TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ July 22, 2025

all righty. So, let's get our meeting started. Apologize for no speakers tonight. They are broken. So, we all need to use our outdoor voices. Uh, we have a quorum here at 6:30 for the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty. We have a form at 6:30 on the 22nd of July. And do we have any amendments to the agenda?

Yes. I'd make a motion to uh first remove uh subsection B under the consent agenda. Approve and sign conservation planning board appointments uh to uh I'm sorry, you want to move to old business. Yes. To to old business. and uh also

move the new business down uh until after the consent agenda so that we can finish that up quickly. Not much other at the end. Do we have a second? Any questions on the motion? No discussion. All in favor of the motion. Any opposition? Seeing none, that passes unanimously. So, we're going to start with um the approval and signing of our um sorry, is there any

public comment? Okay, seeing none, no public comment. Now, we're going to move into the um brief discussion and oh, meeting. Do I have a motion to approve last meeting minutes? So, all right. Do I have a second? Any uh questions on the motion? Any all in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, meeting minutes are approved. Thank you. All right. For real this time, we're going to move into old business, which is um the approval for appointment to conservation commission and the planning board. We had asked each person to come in just so we could say hi and get to know them before approval. So, just up the top here is Brian. Stick me in. Brian, you come on up real quick. Absolutely.

Can you just tell us your name and uh what street you live on? Yep. Knowing land. Cool. Um so we saw that you applied here for the planning board and we just wanted to give you a chance to tell us why you're interested in joining the planning board and and

we'll take a look at your application. Yeah. So since I moved to Durham, I really want to get involved in some level of public service. So, I threw my hat in the ring when we were doing the mayor's committee, but against Bill Schneider, so it's kind of hard to get selected for that. Um, Aling is one of my neighbors. He's been talking to me a lot, encouraged me to apply for this opening. Um, I think it's something I'd be pretty good at. I'm a very detail oriented person. I'm a IT architect by trade, so I'm familiar with having to stick to statements of work and, you know, following project plans. I'm really good at meeting guidelines and say I got to stick to certain storage requirement or IO throughput for designing my solution. That's what I do. So, I think it's right up my alley.

Awesome. And uh I know you spoke with the planning board and you're familiar with their meeting frequency and schedule and that Y. Yeah, I know our chair likes to keep that time slot every every month. So, we always try to make sure that folks are aware of that when they're joining. So,

I've talked to my wife and she's encouraging me as well aware of the commitment. Perfect. Do we have any questions for Brian? Okay, awesome. Thanks for coming in. Answer our questions. Is I'm going to butcher this last name. It's Todd. Chadrey. Chry.

How do you pronounce that? Chadry. Chadry. All right. All right. Todd, you just introduce yourself and tell us what street you're from. And I'm Todd Chry. I live on Snow Road. been a resident here in uh Durham for closer to three years.

Cool. And what makes you interested in joining the conservation commission? So I'm a professional ecologist. I have over 25 years of experience. I have a doctorate in ecology and I've dedicated my uh career to public service in science informed conservation. Wanted to get involved in the community and and give back provide some of my um expertise and knowledge and interest. Couldn't really find any people.

frequency and schedule and stuff like that. Okay. And that works perfect. Uh do we have any questions for Tom? All right. Thank you. I I know it might seem silly to have folks come in just to introduce themselves, but I like to have this with our public meeting here. And these are couple of uh we don't always have a lot of vacancies and new new people that are looking to volunteer. So very excited to have new people volunteering on on boards and committees. Um do I have a motion to accept the two uh appointments as submitted? So do I have a second?

I'll second. Do we have any discussion? All right. All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, uh, your sentence I mean terms. So, thank you. I'll pass these around. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Really excited to have new folks. Um, do I have a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda as presented? Second motion by Josh. Do I have a second? Second by Rebecca. Do I have any questions on the motion? All right. Uh, all in favor? All oppose? Seeing none, passes unanimously. Try to mess with our order here so I can make sure I get this right now. Um, so next would be manager report which

Jerry submitted in writing. So let me pull that. Um, he just wanted to let us know on August 12th we're going to have um the tax commitment and review and we're going to have an update from the employee handbook from our human resources consultant. He's going to have us a draft next week. And he was also letting us know GP Cog was selected as the consultant to work with the conservation commission on the open space plan which is 100% grant funded. And he will um he said that they will more than likely talk about this during their goal setting session. And I know that Jess said that they were going to be here tonight which is great. Um and he's going to be attending the town city managers conference on August 13th and 14th. Any questions for Jerry's report? Not that I could answer them.

All right. Um, do we have any board member reports? Uh, I don't have any tonight. Deb, um, I just want to publicly acknowledge a few things from the department reports. The community service, uh, work that the fire and rescue team have been involved with. Um, being part of the Memorial Day and the Moxy Day parades and helping with traffic over in Lisbon. Um they supported the car show for supporting Lego. Um and they're going to be at the Ambits car show coming up for local charity. And then they did a touch truck as a daycare. I think that's important. There's some good information in those type reports. I think they're just posted as part of the

consent. They're post. Thank you. Rebecca, did you have anything? I just had one thing. Um, I've got a lot of comments because Calvin and his team went around and bush bushwacked bush um bushwhacked bushwacked bush. Um, the roads and people are very

grateful and they did a great job. I should that both of you reminded me of things. One um we currently uh from what chief uh Jerry said in his report we have two openings for the um public works department right now. recent hire has has left. And I just wanted to say

uh today was a very busy day for the fire department with three calls and a lot of work and just want to thank them all for their continued hard work. We're really fortunate to have the fire department that we have here. I think that covers everything. Um so we

can go into our workshop here. So I can I have this I have a work thing. Yeah, you're good. Hopefully each of us so please just um if we could just have the whoever is representing each board in committee just come up take a seat tonight. Um, I think we asked the chair or vice chair to to come up.

No, there's no assigned seats. So, I was really asking Jesse. I didn't know if she wanted to be sitting next to her. So, yeah, good point. Um, so I just want to go a little bit over process tonight. This is kind of our second year doing this goal setting workshop. I did that last year. It worked really well to get feedback from all the boards and committees that report to and through the select board. Um, you know, it's important for us to hear from you all what are priorities that you're seeing and then we hear from the town staff priorities uh that they're seeing and then we as a select board also have priorities that we want to see addressed. But there's only, you know, so many days a year, so many hours and so many volunteers. And so we're trying to do a better job of making sure that we're uh allocating our resources and time appropriately uh based off of what what is kind of our continual goals, but

also uh unique opportunities like the open source planning and things like that that pop up. So I just want to go through and ask each one of you to introduce yourself and tell us which board in uh or committee you're here representing and what role you have on that. And then we're going to ask you all to give us your two goals that your boards and committees have come up with for being top priorities for the year after we've done the round of introductions. And then we will give that opportunity to the select board members to ask you questions, clarification questions, and things like that. Um, and any additional resources that you might need to bring those to fruition. And then after we kind of end that portion, the select board is going to have a discussion on what we heard tonight and what we had as part of our goals and objectives based off of a conversation we had a few meetings ago.

Um we'll talk about this tonight, but one thing that is always a limiting factor is our staff time. Um and so I'm hoping that Mr. Barge can let us know uh how things are on his time because a lot of times these things end up on the planner's desk. So he'll be able to give us some feedback, but we're also going to hear back from Jerry after he gets back from vacation and can catch up with us on all of this. So any questions about the process before we start?

All right, Juliet, we'll start with you. Okay, Juliet Cassander. I am the chair of the solid waste committee. of the conservation committee. Dave Coulson and I'm co-chair of a new committee which is the Durham Agricultural Committee.

John Talbert, chair of the planning board. Perfect. All righty. So, um I'm going to take notes here. We're going to have the planning board go last. So, I'll just start with with you. Yeah, Juliet. So, all right. So goals um goals of the solid waste committee um was to

recommend strategies to reduce waste tonnage through recycling composting programs. Also, the biggest goal is to determine the long-term solid waste plan um for the town. And there were some options that we are looking at. Um and I'm I'm looking at our um our bylaws right now. Um out of all the options that we started with, there are really three that we're focused on right now. One um is to maintain status quo. So

what we're doing right now with Pella um second is to um find a location and build a transfer station and then the third is uh neighboring with say pal or another community to do um either of the two that I just mentioned. So those are our overall goals.

