TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ October 28, 2025

Heat. Heat. [music] Oh, [music] Heat. Yeah, I know. I got mine. Okay. All righty. Uh we're going to call this meeting to order here at 6:30. We have a quorum. Uh we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance of America to the republic for it stands

one nation under God indivisibley andice for all. All right. Uh amendments to the agenda. I would like to move the snowmobile club presentation of funding request from the third uh section of new business to the first. Do I have a motion?

questions? All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, we'll move to new business. So you guys will go first. All right. Uh any other motions or amendments to the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move into public comment. Is anyone here for public comment?

Can I just pause for a second? I'm not positive that we are live and living color. can they hear us? Okay. Okay. Yep. We're good. Fix it. All right. Cool. Uh name name and uh address affiliation. You know the drill. Yes. So my name is Tia Wilson. I live in Topsum. I lived in Durham for 20 years. I am the chair of the Durham Historical Society and the Durham Cemetery Committee. [snorts] And I spoke to you earlier, I know the band stands on the agenda, but I wrote this, so I might as well just read it while I'm here. So, and I can give this to you when I'm done if you

That would be great. Great job. Um, I'm here on behalf of the Durham Historical Society to request that we be added to the upcoming select board agenda to discuss the historic band stand located at Southwest B. In April of this year, the town voted in support of allowing the select board to explore reurbishing or replacing the band stand with the cost not to exceed $30,000 to be expended from the municipal building reserve act. While I understand that some quotes have been obtained for the new gazebo, there appears to be little discussion about possibil the possibility of repairing or preserving the existing historical structure. The Durham Historical Society would like to formally propose taking ownership of the War Memorial Park where the band stand is located. Our members possess a wide range of skills and experience and we would like to dedicate our efforts to repairing and preserving the band stand

as a historical monument in the uh in this important part of our town. We hope to do this with the support of the town's funds that have already been allocated towards its repairs. The band [snorts] stand has stood for roughly 150 years and has been repaired many times by towns people who have valued its place in Durham's history. It was originally created by Joseph Tyler following the Civil War to help be to help to bring cheer to the community. Tyler and his band along with the renowned opera singer Anna Louise Kerry have performed at this band stand over the years. It has served as the heart of the community gatherings, hosting festivals, celebrations, and weddings. The band stand has witnessed both Durham's 100th and 200th birthday celebrations. It has come to our attention that there have been claims suggesting the band stand is not historic. We would like to clarify that this is not accurate. The structure has

been restored and maintained repeatedly through the decades, always with the care and respect for for its original form and purpose. Beneath its aging boards lie a deep and genuine historical significance that deserves to be preserved. We respect respectfully request to be added to the upcoming agenda. Thank you. Uh to discuss our proposal in more detail and to share our intentions for the future of the war memorial park and this cherish. So that's it.

Thanks. Could you leave that with Jessica? Yeah, absolutely. All right. See you in a couple weeks. [laughter] Any other public comment? All right. Seeing none, we'll uh motion to approve the last meeting minutes. All right, I'm going to give it to Deb. Do we have a second? Second from Josh. Uh any discussion or questions? All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, passes unanimously. We have no old business that I know of. Am I missing anything? All right, we'll move into new business. Uh we're going to begin with a snowmobile club presentation and funding request. So, I guess that's what you folks are here for.

yes. Um, this is a new way of doing this, I guess, for you people in the past. Oh, yeah. We're sorry. We need your name and affiliation. My name is Duncan Dailyaly. I'm president of the Tritown Penguin Snow Wheel Club who occupies trails in

Freeport, Palmo, and Durham. Um, I guess uh I'm here to request some money for um helping us maintain the trails and oh, let's see. U insurance on the trails. We [snorts] carry a million dollar liability policy on the trails. Um, and we have a a policy on our sleds. We have three sleds and we have

a a dollar rental for SUV for grooming the trails. Uh, all those have to be maintained and fuel. Um we do get reimbursed for the fuel but we have to come up with the the cost of the fuel all during the year. Um and material you did receive some pitches of some bridges and um the one with the gravel is pride and joy. That's $120,000 bridge. It's built in the town of Pano, but um

and we got a grant for it, but we had to come up with 20%. That's one sale. So, we had to come up with $20,000 worth of labor or money. We wound up with close to it in the engineering portion of the of the project. And we were fortunate enough to get a somebody that built many bridges.

He said he could put a bulldozer across that without a problem. So it's plenty strong enough and it's it's just for snowmobiles and walkers. We are not a multiuse uh trail system uh occupation. So, this picture doesn't show it, but we have installed a gate, but you can still walk around the gate and bicycles. Um, but it keeps the the jeeps and the big fourwheelers off, which is and this is on the sub main powers right away. So, we have to abide by them, too. So,

the other two bridges are bridges that we have. One is in um Durham over by Runaround Pond. Um and I'm glad I chose this picture because on the on the side of it, there's a lot of debris. When this bridge was rebuilt, this bridge is 85 ft long. It spans some of the the creek over there. Um, and we had to rebuild it because things rot [clears throat] and that's what this debris pile is, what we took off the bridge. So, that's another expense. We have to dispose of that material. Um, the other one is a bridge that washed out twice on us and finally we moved it

and made it higher up off the water. [snorts] And again, we had to dispose of the material for that. That one is uh like 60 ft. Yeah. 60 ft. Um, and those those two bridges were $1,900 and $1,800 a piece just to put what you're looking at the treads on. So, uh, that's what we use some of the money for. The um, we also have a landowners appreciation once a year. We invite

all the land owners that we have record of their names on our trail system. We invite them in and we feed them a spaghetti supper and we have nominations for a member of the year, an outstanding member of the year, and we basically give them this little

certificate. Uh but it lets the land owners know that we appreciate them and our uh individuals that help us so much. And some of the some of the trail work um now the average age of most of the trail workers is 55 to 65. talk about and I'm above that. So, um the do you want me to get into particulars as to what the long material cost?

No, I think what would be helpful I'll give the board a chance to ask a few questions but also won't be helpful for us and the the amount that you're requesting too. Uh what's happened with the town of Palm, there's two clubs that operate in the town of Pound and um they have it now as

an agender on their annual meeting. They take what they get back from the state and split it between the two clubs. Um, in the past what I have done with Durham and Freeport is I just requested my predecessor just started the whole process and um I continued it

requested between $1,000 and $1,100 is what I requested. Uh, and that was my letter to you January January. Um, and subsequently now we're here. And said it's Mr. Dailyaly? H how many miles of trails are we talking about that you guys?

