieces of legislation that modify the original and that all has to sort out by the first of July I'm gonna film this one's gonna

take a while yeah so uh so George you were saying that you felt like that was you felt like it was going to go into effect on July 1st I think it is you do think it is even though there's all this legislation that hasn't been sorted yet there is but the housing crisis has not dampened at all and so the question will be and the proposals on the table right now up there are to pun it for two years right I don't see the governor and the legislature doing that and the other ones are to exempt every town under ten thousand those are the two main proposals right yeah I don't see that happening because think about all the towns in this region that are in the Portland this metro area so I I think it's going to go into effect July 1st and if it does if it doesn't good if it's punted or they oh don't require us to participate if not there's a six month window there that somebody can walk into the code enforcement guy and

says here's a duplex with a additional unit on it I'm always kind of subject to that aren't we there's always a chance that could always happen no matter what steps we take now um am I wrong on that George because we don't know what the final ruling is going to be so there's always that chance that thing that could always happen they just released the final Rule Last

July 1st the only thing that's going to change that is an act of the legislature to delay the implementation date or exempt every town under 10 000. it was the only two things and the reality is it's not even a six-month extension because the earliest we could do it is if we wanted to do the paper ballot as the first week of First Tuesday in November so it's a five month or whatever it is well you could call a special town meeting we have before right yeah I would advocate for trying to handle it sooner than later because Win Lose or Draw on my opinion on the state ordinance I think when the fact that we have local Municipal control for these sorts of things we want to implement that as soon as we can but making sure that people are fully educated on it so I would think that if we could do something that incorporates a special meaning time meeting that would be beneficial I'm not as I'm more I'm fairly

comfortable with the paper ballot because realistically if you look at like the results of the election about as many people voted in the election as voted at the town meeting on the secret ballot so it's a similar turnout but in both cases a public education component to explain the two options I think would be important which we had kind of started to do until the monkey wrench got kind of thrown in at all but I'd advocate for us trying to do something sooner rather than later and we're still looking at probably but it's not going to happen much before January by the time we write it up that it three months of various meetings my clock starts right now so George I wonder how close with what they're with what was being proposed to go on at town meeting this year versus you probably haven't had a chance and it's completely fine if you can't answer this question right now the final rule you said just

came out last week that's right did you do a comparison of the final rule to what you had already written and are they close how far away do you think they are the real Crux of it is the comprehensive plan really is very much in this going in the same direction as this new law the differences the comprehensive plan says a lot more units but keep them in the character of the community and the neighborhood so instead of allowing three stand-alone houses all beside each other on a two acre lot this says have a single family with an accessory apartment on the date in the daylight basement and over the garage so you look you look at it it still looks like a single family the duplex with it with an accessory apartment on the back that was the that's pretty much alignment with the comprehensive plan recommends the state has said you cannot put any size restrictions on the units right therefore that says you with that plan

would not would not satisfy what the article was was not in comply that's why we polled it it was not the article that was we were bringing up was not close to in compliance with the state rule so we'd have to go back to square one and say okay how do we get there and do all of the things that so there are some it'll take some some tweaks yeah but to get something on the ballot for next town meeting you've got the summer to do the research you've got the fall to do the public process and then you've got this the winter to get it through the process for official Town meetings now I would be surprised I don't know how many extra units you would get it would lose or lose gain whatever because I'm sorry no no problem this is one of those classic examples if this is like what you gentlemen see when or what I mean you guys know better than us you guys are the experts on this this board is not um we would if you guys came to the

board and said hey we want to get going on this I don't I don't I've never seen a boy say hey now hold off let's let's let's flip the coin I mean I mean at least two of us want to see you move faster than what you're proposing you know doesn't get us anywhere for wanting that so I mean and we can take a look at it we can yeah I will see what happens I think it's hey we have this coming up you know in the next couple meetings and you gentlemen are here and giving your you know um update you say hey we we think that we

need to get moving on this not think we are getting moving on this and we're going in this direction and if somebody on the board wants to say stop you then we can have a discussion but I don't think we should have people of your caliber sitting here and then we're kind of fighting you that just doesn't it's not good government I'm good with that I think that's I have a question about the solar array situation you said that there were applications where people are trying to apply what can that happen because we don't have anything that governs that right now could somebody it could yeah so just be applying as a conditional use I don't think anybody's correct me if I'm wrong have been designing projects yeah I've seen survey work happening so there's that but it's not there's no application that's gonna be for us thank you at this point explain quick question for explanation on that so a conditional use permit