Great. And actually I should say so the the deliverable that we were charged with is to provide a costbenefit analysis to the select board based on those options options. All right. Yes. Um, so I know that you've been working on some of these over the last year

and do you have um is this these goals are based off of just continuing that objective and what sort of direction or resources would you need from us on the select board to help focus on these two goals? Yeah, that's a great question. One or question I have is um a schedule

for us. I know that we have a five-year contract with Cassella, right? Which started I think last year, I believe. So, so um you know, we need to have a plan in place before then go the transfer station route. That's going to take years, right? So, maybe by next town meeting, we should probably have a something to discuss ahead of that. So, maybe January. That sound like

right. Yeah. Yeah. That gives you seven to five months roughly. Yeah. Okay. Um is your plan to get uh community involvement in terms of Okay. And do you all feel like you have the tools you need to do that or is there additional assistance you need from us?

We're good. We're good. Okay. I think so. I mean I'm the select board representative on that. Uh, one thing we did have that we already were supported on was the list of um, town owned property. Council worked on that with George. Thank you for that and brought to the last meeting. So, that was a support that we needed that we got from the town.

Yeah. Um, I don't think um I think our cost benefit analysis or CPA is going to be relatively simple. Yeah. Right. Like I think we're going to break out factors that are easy to understand. Mhm. So, I think the content will be not too complicated.

Um, in in my mind, when I look at your two goals, number one being long-term plan, but then number two being recommend strategies for waste reduction. That feels like a and, not an or as in like you want to do both of those. And so, uh, I think that that long-term reduction is a great starting point as a long-term goal, but at the same time, do you need anything from us regarding, uh, recommended waste reduction strategy? And is there anything the board or the town needs to provide?

Not no, not right now. I think we just as a committee, we need to pull everything together format and then come back. Yeah. Because I think of that stuff kind of sometimes it's just outreach and education of like how to compost workshop,

right? Which we're talking a lot about. 30% of trash waste is food. Exactly. You you said that you were um reaching out to or getting community members involved. Is that or they're going to you will be what are your do you know how you're going to go about that or

um well we haven't fully flushed that out yet but it'll be probably a mix of surveys and um public information um meetings or gatherings if we do need support that is probably the area we would need support um is there is there money available for that? Um, we'd have to check with Jerry just about that sort of stuff, but um, we could see opportunities about like other mailings that are going out or we've helped with, um, surveys in the past and stuff like that. But just having us an idea, especially if some of this information is going to be requests ahead of the next town meeting that can help us if we identify something that's a necessary expenditure, we can build that into the budget. So that January time frame is really good.

What my my thought process is that we have to as a committee um keep diving into this but then come to you the select board. I don't know if this how far this is going to go. Do you know what I mean? Like you might not even make it.

You know what I mean? So yeah. I mean when you have those three options, it could go nowhere cuz everyone could be happy, which I don't think everyone is. Um, or should we go as far as new transfer station, which is a multi-year endeavor, you know.

Um, but before we go too far into what a transfer station would look like, it would be good to hear from the SL board on how you think, you know. So, um, our next meeting isn't until September. We're skipping August. So, maybe a good goal is to come back here in October. Yeah.

Or something. Yeah. Yeah. And so if you need to get on our meeting uh our agenda, just email me and I'll make sure uh we put it on the next available meeting. Okay. Understanding that if you're trying to give us a deliverable by January,

right? We'll get you on right away because time sensitive. Okay, cool. And we do have a new uh vice chair. Oh, excellent. And she is amazing. Thank you for bringing her on, Catherine. Oh, she's the vice chair. Yeah. Excellent.

Yes, she's waiting for Awesome. Cool. I was thinking in the meantime, I have pigs, so I can make everyone's scraps right now. That could be a solution. Maybe we should strike that. Yeah, they need everything that you um cool. Thanks. Yes.

Yeah. So the conservation commission got the um open space open space and conservation strategy um community action grant and yes So um 72,000 will go um to the consultants that we selected GPCOG and FB environmental and then there will be 80,000 for um town funds um for mapping

um administrative stuff like we need printouts or community events. So that's great. So awesome. And then our um GP COG, they're actually going to match. They're going to provide 14,000 in funding. Wow. Yeah. So, yeah, really excited. So, we're kicking that off. It's going to be a two-year process. Um so, the first goals

and um are going to be to come up with a stakeholder list. Um and then um I think one of the first steps will be inventorying um mapping, you know, finding out what mapping resources the town already has. Um and then planning some community events as well to start getting stakeholder and resident feedback on they value um for

open space. Um, so yeah, that's kind of the first goal and objective is just a little one. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then I guess I I would say our second goal for the year is going to be to kind of stay up to speed on um development proposals in front of the planning board. So the conservation commission has an opportunity to just review and weigh in if we have any comments. Perfect. Do we have any questions for conservation commission? Can

I ask a question? Sure. How um how are you going to try and identify the stakeholders? Is that like a public information meeting you're going to have or it's a really good question. We were going to we have a meeting tomorrow night, the conservation commission's July meeting. So, we were going to some start the stakeholder list. Um, but maybe we do want to try to do a survey online to get feedback on who the stakeholders should be.

I just wanted to mention that I had uh read the statement work that you sent out. It was really I think really well done. First, you know, I'm kind of a reveal in this whole topic and I'm like, what what does this open space plan really mean to me to a resident? Like what what are the benefits of it? and uh they're pretty significant. And so my thoughts would be it's really important for us to make sure that our residents understand how big of a deal this grant is to pay for all of this work and the work with you guys. And we should really make sure people understand what it is we're doing and on the deliverables that are coming out of the statement of work.

Yeah. And that's one thing I wanted to say is that I think that um kind of a a statement from you all very early on here as to what what you received in in um like kind of that telling that win. So we can share that in the news blast on the Facebook page and those sorts of things because I think that when we hear terminology like open space plan there's not a lot of necessarily baseline understanding as to what that means. Some people might feel it's restrictive. Some people might feel it's it's not. So, I think really communicating that at the onset is going to be essential to help getting that good stakeholder uh buy in so people are aware, you know, what it means. But also, one thing we hear every year during the budget cycle is we need to bring in outside grants and outside grants. And I think this is, you know, huge $94,000 is a pretty good outside grant, which is really great because we know that it's a lot of time

from uh volunteering getting all that stuff put together. So it's a big win. So sometimes just a goal maybe we we celebrate the wins. You know so executing that whole thing is really your number one priority for you might not have time.

There's a lot this year. Yeah. It's going to roll into next year when we'll see like the final deliverable of this open space plan and then a conservation strategy pulling in, you know, different ways to increase um lands to be conserved in your zone.

Does the grant specify a deadline of when it needs to be utilized by? I think so because we put in our application a 24-month period. So we pretty much need to stay on track initiated this month basically. Is that utilized or committed?

Do you know? That's a good question. Utilize committed question. Is the do you need to have the grant funding utilized or committed by by the 24 months? Because sometimes with grants as long as you have it committed like in a contract.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if there were leftover after 24 months, I mean, I guess that would go back. Um, are you saying what would happen? No, no, I was just asking and could we spend funds after the Yeah. No, I was just asking so it's a 24month in sometimes with grants it's you have to have the funds committed within that 24 months in the span of work can go a little bit later if necessary. I was just it's not I was just curious.

That's a good thing for us to clarify and we can ask our contact at um8 Ashley and maybe even Kelly with GP co would know. Um but yeah, I think that's a thing for us to clarify. We want to make sure we can use all of our funds that are available to us.

Yes. And just with us being a a town a meeting form of government, if certain things that come up that would need legislative approval, we have to make sure we're falling within a town meeting or because the board doesn't have certain authorities. Not saying that sort of decision would need to be made at any point during this process, but just in case. So, it just be good to know.

And I think um we were able to get Jerry to sign the contract. We were originally thinking we might not be available to sign that contract with the consultant. Um, but I think he was able to sign it. So, we should be all there.