Um, our club has approximately 50 miles of trail in the three towns. Mhm. participating in the club? We've got about 60. And do they pay dues? Yes, $20 a year. have them sign? log sheet because we can get reimbursed for their labor and their time. Um,

never had that brought up before, but I would believe our um million-doll liability policy covering those trails cover those personnel. So, they don't sign waiverss to go on the trails or the bridges that you build? Not to my knowledge. I can answer Rebecca. Recreation falls under um a really broad landowner liability policy and it protects the uh that these protects the land owners and in the clubs. any anyone people that go out there with ATVs and four-wheelers by state law and even bicycles

are supposed to get every landowner's permission that they cross. ride on the land, we ride on the snow. Fair technical, but um that's what uh the state of Maine has told us. Uh but we do have uh land owners permission for the trail and hence that's why we have the list of names and bring them in in April to uh thank them for letting us use them. People do put up gates. Uh I just dealt with one the other day. a land owner put a gate up, but he says, "No, you're all set. Uh, we'll just when snow comes, we'll just open the gate." Is that empowermental?

Yes, it is. If if you need to get in there to put signs up on the trails or do maintenance to the trail, um, he says, "I'll open the gate for you." Josh, do you have any questions? I was just going to ask uh if we earmark the money to go to projects in Durham, is that would that be an issue?

Um I don't really think so other than sometimes it's kind of hard, you know, when we order material to build a bridge. um we don't know. It's kind of hard to keep track of it. Mhm. As far as that that material and then again when we have repairs to our machines, you know, fortunately there's a few of us that tinker with engines and can get things going. We do have someone that does repairs, but he charges us no labor. He just charges us for the parts.

You don't have to be a member of the club to use the trails. No. Okay. And then um do you have a sense of how many Durham residents do the trails? But what did we find? There was 225 sleds registered in the town of Pal last year.

Durham Durham, I'm sorry. 257 in in 25 and 307 in 24. you roughly know how many are from Durham? I I don't I don't. No worries. Um, an old members list. Oh, no worries. Yeah, we can give you a second. My other question was going to be uh how many trail miles in Durham?

I I don't have recognition. No worries. Okay. And uh do you know how many uh land owners from Durham the trails cross over? No. No worries. Not a big deal. Goodbye ahead. Yeah. How much do we have in the recreation account? It's been two weeks.

after less than that. Yeah. So we have 15,000 somewhere. the previous years? Yeah. Um just roughly looking at this list and it looks like about those 18 or 20 Oh, awesome. uh members, but a couple hundred registered sleds.

Yep. Well, and in some states, um I believe it's New Hampshire, you get a discount if you register your sled if you belong to a club. That's not in the state of Maine. So, sometimes I wish it was and sometimes I wish it wasn't. you know, personally.

Do you all know Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Then did you say the other towns uh all contribute as well? Yes. But Po, as I stated where they have two snowmobile clubs, they get their money that they receive back from the sled registrations. They'll take that amount and split it between the two clubs. So, both clubs, you know, will get it. um the town of Freeport. Um I sent them a letter in January and uh by the 1st of Well, not until

that was July 1, I received notice that they had deposited, you know, money. How much did you receive from Freeport? $1,100. Jessica, could you explain to the board the way the reimbursement works there? Yeah. So, we get um we get a check from the state of Maine every year for snowmobile registrations and every snowmobile that's registered in your town, $662 goes into that fund and then we get that back. So, in 25 in January, we received a check for $1,71.34

And in 24, we received $2,32.34. And where does that plug into? where just goes back to the general fund to the job and and historically we have given that back to the the club just with a little bit different process this year. Um so it sounds like your ask is for that that return back which would be about 1100 again.

Well we got 1,700. Oh you said 1700. Yeah. questions for Mr. Daily? All right. Um, do we have any questions or discussion amongst the board or any motions? I'd make a motion that we give $1,500 from the reserve. Yeah. Do you have a second?

I'll second. Any additional questions or discussion? I would just say that, you know, we get these dollars reimbursed for the purpose of, you know, and we've always supported the snow club with that and so it's a little bit different system this year, but I think that support is still important. Uh, lots of folks at Durham have the opportunity to utilize these and landowner access is tenuous under the best of circumstances and we appreciate it. In my mind, I appreciate all the time and effort that the club puts into trail maintenance and bridge work and you know all that sort of stuff. So,

we also the the fire department has a rescue sled that we purchased and alls it requires is a a snow machine to tow it. So, if someone's out on the trail injured, they just don't throw them on a tobogen and drag them in here. and you know get that sled and if we know about it you know we will gladly have a machine.

Mhm. I have two that sit right in my door all all winter and I've got several available to me in different sections of town where we can uh get it out and the chief knows it as well. So awesome. Great. Do we have a link on our website to these trails that are in Durham? We sell maps on their behalf at the town office, but I don't know. I don't think we have a link.

I mean, we might think about how to Well, we talk about communications in any way, but how to, you know, promote cuz I'm thinking I might just go buy some. Mine's been unregistered in my garage for the last two years. I got to register to take the first win. But um

they're usually on the last in terms of Yes, I saw that. Cool. All right. All right. Well, any other discussion on the motion? All right. All in favor of approving $1,500 towards the snowmobile club by the recreational reserve. Any opposition? Seeing none, thank you for coming in today. Jerry at the office to make all that sort of stuff out.

the maps, but uh if anyone wants it, uh I'm available. I I'm still one of the old people. I have a landline. Oh, boy. You want to sit here? Yeah. Not very many [laughter] though. But I also which has an answer machine. So even if I'm not even around

you contact, we can get back. So awesome. Well, thank you. Okay. into our open space plan. We have a great presentation from the Greater Portland Council of Governments. So, whoever wants to start that off for us, feel free to come on up. I can do that. I might stand.