even if it's in a non-regulated resource if someone's field they but all they would need is a conditional use permit just standards yeah it goes before the planning board but it sounds like essentially there's the planning board hands are tied it's just yep right so if someone proposes a solar project right it sounds like so if someone approaches us proposes a cell tower or solar field outside of resource protection Zone it's just a guaranteed go through the motion sign the paperwork and it gets built I'm just asking for if clarification is that what our current process is yeah in the fee structure for that is very limited like yeah I mean what are we charging it's the same fee as putting in a a breaker in your in your house yeah it's cheaper to put a solar panel than a new outlet interesting yeah so

well that's I mean I don't want to tell you to do your job but it's like I know that surrounding communities well I mean that's for them to decide I mean we're not dictating to you but I think you know well I think there should be uh one one thing the reason I bring that up is if you go on uh the solar sighting tools for the state they have mapped like priority areas based off of the transmission line and the infrastructure that already exists and there's two lines that run parallel to Prime spots here in town so whether you um so the if you're solar sighting tool if you use if your developer looking at the solar sighting tool Durham has some green lights flashing and whether you want that or not is you know Win Lose or Draw whatever your opinion but we just don't have any since it sounds like it's just guaranteed here

level is exempt for projects under a certain footprint and a lot of the developers build up to within a square foot of that footprint so it's a expedited process and uh it's just yeah it's just through the door so game started 10 minutes ago I'm not missing anything

please sit down no sir Hollow common has been closed I apologize Summit yeah so I'm getting emails um from the greater polling Council of governments um we pay membership dues to them and we're supposed to have delegates and they have no delegates for the town at Durham and they would like to know who we want to appoint as delegates you get two delegates and one alternate

you explain to me what the time is I'm not sure what the time commitment is but they do expect that like they have a summit at St Joseph College on May 25th where they talk about everything it's working why are you smirking who's working you my name no sure I'm just look no um

I would tell you this every year they ask for somebody to be on this Summit committee and I can't think of in the six plus years I've been floating around here somebody's ever done it I just they want names I'm just giving them well you're a member of the GP Cog okay Community saw any what's gonna happen there and they're gonna talk about their budget they're going to ask for uh members to sit on their executive committee and you vote you're you're a delegate you vote for some of the things that they bring up so they're just they're just reaching out to me saying Durham doesn't attend you have to delegate what's going on [Music]

I mean my initial thought is if there's anything we can do to leverage benefits for the town that's a good idea so if there's opportunity to play a more active role but and that directly benefits us via grant opportunities or even getting you know more help like when George is doing some of the planning stuff and he needs some maps from GP Cog and they've prepared him in the past so like if there's sorts of things like that that help us I see our participation paying dividends but it sounds so it sounds like we haven't been so are we missing out on opportunities or is it no no we're still a member I nominate Joe Thomas yeah that's how that works

government get us a better deal on salt are we part of the engine I just found out that we switched over to GP car because we got better assault prices yeah kind of if you go on the 25th if we're not missing out if we're not missing out on something we can be the absent student you know we can be Ferris Bueller you know but I can share that they're not interested

that's where they have their annual meeting all day thing no it's from uh two to four Thirty cocktails afterwards yep you want to nominate later like I said no sympathy for me yeah like I said they're just reaching out to me and I'm just letting you folks know

I couldn't commit to that so can we ask you a formal appointment and say Okay blah blah letting you know do it no that's understandable so could you want to wait to the next meeting yeah no yeah what I was going to suggest is could you just get us some more information of exactly what it entails if you're confident so be it that's the information but let's relate to Joe um I would not want him to miss out on this opportunity because usually it's a vice chair too by the way

sorry um so no um as far as the vice chair goes um but let's let's let's just make sure we got all the information as far as what the actual commitment is and what the actual responsibility of the commitment again with the benefits we're already members of GP Cog we're getting our maximum benefit it's just whether what we lend to them would be you know I'm guessing they get the vote as an executive hey we're buying this activity yeah and you vote on their type of stuff yeah yeah we still would you shake hands we're not going to be blackballed and not get our GP COG they're just reaching out saying hey we don't have any delegates from Durham what's going on