Yeah. And GB also it's sign. So, in terms of your state, sorry. Um in terms of the state so you're meeting tomorrow to and then are you going to want to come back to us to say how you are going about with the state to guarantee the stakeholders or find the stakeholders rather it would be great to get the feedback for sure um from you all on the stakeholders um yeah so we'll we'll plan for how we're going to figure out the stakeholders probably think about how we're going to draft up a news blast um I think one of the things we were waiting for on the news blast till the funds were deposited into the town.

because GP COG is, you know, they said they're starting to see other towns hearing that they're just about to get their funding. So, this funding um wasn't it's from Noah. um it's not under threat like the some of the FEMA funding for some of the climate action grants got taken away. So

will we say when it's actually Yeah. When it is Can you let Jess get that out? Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean as part of this grant we did do a series of stakeholder interviews. This was a couple years ago. So there were probably 15 people in the area in the town that we thought were stakeholders.

Yeah. I was going to ask if you could just build upon that because I recall there's the meeting at the town at the school. Yeah. Where a lot had a lot of buy in and I think there were some if you find the notes from that there were some people

who hadn't initially been identified as uh representing a stakeholder group that showed up to that meeting and had a lot were really good to say. Yeah. So I think casting the net over the same people and then also a wider net because now that there's some monetary value associated here and some some you know gas in the tank we want to make sure get everyone on on board. So,

and is there anything you see in the short term meeting from us? Yeah, we'll just collaborate on that stakeholder list and then if we need any sort of reasons. Yeah, if we need approval, but also um we are going to have there's going to be an initial meeting with GP COG. I'm not sure FB environmental is going to be there also but um and the town staff

just to get to know um everybody. So I don't know whether you know we could have representative from the select board. Yeah, I would love to participate in that. Um, if we know when, just the sooner you let us, the better.

If over half of us want to attend, then we have to do a public announcement cuz we're all going to be in the same room together. Um, so the sooner we know about that, the better. Yeah. And as far as deliverables and goals objectives for this year, maybe you want to think about, you know, setting a target date for the project plan to be done. Like that's one of the first task of the statement of work and it would be good to say hey by the end of November or something we'll have a project plan in front of the SL.

Yeah. Consider the next thinking project. That's a really good point Deb too because then sometimes I think that when we're trying to engage with stakeholders if there's not a a finish like a timeline people are like oh maybe I'll do the next one or the next one. Whereas this is like this is the chance to get feedback you know. Awesome. Do we have any other questions for the conservation commission or do you have any other questions for us?

All right. Next in the hot seat. Um, so I'm Dave Coulson. Um, I'm representing the a Durham Agricultural Committee. Uh, so we're a new committee just formed. Remember what is the end of last year? Right at the end of 2024. Yeah. And so we've been meeting monthly since then. Um we started looking at uh the comprehensive plan and a number of things that were put into the comprehensive plan but not fully fleshed out. And after looking at a number of things, we decided that our best route at this point would be to look at definitions that might be inserted into the town ordinance that would help define various aspects of agriculture. So I can give you this is is basically the outline of what those are.

It's it's not fleshed out. That's what we're working on right now and that's what we'd like to bring back at some point um this fall or early winter the word you know all those pieces. Um, so there's seven of us on the committee and we're assisted by a staff person from the main farmland trust who does help with a lot of research and suggestions of what other uh similar committees are doing in other towns.

Yeah, because since the our well, first off, I want to say I'm really excited to have the committee because that was highlighted as a goal from the last from the 2018 comprehensive plan. And so I like to think that getting it done in 2024 isn't that bad when you consider the COVID stretch of years in that 2018 and 2024. But we're really happy to have the committee um and how much active participation already is really impressive. I went I I went to their first meeting and learned all about definitions and that there's some working definitions or change and changes in definitions at the state level and we may want to look at like how agriculture is defined and that can have uh impacts on how um certain activities allowed or disallowed on on farms in a municipal setting. So, I think I'm really excited to learn more about this. Um, and uh just especially

because there's a little bit of outside assistance, too. That's not something that we have to to cover. Um, you know, these sorts of things, we do usually engage with our town planner um to make sure anything town ordinance, George is kind of the mastermind behind all of it in terms of understanding and things like that. And so in in the short term, is there anything you need from us first to get started on any of this?

Uh I think we're pretty far along in our definitions. Um we're we're trying to get that into a form right now that we can present to you all. Yeah. And that's what we love is feedback on how they're written and what what if there are conflicts in in the language. um the ability to potentially move the at

Yeah. And I think it would be important to uh engage with uh our town planner on timeline because for certain changes to ordinance language there needs to be there's like a backwards calculation of timeline in terms of public hearing and an official process. So if you have a desire for like the next town meeting to put some bring something forward to us for us to consider to put on which would require a change of language, there's a there's a a time frame there and it's usually right around the time we get really busy around budget season and stuff like that too. So we just want to make sure we are setting everyone up for success to bring that sort of stuff to us. So it' be good to um you know we can connect you with George to kind of get that time frame explained. Yeah, we're familiar with George some of our meetings.

Oh, you have already. Well, not since we've been officially in committee, but in the early days of helping us understand what what our our roles might be. We met at the year. Yes. Any questions for Dave? Mr. Talbet. Thank you. Uh first just like to point out Juliet is also the vice chair of the uh planning board. Allison Puridan has been I won't say how long. And then we're happy to have uh flesh out the board with our fifth member.

So we're at 100% strength in terms of active members which is which is good as we're going into the year because uh work effort and everything else is a big chunk of of what's ahead of us. So, I guess one of our goals is to continue to

stay on top of um submissions, applications for conditional use, new subdivisions, uh other things. And so, that's sort of a priority to get those done in a timely manner. Uh we're blessed with having uh George and his work ethic and and efficiency and and knowledge. And also I have to commend all all the members of the planning board for working hard and there's multiple any new project has more than one two three meetings and so uh you know we've we've been busy and so that's staying on top of that as our number one priority. Then number two and and we met the planning board met the beginning of July. Our next priority is really um I think everybody's familiar with cotification so I won't go into a lot of detail on that but it's kind of a reformatting of our land use ordinance to make it more user friendly. George will tell me if I'm wrong and throw something at me short to make it a little bit more user friendly. So um and

also the consultant that we used went through and uh found issues with where we're in violation or not in conformance with state laws and then u so on and so forth. So it's kind of right now two parts to the cification effort. One is uh I guess technical and legal issues which are where's the comma, where's the parenthesis kind of really simple stuff. It also includes there's some things where right now the town ordinance as I said is is in violation or not conformance with state law tiny homes uh trailer parks uh just recently the state with their in their infinite wisdom rewrote the affordable housing thing and so all the hard work that George and the planning board put into it we're not going to have to go back and and make some significant changes would you say George major changes potentially

minor technical issues, whatever. But there's some work to uh to bring that in line with the with the state ordinance. So that's sort of the first group of things. So some of them like it or not, whether you like tiny homes or whatever, it's the state law. And so we're going to have to be change our ordinance to match the state law, size of houses, um

trailer parks, the state has said this is what you can do. And I assume that u the state didn't I just won't go into it anyway. I assume they're trying to approve the housing availability and that's one of their major makes changes. So that's bringing ourselves into conformance. The affordable housing thing is not u we don't have to conform

whatever uh until July 1 of 2027. And normally I would say let's just get the damn thing done with uh but we learned a lesson I think the first go round with affordability where we got ahead of the state did a lot of work and then after we were in a semifinal mode they came back and said no that doesn't really match what our intent was and you're going to have to change it and George and the board put a lot of work in to get it ready to be approved a year or so ago I guess whatever in 2026. So my thought this time is let's not get ahead of the state. Let's see what guidance the uh department of economic and community development puts out cuz that is a big deal. I mean it is uh it will could change potentially a lot of what we're doing. So those are the technical and legal issues. There's also 14 uh

minor policy uh changes and I think George briefed you on the board on that back in uh May. Yeah. And so there are things from um sprinklers to back lots, private roads, uh what the appeal the difference between what the appeals board does, what the planning board does. uh and some of them, you know, what's minor to one person maybe to a major to another. So, we're gonna that's the other those 14 things we're going to take into consideration and see how many of those we get done and get included because the nice thing is we get them done, the consultant we've hired, we'll put them into the codification. codification is done, the ordinance is finalized, um final draft to go before the town next July or June, excuse me. So, we're trying to get as much of that behind us as we can. Um and then uh I so having