Yeah, the microphone's back there and it picks us up pretty good here. So, you should be able to hear you and Great. Well, hello. For those who don't know me, I'm Sarah Milnap. I'm the director at the Portland Council of Governments and I'm stepping in for Kelly who kicked off this project is on maternity leave. So, I'm going to do my very best to answer questions, but I just took this over from Kelly a few weeks ago. We have Fina here from our from FB Environmental, our consultants, and and Callie, our fellow, and Shannon, our new planner, who's going to be also working um on the project with us. So, we all wanted to come and say hi and just um let you know about the plan, the funding, the timeline, what's happening. We have some initial data that Vina can present from their data collection work that's gone so far. And as you probably know, our audience is mostly planning board members, conservation commission,

and and uh our plant town planners. So captive audience, captive audience. And I think everybody might know more. Possibly [laughter] possibly possibly hundreds of viewers. Yes. action grant, which is a community action grant for the community partnership, which is a state-run program. This program has actually just moved over into the new munus main office of community affairs which is a new department within the state that's going to take on all the mocha mocha. Yes, I I'm getting used to using the

term for it. So mocha will be sort of your onetop shop for all your grants going forward. So hopefully that'll be easy. Um the grant details there was $80,000 awarded. There's no match and we have about 24 months to complete the project. um we signed a contract with the state in this summer which um and started to kick off the the project. So the purpose is really to develop an open space plan and establish a 10oint strategy for land conservation and preservation. Um, you know, just highlighting here, there's about 3% of land conserved um in 2025 in Durham. And the hope is to set a strategy um to be incorporated into the upcoming upcoming comp plan, but also to set a target that maybe would align with the weight, the state climate action plan, which is a 30% conserve plan by 2030, which is obviously would be a difficult target, but always good to know what you're moving towards. And VA can talk a little bit more about that.

Um so also looking at identifying areas that may be prone to flooding and water quality issues and um really serving as a tool to help coordinate projects and policies and programs and kind of set a road map too for the conservation commission um and see what they might want to work on next. So um in 2025 we um you hired a consultant which was us along with FBA environmental um and that was the beginning that was sort of this summer and into the fall. We got on boarded and then FB environmental started their data collection inventory mapping. Um we are going to kick off some community engagement here in the last quarter of the year. We're going to do a survey um and talk a little bit more about that. Um so there'll be some parts of community engagement throughout the whole project. Um looking into later 2026, we would uh be setting priorities and discussing what the strategy would be and then the deliverable and the

report um would be due late 2026 into 2027. And this is flexible too. Pass that up. So you hired JP along with FP environmental. We're really excited to be working together on this. I think we've um have kind of established responsibilities where we are at JP COG or the project manager and working on community engagement and FB is leading all the technical work and data collection and we'll do be developing the plan and components with you. These are some photos of our site visits the other day. So um being will dive more into this but the task two is really data collection inventory and mapping um you know really trying to get on the ground and understand what the data is telling us and and ground truth making sure that it's accurate and up to date understanding what particular vulnerabilities you may be facing um now and into the future and then in pulling all that data into maps so you can

really visualize what's happening in your town a GIS database and a comprehensive inventory report which will really give you a great baseline conditions for the whole town in your wood space. In task three, community engagement, you know, it's really essential, I think, um, to get the public engaged in the strategy because this the actions that are going to be in the open space plan will be things that, you know, they'll be hearing about, they you want to get people engaged in. Um, so we're going to develop a public engagement strategy document that you can review and give input [snorts] to. Um, but the hope is to have a survey that people can access both online and and paper forms. Um, have a public workshop where we can pull people in to hear about the data, hear about potential strategies for conserving land. Um, and then have outreach engagement materials. We have a website that'll be ready in the next few

days that we can share with everybody and they can send out in your newsletter or various places. [snorts] Um there was an initial site visit on October 21st where um the team went around took a lot of pictures gathered data and we can talk more about what they saw and I think [clears throat] a lot of conservation commission members I believe are there as well. Yeah. Great. So then we will move into setting priorities and trying to understand you know what parcels may be um prioritized understand an approach for for or framework for deciding that. Um and then identifying some of the best possible strategies for conserving that land um and researching funding um strategies so we can understand how to actually move forward in conserving land. And then all of it will be tied together um in a report deliverable. But we we want to serve as a standing you know planning document so you can reference it. But we

also want it to be used as a tool um and sort of a living document for natural resource management and for strategies into the future to help build resilience here into your town. So um you know we don't want to just sit on a shelf. I think it'll really help guide the work of the conservation commission and them understand where their priorities lie would be really helpful and I'll hand it over to Beina and she can talk a little bit about what they have what data they have so far. Any questions so far on like the process or the

the plan we have? I might stay seated and cozy. Um yeah, the site visit was great. My daughter ended up joining, which wasn't a problem, it seemed. So, that was fun. Um it was really fun to get to know some of the open spaces that I've been staring at on the maps the last couple months and weeks especially. Um I live just over in Brunswick, so not too far and so we definitely venture this way a lot. Um, so I guess I'm just going to give some highle numbers of where what we're seeing and sort of where we're going to think about focusing as we dig into the reporting elements. And I used to be the environmental planner for the town of Brunswick. And I felt like we got really hung up um or at least some of our committees did on the existing conditions. So what is it now? And actually I thought it was like 3.7% versus 3.2%. then people get really um intense about what those numbers are. And so I think for the purpose of today

at least, let's just make sure we're all speaking the same language, looking at the same data, and understanding the spaces as you guys utilize them and as we see them on maps. Um as [clears throat] Sarah mentioned, that goal of the 30% is is ambitious, but let's figure out like, you know, what is a phased approach to get there? What does that mean for Durham in terms of the statewide conservation? and how can we be part of the the plan? Um, so currently, uh, Durham does have more than 750 acres of conserve conserved land and those bullets are are the owners primarily of them. So the town of Durham, conservation trusts, land trusts, etc. Um, and there's a lot of opportunities for open space. Sorry, I know that it's kind of hard to see, but we can I'll in a second. Um so lakes and streams um are critical pieces of your wershed that we want to really think about as we're prioritizing open space

and conservation um you know making sure that your waterways are clean and healthy is a is often a priority for communities and I know it is for you all. Um this is just some data that we have. If you see any problems, please tell me. That's kind of why we're here. Um again more into the wetlands and the water resources. Um and the reason to put you know wetlands and aquifers and wellhead protection areas is those can be those can help us identify areas to prioritize for conservation. So you really want to focus on you know what what wetlands do we have currently and how can we preserve them because wetlands are really going to help [clears throat and cough] be that sponge for flooding [snorts] issues or you know in you guys are experience increased flooding and increasing precipitation. Um Androskogan uh what's it called? And Valley hazard mitigation plan um did a great plan last year. I think it was 2023. Um really

identified what Andy County is experiencing in terms of flooding and uh protecting our wetlands is really critical for for helping those helping that out. Um and then aquifers um are really critical to conserve. So you can see there's only 6% conserved currently of that land around them. Um aquifers are a little different than surface water. Once an aquifer is contaminated, it's really tricky to clean it up. And so conserving is is generally, you know, preserving conserving is generally smarter than remediating. It's a lot cheaper. And so helping, you know, using these as guidelines of areas to conserve is a is a good starting point. Um again some more water quality um discussions. So at the bottom I say water quality protection is core conservation goal. Conserving land along imped waterways and around contamination sites can prevent further degradation and support natural restoration. Um

wildlife habitats is another area for helping us think about priority regions to consider conserving. So thinking about um those habitat blocks um and finding how we can help animals and critters move along um those habitat blocks. And I think you know having the the penguin explore crew here today was in like I'm so excited and I'm glad I have his name now because that's one group that we really see as a stakeholder in this because I think they want a similar thing. I think farmers want a similar and so like how do we get all these stakeholders together to understand how we can you know maybe get them more funding for more trails that also works for conservation which also works for open space which also maybe works with landowner um conservation and and communication.

