TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ July 25, 2023

it it really just turned it into a learning opportunity so the members will get the first 20 minutes uh Thursday night and fire to listen to to get better radio traffic incident command um thank you for the offer they're going to train on their end uh what did transpire just so you know briefly they lost three members in Anderson County dispatch Sheriff they lost three members recently to other jobs and they decided to drop down to two individuals at night two dispatchers I mean this call came in at nine eleven on a Saturday night there was only two of them they were running multiple Medicals and overdose and 901 trying to give help over the phone the fire and it was only two members so I requested on the radio that they call in a member specifically for this call because it was going to be long term and again 10 hours so we're all learning was okay and the equipment's there but it's difficult I I did offend them

hopefully they didn't get to you but I went around dispatch an old trick is to just leave dispatch out of it so instead of calling them or whatever resources I just put on the radio called all the other resources it became my own dispatcher without standing up in the driveway and it seemed to work because it cuts down on time the lead time since Durham is sort of in that pocket of counties we had as far away as New Gloucester and North the armor to the armrest that type of stuff so the lead time for them to call Cumberland for Cumberland to call and North lost or I mean New Gloucester and North Carolina just takes a while so we tried to cut that down and then everyone signs on and we're in route how many people were on scene we'll learn from it I got one question for you too could you just explain so folks listen and know do you mean you say three you hire three residents sure um as volunteers members have seen

the need show a couple of drivers and then a young lady received her EMT or national EMT and wants to start working with us so ride time per diem uh eventually she'll be going to school to be a physician's assistant but wants that 9-1-1 medical experience so

um what would you hire from outside of the Town these were just three residents that saw the need came to us going through the process not that it's lengthy but it takes weeks and weeks Durham no they literally live in America which we appreciate yeah you know because there's

purpose warning like some there they were not working so we started working on them and called the company directly to talk with the engineering department by the time we were troubleshooting it before we could even get into it really that came back on so they explained to me that one step battery gets below like it's a it's a marine battery so once it gets done at a certain level it kills it and then it will come back on an hour or two later so there might be an hour or two where I I'm thinking that perhaps my future we should probably just happen to hold their power to it other than that perhaps put a second battery backup for that one but that's to me follow those red signs might work better

um yeah so it happens it was just cloudy for so many days that as soon as the sun pops up but even without the symptoms you know they'll come back on even if it's cloudy because the running battery is set to recharge itself

uh I don't know what to say other than people will begin to rely on those we're probably going to have them working all the time or not and not only when it's on but it's on English have to decide learning power obviously would be enough power meter or another light bill to get to it so there'd be some cost associated with that I'm going to check and see if we can add a second battery for backup and see what that would cost but I will be looking

so we've been working on lawns cemeteries uh typically to by now we're nothing but Brown out there and mowing is very sporadic it hasn't been a case this year so busy doing that the gravel roads have been particular beating just all the range you know when it rains you get potholes and that's what's happening we want to gravel roads where I hope the Jason knows and so that's that certainly taking up some time beavers I'm doing Hill Road they've decided they want to block a combat Journal Wood Hill so we have to go pull all that out get our waiting gear on put up metal grates I haven't uh [Music] just be working very now to deterred them don't know

we've been ditching up on a quick meeting on this road getting through the power lines on both sides that whole section was never really ditched and you can see the wheel you can see the Wetland road because of the water so we've ditched the the East laying last week and it's still

pouring water right down through the dip so that's how much ground water is coming out of there signs to coordinate the uh the the Swamp Road stream Crossing used to be a great experience they're still in the area side they've got replaced with helmets at some point when it blew up back in the day

I've been working with Dot and Shar Brothers on the 125 bridge that issue of business traffic being stopped at that rate we always have problems with vehicles being able to get up that hill and when one gets stopped it's it's a compound problem because now everybody else is talking then it could come down the hill the other way you're sliding into what's there so that's always been very difficult to and so if you've got six or seven cars lined up sitting there with a red light and then all of a sudden they're all going to go there's gonna be somebody in that crowd that can't navigate or there's something I know you've got instead of having one car stock you're going to have multiple kind of stuff and then if that light times out they're going to start coming from the top down and now you're really going to have problems so are you talking about in the winter yes okay they're in the snow event snowing yeah so I voice that

concern that all of a sudden languages this could be a problem this winter if we're going to be stalking people right here and then them all taking it off at once so they've assured me that they're going to do whatever it takes to keep that keep them so one of the things that we're going to do is widen that up so I can get a truck with a wing through so that I can otherwise my entire group is out there in the cloud I feel all the way back around and come into six or seven miles to come back from the other side so they're going to make sure we can get through there and if they said if they have to put a one-time truck they would keep the

usual but if they help us out so with our Ford 550 is putting they're working on today putting the lights on we're working on getting a wiring extension from Rayland to put the light up on the headboard so that you can see the lights front and back the

trucks the headboard blocks it from the back this week into the machine off the panel saved us 400 bucks and uh [Music] um some greeting over there around the Beaver Dam and did you just put gradient across the plate before okay because uh have you ever worked with like ifew on Beaver deceivers well we worked a lot of the Beavers don't go away yeah that's our next goal and that's yeah yeah because just my expert I would suspect that they'll be back yeah we're all pretty uh persistent so I think that there's a good resource there another typical spot that we have problems

yeah [Music] but if it continues to be a problem you will look into it maybe middle works too big of a company um Crossing on Swamp Road has anyone like specked out what that's going to look like do they have the plants that they can share with folks and stuff like that because I'm just interested on the sizing of it you have to go through an extensive higher recorded engineer so they have to basically redo it all to meet their is going to have so much capacity above the water for debris flow

so we had to meet all the new rules which basically we normally perfect thank you thank you Calvin I just want to say thank you for checking in for the lights um when I went through this week they were working it caught me by surprise a little bit because when I came down around the corner there was a car stopped there because the light was working waiting for me to come down through so I appreciate you following up on that like in a very fast time frame and taking care of it but unfortunately I'd like to say I fixed it all I did was show up and started I don't know a long time if you guys want to talk about the complexity for a solution if you guys are okay with that or how many times when it you know I have some concerns with getting people used to depending on something and then it not working sometimes you're kind of telling you kind of sending a message that it's safe and right perhaps isn't

it so yeah I think that's a fair thing to put out there of course to consider putting up and does commute there daily and they count on that being right and they we're looking forward to sharing that information if it's flashing you can be assured there's a current yeah yeah but but there's no question don't be assured there is no yes so yeah well um you know that's

of rain again it's worth you know but if we kind of stay like we'll monitor a little bit I'll get some uh fixed all right update lawyer accounts and Associates are now free online they are handling everything foreign Marquee on the audit the audience almost complete and two of working together to you know to get to a Baseline I'm working uh I got a college she has any questions

in August but typically The Honorable investment takes kind of do those financial statements that Mark and Jack can do so that's what they're working on um I ain't gonna meet with Paul first tomorrow actually tomorrow morning to go over to see how

October on the island so that kind of Falls right in the CIP process so you may bump it the first last two weeks of September just to get it going but that's why I'm going to be my chair but um most are still working with efficiency made on the lightings for our buildings that deadline for that application at the end of August so we have Enterprise electric over in that's because a qualified contractor through Efficiency Maine they've done all the assessments they're trying to still get pricing for the pictures and whatnot so they can put the price together but hopefully I'll hear from them by the end of the week because it's really up to them just actually submit the application to the efficiency made to work for a long time that's kind of where all that I'm hoping I guess it's finalized and then that doesn't mean we do anything because there is going to be an upfront cost asset we end up doing this and there's a

timetable for that too I got in here false came ahead no issues about it great thank you thank you everyone can I ask a question certainly um if you don't know this answer yet that's fine when we see the reports are do you know how what that's going to look like I don't know okay that's fine I was just wondering if it's going to show like like what we started with and then like what percentage of that has been spent that's typical okay

all right and we're probably ready for the folks you can sell it up come on up and uh grab a first chair with you there so you can introduce yourself in front of the Microsoft might be just absolutely yeah so the reason why I want to bring accelerated I think it was last fall Christmas talk to myself Calvin and Kevin it was a pretty informative discussion on trash garbage where we're going and because we're in our extension of one year we're gonna have to decide on what we're going to do a little bit forward and I just wanted you folks to hear their their story on the government and this is in no way am I promoting advocating or anything sort of selling but they're in the they're in the business of one of the big dogs so if you have questions regarding trash um garbage pick up where it's going to sir who wants to ask the question and that's what I want to recommended and have a share information with you okay