said that and one reason I asked you last is to hear what others are saying. So, as the chair said, even things like definitions have to go through the formal process. may seem like well I don't have to tell you you know get a formal approval of agriculture but there is it's a change to the land use ordinance so that's an impact on our time and so um what we've done in the past and will do this year is uh the process already George and the staff I want to commend them have already done a lot of work towards writing this up um we've talked we the planning board talked about some of that stuff in June and we talked about it in our July meeting. We'll talk about in our August meeting. George will then put it all together into a a draft. The planning board will start digging into it in detail, discussing that detail after Labor Day. And so that's probably a couple of months uh of effort to do

that. We need to kind of figure out what size bite we're going to take of this. To say we're going to do all the codification in one public meeting is probably a bridge too far. I mean, that's a lot for the town for us, for me to grasp and for the town to grasp and say, "What do you mean? What about this?" Um, so we'll come up with a schedule that breaks that up. We'll do, as we've done in the past, public information meetings. The planning board will will draft up the final our version

of the draft of the the codification stuff, send it to you all after our informational meetings, send it to the select board for your approval. We'll say this is what you know we want to do and then we do formal public hearings and again that may be multiple and there's a difference betweenformational and the legally required uh formal meeting.

Yeah. Which would be required anything that the other committees did. So, uh, we have to we have to include that in the process and then get it in the warrant and and but it's really important I think because this is so big that selling it theformational piece is going to be be huge. We've had great effort, great luck in the past of doing that. So, um, I guess the last thing that I just will throw out there that, uh, is a thing down the future is we everybody's been talking about the comp plan. the comp plan uh expires it or is 2029. It's

10 years old in in 2029. So, it's technically no longer valid. It's a multi-year process to get there. We're So, we're just I'm just throwing it out there that we're probably going to ask for funding in 2026, next year's thing.

And uh George has kind of worked out a plan to divide it into two pieces. x amount of money 2026 approval uh x amount another half of it 2027 approval and then wrap that all for 2028 uh comp plan reserve fund it's exactly well and we came into discussion

we may start working on it if if it's approved we may start working on that in 2026 and that money that if it's approved if it's approved in 2026 6 would start getting spent. So it's not I mean I I like the reserves. Yeah. But kind of like what we did with the um green three val we budgeted for it in a couple separate years to break it up.

It the way it's being looked at it takes a a six figure number and maybe reduces it to two fiveyear numbers. So the impact on the bud also be on the budget committee's has a lesser impact each year. So, uh, George could probably talk over the the plan of that, but I just wanted to throw that out there because this time next year, uh, or in in the springtime, we're going to be asking for money for the job and there's there's I mean, there's increased effort on George because those applications aren't going away and so there's going to be a lot of work and so supporting George and but I will say the staff, chief, uh, Calvin and uh admin Jerry has already put a lot

of work into it and for that we're very grateful. So I open to any comments or questions. Yeah. Um I was going to say like you John, we'll talk about this a little bit after we go out of this section, but uh conforming with the 20 with the the affordable housing that seems like a can to kick a little bit down the road. I think about with our new town meeting being in June, really convenient that we don't need to make a decision until July 1, 2027. This could be something that was voted on in the June 2027 uh meeting because there's a lot in that codification and I know you all already have your uh your

project review task, which I've been to the meetings that can be several months and full meetings each month. So, um I understand the desire to kick that housing affordable housing, especially because we could do something and then it could be changed. So, um I like that idea. Does anyone um and comp plan, I'm glad you brought it up because I know we brought this up during briefly during the budget process earlier uh or earlier this year that the price to get comp plans done is expensive and we would probably want to break that up. So I think having that discussion now if Mr. Guard you want to add George you want to add anything to let us know. Um does anyone have any questions for John?

I have a quick question. Yeah for the comprehensive plan will there be a committee formed for um working on updates to the comprehensive plan because I think they do that in 2019. There was a committee a special committee that was formed.

Yeah. So I would I can answer that. we would form a special committee the comp plan just like in 2018 probably have members of other committees uh be on it but I think for me our goal would be to get other people as well involved in that. Um, but I also think at the at the same time very interesting is like we have the open space planning going on right now which and we have the codification process. So this could help do some of what needs to be done in the comprehensive plan on the dime of a consultant that we already have a full grant for and at the same time we've already paid for the codification that can highlight some of the what needs to be done. So we might be able to peel back some of the expense of that comprehensive plan right there. So another thing for these two committees to be communicating a lot about too. So

and the same with agricultural is there absolutely going through that process. So now if we can find a consultant who will give us a discount for that work George is willing to work on it. I didn't hear George say that. I'm pretty sure on that.

Uh George, did you have anything you wanted to add from from your perspective? Yes. Yes. Okay, the floor is yours. You want to retract Mr. uh Mr. Tal's statement about weekend work? Yeah, actually um I urge John to bring up the issue of comprehensive plan because as he said currently the certif certification of the plan, excuse me, which received an exemption from the growth rural requirements of the growth management act so that Durham is all rural uh every other community. If you don't have that, you have to designate growth areas and you have to try to get 75% of the future growth into those areas. So, um this new state housing uh initiative, the goal of Durham to keep its rural character through large lot zoning and low density, uh with the latest legislation on affordable housing, that could really be affected. Um, as you mentioned, you've got till 2027. There could be some legislative

changes between now and then, but um, I think it's important to recognize that the next iteration of the comprehensive plan. In addition to having to look at that whole issue of the rural character goal of the town and maintain that, there's just been an awful lot happening since 2018 on a lot of fronts.

I haven't noticed anything. Yeah. And the good thing about that is much of it was covered in the last iteration of the comprehensive plan, but there's a lot that hasn't been addressed. And so I'm looking at in addition to doing the planning board reviews and uh developing some GIS mapping for the town. Um I also do strategic planning and long range planning. And so I'm kind of looking at how all of these pieces of the puzzle that you've been talking about tonight fit together. and can flow into that process. Some of which you've already talked about tonight in terms of the open space plan and the coordinating it with the U comprehensive plan update. So what I've kind of done is um go went back to your select board prioritization discussion that you had back in June. You had eight topics that I picked up from your discussion. Five of those relate to land use issues, the ones that affect me and what I do is um economic

development was a real priority. The downtown visioning extension of the community facilities discussion. Uh you brought up gravel pits and uh those kind of fit into some of the past work that we've been doing on energy. Uh lots of communities are now locating the large solar farms in gravel pits and I know that the conservation commission has done some work in terms of looking at optimum sites and identified those. So there's some opportunities to partner or

combine some of these projects and they all fit together and that's how typically a comprehensive plan is most successful is rather than compartmentalizing everything look for how these things can overlap both in terms of policy objectives. So if you get one uh strand like agriculture which

is now coming into the mix that wasn't to the level of implementation working with alternative energy uh for economic development then you you not only get more bang for the buck in terms of consulting but you also get more bang for the buck in terms of community benefits. So what I've been kind of doing is just kind of strategic planning looking at how both from a time management standpoint for my role with the community and serving all of you. I've also been looking at how these projects all fit together in terms of a strategic planning approach to uh

aligning all of these projects as you go into the next comprehensive plan. And I did prepare a graph that kind of shows that plus from my perspective where the different groups plug in and where I plug in and I'd be happy to share that. That would be fantastic.