Um so yeah just trying to find those wildlife habitats and corridors that we can prioritize and help buffer. Um, agriculture is clearly a big piece of your um, land here in Durham. Um, it's critical to your to your space, to your fiber of your community. Um, and I think finding ways to work with uh, land owners and farmers and uh, folks is going to be really important to to get reaching that goal for the town and the state at large. So, um, currently at least four farms are protected by conservation easements. And so, you know, what does that mean and where does that go? I think we need to dig into a little bit more of, you know, what do farmers expect from that? What do we what does the community expect from that? And how do we grow that and what is the the plan there for those conversations with the farmers? And you guys can stop me. Yeah.

I two two notes on the previous slide under wildlife. Um, just for your edification, uh, we had a survey done for the bindings turtle and it's been determined not to get present. I know it's still listed on the It's still listed on the

turtle just retired, so he hasn't changed it on the whole. I know. And it's a turtle. It's a new turtle biologist. Actually, it's my old coworker. And so I was like, let me confirm this. So [laughter] I I did hear that. And

I'll get on to Kevin when I see Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Um, and my question on this acres of timber harvesting, is that acres of timber that has been harvested through and you found through forest operation notifications or

Yeah, it's through the state of Maine has a a layer in their database of timber harvested timber over the last 100 years. Okay, cool. So, it's awesome. Thank you. Long timeline, but [snorts] um Okay. And then I think Oops. So this

slide I was just again this is what I was yeah 2024 and county hazard mitigation plan um these I think that 2020 December 2023 storm um really opened a lot of folks eyes and I think especially in places like Durham and along the anc River where um precipitation especially those rain on those you know I think you guys had like four to eight inches of rain on snow events and how are you to plan for that. Um it's really hard, right? And so there's this is this kind of came out of that and um I think this slide is just to indicate it's on the list. People are aware of the climate vulnerabilities here. We are pulling together some maps right now to kind of show where your biggest vulnerabilities are, what you've experienced in the past, and what we think you'll most likely experience moving forward in terms of flooding and wildfire fires. And um we actually have been talking a lot more about heat and

with a lot of our clients uh and trying to find ways to mitigate heat issues that we're experiencing more today than I think most people are don't think you know thinking [snorts] most environment but I as many of you know it's getting pretty hot in some of these summer days and where where do folks get relief and how do we make sure that we have those good forest blocks or other areas for people to cool common critters to move around. Um, so this is where things are going to get fun and interesting and we're going to have to chat with the conservation commission and the planning department and you all to figure out what are what are the mechanisms and levers that we can pull here. So, um, there's a lot of different opportunities and we don't need to dig into it now. I'm just sort of laying it out here of different conservation conservation mechanisms that have worked in the past um for other groups and I you know whether it's

through town ownership or you know are there areas that you could use differently um are there conservation easements with land trusts agricultural easements deed restrictions and who are your current partners and you know who are people that you that should be on that list that maybe aren't currently that we should be engaging with. Um, and then I think ident, you know, [clears throat] defining conservation for your town is important. So, I think some people think conservation you can't touch it, but maybe it's conservation that you can recreate on, maybe it's conservation you can hunt on, maybe it's wildlife protection. You know, there's a lot of different ways that you can use conservation land. And so getting together to define that and prioritize the types of uses and areas will be a fun exercise and looking forward to doing that with you. I think that's Yeah, we got to see this little

so exciting. Um so yeah I think that you know the goal really is to have this as a document feed into your you know planning process when you're going through your new um comp plan so you can look at like where to prioritize you know for [snorts] the highest value conservation space so then you can understand where you might want to develop or focus on on issues like that.

So I think it's it's a it's great timing and we're really happy to be involved. Um, we can come back anytime and give you updates. I think we can work with Robera to, you know, schedule those and understand where there's sort of deliverables that you might want to see or um, we can present to you.

Awesome. Cool. Well, first off, thank you for coming in. Conservation Commission and Planning Board, you do a lot of work for us all. So, we appreciate you all working on this as well. Really is a culmination of tons of effort over the last few years. But I want to give the board the opportunity. Anybody here questions about what we just saw or how the process may work.

It's impressive actually. wheelhouse, all of this stuff. So, I'm always um really impressed by you know the data that you all put together and how much work there is in this thing. I think I think it's a good step forward for DAR for sure. We completed the stratum open space plan last year and stratum is more similar stratum Newampshire is more similar to Durham than I was expecting and I should send it to you guys because it has a lot to do with the agriculture piece and so it's a nice just example of other things. We've done quite a few but Sherman was just one that I really

that'd be great just so you see like what a final product looks like. What are your expectations? Um, and speaking of agriculture, we do have an a committee in town, too. So, including some of the board members do have main farmland trust easements on their property. They're really passionate about this. So, that's a good group to work with, too.

Yeah. Maybe good to get some feedback, you know, considering the route that we've been in, you know, what impacts they're seeing and facing. Yeah, it's significant. Sure. Anyone have any other questions? All righty. If you could send us a copy of that other municipalities plan, that would be great. Um, for just for our edification. So, [clears throat] um, seeing no other questions, we appreciate your time coming in, giving us your time this evening. We'll follow up if we have any other questions. Uh, we can submit it by email to one of you all. So,

perfect. Yeah. You know, since we do since the audience is primarily uh conservation commission and planning board and staff folks and then uh and and our town planner, do you all have any questions for them? I'm I'm comfortable opening up for brief little questions here if you have any

questions or comments. Comments are fine, too. I was going to say that I have the contacts for the agricultural committee that I can give you and unfortunately I didn't make it to the public that they just had information about what they were doing. I was able to make it but

we can get fire chief is all over it. We just had a wildfire, lightning strike fire earlier this year. Oh, and he's very familiar with our flooding patterns and great to do some short interviews. Any questions about other infrastructure stuff? Our um road commissioner, you know, tracked down a new crossing for us [clears throat] on Swamp Road a couple years ago to address flooding issues. So, a lot of people are working in the space that are happy to help. Jerry can direct you to all those folks, too.