yes I I don't think that the biggest thing from from our discussion just just you guys oh yes okay okay I am the uh the market area manager for Costello waste in Southern Maine uh which covers from you know about the the Maine New Hampshire border up towards uh you know we have locations in West math and in Lewiston Auburn area my territory goes up to about the gardener area um and I cover cover that that territory um if you want to go ahead yeah sure I'm Mark Haley I'm the office manager of West Bath uh it's a transfer station and Hauling division so I actually am the office manager in charge of the current trash collection in their own uh the flying truck and the cruise so nice to meet you my name is Talia Ben I'm the municipal account manager so I work closely with Mark and Chris to help manage all of the municipal contracts that we have in southern Italia thank you thank you thank you go ahead sorry go

ahead Chris sure so so the big portion of our conversation was we came in and we discussed doing an extension and that would ultimately hope to lead to a a longer term contract or whether you guys want front RFP or however you want to do it but a with an automated collection which would be a different collection style than what uh you're you're normally used to seeing the automated collection is a truck that comes everybody gets two bins every resident gets two bins uh you leave your group 264 gallon totes um one for trash one for recycling still it's a split body truck so it's one truck picking up both bins and it separates and instead of having somebody hang off the back of a truck in uh you know jump off and have to manually do that collection there's an arm on the side of the truck that goes out it collects it dumps it in and and then picks up it's a more efficient manner it's uh of collection it's where the industry is

going um in what we've seen from the you know the longer uh Casella is not we're not doing long-term reload collection uh contracts anymore uh primarily you know the safety is is our biggest concern when it comes to election the the guys who ride on the backs of those trucks are put In Harm's Way every day that they go out you know especially with more and more cell phone uh communication they're they're sitting at the back of the truck um relying on the person who's pulling up behind him not to to know what they're doing and not slam them in the back of them we deal with a number of injuries uh but with that that style of collection we currently every day in the market that I oversee are sending out 35 to 40 individuals on the backs of trucks every day um I would say at any given time or probably dealing with you know five to six workers comp uh injuries out of that group um and and their legit injuries uh they

are you know if you do that type of work they're going to get a strain you're going to get you know you're going to pull some muscles and and lastly uh you know doing that stuff it's become really difficult for us to employ people who want to ride on the back of a truck use out of that 35 to 40 that we're doing every day I would say we employ uh probably 50 to 60 given on the week it's

very high turnover in the the you know I say we employ about 50 of them the other 50 are coming from the staffing agency we tend to go to Lewiston for this area and get hemp laborers for the day to put on the backs of the trunks that comes with a number of challenges and um you know it's it's just a job in this society that is going away and it's really difficult to employ those people so the automated collection is what we're really pushing um for most municipalities in in the direction we're going as a company

education which we help with it means you know we have to figure out purchasing of bins for the the residents and how we want to handle that there's different ways we can we can do that there's different grants out there based off recycling um that is available to municipalities um and and so yeah so that's that's kind of my my overview of automated collection um you know it's it's not much different than what happens today uh you know there's a little bit more on the resident to make sure that they're putting the bins out where you know separated three feet apart and but that's that all happens through the education process we're currently transitioning you we have seven municipalities that we work with right now who have signed contracts to transition to a from a rear

load to an automated collection you know to keeping in mind that you know depending on when that decisions made it takes we're seeing at least um 12 to 18 months to get the truck so there would be you can use rear load service if that's the direction you end up going in for until the tow truck can arrive we're saying well it's really been closer to 18 months lately it's pretty good trucks are I don't know if you guys have had to water any any trucks lately but in that style of truck that we've ordered which is the split body truck which is the most efficient so we can pick up both both Commodities trash and recycling at the same time that's a more difficult truck to get which extends that

so that's uh you know what we're going to discuss uh going forward fees going are they going to level off and more what what's what the municipality is supposed to mean I mean you've seen some towns in the area just not even do the same story anymore because of uh on the recycling side yeah so you have the the city of Auburn recently did that um we're hoping to

their MSW because of being the host Community for main waste energy so the difference between their trash and the recycling disposal is a little more than what a most municipality see the recycling Mark if I you know if I had the crystal ball I I I would look into it but um the recycling Market is it fluctuates it's it's similar to any of the you know commodities you know it it moves uh we've seen that bounce back a little bit lately that what it got really bad um

bounce back a little bit but still you know you know which is more than one of the trashes so uh I don't know 100 on the recycling the MSW uh as well I mean obviously past time which was you know there was a few factors in that yeah that you guys had a pretty favorable disposal rate um going into this last extension uh in the in the cost the costs have gone up to for the disposal costs and where our transfer station um we have we have had a raise costs and equipment operators the people who haul our trash because we take it to one location uh it's a transfer station so we drop it out there and then it needs to go somewhere else to an inside location which those costs over the past two years like many of our our other costs have gone up significantly a lot of that was driven by labor we use a lot of third-party haulers Trapped trailer haulers haulers we do some of it ourselves but the we're talking

20 30 increases we've seen from the uh the tractor trailer companies over the past couple of years um and and you know they're implemented implementing fuel surcharges now that begin we do and do and the all costs that have impacted you know the Tipping rates and then you you add on

in order to is struggling right now that so there's some unknown um like many states in New England on disposal and where it's going to go so I wish I could tell you a definite that yeah I don't know it's only going to be a three percent increase the next couple of years I would not be comfortable saying that um based off some of the things

also question that I know obviously you need the special bids up front and you said there's different options for paying for those that one of those options included just falling on the person who's putting the bins out or so that was usually look like yeah so that would be a you know a

decision for the town to make it that when I was talking about paying for the bill the the bins there's an initial cost these bins cost rate today about 62 to 65 dollars per bid which includes you know delivery to the residents so the companies that handle this will the initial roll of you know that 62.65 gets you the purchase of the car plus the delivery to the residents for the initial and then there's maintenance after um so when I would say there's different ways to do that there's way you know Casella could purchase those bins and build that into the cost of the contract um over over the you know the terms of the contract and and you know and then we manage all the anything that has to do with the cards if you know what it's broken you know we have residents call us we brand them Casella that's probably the biggest one of the biggest benefits we can get out of it is that you know our branding is out there and and uh you

know and then if if you decide to purchase the cards um as as the time that um you do what you want with with branding and labeling and um what we typically will say you know that that's on you for that the management and storage uh of the cars as well so I'll question on that too so is it like everyone has to commit to the exact same uh trash container it's not like you have a spec that just has to meet the spec and people can can do it all at once especially if you're going to bring it so it's one one we typically will go with one um brand so there's different okay car companies out there you have code or you have Cascade you do a flare egg you have Sierra there's a number of companies that do this and they all you know you know the carts are a little bit different but they all offer similar Services um so you know we can we can do that and then there's different sizes so what we tend to recommend is uh the the norm is

someone gets a 64 gallon which is just like the ones that are out here uh that's a 64. um so you get one for one of those for recycling one of those for trash for a week 99 of people that's perfect ly fine different like sizes there there's some that are 30 32s there's 96s that are bigger um we like saying stick with one size for everybody but you know we understand that you know there may be some elderly folks that um you know that that would be a difficult push to get to there so we've done that with somewhere we said you know we get a lot of flying like you have to meet these uh parameters to qualify for a different size bin or but ultimately that's you know up to you guys and how you want to manage that program but it is an option because I that was kind of the next question someone's gonna say okay

individuals bins are an option the city of Westbrook did it um they did a lot of the the 32s I think if you were to talk to them they would say don't do it uh because the problem is we've been we get this we get this truck and it's all it's all pressure that's how it picks up the bin it's it reaches around and it grabs it and holds on to it as it's dumping in that's set up for the 64 gallon bin to

be able to grab it so when you get the the smaller bins uh there is you know that you tend to fall in because there's not as much pressure around it because it's smaller skinnier and we don't deal with a ton of those issues in the winter I mean in the Summers it's it's in the winter when it gets cold and they get slick and then they got you know the driver dumps it and it slips out and you know you drive your you know jumping up on the side of the truck and and pulling them out at one point into a couple of them fell off and got hurt and then we don't do that um so the uh when the bed goes in the truck it stays in the truck so they're they're they're uh there are some issues with the smaller ones Westbrook did a did a lot of them so they deal with with more issues and than what you know the

winter was truck all winter but so it's not a huge issue but it does it's just another headache to manage um or just another thing that um you mentioned upkeep with so is there a certain type of damage that you know you all say will fix will fix or whatever like I bought a bin in the very first time I used it the guy when you copied off the truck broke the cover you know so I was like all right well that's fine but I wasn't sure people were probably wondering if something gets broken on their side when they're moving it out or whatever are they responsible if you if you all have something breaking so it would be it would be on us um again it would go back to who purchases the bed if the town purchased it and then then it would be on you know your decision on how if we purchase it and manage the carts then then that would be on us and it happens like they're they're the lids will break um there are warranties on these uh so