You want to take that time? That would be fantastic cuz I don't want us to all sit in our separate games and bending the wheel separately when we all working on the same thing here. know, if you see things in here that don't fit your particular idea on any part of it, uh, it's all just a starting place for discussion.

is quite truthfully the long pole of attention the planning board or we can capital and agriculture or uh conservation or whatever down the road is uh there's a limit on his his time and his availability. So I appreciate what you're doing here which is priority. So what I've done is I've looked at the time frame for going forward through the

uh comprehensive planning process and I've identified uh seven tracks. codification is the one that I'm currently most working on and I've completed the uh technical review and submitted the town's response uh which is due next week and I've also as John

mentioned prepared research on 14 relatively minor policy issues and I've been working with the planning board on that so that process is pretty well underway. Um, one of the things important I need to bring to your attention tonight on energy is that Jerry and I have been meeting with the greater Council of Governments on the uh potential opportunities for economic development and uh Judy Cog has agreed

to if the town wants to move forward uh on economic development. I I did share with the select board I think it's been almost two years now with uh on battery energy storage that the area down near uh Cushing Road with uh has a lot of gravel pits now between Cushing Road uh Brown Road and Paulo Road. There's a very large area, relatively undeveloped from a residential standpoint, but it has many things going forward in terms of the potential to create some sort of an agriculture and energy economic development district. And again, that's where this looking at these things in combination rather than in isolation really begins to open up some ideas and vision for how the town could really have something very significant here. I think you're all aware that there's a company from San Francisco was wanted to start permitting for 300 megawatt better energy storage system which put the town into the high gear

for doing a mortorium getting safety standards. The town is now positioned with contract zoning and all the work that we've done on solar and um battery energy storage system to really effectively try to approach something like this. So JB Cog is pretty much prepared to partner in addition to all the other stuff they're doing. Um but they they have some identified some grant opportunities.

We're going to change their name to the Greater Durham Council and this is pretty phenomenal that Durham is getting very heavily engaged with GP which is for a town we're not even in the county. they are and to have Christina and even you know

facilitate your community facility that's pretty phenomenal. So they're really really engaged here and I think there's some real opportunities there. So they have economic development people. Uh she's already identified two potential grant sources. Uh one of which is through the uh I think it's the economic development administration. They get like a certain amount every year for all the communities to work on economic development. And so she has said that uh they could get $10,000 to work with us on economic development. And then she identified another one uh and they're waiting to get the clearance on that funding which she she said was supposed to be July 1st, but she also mentioned another one related to energy and she said uh that was for 20,000 and I don't know that there's any local match. She didn't mention it. She didn't mention a local match for the uh for general economic development but she

said the deadline for application is the 27th of July. So, if you wanted to pursue that, I mean, that's why I'm bringing it up tonight. Um, I've already kind of formulated a concept for an economic and uh, excuse me, agriculture and energy economic development district. And I think that would really position the town to compete well if you do go for those uh, for those grant funds. So, that's kind of why I kind of brought it up tonight. And so, you know, I've kind of identified here, you know, obviously the uh open space plan is the is conservation commission on the chart working with GP cog consultant. Um the agricultural commission committee is working with M family and trust. Uh so my role and and I'm not sure exactly how you intend to proceed on the community facilities but just for the sake of starting the discussion I indicated that most likely you folks would kind of take the lead and work with JRO on that or or

some consultant do space studies whatever we're going to do. So my involvement probably peripherally at least in all of these but my primary focus would be obviously codification GPO on uh that energy grant if you decide to go for it uh in on economic development and uh the housing part of it as John said um parts of it go into effect sooner than 2027. There are some minor definitional changes like you have to exempt all of those multifamily which is three or more. Uh you can't have any of that go to the planning board. So that's got to change quicker than the issue of Durham

back in 2023 2022 2023 I think it was put into place the requirement that every if you're going to do three houses on a lot you have to have six acres. I think this last line of legislation took that away so that you now have to allow up to three full-size houses on a two parcel.

So that part and that goes to CEO now instead of planning board that part of it won't go into effect until 2027. But the exemption from the current through per law not going to the planning board for subdivision review which if you put three put a house with two accessory apartments and build it new. That would have to apply for subs. That change goes into effect uh I think January this coming year. So anyway, the housing part

of it, the M&A is available to flush through some of those issues. We have more time on that, but probably need to keep it in this mix because it does take time to the overall workload. So, I did provide some on the second page just some details on each of these and um I won't go go through all of those. You can look at them. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Um but hopefully this will be at least helpful in seeing how all this stuff could does fit together and could all work together in terms of approaching the next iteration of conference.

Thank you, George. What do you need from us for the 20th? Sorry. Oh, wait. I was just real quick. What do you need from us for the 27th deadline? I kind of need the green light to tell tell Gar go for the gr and and I'm just going to have to you're going to have to say George do whatever it takes on that. Uh I I feel a little and Christine Egan feels really uncomfortable with you know you're not having vetted the concept for an economic development district that I've described and and if you feel uncomfortable you know putting that forth then I will certainly not do this but that's that's if you if you want something done quickly in terms of that funding opportunity which you can always decide not to take the money.

That's what I was going to say. you know, you could be can you reiterate what exactly is the grant funding for? Uh, can I ask a question? Um, so George, you mentioned um alternative energy district. Yeah. Um, does this grant have to do with a like a district and focusing an area in town or could it be more like focusing on ad landravel pits across town and not

making it a district? I think that the Grand Fort energy could be more generic. Okay. But I do think that like maybe more of like going on the heels of where we ended up like looking at areas in town where we might want alternative energy, right? Taking that further

and just because you do it in one place doesn't mean you can't do it in others as well, right? I just mean like I think of district mapping it. So I think when you when you when we say district I think sometimes the thought process can be this is the district where this is allowed implies it's not allowed outside whereas my understanding of this process is you're developing a district where you might create incentives to bring it there doesn't mean it is disallowed outside of that district. Um, George, does that sound like a accurate description?

But when you say district, you're not talking about between Hollowwell and Brown, right? You're talking about like a certain land area, maybe like a type of land. Like what you're saying is you want it. I think what George, you're saying is a specific area.

Yes. On a map. On a map as opposed to not saying the district is just all gravels or all open field. So I guess that's the one thing I would just as a resident is that I would consider maybe not focusing on one part of town

maybe more like that area like why would we want to develop that I think part of that Julian is because of the proximity to transmission corridor is what drives that in terms of like connecting to the grid I think that's part of the reason why previous development

the other aspects about it are there's a relatively limited amount of residential development in that area. There are a lot of gravel pits and other floor gravel pits. There's wood processing businesses. So there's already a lot in terms of

I almost feel like if we pigeon hole not pigeon hole GP cog and we say we only want to look at this area but they could help broad maybe there's a better location maybe there's better reasons to not focus there but if we say just focus here

I don't think I don't think pursuing the grant pigeon holes us I think it gives us the opportunity to have those sorts of conversations though and create something that you can build on that's Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing it has going for it is an aquifer there

because one of the things we've been looking at is and I discussed with Jonah is that um if you're going to do economic development here, you know, I've got kind of an outline of this that you I'll give to you before I leave, but basically if you're going to do economic development, you have to be realistic about Durham's prospects. I know a lot of people have talked about wouldn't it be nice if we had a coffee shop and what about you know businesses you don't have any public sewer and you don't have any public water that really limits what you can do. The other the other important aspect is uh you're you're uh you're

good and bad you're stuck in the middle of everywhere good and bad and and so you've got anybody that lives here can go to Auburn Lisbon Brunswick all the shopping commercial need are met in very close proximity and if you did a market analysis and I've done like economic development over 40 years in various communities and jurisdictions and basically when you do a market study you have to say look there's 4,000 people here that's not enough to support Hanford

you know you need 40,000 people when there's support right so there's just not any opportunity in this town for those types of economic development uh the comprehensive plan talks about two forms of economic development talks about agriculture and it talks about homebased businesses well neither of those really generate a lot of tax revenues. Uh but there are forms of agriculture such as Springworks over in

Lisbon and Backyard Farms in Madison has 40,000 square feet of hydroponic uh tomato growing and they're marketing it all over the place and that has 200 jobs associated with it. So there are some real opportunities here in agriculture and energy and using potential solar battery energy storage to support that type of agricultural economic development. I mean that's that's real for Durham

and access to water supply. Yeah. And the water supply, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you can have the water. Yeah. So I I agree with Christina that it makes me nervous sort of saying don't go do this without any feedback. At the same time I think one of the biggest issues we hear is you know we we need to do this we need this development in some in some manner. Uh and uh I think what

gets me over that hump to to say let's do this is the fact that we can say if if we do get pigeon holed or something like that, we can just say we're not accepting the money. Yeah. So I I would make a motion that uh we uh we

have I mean I feel bad saying you have 5 days to get this. They're going to put it together. Oh, they're going to put it together. But I will obviously need to assist them in that and the main thing they want is clear direction and you you need to move quickly if you want them to do it.