Yeah. Okay, great presentation. Uh Julia on the planning board. I'm wondering about process. Yeah. Yeah. So, how is this going to go forward? Should we um you know join the conservation commission meetings and like see how that's

how it's progressing or will you be presenting here on a certain cadence or Yeah, one of our like project management um plan things is we're going to email monthly updates too. So that might be like a very easy way that you don't have to attend extra meetings because I know it's hard um to just see what's happening and then we can uh alert Roberto when there is something we particularly want um feedback on like the community engagement strategy or like the draft you know that we'll have. So I think that would be an easy way so you don't have to constantly like go to meetings but you can you know we'll send a monthly update to Robera. can share that as widely as yeah you would like and

and yeah we'll definitely have like ways that all of the committees can provide comment on the drafts and that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then we'll have survey that we'd love everybody to take and um we'll have an event too that would be great to have everybody's support on as well.

Yeah. When are you thinking about that? Probably um like January, February I think. Yeah. Yes. That's what we're thinking. You know, hard right before the holidays to do it and I think we'll have better data and still available.

I will say the egg committee set the bar pretty high with a pot locker. I know. But I heard potent. yeah, just a suggestion and that is as we discussed back this summer about the coordination of long range planning projects that the town's going to be updating its comprehensive plan over the next couple of years. So, uh typically this would be a component of that in terms of the uh inventory uh section. And so if it could be packaged in such a way that it just u seamlessly uh is

transmitted right into the comprehensive plan uh data inventory that would be very helpful as opposed to having a document that is is not as conducive to transfer. That's a really good point. Yeah, we can talk with you about that George drafting.

This is a very convenient timeline. Yeah, that's what I was excited. We've worked on a few quite a few complaints and so we definitely know what you'll need. Let's work together about what format. time this evening. You know how to get a hold of all of us and we're really excited about this.

Thank you [snorts] for having us. for this. [laughter] here is um to uh discuss our you know this will be the step one of discussing goals around a durm engagement and communication uh uh effort using all of the modern channels we have. I just want to caveat the beginning of this by saying I think we've done really we made really huge steps on communication between our new website and our text service but uh you know we can always be making improvements. So Rebecca had done a ton of work on her own ahead of this to provide us with this great um document that was in our packet. It's available for folks to follow along.

Do we want to put it up? Would it be difficult to quickly pull it up or you just have to plug it in there? Yeah. And then this is Now I will say I don't know how well folks at home can see it from there. Anyways, So, am I doing any best to uh

No, that's fine. Let's just for you guys here, you can just use your imagination. Do we How many copies do we have printed on? I'll share with Deon. We can send one back to our our pole bit here. You always want to follow

Um, okay. So, this is not this is really more of a what this is a compilation of research of other towns and what is out there in the world. I had been given from a PR standpoint a social media document where it doesn't necessarily apply to us but I took aspects of this big document that was shared around in PR and marketing and sort of pulled it apart and used what

could benefit us. So that's the basis of it. So, um, I'm not going to go through every slide. I think that it's pretty, we all know town engagement is very important, um, and why we need it. Um, what Durham does have because of its small town advantage, you know, we have our sense of community, we have a strong sense of pride. You definitely can see that. And so all of this actually leads for what one would think great communications. Um but what we do have is going well and

thank you Jerry for your guidance on this. Um what Durham is doing is actually ahead of many other towns. So we have a town website that is up to date, has a search bar and is amazing and it's a one-stop hub. Um, we have weekly newsletters that go out and they talk about everything that's going on. We have text alerts for various announcements that are taking place. We also do a lot of in-person and digital things. So, we have uh the newsletter like I said, the text messages, the Facebook page, the fire department page, the public works page. We live stream meetings which many towns do not do, I found out. We also have a great opportunity for people to speak with our town manager,

which a lot of towns also do not do. Can you highlight what that is? Oh, me and Jerry. Yeah, either one of you. Oh, just for folks who might be watching. So, once a month, Jerry will take questions from various people. Anyone?

Policy. Yep. And so anybody who wants to come in or shoot an email or or give you a call, you are the last Wednesday of the month is from two to three open door chat. Chat with a town manager. Yeah. So so that that is something that

um I was actually very surprised to see. Not very many towns do. Um so what we are having some issues with we have very limited awareness of town events and what is happening. Um people don't know when meetings or events or programs are going on and the communication does usually it's the same group of people who receive that communication. Um there a lot Durham is very diverse. So a lot of residents do not even have social media. Um and others many the majority of people belong to all things Durham uh rather than the town of Durham Facebook page. So and I'll talk about that a little bit more. Um and also we have a lot of newer younger families here which provide a lot of other things going on in their lives and they do not have the time. Um, so it makes it hard for them to attend meetings and other complaints. And then so because we don't have all of the

people coming in, it's unfortunate that there's a lot of rumors that spread quickly. Um, we've had a lot of frustration at the town office. Uh the most recent thing is with our tax bills and how that is I mean I was just talking with somebody a neighbor of mine at beans who said yeah and all of the taxes went up and I had to explain to him well actually we just you know went onto a different calendar year of paying and so that's why he's like no no no it went up I was like well I mean the percentage but anyway so things like that people just don't understand and they're not reading the proper communication, they're going to the

[sighs and gasps] the um rumor mill. Um, so some things that I was looking at what other communities have and what other honestly corporations have is um, breaking up the website and talking about adding an events and newsshub where we can actually have the newsletter on the website and we can have links from the website to like the snowmobile club although they don't have a website but like certain things linking people to various other so we can have an easier to find how to get involved page. Um, we do not have a subscribe here on the website for the newsletter. We definitely need to have something like that. And in the newsletter, we need to also be able to have sometimes it's too long, there's too much going on. Um, and we can talk about how to maybe divide things up, but we want to be able to share volunteer opportunities. um maybe bringing on a resident spotlight um profiling town staffers or

residents or people at Replenova or Geto and we would just do like that's a standard Q&A that people would just fill out and then we put their photo if they want and their information. Any questions? Am I going too fast?