if you are you know the car companies you know give you a feature a 10-year warranty right and that's really the life cycle of the card is really about a 10-year um so you know there there is warranties on the cards but if it's if it's driver abuse even if even if you know you say you purchased the cards and and you know we got a driver out there who's banging and then you know we're working on we're gonna work

moves out of town and decides to take their their car with them um you know we need to replace that and then if if again if you're managing the program you get a response for that if you manage it will replace that car that's any other questions

and you're interested in entertaining a lot what are your long-term contracts typically look like in terms of so I I would say a minimum of five years um in the challenge we we have with the contract of years is we're gonna buy a truck and potentially um you know bends depending on on where that would go is in a three-year contract you know these trucks that regardless are now you know 550 000 if they're over half a million dollars now um it's hard to get the return on investment with three years so we can you know the the five year allows us to spread the cost of that truck out uh um further so that's why we say a minimum of five just so we can you know spread the cost of the person So when you say that you're purchasing a truck are you purchasing a truck specifically for Durham are you using that truck for other municipalities also so right now and this is part of why

um we we did the uh the one-year extension as I'm trying to line up Durham and other municipalities that gets service out of West path where Mark operates right now because no automated trucks out of there so I didn't want to have to purchase um so

um in with you know the idea of it going to Durham but we build in like how much we actually use that okay um and then do you have any municipalities that do trash pick up twice a month instead of every week we do not we have some municipalities that do recycling not every week but we

don't currently service anybody who does any of them that are less than we agree twice a month um so you got messed up that if it was the fifth week then there was no recycling we did you know those meetings there's a there's a fifth Tuesday and then we didn't so much it really confused people um but no I we don't care if you do any anybody I would try [Music]

to have more weight right if you're waiting two weeks for the trash to get picked up and I would be interested to see what the cost difference would be um if it was bi-weekly collection because I understand the weight is going to increase if it's every tooth right but it saves the trip out twice a week what the cost difference would be if it was on a bi-weekly basis instead of a week yeah it's the biggest savings um

the waiver being off the truck anyways so you have the driver so it's really um you know you would run into issues with the bins at that point I would say don't do 64 gallon bins you'd have to do at least 96 the bigger ones if you're holding tracks for two weeks and that may not even be enough you might have to go with two bins

if it's not the same thing yeah okay still the cost how many Municipal so you're saying 12 to 18 months for a drop and going forward you're not going to renew contracts unless they're automated contracts or you're not you're not going to take new contracts unless they're under the automated service they just want to make sure I understand that correctly so if we choose to not go automated that means that our contract with you would be done yeah we would not um bid on a autograph okay okay

anybody else I have just a trivia question if the rare occasion the individual throws a big party has a bunch of extra trash that week oh how does that how yeah so that that's the challenge with it like right now like we don't offer any like overflow um you know we would you know we could travel maybe go to the West first station drop it off but I I realized I tried that that's all we got you guys yeah so that that is that is a challenge um you know I know really probably have a solution for you right this second on that deal with it you know we have a lot of municipalities to do this right now and it doesn't seem to be too big of an issue um you know some of them have their own transfer station so that that

what we don't have is you know what we have you know when they're pretty clear is like the trash has got to go into the bin because that defeats the whole purpose of the automated collection if the driver has to get really with this style of collection you're literally like throwing you'd have to throw the bags over the top of the because the car come

a challenge with that but we you know we do it every day we don't get a lot of that um yeah I was going to ask the same I generate a lot of recycling yeah all my green bags and why so like there's times where I see the guys roll their eyes when they come from my house because there's four minutes out there and more often than not

we would talk through um you know if that you know that's you know uh you'd want to go down and uh we try not to make it too complex but um we find that you know they I know the City Bank worth it this and they they wanted to hop to Hopper uh multiple bins to people who wanted them and it came up with a program for that and

quite a bit um and if they're generating more than you someone's running a business out of their house and that's really not Municipal trash to begin with OR um you know that so but they didn't find many that wanted I think you know it was you know pretty pretty decent sized city I want to say the other one and 25 people get an extra bill

municipalities that have gone this through um that they are purchasing the bins or are they having you managed events it's uh it goes both ways um the larger municipalities we've dealt with and do you want to manage that or purchase them themselves the smaller ones tend to want us to do it because they don't want to have to on managing the the cars that are done on the resources for that um you know right now it depends it goes back and forth um we prefer us purchasing the bins um you know we we know what we're doing with those and I was on a headache you have to deal with oh there's a there's a cost

okay so that's what I was going to ask you is what the the cost of the bin itself is the same but the cost of you managing the bins that gets built into the contract and okay so my other thing was going to say that if we had you manage the bins is the fact that your branding is out there is that like a trade for you managing the contract but it's not

bins we we put it as Casella and um and manage them for you no I was saying I don't know what I was saying when you were talking before about when you that you guys put your branding on them if you manage the contracts and not put your branding out there if that would be an incentive for us to go with you managing contracts because now your branding is out there but we don't have to deal with managing the contract

and build that in that you know there's a value to having like needs a roll-off container you know we hope that they're they're going to choose us because our service is so good and they they want to uh you know go go with us so it's a benefit to us that we do good building that um free actors

I think is that if someone new moves to town and we've already you know sealed the deal how does that work for a new residents we have a lot of like new housing company I mean sure everybody does right so you mean someone builds a new house uh then they would just need to call in and say where they live and as long as it's a road that we're going down already um then you know we give them we give them a bin you know if it's if it's a new uh if it's a new development like a new road then we'll have to look at that on whether whether a private road is a public road or they willing to sign a waiver for us to go down in it's a you know do you want a part of the collection and so for like development is a little different but if someone builds a house on the road collecting which is we just kind of out of your question a little bit sure one of the things she was talking about was the uh what if someone moves out the toters

stay at the house you know obviously we see like City Lewiston recycling bins and my staff and you know you see all that everywhere but yes the bin is supposed is associated with the house not that they're um they do these uh do they scan them so the serial number on that bin is registered to that address so that it's the address down someone take if someone moves to you know New Hampshire and takes advantage of them are probably not trying to get down they're not going to chip in it to go find them and then you know that's really a cost of doing business I mean I I came up with one more question so right now if we allot 26 trash tags per

um home anything they use over and above that they have to come in and purchase and I don't know the number right off the top of my head of Revenue that we generate from Fashion tags I'm not expecting you to know that number either but is there a system that municipalities use that allows them to generate Revenue law collection like the way that we generate Revenue off of anybody using more than their 26 tags uh the the short answer to that is it's it's very very difficult and nobody has really come up with a a good solution to um you know your pay as you throw a program right but you do the test so those technically get eliminated in this process which is obviously you know a revenue loss so uh I understand that that's a challenge when we talked every municipality that has some type of page you throw that there's a revenue stream there that that goes away uh the only one that is currently trying to still

maintain a page you throw program um and you automate it is Kennebunk which they have had a horrible uh collection is you just go you've dump it you go to the next one um so it's so hard to police on the street without having just sending people out to you know ahead of truck and tag them they do that every once in a while but it's a really really hard hard one to self-depth appointments currently exploring you know some way to

do a page you throw program not with bags or tags they're trying to get you know creative with this or something you can put on a bin when we dump it it falls off and you don't dump it unless it's on a bit it they're they're doing but they're they're trying to incorporate supplement a food

anyone who's been really successful maintaining one of those are the ones that everyone so just a follow-up question to that have you have any municipalities come back instead that because there's no longer a cost associated with that right that they've seen weight go up because now people

don't have to pay to get more tags to throw more Trash Away now it's just uh I can throw away anything I want the weight goes up and then does our bill go up if that happens I assume it does if the weight of the trash would go up then yes your your weight um no we really haven't seen that um from from what I've seen um and talk to municipalities what what you sometimes get is um low contamination in your recycling because if your bid gets full you don't really use any recycle bin you throw your trash on the recycle them you can um you know if the arm is there's no police they're not floating alert before we dump it so when we dump that recycle bin what's in that bin it's going in in the in the recycling so some of that but

um you know we do tagging programs and stuff to identify contamination and Recycling and education and and all that but we now we haven't seen a drastic increase in interest because the bins are also limited so that person who was putting out you know five yards of trash I mean we uh because they're running you know a business in the you know the garage now they're limited to a 64 gallon bin which limits

how much yeah just adds that really quick too um a suggestion we've been giving municipalities about getting rid of their pay as you throw and trying to still generate that revenue is is tubing like a cart fee like a yearly car fee so take the average of what you make in a year off of pay as you throw tax divided by how many households are in town and then say it's 100 the average person's spending 100 or so dollars every year on those tags it's still the card fee they have to come into town hall pay the car fee

the only thing I've mention is like if you're you know going forward like whatever you decide to do if it's like uh if you want to do do an RFP live with it you know for a contract I think our recommendation at this point would be to try to do that before um the end of this calendar year you know giving a six months

automated earlier so if we were to know that we were uh you know if we signed a contract with you that we're going to do a five-year automated collection the sooner we were to do that the quicker we can order the truck and we can build that into our model that the less reload work we have to do the less on so I think the biggest thing with that is we do have to go to town meeting yeah with us so that's April uh so that

would be when the decision came out for you know so the proposal would come in and we would have to project um the selection and tell me for approval so we really have to sit till that time right yeah so yeah at a moment here timeline yeah yeah so so if it was April I mean realistically then we're probably not looking at automating pencil

um earliest yeah that's kind of what I thought um which you know you know well yeah yeah I would plan on probably at least 18 months um this might be a question for Jess or Jerry do you know how many residents residences we have roughly 1600 yeah