[Music] okay Durham his historic district commission reappointments these were just two that were left off last week two delegates in an alternate that's half the board that's three quarters three-fifths that's why that's right I mean unless you got just like Portland probably has a Town Council of what 25 people or something I think they just want some names yeah I think your name would be great so we're going to sign those I'm going to make a motion to hang on let me let me let me get that going here um so we have two appointments for the Durham historic uh commission these are reappointments three appointments yep we are looking to reappoint Mary Fallon and

Linda Fitch Litchfield excuse me um could I get a motion for that my move that we reappoint both of them did they need to be separate motions any discussion if there is discussion if someone has something to say about these individuals this would rest right here and we would have to table this for an executive session so just cautioning everybody that they haven't if they haven't heard that Spiel before so hearing nothing all those in favor [Music] or zero they are reappointed

RSU 5 budget validation referendum needs select board signature so the rsu5 put out their warrant um it's uh Jessica's going to post it seven days before the the election but we need signatures from the officers to send back to them what if we don't sign all there so there's three copies there there's no sticky notes to point to where I'm supposed to sign I don't know it's right across the time it'll be notified appraisal I got on

that much yeah it says it should say municipal offices right here right here yeah does that is that what it says it's just this location of posting time and date right there see the municipal office of the town of Durham son yeah right here yeah date time and then it says location of posting

oh yeah one page right here right here need to just sign hand vents is that a fact hello it's during me no mine's consistently illegible there should be three yeah panel already member May request to have an item removed from the consent agenda for discussion I have a motion to accept the consent agenda I would like to remove

the minutes for discussion okay please all righty so do we talk about an hour do we have to vote um nope you can remove that now we'll vote on to approve and sign the April 14th and April 21st 2023 warrant both payables and payroll so moved second

seconded oh all in favor and I gotta be honest with you I can't think of one time that that's ever been separated but with that said I think we need to have we need to have we need to have a moment minutes from the market the April 11th the select board meeting not the March April [Applause] okay but I want to discuss something about it so what do we do so it needs to be seconded April 11th that's what I don't it's from the April 11th meeting so it needs to be seconded and then we can have a discussion discussion okay so when I read through them I know that we made some edits and it said that I abstained but it still reads the vote is three to one and then Heather Roy abstains but there were only four of us at that meeting so it needs to say three zero and that I abstain instead of three what do you know what I'm saying yeah

yeah trying to remember how I don't I didn't print it out and I'm trying to remember how much worded but I think do you have it right there Jerry yeah I have a he's right here somewhere I just gotta find it so there's the one that says three to one it's right here I got it yeah there's two places it's when we voted for the minutes and then when we voted for the chair and I abstain from both of those votes and yeah I mean so I read it as three in favor of one abstain it should have said three zero one I think technically that's the way I took it so that's I mean because I know I noticed that too but okay right I noticed that too but there were only four people here so right I just did okay okay

to indicate that the minute should be amended to say three zero one so three in favor none opposed one abstain does that make sense yes if that's what if the way that this is your motion is to approve the minutes per the correction of three zero one yeah I mean I I read it that way because I at first I noticed that but then I read it I I just saw three votes and I thought it was good yeah

indicate a change in the the median minutes from April 11th to say three zero one so that indicates there were four people three in favor zero opposed and one of them stand and then it indicates that Heather abstained from both votes

does that make sense to a man I think [Music] it was the meeting minutes and the um board chair nomination that's right it was the four chair nomination in the meeting minutes you know and the meeting minutes the vote from the market to accept the meeting minutes from the March meeting oh gotcha because I wasn't sure I didn't attend that gotcha so you need to yeah if there was

a second I think you need to because you seconded the initial I don't need to it somebody else in a second is there a second if not I will okay so any further discussion on this of Jerry it's a good job staying this time four oh yeah

this is always fun upcoming meetings in town news select board meeting will be 5 9 23 and 5 23 23 at 6 30 p.m um I know Joe's not here [Music] what I would like to see and we talked about this is maybe on the 5 23 if everybody's available we meet maybe a half an hour early and maybe we do one of the town properties that day like public works or something um what are we doing I just like I think everybody should be you know just get acquainted with some of those me you just go yeah just just see the just see the building just so because you will get a comment from here to here by the time you're done with three years you'll get a comments yeah because I actually I ran into one of the public work guys at the time meeting I just said I've never been in the facility I'd love to go no we'll get you know I mean you're welcome to go on your own it's nice sometimes as a as a just do it as a group and knock

out a building I've never been to the Taj Mahal no is that what we're doing Public Works on we'll do public 23. yeah all right I'm glad you bro because I drove by the other day I was like oh we talked about doing more of the building so thank you for bringing that up yeah no problem that's why you guys pay me the big money on this that's right um also there'll be a planning board meeting on 5 3 23 that will also be at the town office at 6 30 P.M um Jerry do we need an executive session tonight we don't but I got a couple other comments that I want to make before we adjourn is that cool like upcoming meetings or something yeah I just I told people 9 30 for the budget committee it's actually at 9 00 A.M on Friday Friday this Friday the budget uh Jerry's Workshop will be at 9 30.