No, you're great. Okay. Um so with social media um this is a iffy subject but we could expand the channels to include Instagram and next door and Instagram that's really the prettiness of it and we should we could show you know photos the highlights various landscapes um and post and next door is really another aspect very similar to Facebook but it's more like safety alerts and event reminders, um, neighborhood updates, uh, that would also include road closures. So, very similar to what we have with the Facebook page, but just another way to get the information out there. Um, and yes, that would take more manpower to do or person to do.

Um, so opportunities to expand engagement. Um, we could build on what we've been doing and in nicer weather, Jerry could have coffee at Replenova on a table and people can come meet him or various other places. um or members of the select board. We could also go out and people can meet us for and ask questions and um or various

other members of boards to talk with people outside of what I've seen from a marketing standpoint, the surveys and contests are usually very popular. And so these can be very silly. They don't have to necessarily be very serious and it's a way to engage people. So you could do um it's survey monkey or Google forms, but basically you could do like when did you move to Durham and then we would have that you know answer this poll from the newsletter and then the following week we would have the results like x number of people have lived in Durham more than 10 years more than 20 years more than 30 years or you know what's where's your favorite hiking spot in Maine or how many chickens do you have? Um and it's also just a note about that

we don't have a lot of data on various people our our you know community and so this is another way to collect the information so that if we have res we have a better idea of residents under the age of 30 under the age of 40 you know how many families I don't know if that's something that we want to go down but it's a possibility. So, just keeping that in mind, like a census. Um, and then we could also do contests, you know, people voting on their favorite garden or they're, you know, doing some sort of town trivia at the Eureka Center. Um,

questions? Okay. Um other ways to increase or opportunities for community engagement, we can talk about seasonal gatherings. So you know Tio is here within historic society. We can increase um I think you know we as a select board have talked more about supporting various events. So

going to the historical society and pushing that out a little bit more and trying to promote it a bit more. Um, same thing with picnics. These are, you know, lowcost activities, potlucks that the agriculture committee did. I unfortunately, we don't know. None of us went, right? So, we don't know what the turnout was or how it was. Did any of you guys go?

No, I know. I was up to that or what the result like how they felt about it would be really nice to hear. And so, things more things like that. and um be nice. Um other opportunities include volunteering like beautifification, getting people out to pick up trash along the roads. We do that on Meadow a bunch of times. So, um community garden decreation. And so we also, you know, with the the GP cog

and the plans taking place, this is another aspect for us to get together as a town and work together. So this can increase a lot of awareness about what we're doing, inviting people to join. Hopefully it's not the same people over and over, but we can start to spread the love. Um, and with those volunteers, I think also it might be nice to recognize them. We do a lot of recognition of the fire department in the newsletter. If there are other volunteers um who are doing things around Durham, I think it's fun to recognize them. Um

and then also creating partnerships and uh with DCS the churches um rather host or co-sponsors for various events and you know I already talked about the other supporting so through organizations and groups RSU5 has a lot of programs you know perhaps there's something that we can work with them to do at the Eureka center for taxes for literacy in the modern digital

age. Um various things like that. And then another thing that I don't think will go over well with with um Durham, but we could we could try robo calls um and see how that works. I don't think that would look well. But um anyway, the the next portion with social media, I don't I we don't really have to go over this. This is more for when we get to that spot for whether you

know if we talk about the budget allowing the next fiscal budget to allow for somebody to manage social media. This is something we want to have a conversation with. I don't think we're there yet, but this is something that is

on the horizon that we should consider and think about. Um, one thing that's very important with our town is we do have a problem with the town of Durham versus All Things Durham. And so, it's not a problem, it's just that we have less people on the town of Durham page than we do all things Durham. And so I think that there's a way that Kimberly, we can work with All Things Durham to try to have them collaborate with them and have the link to the town of Durham Facebook page on all things Durham's page and sharing posts being cooperative with information so that we are not in a silo. we need to be

able to make sure people have the information because they're not going to our page. So, it's a big problem. Um, so that's a work in progress and I think that we can we'll get there. And then I think that we should possibly brainstorm about other engagement events that we could do. For instance, we will in in few years 2039, we're going to celebrate our 250th anniversary. Um,

you know, we could get an early start. So, we can form a committee around it. We can have fun with it. Um, so I think it's something, you know, we can add on to this. This is not a complete document. This is a working document that I think that we should utilize for as reference as well as conversation and just keep coming back to and adding on to.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, this is awesome, Rebecca. This is a lot of really good information. Uh I reviewed it before you came here tonight and I was kind of just like blown away at the different ways to think of things and and new ideas. It's really exciting that we're having these sorts of conversations. Does anyone have any questions for Rebecca or comments?

I think one point we missed in it um is we need to consider, we talked about it a few times, some kind of signage like something other than um having our residents get all the information from a screen. Yeah. you know, um, we talked about maybe having a sign out front of the town office or down by the getand go that, you know, we could populate town,

you know, information on. Yeah. You know, we have, correct me if I'm wrong, we did have the, was it a QR code for on voting days? Was that what it was? Yeah. For signage, different things like sign up for news, right? Yeah. And I think that populating those again, you know, like talking to Jerry in terms of budget and printing materials, obviously that's like a one-stop shop that we would have and we can move it around or share it. Yeah. I mean, if if like the get-go would be open to having a sign or like I I don't even know. That's just throwing off the top of my head, but like I think that that's a very good point because we do need to have physical things out there. Mailers are difficult moneywise

for sure. Yeah, I like the idea of like spotlighting employees, town employees. I think we should do that every get to a point where if we could do that every week, employees picture, some information about them. Well, you know, so we used to highlight employees in the newsletter. But when we put out a news blast every week,

it's hard to come up with other news in a newsletter every quarter because you're covering it every week. So it's we kind of got away from that because it's like I mean it's a bedroom community. Yeah. Not a lot going on.

That's why we can, you know, subbing in polls for a spotlight. maybe once a month as a spotlight so that we know the first the first Friday of the month will be um uh full results. The second Friday will be a spotlight on a person. The third Friday will be um

you know uh be regarded that people [clears throat] vote on. I don't know how many chickens are in Durham. See, I mean, it's a good question, you know, like it's I know I have too many. So, I mean, there's all different ways of approaching improved communication and it's really about, you know, the residents know that stuff.