So I hope after grants that's what they do too. I would make a motion then to uh have George work with JB COG to uh to apply for this grant and u that's a good think that's do I have a second saying applying for a grant accepting a grant two different things um I think time of is of the essence here though so I'm comfortable with that knowing that we would need to approve exactly.

And by the way, I contacted them, you know, on July 2nd about this. So I just found out about this grant today. So it wasn't like we were sitting on it. Yeah. So just before we we do approve it, in terms of the turnaround time for grant approval, have they indicated?

I don't know the details of that. So just to give you the uh she said this is from Christina auction two national renewable energy laboratory funding opportunity. This is a more robust auction with a funding opportunity currently open through the national renewable energy laboratory closes on July 27th. There was $20,000 available to support strategic energy plan. The energy planning work would be customized to address the interests uh outlined in that study that I did. Uh some of these funds would cover GP COG's time. Some may be used by other consultants. Uh immediate an immediate answer from Dur's needed for GP COG to prepare the grant application.

Yeah. And and the town of Durham would need to commit to being a highly engaged partner for this option to be successful. And she said, "We're convinced you guys do that." Yeah. And I think that this supplements our opening space planning uh as well as prepping for comprehensive planning. That's good.

And this kind of piggybacks a little bit on we had talked about what was needed coming out of a solar ordinance and a battery energy storage ordinance update was some sort of ranking tool or some sort of prioritization where we've developed an area that is kind of preferred for development. And this is a good good way to start that process. Should we get the grant funding and decide to accept it? So, I'm I'm comfortable.

Yeah. I I should say I appreciate your willingness to sort of jump at this last second and their willingness to help. So, thank you for that. Yeah. Any other questions for George? Uh, all in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, passes unanimously unanimously. Did you get all that, Jess? Um, George, this is really great and super helpful. Um, Uh and so now I think what we're going to do is we're going to move to the section of the meeting where the select board is going to have a discussion on what's been presented to us. Uh and then

what our goals and objectives are. What I'm hearing right now from the committees is their their plates are full. So we're going to want to be mindful of of that. Uh the one thing I didn't want to say with um codification for the planning board. I know that when George brought us the list of all the things it's like there's the very baseline insert Oxford, you know, change this to also or instead. Um and then there was some more uh changes along of lines of like sometimes we say select board, sometimes we say select men, sometimes we say board of select men, sometimes we say board of fixing those sorts of things. And it seems like then there's another tier of things that are a little bit more substantive and then there's a tier of things that would require you know a policy change. And so I think that what we'll as a select board need to do knowing that you all have your hands full is kind of help give some direction

on what we consider the more important of that list to focus on. Um does that sound I think that's fair. I mean it's early days. So um and like I said the first two we have to do tiny homes cuz that's basically the law. So we have to do that. um we don't necessarily have to do the 14 minor policy things, but George has already done a lot of work with the staff on on those kinds of things. And so we have time to sit down and say we can do all 14, you know, or we can't. I mean, and and let us, I guess, say, kind of figure out how much of that effort and it all depends on how many subdivisions come in, how many other things are going to come in because some meetings, we've had a couple meetings that were liked in applications. You know, we we've not had a subdivision for a while. So kind of opening the door to say, "Hey, you can you guys figure it out if you could do all of this is I think a way that I would recommend we do

cuz we'll very quickly come back and say, you know, tell you what, um I u changing the appeals board and what they do is is extremely controversial. We won't get to it." That's a bad example because I don't think it would be. So I think and then George is very quick to say I can do this, I can't do that. Uh you just kind of add in another task and if if the grant is approved, he has another task ahead of him. And so like I said at the beginning, he is he is the long formal attempt uh on what we can accomplish. So if it Mr. Sheriff, if it's okay, I I would just assume say prioritize these and maybe these are the top five that we think, you know, we've been complaining about back lots forever. Let's put that baby to bed, you know.

So, do you want to take the first stab at prioritizing that and bring I think I think to be fair, that's what we'd like to do. Yeah. Is the board comfortable with them taking the first step? Perfect. Yeah, that works for me.

Okay. All righty. Uh well, we're going to enter unless there's any other questions for anyone here, we're going to enter into our section of the discussion. So, you can all have your seats. Like all meetings, you're welcome to stay through discussion. Maybe we'll end up popping up with another question. If you're here, we'll ask you, but if not, we can follow up with you. Um but this will be our discussion phase. Now,

I do have a question for the record. Is this document Can we add this to the website for tonight's meeting? So anybody watching this publicly can add it to the notes from the same with um the list of potential. tonight and answering this. Um I think letting you all prioritize your task before coming to us this time around. receiving every catch me and then side was a little bit more effective and I'm really excited though.

really busy years of making meaningful changes. We will maintain.gov emails. Yeah, they're born with Yeah, thank you for coming. You all deal with these issues. Yeah. to increase waste we'll thank you all again. So, we'll just get back started here. Um,

pulling this together cuz this kind of sounds like you selected from what you heard us talk about and prioritize these. And I'm just looking back at my notes and this kind of captures um everything that we talked about. You know, I think things that aren't listed here that we did talk about was uh downtown visioning and what the process is going to look like for that as a select board goal. So, I'm just going to put that here.

I think you have that on there. Oh, do you facilities? Oh, facil community facilities. Yep. Um but the when I look at our goals, so Rebecca, if you just don't mind me, I'm going to recap each person's goals. Rebecca, you had review committees and consolidate um where where where possible um engage increase engagement and participation with community and outreach events. Um and create more efficient bulky ways today.

Yes, Josh, you had engage community for um can't read what I said participation, create a commercial revenue source or you know economic development and explore grant opportunities. We're doing pretty good on that so far. Uh Deb, uh committee training and and consistency, uh expand and review sources for uh revenue sources for like businesses and grants and stuff like that. Uh communication improvement, HR policies, uh downtown visioning. Uh I I wrote my own exercise facility in downtown. I don't think you said that. I I put that in there. Uh and then open space planning. And then for myself, it said review the budget process, uh, downtown visioning, economic development, and discussing gravel pits. So, what I'm hearing tonight, um,

first off, I think that each board did a really good job of bringing like two defined goals and objectives to work on. Um, you know, they came prepared. Uh, I know they all met independently to come up with these goals and objectives. And I think that it's just like I was reviewing it. It's just sounds good. They they've got it figured out. I think additional um things we work on are probably going to fall on us as a board as being a lead on uh just because I think that in the past we've kind of delegated some of that stuff. But what we're delegating this year, I think, are those things that have already been brought to us. Um, and then with George having already kind of laid out his time, I still don't know how he manages to do everything he does in the hours that he he has, but uh I think he's done a good job of kind of giving us an idea of his resources. And so I guess my question would be for us, what

in addition to what those boards are doing we want to take on as an individual board uh objective for this year? and and I have one, but I I won't let you all have an opportunity to go out of all of the things. Yeah. Like and so you're saying that I think that I'm comfortable saying that in terms of what's our what we're distributing to work to the boards and committees are exactly what they brought us tonight. I don't think that needs any refinement. Um

so I think that if there's anything else, you know, we have some time associated with assisting them on those, but I also think that we should probably pick a couple things to work on that the board leads. And so I want to know what people's thoughts were on that.

I I have it's not necessarily that what we will lead, but I do feel it maybe for us to partake a bit more like Deb, you do such a good job with doing like attending solid waste meetings. I think that's something better like me. I'm speaking over my phone.