262 whatever per bin or 64. I don't remember if that's what we said times that is two hundred thousand dollars for just the cards not counting you got them at twice a roast with the recycling yeah I found it I did 125 times 1600. okay is

that correct so do does that get paid in one or does that get fine like we let's say we did a five-year contract is that costs get spread out over the five years or is that an upfront thing yeah you might have answered that already so if we purchased the cards uh we will build that that cost out um from the time we purchased the cards so we will build that that fee and so like we're not going to purchase the cards until the trucks here so we would build out the the fee once those cars come in and then and then charge that for the length of the contract okay it would be a monthly it would be out

presentation appreciate it appreciate it thank you hey we've got some board of accessories left to do here [Music] okay I got a second today ocean rooms okay person the other another and the reasons questions about any idea adjustments here for the abatements okay so I'm going to make a motion here make sure I get all three of them

ORS um abatement um notifications here for uh James and Monica milheim and two abatements for Jeffrey tackle let's see uh James and moniker and now 6 watt 89A Jeff packet he's got map 12 26a and uh map 70 let's see I'm at 12 1 26 8. both of those in the same same location two separate times do I have a second on that Josh seconds all in favor okay motion passes

a lot of accessories sharing well thank you out of uh assessing and vacuum to a regular regular meeting Joe seconds and you know in favor in the future Manner and okay we're back to our regular so let's call it agenda um Let's see we have items uh although we moved our goal the priority down to the end here so uh we may have some items that come up for our next the other agenda items your next slip board meeting that anybody is aware of that we need to talk about here

select fourth meeting I have a conflict where I either need to miss the meeting where I need to be late and I'm not sure what appropriate way to be excused for my meeting is if I know that I can't attend you come in later you just punch them off oh just yeah please okay I just want everyone to know that I think I also won't move

that we do we just say that in this meeting you say it or you can send an email or text they're just so many somebody knows that it's a it's a it's an excuse to absence that's that's all that really doesn't even know the day before yeah at least three people in here

just to cancel the meeting but we don't have to necessarily give reasoning or anything about nature if you could just you said you're not gonna be here it was Joe that said yeah okay all right um let's see consent agenda um it will make the motion that we accept it from the said agenda as provided

the same rely on it to Senate agenda or just on the uh this wasn't on the agenda oh but not only okay my agenda says June yeah and then are the warrants that we're signing from July that's why I just asked if the documents in July okay okay motion on the table all in favor okay so at the end of the snow carries

board meeting uh on uh you know select board meeting on 8 8 and 8 22 for next month and planning board meeting coming up on a two of all those Durham town office all right and now we excuse me discussing uh goals and priorities setting um various provided

um well I provided one for you that uh the next chair Kevin shared with that town meeting up on the board and what some of our it works to do and then Heather has submitted a couple to this she wants to you know talk so so I first I just wanted to tip down the list of um you know challenges and opportunities and future challenges and opportunities that was at this point of time meeting back in April is the first thing because we have a number of these that are I'll say in process or you know

we're talking about um I'm going to skip around on this list a little bit but we just heard from Casella and solid waste so Solid Waste is coming up it's something that's on on the radar for the uh as everybody heard that's listening out there um going on that's going to come up here in the next at least the next voting um a town meeting for getting a contract in place for a long-term song waste contract whoever it is whether it's a seller or somebody else so that's that's a huge item on the list that we have to deal with on on how to man I suspect that that will also be the same across all their competitors regardless of who comes in so I don't see that that waste is going to get much cheaper in the future for anybody we just got to figure out the best way to do it that's definitely an item on the list property reevaluation we already have that in process Capital Improvement one age we're already extended on that

this this year and we have another round I believe next next town meeting to go get that that process moving so that's that's coming up and that that will also be I'll say a big deal the result that will be a big deal because we're we are behind on evaluation reevaluation process so that's going to be something that's going to be sticking in everyone's Minds we have the outstanding Opera funds which I know we've been expending on Opera this year after different projects that are approved in town meaning I'm not going to list all the projects here but there there was a number of projects that are ongoing that are utilizing those Opera funds and I know Jerry's going to put together a plan for us as to what's left over once we get through the projects that are on the list that we've already already approved and tile meeting long-term plan for the Old Town Hall that's moving at this point so that is

we've got a committee in place and they're starting to meet put a deadline up I believe it's four about four months for them to come up with a long-term plan to present back to the select board so that's moving forward technology upgrades of the Eureka Center we discussed that a number of times last spring that's definitely a um I'll say goes hand in hand with town office reconfiguration um that only because you you need to almost upgrade the Eureka Center and get that completely usable in order for us to then think about we're reconfiguring the town hall so both of those go hand in hand and so the Eureka Center does need some attention probably more than just technology upgrades in order to use that on a regular basis moving forward and then I'll go back to you know our calendar the fiscal year budget you know as as you indicated Jerry the lawyer and Associates has our data all entered into

their system that's going to allow us to now have a better view forward and be plan for moving to a potential calendar to fiscal year budget that is also a long-term you know it won't be immediate next year but something that we need to start planning for so those are the those are the the list of projects that I'll see are are ongoing right now that we have staff and folks working on a regular basis along with volunteers from the community so that's um those are those are the items that were put up during town meeting and a lot of those are a real and active projects that everybody's going after right

that's the download on what what that slide means to the town at this point all right um I would like I want to talk to Dawn but I think what we should do is really put that RFP out for the evaluation because they're probably two minutes out from even attempting to do it

Association and other towns are going through that process it's it's taking some time it's just not that many people out there to do it so we have to commit to it but I think to get somebody in the pipeline and hear what I I think it would be advantageous to get that out sooner than later that way we'll actually have a cost and as we as we tuck money away and when they know they can be on board we can we will probably two-time meetings away from it being done so it will give us time to borrow more thousand numbers of what that's going to cost right now we only have 60 000 in the banks right before that is it a third party that does it's not done yeah and it's a it's a lengthy process because they feel house the house and so when you talk to Donna I love that could you also ask her what the cost of taxpayer is for not doing that maybe if we don't wow yes I could my water out of 67 value

now so the cost the state forces you if you fall below I think 70 the state forces you to do it right so we're at 67 now so one year later you could be below threshold and and so I guess where I'm going with my question and I'll just ask it what the benefit of waiting two years other than it's you know other than paying taxes is it a benefit for us to push it out or is it going to be more advantageous for us to say pay it up front now and you'll see savings later on does that make sense

it out there as a warrant question instead of putting money away a little bit at a time over the next couple of years is this am I understand you correctly to pay for it all at once and get it done right away well we would like to get it done right away but it's it's getting the company and we had to do it right away that's what I'm right here's just right there's two things right there's the cost of it and then there's the the scheduling of the company so yes we could get we could no I I agree with you get it I mean that's that doesn't answer my question I'll ask her and okay I don't understand the question I think the question is correct me if I'm wrong is what's the benefit from a cost standpoint of getting it done whether it's next week or next year or pushing you know I mean I mean when you said we're two-time meetings away that means we're two tummies away and then another two years if that's what their wait list

is as opposed to getting it done at the next time meeting coming up with all the money and getting uh so it's three years instead of four years no if we put the RRP on that we could have it done in two years but we're two-time meetings away from that two years are you saying funding-wise for two-time meetings wait list is what I'm saying I misunderstood yeah so we're not going to get it done there's about a two-year wait list right to do to have the whole revaluation today it's advantageous right yes okay get the number and then we know how much and then we know how much we need to ask exactly