Even when I was watching this presentation, I thought, wow, I didn't even know all the rivers and all how many we got and all this stuff. really good information or or list of businesses or you know what is important for me to know as a residents who a resident who cares and how do we get that information out there? Is it a is it a is it a stretch to

um ask any community members if they would like to be involved in like a strategy session of different ways to do things or I don't think at all there could be some people who would really maybe like to my particip was we could potentially maybe see explore the idea of a

community engagement committee something small just like three people and you know with the the charge of just you know gathering and paying attention to what's going on in town and helping promote it. Um and some of the stuff is kind of happening ad hoc on some other groups anyways.

Um that seems like a space right there. I like your idea about a sign um that has a fiscal note obviously. Uh and then the social media like I love these ideas. I do think about like the time that takes to like I think that sometimes I've learned that

you think that oh it's just easy it's social media but actually planning out a social media campaign takes up a lot of time that I don't think current staff no have. No that's not something that would be fair for any of them to do.

Yeah. And I know GP Cog has said in the past, you know, there's also challenges with municipal Facebook pages, but due to or social media pages due to like the lack of ad revenue and then other pages getting a lot more comments because I noticed on like our Facebook page, people rarely comment. So, it doesn't drive it to people's feeds. You know,

you can look at the engagement of our Facebook of the Town of Durham Facebook page. We have um I wrote it down, but so for instance, the town of Durham has We have 1.8,000 followers versus I don't think 3,000 change Mhm. Was like almost 2,000 more, 1800.

Yeah. And so also there's the other Durham pages that I just found, the Durham main community. That's another one. And that has 2,000 members. So I mean there's a lot of Yeah. lot of stuff out there. something that you mentioned like with the potential for a small committee, maybe the goal would be to recruit people who are kind of administrators and other community pages and kind of give some of that community outreach back work back to the folks who are already interested, maybe pull them into the fold a little bit.

Um, I'd be interested in that idea. And then for the social media stuff, I think that there's some opportunities to uh have shared positions. So I spoke with GP COG at they were doing a communication presentation and they said that there's an opportunity for if there's enough towns interested GP COG to hire someone that works for GP COG but is assigned for like five or 10 hours a week to a half dozen communities that all kind pull their resources. So someone only job is to come in and talk with the Kimberly and Jessica and Jerry and say all right what are we doing for the next

what's going on in town? Let me make sure I get this set up. Yeah. And I I am doing a communications um seminar on Thursday. Okay, cool. Through MMA. So, I'm going to hear what they have to say. Mhm. And maybe some other ideas will pop up in terms of possibilities. So, I don't know. My my fear with that is it does get as

somebody who's managed social media campaigns, it does get very convoluted managing one campaign. Looking at durm as a campaign almost when you're sharing that one person to manage three, four towns, that makes me a little

cautious. Yeah. Excuse me. The other thing I want to say and be very clear in terms of Facebook pages, we we the goal is not to get rid of all things Durham. The goal is not to combine town of Durham and all things Durham. The goal would be to pin all things Durham to that page and so that people can click through

the town page too, right? or or basically being being able for the town of Durham to post on all things Durham saying that there's um a select forum meeting you know like the town ordinance meeting will take place on such and such a day like news for the town we are not responsible for various things like um you know holiday light maps around that does belong and all things Durham and there's a place for both of them to exist but it's just alleviating the rumor mill

and having access to the town of Durham because when I was talking to some people they had no idea that the town of Durham Facebook page even existed so that's a problem I agree uh any other questions for Rebecca [snorts] uh I want a roommate on this a little I like the idea of maybe exploring a committee. I like the to kind of engage with some of these things a little bit more. I don't want to make that motion tonight cuz I think we could just all think about this.

Um maybe we can put that on a future agenda. Uh we're pretty packed for the next few uh meetings, but this is a really good like starting point and I hadn't even like thought about so much of what you put in here. One thing you could consider because a lot of towns do this is not, you know, just a sign, but a a new town of Dur sign that's electronic.

Yeah. I was thinking one of those like the Eureka Center at that corner or that or something cuz our our sign here is getting fairly old if you a lot of towns have those signs. They do put planning board select. That's the electronic version of text going and that can be managed right on the computer. So that's a way to let people know what's going on. As far as

one, that's a really good point, Jerry. I don't know why it made me think of this, but one other thing I think to add to this is there is a local reporter who is assigned to cover Durham for like the Sun Journal and he's reached out to Jerry before, reached out to me before, and usually it's just a checkin with, hey, how the was the results of the town meeting? Um, but maybe there's some opportunity there because he's written pieces like highlighting people in the community. Tia has been highlighted before. I was highlighted one time and so there might be like a an eager audience there if someone has, you know, package ready to go things. So if I'm just trying to think about like traditional print media, I haven't seen any of the mini Sunjournal yellow newspaper delivery boxes at the end of anyone's room. That's still something to think about.

Yeah. I I think that I think is we all have to think [snorts] about okay, who's even in this town and who are we trying to reach and what are their responsibilities or roles and how do we go from there? Yeah, I agree. Awesome. Well, thank you.

Um, bye guys. Thanks for coming. Thank you. town manager report. Thank you, chairman. Um, one thing that I want to report is that there is this Free Port Woodbank. I will turn this around. Uh, this is a gentleman in uh, Freeport that um, delivers wood to uh, Freeport, the RSU5,

Free Port Panel in Durham. And they just dropped off a bunch of wood at public works for people if they need some wood because it's cold and they can go they can get that wood. Yeah. And we'll put that on we'll put that on our media stuff.

That's big. But yeah, they uh they just dumped a bunch like Sarah public works. So anybody that needs spy what if they're in need they can go pick it up. It's absolutely free. So that's so that's that that's good. And Jessica's been talking he just

Yeah. Yeah. So he delivered those. They're wood cubes. He delivered one to um panel 34 and to us and but you can that's a website that you're looking at that's from his website. You can contact him if you need a delivery. He'll deliver you like an order of wood and there's no you don't have to an application. There's no income just in need. He'll he'll deliver wood. Can you put it on the website or be in the newsletter?

Yeah, it's great. That's awesome. Okay. Can you post it to Facebook? Everything but the text. Don't do the text. Definitely. Um, so we've had a committee member, uh, Claire Ross. She has resigned from all committees. She's got some things going on, um, in her life. So, she was on the solid waste appeals and agriculture committee. So, we'll uh get the word out that there's an opening.

Yeah. You can't can't fill that. Um that's a loss. She's Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hope she's okay. Yeah. Um there has also been an resignation. The fire chief's assistant has resigned. Um, so we're gonna I'm gonna uh write up a proposal and I'll bring it to you folks. Um, like to get that filled as soon as possible. So if we could talk about that on the November 18th agenda, that would be great.