Um, in terms of attending the meetings and understanding what everybody is is talking about and dealing with. Yeah, I think ju just a stronger leadership presence and organization of our oversight of the committees. I'd like to offer to put together a matrix, a discussion paper for an upcoming meeting to go through that. I mean, kind of

use that as a talking tool to kind of just strengthen our our oversight on Yeah. And I think that ties in well with like what George was saying because there's going to be so much work go happening across these uh committees working towards the same goal. And I really think that the work we do right now can help decrease the expense of that uh comprehensive plan. If we are coming to it with all a bunch of stuff already done, already identified,

already worked on when we're now asking for a smaller lift when we're going to do that comp plan. Um, and we're engaging people over a longer period of time, which I'm really excited about. But I think that tracking that and I think that's your wheelhouse. I know for sure that that's a good one. So,

but yeah, I mean I think that if you do that, I would love to. I'm like I'm thinking in my head of how I can get to the conservation meeting tomorrow, but um but I think it's it's really important for us to show up for them and be there and and partake. I mean,

so we've talked a little bit in the past about a model where each boarding committee um can kind of have their select or the leaison um and that's been a little bit more informal. So, I've usually served as like the contact person for the conservation commission just based off my background. Deb's been doing the solid waste committee. Um, previously I think Heather was going to some of the meetings as well. Um, you know, I do like to give them boards and committees like their breathing room because sometimes I think

it's like they might have a conversation and they're not sure how the board's going to receive it and they might need to work through that. But at the same time, I do think we can do a better job of being more connected and and there because I know that anytime we do one of us does go to a meeting, there's usually questions of like what do you all need to see from us on the board. So, we're not giving a policy direction at that, but we're saying we'll definitely need this hashed out and this hashed out in order for us to hear more about it. So, I think there's some good opportunities there. I think along with that, you know, from the GP COG overview last time, I left thinking that as a board, we should be present more out in the community. Like when there's community events,

you know, we should try to go. I would I sent you a note. I'd like to suggest we get some sort of name tag or something, you know, select board member that we could wear when we go to an open house or something or a farm event or

we, you know, maybe connect with some of these leaders and go visit their sites and stuff. Yeah, that was a takeway message. So along with overseeing the committees is just more um presence out in the community and and look for ways for us to go out and introduce ourselves and provide an avenue for our residents to provide face to face feedback. Yeah. Instead of you know just

I do think that's a little bit more of a individual board member preference thing like a board policy of you want me. Yeah. But I do think I have noticed cuz I go to a lot of the GP stuff. A lot of other municipalities have a from their municipality. Some of them might have like um polo shirts or or professional shirts that have their name actually embroidered on there in their role. Others have name tags. And I do think that there's a I like the idea cuz like I you know there's times where not that everyone needs to know who I am but there's been times where I've gone to things and people are talking to me um or I seen them talk to someone else and they have no idea who that we're on a a select board member.

Yeah. Now we got um we got town staff got vests from a company. Yeah. Town of Durham embroidered on Yeah. And I think something like that could be something we think about. I Yeah. I mean, it's not it's not too far off. Maybe there are opportunities like if there's maybe not um

like whatever events are going on maybe at Eureka Center like the bean suppers or the food truck rallies or like us making a conscious effort to show up. So, yeah. And I I do think that that just falls to personal preference. Like I do things and stuff like that. But I don't think that we

we don't have to be like to every single thing, but like when I did the tour of public works, it was so eye opening to me. And I I feel like, you know, everybody should do that. Not everybody in the town, but like like solid waste members, everybody should have a tour. Maybe even conservation members should have a tour. I just it's a really understanding the basis of how our town works is a really vital part to making all the committees and all of the structure happen.

I think it's a good thing point because we did briefly a couple years ago different iteration of the board. We're like trying to pick like a place to go check out like we get a tour of the fire department as a board. We got a tour of the public works department as a board. I think what you're saying is like if we're going to do that, let other boards and committees know like the select board is going to go for the 30 minutes before they're meeting visit the public works. Um all other board and committees are welcome just to understand because like when I went over there I was like I didn't realize we had the whole like apartment

Yeah. complex and kind of like everyone's working 20 hours they're sleeping up there and this is great you know. Um, so I think that's it's it's like it's like I think about like anytime you get a new job or you were looking at a process like you go see every step of it, right? You see every element, you understand how it works.

And I think it builds um confidence too because then someone at the board can be like someone asks a member of the board a question about functions of the town. It's not always, oh, we got to go ask the town manager. We got to ask so and so. Like we can't know everything, but I have a better idea. Um so uh a big ticket for me for us focusing on this year uh I want us to discuss the budgeting process. Um so we have an elected budget committee and we don't have any um legislatively approved bylaws or anything like that from the for the budget committee. We know our budget committee was elected uh elected from the town for a vote in the 30s. And then there's no um statute

statute 38 dictating what a budget committee does other than if you have a budget committee their um their recommendation needs to be on all on a warrant article. That's all it states. And so we've adopted a process of joint committee meetings with the budget committee and that sort of stuff. All of that is just kind of word of mouth year after year. This is how we've always done it. Um we don't have a legislatively approved. So something approved by the town of voters

process of what the expectations are there and I think we need to rectify that um 100%. Okay. I for me Okay. that. So for me, I think we definitely have to talk about the next steps uh of the community going in there that we

Yeah, that's the other that was my other big one. Yeah. I mean whether we end up taking a uh you know action in the immediate near term. The fact is we had a great community uh group that looked at that. We had a really solid summary of the results of all of that effort and we cannot let that sit dormant. Yeah, that was those were my two. So, I went through everything that we talked about previously and the two that came out for me is top priorities and there's other things I'm really really interested in but if we have to follow the same rules of two priorities it was um budgeting process and future of the downtown community space because what that those next steps look like don't exactly know yet. downtown community could be getting artistic ren renditions. It could be working with GP COG to learn what other grant opportunities are. It could be establishing a greater stakeholder group to get some more input. Um but already

things that are popping up is like the budget the baseball team being like maybe we want to put an advantage and it's like there might be short-term opportunities for us to purchase equipment but we need to make sure we're not putting it right in the location of a future driveway or access point. So we got to figure out something there. I think um those are my two. Does anyone else have one that they would rec one wonder they would recognize their priority?

I think mine falls under the economic strategic about um minimizing tax burden for the residents finding other tax and and I should just clarify because sometimes I I get this question. Well, how does development or energy development impact my taxes? And I think that what we can communicate better is when we're taxing property valuations, a property that has a battery facility, a property that has a solar facility, a property that has some sort of energy production facility has higher valuation. And so that's where now when we calculate mill rate,

right, we're a town that has like 500 million in valuation. I think if you have if you add a couple hundred million worth of um energy value uh valuation to that. Now when we calculate mill rate, we're dividing the total budget by 700 million, but 200 million of that is one rateayer. So that's going to drive the mill rate lower. I think I just want to make sure that we do a better job of communicating what the economic value is to an activity and don't take for granted that we're just saying, "Oh, all new structures are economic development." Like, we need to do a better job of communicating that sort of stuff.

Yeah. Um, my last Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, I was going to piggy back, but you can go ahead. I was just going to say communication. Oh, hey, that's what I was going to say. was going to be something I wanted to bring up too. Um, you know, I spoke with uh GP COG earlier this year and they were talking about um and Deb, we had talked briefly about the like social media and stuff like that. And at this year's annual GP COG meeting, communication and outreach was one of their discussion points that they had a presentation on. And they were pointing out that traditionally small municipalities our size relied on like local beat reporters who like came to the town meetings and wrote up an article for the newspaper. I know the person responsible for our town and I think he's responsible for every town in Anki County and part of family county. for uh um Sunnel. And so we're not

getting that. That's not happening. What's happening is if something really ludicrous happens, someone's watching our meeting and then catching up and writing something. So unless we have, you know, our hair on fire, there's no activity there. And what GB Cog was talking about was that um you know with that lack lacking communication happening organically that it's important that municipalities um control their communication rather than just letting it fly to the wind and hope someone picks it up. And an opportunity that could exist, and this could be for further discussion, is GP COG could explore hiring um a small municipality

outreach director and that person could then we could band together with several other smaller towns. And so they would work for GP Cobb, but they could be assigned to us and three other towns for 10 hours a week. each town gets them for 10 hours a week or 10 hours a month to come in and assist with uh developing the the news blast or setting up a scheduled uh a schedule of um uh social media posts or those sorts of things cuz I know you know but like they're explaining to me like municipalities Facebook pages or or social media pages don't drive ad revenue. So even if you're posting all the time you're not necessarily getting in front of people. So it's just something to think about a communication strategy that we could expand upon. So like to hear your thoughts.