I work with Ariana yeah there is no um I can't remember the reason today there is no option per se of doing that we planned on a couple years ago a partial to get it somewhat up too long I think we're past we're kind of passed that before she was going to do a little bit of an adjustment and she at this point where it was so low she's a little uncomfortable with that oh

is what she told us so yeah so get that I'll just get that going and examples I believe of uh Milwaukee Army um yeah so I'll just talk about this document first and then I I think maybe if we establish like how we're gonna kind of go through like this are we all gonna like say our top three things that we think we should focus on are we gonna make a list of stuff and then vote on it or how did you receive this knowing I see this going as we've got a list so we can add to that list and then we can prioritize from there so I was I mean I was going to take this list and put it in an Excel format similar to what you want to know what the Army has here right they really got a they got a similar format here of just an Excel sheet and a list and put a priority so it's almost no different than I'll say CIP some of the stuff will fall into CIP depending on what it is and there's almost like your Capital

Improvement list that's going to go to CIP and uh in the fall fun clarification here you said we have a list but this this isn't ours no this is somebody else's let's say like this list they're Excel spreadsheet okay you just simply have a list well we have a list right here right here from the top meat these are all in process projects that we need to put on a list and I've got like five number ones on here and they're ongoing right now that need to get done it's not like we can wait we can't wait for the technology upgrades we can't we need to move forward with the talent office reconfiguration we should get onto our fiscal budget year Solid Waste is coming up in front of us property reevaluation we just talked about and then we need a long-term capital Improvement funding plan which the capital Improvement committee needs to stock you know at least look at that but also Jerry and his Department

to come up with a plan for the three departments essentially that believe that we that we fund and then we're going to have a proposal from or proposals from the old town hall committee that also is on my list so this is a very valid list of you know two four six eight items they're live and real that that they all have a very high priority from from where you know from from town yes sir I agree that most of the stuff out here is a is a high priority I just don't understand the plan of attack per setting for example just just in regards to the long-term plan for solid waste we've met with one vendor tonight obviously that's a that's a massive five year when this was discussed previously it's more of okay for example let's just say this particular option in front of us is impossible what are our options so are we setting that up as far as even with regards to listless or anything else further in terms of discussion on

how we're attacking this particular list for example how do we get two in fiscal year you know it's just it's great that it's on Bliss but we're not attacking the list and breaking it out and trying to determine how we achieve these things then it's just on the left when I Envision is doing more more work on the Jerry's playlist that's coming up with the goals and him coming up with this type of sheet yeah and then coming back to us and saying this is who's going to do it who's gonna do that too yep so if I could speak to that sheet now part of the reason why I brought this just because um it goes back to what Christina said when she was here to facilitate our Workshop that when she was on the Town Council the members of the Town Council to bleed on various goals that the board wanted to accomplish and I I just to me when I

look at this this looks exactly like a comp plan format right so I'm assuming that these goals are derived from the town that I pulled this from's comp plan and then they have their strategy they have their action stuff they have the board or they have the town entity that

is assigned to whatever that action step is and then the board member that's the lead on whatever that that step is and so I I really like this I think that this puts you know accountability into individual Pockets to be able to come back and really we have a lot of work to do and I feel like taking this kind of step and Direction as a way to attack all of these things that need to get done makes a lot of sense do you approaching us from a from a time management perspective in terms of what are we trying to achieve for this this highest priority for us to achieve to get to tell me next year right yeah I just also want to like have a less of a reactive standpoint

where I appreciate that and that is the priority and that's what's up that's like teed up next but at the same time if we're always only dealing with one step at a time headed into decisions for the next town meeting it's part of the reason why there's 20 years worth of work that needs to get done is because they're always it's always being dealt with in the next for the next year and there's not a longer term you know goal

that exists and then implementation steps to arrive at that goal like if you look at our comp plan and there's the short term for the action step the midterm so short term was within two years that's 220. 2020. the midterm those action steps are supposed to be completed by 2023 long term didn't have a set date or ongoing right and so I went through the entire compliment before I came to the meeting tonight and out of all of those things that are listed in there I was able to check about 10 off as complete and so I think wow how many items were in there it's 31 pages long and most of all of those things that are all of those things that are um

and I was able to check 10 off as complete and so I would just love for for us to look at what the comp plan is look at what there are complete sections that have been just not even addressed and we're supposed to have been completed by 2020 literally not taken on very easy things like form and agricultural Advisory board that is not a difficult thing to do but was supposed to be completed by 2020 hasn't happened I think it's a priority that's not a difficult task to complete let's put it on the list put it on the list I I mean I think you got it with any committee you're gonna have trouble getting people but it'll be the same people so how many you know you can you can try that and we can try that but I mean I I don't oh I think we have a responsibility to do it it's what the voters voted for in the comp plan that is supposed to be our working documentary [Music] it's a template to go and follow no I

don't disagree Heather what I'm saying is from an operational standpoint operational stuff is fluid for example the trash column the trash I don't think anybody even five six seven years ago ever really thought that we would get to the point that we're at now with trash where we're actually have had discussions on whether or not we're even going to have traffic right in this town you know so sometimes those things um unfortunately cause things like an agricultural committee to be put on a back burner yeah so I again I just I don't think that the look how quickly our Union Church committee came together right there are a lot of farmers revlonova old Pearl these are all people who have a vested interest in this part of our roots that

I believe will come to the table very quickly and very easily I can't recall again okay long enough I can't recall over time establishing a committee where we didn't get enough volunteers it's just usually you just got to get it up it's like you just sit if you want to establish a committee

or two at one point one time but that's that's another we can add that to an agenda in the for coming weeks that's something to do yeah I think this just helps elucidate your point more so is that if there's not a lead attached to it there's no one picking up the mantle to just say hey let's let's put it on there you know and if there's diversification of the work there all right it's done and some of these things might be higher priority but others might be super low level of a lift if it's just a matter of saying you know we've heard we know the comp plan calls for an AG community and the current intro I've seen people asking about it now they've heard interest if you're interested please come that was just an example committee that was just

brought here to show this this is a hundred percent intended not to put more work on the town manager's plate in an effort to accomplish goals that need to be accomplished I do think that we also have a responsibility to support him in his role and that includes us taking some responsibility for some of the things that need to be accomplished so I would just like to put out there as a thing for people to consider we have a substantial lack of policies that exists right written down policy

for X Y and Z and I would love to be the lead person to take on policies um for Jerry to review and then make his edits as he sees fit to come before the board if people are interested in that type of situation and having multiple examples you know that that's the kind of work that I'm looking at trying to get done I think it's great that you have that enthusiasm and forward I mean policy is done by us it's not really do Jared I mean we're the policy makers right What policies how money and how many can we attack as a group not as an individual right I'm not interested in doing any of it as an individual what I'm interested in is collecting the information for us to be able to make decisions as a group for like if you um I I highly doubt that anybody else watched the Union Church committee thing right but one of the members showed up with an example of bylaws to follow and the chair of the committee went through the

bylaws suggested two edits and then the rest of the committee voted on the I mean what wonderful foresight for that committee number to show up to their first meeting with that and there's not any of this floundering there's not any of this what are we supposed to do in this situation here's their document that guides what their committee rules are it's those types of things that I would like to I would like I would love to take that on so when what you're describing here would be like if if there's a division of labor here there's a task of crafting our policy or rules or whatever someone one of us board members Whoever has signed up to do that but take the first step at it and then obviously bring something to the board and say here's what I got started I mean it kind of just sounds like I see what you're saying is that we have all these people want to do but unless someone's saying you're the person who can get the ball

rolling we're just kind of waiting right for him to put something in front of us or I see what you're saying so in my eyes what you're talking about with the policies is something that you should ask and put on the next agenda and you can come in with proposed policies we can review them and discuss another meeting correct okay that's that's how I would that's the appropriate way I I so is it would you suggest the same thing for the fee schedule because I would also love to be the point person on the fee schedule

schedule address if you want to address a specific policy added to the agenda and have it addressed I thought we were waiting for someone to get back to us on the fees but we are legal determination from the Europe Council right but on how far you can set and what you can do well I think it's more about timing right of when a fee schedule can be set or changed well the audience says annually but it's not whether or not

in that meeting is this going to prevent us from adding additional fees or changing fees because we're doing this right now and the the answer was no and you and you guys have sought legal opinion of that and that's completely fine I appreciate that because we don't obviously want to be doing things in a legal way um but I don't think it the question the previous question was if a fee doesn't currently exist can we add a fee for something that doesn't currently have a fee and the legal opinion that came back was yes we can if it's in a land use ornaments yes if

it's not if it's not in the ordinance we can enforce them you can't stop there so like we have to go to the town you have to make that policy yeah make the policy change and go and then you can put a few questions right so because we don't have a solar anything in the thing that says something about solar we can't charge a solar fee this isn't the way that I understood this decision you can charge under the conditional use permit but there is no there's no parameters on

right how setbacks glare there's no ordinance what do you what are you charging you need a you need them to be able to bring you something to charge something you're giving a permit for what right well the fee is just something well what do you want them to bring right uh so what do you want to bring a solar panel in here and show you one and charge your feet you got to have you got to have a little condescending on I'm sorry I didn't didn't mean for it to come across that way but just you gotta

voted in by the voters if it's possibly a we can do here you know I think you can set a fee without the policy under the conditional unit of additional usage so doing let's let's Identify some goals or I think we need to get a facilitator to do this because this is not going at all how I thought it was going to go yeah I had a question like that like I mean in terms of having something like this facilitated because even if this example right here we started off talking about goals and we died