yeah it's the workshop from MMA at nine o'clock Friday Subway's gonna provide lunch yeah [Music] am I bad time we get out of here um and just I like to have you think about this uh select board Workshop a date for that so you folks can come in is that something physically done on a Saturday it is it's a it's kind of a closed meeting and we kind of talk about some it doesn't necessarily have to be on a Saturday it can be during the week it can be like a any we've done them like maybe three so what what what I what what has transpired in the past as far as these go so maybe on next meeting we we carve out a little bit of time and we have a discussion about upcoming and we put down maybe one or two items from jobs one or two items gel one or two items or another and maybe somebody doesn't have any items and then we rank those and see what we want to do with this so it doesn't become we actually have an agenda when we go

into this it's not just a free-for-all so it works so that's [Music] yeah like if we're all putting up two does he get to put I mean maybe he has some things that he wants to well I think well I know add um discussion about um one of the things I would say that we need to have discussion about is like what are we going to do about the town properties that we're going to go visit for example specifically the church and the Old Town Hall things like that you know those are starting that committee sometime soon maybe uh you know maybe not right I don't share committee so that's that's one thing that I kind of want to bring up is typically I don't know how you've done it here in the past but typically there's somebody that runs that meeting if there's a facilitated you know the chair of the board doesn't run it because they're involved in the discussion so I uh what do you how do you feel about

that I still want the meeting to run a mark you know what I mean it needs it needs to be I don't I don't I think I should I agree with you though it shouldn't run a lot right I don't think again this is kind of like the topics earlier I think if people just put up there what they see fit a couple of things and move forward I don't think we need to turn this into an all-day event and everybody gets upset because theirs don't get picked or something of that nature it's just let's rank them priority if you have to you have two you have two I have two we might all have the same you're mine you know what I mean and as far as like if the discussion is that heated and debated they're not heated they just need to be like organized and you know someone takes notes and well the organization kind of like goes around I mean I'm just I'm just saying the ones that I've been at before have been facilitated if you don't want to do

it that's fine but I would be I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that how about it that's all how about if we do one amongst ourselves sure and if it's if you feel like it's not productive or on task enough and listen you guys have to be like Mitch I mean like milk right sometimes like what was happening when I was asking my questions if it's not the prop because I'm going to ask a lot of questions like let's do because I want to understand the process right and so it's totally fine and it does not offend me to say now is not the time as long as I know there will be a time right I'm totally fine with that so if you if we have one and you feel like it's not productive enough or staying on task the way it needs to we could then entertain the idea of a facilitator if it's necessary really like some of them will call them goal settings they're like what are your goals for 2024 and some of it might it might not be much of

anything it could be maintenance could be going the same way it might be that might be the first discussion we have before right that says what does everybody think about that the board might not want to have it right I definitely want to I was making my lists and I was like we have a meeting every other week I have 26 chances to address things I have a lot of but again once again like we're

we're not even following topic as it is right now if this is something that we want to all discuss or bring up and plan meetings and stuff like that let's let's put that in new movies it should be in the address right it shouldn't I just want you to think about a date that's all well that's what I mean we should put that so we can formulate a date how we want to proceed I think your question built a case for a facilitator right there I can't plan my day tomorrow I know it's it's very hard but I mean it's something that we can add for the next meeting new business proposal for future workshop for select board I think other than that

do and then I think it just didn't get on the agenda well I I like the other to put that on the agenda or is it something that you can do I left it off purposely because Joe wasn't here I'm gonna get both Joe's in the same room that's fine like like all I'm saying is next week put it on but we can't have we're kind of breaking the rules yeah basically what you're talking about we're doing yeah

wants to proceed with that being said I'm looking for a motion so moves any discussion all those in favor nice job so I'm gonna I'm gonna switch it up a little bit I'm gonna have Jessica end the meeting so take minutes are we talking about Justin