I I think yeah communication but it's also in my mind I was thinking more communication towards the um the town. Um you know we have a lot of things that are going to be needing not just stakeholders but town people's thoughts

and opinions and approvals eventually when we have to vote on it. And so getting the word out and communication to them versus I mean I'm happy to also like have a conversation with Christina and find out you know I just I I don't know sorry that's my job and honestly like a monkey can do what I do. Oh,

no. I'm sure at least a ranging hand. Thank you. But I just I do feel we don't need to spend dollars on something like that when we can just It's really about being strategic and I don't think that we've been strategic. Correct.

Yeah. And that's where I just think having communication Yeah. is a goal. I just threw that out as an option. I agree. Um, you know, I know a lot of other municipalities our size and and a little bit bigger have communication directors who are generally a staff person who has x amount of their time set aside just to handle the newsletter, just to handle outreach strategy. And like you said, some of it's like, hey, here's the news, but some of it's also like, how do we get people to show up to this, you know, because how often do we get something to the town floor and it's been like we have beat the dead horse in here and it's like, I've never heard of this before. Why are you bringing this up for the first time? It's like John knows, he's like, this has been a three-year process. Like, you we've talked about this, you know? I think that's that's a reflection of like us needing to be better about getting

people involved. Yeah. You're never going there's going to be some people who are never going to show up. We want to make sure that the people who aren't showing up are the people who really don't want to show up, not a lack of understanding and knowledge.

Yeah. Josh, did you have anything to add? Because right now we're at budget process downtown. Um community envisioning visioning, economic development, and communication. For for me, the number one is economic development, especially if uh GB COG was able is able to apply for and we get the grant. Uh I I think I I agree with what John was saying. George is

getting borderline overworked. Uh and he may not mind and he's ignoring me now. He's working right now, right? Uh but it's a concern. U I mean, it's a concern that how much you're offering. Yeah. And it's not just George. I think, you know, I think you're all busy and overwork. I mean, I mean, I'll tell you, I think I think it's I mean, same way in my office. It's insane. I mean, I have I've had about what the hour and 10 minutes I had in between calls during the meeting. uh to not be doing something like this or when I was walking to and from my car. That's about all I had today. Uh and and so I don't want George to get burned out because unlike my job, there aren't a whole bunch of people who can do what he's doing at the same level.

Sure. Uh but I do think that that is the biggest issue we face for the long term. I also uh the downtown vision I think uh the more I the more we kind of we talked about it since our goal our disc goal discussion the more I've thought sort of you know I don't the idea of spending money for this is like I don't want to do that but at the same time you know we've heard the complaints about us using this space you need more space as a town office

uh use right it's just like it's like meetings It it makes it just makes sense that we have this process started and we can keep pushing and so uh I mean communication you know whatever portion yeah that's super important and I and I like that too but to me uh those are the two biggest things uh that we need

one thing I think we can do is I think that we can so econ like economic development and future of downtown and fishing I always feel bad. So I always look this way that I should like switch seats with them. So I'm switch

so economic development and the downtown vision is going to require good communication. And so I feel like some of this communication uh angle, especially now that we have Rebecca, can be hit while we're in the process of using like pursuing the down the the downtown uh in economic development stuff cuz we're going to be having GPO. They have facilitation facilitation experience. They have communication experience. we could add in our input there too to say let's as a product of you reaching out help us develop that mechanism we need to get more involvement so I think that those can go hand in hand honestly

I think also with um you know solid waste and the conservation and what um looking for the stakeholders and looking for people to have a say that is going to also I mean We're all going to have to work together to find people and to find I I don't

know. I think it goes back to us being going to the committee meetings and you walked out. We were talking about how we're going to use more of your time and you're going to go to committees now. Um we assigned you all the committee.

Um but going and actually working together to figure out how to approach people and how to get the word out to the wonderful 4,000 plus people in the town. Mhm. So I think that word of mouth has to Yeah. So we don't we don't have to figure out the details of how to do these tonight, but I want us to pin down what we want to work on. And so I started off by saying maybe we should pick two. We really have kind of four hashed out here. Um so I just want to recap those. I I agree with you though that the communication sort of comes with all of them. And so while we're getting the information out on the other three, we're working on the communication. So I mean to I I think I think you were right about that. So to me there's really three and that one just goes. So

would you say that it would be fair for us to say that our major objectives this year would be to continue uh downtown planning explore economic development and address uh the budgeting municipal budgeting process. So those seem like our three big big rocks. I think you taught me the word big rock three big rocks well two words uh of the year. Does that sound like a good plan? Now the downtown community thing might not have a lot to do. It might just be continue grant searching and stuff like that. But um if we find that these three things we just solve so quickly and we don't have anything else to worry about, we could then explore more a more robust list of things to address. Yeah. I mean, not to blame it, but I mean, the downtown envisioning, it's like with the conservation committee, what is really our role other than

Yeah. helping them. So, theirs is a is a separate that's separate from downtown. So, theirs is an open space plan, right? And that's more of like what do we want to see and how do we want to incentivize all of this? this downtown visioning is really just

what do we want to do in this center of Durham campus um and people have those drawings and stuff like that and and I think that that's going to be a little bit more driven by us um especially because the planning board has a super full plate um so I think we

would need to do the heavy lifting on that and and it involves a lot of money to do I mean if you're going to do it right that needs to come from us and not somebody else. I think right and I think that step for visioning is we've received a report from our municipality saying this is what we would like the downtown to look like. We're now responsible for bringing to fruition what our community's asked us to do that this year's deliverable could be an estimated cost and that's it. Nothing else. But we just like I think about it like when you see like a business that's got like a new campus coming. They have it all developed and they have the swanky little drawings with the fake people walking around and this is what it looks like. You know, I think some of that stuff could be important for us to start working down and even figuring out what it looks like doing this with a municipality versus

which is separate than doing this with a business, you know. Um, and then just maybe even coming up with a strategy for phases because like I think I like I just said a few minutes ago like baseball team wants a batting cage. We don't want to put in a batting cage which ends up being the only point of access where the walking trail should be going like

so do you want to take a stab at writing that up in a smart goal format so to speak and then not at our next meeting but the following one we should be I think looking at black and white these are the goals as if we would post them on the website.

Yeah. Yeah. And if we do that then we look at then at that maybe that same meeting we can look at like our overall umbrella approach over the all the committees look at a matrix what we're going to be doing 26. Oh, wait.

handbook. The 26 is the next one is the one after. Yeah. So, you what your suggestion is for the 26 have converted these to smart SMA RT goals. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we saw the template that they she sent us the template from Ger. It wasn't really that fancy. It's just worded in a way that we're proud to post in the site that we can say these are our goals.

Yeah. So, we can add that to the meeting minutes of the next step. This meeting will be discussing finalized goal upcoming meeting. Yeah. We just also put the dates on the upcoming meeting bullet points too. So just repeat what you

finalize the wording of our 2025 rules. Yeah. And um evaluate um select board oversight to the committees. Yeah. Yeah. I will say um I I think because obviously tonight's discussion pertaining to our one of our goals being addressing the budget process. I will send an email to the budget committee saying that we have highlighted addressing the budget process as one of our goals because I don't want there to be a month of radio silence and them saying we saw your meeting and you said

you were talking about the budget process. She hasn't said a word to us to predetermine details, but I will just say that's going to be one of our goals this year. That's good. And what did you say that Joe? Sorry, you wanted to put um dates on

Yeah, just on the bullets where it says upcoming meeting what number 11. adding anything to the planning board's to-do list after he leaves. We just dump it on so pass through. We had Yeah, I'm going to wrap wrap up the meeting because I feel like we have our next steps planned out. We don't need to uh hammer anything out tonight. So, can you sign just

upcoming meetings, conservation commission on uh tomorrow at the Eureka Center 6:30, planning board August 6th at the fire station at 6:30. Ad committee August 6th at the Eureka Center at 7:00. Select board meeting August 12th here at the fire station at 6:30 p.m. And on our upcoming meetings, next meeting we will be discussing uh tax commitment um and review of the updated employee handbook. And for anyone watching at home, tax commitment is when we set the mill rate for the year based off of the budget and we get invitation from our assessor to help determine our overlay and and uh figure that all out. Do we need an executive session? All right. Seeing none, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn at 8:16. Josh, do I have a second?

Second. Yeah. Any discussion on the motion? none. I have I have chocolate. you let me know that you have my hearing aid still?