Meander when we talk about a subject because we see the work there um so I don't know if the best thing to do for a goal setting or something like that is has have something um facilitated so we can stay on track with him it's easy to get lost because like I have ideas of goals and objectives um but I wanted to be a fruitful discussion in a meeting and uh and get some insight so I mean since GP Cog can facilitate

well what what are the goals I mean we've got a set of goals that I think I've been part of I I don't you know we've got some long-term goals here what other goals I'm deriving all of the things that I would like to bring to the table from the comp plan and all of the things that were supposed to be

and there needs to be a systematic approach to it I think I mean well I would suggesting if there's 31 pages in the comp plan and there's only 10 things that have been done I don't know how many pages that covers is the we set aside some night before we go through and start making those plans yeah that's fine yeah I like that that's adult um in in that would I mean I like the idea of doing something like that and then having something like this that we can then show like this is who's going to work on this who's going to work on that I mean I think in some ways it helps add capacity to town employees who have a lot of other stuff going on as well yeah that's that's that's where our business well and that and that's that's where I'm coming to the table saying I'm not I don't want to put more work on you you or on the staff but we can't just keep not getting stuff done that needs to get done I understand that you guys

are completely at your max I I completely empathize with that I am a very capable person and I am more than happy to sit on this board and and do research do you know compiling of data do the things that need to happen for us to be able to make strong policy decisions I'm not I'm absolutely not asking for Town staff to do that I feel like this is the reason that I ran for this sport brother what is your opinion on a timeline for this like for example if we have these items here and I'm not saying these are our little by the way this was produced last year I don't know what this board is Bulls are not that's what we're running in Chief tonight but how many goals is it realistic that we're planning on taking on this year as our goals or are you trying to develop a five-year plan or a six-year plan for the select board in regards to every policy and everything that exists in town no I'm not trying to do that what I'm

trying to do is take the voter from comp plan that took place in 2018 right and and I did this before I came here and I love Josh's suggestion that we all sit here and we go through this together right and then and identify the things that have been completed identify the things that still need to be done and and make a plan based on that of exactly what you said if we're looking at moving to a fiscal year what is the action plan to get there project plan right that's what I want to do I have a plan and then these things are I mean they are laid out in the comp plan as a road right but if the you know our seats are all up at various times if the same thing happens on the school board the school board doesn't put up a new plan every single year that the right the department heads are coming and saying in my 10-year project at my five-year mark because this is the plan that was established through this type

of thing right yeah this is where I am that's the kind of and but there's nothing in writing anywhere that says that so let me make a policy or see her you know whatever and we all read it we all agree to it so that there's more continuity as the boards change as the right we're all here for the town of Durham and what the town of Durham's goals are and so as people on the board change that doesn't all have to just go by the wayside because board members change we have a road map we need to follow it and there needs to be a strategic action plan to arrive at these things that the voters have approved yeah I see where you're coming from because in my mind it's like 2018 comp plan that's approved if we should it's 2023 we're coming up on you know five years since it's approved and then voters are saying what did you get done on the comp plans if we have some deliverables you know the land use

ordinance that was recommended and stuff like that but then other people there's other things that we just haven't done and I feel like we want to accomplish things right for the time let folks know we're here at became foreman right now it doesn't seem like we even have a list of like these are the handful of things we're gonna act take action on this year now some of the stuff just gets dropped on us obviously you know housing emergence things they've changed like we're us being until now you know you're not going to be able to get the long-term trash content track like you have so obviously those things come into play but like you know I just think of every other organization I mean we kind of have like that checklist of like here's what we're hoping to get done this year here's what we're hoping to get done next year because we're hoping to meet them year after and sometimes I think we have

people like like Heather's volunteering take a stab at something to bring it back to us I think coordinating those sorts of efforts would be helpful and then just that also like where I wonder is like goals and objectives like I'm more than happy to help on solar ordinances and things like that because I know that realm then I get into question allowed so if we have something like this saying Josh is going to tackle this problem with this committee St Joseph volunteer to do that but I think that helps laid out framework

this list or or how do you well I agree with Rich we never even agreed on this list items are items that are in the comp plan right the fiscal year that's definitely an accomplame Solid Waste definitely a comp plan reval process definitely in hotland capital Improvement funding plan conflict arva that's new since this that's not part of the comp plan obviously we have to deal with it because there's a time limit on there long-term plan for the town hall also part of the comp plan um upgrades to the technology to Eureka and town office reconfiguration upgrades to Eureka um and I agree with you where you're saying that those are one of the same I would like to take that particular thing and go one step further with that and do a municipal building assessment and what the best use of the buildings are we went over and we looked at the Public Works building right and Calvin's office is the size of this entire building I

mean that's exaggeration but not by a lot right there's a lot of space over there are we losing that space the most efficiently in the best way possible I don't know I'm not choosing to take that particular thing on but maybe that's something Josh is interested in maybe that's something rich is interested in that's the kind of thing that I'm looking at doing is like I think if not everybody is interested then that's their own prerogative but when I'm looking at this list I'm motivated and I want to get some stuff done and so I'm happy to take it on I understand that I just I just don't understand how we're attacking it like for example my impression tonight was hey these are some ideas that were left from us from the previous board and also that reside in the comp plan what other ideas do we have okay we got another seven or eight that we want to add to what how are we going to start with a b

c and d and how are we going to formulate a plan course of action for each one right now whether that's the trash or whether because tonight to me that doesn't that doesn't help resolve really in our plan because we don't have anything that we've ever really told anything I gotta buy new trucks they're going to buy a new this no no I definitely I agree 100 with you I want to hear what other options are what does it look like or the other thing that I would love to know is that what is the cost per residence that trash collection actually costs these are the kinds of things who wants to do the data on that we need we need a person that will be a point person well we have the data as well but now we just need to divide it by the number of households right and then and then you're going to end up getting a price that's how the IRP will be structured is you'll get a price for that right so that when we have that information we

can then make an educated decision about do we want to potentially go to the town with this is what it basically is costing per house for trash and this is what it looks like what your tax bill looks like if we don't continue to collect trash but you're right now you're down in the the the

layers of the project right but what's the main project ideas that we have but I mean I know what you're saying you'll think on the top line we can go through it at the next meeting and go through a list all those things prioritize that and then each one of those becomes a project basically and eventually that project gets handed to Jerry so it becomes you know it's it Grant and he may do What work to do some research but but the the finalization of that project to be presented back to us needs to go to somebody in the staff eventually to go and hand back for us to make I'll say a ruling on that goes to file meeting or we do something just do it right if it's a low-cost you know kill um and and just go execute it that way so at a higher level again that you know other than the comp there are there any other other subjects that we need to put on this the fee schedule definitely because I agree with this

this I'll say this Matrix going on we do this weekly yeah 145 maybe people so it's the same type of list of who gave the action and who's got the action and who's funding it also comes into play and um and then you know and then who really ultimately executes the plan some

of it becomes plans so it becomes just do it so it becomes research or more research depending on what the subject is so I'm very familiar with this format and I agree it's a good way to put everything down at a high level but then each one kick it off you get a project plan and you boil it down until you get to a point where you want to buy something or do something right that's really what it comes down to jump yeah I think it will be helpful if we all just said what we think are important goals and objectives when we get got them written down yeah and then we then set up a meeting where we can either have it facilitated figure out have a discussion about how that's prioritized or we can do that ourselves and then we start making those plans and figuring out the implications you know if it's going to be a kind of Staff problem if there's going to be if the opportunities to bring in temporary

chasing Grant would GP Cog have them do it so I think we don't want to put the cart before the horse but if step one I didn't just go around we share what we think are our goals and objectives and we get them written down so yeah a couple couple yeah I think that's a great idea I'd be happy to write them on the board because I know for the passionate about ideas but I don't want us to like jump into like well what's Jerry going to do on the fifth Tuesday of this month because we're talking about this plan right now you know um so I mean I can start just with some things that I find important that we can break down I don't know if you want to go around the room Joe or what