How many hours was that person working? Uh, she was budgeted for 21 28 hours a week. Yep. Yep. Um, so there's that. We'll try to get that going. She's working on it right now. Um, [clears throat] so we've made an offer today for someone to fill the last spot in public works. All right.

So hopefully we'll be good, pretty experienced individual. So pretty excited about that. Excellent. So if that saw snow on mountain tops today in western Maine, so I was thinking about this. Yeah, it's good because I mean those vacant, they've been vacant for a little bit. So if if he does take the job, we'll be fully staffed for the winter as [snorts] long as they stay. Um, so that's good. Um, GP COG, they

have like the smaller region. It's Durham, Pel, uh, New Glaster, Gray, um, North Yarmouth and maybe Yarmmouth, I can't remember, but they meet every year and this year we're hosting and that's coming and that's tomorrow. Yeah. So,

Oh, I saw that. if you want to um it's what happens is the town managers show up some select board or council members show up and GP card kind of just gives a it's kind of like a round table discussion we just talk they talk about what's going on in the region if there's any needs that we're looking for just give updates on what's going on so we're hosting they like each member community that's in that region to host so it's our turn so

do you have to like have refreshments and staff or um the chief She's going to have some water for us and I'll probably go buy a bag of Halloween candy and just throw it out something like that. What What's the start time on that?

Uh that goes from 5:30 to 7:30. So that's going to be kind It's just a round table and it's it's it's kind of nice. Joe's been to it before. Uh you all signed me up for early education. So I am unavailable. So I might have

we're hosting. We can show up. I believe the bats have all been removed. Excellent. I think we're good. I think he has to show up one more time. I don't know if he showed up yesterday or not, but Oh, he showed up today. So, we should be good.

Um, that should be all I will be back tomorrow. I might Is that 5:30 tomorrow? 5:30 to 7:30. So, that's early education and I'm not there yet. A few more years. That uh concludes. No, no, that's fine. the report. Um I would prepare probably the next meeting we had what was scheduled on the 18th. There's probably going to be a fair amount on that agenda.

Yeah. at in your office about the meeting topics for the meetings? I don't have that with me though. If you could send that to folks that would be awesome. Sure. Um need to get out because we got pay on bills. So, Kimberly may be reaching out asking folks to come in and sign

so we get those bills paid. Yeah. So, other than that, that includes my report. Awesome. Thanks, Jerry. Any questions for Jerry? Um, okay. I'll start with the chair report here. To Jerry's point, um, November 18th is a pretty loaded meeting. I know you have stuff going on um work stuff, Josh. We just there's a few things we really have to cover on the 18th uh because it's our only meeting of the month

and so um it will probably run longer than what our recent meetings have been running. Um if you could remind me, Jerry, what do we have on that? So I have the um cash and analysis done for you folks that you can talk about. Uh it's

then there's the uh the uh the uh pension. Yeah. So like yeah, we can talk about that to see you know if there's what you want to go in there. So right now if right now the the retirement for town employees the plan that they're on um

once they retire they will never receive a colar under that retirement as long as they live. So there's a different plan that's about 1% more than what you would currently pay as an employer to get them on a plan that does cost them. people on social security they get calls every once in a while employees that work a long time under that not getting any calls.

The the other thing on that agenda is uh having the band stand. Yeah, the band stand. That's one thing that we got to talk. That's why I think Tia was in today to kind of help jump stop that. And do we have u foreclosures?

Yeah, we got to talk about foreclosures coming up. We're still working on that. Um Jessica's doing a really good job kind of compiling all that. And Jerry and I are still going to see if we can peel some of this off to a later meeting as well. We don't need this to be a 9:30 meeting on the 18th.

I know you have really challenging work week that week, Josh, too. So, we want to we can we have wage tables to look at, too. So, there's a lot coming in. We don't have to do it all on that 18, but some of this information I need to be able to put in. What I might do is we might prepare a larger agenda knowing that we can table a few things just so Jerry can get us the the pre-work homework to us before.

Okay. And so any moment people can spend prepping on that helps us move move faster through that meeting and then we'll prioritize the must talk about which is probably going to be foreclosure stuff. Um and then we can on that 18th then um slowly pull off things

if we're getting too late. Um but we'll just have it on there uh knowing that we're going to try to get through as much as we can in a reasonable time frame. So yeah. Okay. And yes, certainly more than welcome. You have questions about any of this stuff here. I have an open door policy. I don't

that There'll be some pre-work for the November 18th meeting. Um, and also remind folks that we do have an election uh next week. And I want remind everyone at home watching, yes. Go out and make your voice heard. So, we uh have a municipal position open for select board. And there's it's a there's multiple people running. So,

I've got about 400 absentee ballot requests. Oh, wow. Yeah. Nice. That's pretty good. Okay. Um and early voting has started and um have you seen a lot of traction? Y all of it is absent mail ballot. Yes. Yep. Requested and that's coming in in person and voting and that ends on Thursday when we close.

Perfect. All right. I have nothing else for my report. Josh, do you have anything? Nope. All right. Deb, do you have anything? I just said I appreciated the director reports this month. always, you know, you can tell people take a lot of time and interesting about the number of permits. That's always interesting to me, that particular side. Um, so awesome

and and you know, factful and really appreciative of our town employees. You can tell the bosses are appreciative of their staff. So, appreciate that. Awesome, Rebecca. Uh just that I went to the planning board land ordinance meeting um last week and it was great, very informative, very interesting and there's another meeting coming up that people should attend. Um that's it.

Awesome. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So Josh, do I have a second? Rebecca, any discussion or questions? Seeing none. All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none passes unanimously. Upcoming meetings GP COG North Regional meetings the 29th at the fire station at 5:30. Election day November 4th, 2025 at the Ambits Post. Polls open at 8 a.m. and they close at 8:00 p.m. Jessica.

Yes, 8 8 to 8 committee meetings November 5th at the Eureka Center at 6:00. Planning board November 5th at the fire station at 6:30. Solid waste committee meeting is the 10th uh at the Eureka Center at 6:30. Veterans Day November 11th. The town office is closed and there will be no select board meeting. In November 12th, the planning board is having an extra uh meeting on uh continued work on the land use ordinance which will be at 6:30 here at the fire department. Uh we will provide an update by email on upcoming board meetings. Um do we need an executive session? All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion to adjourn at uh 8 where 7:50 7:49

755 7:55 That's how the clock works. So Josh, do I have a second? I'll second. Okay. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposition? See over