mm-hmm and I'm gonna list things even though I know we are some of them are being worked on because don't I like to put things on the to-do list that I'm already working on Silver ordinance is an important thing to me as well as the cell phone tower ordinance you know are they one do you feel like they're one of the same or should they be listed separately separately not one scene I know what John yeah um another thing that's obviously important to me is the housing ordinance I should note that I'm not listening in any order of applicants

recycling that are important to me are um you know rules I don't know if I wanted to get a sandwich at this meeting or before I brought blueberries I haven't eaten them no so just rules how about polite policies and procedures yeah and I think that that's one of those things that you get it lifted as a heavy lift once and then every board can kind of accept or reject bits and pieces of it um and then uh the ad committee and AD committee oh agricultural is that what you mean yeah and then there's we know from George saying there's 35 people whose print of their houses now in resource protection and High School that's options are for helping streamline their process if they do a small expansion or whatever George kind of responded right in the planning work kind of our work on that a little bit but just some sort of like like how to handle yeah yeah so these are just things that are some of these big some of these small

some of these are being more common these are things that are in my head that I think maybe other people said I'm gonna say new new right is that a more accurate way to say that yeah whatever you come up with yes if you've had questions about what's this mean for the business my business I know I'm grandfather but does it oh

shoulders I mean for me the transition from the calendar to this one wasn't here I know that was a big thing for Kevin and I think he ended up at some point to visit and then the conversation tonight because yeah yeah it's just ahead of that yeah I agree um

it was on topic um I came close when there was a talk about we're going to fix it how the hell yeah [Music] unless I go to Jerry I don't get a response um that's why you all have to suffer through um thank you oh I'm sorry and I I think that following up with the um the phone plan and making sure we set we not actually meet the goals but at least Sunday plan on how to move what's coming up comp plan review complaint status review sure

into a fiscal year I've always been a big um report on that um you know that that would be I would say quasi you know short term course of the next four or five years would be the um the waste because I I think we're just we need to figure out what direction we're going in terms of waste whether that's going to be like a yarma situation where everybody's responsible for finding their own or using a group like a seller or everybody's getting the dump something of that nature or maybe a third another individual another company we haven't had luck within that over the years but in the past when we did have bids for another company they were basically asking what these guys are asking us buy us a new truck and coordination services to me I and then I was like I'm just gonna ask this question because because okay now what we're doing sorry but that really like that was something that's what they're getting at

uh as far as I agree with Heather's concerns with this comp plan I would take it to a level of not necessarily trying to decipher and determine where we're at as far as execution of the current top line but more so in fact if the current comp plan is actually still doesn't like that we should be right I've brought that up before well so I'm just going to leave that as confident status review yeah because it could be some items could fall out yeah yeah

updated information and maybe for some of those things to be honor like the Housing section of it which was the example it was pretty outdated yeah it's not because of the comp plan but I think since the pandemic and so forth things have been so fluid and as far as different senses of urgency have been directed towards bigger problems that may reside in the comp plan that haven't been executed yet we've been unfortunately just goes away right so

at the usage of buildings is is although it kind of goes into uh oh I didn't write that yeah no that was that building use assessment building usage yeah building usage and and you know in that I know that we already are looking at you know upgrading the Eureka Center but you know the Eureka Senator upgrade needs quite a bit of quite a bit of work to get that uh has a very useful like a foundation it would be helpful you know so it's a little bit bigger than um I think just adding ingredient I am yeah

um but we should look at all the building uses we've had that discussion before and then there was a proposal on the table at 1.4 we're redoing panel offices back million years ago so it's probably time to re-dust that off and and look at that um you get a minor rehab three by Twenty Years

priority budget uh my top priority English to get us um you know so that we that allows us and again you know some some reason behind us gets us a head of the curve out of what you're saying Heather about getting out ahead of things provides us the ability to walk forward fiscally before it's upon us or we're in it we're in the midst of it before we make a decision on whether we're going or not which is exactly about what's happening with the trash time yeah right they're like saying we want a decision by whatever but you can't give them that and you know the policies we procedures you know I I I I love policies and procedures yeah but they also can be a pain they need to be careful about that I do think that we should kind of think about looking at those in one Court certified working on that I agree with you know the ordinances um you know we don't have an ornament to something new that comes out that that

should be on somebody's list to go after um because you can end up with something you really don't want audiences and backup data to charge a fear are important but um we need to eat on top of that so we know we're all behind like we have been in the past so

all these is that you know the capital Improvement take a look at the capital Improvement um committee um and I'll say uh bylaws or policies because there is a there was a rhyme there was a methodology for those policies and procedures being brought up I think those a lot of those we might be able to just kind of slide over and drop you know plagiarize essentially for things that you know for this list may be on how to rank and rate them um you know there's some good categories in there that probably apply to a lot of these things like like the CIP committee would do so I probably almost use something like that or wasn't that modify it for our users because a lot of that footwork's been done by by folks in the town already right remiss not to reuse it so speaking to that point right if that were something that we decided to do like that is a policy they rank according to whatever right and so if

this board adopted a policy that that was the way that goals were going to be established or what that doesn't leave when the board members leave that stays behind as a structure for other board members to come in and follow well an exporter could change yeah

possibility but I think that springboard to the approach on the projects though that you know even if we don't have a policy that allows us to use that format we could still use that as a yeah and go forward and we come up with a policy say hey this worked out pretty good let's make this done but no longer moving forward um than that that we could we could do that if that's how we'll end up below whatever you like it right you know people might not be one all day so there I didn't I just put the schedule as my thing and a lot of these other things are on my list of things and then I just have to con in my other paper that I gave you I just have to go back always to transparency and communication and I

the way that they structured this is is a jump off of this where whatever the particular category is this is where the communication is found for that particular thing and this is part this is right on their website so that anybody that goes there can go to whatever this particular category is and they know that this is how they're going to receive communication about that particular category and I think that anything that we can do to make town government as transparent as possible and easy for residents to seek information I can't even remember what it was that I was trying to find but I went into our search bar on um oh I do remember now I went into the search bar and I put in land use ordinance and I automatically got kicked to the 2019 edits which is not our most up-to-date ordinance so if I'm a person that's going in there trying to figure out what the rule is about whatever and I search land use ordinance and I go to

the 2019 and that's not even the most current one there's just a lot of uh it's very cumbersome and so I think if we can work on transparency and communication between boards I agree with you my questions do we have an issue that's not even defined up there as far as the way our

our site is operating and maintained yeah is that really what the issue is it's not necessarily being transparent we're just the information's not necessarily accessible right how are we monitoring that right right and so I'm not again I feel like sometimes when I say things it's coming across as like um a insult it's not that at all I I

when I'm suggesting these things I'm suggesting them because I see a potential issue and he and so now here's my overlapping area of how we're going to address that I mean there's different ways we can when you go to the website and I just order this adopted April one is no no I know I know that that's there but if you go now type in type land use ordinance in the search bar and see what comes up so I know that yeah there's a number of ways you can

exactly I'm not trying to talk about the website my thing that I'm writing down is communication and transfer insurance and that that encompasses all avenues and areas of our town government including boards to policies and procedures right so

Jerry I feel like you deserve a voice up here go down through the schedule and just give you my thoughts the fee schedule on Goodwood because this is something that Lord can do that's what you do you you assess him right solo ordinances any ordinance you've got a planning board and a planet that's already working on that so my question would be I know you're interested in that but how are you going to insert yourself into that process and I would be careful there with that just let them do their work let them present to you what you're doing and give them direction from there because you've got staff that works on that long-term trash yeah we need to have that discussion because I need direction on where you want to go with it so we put it up to bid the way we want to put it up again that's what we can do policies and procedures yeah you're talking Personnel policies I'm not really sure we do have policies that we

need to address like our lead policy is a little old it's based on the days that we work but not ours it needs to be there's plenty of work there at committee fine you want to do an activity that that's resource protection and how to handle that you have staff that handles that again I know you're all interested in about how does a select board member get

involved with that when you have with it it's kind of taken care of you you have folks professional staffed educated the people 40-year veterans working on this stuff so maybe you're better off doing something else if you want to get more done right physical yeah that's us comp plan that's us building assessment um yeah that that's that's us there's no real committee to do that we're working on that Communications and transparency I and I kind of understand what Rich was saying when you stop throwing the word transparency around it's almost sounded like we're not but we are so I'll give you an example of transparency okay there's been a couple of instances not only on this sport I know that this is why a member of another board is here tonight to address the situation um but then didn't I'm not sure why whatever it doesn't matter where um one or a few members of a board will get information it's kind of like what

happened with Casella last year right and so what I would be proposing as one of the things that I would like to address in terms of transparency is that when just like the school board does right you're not individually emailing individual board members it's select Board app so that when we come to the table and we have to have an educated discussion or and there's not some people who know some of the information some people who know none of the information everyone is privy to the same information all the time to be able to have an informed educated discussion yes doesn't that they're not trying to be equal in this guy here doesn't that contradict basically what we were talking about in terms of breaking off as individuals and working on our own the boards and so forth so are you saying that you don't want that to happen so here so someone asked a question someone asked a question and a town staff answered the question and

when the question was answered the chair of another board was cc'd on the answer and none of those other board members received the question or the answer so then when that comes to their table and they're having a discussion about it that one board member that was CC has that information in that context wasn't the chair and everybody else that it wasn't only the chair there was two people on the board and it was not the vice chair so if we apply that rationale if we spot up we'll say you were leading in policy group and your guys are having intermittent discussions amongst each other we're going to forward everything in that group to every single select board member every time no so

better than what I'm saying so I think the issue is is that that email you were discussing regarding the planning board should have been sent by the chair to the other members for example if our chair gets an email about automation that's coming up in a response I think it should be forwarded to all of us all right maybe not the question right and the answer but the the answer with the question should be forwarded and we've seen that in the past that's how it's how we've operated in the past is that is that we usually get the information from the chair if there's an issue that chair has to answer

sends an email right about something that they have a complaint about or you know whatever maybe it's not even a complaint right and that goes to me only and then I come to this board and I say residents have brought up this issue right and I haven't and you haven't read that email you it's been said in this this board well they can do this or they can do that it they came to a person that is elected to represent residents right that I feel if you go to it used to be this way I don't know if it still is or not that if you go on the website and you want to email the select board to do something it says select or not I hope that that's still the case I don't know if it is or not if it is great if it's not that's the same way it is with the school board you want to you want to send feedback to the school board it's school board at and it goes to all the members of the board immediately that's

the way that it should work for every single board right now that's so true Heather but there are sidebars that individual can bring something to and if a member of the school board that says says you contact a member and says hey I really don't know like the new Dei policy it would probably refer you to the email the board so it doesn't come across as hey I had someone ask me I'm

representing my constituents so it doesn't look like that that's what even it's right in there um excuse me welcoming Factor on how to handle those types of things and that I think that's what you're talking about but again there's so many emails you you should you should say Well if you really want to take this to another level you should email the board and put it on the agenda or you can come in for a public comment so here's one more example of this and I'm and I'm not I the thing came out about the housing uh answers the when they voted on it legislation voted on it right affordable housing yes and I asked a clarifying question two MMA the person who sent the email I'm not sure if it was there were two Town staff people that were involved in also asking the question their response went to the planning board chair and the staff member and another another town staff member right and so and then when

I asked the question ICC Jerry because I felt like that was appropriate for him to know that I was asking a clarifying question up to MMA right so I was forwarded the answer that went to the two staff members and the planning board chair I feel like that is a situation where everybody on the planning board should have received that answer so in that situation it could have just been planning board at and then everybody on that board has the same information and the same knowledge so that when they come to the table and they're having that discussion they all know the same information

I wrong that's that's on the that's on the chair or the person who received the email right and if it's warranted to bring up she might just asked a question of that's why you don't want to overwhelm things you just asked a question and the other thing is we need to remember that we're a boar we're not Town counselors we're not somebody that works for MMA we're a board that we're supposed to work cohesively together right so that's that's that's really it so if someone has a question and they want to bring it to the board they should bring it to the Lord if they want you to bring it to the board that's fine but you should afford their behave and so forth and say hey this particular person wants to bring this but they would like to remain anonymous no it was me I had the question my question wasn't towards like something that we're looking for you it was just a question right so not everybody needs to know what Heather's

question is May for your own education as well that's right exactly right but if you're representing the board a select Board of Terror I'm asking your question that's off that's quite frankly off limits that needs to come through me I'm the board chair they're we have an official business thing to do with MMA or some clarification for the town and the board and and the chair needs to be aware of what that is and I send they email them and they if we need some clarifying when we ask Jerry send that email policies because [Music]

you're asking as a board individual shoes again if she finds something about this but if you find something else that a board needs to know like by all means come to us right so that that that's okay you just can't represent yourself at a board just like these committees we talk about in town we can't go as individuals and then represent the board even I can't do that they can ask questions of you but you can't say the voice decision is this of course I think we're all really clear on that right but but that's just you know but you know any influence at all in these committees you we need to be careful and MMA is the same right it's just you still need to again the Board needs to decide that it is important enough to contact some outer agency and then we go and do that whole process okay so through Jerry or or directly through other you know we we don't want Jerry in it for some reason then it's through it through another

Avenue so this is something that I will address through policies and procedures and give options because when I just took that elected training that I said was so useful they said at least 15 times if you have any questions please reach out if your town is a member of our services you are welcome to ask questions at any point at any time correct okay he just said the opposite he just said that if I don't know you can't represent yourself as the board we can't make a decision on the contact happened well of course right okay sure I think we're going around sure yeah so I just want to make sure that we aren't doing that that's all that's all the questions some reason I think you're taking it what he's saying or whatever me or whatever saying that you can't ask questions you can ask questions all day long as long as you don't infer that hey we as a board have this right okay I'm asking for the board right you want to

call them no I hear you but that's all he's saying everybody he's just saying like if we're going to ask as a it has to come through US collected right we can't ask hey this is um select board member Rich George of the town of Durham and I want to talk to the vice president of Casella because I'm I'm upset about something got it that's all that's all I'm making sure we're not sure it has nothing to do with you I promise but this all does go back to the sharing of information this meeting took place with the chair of the board and none of the other members I watched the town meet I watched the board meeting where decisions needed to be made and only the chair had the information and so now here we are revisiting this conversation again as an entire board which thank you I appreciate right that is the situation that I want to avoid right there I don't want one member of the board no matter who it is

to be the holder of the information that we all need to be able to make decisions that's all I'm saying I think on this board an individual we get called off pretty quickly yeah well I mean there are some and they show me and they should I've done it in the past if you watched items I've done it so I agree with you a thousand percent um I I think we're all in agreement that's what I'm saying this board has been intact since the 1700s I believe and it's for the most part it's not a pretty decent job Josh what were you gonna say no Jerry all right go ahead so so back to the time when only the chair had the information you have to put it in context because we were working on budgets we needed a budget number Chris was only available in that time he could have just spoken to me but as the chair of the board I called Kevin in and say Kevin can you come in as a just another set of ears there was nothing nefarious about it

wasn't underhanded it wasn't not being transparent it just was that situation and everything that I didn't too hopefully between the three of us we can tell the same story versus only one person here and yeah yeah you want more than one time yeah it's at the time of just it wasn't meant to you know alleviate the other board members it was just we got to move on this because we got we got stuff to do we got to get it done and I took it upon myself Chris was available let's get in here and get that information and I just want us to be careful about the transparency because since I've been here there's everything has been transparent that's been there's been no hiding on anything just sometimes it made a procedure may not get followed by not maybe including the the board or something but I don't think it's done on purpose to try to hide anything I just think oh I asked a question and it took a point if if we're going to do

something like this and and board members are going to be leading or whatever that is you're going to be asking questions of people that the other board members are talking to be trivia and that's okay yep as long as you're not saying this is what the board feels so it's just educating learning and bringing that education and learning to the other board members so the board can make decisions but just be noted when we've had people on this board keep our committees attacks and they have been publicly attacked because they were part of a conversation and it was looked upon proudly by members of the community so that's what you open yourself up to so those are the discussions that you're going to have to have too to see if that's the road that you want to go down I'm okay with whatever you want to do I I my job is to administer what you all want to have to get done right so our job is to actually support right yeah so

it's all good stuff um I just because as a manager and I hear things aren't being transparent that could be a reflection of me and that is that's not me not being not transparent because I'm an open book right so I just it's been that that word makes me nervous when it comes to what we do and saying we need to be more transparent I don't know how we could be more transcribed letting me are that's actually well I'll give you an example that doesn't have anything to do with you right the planning board just approved a subdivision application and there was no public hearing which is within their right they don't have to hold a public hearing but it hasn't been 30 days since the approval which is within the appeals process and there are neighbors that are they had no idea that the approval went through right and the work is already being done that doesn't feel transparent to those people that

are Butters that they receive no notice there was no public hearing there was no opportunity for them to speak in public on an issue that's kind of a big one and so that to them doesn't feel like transparent government for the agenda to say no public comment will be taken that doesn't feel I think we have a problem like an open and transparent process

format we're way off topic of what we're supposed to be doing as far as I'm concerned we should we have enough things up here to discuss yeah I'd like to make a motion to a chair I'll take a picture of this and send it to everybody so we can also recommend it I'll second our journey go ahead glad you know exactly the question